emulsion on silver gelatin
The current situation allows me to get around to all the things I’ve been wanting to do for ages…… so here’s the first post in the Corona crisis.
Here are a few shots taken at the Luftwaffen museum Berlin which was formerly RAF Gatow until German reunification. There are lots of different aircraft and a lot of military equipment on view from both sides of the iron curtain.
Leica M9M; Leica M9-P; Summilux 50; Summicron 35; Elmar 21; VSCO
As the temperatures soar above 30°C, I catch up with those winter pictures…. a (mild) winter walk in January.
Leica M9M; Summicron 35mm; Summilux 50mm; VSCO; Lightroom
One of the children’s favourite actresses during a reading in Sanssouci…….
Leica M9; Summilux 50; VSCO
Hot lady….
Leica M9; Summilux 50; VSCO
in the Winter….
Leica M9; Summilux 50; VSCO
This was taken with the old Rolleiflex and a very particular high definition film from ADOX with 12 ISO.
Rolleiflex 3.5f; Planar 75mm f3.5; ADOX Film and Kodak Portra 400
….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
Neues Palais during the early evening sunset…..
Leica M9; Summicron 35mm; Lightroom
no snow but still pretty cold…
Fujifilm X-T1; Fujinon 10-24mm f4; Lightroom
Nothing is as it seems….
Leica M9; Summilux 50; Summicron 35; Lightroom & NIK
This is Pepe!
If you ever happen to fancy a drink in Potsdam, his place is the best in town….
P.S. The clue is on the t-shirt….
Rolleiflex 3.5 F (Mark III / IV)
Carl Zeiss Planar 3.5f
Kodak Portra 400
Epson V500
…. and practicing. I’ve been wanting one of these for a long time, and when the opportunity arose I snapped it up. The Lensbaby “Edge 80” certainly is very different from anything I’ve ever used before and it should help my diminished creativity for the coming 53 weeks….. (There’s a hint in there somewhere)
Anyway I’d better get practicing…..
Canon 5D Lensbaby Composer Pro with Edge 80 Aperture and NIK
I was going to do this week on derelict buildings and then I scanned these two and all that changed…..
P.S. As you see I still don’t seem to have got over my “analogue” phase just yet, and to be honest there’s no end in sight!
Zenza Bronica ETRS Zenzanon f1:3.5 150mm Kodak Portra 400 Epson Perfection V500
She’s aged very well, but I think the pigeons have seen to him.
Taken in some hidden part of the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam with a Canon EOS 30V and my trusty Canon 24-105 f4 on Kodak TMAX 400 136.
The Nauener Tor in Potsdam was completed in 1755. It is believed to be based on Inveraray castle and Blenheim palace. Sometimes you’re closer to home than you think….
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!
Once again it’s getting difficult to find anyone on a bench.
f/8 1/200 ISO 400 @50mm
This is the man ….. always good for a surprise!
(even if in this case it just happened to be his wife’s wooly hat!)
f/4 1/1000 ISO 200 @176mm
This is a Volvo PV544 parked in front of the offices at the university. It is here that I enrolled during my “year abroad” from my home university in early October 1992.
I wasn’t to know at the time that I would still be playing football on the fields behind nearly twenty years later, albeit with my son.
f/8 1/200 ISO 800 @149mm
….. not really that long because they live around the corner.
Thanks to Corinna and Wolfram.
f/5 1/30 ISO 500 @28 mm
As autumn rapidly approaches, every warm sunny day is welcome.
This was shot from the Nikolaikirche overlooking the old Town Hall to the high-rise blocks of flats in the distant Babelsberg Zentrum Ost.
Edit: Thanks Pete for correcting me! I always thought the other areas were sub-suburbs of Babelsberg.
f/16 1/40 ISO 200 @ 30mm
This is Tom, he is the honorary uncle to my children and the best friend a man could have.
For those in doubt the bench (bank or whatever you want to call it) is in the background.
f/5.6 1/200 ISO 200 @85mm
This was shot during a rainy Sunday stroll through Sanssouci…..
f/4 1/125 ISO 400 @30mm
These are the last two taken on holiday.
The first one shows the lovely fishing village of Polperro which was just down the road from Looe (Cornwall) where we spent the second week of our England and Wales round-trip.
The second picture was shot on the way back to Harwich at Stonehenge.
f/14 1/125 ISO 400 @17mm
f/14 1/250 ISO 400 @30mm Pol. Filter
This was taken in Rhosneigr (Anglesey) on the last evening of our holiday in Wales.
