Riga - the beginning Photo

Photographer’s Note

it's good to live abroad for a while to have a fresh look at your native city, Riga in my case, and as a result I decided to create a little series about the history of this 800 year-old beauty. I cannot say the weather co-operated (rather the opposite) - only 2,5 days of 17 had some light. but when the light was there, it was gorgeous.

this photo, taken from the wooden tower of the St.Peter's church, shows Old Riga with the Dome church (1211) tower on the right and the "Sun Stone" (2004) - headquarters of Hansa Bank on the left with the Daugava river separating the two. I wanted an introductory photo to open the series, and I chose this one, I find it shows very well the mixture of old and new (yes, I'm aware of the cliché) that is the very essence of the city.

pasternak, JorgeCK, zmey, wishlist, chrkont, jorgi, sonkai, plimrn, gunbud, steliosk, scobert, ellelloo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Paolo (40755) 2008-03-17 5:10

Hi Kristine, beautiful view of Riga, from an excellent POV and under a wodnerufl sky.
thnaks, ciao

pasternak (13688) 2008-03-17 6:22

Nice to see you back posting, Kristine, and you return with a very luminous shot with classic aerial composition with two towers on each side of the bridge. Beautiful light and cloudy sky!

Cheers
Alexander

angela926 (1882) 2008-03-17 7:23

Hello Kristine,
Very nice capture, beautiful colors and contrast, excellent composition and nice pov, very good sharpness and depth of field, lovely light.
Angela

JorgeCK (2600) 2008-03-17 9:16

Hi Kristine,
Good capture of this beautiful old city.excellent management of the lights. The colors and clarity are all superb and I liked the way you have framed this shot. I'm looking forward to see the series of this old city.
Well done.... Happy Saint Patricks Day!
take care.
joRge

baba_flies (8115) 2008-03-17 12:48

Hello Kristine! How nice to return to home base. It is always great to come home although I have never been away from my home town as long as you probably have but long enough to see my town with other eyes too, the good things and the bad things. Very nice idea to show us the two sides on this one and how it grows in different directions, for the better I don't know but this is how it goes with all towns, they need to build space for new companies and for housing purposes of course. Nice how the bridge connects between old and new. Welcome back ... Barbara.

zmey (7282) 2008-03-17 13:02

hey there!

wintry-wise and crispy! i like it! and my compliments on catching these lights so rare for latvian winter-scene. :)

k.

wishlist (4133) 2008-03-17 13:49

Hello Kristine,
and welcome back!! The beautiful cloudy sky added a great depth enhancing the beautiful compo based on the contrast between old and modern. Everything looks in the right place and the picture is beautiful to look at.
Thanks for sharing it.
Regards,

Igor

chrkont (3677) 2008-03-17 17:27

Hi Kristine
I like the strong contrast of your photo with so warm deep colors. The clarity is obviously from foreground to background. Excellent POV and DOF. TFS
regards
Christos

jorgi (3804) 2008-03-17 23:39

Hello Kristine,

I'm very glad to find these marvelous panoramic view of your native city after this time. It is most positive and it shows the city's essence exellently. You are talking about cliches but how can a view over a city I've never seen before be a cliché? For me not. Honestly, I'm very impressed since I had no idea how Riga looks. It reminds me a little of Maribor, our second biggest city with older part on one side of wide river and modern on the other. But here all similarities ends. These two magnificent towers connected by impressive modern bridge are way advanced. The light was really kind to you on this day, whole atmosphere appears so clean and fresh and it allows to admire the extension of the city for miles in a distance. Happy to have you back. :)

Kind regards,
Jeri

plimrn (19740) 2008-03-18 19:41

Hi Kristine,
I'm so pleased that you are presenting a series from your homeland; I think the best hotos are made by those who know an area.

While old & new may be cliche, one must remember the reason for a cliche is that it contains a powerful truth. I really do like the way you framed the old town against the modern bridge.

As to weather, those wonderful clouds are much more interesting that clear blue skies which are rather flat and boring.

HLJ, Pat

gunbud (28165) 2008-03-18 20:20

Hi Kristine,
Love your POV that clearly shows the wonderful city being split by the dark blue river. The foreground is full of beautifully contrasting colored roffs with the magnificent church tower the dominate element. The background shows the interesting modern architecture and beautiful distant blue sky with its georgeous clouds. The colors are clear and crisp and the details are strikingly sharp.
Regards, Tom

steliosk (4784) 2008-03-19 6:18

Dear Kristine,
I love your photos, they are so mature.
take this one for example. the POV is perfect.
you gave emphasis to the sky which is perfect, and you put all the buildings in the right place.
Not to say much for the colours, those are great!
TFS
Regards
Stelios

scobert (5333) 2008-03-19 13:15

Hi Kristine,
The moon/ballet photo that I posted last night was removed by the TE administrators due to its over-processing. Thanks anyway for doing a critique of it. I have seen photos of Riga before and your hometown is a beautiful city. Your composition is superb and the lighting is beautiful. Your "old vs new" theme works fabulously with this great shot! Well done!
Stan

LUISCOSTA (142) 2008-04-10 12:52

Hello Kristine.

Very nice capture, beautiful colors and contrast, great Riga!!!

ellelloo (4961) 2008-09-19 23:21

Hello Kristine,
A lovely shot from your native city, which I would like to visit once again. I had an one day work visit years ago and did not have much time to look around. An excellent POV and composition, very good early morning light and colours, excellent clarity and sharpness. Well done!
Greetings from chilly Finland
Lasse