A Sunday meetup with a couple of fellow large format photographers for a walk around Munich’s Olympic village in search of some old architecture and interesting shots. Here are my impressions.
I had not used my large format Linhof camera for quite a while so I jumped at the chance to venture out on a Sunday with some fellow large format photographers. Our destination was the Olympiadorf (Olympic village) in Munich’s Olympic Park. Unfortunately this area does not have the best memories associated with it (Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics), but the area is now buzzing with life and fully inhabited. The complex hosts c.6,000 people in a mix of apartments and small bungalows. The bungalows form part of a student residence complex, housing around 2,000 students.
The idea was simple - meet at the village and go in search of some interesting architectural views. The weather was a bit mixed, being quite bright with the odd high altitude cloud. I shot a mix of Ilford FP4 and Fomapan 100, sometimes with an orange filter.
Aerial view of the Olympic village complex. Reference: Wikipedia.
Quite the collection!
BIG negatives!
We perched on top of a hill in this first scene. The end result is not as interesting as I imagined it would be, I find it too busy and it isn’t clear to me what the subject is. I think I feel the same way about most of the images in this post.
A second photo with a tele lens. Actually it is a pity this is not in colour, because in black & white those bungalows look really shabby and they are actually very colourful in real life.
Fail. Not sure what happened here with the focus! I moved the camera from another location nearby and I may not have readjusted. Pity, although the end product is somewhat artistic I guess.
Similar location but much better shot - it is in focus! I believe all the homes on the bottom are for students. One of the guys used a 300mm lens to get a great composition on the big tower on the right, with the repeating patterns of each apartment.
I used an orange filter for this shot, but I find the contrast a bit lacking. Pity, as I quite like the composition.
Overall observations
I had a great few hours out exploring this part of the Olympic Park, although I was quite rusty in setting up and using my camera and made multiple mistakes. The good news is that practice improves everything, and the following week we went to the Olympic Rowing lake and I got some of my best shots ever (post coming imminently with that write-up!).
Overall, a great way to spend a Sunday and geek out with some fellow large format photographers.
Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!
Neil
