day 321: love
love © Verena Fischer 2012
Yesterday I was up early to finish packing and then I was off to Düsseldorf to catch a train back to Berlin. Already at the station I noticed this extremely cute little girl, who was playing with a straw hat and some sunglasses, but I was too busy with my luggage to take a picture. However, on the train she and her mother gladly posed for me and I’m really extremely happy with the outcome! I played around with the format for a while until I decided that a square format would probably be best, since else there would have been a lot of dead space in the picture.
The journey was quite relaxed actually. I watched two Hitchcock movies and amused fellow travellers by getting startled during Psycho. Well, watching scary movies in public is a stupid idea, I know, but at least it was funny. Now I’m back home and it’s so nice that nobody is slamming any doors at 7am in the morning!
day 226: towering duvet mountains
towering duvet mountains © Verena Fischer 2012
You know how kids always end up seeing interesting shapes in shadows and find their own perception hugely fascinating? Well, if you look through a camera at the world, you can rediscover this feeling a little bit. By the way, my foot is somewhere in the picture, but with all the bokeh you can’t even really tell anymore.
day 128: sometimes size matters
sometimes size matters © Verena Fischer 2011
On Saturday I went to Butlers to buy a few more mugs and bowls. I always liked these colourful mugs, but back when I had a flat in Düsseldorf I already had enough of such things, so that I had no space for them at all. Now I finally had a reason to buy them and Ezequiel likes them too. It’s an old bad habit of mine to buy too much stuff for the kitchen. It actually runs in the family, my mum also has lots of stuff for the kitchen she doesn’t really need or use. And there is definitely some more cupboard space in my kitchen for me to not restrain that habit!
On the way to Butlers I walked past the Institut Francais where I saw this boy having some fun. I looked around to locate his parents, but I think they were just standing having a chat nearby. The boy took his time to climb up there, almost fell over in the process, but in the end he managed and darted along the side of the building. If he had been any bigger, he wouldn’t have fit on there.
day 44: sunny
sunny © Verena Fischer 2011
At the moment I’m still relaxing after finishing my MSc dissertation. I still have no clear enough plans and I’m living into the day. I read books, take pictures, watch movies and explore Berlin together with Ezequiel. Yesterday I even took out my PSP again after not having touched it for months. There are a few games that I haven’t finished and some that I haven’t even started although I bought them a long time ago.
Back in the day I used to be all into computer games. With “back in the day” I mean times when your hero consisted of a few pixels and not this graphical overkill that they give you nowadays. The games back then had innovative concepts, real stories and some were funny and weird at the same time. I sometimes still take those games for a spin on an emulator and see whether I still have the skills for Commander Keen 4 or the first ever Prince of Persia. The latter my dad also played obsessively.
It’s interesting to me that nowadays I still mostly play little games that have this same style with short levels and flat characters like the monster you have to feed in Cut the Rope. It makes me feel more at home. Whenever I take out my PSP I also feel myself drawn to games with quirky characters like Daxter or Little Big Planet. Both these games have little arcade style games in between that don’t necessarily go closely with the story. God of War which is highly rated on many gaming sites left me cold somehow. I played it for a bit, but then I got bored and never finished it. And I was never much for ego shooters either unless I played them with my friends.
It’s strange that I never really lost touch with these old games, although they indeed were just a bunch of pixels in comparison to what kids can have nowadays. I still thoroughly enjoy playing Commander Keen and the other old jump’n’run favourites although I have played quite sophisticated games in the meantime. Is it just nostalgia or did these games really have more to offer than the eye-candy of games nowadays that kids will probably laugh about in a few years time? Is there something universal about how kids engage with their toys and games that makes them somehow forever cherished? For me it was Commander Keen 4 and Jill of the Jungle. For other people it was Pong and other old arcade games. And for the younger generations it will be Tomb Raider or even now Daxter or Little Big Planet. So, what’s your game of choice?
day 38: playing in the rain
playing in the rain © Verena Fischer 2011
I was on the way to the airport to meet Ezequiel when I realised that I left my umbrella at home. It was raining quite a bit and I was walking with my camera. There was not much I could do apart from getting a bit wet if I wanted to take pictures. At the same time I was a bit worried that my camera might get too wet. I was wondering whether I should put it in my bag to keep it dry. A few blocks from here I was glad that I didn’t put it away since I saw some kids playing with their umbrellas. I took a few pictures and one of them turned out just great.
