Permanent Tourist

In the Old City

Friends and Family / Individual photographs
Monday, 19th October, 2009

This is another of my One Frame Movies, on which I’ve been working like a dervish over the past week or so. I’ll be writing an article soon about all I’ve learned when taking the photos in the set, including what I’ve achieved and what I could do better next time.

However, I couldn’t resist sharing this shot with you right away. The shot, taken in one of the oldest parts of the Matte area of Bern, beneath the huge Nydegg bridge, caused quite some consternation amongst the locals while we were there. A car parked on the pavement in just the wrong place meant that I couldn’t quite achieve the angle I wanted for the shot, so it took a while to find the right angles and lighting positions. We’d already drawn attention from passers-by while I was setting up, and found that the theoretically quiet part of the old town was in fairly frequent use for a number of cars, which rumbled past several times per minute. This made the concept, of Habi falling off his bike, somewhat of a challenge. Most of the time was spent not taking photos, but trying to avoid getting run over; a point which wasn’t lost on a gravelly voiced female pensioner who not only seemed highly put out by our presence, but also the danger we were presenting to traffic. (Yes, OK. She did have a point.)

In the end, we managed to get the shot and after some heavy post-processing, to re-create the image I’d envisaged when standing at the scene, this is the result. It’s not quite the image I’d planned, but one of many I’ve taken in the set for which the memory of the shooting will remain as much a part of the set as the photo itself.

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