brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Last week I returned from a 2 week vacation in the Czech Republic. I spent 12 days in Ostrava visiting friends and family and documenting the city where I grew up. Ostrava used to live only on coal mine industry and steel mills. It's situation in between Czech and Slovak lands dubbed it the nick name "Black Heart of the Republic". The coal mines are all closed now with only one of two steel mills open. The grittiness of the place sharply contrasts Prague. I tried to capture some of it in my shots. Here is a link to a slideshow from the trip: It is about 100 photos. I'd be flattered if you have to time to view them all. Otherwise you might want to adjust the speed of the slideshow to help you through it. I shot mostly Tri-X and M3/collapsible summicron with some Canon digital in between. This is the first cut. I'm going to leave it on flickr for a few days and then turn it off and start releasing them again for a second round of editing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_l3 Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Rene, very nice. And I appreciate your effort to do a photo project of that size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattalofs Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 I'm feeling the grittiness, so job well done. It's an excellent set of images with some really superb black and white work. You have enough raw material to edit down to a great show. Have you perhaps considered editing it into two different sets; a set of portraits and a set of industrial shots would let each stand on it's own merits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thanks Matt. Much appreciated. Actually I would like to do some kind of show out of this but I haven't the foggiest yet how to arrange them. I have literally souped last negative yesterday night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertmccurley Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Really nice work Rene. You really seemed to capture the "soul" of your visit. Don't envy you when you begin to edit, they are all excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jja Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 We should all return to the place(s) where we grew up and document them, thanks for the inspiration. The photos are very fine and Matt's comments are sound. Some of these are obviously very personal, and others have a more public feel to them. To me, the the public photos have greater impact, especially the night photos. The portraits--they are the more 'personal' shots--have less context, but they are still excellent. The first "Midnight stroll" photo is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael s. Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Very, very good photos, Rene. I did see them all, and it was worth it.<p> Perhaps you'll actually need more than one 'folder' -- maybe one of nightlife, another of street or on-the-move, another called industry, one for family photos, and so on.<p> I'm back from a much shorter trip to the Dominican Republic, a place with which I had no familiarity, and while I've put up one folder, I have a number of other shots I'm trying to organize and characterize.<p> It's not easy. The one <a href=http://flickr.com/photos/74058404@N00/sets/72057594112506026/show/>folder</a> I've put up thus far is a bit of this and that, and never having even tried to edit/arrange photos before, maybe I need one of those 'scrapbooking' classes ? :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thank You for you kind words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Rene - Very enjoyable. Reminds me of many of the cities in the rust belt here in the USA. It looks like the public transportation infrastructure is copied from Chicago or Detroit, right down to the graffiti on the vehicles. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thank You. I really enjoyed the public transportation. Two week pass for everything ran about $15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max_fun Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Rene, you've got some really nice street photos, but I'm going to go ahead and say that if you didn't say that in the Czech Republic, it would have been difficult to guess where most of the photos came from. Some very nice shots nevertheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicamshooter Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Wonderful photos! It looks like the M3/50mm combo works great for you. It looks like a few were shot "from the hip." Did you really shoot them this way, or was it just you positioning quickly for the shot. I'm interested in your technique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thank You. It was a combination of both. Sometimes I shot from the hip and sometimes I crouched down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank_nesbitt Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Wow! What a grand example of what a Leica can do in the hands of a gifted photographer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian bastin Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 I would hate to see these split up. It has the feel of a journey and the personal portraits give added meaning to the public and dramatic shots. It has the strong feeling of someone looking at the familiar with new eyes. They are beautiful pictures and the context makes them moreso. Could organise them somehow, perhaps even cronologically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 2, 2006 Author Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thank You. I loce all the feedback. I kind of agree that variety provides a break from a theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ky2 Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 Simply beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekkie Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Nice work Renee. B & W does so much in some settings.Did you scan all of these???........LOL. Lots of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 3, 2006 Author Share Posted May 3, 2006 Yes Dan ;-) I did scan all of these and about double amount of shots that did not make the first cut... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_amos Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 I'm not a "pro", but to my eyes, its very fine work. I particularly enjoyed the smooth story telling and sense of place/being there in about the first half that were only black and white. I watched it through twice, the second time just musing about how the seeing, technical judgement and emotional impetus come together fluidly to do that, and I wish I was a bit better at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 3, 2006 Author Share Posted May 3, 2006 Thank You for looking and for liking it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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