Olympus OM-D Photography Playground 2014

Last year, Olympus ran a clever marketing campaign for their then flagship micro four thirds camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Unfortunately we missed it because we weren't in Berlin at the time.

The basic premise is that you go to this place and you get to borrow a camera, walk around a big building full of art installations - having fun and getting exposure to the Olympus brand at the same time. All free, pretty genius I think.

So this year when I heard it was on again I didn't want to miss it!

As soon as you walk into the playground building you come to a front reception type desk with a wall of cameras behind. Luckily as we were early the wait wasn't very long.

Because they are handing out some quite expensive gear, they want some serious identification from you - only a passport will do. Our Anmeldung's and German drivers license weren't enough, so luckily one of of our group had their passport, and with each valid form of ID they will loan out two cameras.

Since last year the OM-D line has expanded to three cameras. A new entry level OM-D (the E-M10), the E-M5 remains, now as the mid level camera and a new 'pro' level camera tops out the line (the E-M1).

I wanted to try the pro one, with the pro lens (the 12-40mm constant aperture f2.8) and was very pleased that there was no problem getting the gear I was after. As an E-M5 owner I am certainly curious about the new camera and also have been considering augmenting my lens line up with this 12-40mm lens (which costs 1,000 Euros alone).

Once registered you freely walk around multiple levels of this grand old disused (and apparently soon to be demolished) industrial building.

The highlight of the installations was a building scene optical illusion in which, through the aid of a very large mirror, you can position yourself over the building façade an appear to be perched perilously close to death!

Some of the other stuff was pretty 'arty'...

Which is the point I guess, to get you thinking creatively ...

You also have the opportunity to have a light painting done around you. We just did one of them...with pretty drastic 80's consequences...

We look a bit stunned, because basically you stand in the dark, and then the guy uses a flash gun to freeze your position in the frame - complete dark to blinding flash is a recipe for the above drop-kick look. The guy then proceeds to run around you, painting with light. In our case attempting a Berlin scene (TV tower left, Brandenburg Gate right and 'berlin' above our heads).

There was another one in which you lay upon a chaise lounge and the guy does a similar thing. The people before us were a group of young girls, all wanting their glamour portraits done consecutively - it took ages and the poor guy was exhausted. As was all his batteries.

One of our party had her portrait done, and the guy, desperate to do something different, arranged her on her back with mouth open, and drew her soul spewing from her mouth. Looked pretty cool.


There were some more arty installations...

Interactive camouflage...

And plenty of open space...

With a final exhibit being a intense light and sparse audio show in an otherwise large space. Being very dark it was very mysterious. The girls from the chaise lounge shoot were in there just before us, hogging the interactivity of it all. It was a challenging scene to photograph as the unpredictability of the lights in the otherwise darkness cause metering and focus issues - especially when you are going pro off Auto :P

When they give you the cameras, they ask you to be back within two hours. We took longer than this, mainly because the building facade illusion and the chase lounge things had long waiting lines.

By the time we returned the cameras there was quite a line waiting to register, and not too many cameras to give out. So being early is better!

So you think - if they loaned you the camera, how did I get the pictures? Well, they give you the SD card (4GB) to take home with you. All for free. Pretty cool huh.

Like I said earlier, I think this is a pretty genius marketing idea. I wonder how much of it actually turns to sales for Olympus? In regards to what I though about the E-M1 and the 12-40mm f2.8 lens? Well the E-M1 is nice, but after using it I felt no desire to upgrade. As for the lens, well it's certainly a nice lens, but my main reason for wanting it was as a wide lens and I found that at the 12mm end it wasn't as wide as I was expecting (for stuff like indoor photography) - which left me thinking that that lens isn't for me right now.

So thanks Olympus, I'll stick with what I've already got :) Maybe next year I can try a super-ultra-mega-wide lens and see if that's what I'm after.

Olympus OM-D Photography Playground 
Opernwerkstätten Berlin-Mitte
Zinnowitzer Str. 9
Open Daily 11am - 7pm
Runs from 10 April to 25 May 2014

Love lock Oberbaumbrücke UPDATE

I wrote earlier that for Valentines Day 2014 we put a love lock on the Oberbaumbrücke, and were so dismayed to see it removed just one month later!

