"Be Berlin" Exhibition to be repeated in Berlin City Hall

In June of last year, the Luxembourg Embassy in Berlin held an exhibition of Berlin themed photographs by Luxembourg photographers, in which I also participated with a series of Holga photos taken at Berlin's CSD parades. This exhibition is to be repeated for one night only at the Berlin City Hall ("Rotes Rathaus") on Saturday, 30 January, for the "Long Night of the Museums."

The other four photographers are Marc Glesener, Ann Michaux, Marc Theis und Arthur Thill.

More information can be found at the Luxembourg Embassy's website.

2009 Reviewed

It's that time of year to create best-of lists - and here are my personal highlights from 2009.


We started January in London, which certainly was a good choice for passing New Year's Eve. Wintertime in London is also the perfect setting for creating very moody black and white photographs.

The next few months very comparatively boring, but May saw us travel to Amsterdam. Enjoyed the city hugely.

There was one major highlight in June: the Be Berlin photo exhibition in the Luxembourg Embassy in which I participated with a set of photos taken at various Gay Pride events. Fittingly, June is when the CSD marches are held, and this year I also captured a nice set of pics from the event.

For my birthday I received a Holga 120WPC camera, that is, a wide-angle pinhole camera. In July I went out and shot the first rolls of films with it. I must say, I do love that camera.

In August I went to India, to Bangalore to be precise. It spent most of the time working, but managed to get away to Mysore for a day. This old city was the highlight of that altogether very short - and strange - trip.

September I spent more time experimenting with the Holga 120WPC. Also, we visited the old East German broadcasting center, where I shot this set of photos.

In Octobre we took advantage of the last beautiful days to spend some time on the Baltic sea, on the island of Ruegen. The Diana+ camera was just perfect to catch the moody atmosphere of that time and place.

In November, I got myself an iPhone, and soon started playing around with the camera and the photography apps that exist out there. Taking photos on a daily basis, I soon ended up with a rather nice set of pics.

In December I took a short trip to Beijing. Didn't come back with many photos, but thanks to the iPhone, with a couple of good ones.

And to end the year in review, here is a photo taken today, on the very last day of the year; the year when Berlin finally saw some decent snow again. 


So this leaves me then wishing you all a Happy New Year, be good, be creative, and whatever you are, don't be boring.

Around Berlin 2009

I've uploaded a series of pictures taken throughout Berlin in the course of 2009; ranging from the few cold snowy days in January to the first snow in December. The colour photographs were taken using the Holga 120N and 120WPC cameras, and the black and white ones with the Diana+ camera.

The gallery can be accessed from the toy camera page by following the "Berlin Around Town 2009" link.

Berlin by iPhone

I've added the first gallery of photos taken with the iPhone to the Always Arriving site. It consists of urban photos taken around Berlin and can be accessed via the Urban page.

All photos were edited on the iPhone using various apps, primarily Photogene, Camerabag and Tiltshift Generator.

iPhoneography

The web is full of it. Just google 'iphoneography' and you'll see. Everyone who owns an iphone, it seems, takes photos with it, and then publishes them.

And so do I.

What started as a way of fooling around with a camera that is really quite shabby, and a bunch of apps that are fun and that manage to turn crappie photos into half decent results, has ended up being a nice little pastime. Some people have classified the iphone's camera as another toy camera, and somehow it is. Not surprisingly, many of the apps out there turn the photos into Holga, Lomo or polaroid-style pix. It's like having your own little photoshop with you. I take a photo on my way to work, and before I reach work, I have it edited and applied filters, and even posted it if I so choose.

As I said, it's fun. It's not nearly professional, and when the photos are viewed blown up, the limits of the camera and of the apps show. However, people have managed to create great results, and maybe sometime I'll put together a few links of the galleries I like best.

But for now, here are mine: Seasons of Glass is a photoblog of sorts. I post one photo a day (well so far I have, I'm at day 18 now). I'm hoping to keep it going for a while. At least as long as I feel that quality still outweighs the quantity. It's a great little exercise, 'though, to capture one shot a day that is worth posting. You're the judge if it worked or not.

Enjoy.

Autumn Beaches

There is nothing moodier in my mind than a beach on a windy autumn day. Well, we had plenty of those a couple of weeks ago on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. We basically had the last of the nice autumn days giving way to the rain and the cold of the winter to come.

I just posted a selection of black & white photographs which I took on Ruegen with my Diana+ camera on the toycamera page.

One picture, which I called A Storm is Gathering, has a sad side-story to it. About ten minutes after I took it, a young man jumped from the pier on which I took the photo into the sea. We didn't see it happen, but we saw the rescue effort (involving boats and helicopter) and finally watched the man being pulled from the sea, dead. It had a dampening effect on our mood, as can be expected; events like those are, after all, very powerful reminders of one's own mortality.

The Last Pictures of Summer

During the last week of September, which turned out to be the last week of summer, I shot a couple more rolls with the wide angle Holga, the 120WPC. I've uploaded a few to my Holga page (check the Wide Angle Berlin link) and a few more to the flickr gallery. Enjoy.