Today I was on a workshop mission for a Hamburg based on-line editor who has to operate all the German internet communication of a worldwide charitable organisation. She is a journalist by profession, keen on using words but in the field of photography she admitted that there is still room for further gains. Or as her uncharming french photography teacher at the university used to say: Read more
Author: Oliver M. Zielinski
Easter Hike into the Valley of Love
If you hear, that I went to the Valley of Love you may associate this with a lot of more or less romantic things. No bad thoughts, please. Yesterday I simply attended our traditional Easter hike with a bunch of friends to visit a certain landmark of that name north-east of Berlin at the German-Polish border. The borderline is marked by the river Oder and on the other side there is the Valley of Love (Dolina Miłości). Read more
A Climb to 2016 in Saxon Switzerland
Spending the time after Christmas with friends and leaving home for some nice travel destination has a long tradition with me. This time we decided to discover East Germany’s Saxon Switzerland in winter. (fyi: this is where free climbing was invented) This area is famous for its sandstone table mountains and very popular for climbers from all over the world. Since I am a bit afraid of height, I decided not to climb these rocks and to use the touristy paths instead to get on top. Finally my goal was to take some nice photographs.
First Snow – Winter has arrived
Today I met with my long time friend Dietrich who was in Berlin for the weekend to celebrate his birthday last saturday. We wanted to chill out from the extensive party (hey – no alcohol for me 😉 ) by walking around some nice place outside the city. His mom – where he stayed during his Berlin visit – suggested to walk around Gorinsee. I found this very appealing because this lake is right between my and her place. Ofcourse my friend asked her to join us.
Gift Idea for Photographer
If you follow this blog regularly, you may have read about my ol’ friend Dietrich. Next month he will celebrate a special birthday. So far so good. But he has a special wish – he doesn’t want any presents except some musical presentation on stage of the venue – if you can and if you want. Um. I have a special handycap when it comes to notes and rhythm – although I love music and my knowledge on temporary music may be well above average. Okay, no more swagging from now on. 😉 I can’t sing, dance or play any instrument – even if I try to clap my hands in rhythm it doesn’t take long and it rather sounds as a kind of applause.
Solution: Mouse disappeared and reanimated
What a crazy morning. Last weekend I had cleaned my desk after extensive work on a wedding photography project. When I shut down my workstation the mouse would not react. Um. Okay, maybe it ran out of battery for wireless transimission, I thought. No problem to recharge or to use my fall back solution which is a good ol’ wired mouse.
When I switched on my computer this morning the mouse still would not work. Batteries were charged and even the wired replacement device showed the same behaviour: the mouse pointer was like stuck on a certain spot on the screen. Moving the mouse would cause some pointer movement, but within a split second it would return to back to the very spot.
God Beams: Heaven over Sweden
Last week I was invited to attend the wedding of one of my best friends doughter. Okay, not only to celebrate but also to jump in as the photographer. The specialty about this was that Marie and Sascha are German expatriots, now living in Sweden. Thus I had the chance to arrive early and to return late – with the result of a wonderful 5-day short holiday trip to Scandinavia.
Ofcourse I took this chance to shoot some more than just the ususal wedding photos. I also took a lot of snapshots of the life around this event which was quite entertaining because friends and family were all invited to stay at some kind of mansion North of Malmö. So everybody knew each other already before the official part started. And I did some personal work – Skies. To me this sounded really promising because I feel that the light up there in the North is quite different. And I was curious for the results.
Impressed by Laforet Air in Berlin
Yesterday I went to see work of photographer and filmmaker Vincent Laforet which has impressed me over the last year. His current project LAFORET AIR shows cities from above. Okay, this does not sound exciting since everyone can see such imagery via Google Earth.
But Vincent does a totally different job – he flies very high with a helicopter and shoots these cities at night. All the illumination becomes visible and produces different impressions for almost every city. Some look like electronic circuts, some like the vains of some creature and some like islands in the desert. Somehow every mental association seems to be connected to life.
Bavaria the Beautiful
Oppinions on Bavaria differ so much. Some say this is typical German, very traditional, keeps old values alive. Others argue that exactly this is what they don’t like about Bavaria. But there are no two oppinions about the great landscape in the Alps and in the flat land.
I went to see some friends in Munich for Ascension Thursday and the following weekend. Many call it Father’s Day, but In the area where I am from this is rather called Lords’ Day. This has no connotation to the Lord himself but rather to male human beings who celebrate this holiday with their friends and feel themselves as lords.
Visiting an Oak Tree
This morning I went to say ‘Hello’ to a good old friend. Not far from my home there is an oak tree that has fascinated me all my life. It is several hundred years old, has experienced good and bad climate, peaceful times and more than a hand full of wars. It has survived a lot of harm and is still alive.
The arm’s span width of six strong men will be needed to encircle its trunk. It is a majestic creature. The good thing about it: the Berlin tourism industry has not discovered it, yet. So there are no bbq-parties underneath its green roof and nobody is scratching its bark, you can just sit there and watch either the traffic at the nearby state route or some farmer caring for his rape, wheat or whatever the season needs.