WEISBIER & THE LEICA CL
LHSA member Tom Holland and I spent 11 days pre-LHSA Wetzlar plus six more days at the LHSA meeting, on a mission to determine the best Weisbier or Pils during our 8-city marathon through Germany and the Czech Republic. Our chosen locations included: Leipzig, Jena, Dresden, Prague, Nurnberg, Rothenberg, Wetzlar, and Marburg. PROST!
Both having engineering backgrounds, this was to be a scientifically conducted experiment, with notetaking on various qualitative aspects of Pils and Weisbier at each of our stops. And what better way to document these experiments than using the discrete features of the Leica CL. Ein Glas Weisbier bitte!
With the CL, we could quickly auto focus on the effervescence, count the bubble formation and calculate the exact sipping moment, check the amber color against a known standard, measure the height of the suds, check the fluidity, viscosity, and boundary layer effects as the liquid passed over our lips.
Our miscalculation was that quantitative consumption of bier trumps qualitative analysis. I have none-the-less included some Weisbier imagery showcasing close auto focus and shot wide open-my favorite method of shooting. With our scientific studies trashed, I quickly switched to another CL attribute-that of rapid auto focus for quickly and accurately capturing the desired moment. I need time to focus wide open with my M cameras and especially during those intense photographic moments after having several brewskis. I happily include a few examples with people self-absorbed in their moment, and with the discreet size of the CL, getting close with either the pancake 18mm (28mm equiv.) Elmarit-L or 35mm (50mm equiv.) Summilux-L is easy and nonobtrusive. I am practically invisible.
Leipzig was heavily damaged during World War II, and rebuilt on the cheap, but it provided some good evening entertainment and our first bier tasting (#2). Image #1 reminds me of the Pink Floyd song, ‘We Don’t Need No Education’. The highlights of this trip for me was Dresden (#3 & 4) and the Zwinger, Kathedrale, Kreuzkirche, Frauenkirche and Neumarkt - and we stayed at the five-star Hotel Taschenbergpalai Kempinski - of course. I enjoy the European city living style where the locals eat at the restaurants below their flats and socialize with friends.
Prague (or Praha) offered some great day and night shooting on and under the St. Charles Bridge (#5, & ) and along the Vitava River. We took an evening dinner cruise on the Vitava, and a group of German men at one table across from us started singing. I kept supplying the bier and we were entertained for the entire 4 hours. The glass enclosed Hauptbahnhof in Praha was an interesting architectural find, and with an elderly lady pushing an old style baby carriage adding to the emotion in the scene. At one point she moved away from her carriage, which I thought was odd, so I
walked closer and looked in the carriage. It was a baby doll wrapped up, not a real child.
The interesting walled city of Nurnberg with the Lorenz-Kirche and Imperial Castle Kaiserburg provided abundant photo opportunities I walked into a large room at the Imperial Castle and noticed a bank of curtained windows on the left side with a gentleman shooting out one of the windows. It made for a nice image, so I walked behind him and took the picture while thinking that the back of the gentleman’s head sure looked like Tom Smith. About five minutes later, I got a tap on my shoulder. Sure enough, in a far distant land from the USA appears my good friend. I leave it to you statisticians to calculate the probability of that occurrence. A very
sobering afternoon was spent at the Former Nazi Party Rally Grounds- a very dark period of world history. Rothenberg, the walled city, had great opportunities for dramatic walled portal night shooting and a night watchman tour giving the historical perspective.
During one of our intense scientific tasting sessions, I got lonely and found some people to talk to. For hours we conversed. I finally told the shop keeper to set them free. The shop keeper started yelling in some strange dialect, and the Polizei was not amused. Entschuldigungund Halt!
The pancake 18mm (28mm equiv.) Elmarit-L f/2.8 is perfect fordiscreet street photography, the 35mm (50mm equiv.) Summilux-L f/1.4 for dark settings and night, and the 60mm (90mm equiv.) APO-Macro-Elmarit-L f/2.8 for properly focusing the bier images, making this the perfect travel kit.
So, what was the result of our experiment? Tom and I are already planning a return visit but putting limitations on the imbibing issue. If any of you readers wish to tour Europe and use the scientific study method for investigating Weisbier and Pils of Germany and the Czech Republic, please invite us along (paying our way of course), and you will benefit from our vast experience of locations and bier selections.
