Bogensee…. from dictatorship to ruin…

Posted on August 31, 2019 Posted in PhotographyTagged Berlin, Brandenburg, DDR, Dictatorship, Elmar, FDJ, Germany, Goebbels, History, Leica, Monochrome, Nazi, Rühmann, Reunification, Soviet, Stalin, Summilux, UFA, Wandlitz, WendeLeave a comment

Quoting Wikipedia:

“Bogensee is a small lake near Wandlitz in the German state of Brandenburg, located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of the Berlin city limits.

Bogensee is known for the nearby former summer retreat of Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels, located approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) northwest of the shore. The premises were dedicated to Goebbels by the Berlin city administration on the occasion of his 39th birthday in 1936; he had an extended country home erected at the site until 1939, including a private cinema, a bunker, and adjacent SS barracks. Co-financed by the UFA film company, the building became a popular venue for movie actors like Zarah Leander, Emil Jannings, or Heinz Rühmann.

Temporarily seized by the Soviet Military Administration after World War II, the former country house was included into the newly established academy of the East German Free German Youth (FDJ) association. A wide building complex was erected from 1951 onwards, according to plans designed by Hermann Henselmann in a Stalinist style. Since German reunification in 1990, most of the buildings have been empty. As of 2018, the property had remained unoccupied for two decades.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogensee

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogensee

Leica M9M; Summilux 50mm; Summieren 35mm; Elmar 21mm;

It’s been a while….

Posted on February 15, 2017February 16, 2017 Posted in PhotographyTagged Analog, Analogue, Autumn, Beauty, Belrin, Business, City, Family, Film, Food, Fun, Germany, Herbst, History, Kodak, Leisure, Nature, Park, Portra, Potsdam, Rolleiflex, Sanssouci, Season, Travel, ZeissLeave a comment

….since I last posted anything. To be honest I’ve been searching (as ever) for a little inspiration for a new project lasting 53 weeks and I can’t seem to settle on that “one” subject. It’s not for the lack of ideas it’s just that that simply I don’t want to confine myself to one type of motive or one medium or one of whatever…..

Therefore the next few posts will be of things that I’ve been shooting over the past three months. While you read these I’ll be racking my brains for that new “one” subject…..

This is late autumn in Sanssouci….

Rolleiflex 3.5F; Carl Zeiss Oberkochen Planar f3.5 75mm; Kodak Portra 400

Metamorphosis – Teufelsberg (Berlin)

Posted on August 30, 2016August 30, 2016 Posted in PhotographyTagged Allies, Art, Berlin, Berlin Wall, Britain, Cold War, Culture, DDR, Exchange, GDR, Graffiti, History, Iron Curtain, Music, Politics, Rave, Russia, Spy, Subculture, Travel, USA1 Comment

The Teufelsberg is an artificial hill in the middle of Berlin. It is made up of the rubble that was cleared out of the heavily bombed city after the war. It is the highest point in Berlin and lies in the former British sector. The British and the Americans built a listening post on the top so they could intercept messages far into the eastern sectors. After the wall came down the occupying powers withdrew and the numerous investment projects have failed leaving the former listening facility in the hands of artists and musicians. A true metamorphosis!

Leica M9; Summilux 50; Summicron 35; Lightroom & VSCO

Week Six – Fantasia….

Posted on February 10, 2016February 10, 2016 Posted in PhotographyTagged Berlin, Culture, Dwarf, Entertainment, Fantasia, Friedrich, Friedrich Wilhelm II, Garden, History, Kingdom, Landscape, Leica, Music, Pfaueninsel, Photography, pop, Potsdam, Royalty, Travel1 Comment

Nothing is as it seems….

Leica M9; Summilux 50; Summicron 35; Lightroom & NIK

Week 14 – Thomas

Posted on October 13, 2014 Posted in PhotographyTagged Beelitz- Heilstätten, Berlin, Black and White, Derelict, Entertainment, Food, History, Portrait, Travel, WorkLeave a comment

Taken in the men’s sanatorium in Beelitz-Heilstätten.

Fuji X-T1

Fujinon 56mm f1.2

Aperture & NIK

Week 42 – The Hat Factory….

Posted on November 23, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged Architecture, Construction, Expressionism, History, Holocaust, Luckenwalde, persecution, Politics, Prisoner of War, TravelLeave a comment

….built in Luckenwalde by Erich Mendelsohn in 1923.

Fujifilm X100

Fujinon f2 23mm

Aperture and NIK

Week 40 – Kontrollpunkt Dreilinden–Drewitz (Checkpoint Bravo East)….

Posted on November 18, 2013November 18, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged Cold War, Current Affairs, Family, Food, German Democratic Republic, History, JFK, Oppression, Travel, WeatherLeave a comment

….or what’s left of it. There is a museum here now to try to document the pain and the anguish as well as the hope, it lies in the middle of an industrial estate.

