Old Doors
Merchant Mansion Door Odense Denmark 1631
Merchant Mansion, 1631, Odense, Denmark
I actually meant to try the just released beta version of Lightroom 5 last night. But I got a bit side tracked. I started to look through my 2009 image folder, and came across a few images that I thought I could combine and make into a blog post. Doors seems to be a popular collection item on sites likes Pinterest. There is something about doors. Of course every building has them, but not every one is special. I like the old ones. Especially old and worn ones with lots of details such as wood carvings or stained glass like this one.
I was in Odense, Denmark in 2009, participating for the first time in the annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. Odense is an old city, it dates way back to the year 988 – yup, long time ago. Some famous people from that city includes Hans Christian Andersen, world-renowned story-teller, poet and writer and Carl Nielsen, classical composer. So this city is very old and the amazing part of it is that many buildings are still standing. When walking down town its like going back in time if it wasn’t for the occasional car or scooter zooming by.
The leading shot right is the bay doors from a Merchant House Mansion, that dates back to 1631 according to the engraving above the door. One can only wonder how life was behind those doors at that time, most likely very tough for the workers, while the owner or merchant would be stinking rich, have a lot of power and be very influential in the city. He would most likely also be a member of the town council. Click the thumbnail to view the “mansion” a bit bigger.
“Our Lady Church” door, 13th century church, Odense, Denmark
Another old door is the church entrance for “Our Lady Church”, a small church built sometime in the 13th century. Renovated a couple of times since then, last time in 1864. Odense also have a cathedral that is from around the same time period.
Door to hall of the local inn, 1683, Odense, Denmark
The Old Inn, 1683, Odense, Denmark
If you had a church in your town/village back then, chances were that there also was a place to get drunk a drink, and Odense’s old watering hole is still there – well, it’s not the only one they have of course but this one dates back to 1683. It’s a restaurant today, and apparently are very nice place to eat. The current name is very creative – it’s called “The Old Inn” – no, I’m not kidding. The text above the old door would translate in to what we would know as a hall – a place to have dinner parties, live music etc.
Private door from 18th century house Odense Denmark
Another private door from 18th century house Odense Denmark
Cobble stone street downtown Odense, Denmark
I’ll finish this long post with a couple of entrance doors to a couple of old private houses in the down town area, that guaranteed dates back from the 18th century or earlier. When the owners want to renovate their house, there are certain rules to follow, permissions to get from the city planning department before any renovation can start. No modern looks here. Notice the old style windows in the street shot. The windows are made of new and modern materials, but the look has to match the age of the building.
As always, your visits and comments are very much appreciated. Also, all images can be viewed large by clicking on the image.
Enjoy.
The corner
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 95mm, f/5.3, 1/320sec, ISO200
TGIF! What a long week. I thought I would end this week with another shot from a World Wide Photo walk. This time it’s from 2009 in Odense, Denmark. The walk was in and around the area of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth home, now museum. This shot looks really good in large print. Looking at the screen now, I’m not so sure… I was going for the patterns on the cobble stone and the bricks in the round wall.
Look out
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 95mm, f5.6, 1/160sec, ISO200
I have looked at this image a lot. I don’t know why, but every time I go through my shots, I tend to stop for a second at this one. There is something very simple and pleasing thing about this shot IMO, and that is as close as I can get to explain what is does for me. It is one of those shots that will end up on one of my walls as a gallery wrap at some point.
It was shot during a World Wide Photo walk in Odense, Denmark in 2009.
Take a seat…
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 95mm, f/5.3, ISO200, 3 exposures, handheld
…and let me tell you a story. Just kidding.
Last week, Scott Wood had a blog post about keeping old shots that did not make the cut the first time around. It’s an interesting discussion because if you shot a lot, like I would expect a guy like Scott Wood do, you will in the end up with countless of gigabytes of images that will never be edited or printed. And what will you do? Delete or buy more storage? I am afraid I’m one of those guys who just store images. I do of course delete total miss shots, like camera shakes, out of focus etc. But the rest I tend to keep. After reading Scott’s post, it made me think about my collection of images and I decided then that today’s post would be an image that originally wasn’t flagged, rated or had been edited in any way. Just one of those I keep. Turned out to be a fun exercise.
About the image.
Any one familiar with Hans Christian Andersen? Well, he was a Danish poet, writer, a story-teller and famous world-wide for his fairy tales. Had he lived today, he would be 206 years old. His work is published in more that 150 languages. Quite a feat if you ask me.
The images above and below are shot in Odense, Denmark. The place of his birth. You can tell the city is proud of him. There are many references to this guy all over this city. His characteristic silhouette is even featured as the stop/walking guy on the cross walk signs.
As I went through the files from that day, I discovered I had bracket the bench shot so I chose to run with it.
This bench is out side one of the buildings dedicated to H. C. Andersen, and I think it is a part of the statue you see below. It’s like he invites you to sit either next to him or on the bench (above) that would be to his left and slightly in front of him, and listen to one of his many stories.
His fairy tales usually had a moral ending to it – this experience makes me think that I wont start thinning out my collection of images anytime soon. I’ll buy a bigger hard drive first.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 20mm, f/4, 1/80sec, ISO200
