Elbląg Old Town

There's little I can tell about the city of Elbląg. Even though it's not even an hour's drive from where I live, I had never been there until recently. The trip was fairly spontaneous and I had no plans surrounding it. The weather was lousy, with an overcast grey sky and a chilling wind that blew in strong gusts. However, the latter turned out to be a boon since the Old Town was nearly empty, quiet and almost resembling a ghost city.

I did not plan to take any photos and only took my Sony ZV-1 in case I wanted to capture a snap or two. I wasn't sure I'd even want to take the camera out in such unpleasant weather but to my surprise, there was quite a bit to photograph. Also, the camera's useful zoom range (24-70 mm full frame equivalent) and a bright aperture of f/1.8-2.8 meant that I could take handheld shots in dark conditions without raising the ISO to stupid levels. If memory serves, I only needed to go as high as 400, which is more than acceptable.

The first photo was taken in a narrow alleyway between medieval red brick tenements. Its name, the Church Path, indicates its use in the Middle Ages: it was the shortest connection between three major churches. Architecturally, it's an interesting sight because of the multiple arches connecting the tenements at different heights. A composition is waiting to be found there. Mine isn't particularly great but I've had the luck of capturing a cyclist passing exactly in front of the entrance as I was pressing the shutter button. An unplanned but welcome addition to the photo.

The EL Gallery used to be a church. Nowadays it's an art gallery. While I reckon taking photos at an art gallery is a bit of a cheat, I tried to focus on the architecture more than the exposition itself.

The final image from the EL Gallery is a collage of two photographs. It shows the same graphic (water paint on handmade paper, I believe) in two versions: original and distorted by photographing it through a round uneven piece of glass.

The final point of the trip was St. Nicholas' Cathedral, a church with a long and turbulent history. Sadly, I wasn't able to climb its tower but I took two pictures that aren't overly terrible. The view of the cathedral, with the altar and a bright light emanating from a corridor directly behind it, was the only photograph that I took using a mini tripod.

In a separate room, the Blessed Karolina's Chapel, I took a picture of the stained glass window that can be seen in this post's feature image. Not very creative but I like the result.