HDR Photography
This expanse of dramatic clouds, Petrin Hill, and the Vltava River was across the street from our hotel in Prague. While always a gorgeous view, most evenings brought rain instead of this kind of skyscape. I was lucky to find this scene on the final night of the trip.
My hope for the New Year is more opportunities to travel to places like Prague and capture views like these.
Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being takes place in these environs of Prague, and something of the dramatic clouds and deep black of this image reminded me of that novel.
Bright stone buildings on the banks of Prague’s Vltava River contrast with the deep blues and greens of the surrounding nature.
We were visiting Prague in the off-season—that’s what we heard from every cab driver and waiter. Though gentle spring breezes had been replaced with nascent winter gusts, there were numerous benefits; the relative sparsity of fellow tourists in Old Town made for easy access to the city’s sights. Two of the subtler benefits are captured in this image: (1) the bare branches opened new views of the skyline, and (2) the Smetana hotel (just across the river) where we stayed had a spectacular room overlooking the Vltava open for us.
With the trees free of leaves, the orderly arrays of lights along Petřín reveal its nature as a lovely park space in the city.
The stones of Petřín were supposedly dug up and used to make the buildings of Prague. Looking at Prague from that hill, the it’s impressive to imagine the relocation efforts over centuries.
Legend says the rocks of Petřín were extracted to make the buildings of Prague beneath it, and the result is a park covering almost the entire hill.
Iron Petrin Tower (tower than the Eiffel Tower, incidentally) looks out over Prague.
