The lens is about 22 mm long and has "heft" of 70 gram. Seriously, if you come from a big DSLR with full frame lenses, this thing felt like a toy. But the camera and lens combination was almost pocketable (at least in a coat) and it was my first dedicated 35 mm lens. This 35 mm equivalent stuff is really annoying but it is the reference we are all used too even though no one uses 35 mm film anymore (well the Hipsters do) and most digital sensors are way smaller than 35 mm film. But here we are.
35 mm is kind of an iconic focal length. Together with 50 mm it is supposed to represent the human vision most closely and was used by many famous street photographers. I came to like this focal length quite a lot. It was wide enough to encompass enough of a scene but not so wide as to look distorted. It might look boring at first glance but I do enjoy the natural viewing angle.
Let's start this post with another sea picture. Most people would take such a picture in landscape format. I mean, it is a landscape after all. But I was experimenting and I kept this one. The white capped water in the front suggest the viewer stands right in the water. But do not worry, I stayed dry, it was a very cold March day after all.Right next to the famous Alexanderplatz is an area that never really took off commercially for a very long time. There are two hotels nearby and a large empty office block (the former bureau of statistics for the GDR). It was an ugly area, and therefore my photographic eye was drawn to it. This shop went in and out of business for a while. In recent years they built more apartments, offices and hotels nearby but it is still a dead area with little lingering foot traffic and few places to actually stay.Another area that despite nearby "Altbauten" (pre-WWI building stock) struggles to attract vibrant businesses. I guess the main street is just too busy with traffic to be attractive for pedestrians. But in today's Berlin, even this area is quickly gentrifying. So maybe this old building has found another use for a hip coffee shop. In East Germany it was one of many, every little town had a "Kulturhaus" (house of culture). It was the official place to gather and they offered small shows, movies, meetups, political discussions and mandatory propaganda events. You can compare it to a community center but it was government or rather party run.Don't worry. No one is in there. The actual grave is below. I like old cemeteries, and this one has graves and crypts from the 19th century. But because land is valuable, and many cemeteries are right in the city center (well they were on the outskirts when first built though) they are being "consolidated", the graves removed and the land turned over for development. Here the local Nimby's succeeded in stopping any construction plans and part of the cemetery was made into a small park with a playground. They even kept some gravestones as a remembrance. Although it is a nice park, the local citizens simply exacerbated the shortage of housing and raised the prices of their already owned apartments. There are always two sides to a thing.And back to train stations. This one is Potsdamer Platz which is quite new. Of course, it is another monstrosity made out of glass and concrete. There is nothing that keeps one staying in place, to spend some time or to gather. Everything is very functional to keep people moving from A to B and preferably into the shopping mall right behind me.