Lovely weather, and Max out frolicking, off-leash, with our wonderful dogwalker, Frank, and a small group of dogs that Max knows well by now, so time to take Mr Canon out for a walk.
I still can’t combine dogwalking with photowalking, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to. Max is not the least bit interested in photography, and as half podenco, he does not like to stand still. Also, when I direct my full attention to anything other than him and me being out walking, he feels either that he has to protect me, or – more likely – that I am then unable to protect him, so he will lunge and bark at, and even try to bite which is one of the reasons I keep him muzzled in the mean streets of Berlin, anyone who in his opinion comes too close to us. That can even be a child on a tricycle. My biggest nightmare.
Anyway, off I went on the S-Bahn from Anhalter Bahnhof to S-Bahnhof Südende, and returned from S-Bahnhof Marienfelde. I did not feel particularly inspired but took a couple of photos nonetheless. I also had a nice lunch of fresh mussles cooked in white wine (found a place with masked staff and outdoor seating :-)).
For some strange reason I had decided I would not need a long lens since I probably would not see any interesting wildlife. I don’t know what I was thinking, but there it is.
The church in Lankwitz (sorry about the cheesy starburst – I could not help it – it was staring me in the face).
My first sight this year of a mandarin duck in the Gemeindepark. If everything goes the way it did last year, there will be many more everywhere. As beautifully exotic as they look, they are vicious, invasive beasts that at least temporarily chase away most of the domestic ducks from Berlin’s parks.
The best dog park within walking distance, but only on days where the weather is relatively good. It is a five km walk to get there, and also, because it is such a vast open space, it can get really windy there, and SO cold.
Today was lovely and sunny so off we went for the first time in months.
Max badly needed this since he had been deprived of proper exercise on both Friday and Saturday. The supply and delivery of groceries is really affected by the number of people in isolation due to Covid. I had therefore ordered new supplies of his food a week ealier than normally but still, DHL managed to screw that up.
First I was informed it would arrive on Friday, and then on Friday evening I was informed it would arrive on Saturday. So I stayed at home both days, since it is a big and heavy delivery, so I did not want to end up having to go and pick it up in some strange place miles away.
In the meantime, I ran out of dog food and since I did not want to leave home in order to go out and buy some decent-quality food for him, I had to have dog food delivered by one of those services that deliver within an hour or two, and the quality of the food one can find from those places is not good. So not only did Max not go on proper walks (only in the courtyard and back and forth in the street not too far from home), but he also had to eat crappy food.
On Saturday evening, I was informed that the delivery will arrive on Monday. So it all starts all over again. Perhaps DHL should stop accepting packages until such time that they are able to cope again instead of making life miserable for us all and our dogs.
Assignment theme: journey to or from love, in recognition of Valentine’s Day (another commercial construct).
My contribution is probably more in the category “a day in the life of …”, and illustrating why I still like living in Berlin although most of my original reasons for wanting to live here have become redundant thanks to Covid19, and despite the fact that Berlin can be exasperating to live in, especially with a dog. And love is a big word, so the following is more of a series of likes :-), including things I like spending time on.
As can be seen, I have become a diptych and triptych obsessionist, and noone is more surprised than myself. A long time ago, I tried to figure out how to do them but never got the hang of it and decided I hated them and would never, ever try again. But then Kai McBride, our course teacher, made it the theme of last week’s assignment, and made it look so easy in his demontration that I decided to give it a second chance. I did have some frustrations in the beginning but now I am unstoppable and can’t wait to explore this new world that has opened up. The contributions of the others in the class were so inspirational. There is no end to the possibilities. I am so glad Kai “forced” us to do this. I have even started a Facebook group called The Tryptich Obsessionist.
First thing: I do like mornings, especially my big cup of coffee after having taken Max for a very quick “toilet walk”, and while listening to BBC World News, and to Deadline on DR2, and checking mails and Facebook. And on some mornings, admiring the sunrise. I like the fact that Berlinische Galerie (Modern Art Museum) is behind my backyard. Not that their roof is particularly pretty to look at, but the fact that it is there guarantees that nothing taller will be built there to block my view, at least not in any foreseeable future. And of course it is nice to have that exhibition place with a nice café close by. Or at least it was, before Corona.
