New Years Day in Prague 2019

It is New Years day in Prague, there is a big organised firework display at 6 pm tonight, set off from Letna park near the metronome.      We are going down onto the Strelecky Ostrov island to get a nice view straight down the river towards Letna which is behind Charles Bridge.
Unfortunately rain showers are forecast but we cant change that!

And we are a bit late to get a good clear view ,its packed already with photographers!   I have had to set up tripod under a tree but with people in front of me partially obscuring the water with their heads!      Dam!

                                            Heads or no heads, I will get some images

                      This magnificent building is the National Theatre   Narodni divadlo.

            Now time to walk around to see the Fred and Ginger building , but its not fully lit up.

                                        Walking along the river towards Charles bridge.

We have walked along past the bridge down to the next bridge, I take this phone image from middle of the road over the bridge with Prague castle in the background.

        A long exposure on Charles Bridge to try to blur out all the people that are walking around.
                                        25 seconds f14  and 20 seconds f7.1 for the buildings

                                                           Down under Charles Bridge

The end of a great start to the new year, home tomorrow evening so a full day to walk around.

New Years Eve in Prague pt 2

Its New Years Eve, and it will be a long day.    We are off out to go for breakfast at our favourite place, Café Arcadi which is just below the castle.   A 15 minute walk along the cobbled streets

                                         The buildings really are beautiful in this city.

                              Time for Hot chocolate and caramel covered waffles .  Yay

                                                                     Yummy !!!!!!!!!!!

    Now to walk up to the castle and around  towards the monastery .  sharp right turn at the top here to climb steeply up to the castle square .  The granite stone setts look fabulous , wet or dry .

                                                       The view looking back down .

                           Looking across the city from near the castle entrance, a superb view.

Walking across the square heading up towards the monastery area, there is a miniatures museum that looks interesting near there.

We have arrived at the Monastery  , the miniatures museum is just around the corner tucked away out of the way.

We have found the entrance to the museum,  it costs 130 czk each to go in, that's about £4 each . inside there are microscopes all around the rooms , each with a description of what is viewable.   I managed a phone shot through the eyepiece,  two gold cars on the leg of a flea!!!!    wow!
  Inside another, a needle eye had about 5 camels in a row placed inside .  amazing!

Now we are walking up to Petrin Hill and the Tower.     This is the viewpoint through the trees to St Vitus Cathedral.   Just a phone picture as I have shot this view before .

Petrin Tower,  I have shot this in the snow, fog, blue skies and hoar frost before ,so it appears a bit dull today in comparison.

                      Looking down from the gardens on the hillside of  Petrin Hill across the city.

                                                                The Funicular railway

        Finally we are down at the bottom of the hill at the "Memorial for victims of Communism"

Now back to the apartment for a rest before going out for the New Years Eve celebrations.

Its now 8 pm, and walking along the river towards Charles bridge,  using the 100-400mm lens on the 5dsr I have shot the Castle/Cathedral

                                            3.2 seconds f8    what a stunning building!

                                                                    Petrin Tower

            A full panorama view.   we will be back in this area by about 11 pm to wait for midnight.

 A walk into Old Town square,  there are bands playing on the stage, but not to my taste!    its absolutely packed with people.  a really good atmosphere as usual.  we spend about an hour here before walking back to the river to get a good spot to set up the tripod for the fireworks.

10 oclock and the fireworks have started being set off,  everywhere!   huge rockets are being set of from a balcony a hundred yards behind us. and smaller ones just over the road from us.

It appears we are in the wrong position for  taking photographs , the main fireworks are being set off from the barge as normal, but it is moored against the bank behind the building in front of us, last time the barge was in the middle of the river near the bridge    Dam!  

               I have managed to get a few images, but not what I expected,  the main group of fireworks are only visible above the bridge tower unfortunately.      There are huge numbers of people all around lining the river bank and Charles bridge looks the same.

The fireworks are being randomly set of all over the city  now   ,  great to be here on what is now New Years Day .            It does appear to be busier than when we were last here 2 years ago .

Its manic now, rockets going off Everywhere all around us , people setting them off in empty beer bottles in the middle of the road, smashed glass all over the place .  its now about 1 am, and time to escape the madness as its getting a bit dangerous    lol


              Tonight there is an official New Years day firework display at Letna park at 6 pm.

Norfolk Holiday Sept 2018 pt 1 Brancaster and Wells

We are going on holiday for a week in the van,  were supposed to be going up to Scotland but the weather forecast was not looking good,  It appeared a storm was on its way and the Norfolk coast looked like the best option.      With the van we can just go in the best direction and move around easily.
Firstly on Saturday evening it is the Arley Hall firework champions event , so after I got home from work we drove down to watch the displays.  Here are a few images from the evening.
All canon 5dsr and 17 - 40L        shutter speeds between 1 and 3 seconds f8 - f10.

Sunday morning and we are leaving for Norfolk,  our first destination is going to be Brancaster , stopping at Deepdale Backpackers campsite for the night.   After a trouble free journey we are set up in the campsite.

Its early evening and we have walked down to the shore, a quick shot of this old barge on the marsh before we walk along to Brancaster Staithe .It looked a good subject but the light is just no good.

Having not managed to shoot a decent image at the previous location on the camera,  Brancaster is a much more interesting place, old and newish boats moored up and with the tide out interesting mud flats,  unfortunately its too windy to fly the drone but some long exposures on the 5dsr and Lee big stopper should produce something.

5dsr, 17-40 L   90 seconds, f14 

I cant find a decent location for sunset, as it is setting inland and I don't think it will be a good one.
                                    Back at the van half hour later and I was wrong!   Oopps

The following morning we have packed up and driven a couple miles down the road to Burnham Overy Staithe.    There is a Windmill only about ten minutes walk so we are going to take a look first.  Walking along the Staithe past these boats the weather is not looking good so far, but is supposed to be blue sky and sun!!

There is the Windmill ,  Tower Windmill its called, but the light is rubbish so not worth walking any further to get closer.   a selfi then ……..

And a long shot with 400mm lens, a b&w conversion still doesn't make it much better.   never mind!

                        Having walked back to the Staithe the sun has started breaking through .

                                 A nice walk along the marshes with the Terrible Twosome.

                                     The forecast was correct ,  warm sunny blue sky now .

            Back at the van , wine time for Jan ……………….

We have now driven down the coast to Wells-next-the-sea ,  time to give the Terrible Twosome a good run and swim .
                                                             They are Straight into the sea!

                                          Look at the size of this beach!   and huge Norfolk skies .

After a good run and swim, Chester is knackered, he doesn't like the heat and is sheltering in the shade of these beautiful beach huts.  I cannot believe how warm it is today!

                                    A couple of dslr images of these wonderful beach huts

Leaving Wells its a short drive to our campsite for the next 2 evenings near Sheringham.

and another great sunset missed !   Doh!