Prague, Czech Republic [Archive] - Large Format Photography Forum

aduncanson

20-Jan-2009, 07:09

Jackie,

You deserve some kind of an answer, even if mine is not terribly useful.

I traveled to Prague in ‘98 and found it easy to negotiate with a Fuji MF rangefinder and a 35mm SLR with 24, 35 & 85mm lenses. There would have been plenty of opportunities for using a longer lens (on the order of 200), but they are not my preference. I had no tripod or even a mono-pod, but was not aware of any restrictions. The architecture of the city is very conducive to great color or B&W photographs. (I only shot color.)

Look for the Prague photos of Josef Sudek although they barely reflect Prague today. For inspiring landscapes beyond Prague, look for photos on this forum by Jiri Vasina. (Although I suspect that the Czech Republic has diverse terrain and Jiri’s reflect principally agricultural landscapes.)

Are you among the many Iowans of Czech dissent?

- Alan

jackies

20-Jan-2009, 08:56

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't sure if anyone had been there. So I considered it a long shot.

I will be in Prague for a few days then into the countryside to meet relatives in the small village that they live in. I have never been there so it will be a real neat experience. Yes, I am partially Czech. Originally from PA though. Now transplanted to IA - which I love, by the way :)

Thanks again for your reply,
Jackie

Nathan Potter

20-Jan-2009, 09:06

My son brought a 4X5 to Prague a few years ago. He said it was particularly easy to photograph in the city. Some of the grandest architecture in Europe can be found in Prague, if that is your interest. As mentioned a look at Jiri Vasinas' work will give you a glimpse of the countryside.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

John Jarosz

20-Jan-2009, 10:20

I visited Prague and Ostrava in the mid-90's.

The photo opportunities in Prague and Czech are everywhere you step. All of the iconic images of Prague really do evoke in person the same reactions one experiences from the photos. Enjoy the experience, but remember that images will constantly present themselves. Actually, one short trip will simply cause you to go into graphic overload; and you'll need to go back to capture your vision of the place.

Cool trip if it's all personal. Mine was 95% business (non-photo). Watch out for the raw bacon & onion appetizers.

John

Bob Salomon

20-Jan-2009, 10:57

There are great shots of the Prague skyline and the bridges across the river from the park by the Havanski Pavilion. Also great food in the Havanski. Great shooting around the castle and the old lane where Kafka lived. Old Jewish cemetaries and temples are interesting as are the foot tours through the city. The hotel that Stalin built is different if you are from the USA and the current management has made it a very nice facility.

jackies

20-Jan-2009, 15:27

Dear Nathan, John, Alan and Bob,

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, tips and feedback. I was going to take only my digital camera but now I am more inspired to do 4x5. I am going with family so that may cramp my photo style a bit. I am sure it will all work out.

I will check out Jiri's website. He may be right where I am traveling, who knows?

Thanks again,
Jackie

PViapiano

20-Jan-2009, 15:35

Steven Scardina had a beautiful portfolio in LensWork years ago...probably one of the best portfolios ever presented in that magazine.

His website is: http://www.scardinaphoto.com/

Click on Portfolios, and then Uncommon Grace...

AlexLF

20-Jan-2009, 15:58

Hi,

I visited Prague in 2006 and I had only digital with me. But I wish I had 4x5!

As to the book - I bought a book "Praha" by Libor Svacek. It's hardcover and full of amazing photographs of Prague!

And here's one of my photos I took in Prague with my 20D:

kmack

20-Jan-2009, 16:37

My wife and I spent a week in Prague in the spring of '07. As the others have posted, it is a beautiful city with photo opportunities at every turn.

For grins and chuckles take a quick shopping trip to Foto Skoda (http://www.fotoskoda.cz), and don't forget the beer, some of the best on the planet. Loved the St. Norberts in particular.

Emil Schildt

20-Jan-2009, 16:58

I've been in Prague about 20 times, and I am still in love!!

I can recommend good places to eat - hear music and take photos - and there is a street with two fantastic photo stores...

there is a river... as you might know, and in the middle of that, there is an island with old trees..

amongst these trees I've noticed one, that Josef Sudek took pictures of half a century ago.. (I was surprised it hadn't grown more, but I am SURE it is the right tree....)

I'll make two attachments..
the first the original by Sudek - the secome made by my girlfriend, using a Diana camera..

HAVE FUN down there - I am jealoux!

jackies

20-Jan-2009, 21:26

Well, that does it. I must take my 4x5. Thank you so much, everyone, for sharing your thoughts, experiences and tips with me.

I am so looking forward to this trip. Hopefully, I will have a few good photos to share when I get back!! If not 4x5 then digital. :o

Jackie

cjbroadbent

21-Jan-2009, 07:01

Go to a performance of "Jenufa" or anything else by Leos Janacek and buy a print, any print, in whatever conditon, by Josef Sudek. Meanwhile learn all about the Czech Legion in Russia (1914-18) (try James Meek, "The Peoples Act of Love").

