black & white

Earlier this year, some very wonderful friends of mine finally decided to tie the knot. Knowing that I enjoy photography, I talked things over with H & J and offered that instead of actually buying them a gift, I’d save them some money and do both their wedding portraits and the wedding event photography. I wanted to document the day from beginning to end – and make sure that their memories were saved – and also not based on a time limit. (Here in Dublin, for 5 hours of wedding event photography it costs about 600 Euros – and that doesn’t even include prints nor a cd/dvd of the images taken!)

It’s not the first wedding that I’ve photographed – but it was the most intense and wonderfully gratifying experience that I’ve had in a long time. I got there at about 10 am, and left around midnight. Over the course of the day, there were some 1500 pictures taken – which were later parsed down to about 350 that were kept as good enough to put in the photo book of the event. I think they were delighted – because I managed to cover everything from the moments of the family getting ready together, through the bus to the registrar’s office, to the first kiss.

I also remembered to get the decorations, the cake (which was decorated by a baker in the family), and then both the wedding brunch at the Crowne Plaza and the Barbeque in the backyard where the first dance, flower toss, and cake cutting ceremony was performed.

I also found the opportunity to get the quirky things that perhaps another person would have missed, but that I really was able to pick up on because I know them as individuals and as a couple. Things like the two of them kissing – and their shadow merging into one, The bottom of H’s shoes as she went into the registrar’s office (she’d pasted stickers of hearts and the words I DO),

The teasing that happened at the wedding brunch (balancing spoons on their noses)

And the naturalness of them walking down the street, holding hands – J carrying the picnic blanket and H carrying the beautiful red cups – as if they were walking into the rest of their lives.

Sure, I was exhausted when it was all over, but after 2 days of photo processing and then turning over the photos to them- I feel not only blessed to have been there, but also blessed to have been allowed to take the photographs of such an amazing event in their lives.

Congratulations, H & J.

The city of Berlin is an awesme place. Sometimes, when you’re out wandering, you find things that – even though you thought you REALLY had covered the entire area in your previous wanderings – somehow, you turn down a side street and VIOLA, you discover something new, unique and very cool. Such was the case with the Franziskan Kloster Kirche Ruins, near the Old City Walls.

Broken Pavement Art Display

While out walking between Jannowitzbrueke from seeing the puppets (see previous post), Jade, Paul, and I decided to cut across through the “old city” and came across a lovely park – that was filled with ruins – now used for various “artistic” displays. After wandering around the edge, I found out that it’s an old Franciscan Cloister Church. Just some history on this church – it was originally built in about 1250. It’s where the Franciscan monks of Berlin were housed, and sat right on the original city walls. It was here, that in 1380, a huge fire burned through. Parts of the cloister were rebuilt. In 1539, the monestry was then closed during the reformation, and the last “serving” brother died in 1571. At that time, the building was converted into a high school, where it remained as such – educating such famous Germans as Otto Von Bismark. In 1926, the building was remodeled to be used as a school / church. During WW2, the building was badly bombed and between 1959-1961 determined that it could not be saved. So, the area was cleaned up and stabelized as much as possible and turned into a park. Today, the building hosts art projects that change monthy, and in the summer months, it hosts open air theater performances.

Anyhow, It seems it was fate for us – because the particular “art” display of the day was a bunch of metal lines strung up between the empty windows – with some kind of pulley system on them – attached to jackets. On that very blustery of fall days, not only did the leaves fall from the trees through the open window frames, but also, the jackets danced – as if they were filled with a life of their own.

I think she’s afraid of ghosts…

Thing is that sometimes – color photographs aren’t the best. You see, sometimes, effects are much better seen in Black and white:

Still at First, with a breath of wind… they become…

The “haunted” Flying Jackets

See what I mean about sometimes – black and white is just SO much better?!?

Oh and if that wasn’t proof enough, check out this “columnade” from the outside….

Stone Spiral

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Franziskan Kloster Kirche Ruins