"Kaum sind sie da, sind sie weg" / "They're hardly here and they're gone" presents the challenge of photographing something that isn't there. Or not? What is ephemeral? Flowers. But I already have a flower shot. What else... trams! I know a place where trams intersect, it does yield a few passable shots. Yet at the end I choose a random snapshot of another ephemeral thing: water from sprinkling fountains. And kids. Double fit. A good call too – other participants chose trams, there was another water fountain, but no other kids.
Next, what is "Gemacht, um zu widerstehen" / "Made to resist/endure"? A cactus. Googlemapping the next florist, bingo, they have a thorny one. "Besorg's dir doch einfach" / "Just get it". Something at a counter? But you need to pay for that, can't just get it. How about salt, oil and vinegar on a restaurant table? If you don't have it, just get it.
I still hadn't included my starting number (52) in a picture, thought of a very obvious one - house numbers are "Quadratisch, praktisch, gut" / "Square, practical, good". Luckily while crossing a street I found noticed these practical lil' square-y things sporting a 5 and a 2. I had to step back on the pedestrian crossing a few times to get a decent shot, but I managed eventually.
"Wieviel Wahnsinn steckt in dir" / "How much madness is there in you"? Well, if we're talking about the person who jumped from the cart on top of the wheel, we may never know.
On the way to the final destination I notice a girl with huge balloons, then hear loud gregarious voices, and then I see yellow. "Wenn die Liebe Spass macht" / "When love is fun". Done.
As usual, it was a delicate balance to strike between being too obvious and too subtle, and very difficult to get 12 good shots in the process. As for giving a theme to the entire series... something to consider for next time.
As usual, an intense and naturally creative day, flawlessly organized, culminating with a delicious dinner and fascinating discovery of how the 22 participants interpreted the same 12 topics. I recommend the #fotomarathon
At 10am on Saturday not much was going on, so for the lack of better ideas I settled for the blossoming tulip for the first topic, "Der Morgen macht den Tag" / "the morning makes the day".
For "Was immer kommt" / "whatever comes", choices weren't more abundant. These steps seem like an unfinished construction, can't tell what comes next. Could kind of fit, I thought.
For theme no. 3, "Und die Welt wird bunt" / "and the world becomes colorful" I planned to do a black-and-white photo. Played with this idea tha tha tha thatttt the green tree becomes colorrrrful in drawing... didn't work so well in B&W, so I ended up editing the RAW file in-camera later (we're not allowed to edit on the computer, only what the camera gives).
Then I saw this wall, interesting, but I didn't think of it as working for the 4th topic, "Sie spürt nichts, er merkt nichts" / "she doesn't feel/sense anything, he doesn't notice anything". But then someone passed by, and I saw the girl on the wall, with the inscription 'I'm high I feel twice'. 'Ha, but you don't', I thought, 'you're on the wall'. And the passer-by doesn't notice anything - bingo. I liked this picture a lot, and it's a fleeting moment, I had to go on to a different place, so I got stuck with the pictures I'd taken more or less casually before. (The rule is to take the pictures in topic order)
While waiting for the train I saw this lady reading - Einstein is a nice symbol for "nichts ist unmöglich"/ "nothing is impossible", I thought. There goes theme number 5.
The last one for the morning - "von ganz tief oben" / "from deeply up" - is tricky if you want to do it accurately. I stopped by a Scientology tent, thought that would be quite interesting, but didn't find a good angle. Next to them was another tent, which delivered a slightly better composition, and I liked the metaphor - Jesus is above, but he is looking for you from deep inside. From deeply up.
Till the end of the morning I didn't find a better execution, so I ended up with these 6 photos. Not happy about all of them, especially 2 and 3, but glad I could take them without time pressure. Wondering what the afternoon session would bring.
#fotomarathon
