Photoset From Europe
A collection of favourite photos I took in different countries of Europe.
Photography is my main hobby now. My favourite genre is street photography and I also love shooting the aesthetic of daily life. I take all the photos on my phone, Samsung Galaxy A41. Some of my shots were accepted by Italian PhotoVogue (those with the watermark in the lower-left corner of the shot).
In this post, I collected my favourite photos from the countries I visited in the first half of 2024: Denmark, Italy and two Hungarian cities (in one of them I live).
Enjoy!
Copenhagen
I spent 3 days in Copenhagen in March 2024. It was quite cold (compared to Budapest especially), but the city is very cozy, photogenic and bright. I enjoyed the reflections of these colourful houses along the embankment so much! And the smorrebrods (Danish national food, open sandwiches with different fillings) were amazing.
I love black and white photography. It emphasizes details, lines and shadows and feels (for me) more artistic, than color. Sometimes I make an effort in order not to transform all my color photos into black and white.
There are more bicycles in these photos, than there are photos themselves but it represents the Danish style of life! I was shocked by the number of cyclists I saw immediately as I came out of the airport in Copenhagen. I felt a bit like an outsider without a bicycle to ride.
Budapest
I live in Budapest and find this city nice and beautiful. I love to walk around and shoot aesthetics.
This photo was taken accidentally in Budapest metro. I have been nurturing the idea of taking a shot of a person standing in the foreground with a train or a tram moving in the background for some time already, but it came true much earlier than I expected. It was an experiment with the long exposure and I think a good one! I find long exposure a very efficient and useful tool that can create a stunning effect.
I took the second shot from those two below when going from the university to some store in Budapest. I was not walking and shooting with a purpose. But this man with his orange trolley attracted my attention and I decided that the store would wait.
I immediately understood which photo I wanted. I knew that the photo must be black and white but the trolley must be left of its original colour. I still can not guess how it happened that there were no cars on the main street of Budapest, the busiest and liveliest street in the city at the moment when I was shooting.
I got exactly the picture that I had in my consciousness when I was frantically switching on the camera and taking the place to shoot.
Debrecen
I needed to go to Debrecen (Hungary’s second-largest city) twice in May 2024 on business and I was lucky enough to make some shots.
Rome
The pearl of the set, of course…
The most beautiful city I visited (not only this year, but at all, I guess). It was a huge pleasure to walk around Rome at any time of the day. I arrived in the afternoon and spent the first evening walking and photographing every street and building at sunset. I woke up only when it became dark and I found out I was somewhere, eh, far from the apartment.
Then there were two more days in Rome during which I was watching Italian life and taking photos non-stop: the main streets, the smaller streets, people, buildings, bikes, yards, lights, etc. These bright colours, the shining vibe of the city and classical buildings are something I miss every day.
I clearly remember taking the photo of the boy playing with the ball (below). I was walking around Rome taking photos of motorcycles and those beautiful Italian windows with shutters when suddenly I noticed him. He was hitting his ball into the wall and not paying the slightest attention to the life around him. He was absorbed in the game. Suddenly I very clearly saw the shot I could take. Had to take. I understood that I would not make a step from that small square until I got this photo I had in my consciousness.
I stood behind the boy and began to shoot. He was hitting the ball. I was shooting. I was not looking at the result, I did not have time. Every moment I was afraid that the boy would get tired and go home, while I desperately needed him to hit that ball into the wall over and over again. Nothing else existed at that moment. The noise of the street and the dazzling sun disappeared. Just the boy and the ball. And pressing the button. I guess I was not even breathing. Just followed the boy’s movements and a bit adjusting the shooting angle.
Not until I took about 10 photos did I decide to look at the result. 9 out of 10 were of no value, but there was one which was worth everything.
I still consider this photo to be my best shot.
I could not stop taking photos of each window shutter I saw during my walks. My phone used to discharge two or three times a day when I was in Rome because I would not turn off the camera. My eyes were not grateful to me when they had to look through 250+ shots each evening cropping, straightening the perspective, aligning the horizon, etc.
Bologna
The next city I visited on that trip to Italy was Bologna. It is small, but incredibly cousy, aesthetic and photogenic. You can shoot practically every street, every corner, every brick and with a probability of 99% get stunning pictures.
The shots below are kind of Bologna’s symbols for me, the strongest associations I have with this city. Antiquity, eternity, light, mysteriousness, compactness and happiness.
Sun and shadows which it gives (especially at golden hour!) are one of my favourite shooting heroes. I am just mad about them, I have hundreds of photos of this kind in my gallery and still can not help taking more and more such pictures. The one that was accepted by Italian PhotoVogue (below) was taken accidentally. I was having dinner in my apartment after a long walk through Bologna and a trip to Ravenna (extremely impressive mosaics of the 17th century, highly recommend!!) and suddenly saw this shadow. The dinner was forgotten.
I hope to visit at least two more European countries by the end of the year (one of them will hopefully be Italy… once again… I am kinda obsessed…). So stay tuned, new photos are on the way!
And of course, feedback is highly appreciated!
P.