Allen in Montreal

21-Jan-2009, 07:23

Prague is a great city and people are shooting pix all over the place! I had one run in with a street performer who stopped his show because I took a few frames, he went crazy, but I think he was totally crazy! That was the only thing other than a perfect stay in Prague last visit. The main square got overly crowded at night with tourist Stag Party fools who had far too much to drink and were wearing silly "team stag" type shirts, but the locals were all very nice.

Allen in Montreal

21-Jan-2009, 07:24

.......

amongst these trees I've noticed one, that Josef Sudek took pictures of half a century ago.. (I was surprised it hadn't grown more, but I am SURE it is the right tree....)

I'll make two attachments..
the first the original by Sudek - the secome made by my girlfriend, using a Diana camera..

HAVE FUN down there - I am jealoux!

Very nice Gandolfi! :)

jackies

21-Jan-2009, 20:11

Dear Gandolfi,

I would be happy to hear your recommendations of where to stay, to eat and photograph. I think I will be in Prague about 5 days then go out near Brno to visit relatives in a small village. I am interested in finding that tree to photograph also!! Wonderful photo that your girlfriend took.

Christopher - I looks like I will need to join Netflix as they have Jenufa that I can rent!! Why are operas so sad?

kmack - Thanks for the link to Foto Skoda. I am looking forward to experiencing the beer there too. Probably good with some sauerkraut and brats or pirohy.

PviaPiano - thanks for the link to scardinaphoto.com How inspiring it all is.

Looks like I have a bit of homework to do. Thank you all for the leads.

Yours in the Light,
Jackie

aduncanson

21-Jan-2009, 20:46

"Jenufa" is among the sadder operas and Janacek is among the more musically challenging opera composers. Dvorak's "Rusalka" (loosely drawn on Andersen's Little Mermaid and other sources) will be presented in Prague in April at the State Opera and also will be broadcast by the NY Met Opera on Sat. March 14th. There is sadness in Rusalka but not the devastating tragedy of Jenufa. I actually admire both operas and both composers, but would recommend Rusalka to the uninitiated. I got to see Janacek's "Makropolis Affair" at Prague's National Theater and loved it.

Struan Gray

22-Jan-2009, 01:47

Czech composers have been a mainstay of my listening since my teens. Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu are perennial favourites, and Janacek in particular is someone I come back to time after time. He lived and worked in Brno for much of his life, so you may find some performances there too. My personal favourites are the string quartets and the hugely likeable Sinfionetta, which is a brass payers dream. The Cunning Little Vixen is a slightly less grim opera than Jenufa, but isn't a bunch of laughs either. ENO did a good DVD with animation a few years back which spooked the hell out of our kids: the music turns unsettling well before the cute little fox cub stops gambolling in the sun.

I went to Prague in the early 90s before the Stag and Hen Night scene really got going. I think you can still avoid the crowds (drunken yobs aren't best known for their adventurism) but the most well-known areas are probably better for street photography than architecture. As well as all the medieval and baroque buildings there are some wonderful Art Nouveau and high Modernist houses like the Villa Muller (http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/villamueller/index.htm).

The small towns out of Prague and the other cities are often worth visiting, and on the way to Brno you could swing by places like Tabor or the strangely pentagonal Church of St John Nepomuk at Kutna Hora. Olomuoc is a place I have always wanted to visit, and by all accounts has avoided the worst of the tourist hordes.

jackies

24-Jan-2009, 08:15

Dear aduncanson and Struan,

I have loved Dvorak's music but have not explored other Czech composers. Thank you for educating me. We might have to find out if we can see "Rusalka" in Prague.

Struan, thanks for the tips re the smaller towns. We will be in a small village east of Brno. So Olomouc is not too far.

By the way, I love your photography and poetic thoughts. There is beauty in the chaos of nature that you have so eloquently captured.

Thanks again,

Jackie :)

David Karp

24-Jan-2009, 09:10

If you can swing the view camera for the trip, do it. I have an old calendar that was published by Foma. It has photos of different parts of Prague taken 100 years apart. For many of the photos, the only differences are that the trees have grown! I just cannot get rid of this calendar, even though it is 3 years old or so. The photographic opportunities seem to be boundless.

jackies

24-Jan-2009, 13:13

Yes, time seems to have stood still there.

I have photos of my relatives in 1983, harvesting their grain by hand (cutting with a sickle) and carrying it in bundles on their back down the hill to their home. It will be interesting to see if things have changed in these 26 years.

I may have to plan another trip there from all the feedback I am getting!

darr

24-Jan-2009, 16:00

I have photos of my relatives in 1983, harvesting their grain by hand (cutting with a sickle) and carrying it in bundles on their back down the hill to their home.