Well this week we were innocently riding by the bridge and saw one guy crouched over the remaining locks and another guy carrying a bucket, looking suspiciously like cut-off locks.

I wanted to know more so I stopped to talk to the guy, firstly asking if I could photograph the bucket of locks. 'Ja Klar'.

I wanted to know a bit more about what was going on (though it's pretty clear what was happening, the city is cleaning up the bridge), so I asked the guy if he worked for the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. He said he didn't and then that's when my German failed me, he said twice something that sounded to me like he worked for (Nord-Berlin). I apologised that my German wasn't good enough, and he said he English is bad too...a chuckle together and he walked off.

So it remains unclear who they worked for, either a contracting company or perhaps the Ordnungs Amt. Whoever they are it is obvious that the city doesn't want the locks on the bridge and this time ALL of them were removed.

Passing by the next day I noticed that a solitary lock has made it onto the bridge...

Good luck to Sofie and Juha, the next generation of naive lovers, whose gesture is destined to have the same fate as our short lived love-lock.

And the canvas is blank once more...

Szczecin (Stettin) Poland

It has been a while since we've been outside of Berlin, so we decided on a weekender somewhere. Friends were coming to Berlin which gave us an opportunity to have someone look after Barney (the dog). They would only be there for the weekend, so we needed to pick a place that was nearby enough that we didn't waste too much time travelling, not overly expensive and somewhere worthwhile going to.

This place tuned out to be Szczecin in Poland, hard to pronounce we much preferred and used the German name 'Stettin' instead. The VBB / Deutsche Bahn offer a Berlin-Stettin ticket, which for 10 Euros gets you one way transport there. The ticket includes local transport in Berlin and Stettin. So for 40 Euros we had our return trip tickets. These can be bought at the VBB machines in the main train stations, but buying them one at a time was a bit of a pain, so we just went into the DB travel center and the lady at the counter could arrange it much quicker and easily that way - all in one 40 Euro transaction (rather than perhaps multiple transactions with the machine).

We love travelling by train, and this whole journey was so simple. The main trip requires just one change (at a place called Angermuende), however we needed to get from home to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. No problems as with these tickets we could get a bus from down the road to the Ostbahnhof and then the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof.

The main train is a regional one, which provides a comfortable smooth ride. The first train was a double decker which gives great views of the outside.

Changing at Angermuende (about half way through the trip) we got onto a smaller regional train, not a double decker. Here our tickets were checked by a conductor.

A total trip time of just over 2 hours later and we were in Stettin.

The Stettin train station is not quite the grand European railway station I had envisaged, but hey it does the job I guess!

Even though our tickets allow transport on the local Stettin public transport, our hotel was only a short way from the train station, so we walked - helps to get ones bearings.

Outside of the station everything felt very Eastern European, crappy roads and a general run down vibe.

We also started to notice that there was hardly anyone around and that all the little food stalls and shops on our way were shut. This was early afternoon on a Saturday? What gives? It felt very Zombie movie like...empty.

At the hotel we checked in, and hearing that Stettin had a couple of shopping centres I asked where they were. The lady showed us on a map but said they would all be closed, that EVERYTHING was closed because it was a Polish national holiday (Constitution Day).

What a rookie mistake not to check the holidays beforehand! At least, she said, things would be open on Sunday.

Once settled in, our first task was to get some Polish money (Zloty, PLN - 1Euro = 4.2PLN, $1AUD = 2.8PLN ). The hotel lady said there were some ATMs nearby so we went to check them out. The first five or so (Banks AND ATMs) we came across were completely closed, shuttered, not operational. This was a bit of a worry until we found a larger bank with working ATMs. Phew.

After that we went for a walk around, the 'Centrum' area and the 'Old Town' area. It was all pretty much spooky quiet with only (presumably) other tourists walking around looking for something to do.

The old town, which was completely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the 1990's was similarly deserted with similarly bemused tourists. We didn't think much of the old town. It has no real 'vibe' to it, though not having any people certainly didn't help!

In the old town is the Pomeranian Dukes Castle, where the rulers of Pomerania ruled from 1121 - 1637.

And inside some amateur bands were practising.