I also love having a dogwalker for Max twice (sometimes three times) a week, who takes Max to the outskirts of Berlin where he can run around off-leash and play with small groups of dogs he knows well by now. This gives me time to do my own thing without having to take Max for a long walk first.
In order to fit everything in, I often have a substantial, cooked, slightly late breakfast, and then skip lunch. Here, chickpea flour pancakes with leek.
One of the things I like about Berlin is its diversity. There is no end to the things and places to visit or go out to photograph, and some of them even on a short walk from my home: https://goo.gl/maps/ksiqA71NqBhjRBBv5.
Modern architecture: A couple of hundred meters down the road is the Jewish Museum and the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy, both designed by Daniel Libeskind who, among many other oeuvres, also designed one of the buildings in Ground Zero.
And now to some lurve: Sawade is the oldest chocolate manufacturer in Berlin, and arguably the best one, with strong competion from Rausch (Rausch’s outlet on Gendarmenmarkt is much bigger and also has a lovely café which is highly recommended if you need a chocolate fix).
My nearest Sawade branch is in Bergmannstraße, always worth a visit for the many cafés, restaurants and small shops, not to mention Marheineke Markthalle. While I was there, it was time for a coffee and a slice of lemon meringue pie :-).
By the way, people often ask me why I am “obsessed” with cemeteries. I like visiting cemeteries in Berlin, most often with my camera, for many reasons. They are very different from the ones in Denmark – somehow more full of history, more diverse, some a lot more colourful (even tacky if you ask me, but everyone to their own), the graves are more customised and personalised, they go from very humble to very pompous (e.g. the Siemens gravesite in Stahnsdorf which is like a small, fenced-in park), there are always flowers in various degrees of freshness and decay, the grounds are diverse in terms of trees (many large, old ones) and bushes, and they are quite good for bird photograpy too. Especially when Covid numbers are high and I avoid public transport, they are easy-to-reach-on-foot oases.
And suddenly I am nearly home again. Here is another example of new architecture – the relatively new Axel Springer Building, right next to the original one, and the TV tower which I am sure needs no introduction but I am linking to some information about it anyway.
In the meantime, Max has been delivered back home, and it is time for some cooking. I like using recipes for Indian dishes, when I can, though it is rather time consuming but more interesting.
I often treat Max to a snack from Natural Treats. Chewing/gnawing is a great de-stressor and it helps him settle down for the night. That, and me singing for him. He is the only living being who does not run away screaming when I sing. He falls asleep almost instantly. Perhaps he just finds it really, really boring.
I am learning quite a few useful tips in Néstor Daniel Pérez Molière‘s food photography class (by StrudelmediaLive), but also that proper food photography will never be my thing. It is so fiddly and time consuming and involves moving things around and then having to put them back afterwards. Also, props that I find ugly seem to be almost a requirement – multi-coloured plates, cut-glass bowls, crumpled up pieces of paper and textiles, and worst of all, ingredients that are arranged in ways that are messy and bound to involve a certain amount of waste, and I have zero tolerance towards food waste. I find it immoral and unethical. I am also at an age where I am getting rid of things and am definitely not prepared to buy new stuff like studio lights or lightboxes or anything else that I might then use once and then store in the basement.
(But since, as we all know, you have a principle until you don’t, I did buy a set of acrylic plates, one white and one black, and used the black one to take photos for this week’s assigment in Kai McBride’s photography shake up course, which is triptychs. Whether I will ever use it, or the white one again, remains to be seen).
For the next food photography assignment, we are supposed to invite somebody for an evening of cooking and take a load of environmental photos showing the process of cooking. ???? In a pandemic. I don’t meet with people, certainly not indoors. Of course before Corona I used to know lots of people who would happily come round for a home-cooked meal, but I don’t know anybody here who like to cook – except one Indian person, and we have talked about getting together to cook for a group of people, but that will have to wait til Covid19 has gone, to the extent that it will ever go away.
I live in Germany, so I don’t even know anybody who wants to be photographed. I myself certainly do not want to be photographed, and I am not German. The photos would feed into our final project, but if I make a final project, which I doubt, it will just be a post here, and there is no way I would put a photo of myself on my website. The whole assignment seems a little absurd to me. I might just take a back seat for the rest of the course which is starting to bore me anyway. (This is not the teacher’s fault – it is the subject that bores me, all the setting up and staging of photos, which I should have realised before signing up).