When I walked on I passed the adults who you can see in the background of the picture and they asked me whether I had taken pictures of them. I told them that I took a picture of the kids. Immediately the woman in the group asked briskly: “Why?!” and I said “Well, because they were having fun!” The woman looked at me strangely and said “Normally you have to ask the parents first if you want to take pictures of their kids …”. In fact, in Germany this is true and it’s not only the case for children, but for taking pictures of anyone, really. Most people don’t know this though. You have to even ask *before* you take the picture and the same goes for publication of these images. I only asked the father of the children whether I can keep the picture. However, this is also a grey area since I’m not publishing the pictures in Germany and additionally the internet is a very vast space. People from around here are not likely to find their picture here on this blog.
As you can see, candid street photography is technically impossible in Germany. I will not let this stop me though, since art has to remain free. I go with the option of a disclaimer here: If you find your picture on this blog and you don’t want this, drop me a line and I will remove it immediately.
Grundgesetz – Artikel 5
(3) Kunst und Wissenschaft, Forschung und Lehre sind frei.
German basic law – article 5
(3) Art and science, research and teaching are free.
day 34: helpless
helpless © Verena Fischer 2011
Yesterday I was trying out something new. Instead of walking around taking pictures of things, I just sat down on a bench in a busy shopping street and started to take pictures of people. I realised that they actually do not even notice me if I’m just standing, leaning against a lamp post or sitting on a bench and I could just take pictures without people forcing themselves to look away or looking straight at the camera. It was also relaxing and I could really try and see interesting moments in the crowd. At the same time it was also difficult, because the crowd was changing constantly, someone might have been obscuring my view or the background was starting to get cluttered. All of this made it a bit of a challenge to take pictures, but it was really a nice experience too.
I also wanted to try out a new format for this one, because I wanted to really focus this shot on the foreground and there was lots of empty space on the part of the picture I cropped. I think the unusual format really works for this picture. If you look at the camera settings of this one you might wonder what was going on there … I was trying to get a slightly more grainy look on this with the high ISO. It was certainly a day of experiments!
day 18: making the best of it
making the best of it © Verena Fischer 2011
I was in a fairly monochrome mood yesterday when my camera drove me out of my warm and comfortable flat. It was a rainy day, even a bit stormy in the morning and I went out when the light was already fading. Monochrome days, i.e. days that are all grey in grey, are the best for black and white photography. Already before going out I changed the colour settings of my camera to monochrome and I was not intending to change it back. Obviously, when you’re shooting in RAW it doesn’t make a difference for the final file whether you’re shooting monochrome or in colour mode. However, at least you can see the pictures in black and white on the internal screen which can give you an idea whether your picture will look good in black and white or not, and keep you in the monochrome mood.
Keeping the mood is in my opinion one of the most important things, since it is what guides your eye. If you’re in a bad mood you’re not very likely to take pictures of smiling people. Similarly if you see colours everywhere then you’re definitely not in the monochrome mood that it needs to take great black and white pictures.
Yesterday I found it a bit difficult to stay in this mood, since I brought myself into a situation that could only make me laugh out loud. Following my new practice of seeing my camera as the best excuse to be in places where I’m not supposed to be I walked straight into an open building and took a couple of pictures. Then I realised that there was a fairly interesting patio. So, I went through the next door to go outside into this patio to take pictures there. What I didn’t realise was that the door had locked itself automatically when it shut behind me and a key was needed to get back into the house. However, I needed to go through the house to get back out onto the street. I checked the doors to the side and back buildings, but they were also locked. In the end I actually had to climb over a fence to get outside, how ridiculous! At least I didn’t shut myself into a patio that was all surrounded by buildings or my little mistake could have turned into a major wait.
In my monochrome mood from before this incident I had planned to take pictures of empty spaces that are normally crowded. I did that too, but I guess my little fence climbing adventure fits way better to the happy childhood moment I witnessed by chance. These kids were also making the best of the rainy weather.
experiments in experience 