the joys of waiting

Last week I decided to indulge in an old joy of mine: Going to bookshops. I ventured into the Dussmann Kulturkaufhaus at Friedrichstraße and found a book that I was unable to find online. This time I took my 14mm lens for a spin, since it always comes in handy in touristy spots with lots of people. After all, that’s a perfect description of Friedrichstraße, isn’t it?

All pictures taken with: Olympus Pen E-PL3 and Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 ASPH.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Whenever I’m bored waiting for the subway I tend to look for good subjects. Kids tend to do interesting things, so I usually watch and wait to see whether something interesting happens. The little guy was just as bored as me.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Feeding the family.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

She wasn’t just smiling at the ceiling, there are actually screens with ads and news on there as you can see in the background.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Call me!

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

A kiss goodbye.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Protecting the little ones from the cold.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Suspicious look. I guess he knew what I was doing.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The “program with the mouse” is an educational tv show for kids. It was already around when I was a kid and I used to love it. Back then TV was still good, although already declining thanks to the advent of private channels. The show had the mouse, which is orange bye the way, and a little blue elephant. I actually have the cuddly blue elephant sitting at home.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Both distracted.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The woman with the Boss bag was actually begging. Very odd.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The Berlin ‘Ampelmännchen’, the little illuminated guy on the pedestrian crossing signal has become exploited as a tourist symbol. After the reunification they actually westernised the Ampelmännchen for a while, but now they have realised its economic value.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Did I mention that I find hands very interesting?

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Clearly a wide-angle moment.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Apparently the station Friedrichstraße had some significance during the deportations of the Third Reich. The question is: Which station didn’t have that significance … it happened all over the country.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

The one downside of the 14mm lens is that it’s not quite fast enough for the subway at times. Lots of noise.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

 

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

 

Yesterday I travelled back to Düsseldorf so that I can continue preparing prints. I will also fly back from here to Spain on Tuesday. I’m very much looking forward to being back in Spain actually. I have to say that I enjoy a bit of travel, now that my health is at least relatively stable, but it was actually getting a bit much. It’s strange to be travelling from place to place staying everywhere barely a week or two. I’m looking forward to spending a month in Spain now before I have to travel again. That way one can at least arrive without having to think about leaving again immediately. There will still be lots of travel involved before I move to Spain completely, but then after the move I’m actually looking forward to some rest.

The day before yesterday my friend Damien and I made another attempt at repairing my Yashica Electro 35 CC. Sadly we had no luck. Although we managed to get quite a bit further than the last time I tried we just couldn’t make the last ring budge that was holding the element with the fungus on it. Of course the fungus was on the other side and not accessible. There are still more options to explore, but for now the repair effort has come to a halt. After looking at the scans I’d say that at the moment the camera is pretty much unusable because of all the flare. I’ll try to salvage some of the pictures from my test roll, but I doubt I’ll have much luck. I’m not prepared to give up yet, since the pictures actually look promising – the lens definitely is sharp – but I guess it might still take some time before I can really use this camera.

Comments

  • Ralf D.

    Great! One of your best series.

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