Thanks once again for everything!
f/25 1/250 ISO 400 @17mm (Two remotely triggered strobes)
and this one is a very special example…… meet the aptly named Bonny.
She is a very obedient, patient and easy going girl, quite prepared to have her pictures taken in the rain sitting next to her favourite treat without complaint.
A real low maintenance girl……..
f/4 1/80 ISO 100 @30mm
After a short weekend break in the south of the country, this week’s post is centred around the river Saale.
As we have now reached halfway on the photographic journey through the year 2011, this week’s entry is interactive. All those entering the poll (see below) have the chance to become the lucky winner of a once in a lifetime prize.
So here goes:
The first two were taken directly on the banks of the Saale River in Hirschberg (Thuringia). This Bench is the longest to be cut from one log (according to the Guinness Book of Records), and seats approximately 97 people depending on which nationality you are.
f/7.1 1/250 ISO 400 @17mm
f/5 1/500 ISO 400 @34mm
The third picture was shot in Burgk (Thüringen) and shows the new tower (42 metres) with views over the river Saale, the Castle and the surrounding landscapes.
f/8 1/500 ISO 200 Pol. Filter @17mm
Please cast your vote:
The Economist was recently titled “The man who screwed an entire country” accompanied by a picture of Silvio Berlusconi. In Potsdam it isn’t a single man but more a political morass of people who were on the payroll of the regime before the fall of the wall. One of the latest victims has been the local public services company which hosts the annual music festival in Potsdam. This year’s roll call included Simple Minds, Robin Gibb and Kim Wilde.
The first shot was taken as a candid during Kim Wilde’s “Cambodia”. My covert skills obviously leave a lot to be desired as my subjects quickly spotted my intentions. The second shot was taken with their kind permission.
My thanks go to these unknown siblings on a bench.
f/4 1/25 ISO 800 @50mm
f/5 1/8 ISO 1250 @30mm
This is Oma (Grandma) in the Stadtpark in the beautiful city of Hamburg.
She says “the best years were my thirties”,
My reply “unfortunately mine are all but gone!”
“You’ve still got your forties to come!”
That’s all very well but if the thirties were the best years, where do we go from here? They say the old thirties are the new fifties. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
P.S. she’ll be ninety-three this year so she ought to know (she’ll kill me if she reads this).
f5.6 1/100 ISO 400 @44mm
as above ………
f8 1/50 ISO 800 @50mm
This was taken early in the morning whilst on my way to work on that “sit up and beg” style Dutch bike of mine that I have mentioned previously. The view is from the Havelstrasse across to the Hans Otto theatre in Potsdam.
I’ve finally gone full frame, albeit analogue. This was shot with a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 (effectively a Meyer Oreston 50mm f1.8) lens on a Praktica MTL3 camera which were last produced around 1984. The MTL3 is completely manual with the only electronics being an inbuilt TTL light meter. It is pure East German precision engineering even if the technology used is over five decades old.
I’m really enjoying shooting film at the moment so be prepared for more in the coming weeks. This shot is OOC as they say, meaning straight out of the camera with no digital development whatsoever.
If I remember rightly:
f11 1/500 Ilford HP5 (ISO 400) @50mm
This is the avenue that runs between the Orangery and the Dragonhouse (Belvedere) in Sanssouci.
I seem to have suffered a creative block this week, considering my L.O.F.T. it’s astonishing that I can be susceptible to such a thing.
f10 1/125 ISO 100 @30mm
…… on a sunny May afternoon in Neuruppin (1923).
f4 1/800 ISO 200 @19mm
….. or in German the “Lustgarten” which somehow has a more appealing ring to it ……..
f14 1/200 ISO 200 @30mm
have a, well it’s not a KitKat that’s for sure but I think she’s enjoying it anyway.
It’s been a long time coming but spring has well and truly arrived in the capital.
f5.6 1/50 ISO 200 @25 mm
This is Uta…… and Uta, with Uta in the background, Uta in front of Uta, beside them is Uta, by the side of her is Uta, with Uta and Uta in the distance. (From left to right).
Thanks to erm ….. that’s right Uta.
f 10 1/250 ISO 200 @17mm
It’s 21 years ago this Spring since I sat my A-levels and these ladies 20 years my junior will be studying hard as I write to make sure they get the grade for Uni. I certainly don’t envy them in the slightest.
