• Places in Czech Republic

    Žichovice

    Žichovice is the town that I had assigned to March in my photo project for this year so here I am at the end of the month to share some of the photos I took. I opted for the same number of photos as in my previous posts related to this project which is 35. Why Žichovice? It’s a small town (about 680 inhabitants) with a long history (dating back to 1045) and a few interesting buildings whose photos captured my attention when I was browsing the Internet and looking for potential places for the project. But photography may be deceptive and may show you things which are no longer true or look…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Horšovský Týn

    Horšovský Týn is the town assigned to February in my photo project for this year and because today is the last day of the month, I am here to share some of the photos I took. I opted for the same number of photos as in my post on Žinkovy which is 35. Horšovský Týn is a very old town that went through many changes. The first written reference to it comes from 1184, it was pronounced a town in the fourteenth century. In 1953, the town was declared an urban conservation area. Nowadays about 5,000 inhabitants live there. There is a castle in the town (built in the 13th century and rebuilt in…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Winter trip to Karlovy Vary

    In the Czech Republic, we have a tradition of so called “spring holidays” for schoolchildren. The holidays last one week but they are planned within several weeks so that all districts don’t have them at the same time, this year the span is from February 5 to March 18. My younger son Zbyněk has had the holidays this week and because we don’t go skiing, we were thinking about a trip to make. Finally we decided to visit the spa Karlovy Vary where Zbyněk was on a school trip last June and it seemed interesting to visit the spa in winter under quite different conditions. Also, I had never been…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Žinkovy

    January is almost at its end so I’m here to share some of the photos I took in Žinkovy, the first town on the list of my photo project for this year. Why Žinkovy, you might ask? The answer would be simple. Although it’s just a small town that is neither extraordinary nor special, we visited it several times in different seasons and always found something interesting so it seemed a good place to start the project with. Let me clarify that I don’t see this collection of photos as something representing the town but rather as a collection of captures that caught my attention. If you were there, you…

  • Focused on photography

    My photo project for 2018

    Last year my hubby and I were striving to fulfil a 12-month photo project with a theme (such as buildings, people, contrast, etc.) defined for each month. When the project was nearing its end, we both wanted to continue together somehow and started discussions about how to do that. Of course, we could just come up with new themes and continue in the same way this year but it didn’t seem attractive any more, we longed for a change. After a few heated but eventually constructive debates we agreed on an assignment interesting and inspiring for both of us so here is the project we would like to work on…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Autumnal bits and pieces

    Today I would like to share a few photos that I took in Rokycany in September, at the beginning of coming autumn. No. 1: Boxes in front of a vegetable shop Squash everywhere… in many types and sizes. No. 2: Light and shadows I took this photo in a park. There was an interesting wooden shape on the ground, something like a spiral, just triangular. I don’t know if it is intended as a place to sit down or whether it is just decorative, probably both. I loved how the light and shade complemented one another and that brought me to turning the photo into black and white which simplified…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Archbishop chateau in Kroměříž

    In my post about Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach I mentioned the Archbishop chateau in Kroměříž and today I would like to tell you more about it. Castles and chateaus are usually linked to the history of noble families but the chateau in Kroměříž used to be property of bishops and archbishops residing in about 50 kilometres distant Olomouc, they used the chateau for representative purposes. The settlement Kroměříž became property of Olomouc episcopate way back in 1110. 150 years later it was declared a town, a castle was built there and all administration of the episcopate was brought there. In the first half of the sixteenth century the castle was remodelled into…

  • Plzeň
    Places in Czech Republic

    Pilsen in morning light

    Pilsen with its about 170 thousand inhabitants is the fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic and it is mostly known for Pilsner beer and former Škoda works. In Czech, the city is called Plzeň. I was born there, grew up there and have been watching its transformation throughout the years. Times, they are changing… and the city has changed as well, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. The other day my hubby and I went to Pilsen to try and take a few interesting photos. We went in the morning to catch some early light and were lucky to get it. We also got a surprise but…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Visiting Klatovy and leaving way too early

    In January my hubby and I visited Klatovy, a town in Western Bohemia. There are nice places to take photos of but unfortunately the weather changed significantly while we were going there and when we arrived at the town, it wasn’t much favourable for shooting outside. Having said that, we didn’t let the weather deter us entirely from our intentions and spent some time in the town. I would like to share a few photos here that I took by on old church situated not far from the town’s centre. I wanted to capture the side wall of the church with the adjacent little house when the man with the children stepped in front…

  • Focused on photography

    Buildings

    It is the last day of January today and according to the rules of my 12-month photo project I am supposed to publish 3 to 5 photos that I took throughout the month based on the theme of the month, which was BUILDINGS. It wasn’t easy to select those 3 to 5 representative photos for this post but here is the selection. In my opinion, these photos fulfil the theme appropriately and are interesting enough to stand on their own. They are presented in random order. No. 1: A house in Dobřany The simple and yet prominent shapes and lines of this house felt attractive to me and the snow covering…