I am a doughnut

As JFK once famously said, "I am a doughnut". 

Of course, what he actually wanted to say was I am a Berliner, and no one in the crowd was rude enough to point out his mistake. Or maybe he wanted to be a doughnut, who knows?

I bring this up because Berlin is one of my favourite cities. Perhaps not as cultured as London, Berlin has a vibrancy all its own, that can only be achieved if you have had to be rebuilt many times in the last 100 years. 

And unlike Paris, it does not take itself too seriously, and it is on a human scale that allows you to easily explore it compared to say Tokyo.

In Berlin, you cannot but help stumbling on history, even if over the years Berliners has shown themselves adept in brushing it out. Berlin is a city that is always moving forward and tries not to look backward too much.

I first went to Berlin in 2001. It was only 12 years since the Berlin Wall had come down, but even at that point almost all trace of it had been removed. The only sign that it had existed was the rougher U-Bahn stations and the Stalinist architecture on the former Eastern side. However, even at that point the Reichstag had already been returned to its former glory with a shiny glass dome crowning it, even If you looked closely, you could still see patched bullet marks as a sign of its past.

Standing on top of the Reichstag, and looking over the city, I remember looking at the forest of cranes and saying to my wife "It'll be nice when it's finished"

Since then, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of times through work, and there always seem to be construction and building going on, so Berlin is a city that is never finished.

In December this year, I had another work trip planned, and I was caught with the usual question. Do I take my camera? 

It is situations like this where I wish I had something more compact like a Fuji X100 IV. In fact, I almost borrowed something like it, but in the end I decided to pack my XT-5 with my walk about lens (14-70mm) in the hope I might get time to use it.

The office I was visiting is in the south of Berlin, and is, in truth, a bit of a commercial and cultural desert.  This also means it is a bit deficient in hotels and Berlin's move from an isolated city icon to a full capital city has meant hotel space is always at a premium. As it was, the only hotel close to the factory was fully booked, and I was forced to find one further afield. 

Of course, I was here for work, so any opportunities for photography would be limited, but I chose a hotel with easy access to the city centre with the hope that I could sneak off in the evenings. Being November, however, daylight outside work hours would be nil

Fortunately, Berlin has an extensive subway system, although they appear to have dropped the 2 euro all day travel pass, which I used last time I was there. One thing I find extraordinary about the Berlin U-Bahn is the total lack of travel barriers or checks of any times. I don't remember getting checked once, and while I am sure there are ticket inspectors, I never saw any. Even the law-abiding Japanese traveller are not trusted that much.

The area the hotel was based was not one of the more salubrious areas, with a high preponderance of immigrant shops and cafés. However, I always find these areas more interesting than the pristine tourist areas, so was not an issue.

Where history lies 

Despite being a busy city, Berlin has large areas of woods and gardens. Behind the hotel was such an area, which turned out to be a cemetery. Now I have a fascination with cemeteries. Firstly they are quiet, and you don't get disturbed by the residents.  

Secondly, a cemetery is a bit like a tree ring. It shows the history of an area chiselled in the stone in the tombstones and monuments.  Since it was still Autumn, the trees and ground were still garlanded with golden leaves. What really drew my attention however were stone water butts that were spread around the area, with the grey rock and water reflection contrasting with the trees

 

When Berlin, I cannot stop myself looking for signs of its former troubled history. You would expect a number of gravestones from the 1940s caused by the blitz, but apparently this neighbourhood was largely spared destruction. Still, in places there were stark reminders that the area has not always be an oasis of peace.

 

A sign of the times 

The City

Despite working long hours, in the evening I had a couple of opportunities to head into the city centre proper. Berlin is quite a compact city and the is basically one long street, Unter der linden (literally under the Linden trees). So I started at the eponymous Brandenburg Gate, and headed to that monument of DDR permanence, the Fernstrum television tower, that dominates the Berlin skyline.

Being night and not having a tripod, I was always going to be limited in what shots I could take, however I spent sometime outside the Berliner Dom Cathedral trying a few things.

 I also tried to take shots of cyclists as they headed down the street. In Berlin, they seem to operate like buses. For periods, you get none, then loads appear

 

 

Christmas Cheer

On my 2nd foray onto the city, I decided to try and find a German Christmas market.  I come from a place that has an annual German market (generally run by people with very un-german accents), which always feels a bit fake, so I hoped to taste the real thing. However, apparently Germany are very strict that such markets can only operate during the actual official Christmas period. There was however a small "winter" market that offered a many of the same attractions of currywusts, alcoholic mulled wine and overpriced sweets.

