This time a small gallery with some photos taken during flight: Gdańsk-Berlin-Dusseldorf-Abu Dhabi. I was well prepared for the trip – I had two cameras in my hand baggage – one small X100S perfect for that situation and one traditional Konica Hexar AF. I don’t remember whether I took one photo on the film during that trip. Probably not. I don’t use that film camera as much I would like to mostly because of two reasons: Currently I cannot develop B&W film by myself at home (I currently have no developing equipment with me) and second I’m not very comfortable with shooting film – I don’t want to waste frames – and when going with film I cannot find a good frame worth taking photo of. Sometimes after one hour of wandering around I end up with one photo taken… And of course no lies – shooting digital is very convenient, you see result at once, and if you take some messy photo you can always delete it. So you can just ‘try’ and take some photos to check whether it looks good. With film you have to have an idea already you have to imagine how the frame will look like without looking at the screen.
Anyway, I think that I have to more often take only film camera and get used to the idea that not all shots will be good, and that I will see result after some time. And I can always use color film and have it developed in the lab. Maybe I’ll do it soon… I promise.
After that short digression about the difference of the approach to film and digital photography I’ll write something more about the photos in that post. Well, armed with X100S I had about hour on each stop to take some photos. In Gdańsk – at the first airport I had more time as I came quite early I had more time to wander around. Unfortunately Gdańsk Rębiechowo Airport is quite small Terminal so quite quickly I saw all corners of the building – but as you can see some shots are quite interesting. The next stop was busy terminal of the Berlin Tegel airport. I took some shots while going to my gate in the opposite part of the terminal. I especially liked the descriptions on the air socks Kerosine – Adrenaline with arrows pointing at the plane and second to the terminal. There were others but that one which is visible on the photo I liked the most. Berlin airport was quite busy so I managed to take some interesting photos with people walking by. I really like those last photos taken in Berlin taken while waiting for boarding – I especially like that photo which i entitled as ‘lazy day at security check’. In fact it wasn’t as lazy I you can judge by the photo, but for sure they weren’t in a hurry – slowly and dismissively moving boxes from one end of the security check conveyor.
When wandering around I was also hunting at shadows, silhouettes and reflections. I shot a few contrasty shots at the gate of flight to the Dusseldorf. It helped that people were waiting for boarding between me and the windows. I managed also take one shot in Berlin’s air sock and on the plane.
Next few photos were taken in Dusseldorf while waiting for the plane to Abu Dhabi with Etihad airlines. Etihad gates are at the terminal C, which is connected with long corridor with terminal A and B – and that is the first photo from Dusseldorf – as I quickly checked where my gate is to be sure how much time I have for wandering around. Next photos were taken mostly from and in that corridor, I especially wanted to take photos of Airbus plane of Etihad airlines to Abu Dhabi as it was my first contact to the Arabian world and tangible proof that I really going in that direction.
As you can see I changed from the color to the B&W. I think that I my thought was that this perspective of that long corridor will look great in black and white. And I stayed with that setting. I really like the results. My second favorite photo is that with the PASSKONTROLLE sign behind the window. I think that those messy reflections and not straight photo create atmosphere of that photo. But it’s just my opinion. Next one is also interesting – you have to stop for a longer time that normal to think up what’s happening on that photo – to recognize elements which are present there. I’ll leave that to you to find out what is there…
Of course I had to take compulsory selfie in the mirror. I haven’t had selfie in Dusseldorf before :) One more thing checked on the checklist ;).
Second to last photo was taken from the hip when boarding the plane to Abu Dhabi. There was a huge percent of Arabs traveling home but I was a little bit afraid to take openly photos of them. I hope to write about it and about taking photos in Emirates in one of the next posts.
I was fighting with myself whether to post the last photo – photo of the night in Abu Dhabi/selfie in the window – but I really wanted to close the post with photo taken at the final destination of the trip – Abu Dhabi. And that was the only one photo taken with X100S on that day just after arriving to the hotel in Abu Dhabi. So it’s the last photo – the next post hopefully will be with photos taken on the following days in Abu Dhabi…
