On the Streets of Berlin

As already mentioned in my previous post, I’ve spent last weekend in our Nation’s Capital, which is always a treat. As the main purpose of the trip was visiting a very close friend and going on a specialty Whiskey tasting (which was totally awesome by the way), an actual visit to the Streets of Berlin was limited to a few hours on Saturday when we went to the Potsdamer Platz district,  visited the Mall of Berlin and the Otto Bock Science Center. I brought along the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 14-10mm F/4-5.6 travel zoom, and after the jump you can see some of the results….

While my two ladies visited some shops in the Mall of Berlin, I did some shooting from on of the galleries, experimenting with longer exposures, to get some motion blur into my subjects on the black and white ground floor.

The building behind the open end of the Mall is the Bundesrat, the seat of the federal states of Germany, the second chamber of our legislative system. To shoot passing shoppers on the gallery connecting the east and west wing of the Mall, I really was glad to have the zoom lens with 150mm focal length which equals 300mm in full frame equivalent due to the 2x crop factor of the m4/3 system.

I really like the open atrium of the Mall, the galleries being perfect for wandering around and waiting for interesting things to happen.

For those who didn’t see the previous post, this is a street photography – architectural – minimalistic cross over photo that I took in the stair case of the Otto Bock Science Center just around the corner from the Potsdamer Platz. In case anyone asks, the arm resting on the railing was staged, I asked my friend to put her arm there, as she was wearing a black sweater and I was after the effect of a free-floating arm.

One of the exhibits of the architectural pearl which is basically a corporate show room is a wheel chair simulator, where you sit in an actual wheel chair that is attached to a full motion platform. Using your arms you need to navigate a city scenery that plays on a huge screen in front of you, and you can try your luck getting your wheel chair up a curb (or driving down one) or a pebbled path, with the chair doing the appropriate movements with you. After this my respect for people confined to a wheel chair is even higher. Unbelievable how seemingly little obstacles for us “walkers” pose significant challenges for the “wheelies”. If you ever have the chance, go visit the exhibition (free entry).

I couldn’t resist taking some architectural shots of the Phoenix sculpture of Gidon Graetz (sculptor from Israel) on the Inge Beisheim Platz across the entrance from the Berlin Marriott.

This shot is from across the lobby of the DB tower at the Potsdamer Platz. I really liked the colorful illumination on the walls inside the lobby, and how it corresponded to the colors of bicycles and seat covers outside. While busy shooting this all of a sudden some pedestrians walked by wearing coats of exact the same colors of lobby illumination and the bikes. How crazy was that?

I had my gyrating day, after playing with these effects already in the Mall of Berlin, I couldn’t resist taking a long exposure shot of the dome of the Sony Center while girating the camera a bit.

As always, I shot in RAW and processed the files in Lightroom CC.

In the end I was happy to get some shots in that I liked while essentially being on a little shopping trip. My next trip to Berlin on November 11/12 will be all photography, as I signed up for a street photography workshop with one of today’s masters of the genre, Eric Kim. I’m so much looking forward to us roaming the streets of Berlin that November weekend.

After flying out to Portland on Monday my days here in the Pacific Northwest are all work, no chance for any photography, as this is a super short trip only and I will head back home already tomorrow again. I spend way too much time in airplanes lately.

Have a great Wednesday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Road to Berlin

Late Summer Family Street Fun

Street Photography Quick Tip (11)

StoNur on the Road – Hamburg