So I hung around taking a few images are customers and stalls. I also got into a conversation with a young German couple who wanted to know about my camera and whether he should buy one for her. They were from Schalke and just visiting (he supported Schalke 04, while she was a Bayern Munich fan). It was great to have a chat, even of my 2 years of Duo lingo practice came to naught, since like most Germans, their English was impeccable.

 

Last bit of the wall

Probably not Diabetes friendly...

Had a great chat about cameras...

 

 

Growing bored with gingerbread purveyors. I decided to head to the nearby Holocaust memorial. 

 

This is a stark set of concrete blocks commemorating the Jewish victims of the 2nd world war. In daylight, it offers myriad photographic opportunities, but at night less so. Mass of grey block at night really was not doing it for me, so I headed to the nearby Reichstag instead.

 

I was surprised to see it was still open, but I could not work out whether it was a special event, so I chickened out and just took some pictures outside and the nearby River Spree. Access is surprisingly relaxed around this area, and no one seems to have problems with cameras

 

Brandenbug Gate

Shadows from history

Spirits into the Reichstag

The Reichstag

 

 

Final thoughts 

Despite my limited opportunities, I still find Berlin a fascinating city. Sometime ago I tried to do a re-photography thing and match some old images against the modern skyline. It just emphasised the rate of change. 

 

I would love to go back one day for purely photographic expedition. It is a city I feel very comfortable with, but still don't feel I have captured fully its charms, but I too am a doughnut. 

 

 

To be or Knot to be

 

It's funny that after over 30 years of marriage, you can still find new things to fall out about...

 However, somehow I had managed to annoy my wife, and to be honest, I still wasn't sure what I did wrong.

It all started in September. Normally, October is my go-to month for photo projects. I use up a bit of holiday and head off for a me day on some exotic wind-swept beach like Hull. This year, however, I had made a cock up and found that rather than my usual plethora of spare holidays, I had managed to use up all my holiday allocation. To be honest I found this a bit irritating.

I was then reading one of those photography magazines that show you wonderful places to go to take images, which are normally out of my reach, and it mentioned the Norfolk RSPB reserve in Snettisham and the so-called "Knot spectacular". 

This is an annual event, where huge numbers of waders, called Knot, congregate on the East Coast, creating spectacular murmurations. This can only be seen at certain times of the year, when a high tide pushes them up the mud flats to the viewing areas. 

It had been on my photographic bucket list for a number of years, and looking at the dates, there was one that occurred at 7:30 am on a Saturday. Suddenly, my holiday limited-year problem had been solved. All I had to do was get to Snettisham for the early morning, and I would have a plethora of photographic opportunities.

Snettisham is 2 and half hours from me, and I really didn't want to start off at 4 in the morning, so I booked a Travelodge in nearby Kings Lynn (Slogan - Boring hotels, for cheap people), I was quite pleased with myself, and here I may have made a small mistake of not first mentioning my plans to my wife, until a few weeks later when she wanted to discuss plans for the rest of the year. When I told her my cunning plans, she was not amused that I had done this without consulting her, and I was in the dog house for weeks after.

Still the die was cast, and so it was I found myself on an empty East Anglia road at 5 in the morning, trying to find the RSPB reserve car park. 

Why so early? Well, in my research, it stated that the car park was small and filled quickly. As it was, there were already a number of cars there, so I parked up and started the 2 Km walk to the viewing site. 

Walking in the dark to an unknown area is a weird experience, since you are living in a small tunnel of light with only a vague idea of what is around you. In my head, I had already decided what image I would come up with. Because it was a morning start, I hoped to catch the murmuration against the rising sun. The forecast leading up to the day was hopeful; Even on the day, it showed sets of broken clouds, however that turned out to be a lie, and instead a unbroken set of clouds hung over the horizon.

The RSPB brochure promised a cheery RSPB guide to direct you to the right spot and give advice. However, the only guide I saw was someone a afer a kilometre in, using people skills that can only be gained from many years of solo bird watching, informing me like a 2nd World War air raid warden, to extinguish my torch. Not sure why, since I doubt the illumination from a single head torch was going to scare off the flocks, and while the remaining  path was OK, at places suffered from erosion and I really didn't want to fall and turn my ankle. 

