A week long trip to an island in the North Sea and of course I brought a few cameras! Join me for a tour around the East Frisian island of Langeoog, a real gem off the north coast of Germany.
I covered the geography of Langeoog quite extensively during my Week 12 post of my 52 rolls of film project. In summary, Langeoog is roughly a 16km long, 20 square kilometre island off the north western coast of Germany. Spending a week there over New Year's with my wife's family, I had plenty of time to go exploring and look for some good shots! As such, this will be quite a long post, with plenty of shots taken all over the island. I also found a good site outlining in more detail its overall geology as well as fascinating history, you can read that here.
The theme, films, and cameras
My aim was to document some of the more interesting places the island has to offer, and to give a glimpse of what it is like to live on essentially a very large sand dune in the middle of the North Sea, with no cars and plenty of bicycles!
I brought two Hasselblad cameras with me, the traditional medium format 501c with 120mm film and the super wide angle Xpan camera, which shoots 35mm film. What a great place to shoot wide angle!
In terms of film, I brought a big variety: Kodak Portra 400, Kodak Tri-X 400 (which I pushed to 1600!), Kodak Ektar 100, and Rollei Infrared film (the infrared shots will be part of another post though).
The weather was, as expected, vary changeable. Whilst I would have preferred some better light, you just go with the flow when outdoors on an island in the middle of nowhere. I did have some lucky breaks and most importantly I didn't get too soaked in my trips around the island. So here are some shots that gives you a glimpse of what it is like to visit the island of Langeoog. These first set of shots are all medium format 6x6 shots, with a small number of them cropped.
The iconic Langeoog boat that takes you on the 30min trip from the port of Bensersiel to the island of Langeoog. I believe there are 4 of these boats, all of varying sizes.
It is hard not to smile when you get off the boat and are greeted by a multi coloured train! This takes you the roughly 2km trip into the main town (of which there is of course just one town). You always get plenty of people taking photographs of the train (me included).
A view looking down onto the town from the water tower (perched behind me). The streets are only for bicycles, although in typical German fashion everyone cycles on the right side of the road, for the most part anyways.
A view of the town's water tower as seen from one of the side streets off the main shopping street.
Another perspective of the water tower. I have never been up to the top actually, it must have a great view.
One of the streets leading into town from the main train station. You see all sort of bicycles on this island!
Some really nice rays of light in this shot. Cropped from a 6x6 medium format image.
I am really impressed with how well this came out. Shot handheld with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO 1600. I really like how dark the blacks are and how much contrast there is. For more on "pushing film" you can visit this site for a good explanation.
A mini Christmas market. I have a better colour version of this shot, but I liked how the lights came out, even if you can't really make out anything else in the photo.
One of the many really cool houses you see around. Everything is really pristine and orderly. A rare occasion where we had a clear sky.
One of the many bakeries on the island. Notice what looks like a post box is actually a breadbox, where people's orders are left for collection by letter of their surname - how very organised!
A shot of a model of the island train. Shot handheld @ISO 1600.
A photo of the real train. I was walking along one morning and got the most fantastic light at sunrise for about 10 minutes, then it started to rain! This is one of my favourite shots of the trip.
And I think I like this shot even more. I love the depth of field you get with medium format, great colours on the always dependable Kodak Portra 400 film.
A night shot of the Hotel Norderrif, a really cracking hotel on the island. Many of our guests stayed there during our wedding week and were very pleased. Also shot on Tri-X @1600, I am very impressed by how clear it is given it was pitch black.
A statue dedicated to Lale Anderson, who famously sang 'Lili Marleen' back in 1939. She retired to Langeoog and is also buried there.
There are plenty of shops on the island too, here is a really nice boutique shop on the high street.
Another example of some funky architecture, I think it is great!
"Heimatmuseum Seemannshus" - basically a museum where the civil part of a wedding occurs. The cool thing is that all around outside the building the cobble stones have the initials and dates of previous couples who got married there (and yes, ours is there too at the back somewhere...)
The house next door. It is a pity I did not get the perspective right, because the door is really tiny, maybe a child can go through without bending down. Mind you, at 195cm most things look small to me so I am exaggerating a bit. Cool building though!
An empty beach other than two solitary figures in the distance.
An unusually deserted main street, this may have been taken on New Year's Day.
Well, it is an island full of sailors after all...
Bikes, bikes, and more bikes! One of the many bike rental shots in town.
A view from the dunes onto the very long beach. The colours came out a big funny in this shot, but I think that was down to my scanner. I still like the shot though!
Walking along the dyke, you can see the mainland in the distance with an abundance of wind farms, that is typical 'Ostfriesland' for you.
The Christmas market in colour, a better representation of it I think! Actually from the looks of it they had taken down most of the little cottages, so that is what is left of it.
Time for some Wide Angle Living!
Of course, I couldn't resist brining my Hasselblad Xpan! I really like the challenge of shooting wide angle in general street photography, but this camera really comes into its own for landscape shots. These were all shot on Kodak Ektar 100 film, and I highly recommend looking at these on a laptop or desktop monitor. Of course, if you are viewing this on a mobile device, don't forget to turn it sideways, for some super wide shots!
Obviously this first shot is not wide angle as it is a shot of the camera itself. I was actually shooting infrared film at this point, which requires a black filter that cuts out all visible light, therefore requiring REALLY slow shutter speeds, and therefore a tripod and cable release is a must.
The main beach that reaches all the way to the end of the island. This place is obviously much busier in the summer, but because it is so long there is plenty of space. The island is also very popular with kite surfers due to the strong winds.
A view over the dunes of the beach and the North Sea, of course.
Yes that is rain and yes it drenched me about 10 minutes later!
I am sure you are sick of photos of the train at this point, but I couldn't resist fitting it all in with this super wide angle shot!
A view of the train station.
Busy car (I mean bike) park. Actually this was shot with the Hasselblad and cropped.
Train selfie?!
There are so many entry points to the beach through the dunes, I keep on finding new ones.
A shot of the town from above. Langeoog has c. 1,800 permanent residents. It is a hugely popular island in summer.
A typical residential street. My Dad described it well when he said this place was like "The Truman Show" set, and he didn't believe any of it was real, it was too perfect!
Rolling sand dunes.
An unintentional last shot with light leak included, I always like when I get these because they add some really cool effects to the shot and luckily it did not cut some portrait in half it was just a long landscape shot!
So I hope you enjoyed a mini-tour of the island. I suppose a future blog post should be shots from the air. There is a small airport, and I have yet to take a plane that tours this and the other islands. Definitely something I plan to do when there is a bit better weather and less wind.
My next blog post will be a Wide Angle Living post of Langeoog in infrared, that had some really curious results, and is not to be missed!
Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to be your virtual tour guide. I hope you enjoyed the shots as much as I did taking them!
Cheers,
Neil
