One of many beautiful streets in Prague.

Another shot from Prague Castle’s Golden Lane. This time, right from near the entrance.

As I composed this shot, these two kids popped their heads out of the window. I didn’t want them in the composition but snapped anyway. I have to say, I much prefer the version with the people to the one without.

That’s the funny thing about photography. Even though people are supposed to add a lot to a photo, and I much prefer taking photos without people, some of the better shots from our holiday do contain people. Plus, the lighting on the kids’ faces and their expressions make this shot, I think.

Also, the angles and the three distinct colours — and the fact that they are all the same tone — and the nice strong lighting all seem to work together well. I’ll have to come back to this one in a few weeks to see if I still like it as much.

A display upstairs in one of the houses along Prague’s Golden Lane. Conveniently, we happened to be at the Golden Lane just as the sun was setting, adding an even more golden glow to the place.

There are some shots which you know are going to come out well when you press the shutter, and to me, this is one of those shots. Using Lightroom’s “recovery” brought out the great tones on the book itself (it still looked good, but it was really improved) and I really like the colours and the shadows.

Prague, looking from the Western tower (on the Lesser Quarter side) towards Prague Castle and away from the Old Town.

Prague is easily one of the two most beautiful cities I’ve visited, along with Paris. While Venice is also a beautiful place, I prefer the old world charm of Prague and Paris which have somehow both still managed to keep their roots while becoming modern cities as well.

Taken the first day we arrived in Prague, there was so much to look at that I wanted to capture that I simply had to take panoramas all the time. This tower is at the end of Charles Kridge (Karluv Most); up here with us were another Australian couple — the male had a large white ‘L’ series lens and was photographing Charles Bridge in the sunset, the female was pulling things from the bag as ordered by the male. Some would say bliss, but she certainly didn’t seem to be enjoying herself.

We were, though!

A light on the exterior wall of a beautiful garden, near Charles Bridge. Prague.

Moments after taking this shot, we rounded a slight corner and entered the large gardens. They were being tended by some local gardeners. Fruit trees were in abundance in the gardens, and though we didn’t try any there were people taking some and eating it.

Prague Castle (Pražský hrad in Czech) is over a 1100 years old. The main hall of the castle used to be home to jousting tournaments — inside!

The “Golden Lane” is of particular interest as it has barely changed since the 16th century. Of course, now it is home to souvenir shops but in it’s day there were many inhabitants, reputedly including goldsmiths.

When we visited the Golden Lane, it was at sunset and the light was indeed golden. This photo is not from that day, but taken down the (very long!) hill and across the river. The shops in the Golden Lane sold all sorts of medieval things like reconstruction armour, weapons and even clothes.

The upstairs houses were all connected at at the end of the very long walkway was a medieval ’shooting gallery’ where you could shoot a reconstruction crossbow at a target for an incredibly low price. We waited for a few minutes as I wanted to try my hand at firing a crossbow, but the line was too long with pesky kids enjoying themselves, so we left.

The castle and buildings within are all very nice, and as old as you’d expect. However, the one thing we noticed as that the castle itself is quite empty, unlike other castles we’d visited in London, Paris, and Germany. Quite strange.

Taken on our second day in Prague. As we crossed Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) a group of four or five buskers were playing jazz. Even though orchestral symphonies are popular in Prague, jazz music has a huge following as well. We spotted quite a few jazz clubs in the city centre.

Both Justine and I stood and watched these guys play a couple of songs; other people on the bridge were relaxing too, listening, dancing and generally enjoying the great atmosphere they were creating.