The promised land for photographers

Sometimes, something doesn’t work out for every photographer. Maybe a place doesn’t meet your expectations or the weather doesn’t work out, and your picture is ruined. However, there are some places where just about everything works out, all the time and for everyone, whether they’re taking pictures with a professional or a normal automatic camera. Do you know where to find them?

City walls, city lanes

Romantic nooks, paved lanes, Renaissance buildings and Baroque cathedrals – all these can be seen when wandering through Prague. Of course pictures will include Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and the Astronomical Clock on Old Town Square. However, if you leave the main tourist routes and explore the more secluded streets of Old Town, Josefov, Petrské čtvrtě and the Lesser Town, Petřín hill or the Baroque Palace Gardens, you’ll discover numerous overlooked, but no less exquisite, nooks and crannies, enriching your photo collection with a breath of nostalgia.

Český Krumlov, Olomouc and other towns are to be treated much the same, with the same basic set of rules to be followed when hunting for the best pictures: go to places that the crowds don’t go to, and, rather than the whole, focus on details – say the Renaissance gate, windows with blossoming geraniums or the capital of a Baroque column. When in Telč, don’t just stay on the square, but venture out for a walk round the three ponds in the town. Take time to explore the passageways of the picturesque Jewish quarter in Třebíč and take a look at the secluded Jewish cemetery. If you want to take pictures of the most popular locations, get up early. Professional photographers talk about the soft morning light in superlatives and know that the best pictures are taken around five o’clock in the morning, when the only people you’ll encounter will be lone pedestrians who’ll be happy to get out of the picture!

The landscape in pictures

When in the open countryside, some things are easier and some are more difficult. While your breathtaking pictures of the landscape won’t be spoiled by crowds of people, you’ll have to overcome greater distances, often only by foot. The Šumava National Park and Bohemian Switzerland National Park offer keen photographers the chance to take part in photography workshops, where you’ll learn to see Nature, both as a whole and in the hidden details, while visiting the most beautiful places around, find out many interesting facts about the history and landscape of the region. At the end you’ll be able to choose the locations that inspire you in some way yourself.

Armed with new experiences you’ll then be able to go wandering in other beauty spots, for example the Pavlov Peaks or the Podyjí National Park in South Moravia, the fairytale landscape of the Central Bohemian Mountains with their tapered, volcanic peaks or the mountain ridges of the Jeseníky Mountains, including the highest peak, Praděd (1,491 m). Where will you take your best picture?