Canon 5D

Lensbaby with Sweet 35 (1,3) and Fisheye (2,4)

Aperture and NIK

Week 32 – I woz ere….

Posted on September 19, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged Analog, Derelict, Food, Health, History, Life, Old, Time, Tourism, TravelLeave a comment

…… and “ere” is Beelitz-Heilstätten if you fancy looking it up.

I’ll probably be back in winter with snow and ice ….

Fuji GA 645 PRO

Fujinon 1:4 f=60mm

Fuji Pro 400H (Expired)

Epson Perfection V500

Week 11 – Schleizer Dreieck (Revisited)

Posted on April 11, 2013April 12, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged "Motor Racing", Cars, Culture, Food, History, Photography, Race, Speed, Sport, Travel1 Comment

Continuing on the subject of cars …. Germany’s oldest natural (or temporary) race track.

The Schleizer Dreieck (Triangle) has featured in my blog before, back in May 2011 (Week-19 – The Schleizer Triangle), this time on film, from a slightly different perspective and a month earlier in the year.

Picture 1:

Fuji GA 645 PRO

Fujinon 1:4 f=60mm

Fuji Pro 400H

Epson Perfection V500

Pictures 2, 3 and 4

Zenza Bronica ETRS

Zenzanon f1:2.8 75mm

Fuji Pro 400H

Epson Perfection V500

….. and finally I leave you with this, the last of its kind (for the next six months at least) ….. promise 😉

Week 4 – Schloss Glienicke

Posted on February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged Blogging, Camera, Children, Creative, Entertainment, Family, History, Life, News, Travel1 Comment

Took a stroll with the “Big Man” on the hunt for photo opportunities. Me with my Bronica and him with his Canon EOS 1000fn which we got from a flea market for just a few Euros.

I spent a while at the beginning of the year thinking of a new subject for another 53 weeks of blogging and came to the conclusion that I was perhaps better off leaving it open to give me a little more freedom. Well to be honest, I think I need a subject even if it’s only loosely defined and I also need the pressure of having to take a photo on a weekly basis. So starting next week this blog will once again have a subject and a time frame.

Zenza Bronica ETRS

Zenzanon f1:2.8 75mm

Fuji PRO 400H

Epson Perfection V500

Week 52 – The Pyramid

Posted on January 15, 2013 Posted in PhotographyTagged Cecilienhof, Cold, Culture, History, Life, Love, Park, Pyramid, Travel, Winter3 Comments

It’s not quite over yet…. but it will be soon.

Round three? To be honest I’m not really sure. If I do do it, then it will definitely be in a different manner.
What do you think? Should I stay or should I go?

Zenza Bronica ETRS

Zenzanon 75mm f 2.8

Kodak Portra 400

Epson Perfection V500

Week 47- St. George

Posted on December 16, 2012December 16, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Art, Christmas, Dragon, England, Family, History, Life, News, Saint, TravelLeave a comment

Fancy going out in Berlin of an evening and meeting up the English patron saint St. George!

Week 43 – The Eleventh Hour….

Posted on November 12, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Armistice, Family, History, News, Past, Peace, Pride, Remembrance, Soldier, TravelLeave a comment

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Taken from “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon

11th November 2012 Südwestfriedhof

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

(Stahnsdorf near Berlin)

Week 36 – Time flies …. 1992 to 2012

Posted on September 26, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Age, Colleague, Entertainment, Family, History, Life, Money, News, Routine, WorkLeave a comment

These two have been in the company for twenty years…..

Week 33 – Good Morning, Morning ….

Posted on September 4, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Culture, Entertainment, Family, History, Humour, Life, Mike Harding, Music, Student, TravelLeave a comment

This somehow reminds me of a song I used to listen to when I was a kid.

Mike Harding wrote
“I was a penniless student wandering round Manchester, staying up all night in all-night cafes making a cup of coffee last for ever and arguing about life and politics through the night. This song is about the morning after when the sun came shouting into the city and, faintly delirious and high on the pure wonder of being alive, I wandered round watching the town waking up. The song was written down in 1975 but was really written in those mad days of testosterone and Holts’ Bitter – 1960 -1963.”

Been there, seen it and done it, even if it was 30 years later…….

Bomber’s Moon of which Good Morning Morning was one of the tracks, was released in 1984

Home

Week 32 – The Belvedere ….. again

Posted on August 28, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Culture, Health, History, Humour, Life, Summer, Sun, Time, Tourist, Travel3 Comments

I’m being very lenient with myself this week, not only am I using the British definition of a week (i.e. Sunday to Saturday, instead of the German Monday to Sunday), but I’m also posting something for the second time (see week 1) albeit from a very different angle.

Week 31 – Schlössernacht….