Part of the reason for picking Poland as a destination was to get some good Polish food - so we hit up a Pierogi (dumpling) house called Pierogarnia Kaszubska.. We got two of the largest portions (12 dumplings each), which cost a total of 32.40PLN, about 8 Euros.

 These things were/are delicious but beccause you can only order one 'type' (mushrooms and spinach, meat, cabbage, etc) the samey taste can get to you. Of course we shared our two types and it was all very filling. We were very happy to have had our pierogi.

With our transport tickets still valid (apparently) we caught a tram as far as you can go to the east, across the Oder river. It turned out that it isn't actually that far away, and the area it passes through is all industrial and shipping. It's not that nice of an area but if you keep going (by bus where the tram ends) then you get taken into another part of Stettin, no idea what that is like. All I know is that the bit we saw looked very Eastern European, and a bit Chernobyl'ey.

The next day we checked out the two modern shopping centres. The Galeria Kaskada and the Galaxy Centrum. Both were very nice but contained most of the stores we are used to. We were just happy to see people!

We did a little price comparison shopping here, seeing what the difference between Germany and Poland was like. For major branded goods and groceries, with the conversion, things seem mostly on par. Fast food (Burger King, McDonalds) is significantly cheaper in Poland (up to two thirds!!) and our experiences of dining out also indicated things were cheaper. 

One of the other foods I was keen to try out is called Pasztecik, a dish apparently native to Stettin. This is a deep fried filled yeast thing, made with special Soviet Army field kitchen machines. I spotted the oldest Pasztecik shop in Stettin...but it was closed. Inside the Galaxy Center was a place selling them though, using the proper machine. I had to get one. Each one costs 3PLN, under 1 Euro. They taste like a donut with savoury filling. YUM!

If we had more time I would certainly have overindulged in these things!

Out an about in the streets, there was definitely more activity than the Saturday public holiday, but it was still quiet. The hotel lady had said that many things would still be closed on Sunday. So we went for a walk through a park...

And down to the river and the promenade...

And then back through the park to check out some of Stettin's city planning. An interesting thing about Stettin is that some of the city layout was designed by Baron Haussmann, who is known for redesigning much of the layout of Paris. The main features of his design in Stettin is the inclusion of roundabouts and radial streets and wide boulevards (where the trams travel down the midde)

The largest of the roundabouts (Plac Grunwaldzki) and its radial streets are very nice. The main boulevard has a series of three fountains and pavillion type cafes. The whole place would be very nice if visited during a time where people are actually out an about!

Stetting really is a mismatch of architectural styles, reflecting its historical struggles - prominent grand architecture of the Prussians, classic European stone architecture up to WWII, the French influence, Soviet communist blocks and now modern steel and glass structures.

For dinner we wanted to get some really hearty Polish food. I had a place in mind, but we asked the hotel lady again for recommendations. The place she would go to, as a local, was shut. She then insisted that we go to the old town where we could find something. We'd already been there, and the Sushi restaurant and pizzerias put us off from the notion that Polish food was its thing.

So instead we went to the place I had found, a micro brewery, part of an apparent resurgence in what was once a common thing in Stettin. Housed in a former military building, the Browar Stara Komenda was a little hard to find. Inside was smaller than expected but very nice. And of course it was very quiet with only a few other people there.

We already knew what we wanted (after seeing the menu online) and ordered the roast pork for 2 (39PLN), a soft drink and one of the house made Dark Lagers (9PLN for 500ml).

We wondered what our pork for 2 would come out like, and we weren't dissapointed. It came on a huge dish with three joints of roasted pork, on a bed of speck laced sauekrat accompanied by a bowl each of horseradish and beetreet. It was superb :)












Including a small tip, the meal came to 60PLN (15 Euros).

The next day we didn't have much time for more sightseeing, so we spent the remaining time we had walking around the centrum area. Being Monday and no more public holidays it was much much busier than before. There was a better atmosphere and the place was buzzing.

With out tickets home valid for the local transport too, we could hop on a bus from the centrum direct to the train station, then the train to Angermuende, another to the Hautbahnhof, another to Ostbahnhof and our bus home. Sounds like a lot of changing but it is really painless.

Stetting was quite a nice getaway which would have been better if we had seen it on a non-shutdown-weekend!