Black and Whites

Here's an 810 Class railbus working another local at Branik, from the looks of it a southbound. The factory in the background is the Branik Pivovar, or brewery.

I originally shot this with Ektachrome E100GX, one of the nicest color films you can buy if you can't get Kodachrome 64 or 200. On this particular day, though, during the Prague snowstorm two weekends ago, Hlavni Nadrazi, the main train station, was so obscured in the snow that the scene was, for practical purposes, a black and white scene. Seeing the scans of my two brackets, I decided to go with the lighter and hazier one for dramatic effect, and oddly, convert it to black and white. Why not? I think it looks better this way. Maybe some of you can tell me what you think, and I can consider uploading other versions of this.

Nuselsky Most, easily the highest bridge in Prague, crosses a valley through Nusle from I.P. Pavlova, and the neighborhood south of I.P. Pavlova known as Zvonarka (where I once lived), to Vysehrad. It has two levels, the upper level being open to the sky for street traffic, connecting Legerova and Sokolska (the streets merge at the bridge) on the I.P. Pavlova/Zvonarka side to 5. Kvetna on the Vysehrad side. The lower level, visible here as a box running down the centerline of the bridge, carries DPP metro trains from I.P. Pavlova to Vysehrad. Nuselsky Most is the oldest bridge on the metro, being part of the original Kacerov-Florenc metro opened in 1974 (Or 1971, according to some of my sources. Who's right? Does anybody know?).

Public tranport is everywhere in Prague, so here we have an example of all three modes. Down at the tram stop is a Tatra T3 tram, up on the lower level of Nuselsky Most are the Metro tracks, and then the upper level of the Nuselsky Most hosts night buses.

I doubt if Vysehrad is still an interlocking box, but it is still an active signal box and maintains a feel that the steam era never left. I love this particular spot as a place for watching trains and taking photographs, except for that its cramped and I rarely have my camera to my eye fast enough to actually get anything. I only like Nusle and Vysehrad because they look so authentically steam era as neighborhoods, and well...I love steam era trains or the illusion of them. :-)

Although there's a light leak slashing through the tram in this photo, I still like it reasonably well. I love the contrast and the general tones of it.

As the sunset illuminated Belehradska, I couldn't resist taking this.

Mestan is a 19th Century brand of Czech beer that is now the cheapest brand name beer you can buy in Prague, with a half liter bottle sometimes going for less than 4Kc, which comes out to less than 20 cents. This is the original Mestan Pivovar, or brewery, if I'm not mistaken, opened in 1898. Nowadays, though, Mestan is brewed at the equally historic Staropramen Pivovar in Smichov, and this old brewery has become an office complex on the upper levels, with an Arnold supermarket in the basement.

This is another, brighter shot of the old Mestan Pivovar.

Here you can see a little bit more detail on the Kommunardu (that's a street) side.

Here you can still see the original lettering on the pivovar, which I think was probably kept for historic purposes.

Ortenovo Namesti isn't far from Mestan Pivovar, and in fact is probably the closest tram stop. This was the tram that was going to take me home as the sun was setting, giving me great late-day lighting to give me a darker, more dramatic shot than usual.

This was another dusk shot of a tram in Holesovice, this time at the train station, with similar dramatic late-day results.

This is one of two photos that I took of Pankrac, in uncertain lighting conditions, so I ended up bracketing even with the Lomo. This one I shot at f11 and 1/250, I think, which made it too dark technically, but better in some ways than the f11 1/125 bracket, which was the other one.

This was my "proper" shot of Pankrac, with appropriate exposure.

This was a strictly experimental shot that I took in Sidliste Haje, like so many of my experimental shots there. I had to bracket this to get it right, and I think I ended up settling on f16 and 1/125, although I could be misremembering. I don't keep a notebook for the Lomo.

Trams pass by the old Mestan Pivovar all the time, but this was a lucky shot.

This is the first of a series of black and whites that I took on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway on my third visit there on February 18th, 2007. I started shooting black and white, if I'm not mistaken, when I got to Oxenhope, but I have to admit that in general these photos may not be in perfect order. Here we see ex-L&Y #957, built in 1887 (really!!), and Taff Vale #85, which is also ancient. The 957 is my favorite, though, being an L&Y "Ironclad" 0-6-0, as brutally authentic as a vintage British steamer can get. Neither is the oldest I've ever ridden behind, but they come close. They're also both quite small, so our train was headed by both locomotives.