This post is part of a small journey — not just through places, but through one actual roll of film.
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Earlier, I shared the first part of that roll: a quiet February day in Kostelec nad Černými lesy. Then the same 36-exposure Fomapan roll came with me to Karlovy Vary, tucked into my camera, slowly filling with scenes.
I love when one physical strip of film becomes a tiny travel diary.
Kostelec → Karlovy Vary → (more still to come) — all layered next to each other inside one cartridge.
This is the middle chapter of that roll.
Dvořákovy sady and Sadová kolonáda in One Frame
The roll begins in a quiet way here: a single frame that somehow holds two small monuments of the town — the graceful female statue sitting in the pond of Dvořákovy sady, and, farther back in the composition, the Hygieia statue from the Sadová kolonáda. I loved that both found a place in the same exposure; they feel like a visual echo, one statue listening to the other across water.
Film compresses perspective in a way that made the pair feel like a conversation. When I developed the negatives and placed this frame next to the black-and-white Kostelec shots, the continuity of the roll became physically visible: two towns, two moods, one strip of film.
Looking Down the Curve of the Teplá
A little further along the strip, you can see where we paused to admire the curve of the river. The Teplá slides quietly through the center of Karlovy Vary, carrying reflections of façades and passing clouds.
On film, the colors mellow into each other — creamy walls, muted greens, winter blues. Nothing is sharp or demanding. It feels like watching a memory develop rather than a photograph.
The Mill Colonnade
The final Karlovy Vary frame on this roll captures the Mill Colonnade — one of the town’s most characteristic arcades. The long arcade, its repeating arches, and the rhythm of columns make it feel like a whispered promenade. On film, the structure’s gentle repetition becomes a pattern of light and shadow, a place where people pause to sip thermal water from porcelain cups.
What a Single Roll Can Hold
When I picked up the developed negatives, I could literally trace my days with my finger — frame by frame:
- Kostelec’s quiet corners
- Karlovy Vary’s statues, river curves, and colonnades
- and the shots still to come from Prague…
It felt like reading a tiny visual diary, one that forces you to move slowly because film only advances when you tell it to.
This is what I love about analog photography — it gathers places together that would never meet otherwise. They sit side by side simply because you visited them with the same camera, on the same patient roll of 36 exposures.
And soon I’ll share the final chapter: the remaining frames from Holešovická tržnice and Stromovka in Prague — the ending of this little journey on film.
In Case You Missed the First Chapter
This post is the middle of a three-part film story:
- Kostelec nad Černými lesy on Film: Nostalgia in Black and White — the beginning of the roll
- Karlovy Vary on Film — this post, the middle of the roll
- Prague on Film (coming soon) — the final frames
Sometimes all you need is one camera, 36 shots, and a few places to wander.
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