Another ‘World in Large Format’ and incidentally more of the Olympic venues in Munich; this time the Olympic rowing lake with a focus on the incredible 50 year old 10,000 capacity stands along with some great weather. Join me for my impressions on Fomapan 100 film.
It seems Olympic venues in Munich are the places to visit if you have a large format camera, perhaps due to the fact that they are 50 years old and mostly still in use. This time we visit the Olympic rowing lake, also known as ‘Regattastrecke Oberschleißheim’, located in the north of Munich. Incidentally, I also row on this lake, however I have never brought my large format camera along with me. I did once bring along my Nikonos camera (post here) when I went rowing for some lovely sunrise shots, but I have always wanted to shoot the incredible 10,000 capacity stand.
I was up at the lake last Sunday with a fellow large format shooter. We had some fantastic lighting, even better contrast, and a real party atmosphere at the lake with loads of people enjoying the good weather having drinks at the aptly named ‘Munich beach’ or doing sports on or along the lake.
All shots taken with Fomapan 100 film on my Linhof Master Technika V camera with a combination of 150mm and 270mm (thanks for the loan of the lens, Florian) lenses.
M first shot of the day. I love the contrast and the shadows, although the final image was a bit “messier” than I thought it might be in terms of overlapping lines. I still like the shot though.
I really like this shot. I also like that it is really not that obvious as to what it really is. It is the side of the stands that are actually not straight but have beams coming out towards the ground (you can see them on the right in the above image).
I may take this shot again. I like the idea, but I think I have more negative space than I was hoping to have. It was hard to compose as the lower left of the photograph had many other shapes so moving it any lower would have drastically changed the shot.
I am actually most disappointed with this one, primarily due to the effort it took me to haul myself up onto the flat area and setup the tripod in a very awkward way. The end result is…flat. Pity really, compared to the other images this one has very poor contrast. I also don’t think the composition is as strong as the others.
I like the different shades of grey in this shot, although next time I might get a bit closer (or just crop!) to remove the bottom area. It was harder to get closer as that is the path where loads of people are cycling or running along…hard to plop a 4x5 camera in the way for 10mins or so whilst I get everything ready!
This is definitely one of my favourite shots I have taken with the linhof. I am glad I listened to my mate and didn’t put an orange filter on, there is plenty of grit and personality in those (presumably) 50 year old seats!
Also a winner - I just love the strong contrast!
Overall observations
Practice makes perfect as they say, and with a bit of muscle memory after the previous week’s Linhof outing, I faired much better this time. Sometimes you also just get into the groove of things. There are so many different compositions in and around the stands though. I am really happy with these images and happy I will be returning again for a ‘Part 2’ of this blog.
I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them!
Neil
