Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: old town square

I took this in the early morning during my photo shoot of the Prazky Orloj. I chose this time of day (about 0700) because the tourists wouldn't be in the streets yet, I hoped. In reality, there were a few, but very few, and I don't know really if they were tourists or Czechs. One thing I learned is that street and utility repairs seem to be done in the wee hours of the morning, when the tourists aren't there to be inconvenienced. If you can't see them here, I'm not sure if they're in the picture. They should be off to the right. Digging up the street only at extreme hours of the early morning might be a nice idea, so long as you're digging up cobblestones and not using jackhammers, but it I doubt it would be the most desirable work assignment.

This is Namesti Jiriho z Podebrad, or the King George of Podebrady Square, in Cheb. Not many people were around, which was exactly the opposite situation of what people had told me to expect. There were a few German tourists, and almost nobody spoke English, although knowing more German than Czech (at that point in my life) helped a bit.

I don't know much about the heritage of this building, other than that obviously it's now used for offices, as you can tell by the plaques by the door. It's probably Baroque at the newest, though, judging from the elaborate decorations and the uneven roof line.

Here's a more detailed shot of the decorations/carvings/sculptures on the red building. The woman in the bottom centre is supposed to be the Virgin Mary. For more information, see the comments on the larger version here: www.flickr.com/photos/14629221@N00/309738615/?#comment721...

I took this during my experimentation with using Kodak Portra 160VC at night, and I think I can count it as a success. The church in the background is Tynsky Chram, and in the foreground are buildings which include the Alfons Mucha Museum, among other things. All of these things are in Staromestske Namesti, or Old Town Square, in Prague.

I also took this with my sky filter, and was hoping for more shadow detail, but you can't have everything.

This is one of a series of shots I took from the clock tower on the Stare Radnice, or Old Town Hall, in Staromestske Namesti, or Old Town Square, in Prague. As this was one of a series that I shot, expect more soon! :-)

Until this day (which I think was Sunday, the 3rd of December) I didn't know that the general public could go up in the clock tower on the Stare Radnice. It just seemed incredibly unlikely to me, but in reality many of these towers are open to the public in the Czech Republic, and this one is especially famous. This is, of course, a very Christmas season shot, but in reality more attention was being devoted to the upcoming St. Nicholas Day on the 6th. On the day before St. Nicholas Day, for those who come from countries where it's not celebrated, St. Nicholas (you know, Santa Claus) tours cities in the evening accompanied by an entourage of angels and devils, looking for good and bad kids. It's a night of lots of screaming, fireworks, and the kind of anarchy that is normally reserved in the United States for Halloween or in Britain for Guy Fawkes Night. It's a little crazy, of course, but in this shot it was still a few days away, so they had a stage set up to do folk dancing instead.

One of the busiest Christmas setups is in Staromestske Namesti, the Old Town Square of Prague, where a stage has been set up (out of the picture to the right) for folk dancing and music.

Here's a shot of Staromestske Namesti in Olomouc. I don't know very much about the monument on the left, but these types of sculptures are very common in Czech city centres, most of them dating to the Baroque period. Again, if anybody has any info on it, post it in the comments! :-)