Have I mentioned that I love taking photo walks? Given that the vast majority of those walks are in towns and cities, or in this case more of a hamlet, I take a good number of pictures featuring windows and doors and other parts of buildings. I have quite a few such pictures coming in future posts, but I think this one, “Doll House”, is my favorite.
This was taken on a daytrip out of Prague to a small town in southern Czechia. I said earlier that my pictures are taken within walking distance of my hotel or metro station. This is an expansion of that except that it was within walking distance of the train station after a couple of hours on the train.
As an aside, I love traveling by train. I am jealous of Europeans and Asians for their train systems. It is unfathomable that there isn’t a high-speed train running between the four great cities of Texas. It is ridiculous that is it difficult to take a train from Dallas to Chicago. I don’t understand why our great country can’t encourage transportation via the most relaxing and romantic means available. When in Europe I will take the train whenever possible. As a result, I also like to take images of train stations. But I digress. . .
This image was on the walk from the train station to the touristy center of the small town. It would have been easy to miss if my wife hadn’t conditioned me to keep my eye open for interesting windows.
One generally accepted compositional guideline is to have an odd number of elements. Three elements arranged as a triangle is good. Elements arranged in an s-shaped curve is also a good composition. And, of course, the prominent aspects of the image should be placed according to the rule of thirds .
Based on this guidance, isn’t it bad to have four windows in this image? At least they are almost placed according to the rule of thirds. Maybe it’s the street sign on the side of the house that balances the four windows.
I don’t know but to me this image just works. That’s why the rules are really guidelines and why it’s okay to break those rules every once in a while.
I like how the pinkish/peach color of the house makes it look like it could be a playhouse. I also like that there is something to draw the eye to each of the windows.
And I especially like the dolls in the lower left window that are watching the stream of visitors walking by, welcoming them their beautiful little town, and wishing everyone a good day and a pleasant visit.