Copenhagen Street Photography Walk & Locations

It’s like someone has set the contrast to high in Copenhagen.

I travelled to the beautiful Danish capital for my 26th birthday and loved it. Copenhagen is picturesque and every which way you turn is a photo opportunity spot and location. There’s really no need to tweak the colours when editing photos of Copenhagen as the colours pop in real life.

Just look at Nyhavn and its bold, vibrant buildings. #nofilter

Nyhavn’s buildings have more colours than a Dulux colour chart.

How does anyone get their boat out? There are so many parked!

I also love that each building seems to be a different style and height from the last. This is one of my favourite photos of Copenhagen, it just looks like the boat is suspended in mid air.

Normally I would have to stand and wait until flags waved fully before photographing them at the right moment, but I had no such problem in Copenhagen as it was always windy!

On Toldbodgade bridge, they had what I think are traffic lights for the boats.

You know I can’t resist photographing love locks at the first sight of them. Here are some love locks on Pont des Arts and Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris and love locks in London.

While I could have spent all four day taking pictures of Nyhavn, I just about managed to tear myself away and photograph other locations in Copenhagen.

The Round Tower provided several great photo spots, other than the view from the top, I wasn’t expecting. This is the ramp which spirals all the way up to the top. This is only one of two photos of Copenhagen I’ve turned black and white. I really wanted to emphasis the detail of the curves of the wall and ceiling, the brick floor and the light shinning through the first window creating a silhouette on the floor.

I’ve tried to edit the colours in this picture as much as possible whilst keeping it looking natural. I was searching for a photo opportunity and came across this love inscription on the window serendipitously. And while I’m against defacing landmarks, I can’t help but think this love lock like message is sweet. No matter the angle I photographed at, I couldn’t have all of the message visible. So I sacrificed and focused on having the love heart visible in front of the black metal bar.

And I still have a weird obsession with viewfinders ever since photographing my first in Lake Como, followed by Paris and Brighton.

And the view from the top isn’t bad either!

Just as I was walking down the stairs, I noticed a doorway on the left. It leads up to the telescope (The Round Tower is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe). But I noticed this circular window which was perfect for creating a natural frame of the view from the top of the Round Tower. I’ve added a slight retro filter to emphasis the contrast of the dark room and the lightness outside.

Copenhagen has a few towers which offer aerial views of the city. I tried to visit the Church of Our Saviour in Christianshavn twice on separate days, but the tower was shut both times! The first time it was closed for a wedding or a funeral, I can’t remember which, and the second was due to bad weather. I’ve read the tower of the Church of Our Saviour provides the best view over Copenhagen unfortunately out of all the towers. I love the contrast between black and gold, such a bold choice of colours. The gold really highlights the spiral which reminds me of a helter skelter ride – just me? And right at the top is Our Saviour, looking over and protecting the city.

‘Ensrettet’ is Danish for one-way if you’re interested. Not sure why this caught my attention, I think it’s the pealing stickers.

I was also stopped in my tracks when walking down Knippelsbro bridge towards Torvegade and saw this sticker on the back of a street sign. I thought it was part of a larger campaign or street artist’s work, but I couldn’t find anything more unfortunately. I thought it was a nice message.

Also on Knippelsbro bridge, Copenhagen had these huge control towers on each side. I love the wear and fade of the green paint to reveal the metal underneath. At first glance, I thought they were no longer used, but I looked through the window and it looks like people still work in them.

You can really see the fading of the green paint here. This worn look plus the style of the door could fool you into thinking it was the entrance to climb aboard a submarine or something.

Looking at my photos, you wouldn’t have guessed it rained or was overcast for a large majority would you! There were times when the sun shone bright and the clouds parted, like this shot at the top of Knippelsbro bridge looking towards Børsgade and the Børsen building. I’m very pleased to have caught the cyclist bang in the middle of the frame first time!

Copenhagen’s streets are full of these large wooden doors which you can’t help but peer into. Most showed nothing interesting or worth photographing. But I did like this doorway with it’s dark corridor which leads to what looks like a bright sunny courtyard complete with a vibrant blue bench in the centre of the frame. Like a light at the end of the tunnel.

I thought it was only London who had guards who wore those big fluffy hats but it looks like Copenhagen have their own at Amalienborg Royal Palace. There are two guards in the picture by the way, but they walk in sync in front of the building. Always.

The red guard’s boxes have heart shapes in them which I thought was cute. I found this one at Kastellet which had a cut at the top of the heart which made it unique.

The zoo isn’t just for kids you know. My visit to Copenhagen Zoo was one of my favourite things to do in the city. While I took photos of many different animals, this close up shot through the fence of the flamingoes is my favourite. The caption should read, ‘You, looking at me?’. The flamingoes are such a wonderful colour too.

After my trip to Copenhagen Zoo I walked across to Søndermarken Park. I love symmetry so I had to take this photo of a never ending line of trees.

Amager Strandpark wasn’t on my itinerary, but I was coming to the end of my trip and I had pretty much seen everything in Copenhagen there was to see. I’m glad I did visit Amager Beach at night with a full moon in view and the sky had a violet tint – I haven’t edited any of photos of Amager Beach.

Even Øresund Bridge which connects Copenhagen to Malmo is visible in the clear night sky.

There was a small pier which had these lovely lights. If you look closely and scroll the photo up and down you might notice a black mark near the centre of the photo. It’s the teeniest, tiniest spider. I thought my lens was dirty at first.

These must be the only swans (or any water creatures for that matter) that are photogenic. They usually swim away from me whenever I try to take pictures of them!

Speaking of beaches, I took a half day trip to Malmo as I wanted to watch a football match. I didn’t have a lot of time before the match kicked off but I manage to walk to Ribersborgs beach. Along the beach was this pier which led to Ribersborgs Kallbadhus, a cafe/restaurant/open air bath.

I didn’t have time to visit Turning Torso (doesn’t actually turn and you can’t enter as it’s flats) but managed to take a few nice pictures from the beach.

These are just a handful of my favourite and best photos of Copenhagen. I’ll be posting travel guides for Copenhagen and Malmo which will have more photos from my trip!