An unplanned Sunday walkabout with my Hasselblad camera and one roll of Rollei RPX100 film takes me through Munich’s Olympic Park for some architectural inspiration. Join me for the walk!
My photography inspiration comes from either planning an idea or theme in advance or simply just picking up a roll of film and going for a walk. This post is about the latter, where on a recent Sunday I was sitting at home and found myself being a bit bored, I decided to do just that. I had a loose plan of heading to the Olympic Park and seeing what caught my eye, although I knew I would be intrigued by the architecture of the “tent roof”. The Olympic Park was built for the 1972 Munich Olympics, and given its central location, still serves as a key sport and cultural location of the city. It’s “floating tent roof” across various venues (in particular the Stadium and Swimming Hall) look modern today, I wonder what people must have thought about it back in the 1970s!
My first shot of the day. It was really cloudy and I wanted to add as much contrast as possible to the scene so I opted for an orange filter (which you can see in the “through the viewfinder shot” below). I am not sure how much it added though given how cloudy it was.
Plenty of opportunities around the park for some cool architecture shots. I like how this one come out.
It is a pity that there wasn’t a clear sky and I could have used for orange filter for maximum effect. I like the shot but I couldn’t quite get into the middle so it seems a bit off.
I like the high contrast of this shot. I rested the camera on a big block of cement to take the shot.
I nearly picked this one as my blog cover post, but I thought it was a bit busy. Still, I like the strong blacks on the structure that covers the swimming pool.
This one took me ages to get right, not least due to my fear of heights, but for overall composition. I am glad with how it came out and seems quite clear too given low-ish shutter speed.
Shot from behind the Stadium, very large support structure of the metal tent roof. Due to the angle of my shot I couldn’t take a “through the viewfinder shot”.
Last but not least, a shot through the gates of part of the Olympic stadium. I didn’t take a “through the viewfinder” shot here as I had to put the entire camera through the doors of the gate to get this shot - I am lucky I didn’t drop the camera!
Overall observations
I love simply “going for a walk” with a camera, and this Sunday was no exception. I had forgotten how great my Hasselblad is. I always say I will take it out with one lens, but end up taking both the 80mm and 150mm with me, which I can still shot handheld.
I hope you enjoyed this short blog post and see you next time!
Neil
