Fireworks and Exploding Chairs - TPF Germany Meet-Up

[Antarctican]

What would that be then? 16?

A big hug to 'my new best friend'!!!

BTW, I gained 3 kg during last week

I managed to gain 3 or 4 lbs. I thought it would be worse, given all the yummy food, chocolate and wine I was forced to consume.

And did anyone mention there were no Nikon shooters at the meet-up?

Heehee, I wondered when someone might notice/mention that!!

 

[doenoe]

I managed to gain 3 or 4 lbs. I thought it would be worse, given all the yummy food, chocolate and wine I was forced to consume.

Forced? We had trouble getting the stuff away from you.........and i thought it wasnt a nice thing to drink that bottle of Canadian whiskey on your own neither, in like an hour.

No really, that Canadian stuff was great. Thanks for sharing that, really enjoyed that. That goes for the little gifts too, trying to find a space for that in my room right now

 

[doenoe]

Next batch is up. This was the trip to Bremen. I didnt take alot of pics since i felt like crap that mornin. My shooting started at the end of the tour in the old building
#31 Lets start with the lamp that everyone photographed

#32 There were alot of very nice woodcarvings in that building

#33

#34 When Hertz saw that Christiane finally lowered her camera and no one else was paying attention, he started to moonwalk

#35 uhm.........a statue

#36 This guy was pissed and pissing at the same time. Good thing he fell over once he finished and not during.

#37 The musicians (just check the link posted earlier in this thread)

#38 There was a mill in Bremen and once we found it, we had to take some pictures

#39 And after the pictures we settled on the patch of grass were Graham told us that he injured his knee during the moonwalking

#40 Sky wanted to find out if the gravity still worked and let go of his camera a split second after this shot.........im glad to say that gravity still worked, Sky was less happy about that

#41 I dont know what this guy was doing, but it looked like he was very interested in the leaves.....maybe i should tell him that it wasnt marihuanna

#42 Just one more of the mill

#43 At the end of the trip i got a hint that it was time for a certain something

#44 A bug shot, this one was travelling with us in the train. I had to change my lens, put on the flash and take this pic with one hand. Glad it worked out

And yes, even more to come

 

[Alex_B]

more, eh!

On Tuesday Corinna took us to the town of Lüneburg. Apparently the locals once bought billions of metric tons of clay bricks on an eBay auction. As with most eBay purchases, they had no clue why they bought them or what to do with them. So they just piled them up to a brick theme park, including walls and buildings and even churches.

57: Guess what, a brick wall.

58: Red bricks. And apparently you are supposed to stand there and look out for secret information. I waited for 30 minutes but nothing happened, so I walked on.

59: Red bricks and windows.

60: Black bricks piled up into a building-like structure. Some of us tried drinking beer at those vertical tables in the foreground, but failed utterly and we quickly left all the broken glass behind.

61: Walking man and bricks (and a f a g (censorship? come on, it is a cigarette)). This fellow also had a metal pole sticking in his head. I suppose besides from being a smoker, he served also as some sort of mobile traffic sign.

62: Part of the TPF gang and bricks.

63: Chris taking pictures of some outstandingly nice bricks.

64: Bricks and chicks.

65: (No) bricks and chips. Some TPF people actually stole some of these from me since I was the only one clever enough to squeeze in a small snack!

66: Jeff taking a picture of the only brick free corner of Lüneburg.

67: Inside the mysterious church of bricks.

68: And there was actually a smaller brick church underneath the large church of bricks.

69: Bricks and glass.

70: More church windows, you can actually see some red brick walls shining through.

71: After quite a while in the underground of said church, we managed to climb up again.

72: Some of the buildings close to the church where painted, to disguise the fact, that it was all bricks anyway.

73: The market place (no bricks??).

74: Stasi 2.0 ... and apparently no bricks here!

75: Why must German be so complicated? In the UK this note would simply read "CCTV",

76: Back in time.

 

[Alex_B]

A big hug to 'my new best friend'!!!

:mrgreen:



oh dear, the others are posting Wednesday (Bremen) already ... I better hurry!

 

[doenoe]

no need to hurry, im 2 days ahead of the lot of you. Ill just wait till everybody gets to the point of posting the millshots

 

[Antarctican]

Hopefully there's no rush, Alex. I'm still back on Sunday's pics.

(Imagine that, me being later than the rest of you?!)

