Most cities are natural to take photos of horizontally. They spread out wide. I like to challenge the normal views of things, so decided to look at a city through a more vertical eye. Here are some photos of Dubrovnik looking at the vertical aspects of that city.
Stairs are nearly always a vertical
Although we didn’t walk around the top of city walls, we did walk up one of the many staircases to get a view down onto the city from above. Dubrovnik is a bit of a bowl shaped, with the edges higher than the center. Looking down you can see the layers. The mountains above, the few trees followed by the houses on the far side of the city, then the little mushroom forest of awnings that huddle around the main street ready to serve tourists and finally the empty stairs that lead up to us.
Looking at Alleys Verticalls
Even things like alleys that are mostly long by nature can be seen vertically. The stairs in the distance and the sign hanging down draw the eye up. I love how the strip of sky is echoed in the lines in the cobblestones. This was taken during the day when hardly anyone is out. These alley fill with tourists drinking at night.
Check out those Towers
Towers are the elements of a city that are naturally seen in the vertical. And I guess I could have bucked the trend and pulled out a landscape picture of this tower, but I won’t. I like how there are small bits of a city that are inherently vertical. This clock tower reaches into the clear blue Croatian sky. The clock itself was really unusual. Below the normal round dial, there are two windows that show the time in roman numerals.
Layers upon Layers
Another layering photo. While the first from the stairs shows the connection of the city to the mountains above, this shows the connection to the water below. Like most coastal cities, Dubrovnik sites between water and land and has connections to both. So the city walls hover above the crystal waters and keep the separation. Layers like this always seem to end up as a vertical expression of the city.
Dubrovnik was one of the highlights of my Croatia tour. Yes it is touristy, but for a good reason. It is a fascinating place to walk around. And despite still being wide like a normal city, there were a lot of vertical aspects.
[...] out more of my Dubrovnik pictures on yesterday’s post Dubrovnik Vertically on my new site. Grounded Traveler is concentrating on Germany and expat living and Ctrl-Alt-Travel [...]
Thanks for sharing a different perspective! We are headed to Dubrovnik on our road trip through Croatia in August and are really excited to see it!
Dubrovnik is really nice. Both Ali and I were there before we met and liked it. Definitely take a few days and explore it fully if you can. Road trip sounds fun.
I’ve used to work on a project “square photography’ where I framed all photos by a square. So it was interesting to find your “vertical eye”. Thanks for sharing, Andrew!
You are welcome. I like looking at things in odd ways. The square project sounds interesting. We are so used to 4:3 or 3:2 that 1:1 could be neat.
Nice idea! I’m a big fan of the vertical composition, particularly for narrow streets and through the window shots. Great work
Thanks. Vertical is a bit unusual and doesn’t often get strong billing online for monitor reasons. It is a shame as it really can give a good sense of things.
Your pictures show a great perspective of Dubrovnik! This is a city and country I long to visit. BTW love the name of your new blog!
Thanks. I’m glad you like it. Croatia is pretty cool and definitely worth the longing.
Fantastic pictures, love this website, thanks!
Thanks. There is plenty more coming, so stick around.
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