Window boxes with European style
Simplicity creates a lovely photographic moment with this trio of windows and window boxes bathed in soft light and lovely complementary-coloured reflections. As a photographer, I could not resist the trio of windows with one window left open creating a tension that immediately caught my eye.
Tasteful, minimalist approach adds an unforgettable elegance
When it comes to window boxes, Europeans know how to do it with a flair for simple elegance.
But that should come as no surprise, they’ve been doing window boxes for longer than North America has even existed. Like most things, simplicity wins out everytime.
A two week vacation through Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and Germany helped me really appreciate the Europeans’ approach to gardening in small, urban spaces.
Now, there’s no doubt our river cruise through the Rhine valley from the Netherlands through to Switzerland focussed on some of the most beautiful small tourist towns along the historic river, centered around some of the most beautiful European towns and cities. However, I’ve seen my share of tacky tourist towns, and these were not them.
Geranium simplicity
Three red geraniums are all it took against this grey background and simple sheer curtain to create a memorable image and hi-light this simple window.
It helps that the ancient buildings all seem to have beautiful exteriors to set off the windows, colourful shutters and window boxes. However, even without window boxes, or flowers, they can still be stunning.
Even windows without window boxes and/or flowers have a certain simple elegance about them.
The boxes themselves are most often planted with a single flower or colour in great abundance creating a very full display spilling out against the perfect backdrop.
But, just as many window boxes seemed to take the minimalist approach where a trio of airy plants were used to just add a colourful highlight to an already elegant backdrop.
Simplicity in colour
The combination of the massive display framing the doors and windows of the commercial storefront, complement the smaller, yet elegant second-floor display of window boxes.
Throughout the many walking tours we took, I found myself regularly wandering away from our guides to focus on the incredible window boxes and containers that seemed to line every street, whether it was a main shopping area, or a lovely, quiet side street that begged me to go exploring on my own.
Everywhere I turned during this early September vacation seemed to bring new flower displays – almost all of them stunning in either their simplicity or their bounty of colour.
Even the traditional light standards that lined most of the streets offered tremendous picture potential for anyone who took the time to look up and fully appreciate the details that made these areas special.
Picturesque Light standards
Light standards lined the streets of most towns, and like the window boxes, were planted in a simple yet elegant style.
Rather than try to explain the European approach to window boxes, I think the following photographs will give you a taste of what you can expect if you choose to take a European river cruise. Images also tell the story better than I ever could.
The following are just a few of the window boxes and containers that caught my eye during my time in Europe.
I want to add that flowers play an important role in European life. Nothing illustrates that better than a simple flower shop (below) I stumbled upon on a side street. The attention to detail is outstanding and both the interior and exterior displays are outstanding.
You know that the French take their flowers very seriously when they have guard cats watching over their displays. This scene was caught on one of the side streets in Stasbourgh, France. After I stumbled upon a lovely flower shop and could not resist exploring the photographic possibilities. I never expected to come across this scene, but took the opportunity to capture it as soon as I saw it.
The flower shop that housed the cat was unlike any I have seen elsewhere. Sitting on a quiet corner, the owners took advantage of the outdoor space to create a lovely display of both flowers and fruit for passersby. In the European culture, it is not uncommon to pick up groceries – particularly a baguette – on the way home from work. Adding a lovely bouquet of flowers is also a practise that other cultures might want to pick up on to make their world a little more beautiful. Below, is the flower shop that I could not resist exploring.
How could anyone walk past this glorious display without stopping to at least look at flowers and fruit let alone purchase a small bouquet for the table? Flowers are a much bigger part of the European culture than they tend to be in North America. Sometimes, it’s the smallest things that makes one smile and lights up a room.
Six window boxes done with simplicity reflecting the elegance of the terra cotta coloured window frames. As a photographer, the colourful window boxes certainly caught my eye, but so too did the lovely reflections in the window. Of particular note is the glass in many of the window panes. Many were original panes of glass that created the uneven reflections.
Simply Elegant
Even in areas where there was not a lot of open area for full gardens, flowers were everywhere.
The above is a sampling of the images captured during the two-week period. I hope they give readers new ideas on using simple window boxes in their own gardens, even if those gardens are nothing but a small balcony or courtyard. Be sure to go to my photo gallery featuring many more window box images as well as colourful containers that are just as popular as the window boxes.
You will find the Photo gallery of window boxes and containers here.
The photographic approach
Without getting into the fine details about my photographic approach to capture these images, let me first say that I chose not to use my smart phone, which is more than capable of capturing similar images. For almost all of these images, I used a 20-plus-year-old miniature mirrorless camera made by Pentax. The Pentax Q10 is a tiny mirrorless camera that has its own interchangeable lenses.
All the images were post processed with a combination of Lightroom/Photoshop and/or Luminar Neo.
I will be posting separately about several photographic approaches I took as well as the camera(s) used.
