An emotional trip to Berlin

Jacobovs

Had the chance to go to Berlin but had very mixed feelings. My parents are holocaust survivors. I was delighted by the architecture and surprised how frank the people were about the war. These are just a few of the pics I took.

1
The Sony Center, a beautiful landmark


2) No visit to Berlin would be complete without a picture of the wall. The wall is only up in some places, but you can follow a demarcation on the ground everywhere the wall was up. The history was very interesting.



3) Checkpoint Charlie





4) Ok...Guilty... I took a couple of free hand HDR's



5) The Berlin Cathedral was amazing. It has been restored and is back to its previous splendor. Don't shoot me...more HDR









This organ is taken apart and shipped to Vienna every year for a Christmas concert.



6) The statue of Victoria( not the queen) it appears in quite a few places in Berlin.



and on top of the Brandenburg Gate







an amusing bit of tourist schlock in front of the gate









7) The Bundestag, the parliament once used by Hitler.



It has a magnificently modern interior and new glass dome.



8) Here is the tough part. I took many shots of the Holocaust memorial and even took some in the middle of the night. It has had mixed reviews, but I grew to like it and understand it the longer I stayed around it. It took me a long time to decide on the right angle and the " story I wanted to tell". I finally chose the shots below. For me, the shots symbolize the destruction juxtaposed with hope for the future.





I'm not sure where those light rays came from but at 2 am they were inspiring.



9)The Jewish Museum was an emotional place as well.



Captured this one at sunset.



10)The main synagogue in Berlin



11) On the lighter side, I ran into this entrance at the Mini dealership.



This was a journey that brought me to the past and back around again. Closed the loop so to speak. The people I met were wonderful and wonderfully hopeful. This was my journey to Berlin.

Any CC is always welcome.

Art Scott

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC......like the 2am Holocaust Memorial shot.....crazy lights in the night..........
bowbowthumbthumbthumb

Qarik

very nice shots..well done! the HDR is not terribly objectionable..just a slap on the wrist!

captnemo

very nice shots, Berlin is an amazing city- so much of the old was destroyed that most of it is quite modern for a European city. I only visited before the wall went down so it's interesting to see some of the newer sights.

GSPeP

Great pictures

It's been exactly 20 years now since the wall or iron curtain fell. It was a very emotional period for us back then, since my mother was from East Germany. Although a lot of her relatives live in West Germany, still a lot were over there behind the wall. And it was very diifficult to visit them.

Ed911

Most amazing photography...especially inside of the cathedrals...did you free hand those shots...mind giving us a little tech data on what your settings were and your choice of lenses, and camera body. I see you have both the D3 and d700...which did you use..

Just wondering...I think it makes it more interesting if these details are included.

Thanks for sharing your work. Wow!!

Jacobovs

Ed911 wrote:

Most amazing photography...especially inside of the cathedrals...did you free hand those shots...mind giving us a little tech data on what your settings were and your choice of lenses, and camera body. I see you have both the D3 and d700...which did you use..

Just wondering...I think it makes it more interesting if these details are included.

Thanks for sharing your work. Wow!!

Thank you for the compliments. As for the technical stuff:

I used the D700, I wound up using my 24-70 f2.8 most of the time ( 80%) , the 14-24 f2.8 , the 70-200 f2.8 & 50 f1.4 the rest. You can visit my smugmug ( www.jacobovitz.smugmug.com) site to see the details of each picture.

Inside the Cathedral , the first ceiling was with the 14-24mm f2.8 , the second tighter version is actually a hand held HDR done with the 24-70 f2.8. I bracketed at a high speed since i could not use a tripod. The toughest shot was the organ. There were so many hot and cold spots that it took several attempts. With a little Photo tools help it worked out. Hope that was enough detail. If there are any other questions, just let me know, happy to answer.:D

Jacobovs

Art Scott wrote:

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC......like the 2am Holocaust Memorial shot.....crazy lights in the night..........
bowbowthumbthumbthumb

Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback:D

Jacobovs

Qarik wrote:

very nice shots..well done! the HDR is not terribly objectionable..just a slap on the wrist!

Thanks , that slap was well deserved.:D I need to learn to control myself.

Ed911

details...
Thanks for responding with the tech data. Cool...whatever you are doing...you are doing it right...very nice photography and post processing. I wouldn't be surprised to see your work in National Geographic or some other top of the line magazine. You should definitely explore this avenue.

Thanks for sharing...

Jacobovs

Ed911 wrote:

Thanks for responding with the tech data. Cool...whatever you are doing...you are doing it right...very nice photography and post processing. I wouldn't be surprised to see your work in National Geographic or some other top of the line magazine. You should definitely explore this avenue.

Thanks for sharing...

Thanks for the compliments

ian408

I can see how a journey to such a place brings mixed emotion.

Interesting trip and some great photos.