Here’s A Glimpse Into A Snowy Journey Throughout The Medieval Town Of Krakow, Captured With My Camera Lens
Winter is a rare visitor in Polish cities nowadays, but there are still some moments in the season when the streets and squares become extremely picturesque and make people feel like they have moved into another world. Into an old and mystic world of fairytales.
Kraków is one of the most beautiful cities not only in Poland but also in the whole of Europe. Its architecture combines many styles - from Romanesque to Gothic, Baroque, Art Nouveau, and others. It's an unbelievable pleasure to walk through the medieval streets and feel the soul of the city covered with a thick layer of snow, constantly falling from the sky.
If you enjoy my work, I invite you to check out the posts I shared on Pictolic when I visited Nur-Sultan, One Of The Coldest Capitals In The World, and Vilnius, one of the most beautiful European cities!
Let me take you into the mythical reality!
More info: Instagram | patrykbieganski
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I'm very lucky to live in the historic center of Kraków and experience its beauty season by season, day by day, hour by hour. I'm in love with the city's architecture, history, and cultural life, and in my free time, I take my camera for a walk between the old walls, tenement houses, and churches. There are so many beautiful spots in the city that I cannot even count but almost every street of the Old Town, Kazimierz, and Podgórze districts have a lot of interesting places to photograph. Of course, there are some of the most famous buildings like St. Mary's Basilica, The Jagiellonian University old buildings (Collegium Maius, Collegium Novum...), and Wawel Castle, and they are truly beautiful, but I love walking through the old streets to just explore and admire less famous buildings. The pictures in the article were taken during a regular walk during snowy weather.
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I love the winter season, especially in the city when the atmosphere is more mystic, and there are fewer people walking on the streets - it makes me feel like I'm looking into the past of the city. It's not so easy to photograph architecture when it's snowing or raining. It was very important to me to catch people walking and snowflakes falling so I couldn't photograph with long exposure. This is why I had to use some more "extreme" settings - higher ISO value and more open aperture to "freeze the moment" with a short exposure time. Of course, you need to hurry a bit to avoid melting snow on your camera which could cause some technical defects in the gear - it's a bit challenging. But actually, it's easier to photograph snow-covered sceneries as the snow makes the landscape or cityscape brighter than in any other weather conditions.
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It's always so amazing to hear or read that my pictures are being compared to a fairytale world scenery as this is exactly what I mean to do. I want to show that the world is truly beautiful in any place we are. To create a more mystic vibe in my winter pictures, I choose the perfect time of photographing - that's the most important. The time when most visitors and citizens are sleeping - the pictures of Kraków were taken about midnight, but I photographed before sunrise and at night too. I also use techniques of softening the pictures - during the process of editing pictures or while photographing - you can, for example, use the Black Mist filter, which helps to diffuse light to make pictures more dreamy.
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Last winter was amazingly amazing. The snow covered the whole town, turning Kraków into a magical city. I will never forget walking through the empty and silent Old Town streets during heavy snowfall and admiring the magical vibe. Unfortunately, such an incredible time doesn't last long due to the climate changes, so I try to appreciate the snowy winter season as much and as intensively as possible - these are the priceless "moments".
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Keywords: Snowy journey | Snow | Winter | Krakow | Photography | Nature photography | Fairytales