 

[RandyB]

Great photos thanks for sharing them with TPF ppl.

 

[LaFoto]

Alex ... no need to worry. In my narration it is still Hamburg-time :roll: - though I did work on the canoe pics earlier today (! ta-daa!). Sky has already arrived at Thursday night and the birthday barbecue, posting that nice photo of you and the young Heike, THAT should rush me at last!

 

[Unimaxium]

Well Now I have arrived at Friday. It's a short batch. But don't worry, this won't be my last collection. I still have some more shots I've been saving. ;-)

69. In the morning, Hertz got out his fancy lighting equipment that he had lugged over from England. Colin desperately wanted us to take a portrait of him and his new wife, so we obliged:

70. Later, we went to get some ice cream in Rotenburg. I decided to be non-conformist and not photograph everyone's ice cream dishes. I'm sure someone else will post good photos of the things we ordered. Oh, and did I mention that Alex really loves his camera?

71. Then later, went to an Italian restaurant for a farewell dinner. Everyone took the opportunity to get in some last-minute photographs of the gang...

72. And Alex went peek-a-boo! (I really have no idea how to fit this shot into the context of anything)

 

[LaFoto]

Oh dear. You've come to the end of the week already, Sky, I am still in Hamburg with all of you... :shock: ... like with this good-looking guy here:

Some impressions of the port as we went past in that harbour tour boat:

Back on land, at first no one knew what to do next or where to go for lunch, so I got a little bored and tried to capture the wheel of the "Louisiana Star" in full motion as it left for its tour round the harbour.

With our strengths restored by either ok food or by Hamburger Sauerfleisch (no! tomato soup in the end!!!), we headed for the market square and town hall in purposeful strides...

Yes, "purposeful strides" became a kind of hallmark of the way the TPF-group used to move from place to place. *nods vigorously here*. Oh yes!

 

[LaFoto]

Once arrived at the market square, some took marvellously composed photos of the big screen which had been put up already for public viewing of the Euro 2008 Soccer Championships while others tried to translate the inscription on the town hall...

We arrived at various different translations - any knowledgeable people among the TPF crowd who know what is written here?

The Hamburg coat of arms is easy to recognise

Jeff is a bit lost, not knowing what to do (he could chimp, like Hertz does, but he photographs with film, so chimping is not the wisest thing to do for him!)...

... so he quickly decides in favour of the salute!

Tony and Alex are beginning to say bye-bye to each other, not long after this, Sandie and Tony had to walk the short distance to the station to catch their train, then car, then plane...

Next to the Alster Arcades, there was a "real pro" at work with a model!

For some odd reason that escaped us, his model had to jump up and down, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase...

... and with this photo they were finally happy and quickly left the scene as they saw all the TPFers arrive with their non-Nikons!

 

[LaFoto]

This crowd was a lot less fazed by our presence and actually thought that attack is the best possible defense!

Soon enough, though, we were no longer interested in other photographers... some became quite intimate with the swans on the stretch of water in front of the Alster Arcades ...

...while others photographed swans (too - there were many of them around!) or pigeon porn :roll:

But hats off! This is dedication!

 

[Alex_B]

ohh.. and even more. .. , great!


I am working on the Lüneburg Heath trip. Coming soon !

 

[Alex_B]

OK, here it comes, our trip into the Lüneburg Heath


77: Before our trip, for some strange reason we went to a graveyard, only to encounter this little monster.

78: Yet another dog.

79: Soon we started our trip into the heath, drawn by two sturdy horses.

80: The whole journey was fairly shaky, so that my images came out slightly blurry with image stabilization switched off (WARNING, contains art!).

81: But then I worked out a cunning plan. I would shoot at wide apertures, and then even Hertz became sharper than usual.

82: Jeff focussed more on shots of the dirty track.

83: Soon I felt that something was wrong. And indeed, there it was, the blackmail camera to record videos, pointing at me!

84: While Corinna and two OOF TPF people had a clear preference which direction to stare.

85: ... Anty and Sky kept looking in totally random directions.

86: ... sometimes synchronized.

87: And on we go.

88: The dirt track.

89: After a while we stopped in the middle of the forest, where a fair maiden served us with delicious food and drink.

90: Yes, the meet-up had a constant theme

91: Two cuties.

92: Our great organiser ... apparently pleased

93: Finally, the horses were sent to bed, and we had to drive home in magic self-propelled carriages.