Without wanting to sound like the pompous “old git” that I really am, I’d like to say to them “make the most of it all and above all enjoy it!”, I know I did (and do).
The picture below gives an idea how the scene my have looked in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s.
My special thanks go to:
The Music Class of 2011 at the Goethe Gymnasium Nauen, Germany
They are: Nora, Anika, Carolin, Susi, Anne, Deborah, Sophia, Fine, Anne, Jenny, Isabell, Alena, Kristina, Miriam, Franzi and Antje.
f5 1/25 ISO 320 @19mm (for both shots)
And lots of them!
Apparently the official translation is “Ale-Bench” although I’ve never heard of this expression and I find the literal translation of “Bierbank” somehow more pleasing, even if it isn’t correct.
Sunday evening and the very last minute, with the inspiration once again coming from elsewhere (the usual source). All rather hurried in every respect as well, sorry for that and I hope you like it anyway.
f 8 1/5 ISO 200 -1 ev 26mm
Thanks to Antje for this week’s entry, I was definitely in need of some inspiration for one reason or another.
Spring hasn’t quite made it yet, even if the clocks have gone forward this last weekend. It is however “in the air” as they say.
This was taken at Katharinenholz in Bornim (Potsdam)
f10 1/160 ISO 400 30mm
Here we are back in not so exotic territories but home nonetheless.
Many thanks to Tom for this week’s suggestion and of course to the unknown cyclist who rounded off the picture nicely. It was taken from Park Babelsberg overlooking the Havel River to the city of Potsdam.
Thanks also, to those readers who pointed out that I have been living abroad for too long and that my blog should be named “53 Weeks on a bench” rather than “53 weeks on a bank”. Although both are of questionable heritage with regard to the English language and everything else for that matter, (one being a Geordie and the other a Yorkshireman), I will none the less adapt my “Germisch” or “Dinglisch” title to the correct “Bench”.
It would have been kind if someone would have let me know a little earlier, to which my better half will undoubtedly say “I told you so!” and she is German…… nuff said!
f1.4 1/8000 ISO 200 @30mm
I finally found a bank with someone on it.
This is Pete, he’s the gentlest soul you’ll ever meet.
f5 1/160 ISO 100 19 mm
It’s nearly twenty years ago since I first heard this song with a very good friend of mine travelling to his home in a small German town on the Polish border. Being six months into my year abroad at the time, it reminded me very much of my own home in the North West of England.
Today I see the song in a slightly different light…. guilty as charged? I don’t really think so, this isn’t the land of gold and poison, neither do the palm trees grow here naturally. It is nevertheless a very different place from “that” town, which conversely does not mean that I don’t look frequently behind me, to “my” valley of green and grey.
For those interested:
Photographically speaking I’m not really sure I like this weeks entry (colour key is out and my processing skills need to be honed), but it does partially summarise this place where I live today, particularly, and if not only, at this time of year.
f10 1/40 ISO 400 17mm
I think you may have to get used to a number of these banks being within the boundaries of the city of Potsdam, as well as being taken at the last possible moment during the week.
The more observant of you will have noticed that this was taken on a Sunday, hence it was taken on the first day of the new week. This is correct, unless you live in Germany, where the first day of the week is a Monday. Although I always mutter that this custom is incorrect and probably goes against some international (most probably European Union) law, it certainly worked to my advantage this week.
To those readers used to my rants on this subject and the mixing up of commas and full stops in the German numerical system I have this to say:
“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern.” Konrad Adenauer (First German Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany)
This roughly translates as:
“Who cares what twaddle I have spoken in the past” A rather novel admittance for a politician I think.
That does not go to say that I will in future condone either of the above errors.
The image was taken on my Sunday “Bread-Roll-Run” with the kids, whilst their mother idled, well deserved I might add, in her warm and cosy bed.
We’ve had mild weather with rain over the past few days, which has brought the remnants of the New Year’s celebrations to the surface as well as preserving patches of dirty snow.
A picture fitting for the time of year I think.
“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.” – David Bailey – In “Face,” (London), Dec 1984.
It is with this in mind that we set off on our 53 week photographic journey. There are few things more ordinary than a bank, so in the hope that not all the images presented are just ordinary, let’s get started.
It was one of the those wonderful Winter afternoons that you get when the easterly winds blow across the North German plains making the air dry, crisp and very cold. We were out with the kids to see how the wild bison, horses and reindeer fared in the conditions. As the winter sun started to set I came across this makeshift bench.
It was my first bank of the year.
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