April Squares: Top Shots, Prague

ISO 125 f/2.2 1/33sec 4.2mm

Day 13, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: December 18, 2017. Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, built in 1535. Currently its walls have the names of 80,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Czech lands. It’s beautiful and sad this memorial, but I was so grateful to be able to visit. Over the last four years I have had the opportunity to visit many sites related to WWII and it has helped inform my view of the war in a way that reading history books has not, reading and seeing are two different things certainty. Speaking of reading, I just finished and would highly recommend, When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann, it’s a family memoir of the war years and makes mention of this particular synagogue in an unexpected way.

Thoughts on the Edit: I kept this edit simple. It is a custom vintage edit.

April Squares, an Explanation:

When Becky announced that the April Squares theme was going to be “top”, I thought it over and then sent her a message, then pitched my idea. She was open to my theme within the theme and the result is my response to the April Squares challenge.

I move a lot and I have a move pending. I’ve lived here in England for about four years and will be heading to the United States. Exact dates to be determined, given the current world situation, details have yet to be worked out. My April Squares is a “top shots” reflection on the last four years. Each square represents some moment or place that was meaningful to me. They are in chronological order moving forward in time. I’m attempting to post every day. All photos will be edited in Luminar 3. I hope you enjoy following along, I’ve enjoyed the process of creating. Your comments and thoughts are welcome below.

Cheers!

It’s a Tourist Trap, Not Going Back

Still stopped to take the snap:

Lennon Wall, Prague

Cheers!

Added to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Vibrant Colors and Travel With Intent, Six-Word Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday: Vltava River

ISO 1250 20mm f/11 1/160sec

Added to A Photo a Week Challenge: Water.

Touch of Red

When I sit down to edit an image it’s true to say that I’m not always sure what I will do with my final version.  Here is the original file of such an image:

ISO 1250 15mm f/11 1/40sec

Editing this image started with a crop. Since it was the little red ribbons that caught my attention on site, my next edit was to give them a saturation boost. I’ve desaturated some of the colors in this image. I then put a radial filter around the angel and sheep and made the rest of the image softer by moving the dehaze slider into negative numbers in the area outside of the filter. Here is the final image:

ISO 1250 15mm f/11 1/40sec

Like several images from my time in Prague, I don’t have a real use for it so to speak. However, I really like many of my images. They are a reminder of how much I enjoyed looking around the city. Prague is beautiful in my opinion. I will keep this image, as I have kept others, just because they make me happy. Sometimes, it’s the little things, like little red ribbons, that catch my eye. It appeared that someone had taken the time to hand tie them in, and that lovely small detail really what made this display beautiful.  Do you often keep images for no other reason than they make you happy? Do you like the edits I have done here?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Red, and Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Small is Beautiful.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Story

I love taking photographs. For me, it is my favorite way to interact with the world. Sometimes it is a challenge though, typically that challenge involves lighting or deciding on an angle to shoot from. In this case, though, it was the story behind the photo:

ISO 160 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35

This photo is from the interior of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, originally built in 1535, the names you see on the walls there are of the approximately 80,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust from the lands that are now the Czech Republic or Czechia.

ISO 125 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35

ISO 80 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35

ISO 200 4.15mm f/2.2 1/35

The synagogue also has a display of art by children who were interned during the Holocaust, and most of whom died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It’s heartbreaking, I couldn’t even bring myself to take photos in that room.

The link to the Synagogue I included above includes a short video of the space. For me though, this is one of those places where the story is hard to tell in just photographs. Being in the space itself seems important. For that reason, it was hard to focus on getting a good photo. I took a few shots then put my camera away, taking some time to just be there. One thing that I will share that struck me about the names, was that they included their birthdate and death date, or in some cases, the last time they were seen if an exact death date isn’t known. I’m not sure why I found that powerful, but I did.

Have you ever struggled to capture a scene in a photograph? How did you handle the situation? Your thoughts are welcome below.

Cheers!