The Dancing House - Prague

JosephCarter

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Here is an image I took last night of The Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic.

My usual subject is landscapes in the Rocky Mountains, but I'm currently in Prague visiting my girlfriends family. I was hoping to get a shot of the sunset from the Vltava river towards Prague Castle, but the sun didn't manage to break through so I headed down a few blocks to capture this image which I've had in mind for a few weeks.

I had the idea while I was shooting this image to wait for a bicycle to pass by and light it with the on camera flash, in hopes to get a 'ghost biker' effect, unfortunately I waited about an hour but no bikes came by.. I plan to go back soon when there is another evening with nice cloud cover like this one, but I'm still quite happy with the way this turned out.

Do you think a ghost biker in the bottom left corner would be distracting to this image? I'm not really sure how it will turn out, or if it will even work, but I feel like it would add another layer of interest and the architecture would still carry the most visual weight, I took a photo with my hand a few feet in front of the lens and it made a pretty cool 'ghost' effect so I'm looking forward to trying it. I wish I had an off camera flash, because I know the only reason it wouldn't work is if my flash doesn't have enough power to reach the biker..

I'd love to hear your thoughts/opinions/comments...

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Cool shot. I like the light streaks. The white ones on the right are a tad distracting, but I think they fit with the wild style of the building.

I was there about a month back. It's a tough building to shoot for sure. Lots of obstructions to get in the way. I think you pulled it off nicely.

By the way, if you're looking for a nice vantage point, head up to Letna Park across the river. The view of the city is stunning up there. I came away with some great cityscape shots up there.
 
Beautiful freaky shot! I love motion blur and I love freaky shots!

Here are some of my motion blur shots mixed in with some reg shots that are going to be in an upcoming book I'm doing.

(Nude warning)

freezingtime

Motion blur street shots are tough. (People, not buildings) You only get one try and if you blur too much it can be wrecked.
 
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.. It's a tough building to shoot for sure. Lots of obstructions to get in the way. I think you pulled it off nicely.

By the way, if you're looking for a nice vantage point, head up to Letna Park across the river. The view of the city is stunning up there. I came away with some great cityscape shots up there.

Thanks folks!

Yes it is kind of a stressful place to stand for an hour as well.. for a guy who's used to the mountains :D I had to clone out one of the cable-car cables that ran across the sky.

Thanks for the tip ajroder, I plan to shoot the Letna Park vantage point at sunrise.. I've already gone up and found the perfect spot where all the bridges line up, like in all the paintings...
 
This feels like it is too tight for the scene.
 
This feels like it is too tight for the scene.

I agree, but unfortunately I was wide open at 18mm and as far back as I could get without having traffic lights and posts in the foreground. The building is right on the corner of a very busy intersection.

If you look up other images of this scene on google, you'll see all the photos are either tighter than this one or include a lot of distracting elements, except the ones taken with a super wide lens maybe, they definitely look the best.

I guess I could have pointed the camera up a bit more, to add a bit more space above the building, but I didn't want to lose the light streaks at the bottom.
 
This is really cool. I don't know if a biker in the scene would add to it or detract from the building, might be worth a try but my preference would probably be to emphasize the building and the streaks of light.
 

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