While we wait

While we still wait for the code from Motel One (I called them earlier today), I must entertain you with two more images from Potsdamer Platz . Both shot with my G2, and the Hologon 16 mm, August 4, 2007. Provia 100F. Please notice, that Hotel Air has confirmed the higher prices for group reservations. I thought that was a mistake. But it was not.

 

 

Doing the Stepdance at Potsdamer Platz

I know that many of you will want a fine selfportrait like this before you leave Berlin next year. If, for nothing else, then to indicate to family and friends, that you really are a high flyer .

Here is the recipe for how to take it. It is not as easy as it looks: On my second day in Berlin I took the U-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz. About 10 minutes from where I stayed in the Kurfürstendamm area. Among other things Potsdamer Platz is a traffic hub, so I came up from the underground and found the high glass buildings, and the mirrors to accompany them.

Interesting, I thought, if I could catch myself in on of these mirrors. So for the next 15 minutes I stepped back and forth on the platz trying to find myself in one of the mirrors. The spot you need to find is a square of some 50 centimeters, and you have to move back and forth and sideways to find that exact spot. All the time you look into the air at the mirror. People startet stopping up to observe this maniac doing the slow quickstep at Potsdamer Platz. Eventually I got it fixed.

 It was not until later the same day, that I looked over the images I had boxed, and it struck me that this was pretty funny image, and that I had to go back later the same day to take some shots with the G, as well. First round of pictures was with the D20.

So I went back, I think, about 6.00 p.m. the same day. What had happened?  I looked for MY position in the platz. I had marked that in my head. The mirrors were gone. Could they have removed the mirrors, were they sunken into the ground? I started counting, since I remembered that there were three mirrors. I had to move around to find them, now located at different places, and not at all with the glass backgrount that I was set to shoot. The stepdancer had returned this time adding some long leg movements of foxtrot. I could not believe what had happened .

It finally occurred to me, that the mirrors actually could move. I found one and could  see, and hear it moving. How clever, I though, to make people spend time at Potsdamer Platz by simply confusing them. The mirrors moved with the sun. No wonder that my former spot did not fit any more. So, eventually, I got some shots with the G and the 90 mm, but with a wholly different background than in this shot. Clear, blue sky, which however, was not what I wanted. One of those shots I posted to the Contax G Pages.

Sigh, I had to come back to Potsdamer Platz the next day as well, about the same time I had been there for the first round of shooting. I wanted this DB (Deutsche Bahn) building in the background. Defenitely.

 So the next morning I was up early. From the hotel I took the 200 meters to Wittenberger Platz, where I could catch the U-Bahn. First U1 and them U2 (from which the rock group took its name, btw. Did you know that?). As I was not quite sure about the time, I had been there for the first shooting the day before, I landed at Potsdamer Platz about 10.00 a.m., and looked for the spot and the mirror. I was 2 hours early. It was then I tried the coffee at the Sony Center. Once more, and it was still good.

Final round of stepdancing coming up. I was half an hour too late this time, but got some shots with this background with the G. Not the same, but slightly like it. That time the stepdancing really took off. Other lost people looking for the same spot in the sky and at the plaza, and there is only one. And  I had it . You have to stand here, I said to a Japanese tourist searching the air for mirrors. You have to stand here. I pointed to the ground. He took the spots, called for his family and the stepdance continued. The Japanese way.

Who said shooting comes easy. At Potsdamer Platz, no way. But you learn to stepdance .

Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz.

There isn’t really any good story to go with this picture, other than it is shot with the G and the Hologon at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Some say, that the very modern Potsdamer Platz is a no go for tourist that come to Berlin, because there isn’t really much Berlin there any more. Well, there is lots of Berlin. Modern Berlin.

I came back 3 times to shoot this fantastic roof and the glass buildings that supports and surrounds it. That then,  should be the story of this picture, and many, many more that I have like it. It’s a perfect place if you want to play around with you wide angle lenses. Next time, I’ll be back nighttime as well. That’s for sure. And I’ll bring a tripod. That had to stay at the hotel this time. My camera bag already strained my back with 7.5 kilo (3 cameras and 5 lenses).