Sounds like a Jean-François Millet painting:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Millet_Gleaners.jpg

Have a great trip Jackie and be sure to bring back lots of pictures to show us!

Best,
Darr

jackies

24-Jan-2009, 16:39

Oh my gosh. That's what they look like!! Bending over, babushka, apron, skirt . . . What a life!

GPS

24-Jan-2009, 19:16

jackies

24-Jan-2009, 20:15

I really don't know how big the field was as I was never there. Probably not a 500 acre farm! But who knows?

J

Christopher Hansen

25-Jan-2009, 00:25

GPS

25-Jan-2009, 03:48

I really don't know how big the field was as I was never there. Probably not a 500 acre farm! But who knows?

J

What I know is that in that time there was no big private fields of grain possible. What you saw on the picture was a small patch of land used for growing grain for winter use for hens feeding. There is no more economical way of harvesting that small amount of grain than the one pictured on your photo.

GPS

25-Jan-2009, 03:56

Prague is a wonderful city to photograph. I was there 2 years ago and I didn't have my 4x5 with me (too bad), but I shot digital and mf. For example:

http://www.quietaesthetic.com/Gallery.html#6

Also - people are friendly and the prices for food and hotels are very reasonable.

Have fun!

Chris

Unfortunately, you're mixing apples and oranges in one statement. While the prices of food are indeed very reasonable, those of hotels, at least in Prague, are on the same level as in Paris or Rome. As a foreigner I happen to be in Prague twice a year only to see that hotel prices held this level in the last 10 years at least... :(

jackies

25-Jan-2009, 10:56

As it turns out, they had @ 1 acre of land. (Just talked with my parents). But still it is backbreaking work. Guess I am too soft.

Does anyone have any suggestions of a moderately priced hotel to stay at in Prague? I would think we want to be in or near old town Prague.

Thanks,
Jackie

AlexLF

26-Jan-2009, 03:02

We stayed here - http://www.city-centre.cz/en/index.html. It's good for its price but do book a room with windows looking to the square. The location of this hotel is very good - it's 3-4 min walk from Staromestske sq (the very heart of old town).

jackies

26-Jan-2009, 06:49

Thanks Alex. It looks like a good location and very nice hotel. I am looking forward to experiencing Prague and all its grandeur.

Jackie

Struan Gray

27-Jan-2009, 01:27

Jackie

Thanks for the praise: it's always great to hear that I have made some sort of connection.

I'm sure you'll have a great time in Prague and Moravia. There's so much interesting history and culture everywhere you look, from the dark ages to the 1990s: the only real difficulty is avoiding the urge to try and see everything.

The communist era produced a lot of odd corners of economic activity, including small-scale agriculture farmed in ways which were anachronistic but wholly logical in the circumstances. However, the Carpathians (on the eastern border of historical Moravia) are one of the last refuges of widespread hand-and-horsepower agriculture. Some photographers have discovered the region for it's novelty value, but it's been a mainstay of the wildflower meadow lovers for a while now. Everything will be dormant for now, but this is the season for pollarding and shredding trees, so you may see some fantastically gnarly fairy-tale specimens.

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 03:07

...
The communist era produced a lot of odd corners of economic activity, including small-scale agriculture farmed in ways which were anachronistic but wholly logical in the circumstances. However, the Carpathians (on the eastern border of historical Moravia) are one of the last refuges of widespread hand-and-horsepower agriculture. Some photographers have discovered the region for it's novelty value, but it's been a mainstay of the wildflower meadow lovers for a while now. Everything will be dormant for now, but this is the season for pollarding and shredding trees, so you may see some fantastically gnarly fairy-tale specimens.

A fairy tale, indeed. In the communist Czechoslovakia small-scale agriculture didn't exist, except for normal private gardens existing in all European countries, regardless of political systems. The small scale agriculture was nationalized after the WWII, unlike in Poland where it existed all the time with considerable problems and old fashioned methods of surviving. Thus nobody was growing grain for one's own food production - this would be impossible as big chunks of agriculture land were only in the state hands. As confirmed by my Czech friends (more than 28 years of contact with them) if people had wheat on their patches of land, it was either for their hens or pets consumption. Everything else would be out of question in the state owned agriculture system.

Carpathians on the "eastern border of historical Moravia"? What's that? The Carpaths were situated at the easternmost end of Slovakia, much much farther to the East than Moravia. This area was taken by Soviets after the WWII and does not make a part of Slovakia since then...
Historical Moravia? Moravia is existing within it borders up to now. The "Great Moravia" doesn't exist from the year 907...!:rolleyes:

Struan Gray

27-Jan-2009, 04:19

GPS, we obviously have different friends. Growing your own food seems to have been a universal among the people I know from the former eastern Europe, and the scale varies from window boxes to fields at least as large as pre-enclosure field strips.

Yes Greater Moravia has been moribund for a wee while, but the Carolingian and viking kingdoms have been gone for nearly as long, and it is common to refer to (and enjoy discovering) their geographical and cultural traces.

No big deal. I don't suppose it's going to blight Jackie's holiday if I'm a little less than perfectly fernickety in my musings.

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 04:54

Struan,
growing wheat for your own consumption is not possible on a small scale. Nobody does it - you would need a bigger field for that, to make it economic. That was not possible in the former communist Czechoslovakia. If you know people from "the former eastern Europe" what kind of specimen is such Europe? As far as I know the eastern Europe is still at its East. The Czech Republic has never been an easter European country! Say it to Czechs and they will laugh - they know all too well that they have always been in the heart of Europe, which is called, what a marvel - the central Europe, together with such countries as Austria for ex. who's parts are even more to the East than the Czech capital... Whatever your geographical knowledge of Europe is, Carpaths have never been in the central Europe. No big deal, my Czech friends are well used to the miss-locating "knowledge" of foreign tourists. One more is no problem for them.

Struan Gray

27-Jan-2009, 05:51

You seem to be on a mission whose purpose escapes me. Good luck.

Ole Tjugen

27-Jan-2009, 05:54

... growing wheat for your own consumption is not possible on a small scale. Nobody does it - you would need a bigger field for that, to make it economic. ...

Tell that to the 50 generations of my ancestors who were doing just that - since the 6th century up to the 1950's (they no longer grow wheat, but still farm the same land).

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 05:59

You seem to be on a mission whose purpose escapes me. Good luck.

I just think that when an uniformed poster asks about something, in this case Jackie about the Czech Republic, he should not fall victim to the first miss-information happily given to him. To tell him than he goes to an eastern European country where he finds Carpathian mountains it's just too much. Sorry if that bothers you. Anyway, he's for a surprise, that's for sure...:)

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 06:15

Tell that to the 50 generations of my ancestors who were doing just that - since the 6th century up to the 1950's (they no longer grow wheat, but still farm the same land).

Obviously, I was speaking about modern times, not the time more than 12 centuries ago (50 generations), if it were not clear for you. A small scale wheat growing in central Europe for human consumption is a fairy tale from the time gone.

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 06:38

Tell that to the 50 generations of my ancestors who were doing just that - since the 6th century up to the 1950's (they no longer grow wheat, but still farm the same land).

May I ask - how big is their field?:)

Ole Tjugen

27-Jan-2009, 07:30

May I ask - how big is their field?:)

All in all, about 10 acres of arable land. Plus mountain pastures for grazing.

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 07:36

All in all, about 10 acres of arable land. Plus mountain pastures for grazing.

May I ask - why don't they grow wheat anymore on this land? :)

Ole Tjugen

27-Jan-2009, 07:48

The grow potatos and cabbage. :)

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 07:56

The grow potatos and cabbage. :)

May I ask - do you know WHY they don't grow wheat anymore but potatoes and cabbage instead? :)

Ole Tjugen

27-Jan-2009, 08:23

That's simple: With current farming subsidies, growing grain in addition to keeping cattle and sheep simply doesn't pay. The farm is too small and steep for combine harvesters, like every single farm in that area. So they raise sheep and cattle on the mountain pasture, and grow a little cabbage and potatos just to "keep their hand in".

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 08:41

Exactly! It is not economical anymore, due to the special and necessary machinery used for harvesting wheat. That was the situation even in Czechoslovakia especially under the communist regime which did not allow private people to have big fields. Therefore wheat was grown in a small amount on private land only for the use of domestic animals and harvested, how otherwise, with the traditional method, the most economical for this purpose. This situation is common in all of today's developed Europe. The big American fields of wheat that go from nowhere to nowhere are not possible in Europe due to its different geography and for historical reasons (the land is owned in smaller patches).

Ole Tjugen

27-Jan-2009, 09:29

There's a big difference between "not economical anymore" and "not feasible with current subsidy regulations".

Another relative of mine has just such a big flat farm; he grows barley exclusively. the only animal on the farm is a cat...

GPS

27-Jan-2009, 09:44

Didn't you say that it "simply doesn't pay"? i. e. it isn't economical??
And of course, a big flat farm is a totally different game...

debbi34

30-Jan-2009, 03:43

Coming back to Prague - just wanted to say it is an awesome city for photography. I spent 4 days there last year and loved it. A truly beautiful city!

bwchadanas

4-Feb-2009, 07:54

Don't forget the amazing communist concrete outskirts, I have always stayed on the outskirts and travelled on the underground to the center, it feels like a time-warp! However the underground stations themselves are quite magnificent and well worth a look.
You can also visit Sudeks house and Sudeks studio, both small and slightly out of the center but well worth the effort, i picked up his panoramic book there, quite astonishing.