The cafe life in Copenhagen
Ok, I admit it - I have a thing for European cafes.
Aren't they just awesome? I know Paris is most famous for their cafe scene, but I find great little cafes in all of the various European cities that I travel to, and for various reasons, they are all beautiful and interesting looking.
Copenhagen is no exception.
When I first went to Copenhagen a couple of years ago, I was completely in love with an area known as Nyhavn. It's their historic waterfront area from the 17th century, and is now an entertainment district lined with multi-colored cafes, restaurants, and bars. It's beautiful, and incredibly photogenic.
There is a great collection of antique-looking wooden ships all moored there (though that will be the subject of a future post), right in the front of the cafes, and people are everywhere, eating, drinking, socializing, and of course just walking around and taking pictures. :-)
On that last visit, as well as on my recent visit just a few weeks ago, I spent a decent amount of time there trying to photograph as much as possible, at different times of day. With the way the light changes, I like to get back to awesome spots and shoot them under different conditions. I love having different takes on the same subjects, but then again I'm just addicted to this sort of thing.
On my first evening there on this recent trip, after I got settled into my hotel and unpacked, I grabbed the gear and made the short walk over here to Nyhavn. Based on my prior experience, I knew I wanted to spend a lot of time here, so I chose a hotel just a short walk away. It was a great idea.
It was late afternoon and the sunset was approaching, so the light was just perfect, even though the sunset did not turn into anything spectacular. I just walked up and down the street in front of the cafes, and fired away. There were patrons at some of these establishments, and many of them looked at me as I set up and fired away, as if they were trying to decide if I was shooting them. Of course I wasn't, but they didn't ask and I wasn't going to stop. I just let them think whatever they wanted to think. I didn't care - I had photos to take.
And take photos I did! I must have grabbed a few hundred frames during that hour or so that I shot there, and that means I have a lot more to share as soon as I can find time to process them. So consider this a teaser of sorts, and keep coming back because I am just getting started on these Nyhavn shots!
These shots are all 7-frame HDRs created in Photomatix and adjusted in Color Efex Pro and Aperture. These were all shot on a tripod, and no magic was used to remove the crowds of people. I just waited for the scenes to be as clear as possible before shooting.
