looking up (budapest, hungary)
Budapest rewards you for looking up. The St. Stephen's Basilica took over 50 years to build, collapsed once during construction, and still ended up being one of the most detailed facades I've ever pointed a camera at. Every surface has something going on. Stone saints on the roofline, a contrail cutting through the blue sky behind them like someone drew a line through the frame. The Fisherman's Bastion up on the Castle Hill is the same story, all Neo-Gothic spires and baroque statues catching the late afternoon light. I wasn't really there to photograph architecture, but sometimes a city just makes itself impossible to ignore.
the hour budapest was made for (budapest, hungary)
There is a window in the evening when Budapest just performs. The parliament turns pink across the Danube, the sky goes orange behind the hills, and every rooftop below the castle looks like it was placed there on purpose. I stayed up on the hill longer than planned. It was one of those sunsets where you keep thinking it has peaked and then it gets better.
one inch from the danube (budapest, hungary)
These sparrows were sitting right on the edge of the Danube embankment, on the Pest side near the Shoes on the Danube memorial. One of them just kept hopping around on the stone barrier at the water's edge, completely in its own world. I crouched down and tried to get as close as possible without spooking it. For a handheld shot at that distance, I was pretty happy with how these turned out.
just walking (budapest, hungary)
Three days in Budapest, mostly on foot. No real plan beyond seeing what the city looks like when you slow down enough to notice it. Old phone booths, book carts parked on corners, umbrella installations strung across a street. A man sitting alone near the Great Synagogue, lost in thought. Couples on staircases, lamp details, building facades that have clearly seen a lot. The kind of stuff that doesn't make it onto postcards but tells you more about a place than any landmark does.
Budapest is big and it rewards walking. You turn a corner and the architecture changes completely, or you find something completely random that makes you stop. I covered a lot of ground and still felt like I barely scratched the surface.
april in pest (budapest, hungary)
The tulip beds in front of the Museum of Fine Arts at Heroes' Square were impossible to walk past without stopping. I ended up crouching down in the middle of them for a while, which apparently I was not the only one doing. Except the others were actually there to plant them. Spring in Budapest hits differently when the whole city seems to be in bloom at once.
oldest ride in town (budapest, hungary)
Budapest's yellow trams have been running since 1887, and somehow they still feel like the right way to move through the city. I photographed this one a few times before eventually just getting on and riding it along the Danube embankment. Once in front of the Parliament, once at the Szabadság híd at the foot of Gellért Hill. Sometimes the best shot is just waiting for the same thing to come around again.
pink noise (budapest, hungary)
The cherry blossom trees on the Buda side were in full bloom and the light towards sunset was doing everything right. The only problem was that apparently everyone else in Budapest had the same idea. It was absolutely packed. Getting a clean shot without fifteen people in the background became its own challenge, so I ended up shooting mostly upward, through the branches, letting the blossoms and the golden light do the work. Sometimes the crowd forces you into better angles than you would have found otherwise.
standing in the light (budapest, hungary)
Budapest's Great Market Hall was built in 1897 and the iron and glass construction still does exactly what it was designed to do: let light fall in at angles that hit the floor in perfect rectangles. I ended up spending more time watching people walk in and out of those light patches than actually looking at the stalls. The architecture does most of the work here.