After about a 20 minute walk, I arrived at the area looking over the mud flats. I had done a lot of research, studied maps etc, but I was still not sure where the best spot would be. Also, I was painfully aware that my best long lens - a 150-400 with a 1.5 converter (min aperure f8), was going to be against photographers with fast 600mm+ lenses. I hoped the birds would get close enough in to get close-up shots, but if not, I was going to try to do something a bit more artistic with the fast-moving flocks.

I was also interested to see how the fuji camera bird detection mode would work in a flock and low-light situation.

I arrived at about 6:30 a.m. so there was plenty of time to take in the surroundings. You would have thought there would be a community spirit in such a gathering, but there was virtually no conversation as we stared out into the morning gloom.

Waiting for Knotto

 

 The 1st thing I saw was what I initially took as rocks, which turned out to be geese, roosting on the mud. As the light rose, these took off, as they went to their feeding grounds. My camera struggled to lock onto these targets in the poor light, and I could only hope for better results when the light grew.

 

As the tide came in, so did various flocks of birds, not the expected knots, but large flocks of Oyster Catcher and some rarities like spoonbills.  Although the tide table indicated a high tide of 7:30 am, the water did not actually come to the shore till much later. 

The ever-diminishing mud line is what encourages the waders to come closer. As it was even at 8 am, the flocks were quite a distance away. 

 

Every once in a while, as if conducted, they would take to the air, creating patterns in the sky. While wonderful to see, it did not quite reach spectacular proportions. 

After a while, the Oyster Catchers and Knots went over to the nearby gravel pits pools on the other side of the sea wall.  I have seen images of huge swathes of birds, and I wanted to get a similar image. So at about 9, I decided to beat the rush and head off to the nearby hide, humorously called Knots Landing.

Knots Landing hide is a relatively new hide, and instead of the traditional slotted ports, it has large viewing areas of tinted glass, which is great for viewing, but leaves a lot to be desired for photography. They also provide camera ports at knee and ground-level . Most of these were already occupied, and there was definitely a social issue on how to manoeuvre to one of the spare ones. Unfortunately, in my excitement about accessing a free slot, I forgot to check my camera settings, and it was still on high ISO, so most of my images were noisy and bit on the sogt side.

 

Not that it mattered too much, since the flocks were not as big as I had seen on other days. A lady I spoke to later, who had travelled all the way from Southampton and sported a huge 600mm prime on her waist, said that the "spectacular" had been a bit disappointing and tomorrow would be better, which is not the information you want to hear when you are on a one-day trip.

 I then had to decide what to do next. I followed the path around the pool and came up next to the shoreline. By this point, it was 10 am, and the tide was fully in, so I spent some time taking images of an old quay way that stood out. In hindsight, I think I would have been better standing there earlier, since the birds went closer to that point than where I was standing earlier. 

I was also surprised to find the birds were still murmurating long past the 7:30 am peak time given. I was also taken by the Oyster Catchers as they headed out to sea in small flocks. Although not a rare bird, their black and white plumage, long orange beaks make them quite eye-catching, and I spent a lot of time trying to capture them in flight.

 

As is usual in my world, the clouds had broken up by midday, but the birds had largely dispersed. As I trudged back to the car park, I could inspect the landscape I had missed in the night stroll. To be honest, Snettisham is not the prettiest of reserves, being flat and largely treeless. Without these yearly events, there would not be much to recommend it over some of the bigger reserves down the coast, such as Minsmere or Clay Marshes. 

I then decided I needed lunch, so I headed into Hunstanton (Slogan - Kiss me quick, then get a dose of penicillin), and I spent a few happy minutes taking pictures of the colourful beach huts. Then it was a long drive back home, to find out whether my wife had forgiven me yet...

In hindsight... 

So did I get that ground-shattering nature shot?  Simple answer, no.  When I got back, I was a little disappointed in my shots, especially those taken in the hide. But maybe I shouldn't be. Fuji cameras are not over-supplied with large fast long primes, and therefore, I was always going to be limited as to what shots I could get. However, I spent a day watching one of the great nature spectacles, and maybe that should be enough. 

The fact my photography was not up to capturing it in all its glory is incidental 

So what did I learn 

1. Be a bit sceptical about tide tables. The actual high tide is actually later

2. Enjoy the day. Yes, its great to take photos, but be part of the moment as well

3. Tell your significant other your plans well ahead of time... 

 Snettisham Video

Hunstanton groynes

Mud Flat Patterns

A few years ago, one little Egret would of been big news, now you can see loads

Praying to the gods of photography

Take one camera into the shower...

Landscape too

Egret and spoonbills

 

Marsh Harrier too...