IN HAMBURG:
This exhibition on surrealist sculpture in Bucerius Kunstforum.
Followed by a walk in the area of the hotel/course which I did not know at all:
Bonus info: I am staying at Leonardo Hotel Hamburg Elbbrücke, purely because of the proximity to where my course on 13 April takes place. Since I have been to Hamburg many times, it is always interesting to get familiarised with different areas of a city, but the problem with this one is the difficulty finding something to eat in the area without having to traipse back to the S-Bahn (either Elbbrücken or Veddel) and travel.
Google will show you several cafés that look good on the internet but my walkabout yesterday revealed (and I don’t mean to sound neither sexist nor racist, but this might bother other old, single women even more than it bothers me) that they are all crammed full of men of a different ethnic origin than German, staring at you as if to say you definitely do not belong there, AND chain-smoking (yes, also in the inside area). I did have a very good cup of coffee on the terrace of one of them, but I was unable to find anywhere where I would imagine having dinner on Sunday night when the restaurant at my hotel will be closed. This poses a bit of a problem since I will need to spend time post-processing the photos taken during the course, rather than travelling around looking for something to eat. My solution in this case: Lieferando.
The view of Elphi (one of the world’s best concert halls, if you ask me) in the early morning of 13 April:
On 13 April: This photography workshop with Blende2 in Alter Industriehafen:
And finally, almost back at my hotel after a great workshop with Blende2-Hamburg, I came across these two pairs of different subspecies of geese. The Nile Geese (left) are supposed to be invasive and territorial and aggressive towards the domestic grey geese, but these were lying down, sunning themselves together (and totally unfazed by the trains roaring past in the background) until I appeared.
IN BREMERHAVEN:
Started with a walk to familiarise myself with the area and enjoy the maritime flair.
Visited Zoo am Meer for some animal portraits and a bit of ICM:
I am calling the below series “The gull and the garbage”, or: how to turn two OK photos and one epic fail into a story:
More photos to come
On day two I spent a lovely morning on (at? in?) Luneplate, a nature protection area especially famous for its birdlife, about 1,5 hours by bus from central Bremerhaven. Lots of reeds, so that will be interesting soon, when the types of birds nesting there arrive, lay their eggs, for the cuckoo to then come and throw some of those eggs out and lay their own eggs there. Also a wetlands area and a viewing tower. And some cows.
Also, I finally got a couple of decent photos of the Chiffchaff/Zilpzalp. In Berlin, I had ever only heard, seen and managed one photograph of it, and in Hamburg I heard it everywhere all the time but did not get a photo. They are tiny and move around all the time. I also got a bad photo of a reed bunting/Rohrammer.
I saw many geese, ducks and egrets far away, and some birds of prey, but did not get any good photos.
The real highlight came when I was waiting for the bus to get back to Bremerhaven. I was watching some swallows whizzing around at breakneck speed without even attempting to photograph them, until one of them suddenly sat on a branch, which made me wonder. They usually stay in the air for months. I still had my camera locked and loaded and in burst mode so aimed it at it, or her, as it would turn out, when this happened:
