We did walk around and shot some nighttime photos before resigning ourselves to our travel exhaustion. This building is across the street from us. I love the Carlsberg slogan “Probably the best beer in town”
Tivoli Gardens are interesting. We’ll actually go inside one night while we’re here to shoot some more photos
Still deciding if we want to go on the giant Ferris wheel nearby
All shot handheld. Click any image to see larger version.
My catch phrase for this trip is “Every photo I take is a blessing” as an ongoing reference to the Copenhagen Christmas Miracle.
Once we got checked in to the hotel we decided to head out and do a little sightseeing. At this point we’re pretty jet lagged, but the adrenaline rush of the near disaster is still coursing through our veins and it is important to push on through to get the internal clock synched up with the local time.
The room is very spacious and modern inside and we’re quite comfortable. The plumbing, specifically the shower, took some sorting out but we got it eventually.
Our hotel is right across the street from City Hall Square and, as such, is VERY centrally located.
We noticed that things seemed rather tame. Shops were closed and there wasn’t all that much foot traffic, even on the Strøget which is the main shopping boulevard here in Copenhagen. It wasn’t until the next day that I snapped and realized that Saturday was Boxing Day.
We got the obligatory shot with the Hans Christian Andersen statue
Everything here is VERY expensive. Cynthia made the comment while we were getting some snacks at the 7-11 that being here was “Like living in the airport.” 20 Kroner for a half a liter bottle of Coke. That’s over 4 dollars for a 16 ounce bottle.
I told Cynthia during the planning for this trip that I would be eating at least one Pølser during the trip.
Also referred to as a “Dead Man’s Finger” they’re sold from carts all over town. They’re very tasty and I may have to have one more before we leave.
The sun comes up late and goes down early. Also mostly overcast with the occasional drizzle of rain. Not ideal photographically, but a challenge and…every photo I take at this point is a blessing.
We’ve arrived safely, but not without incident in Copenhagen.
I decided to pack quite a bit of camera gear for this trip. The new A850, the Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 along with several fast, prime lenses for low light shooting and a variety of accessories including my nice flash gun and other sorted items.
Managing my heavy jacket, my backpack and this VERY heavy camera bag has been challenging, but something I thought I had well under control.
We flew from Houston to Atlanta where we caught our overseas flight to Copenhagen. Once we arrived at the airport we gathered our things and walked to the train platform where we waited a few minutes and caught the train to the Copenhagen Central Station where it would only be a 5 minute walk to the hotel.
All was going well as we boarded the train and struck up a conversation with a guy from Jutland who was headed into Copenhagen to meet with some family for the holidays.
When we got to Copenhagen Central Station I went to gather my things and noticed my camera bag was missing.
Panic.
I was sure I brought it on to the train but it was nowhere to be seen. Could the someone have lifted it on the train? Seemed unlikely. The bag is quite heavy and it’s not something you just pick up and casually walk away with.
We went to the information booth, hoping maybe we’d left it at the train platform at the airport and it had been turned in to lost and found or something. They checked, nothing.
Cynthia was in full panic mode. I was pretty dejected thinking I was not going to be doing the one thing I came here to do, which is take pictures.
We decided to catch the train back to the airport and I told Cynthia to pray for a miracle.
It’s about a 15 minute train ride between Central Station and the airport and the whole way Cynthia is crying I am thinking I am going to just throw up. How on Earth could I have been either stupid enough to leave the camera bag laying on the platform or unobservant enough to miss someone walking off with my precious camera equipment?
As we pulled into the airport I looked to the other platform and there was my camera bag, right where I left it. Just sitting there.
I ran up into the airport and back down and in my haste managed to just end up back on the arrival platform. I ran again and managed to get to the proper platform and grabbed my camera bag. Everything was there, completely untouched.
As I was running to get to the camera Cynthia stood on the opposite platform, watching our things and crying. Another traveller asked her what was wrong and she explained and he ran up and across to the other platform to rescue the bag, but I got there first.
I met back up with Cynthia and the other traveller came back and we thanked him for his efforts. We collected out wits AND all of our belongings and headed back to Copenhagen on the train and got checked into the hotel.
I am one lucky lucky man.
I had so much fun with the day time balloon ride at Discovery Green Park I decided to try it again at night. A whole different view!
There’s a tethered balloon at Discovery Green Park. It goes up 350 ft and back down again. The ride lasts about 10 minutes. A unique photo opportunity, not to be missed. Unless you’re petrified of heights.
George R. Brown through a fisheye lens
The George R. Brown via the Sigma 12-24mm.
Discovery Green Park viewed through the center of the gondola. Notice the ice skating rink. Also a fisheye shot
Minute Maid Park and two more via the 24-70 Zeiss
Nearby construction via the 70-300mm G.
There is no band I know of more iconic in terms of sound AND appearance than KISS. Love ’em or hate ’em, you know ’em when you see ’em and you won’t confuse KISS with any other band in existence. In the mid 70’s I went to every single show they toured, starting in 1975 and ending in the 1983 when they showed up with Wendy O Williams and the Plasmatics as an opener.
When I heard they were coming to Houston for their 35th anniversary show I really, REALLY wanted to photograph the event. It took some wrangling, but I eventually scored press credentials to provide photos for Craig Hlavaty’s review in The Houston Press.
I’ve shot a lot of small and mid-sized concerts, but this was my first big rock show. I was really appreciative of Technology Bytes co-host Groovehouse’s presence at the show. He had an extra photo release form which I needed to fill out plus an extra set of ear plugs which really made the difference.
The opening act was a band called Buckcherry and we got to shoot their first three songs. I wasn’t all that interested in their performance, but it was an opportunity to get a feel for the layout and I treated it as a warm up. We were only allowed to shoot the first three songs by KISS and I was sweating it a little. The typical scenario is three songs and even it’s not a lot of time to settle in and get your shots.
For this show I carried both my new Sony A850 and my Sony A700. The former mounted with my Zeiss 24-70 and the latter with my Tamron 70-200. Both lenses served their purpose and I was glad to have them. Overall, though, the A850 with the Zeiss wide angle was the most useful rig for this show.
I gotta hand it to KISS, they really put on a show. For the first two songs they played it up for the photographers and gave us plenty of opportunities to get some fantastic photos. I’ve never had a band do that before and it was a real treat. Be sure and read Craig’s review of the whole show at The Houston Press for the set-list and other observations.
Here are a few of my favorites from the evening. Click any image to see a larger version.
Zappa Plays Zappa, a concert where Dweezil Zappa plays the songs of his father. This show gets better and better each year.
Interesting challenge trying to put together the components of a panorama with the subjects in motion. This was done at the 2009 Houston Via Colori.
Click your mouse into the image and hold it. Then move the mouse around to scroll through the scene:
Click here for the full sized version
Notice that I have managed to edit out the tripod in this one.