Just one word: Magnificent!
I’ve heard that Grand Place is one of the most beautiful city squares and I expected much, but seeing it and being there is not the same as expecting to see something beautiful.
My first Grand Place visit was the first night when I came in Brussels. As I mentioned we were going to eat in Hard Rock Cafe and the cafe is placed there on that square. I snapped quickly this shot and we rushed to eat something.
What’s up with the sky?
The biggest problem for me, related to the capturing of the Grand Place, was, if you Google it, you’ll find endless numbers of photographs of Grand Place that are taken in the same way. It was almost the same composition, the same time of the day (night) Those photographs are similar as this one above.
All of these photographs are taken in a period of three days, or tree visits. For the most part I was a bit annoyed by the number of tourist there who were standing in all of the wrong places for my intended compositions (how wrong of me to say it, considering that I was one of those tourists), until I finally decided to include them, because they are a part of the scene.
My intention was to capture the Grand Place a bit differently then you could see from google-ing the place.
Of course, I did capture some things almost the same as others. F.e, this picture bellow.
It seems simple to capture the City Hall but it really isn’t. It was the most challenging subject for photographing, I think. The picture with the lamp and this one bellow were taken from almost the same spot. I was standing on the stairs and trying to compose the shots. I almost fell.
I completely blew out the sky, but it wasn’t that big of a deal because I originally wanted this shot in bw.
The City Hall is the most interesting building there. It’s left and right side are unsymmetrical. Something I wouldn’t even notice if Patrick didn’t told me. I tried to capture it in a way so you could see but I wouldn’t call my tries successful. I’m not sure if you can see what I’m talking about.
There is a story… when the architect discover that the sides are not equal, he jumped over the building and killed himself. Is that the fact or just an interesting story to tell the tourists, I don’t know.
That 310 feet high tower gave me lots of troubles trying to capture it! Just saying….
This is the main entrance in the building. You can see a bit of non symmetry in the upper part of the picture.
I actually had a guy sitting on the left of the frame, but he wasn’t adding to the picture so I cloned him out. The man on the photograph was just a perfect supporting role for me. Thank you for your non intentional posing!
I tried to capture real life going on there.
I tried to capture Grand Place, not just from a tourist’s perspective but from a perspective of people who live there and see probably the same scenes all over again. Lots of tourists, and lots of locals.
There was actually a wedding happening at the moment I took this photo (bellow).
Right across the square from this point is another nice building and another people.
The biggest compliment I got was from a woman who lived the most of her life in Brussels and after she got married she moved to a country side. She said: “…Very much alive and very much Brussels as I know it. You’ve managed to capture that unique atmosphere very well.” If what she said is a truth then my goal is accomplished! Thank you!
And one more picture that needs to be here also because it shows the real life.
(the stairs you can see on the left are the one I was standing and took the shots of the lamp and the City Hall)
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