For Fleeting Photo Challenge I have lot of shots, that were taken by accident. Mostly when I was switching off my phone camera and it took the last shot on its own. The shots can be split in two groups, the first group and the first gallery there are shots of the bottom, mostly you will find the floor, shoes, foots etc on it.
The second group are shots taken on the move. Playing with these shots in instagram gives beautiful abstract atmosphere to them and I hope you will enjoy them :-).
Lot of Faces for A Word A Week Challenge I found in a beautiful park in France, at the place called Clos Luce in the city of Amboise on Loire river. Leonardo da Vinci lived at the house and now you will find there his museum. Surrounding garden is very beautiful, with lots of devices invented by da Vinci, but also decorated with his works unusual way. Enjoy walking throug the park and meet some famous paintings.
One day in Dubai gave me enough shots for Pattern Photo Challenge. That day we came to Dubai with car, parked it by the creek and just bellow the parking house there was a beautiful souk (market) with spices, teas, esences, fragrances and other smelly and tasty thinks.
Spice market
From spicy souk we continued to the gold one, where you can find all the gold jeweleries in shapes and patterns you can think of.
Gold market
Finally we took abra (boat over the creek) to the other side of the water to see fabric souk, with beautiful, colorful, glittering fabrics with embroideries. I just loved it :-).
Before there was numbering of buildings, there were house signs, which gave names to the buildings. I already told you, that it is really important to look up in Prague, that you will find something interesting on the building above your head. Here I have a collection of house signs for you, from the Little Quarter mostly, some of them from the Old Town. In Prague you will find many more :-).
Just a few of them
This shot reminds me of going to vacation. When we travel to Italy, we always go by Innsbruck and we always stop at the Rosenberger restaurant on the highway there. They have these signs in the garden.
Despite the fact that Czech Republic is very secular country, also here we have Easter services, this one from St. Salvator Church at Klementinum complex.
Easter Ceremony at St. Salvator Church, Klementinum
Mostly the feast is the great opportunity to decorate city squares and have Easter markets, as this one at the Old Town square.
Old Town Square – Easter Market
“Kraslice” are the real egg shales. The name comes from the Czech word “krásný” = beautiful and “krásný” comes from Slavonic/Russian word “krasnij” = red. Look at the next gallery and you won’t be surprised, that kraslice are mostly red. There are many decoration styles, every village has its own style and method and ornament shapes, which are used for centuries.
“Kraslice” – Easter Eggs
Important for Easter Monday, “pomlázka”. Pomlázka is a stick made from willow canes and the word comes from: “mladý” = young, “omladit/pomladit” = make younger. Therefore, on the Easter Monday mornings boys are visiting girls and they make them younger with their “pomlázka’s” and girls are giving back the eggs and ribbons. Look at it from other perspective here.
Pomlázka
About Czech Christmas gingerbread tradition you can read here, and for Easter we have special gingerbread shapes as well :-).
Easter Gingerbreads
Eggs are all around us, also like a colorful candles.
Eggs od candles?
And easter time is also important, as the spring is coming to Czech Republic and flowers start to bloom and smell, it is beautiful!
Glass textures from the bead company in Pěnčín in the mountains in North Bohemia. Nice trip there, beautiful country, goat farm, glass beads … what else have to be told about this beautiful place?
I chose one day in my life for Weekly Photo Challenge. To be more precise, I chose January 23, 2013. That day I decided to go to Prague castle for photographing Golden Lane, before it is the opening time, because at that early time the Golden Lane entrance is for free and the place is not crowdy. Prague castle was almost deserted and some of my shots were used for post Lost In the Details.
Prague Castle and Golden Lane
St. Vitus cathedral was deserted as well at the opening at 9 am, tourists were not yet there, and then the first group appeared.
St. Vitus Cathedral, first tourists
I decided to go to the Kupka’s exhibition, but as it opened at 10 am, I had one hour walking around Prague Castle district and shooting, the shots were then used for Cee’s Foto Challenge.
Walking around Prague Castle District (Hračany)
National Gallery and Kupka’s Ehibition
Kupka’s exhibition was really great and I loved the National Gallery hall, the place is newly reconstructed. It is located at Hradčanské square and two palaces were connected by the new hall to extend National Gallery. The palaces are: Schwarzeberg’s one with permanent exhibition of Czech Baroque art and Salma’s palace (also called small Schwarzenberg’s) with temporary exhibitions such as the Kupka’s one was.
After the exhibiton I went down to Little Quarter by New Castle Stairs, I saw the shooting of TV news from Castle, I talked to old friend of mine close to the British Embassy 🙂 and finally I took more shots and some of them were used for Time Travel Theme, it was the hidden street one.
Walking down from Prague Castle
I also visited St. Joseph and St. Thomas Churches.
Churches at Little Quarter
It was coffee time, so I went to the best cafe in Prague and had a coffee, and tea, and some dessert … some other shots were also taken for my Tower series here.
At the Old Town I went for the bus home and I made only few more shots that were used for Green Travel Theme. Waiting for the bus I made the last shot, shot of the presidential candidate (the unsuccesful one, but highly supported by most of Prague people), his snow version.
For Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense I take you to visit the newly opened museum. It is Museum of Karel Zeman, famouse Czech movie maker, located by the Charles bridge at Kampa Island. Karel Zeman (1970-1989) was follower and interpreteur of Jules Verne, whose works he made into movies and who was Zemam’s inspiration. Looking at all the modern movies and tricks it can be funny to see, almost like trying to compare Star Wars 4-6 to Star Wars 1-3, but you can feel the poetry and the art of old Zeman’s movies. Enjoy some short documents from youtube:
In English, but not the best quality:
I love this Karel Zeman’s quotation: “…even if the world in future is technically perfect, it needs love, it needs poetry, it needs magic …”. My shots from the museum and also short movie.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea from Jules Verne
PragueByKaty 