Apocalyptic Fountain

After a business meeting in Munich yesterday I had a half hour left before my train departed back to Nuremberg. Close to Munich’s Central Station is the Karlsplatz or “Stachus” as it is called by the locals, a huge square with a big fountain on it. Knowing it is a good place for Street Photography I just went there to see if any opportunities for some candid shots would open up.

The late afternoon sun was still blazing with a massive thunderstorm front arriving and providing a spectacular backdrop behind the backlit fountain. I took one of the chairs close to the fountain, readied the Ricoh GR II and just waited for things to happen, with the intention to capture candid silhouettes in front of the backlit waterspray.

Things unfolded real quick, a pair of little brother and sister having a lot of fun with the waterspray, running back and forth and squeeking with joy when the increasing wind blew the water across their faces.

Directly before I had to head over to the station to catch my train things started to get really gloomy, almost apocalyptical, at least when looking at the scene through the display of the GR II with the monochrome mode activated. From the left my eye caught the arriving pigeon and I knew it would cross in front of the lense. It was just a matter of timing the shutter press with the “bird of doom” visible in the frame. With the fix focus of the Ricoh activated there is hardly any shutter lag and I “shot” the bird.

This is a typical example how I approach my Street Photography. When I find an interesting scene / backdrop I just wait with the camera ready to shoot and see how things unfold. More often than not I’m actually rewarded with some interesting shots.

Have a great day!

Marcus