Posted on August 20, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Art, Entertainment, Family, History, Life, Music, Neues Palais, News, Tourist, TravelLeave a comment

or even the night of the palaces. This is an annual “cultural feast” during which the Sanssouci Park opens its gates to visitors well into the night. The palaces are ablaze with light and classical music resounds from every corner, this is rounded off with a fantastic firework display at midnight.

We managed to sneak on the eve of the occasion while all was quiet for a quick nosey.

Week 30 – Royal Enfield in the Royal City of Potsdam

Posted on August 13, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Bike, Culture, Family, Friends, History, Home, Life, Retro, Technology, TravelLeave a comment

My mate’s just got a new bike……

Week 24 – The Sidecar (BMW R 75)

Posted on July 2, 2012July 3, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Army, History, Motorbike, Motorcycle, Politics, Society, Transport, Travel, War2 Comments

You don’t see many of these on the roads today…..

I was a little hasty on the trigger and published this week’s post before I had actually written anything. This BMW R 75 was built in 1941 and most probably served the Luftwaffe during this period. It is a rarity but the lucky owner recently managed to purchase the previous model as well. It’s a very large bike but incredibly quiet.

Good luck with the collection!

P.S. So this week’s lesson is never confuse “Save” and “publish” on WordPress ……

Week 17 – Lenin and the Little People

Posted on May 14, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Children, Family, History, Life, Photo, Politics, religion, Russians, Spring, Travel3 Comments

I thought I’d continue the Soviet theme for another week. This is more or less all that remains of the former Red Army base, which after being cleared of all munitions is now a public park.

Week 16 – Stalin’s Legacy

Posted on May 7, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Education, Family, History, Life, Politics, religion, Revolution, Tower, Travel, WarLeave a comment

It was rather fitting that I should find myself in this part of Berlin on this day, May the 1st of course being international labour day.

It was here on the 17th of June 1953 that the workers of the newly formed GDR started their uprising against the fledgling socialist regime, primarily due to the increase of work quotas. The Soviets were called in and the “counter-revolution” was quashed with an official loss of 125 lives. From then on this monumental socialist boulevard was used for parades and celebrations in honour of the “great” regime. The Stalin Allee was later renamed the Karl-Marx-Allee when it wasn’t quite so fashionable to be associated with that particular dictator.

The Tower in the background is the East-Berliner “Fernsehturm” another piece of awe-inspiring socialist architecture.

Week 13 – Musée du Louvre

Posted on April 16, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Family, Food, France, History, Life, Museum, National, Paris, Places, TravelLeave a comment

I’m not sure the lady painting would have been overly thrilled at having her picture taken (judging by the little card on the painting), but I saw this and thought it was just the perfect double for this week. The biggest challenge was trying to take it without having 15 tourists in the shot at the same time!

Paris was great and we’ll be back, probably all four of us next time.

Week 1 – Belvedere Palace

Posted on January 23, 2012 Posted in PhotographyTagged Belvedere, Culture, Expat, Family, History, New Project, Palace, Photo, Potsdam, Winter46 Comments

Well here we go again, another 53 weeks lie ahead of us.

If anything this next period will be more difficult than the first, if only because doing something again is often more difficult than setting out to do something the first time.

They say you should start as you mean to go on, so at the last minute on the Sunday afternoon (before the light faded), I walked up to the Belvedere Palace to shoot this.

I do hope you like it!

Week 19 – The Schleizer Triangle

Posted on May 16, 2011May 16, 2011 Posted in PhotographyTagged 17-50mm, 50mm, 85mm, Aperture, Bank, Bench, Canon, Chair, Expat, Fahrer, Family, Foto, Fotos, Germany, Geschichte, History, Hours, Humor, Humour, Images, Minuten, Minutes, Monate, Months, Motorbike, Motorcycle, Motorrad, Photo, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Project, Race, Rennen, Rider, Schleiz, Schleizer Dreieck, Seat, Seconds, Sekunden, Sessel, Sitz, Spring, Stunden, Tamron, Time, Triangle, Weeks, Wife, Years3 Comments

Schleiz’s claim to fame is one of the oldest “natural” race tracks in Germany.

The first ever race took place on the 10^th of June 1923, with the aim being to race as far as possible and as quickly as possible on five litres of fuel. The winner of the car race was Mr. Huldreich Heußer with a total distance of 87.3 km and an average of 41.4 km/h (which quite incidentally is similar to what I get out of my Dutch “sit up and beg” style bicycle when going downhill fully laden). Mr. Horst Raebel on his motorcycle managed six laps with an average speed of 64.2 km/h (which is something to aim for on that bicycle).

I’ve really no idea who won this particular race, but today the top speeds average 160 km/h per lap……I think I’ll get my coat!

f10 1/250 ISO 200 @35mm Pol. Filter

Facing Reality – Faces on Film

Tag: History

Bogensee…. from dictatorship to ruin…

It’s been a while….

Metamorphosis – Teufelsberg (Berlin)

Week Six – Fantasia….