The coffee, and the brunch there are excellent as well .

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention: If you want to stay at The Ritz-Carlton, that is on Potsdamer Platz as well. Go check the prices . If you choose the Suite With 1 King Bed, that is Euro 1775.00 a night. The Internet is free.

Jewish Memorial

I was eager to see the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” in Berlin, that I had heard so much about. This is controversial  site opened some years ago.

I made a deal with the memorial people to open up the Memorial for me June 6,  2007. And I came, but there was nothing to open up. The memoral is situated alongside the strasse, that takes you from Potsdamer Pladz to Brandenburger Tor -  a strip of some 2 km at most. I went there a couple of times. 

This is an open memorial. You go directly in from the street. I had seen shots of it before, and as I thought it would be raining when I was in Berlin, I had envisioned a person with a red umbrella breaking the colours and the forms of the grey, some 2,700 memory stones, at the memorial.

But it was not raining, and there were no umbrellas. But there was red .  I caught this lady in a split of a second, and then she was gone. I came back the next day to try to repeat the shot with the G and the 90 mm lens, but she was still gone. (Just for the record: I brougth the G the first day as well, but it was in my bag. No time to get it ready for this shot).

 Shot with Canon D20.

Stumpe at Newton’s

When in Berlin, I met with photographer Jurgen Stumpe at Newton Bar. This is a posh bar in the city not far from Unter den Linden. Go there and have a look, when you are in Berlin. You will pass this bar anyway, on your way to Gendarmenmarkt, which is one of the most beautiful and relaxed places in Berlin. It is a must.  The bar is about 15 meters away, in Charlottenstrasse.

The bar opened in 2004 after the death of Helmut Newton. He died in a car crash in Los Angeles. Apart from the name, and some Newton pictures on the walls, the bar has not much to do with Helmut Newton. But it is a nice bar.

Jurgen Stumpe, took me on a sightseeing trip, in his car, along the Spree and in the inner city, and we ended up doing a night job close to Berlin Zoo. He did she night shooting with a small Sony and a large tripod, and I looked after his car.

Juergen Stumpe is one of the top free lance photographerin Berlin, and a very nice and helpful person. It was he, who pointed us to the best areas to shoot in Berlin. Go see some of his images here.

This photo is shot with a Canon D20. I hope I am forgiven .

Jan Brouckaert: Blog Gallery.

Jan Brouckaert is a long time member of The Contax G Pages. He lives in Brüssel, Belgium. These pictures are from the Normandy coast in France.

Jan has held several exhibitions in his homeland. He specialized in b&w landscapes.

 

         

Mouse Over or Click images for larger view. More galleries.

Copyright 2007: Jan Brouchaert. All rights reserved.

New Call for Pictures

All

Seems that the first idea of how to get pictures to this blog did not work (I haven’t had a single).  So, I have made it much more easy.

If you intend to go to Berlin, then pick 5 of your very best pictures and send them to me to me off blog, and I’ll load them. I’ll make a 5 picture mini gallery for each participant, based on the model of my TEST Gallery.

Yesterday and the day before, I approached Fujifilm and several other parties in Germany for sponsorships, so people in Germany now visit the blog to see pictures. We had 17 google translations of the of entire blog yesterday. From English to German.

Please be aware, that the blog has a limited server capacity, so don’t send images more than 600 pixels wide or high. 

The post with your images in it will have the following title: “Your Name: Blog Gallery” and will be tagged with the following tags: your name, image, gallery, blog gallery.

There will be a copyright notice in your name, as well.

Good luck with it.

Best wishes

Knut

 Pls. note that the old post on submission on pictures has been deleted, not to make confusion.

Knut Skjærven: Blog Gallery (TESTING)

These are the first images loaded to the blog.  

I am testing how this will work and how I can “tag” images to quickly find them again. I am also testing how much space these images takes on the server. It seems to be some 4% of total free server capacity. And that should, in fact, be ok.

Please, let me know it this is an ok way to display personal galleries - on the blog. Let me know what you think . And how this works.

Click images for larger view.

Many thanks.

         

Copyright 2000 - 2007: Knut Skjærven. All images have originally been posted to The Contax G Pages.