Photo by Bart McLeroy

 

By Bart McLeroy, Guest contributor to Life In LoFi

Hipstamatic has a running feature on their Facebook page called “Adventures in Hipstaland”. One photographer picks 9 Hipstamatic shots to represent a particular place. Many of the “interesting” places I’ve been or will be visiting soon (Brussels, Hong Kong, London, Washington DC) have already been done, but when planning a trip to Belgium that would include a day in Bruges, I contacted the Hipstamatic team to see if they would be interested in seeing some of my pictures, and they responded positively. Picking 9 Hipstamatic shots out of the 36 or so that I took that day was difficult to say the least, so I’m glad to be able to show more of them here.

My photographic interests can be boiled down to three main categories: churches (interiors & exteriors), other buildings (generally exterior), and things that strike me as funny. This group of pictures hits all three categories. From a small, ornate building straddling one of Bruges’ famous canals to the city hall building to the famous Belfrey of Bruges (you may remember Colin Farrell telling the fat American tourist not to climb up its staircase in ‘In Bruges’), the city had no shortage of interesting buildings. No wonder, considering it is one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval cities.

Its churches were similarly interesting. The Church of Our Lady features ancient christian tombs with accompanying artwork, beautiful effigies, and a white marble sculpture by Michelangelo. However, I found the baptismal font to be one of the most interesting items in the church, perhaps because it seemed so out of place and colorful in a space otherwise filled with black, white, and wood tones. A church building at the edge of the Queen Astrid Park was visually fascinating; surrounded by moss-covered trees and dappled by sunlight filtering through freshly sprouted leaves, you could be forgiven for forgetting that you were in the middle of a bustling tourist destination. But not too bustling – if the narrow, winding, bumpy roads didn’t deter fast drivers, a cute sign reminding them that children walk slowly was sure to.

You can see more of Bart McLeroy’s Adventures in Hipstaland: Bart’s Bruges on the Hipstamatic’s Facebook page.


More Adventures in HipstaLand. Photo by Bart McLeroy

More Adventures in HipstaLand. Photo by Bart McLeroy

More Adventures in HipstaLand. Photo by Bart McLeroy

More Adventures in HipstaLand. Photo by Bart McLeroy

 

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