Last Saturday I headed to Europe for a short break – namely a weekend in Berlin followed by a few days in Krakow, which incidentally was my first visit to Poland (and will be documented in a subsequent blog post).

Unlike my first visit to Berlin in 2017, I decided not to map out my itinerary at all, and instead just wandered around the city on a whim. This can be a risky approach, as there is always the “fear of missing out”, especially when you’re in a foreign city with so much going on. However, my focus for this particular trip was less gallery or museum visits, and more along the lines of practicing photography and trying new things out, in my effort to just keep getting better at photography in general. I’ll leave others to judge how that is going, but I’m relatively happy with the experimentation – both with the act of photography and the post-processing afterwards. Having gone through the photos, I feel that the biggest concern at the moment is achieving consistent quality when experimenting with taking photos at chest height or lower - as I find it difficult to angle the lens plane correctly. The second ongoing exercise is still refining how I approach post-processing (manual vs filters, which to avoid, what not to lean on too much etc). Regarding equipment for this trip: I used a Sony RX100 V, an iPhone 11 Pro Max and a GoPro Hero11 Black; although I got the most use out of the Sony & iPhone cameras (you won’t see any GoPro photos uploaded here).

The night I got to Berlin I walked up from Potsdamer Platz towards Brandenburger Tor, and over towards the government complex, an area I was already familiar with from the last trip and one that allowed me to practice some night-time photography to varying degrees of success. I did not take a tripod with me due to the increasing restrictions on their usage in public in many, if not all, major cities, thus being at the mercy of the ISO setting of the camera. As such, some shots have a thicker grain to them than others, but despite this, I feel that the post-processing focus on emphasising the difference between light & shadow was not derailed too much. The photos in the below gallery, from my walkabouts around the government complex and Brandenburger Tor, were taken with a Sony RX100.V.

On Sunday, I headed to Museum Island as I don’t recall actually visiting that area six years ago, and thus had a chance to hear the bells ring out from Berliner Dom, see the Humbolt Forum, along with take a few photos of the Chipperfield extension (the James-Simon Galerie, shown opposite. Top row taken with the Sony, bottom with the iPhone). From here, I made my way to Warschauer Straße by foot and public transport, with the intention of walking back along the East Side Gallery. However, I had a prior commitment and made my way to the Kollwitzkiez/Winsviertel neighbourhoods for a coffee and catch up with an old friend. One of the things that was brought up was precisely how big of a thing May Day is in Berlin. Usually Kreuzberg is turned into a massive protest district and tends to get quite rowdy, although this year they had been called off. Other parts of Berlin become party centres, and there was one such 36hr rave that had been ongoing since the Friday I think? Other way, perhaps future opportunities to document. The below gallery contains photos taken on both the iPhone & Sony camera.

I began Monday with the desire to at least visit a part of the old Tempelhof airport and made my way by U-Bahn, but had a wander around Postdamer Platz first (show left, a mix of iPhone + Sony) as being a May Day morning, it was pretty much deserted. I had already been mulling over taking photos (shown below, a mix of iPhone + Sony) of some of the U/S-Bahn stations as I found a number of them to be of architectural interest, and started to do so once I’d finished in Postdamer Platz, however perhaps that is a larger project for the next time I’m in Berlin (for now I’ve realised I would love to move there… yeh, a pipe dream eh?). After this excursion, I diverted North-West towards the Charlottenburg neighbourhood, starting at Deutsche Oper Berlin and moving towards Villa Oppenheim, before tending north towards Charlottenburg Palace. A lot of walking, and few photos to show for it I’m afraid. Going from one end of Berlin to the next, I aimed for the Spreepark, where the aforementioned lack of forward planning hit hard. I had hoped to walk around the derelict site, assuming it was open to the public – it is, but by ticketed tour entry only. Whoops. I did however have a lovely wee walk alongside the Spree. (Below gallery shows a mix of iPhone + Sony photography, from around Berlin).

The last major stop on the Monday was Alexanderplatz, as I didn’t recall getting any decent photographs of the area the first time around. Second time, I’m happier, but with one exception (which I think is rather striking), I’m still not completely happy. Incidentally, the photo on the top left (gallery, right, taken with the Sony) looks strikingly like a photographic collage, and I think that is more of an artifact of the interplay of light/shadow due to trees and buildings in that particular frame. It is uncanny though. One thing that did amuse me that evening, is that I think I’ve finally figured out where the end point of a critical chase scene is in one of the Bourne films – Friedrichstraße station. Could easily be wrong, but I think that is where it was.

I set off for Krakow on the Tuesday, and my write-up of that particular leg will follow in the next blog entry.