Filed under: Germany

quick fall post

I haven’t been able to post much lately because my new jobs at the Süddeutsche Zeitung and at tm studios have been keeping me pretty busy. I’ll put up some of the stuff I’ve been shooting for the paper soon. But before September turns into October, I would like to put up a quick post with pictures from a hike we took three weeks ago. It was a quick 5-hour loop along the beautiful Mangfall river in upper Bavaria. We chanced upon it on our way to the mountains when we got stuck in traffic and decided to look for a hike nearby. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to go back there and explore the area some more.

The last sun rays hit the leaves of a beech tree by the Mangfall river near Hohendilching, Sunday, September 9, 2012.

The last sun rays hit the leaves of a beech tree by the Mangfall river near Hohendilching, Sunday, September 9, 2012.

Our friend Tobi takes a leap over a fallen tree during a hike along the Mangfall river near Hohendilching, Sunday, September 9, 2012.

Our friend Tobi takes a leap over a fallen tree.

The light shines through a thick beech forest in the Mangfall valley near Hohendilching, Sunday, September 9, 2012.

The light shines through a thick beech forest in the Mangfall valley.

A makeshift-diving board is installed over a pool in the Mangfall river near Hohendilching, Sunday, September 9, 2012.

A makeshift-diving board is installed over a pool in the Mangfall river.

September 30, 2012

kocherlball

This morning, Beth and I got up at 4 a.m. to cover the Kocherlball, a traditional Bavarian dance. Held once a year in the early morning hours of the third Sunday of July, the ball was originally an opportunity for the cooks and maids of the 18th century Bavarian nobility to find their future spouses. Nowadays, it is organized by the Cultural Department of the City of Munich to celebrate the city’s Bavarian heritage. Every year, thousands of people flock to the Chinese Tower in the English Garden to dance to the traditional music under the guidance of two dance masters.

It was one of these events that sound so amazing to shoot – Lederhosen, Dirndl, traditional dances, etc. – but turn out to be much harder than you think. The sheer masses of people everywhere are overwhelming, and you don’t really know where to begin. It is hard to get a good sense of place and an overview over the dancing crowds, and you quickly feel like you’ve exhausted all your visual possibilities. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun, and I think we complemented each other fairly well. Where Beth had some great moments, I think I got some nice scene setters. Look out for Beth’s pictures on her blog, here are mine:

People arrive at the Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) in Munich's Englischer Garten city park for the 2012 Kocherlball early morning Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Thousands of people participate in traditional Bavarian dancing at the 2012 Kocherlball under the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Visitors of the 2012 Kocherlball sit in the beer garden at the Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Dance masters Magnus Kaindl and Katharina Mayer lead the dancing crowd at the traditional Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

People dance traditional Bavarian dances at the Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

A couple kisses during the traditional Kocherlball dance at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

People dance traditional Bavarian dances during the Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

People dance traditional Bavarian dances during the Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

People dance traditional Bavarian dances during the Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

People in traditional Bavarian attire watch the dancing crowd during the Kocherlball at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Thousands of people fill the beer garden at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten during the Kocherlball, a traditional Bavarian dance, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

A slug crawls into an abandoned beer mug during the Kocherlball, a traditional Bavarian dance at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

A couple dances away from the bath rooms during the Kocherlball, a traditional Bavarian dance at the historic Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden in Munich's city park Englischer Garten, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

July 15, 2012

birthday panorama

I’ve been playing around with panoramas lately, first on my phone and then with my “real” camera. I liked some of the results made with the phone, but the native Android camera – which in my opinion makes the best panoramas – only saves tiny files that aren’t large enough to print. At my brother’s birthday, I took a series of pictures with my M9 that I wanted to turn into a panorama later, but then I forgot about them and they cought digital dust on my hard drive.

Yesterday, while cleaning up my computer, I found a panorama software that I bought a while back and remembered the pictures I took at Basti’s birthday. It didn’t take long to stitch the ten images together, and I think for a quick shot from the hip the result is really presentable. What I really like about it is that it doesn’t scale down the final panorama so that I can make large prints from the files. I will definitely play around more with this program in the near future. Stay tuned!

People enjoy the weather on one of the first hot days of the year at the Flaucher along the Isar river in Munich, Saturday, April 28, 2012.

May 9, 2012

hipster fun at the bird park

On Monday, my family and I took my brother’s little kids to a bird park right outside our town. I had some fun with a pretty cool camera app called Vignette. It’s yet another one of these viral toy camera apps, buy you have a large variety of effects that you can apply after the picture is taken while the original is saved unaltered. Anyway, just some nerdy toy, but fun to play with. Here you go:

April 10, 2012

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