The Old Jewish Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter of Prague has been in use since at least the 15th Century. (There is some dispute as to when it was founded.) On the small site there are over 12,000 headstones visible, and those cover an estimated 100,000 buried bodies. As the plot ran out of room, more layers of dirt and bodies were added, and headstones were moved up to the top layer. Hence the crowd, and the ruined nature of the site as a whole. There's a narrow path which leads through the grounds for the tourists to walk, and only a few other small open spaces within the graveyard itself.
It was a dreary day, so shot this under the flat light and enhanced the presence and saturation to the max in Lightroom. I then imported the image into NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 using the Soft Structure Preset. I then made the whites and blacks a bit more white and black, and here it is. When the day is grey, why not go black and white? Original exposure was with the Nikon D800E using the 14-24 f/2.8 wide angle lens at 17mm. ISO 400, f/5.6 for depth of field, 1/100 sec exposure.
For more info about the equipment and software I use, see this page.
Love this shot Tom. The haphazardness with the B&W is stunning. Are you and Kristin going other places in Czech or staying only in Prague?
Corinne, we took a day trip to Kutna Hora, but that was it for the Czech Republic. We were going to see some more, but decided to go to Vienna instead. But, we’ll be back. The Czech Republic is beautiful, and the people are lovely.
Yes, there’s tons to do in Czech. We’ve barely scratched the surface ourselves and we basically live right next door. Have a great coffee in Vienna!
I was overwhelmed this cemetery when I visited it– The entire Jewish Quarter was impressive– Our guide told us that this quarter exisits because Hitler chose to save it– He told us that after he completely exterminated the Jews he wanted one place in the world where people could come and see how wonderful his extermination plan was and how much better off the world is with the Jews gone. Did anyone share any stories like that with you?
Larry, we read the same thing in the literature. How nice of Hitler to try to preserve a museum of the people he tried to exterminate.
Great photograph! Really impressive, and B&W is a perfect choice here!
Thanks, Marysia.
It was a somber place.