Long Leg Gate Tower Photo

Photographer’s Note

At the southern end of the street called Pikk you can see one of the gates of the medieval city of Tallin, the so called Long Leg Gate Tower. It is dated back to XIV century and was one of the two gates, which linked the nobles' upper town to the commoners. The other one was the Short Leg Gate Tower.

The Upper and Lower Towns were connected by the Long Leg street (Pikk jalg) during the Middle Ages. The Short Leg street (Lühike jalg) could only be used by pedestrians, because it is and was only a stairway-street. The relations between the Upper and Lower towns were pretty tense, because both the rich merchants of the Lower Town and the noblemen and knights of the Upper Town wanted to obtain more power.

Due to the conflict between the two Towns the merchants in the Lower Town were afraid of raids from the Upper town and they had the street connecting the two Towns fortified with a wall and gatehouses. The new wall has become known as "the Wall of Mistrust". During night all traffic between the Upper and Lower town was stopped and the gates were closed.

The photo shows the Long Leg Gate Tower seen from Pikk street. The Long Leg street starts after the gate and leads to the Upper Town (Toompea Hill). On the background, in front of the trees, is one of the lookout spots of the Upper Town, where one has great views over Tallin (Kohtuotse Vaateplats).

The mark on the map view is placed at the point of the gate.

In WS1 you can see the upper end of Pikk jalg street facing down towards the tower. The steeple on the backgrounbd is the one of St. Olav's church (Oleviste Kirik).

In WS2 is the Short Leg street (Lühike jalg) and the same name gate tower on the top.

loves_summer, fanni, asajernigan, Longroute, brano14, holmertz, jhm, daddo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

smarcell (14309) 2009-03-29 13:19

It is a lovel scene, which rerurns a senso of quiet and tranquillity.
Very beautiful
Regards Stefano

boa (1350) 2009-03-29 14:18

Hi Lasse,
a very well known street for me because I often visit this beautiful and charming city. I like your Pov, natural colors, the sharpness and the genuine late winter mood, cold, and no tourists. Well done!
Regards
Boa

loves_summer (763) 2009-03-29 14:25

Hi Lasse,
Nice pathway leading up to the archway and beautiful architecture. Good sharpness and nice colours--even on such a cloudy day.
Thanks for sharing!

fanni (8737) 2009-03-29 15:39

Hello Lasse,
excellent perspective view and composition, IMHO!
There is even a reddish roof which brightens up the view a little on this grey day :) This shot looks a little "geometric" to me, and this adds a special peculiarity to it.
Beautiful view! and interesting WS photos, too :) I like the relaxed atmosphere of this place... so unlike Moscow!
Warm regards,
Elena
PS. Spring still looks more like winter in Moscow now :( I am beginning to lose my patience...
How is it in Finland??

asajernigan (14132) 2009-03-29 18:16

Lasse,
Nice composition here using the road to lead the eye to the tower. The muted lighting creates nice vivid color and sharpness. The people add a nice sense of scale to the shot.
TFS,
Asa

Longroute (9355) 2009-03-30 2:17

I like very much this narrow medieval streets with the gate in the bk. You framed well the scene with the sign at the left and the street lamp at the right. The colours, sharpness and definition are excellent considering the not favorable light, and I like also the presence of few persons. You really made a fine and good service on Talling and I think the two pictures in the ws deserved a post on their own. The note is interesting and exaustive.
Hsve a nice day,
Donato

dta (5195) 2009-03-30 7:11

Hello Lasse ,
A nice view , of this very beautiful street , perfectly framed , with soft colors and light .
I like a lot the WS1 , too .
Regards
Denis

Cretense (56136) 2009-03-30 9:04

Hi Lasse!

Beautiful architecture photo and a nice daily life scene with those people walking! Great framing and composition, great light managment and colours! I think that with a slight increase of contrast would make this even better, but that's just personal taste! Congratulations!

Hercules

Silvio1953 (41761) 2009-03-30 9:29

Ciao Lasse, beautiful composition with wonderful tower, great light and colors, splendid perspective, very well done, ciao Silvio

brano14 (1880) 2009-03-30 10:13

Hello Lasse,
Very good POV, good soft colors.Also nice story. Also your WS is very helpful to give us more info about this place.
Thanks!
Brano

holmertz (9645) 2009-03-30 11:01

Hej Lasse,
I like your POV which shows the street gently curving towards and into the tower. You have captured the soft pastel colours very well, maybe with some help of the weak early spring light and the overcast sky. There are just enough people to add some life to the scenery without disturbing the peace. I like both workshops as well. I think both of them would have served excellently as regular contributions.
Hälsningar,
Gert

jhm (82545) 2009-03-31 4:19

Hello Lasse,

Tallinn, exactly a picture out of the old time, without cars.
Exactly a picture out of the Middle Ages.
You play excellent with light and shadows, also the colour are attractive.
Composition and presentation are superb.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John

saxo042 (15680) 2009-03-31 8:55

Hej Lasse,
You make it really hard here, as you have in fact posted three excellent pictures at the same time! All of them are worth a lot of points separately! But what I like about this main picture is probably the fine balance between the line from the roof of the left building and down via the roof of the tower. Colours are also very good and I see that most other things are already said here.
Kind regards
Gunnar

npecanhuk (13921) 2009-04-09 12:41

Hi Lasse!
That's a pretty nice picture, with fine architectural details in a very well composed image! Other good technical qualities are also present! However, wishing to be there, walking along those streets is what mostly counts for me in this comment!
TFS - Congratulations!
Best regards,
Neyvan

daddo (11363) 2009-04-24 4:47

Hi lasse. Very effective POV giving great depth and creating a sense of being one of the locals just walking along. I like the soft colours and the subdued light. Interesting details- everything so neat and orderly. regards. Klaudio.

zumoduvas (1974) 2009-04-24 5:44