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This summer I went on phototour in the north of Germany, visiting the cities of Kiel, Bremen, Lübeck and Berlin. The purpose of this visits was solely producing new photographic travel material for my Stock Photo Agencies. In order to make this whole trips most efficient, I did some researches before (almost every city has a homepage with tourist-information showing the landmarks and POI of the place or you can check stock galleries and see what has been captured there) and used for the first time “My Maps” (a Google App) as an GPS-based orientation help. It tourned out to be an extremly helpful app for making this kind of production-travel. Here is a screenshot of the app showing all the places (in this case of Berlin) I choose to visit and take photographies of:
So, with my GPS turned on, I always knew where I was, where to go and how long it would take me to get there. I also did some timing research in order to get the best light for the places I wanted to photograph. For example: I know the “Brandenburger Tor” faces (i.e. the statue of the Quadriga on top of it) towards east, so if I wanted to get some backlit images from it I had to be there at sunset. With all this data I was able to plan and realize the whole trip very efficiently as I had kind of a track & time plan to follow.
I arrived at the Berlin Central Station at midday and went directly to the first POI, the “Schloss Charlottenburg“:
After taking some pictures of the entrance and the beautiful park behind (images of the park are by the way somehow prohibited complicated to be shown to public due to some regulations of the owners of the castle… german info here), I went on to the “Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church” or what is left of it (was severly damaged during bombings in 1943):
Going on I went to the “Berlin Zoo” (but only outside, timing would not allow to visit it completly) and afterwards headed to the “Siegessäule“:
Walking down the “Strasse des 17. Juni” you get directly to the “Brandenburger Tor“:
But… just before you get there, be sure to walk to the left of the street… otherwise you will miss the “Schloss Bellevue” which is the official residence of the “Bundespräsident” in Germany:
Walking to the left of the “Brandenburger Tor” will lead you to the “Reichstag“:
Getting back on track and walking through the “Brandenburger Tor” you get to walk down the boulevard “Unter den Linden” till you reach the impressive “Berliner Dom“:
If you then turn to the left you get to the “Museumsinsel“:
When I got there it was just some minutes before sunset, so I speeded up a bit to get back to the “Brandenburger Tor” for my backlit images… but not before getting a snap of the “Fernsehturm” and the “Neptune Fountain“:
Finally I got back to the “Brandenburger Tor” and got my planned backlits with a really wonderfull “golden light”:
… and as if fortune had been all along with me, I had the chance to experience a great, dramatic sky with all the lights you can dream of as a photographer:
After this I took my train back home. All in all it was a 9 hours walk, round about 30 kilometers which is actually the daily maximum for me before I get tired and my creative energy goes down the drain. By the way… it was during this trip that I began thinking about a new camera system: 4/3 mirrorless. The reason? Well, carrying around 8-9 kilos equipment on your bag + tripod 9 hours long makes you really think about lighter alternatives for your back… but more on this in a later blog.
There were many, many spots I missed (the whole trip was planned as just an one-day visit) and Berlin is a fantastic playground for photographers. I am sure I will return to this city! As the old german song goes: “Ich hab´noch einen Koffer in Berlin…” (youtube)
You may see more pictures of this trip (and license them if you want to) here or at the usual suspects here.
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