We have had quite a lot of rain this week so I have had to find things to photograph at home for the triptychs for the photography shake-up course.
Actually I think I prefer this one instead of the first pumpkin triptych:
And for this one, I needed to introduce more than three images. I don’t know what it is called when there are six images:
This one did not go at all the way I had imagined it in my head. I should probably just take the middle one out and make it a diptych:
The assignment is a sequence of photos containing strong components, sequenced so that each component picks up where the component in the previous photo left off. Or something like that. If I have understood it correctly this time. Having watched a recording of the latest class, I realise that I had perhaps been overthinking last week’s assigment.
On the one day I had set aside to go out and make photos for this assignment, the weather was miserable (grey, misty, drizzly, windy – and although Max was out frolicking withFrank and friends, I just could not get into photography mode.
However, I discovered that many of the photos I had already made this month could probably be used, including the ones I took for last week’s assignment which I discovered did not fit the brief. So not altogether wasted after all.
Here is my sequence. The components should include vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curvy. This kind of puzzle is ideal as an indoor activity :-). Obviously, it takes a bit of imagination to see the components picking up from each other in the case of vertical components. Also, seeing them here, I can see that some of them are definitely a bit of a stretch.
On the coldest, darkest, wettest and windiest day of the year so far, I treated Max to an extra expedition with Frank, and myself to a visit to Reinbeckhallen in Schöneweide. Schöneweide still has traces of the industrial area it once was, and which lends itself so well to showcasing contemporary art. In better weather conditions, there is much to photograph.
Almost back home, I noticed this. I must have walked past it hundreds of times without noticing it. It really is true that one sees so much more carrying a locked and loaded camera. More about Wallstraße 16 here: https://joanneintrator.com/books/summons-to-berlin/.
It was a relatively sunny day so I started by going back to Natur-Park Südgelände, this time with more time to have a good look around, and I did indeed see two birds that I had never seen before (in my defence I will say that I have not been that interested in birds for that long ……): the two bullfinches (DK: Dompap, DE: Gimpel), and the tiny, elusive (hence the bad photo) long-tailed tit (DK: Halemejse, DE: Schwanzmeise). It was quicker to identify them than to find out what they are called in Danish. Google Translate is totally clueless in that regard.
Another walk organised by Joachim Wenzel, originally approx. 14 km from Priesterweg through Park am Gleisdreieck (which I know well), along the Spree to S Bahnhof Tiergarten. However, it was drizzling a bit too much for my liking, so I stopped at Südkreuz and went home.
Also, I am still debating with myself whether BWC is for me. They take many, and long, breaks, even on a 10-15 km walk. I am always astonished to see how they seem to need at least one meal, some two, in between breakfast and lunch. I am not sure I have the patience for that in the long run.
But I was reminded how I really ought to visit Naturpark Südgeländemore often. It is not far from my home. There is a lovely nature trail and a lot of new educational material has been added since last time I was there.
There is also a sculpture park and a café. The latter is only open from April to October.
I know I will never be an even half-way decent food photographer. I just need to learn how to make a photo of curries, dals etc. not look completely disgusting.
For great food photography, I have too many “dogmes”.
For one, I have no tolerance for food waste, so I need to know how to plan a shoot so that I can eat the food afterwards, and not let it go completely cold, or worse: spray it with toxins to make it look better.
I don’t like too many completely unnecessary props such as crumpled up pieces of textile draped around or next to a plate.
I also do not like drops of sauces or juices on the table, as if they have been spilled. Together with the above mentioned dish cloths, this seems to be the new black in food photography. I find it annoying and wonder why they did not clean it up before they took the photo.
I don’t have the patience to set up too many objects or lights, especially not studio lights (I don’t have many suitable objects and other than one speedlight, I do not own studio lights and I am not about to acquire any. I am at the age of purging rather than hoarding, and bringing too many things out from cupboards and drawers and then having to put them away again afterwards is a waste of time and crashing bore.
But other than that 🙂 ……. So my photos will be boring and the most I can hope for is that the food does not look like the dog’s diarrhea.
The assignment for week 1 is five photos of this week’s produce:
