Some Beautiful Places

These photo talkan by flickr pro photographer Nathan bergeron
The Dancing House located in Prague Czech Republic, designed by the famous Canadian architect Frank Gehry and completed in 1996.

Originally named Fred and Ginger building because it's suppose to resemble two dancers, Fred Astair and Ginger Rodgers. It also has the nickname of drunk house.

It was overcast on our last day, so I waited for a colourful cable car to drive by to make the composition pop a little bit more. This building has been photographed so many times and you've all seen it done better, but I still want this in my stream, to bad the light was crap, oh well... better luck next time.

There's one more stop before I saw goodbye to Prague and move on to yet another city in Europe to show you all.

This is one of the most beautiful bridges I've ever seen. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge. This bridge is a major part of why Budapest is such a fascinating city. In 1878 it connected Buda to Pest and it has played a huge significance in the cities life and economics. At the time of its construction, it counted as a wonder of the world.

This photograph was captured looking out towards the right bank of the Danube which is of course Pest. At the end of the magnificent bridge sits New York Palace. The building is a luxury hotel built in 1894. I haven't posted a bridge photo in awhile and I have lots.

it's time to hop on the next express to Budapest and explore another incredible city in Eastern Europe. This time it's in the country of Hungary.

This an interior shot of Saint Stephen's Basilica, the largest church in Budapest. This is taken right down the center of the church looking up towards the brilliant dome, which in fact is the second one completed for the cathedral. The first dome collapsed in 1868 and had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Much to this fact, the cathedral took 54 years to build and was finally completed in 1905.

The Basilica along with the Hungarian Parliament Building are the tallest buildings in Budapest measuring 96 meters. It has a width of 55 m and a length of 87.4 m.

The cathedral is named in honour of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen I
(c 975–1038), whose mummified fist is actually kept inside a glass case inside the church.

This is one of the hundreds of church's Laurie and I visited on our travels and as you can imagine by the end of it they all started to blend together, but this one stood out and is now one of my favourites. Although much smaller, in my opinion, it has the same elegance and richness of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.
If you missed my previous photograph this is Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. Which is the countries biggest tourist attraction and one of the most stunning natural sights in the world. Which is why it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Views like this are a dime a dozen throughout the park as water flows down from the Dinaric Alps and into a series of 16 magnificent lakes. The waters flowing over the limestone and chalk have, over thousands of years, deposited travertine barriers, creating natural dams which in turn have created the series of beautiful lakes, caves and dozens upon dozens of waterfalls.

Welcome to Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. One of the most magnificent natural sights in all of Europe and Croatia's biggest tourist attraction.

While in Croatia last summer we seized the opportunity to explore this UNESCO World Heritage Site. I had wanted to visit the park for quite some time and was thrilled I had the chance to finally witness it with my own eyes. Even though it rained relentlessly all day and we missed our last bus back to Zagreb and had to fork out $150 on a hotel room, in the end it was all worth it.

This also gave me the chance to wake up at the crack of dawn, sneak back into the park and finish visiting the upper lakes. Which in turn became another morning I will never forget.

The park is situated right near the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and besides its natural beauty is the place where the war for Croatian Independence started in 1991. Up until 10 years ago authorities told anyone who entered the park not to flee too far from the marked paths and walkways as there were still some undiscovered active mines. In 1998 the park was deemed mine free.

The park is made up of sixteen interlinked lakes which are separated into an upper and lower cluster formed by runoff from three mountains, which are part of the Dinaric Alps. As you can see from this photograph the lakes have very distinctive colours, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.

Welcome to the "Pearl of the Adriatic"; Dubrovnik, Croatia. One of the most fascinating cities we visited on our 2 month long trek through Central and Eastern Europe this past summer.

This is an early morning view I captured white watching day break over the city. I sat on the side of the Adriatic Highway perched up on a pile of rocks and watched the old historic city come alive and the boats come in and out of port.

This was one of those mornings I will never forget. Not only because of the breathtaking view, but also because it was our last morning in Croatia. Oh and I forgot my tripod when I put it down to jump a rooftop to get a better view over the city. Ha ha. I walked all the way back to our hostel which was nearly 1.2 km's away from where I was. Then as I walked into our room I realized, where's my tripod? So I had to run all the way back and forth to retrieve it. Thank heavens I can run like the wind or we would have missed our bus to Zagreb which was connecting to a train heading towards Budapest Hungary.



When you have as many photographs of a certain city like I do of this one, you need to keep going back.

That having been said let's make our way back to Bordeaux. The vibrant city I called home for over a year.

If you've been following my stream you've all seen this view before this is shot a few minutes after that one with a few other elements. I like how I've captured the silhouettes on the right, of the teenage girls, and was even able to catch the tram parked at its stop at Place de la Bourse, letting riders off and on. Besides some lens correction, contrast and some sharpening, this is pretty much straight out of the camera. No blending, HDR or shadows/highlights in post processing.