After I was invited to post one of my images as a guest I did a lot of thinking. I always find it hard to choose from a portfolio consisting of several hundred frames. So I eventually decided to post a photograph that combines two of my passions. Besides playing music and taking pictures I absolutely love sailing. This may sound a little peculiar for a guy who was born right in the middle of Germany where there is no greater area of water around whatsoever. Not to mention the eight hour drive to the Baltic or North Sea. But every time I go there it feels like coming home (even though I like my actual Home in Franconia). So on our last summer vacation in 2019 I rented a sailing yacht at the Flensburg Fjord together with my wife. This is a nice protected area where you can easily sail around between the picturesque towns in Germany and Denmark. The maritime atmosphere up there is simply amazing. When you are out there on the water you come down immediately. You are absolutely focused. All that counts is the water, the boat, the wind, the weather. The everyday hustle disappears instantly. It’s like when you are on a photowalk. You just concentrate on the scene you want to take a picture of, your gear, your film and the light. How nice to bring the essentials of sailing and photography together.
About the Shot
On our way back home we made a little side trip to the town of Büsum at the German coast of the North Sea. On one of my walks I wandered around the place with one of my beloved Minolta XD-7s (yeah, I have three of them, GAS at it’s best) and discovered the little historic port where they had lots of old sailboats, fishing vessels and motor yachts. Man, what a sight. Fortunately we had high tide so the water level in the harbor basin was at the same level as the sidewalk and you could see the boats completely. I was attracted by a wooden ship. I liked the impression of the rigging and the ropes. On first sight everything looks like a complete mess but in fact on a sailboat every line has it’s own function. With all the creaking and squeaking you can hear even on a tied up boat it almost seems that such a vessel has a soul. So I took the picture of the shrouds held together by wooden blocks. On the XD-7 I mounted a 50mm 1.4 lens. The film I had loaded into the camera was an Ilford HP5+ which is the film I am currently acquainted to the most. Later I “scanned“ the image with my Canon EOS 700D digital camera and a 35mm macro lens. For post processing I used Adobe Lightroom 6.