Friday: In the hunt for motives for the assignment for the next class I went to the Tegeler Hafenfest.

Although that sort of thing is not really my scene, I enjoyed the afternoon, and since the atmosphere as well as the weather, and being right next to the large lake, were so nice, I would have liked to stay longer.

Instead, I wasted the loveliest evening so far this year stuck indoors in the first part of what I thought was a street photography course (silly me to think that just because those two words – “street photography” are in the course title ………. pfff) but turned out to be three hours and 15 minutes of theory for complete beginners. There are Youtube tutorials that convey that information in a more professional manner and in shorter time. I should have known. When it comes to photography course, VHS excels in that kind of thing. I am starting to realise that the only photography teacher really worth looking for in their catalogue is Johannes Rigal.

The upside is that I feel I have been gifted a lot of free time the next three days since the field trips to “exceptional places and their people, beside the typical touristic sites”, as it says in the description, we were informed this evening are RAW Gelände and Park am Gleisdreieck (!!!). Give. Me. A. Break.

Back to the photos of the day. I would not be me if I did not take any opportunity for some “nature” photographs while in the area (when I say “nature” I mean the manmade canal around the corner from Tegel Hafen. The Grebe couple is still nesting, but a new feature were four dead fish floating on the surface, one in the canal and three in the lake close to the shore. What is that about?

Triptych 1:

Triptych 2: Berlin’s love affair with those idiotic balloons which invariably end up in a treetop or a waterway and never really go away:

And a final triptych from this day:

Saturday: Tierpark (Europe’s largest landscape zoo and my favourite zoo ever). Took quite a lot of photos, but none that I can use for the course:

And then, a triptych after all, with the help of an ICM photo from the archive:

Sunday: Still doing miserably as far as the course is concerned. Went on an early morning walk (to beat the 32C forecast for later) to Landwehrkanal and Urbanhafen. Did take some photos, however, none that I can use for the course.

There is a relatively busy (at least during the week) intersection in Kreuzberg, adjacent to Landwehrkanal, where what I think used to be a boring, anti-environment, manicured lawn, for the last five or so years, has been left pretty much to its own, and nature’s, devices (manicured lawns are the opposite of nature) and now looks like this:

Other photos taken on the walk: