New Year, New Website

I just finished my new website!  Please feel free to give it a test spin, and contact me with any feedback.  Last year I was fortunate enough to cover events in Berlin, Prague, Ljubljana, and Lisbon (twice!).  I'm available to cover your event or wedding anywhere in Europe.

Check out my new website!

URBEX ÜBER ALLES!!!

Chasing Shadows of the Past in Rüdersdorf Chemical Plant

We planned our entry down to the square meter. We analyzed drop zones and entry points and scrutinized satellite photos of the abandoned plant in Rüdersdorf to determine the best way to infiltrate the site undetected. This is urban exploration in Berlin. This is Urbex Über Alles.

My partner in crime was the Infamous Abandoned Berliner, the single most respected and hated member of the urban exploration subculture. His Abandoned Berlin blog has a gazillion hits, he has an urbex book of the same name, and the man can hold his beer well into the wee hours at any spaeti in Berlin (He's Irish, so that helps). The reason he is hated and respected in equal measure: He tells people where the abandoned places are. This angers the Holy Druids of the Urbex Circle Jerk, who gather in secrecy with their hand drawn maps and meet in basements to discuss their next conquest in whispers, while quietly jerking each other off in circles. Cliques piss me off. Therefore I respect anyone who will tell me how to get to an abandoned place, how hard it is to get in, and whether my lardy ass will fit in through the hole in the fucking fence. At 6 foot 5, 280 lbs, I ain't climbing no fucking walls.

Urbex was a regular thang with me until the Urbex Druids decided I wasn't worthy. They took me to a few places, laughed while I squirmed through holes in the fences, and took snaps of me stuck in windows. Then they stopped inviting me. That and all the good places have been bought by developers and earmarked for certain destruction or worse—yuppie condos for fuck's sake. There are now urbex tours of the most popular sites in Berlin and you pay a pretty penny for the privilege. This defeats all of the fun of trespass and most of the fun of skulking in the shadows.

After a year or two off from the urbex scene I found another reason to skulk. The street artist known as Plotbot KEN dropped an atomic paint bomb on this particular plant we were entering. Plotbot's work can be described as a post apocalyptic dreamscape wherein lonely figures in hazmat suits quietly test the radiation and chemical contamination levels of a bleak future. When I first saw these figures on walls in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Wedding and other districts—I was hooked. As a full time pessimist with no hope for the future of humanity, I simply had to add Plotbot to my collection of street artists for my documentary project.

Loud and Proud

The Irishman and I crept along the rail tracks leading to the plant. He was shushing and denouncing me for being the large, loud-and-proud American stereotype that I am. "JAYzus you are loud! Let's not alert security!" he slurred. He shambled through the hole in the fence and hiccuped, still reeling from the breakfast drinking (two can play the stereotype game, muchacho). I could see that he takes the whole illegal trespass thing seriously. After about five minutes walking toward the huge cement abandoned chemical plant leviathan, he suddenly cried 'SECURITY! DOWN!' and dropped like a sack of beer-soaked potatoes. I tried to drop as gracefully as a 280 lb man with a backpack full of camera gear could. In the end I could only cut the tragic figure of a fat man on his knees in the dirt with his camera backpack sticking up on his hunched back like a saddle on an elephant. A truck roared past on a dirt road just ahead of us. Nobody saw the fallen sack of beer-soaked potatoes or the fookin' elephant.

"Security? In a dump like this?" I wondered aloud (really loud). "Yeah, once when I was here, there was some kind of a film crew running around; security was tight," AB informed. We didn't know it at the time, but one of the things they were filming on this very site was an episode of the popular political spy thriller series 'Homeland.' The entire 2015 series was shot and filmed in Berlin—even the bits where they were not actually in Berlin (like the Middle East). A dirty, abandoned chemical plant doubling as a refugee camp? Why not. You really are in a different world when you stagger through this dusty desolation.

We then proceeded to explore proper. The concrete behemoth towered over us and sprawled over an area about 10 times the size of your average mall. I was shopping for street art and was not disappointed. After sloppily scurrying between doorways of buildings to avoid detection by nearby construction workers, we found it. The Acid Tanks paintings stood stoic under a 100-foot-high cement ceiling with broken windows, crumbling concrete columns and rusty pipes. I stood in awe of the amazing merger of
rust, spray paint and decay, both naturally and artificially introduced.

Some street artists paint anywhere there is a blank wall. Others consider the space within the context of their works. In this respect, there is no better urban artist working in Berlin today than Plotbot KEN. In a world abandoned, rusting, seeping and dripping with chemicals, one man stands tall in the green muck to merge aerosol alchemy with the rotting ruins of yesteryear.

One + One = Three: Berlin Family Portraits

Mother, Father and Baby Portraits in Berlin

  

My customers give me great ideas all the time.  As a professional photographer who specializes in portraits, I have photographed many couples and families over the years.  But this year I was pleasantly surprised when a mother in the U.S. hired me to take photos of her daughter Ashley and her daughter’s boyfriend, Alex, in Berlin—both before and after their baby was born.  I provided a portrait gift certificate, which she in turn presented to her daughter as a gift.  In a world of selfies and endless photos of newborns, it is really a special gift to take time out to hire a professional photographer to get some really classy shots.

The portrait shoot was to be divided into two sessions. Part one of this little family documentary began one warm day in May of this year.  We had the majestic beauty of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, a mother great with child, an anxious father and some clothing props.  I like to take time to talk to my clients before, during and after the portrait shoot.  In order to get natural, relaxed portraits I find it is best to communicate as much as possible.

Sanssouci Park is the perfect place for portraits.  It is spread out over a monstrous amount of green space filled with little palaces, fountains, lakes and enchanted grottoes. As the former stomping grounds of Prussian royalty, the gardens and grounds were laid out in grand scale and style.

We had many natural and architectural backdrops to choose from, which is every photographer’s dream.  I am one of those photographers who has turned his back on traditional ‘stuffy’ studio shots with fake backgrounds in favor of location photography. I believe there is no artificial substitute for nature

and the great outdoors. I really enjoy choosing the right location for special portraits.

As is usually the case, I got too many good shots to share in one small blog space, so here are just a few highlights of our two portrait sessions.

And Baby Makes Three

As you can imagine, the arrival of a new baby makes life hectic, but in early July we managed to set up a time for part two of the portrait series.  I suggested we use the gardens around my little cottage in order not to tire out mom and her new baby with excessive walking.  When I mentioned our trees, grass, garden furniture props and a big silver bear statue, Ashley said ‘You had me at big silver bear statue.’

Babies seem to really like me—or are at least they are not afraid.  I am fortunate that I don’t have to wave toys, squeaky dolls or do any dances—babies just look at me with some sort of natural curiosity, as if to say ‘Who is this large, goofy man with the camera?’

After a brief bout with the bear, we took our time relaxing and taking shots in different places around the property. After an hour or so, we parted ways feeling that we had really done the ultimate before-and-after shots—with a big silver Berlin bear thrown in to boot.

Schedule your Berlin family portrait session today by contacting me today.  Or give the gift of photography by ordering a portrait gift certificate.  Your family will thank you!  ;)

3D Printers, Computer Tumbleweeds, Squishy Robots

Notes from a ‘Silicon Allee’ Event Photographer in Berlin

After finishing my third tech-related event in Berlin I have seen a glimpse of the future: 3D printers make lifelike human skulls, computerized tumbleweeds roll across vast deserts gathering data and robots are squishy.

The RE.WORK Tech Summit in Berlin on June 19-20 brought cutting edge creators to ‘Silicon Allee’ Berlin to strut their stuff on the lighted stage.

I love technology.  Not in a nerdy, worship-the-algorithm sort of way.  Give me better tools, I say.  I remember the excitement of getting my first digital camera:  no more photo chemistry fouling my lungs and ruining rivers.  And no more hours spent in darkened rooms; ah, the joy!  And then there’s the instant digital gratification of fast results.

This puts me in perfect company at a tech summit.  I enjoy listening to the exhibitors enthusiastically explaining their inventions at the exhibition stands and on stage.  This last event got me thinking:  most of the people on stage are not polished speakers—they are real people, and as such I kept in mind my presence as a photographer.  I didn't want my snapping camera and firing flash to put them off their cues.  I took care to choose my moments and put a lot of space between shutter clicks.  I don’t want a young inventor geek guy full of coffee thinking of his marketing pitch to be thrown off his game by my firing flash.  I also strive to capture the most natural moments in any event, where the people look relaxed and natural.  I've seen other photographers' shots of speakers who look tired, strained or nervous because the photographer didn't wait for the right moment.

And catching the 'right moment' is what photographing people is all about.

For price quotes on event photography in Berlin and beyond please contact me today.

Startups and Upstarts in ‘Silicon Allee’

Notes of a Professional Event Photographer in Berlin

Berlin has been called multi-kulti, poor but sexy, the ever-changing city and most recently, Silicon Allee—due to the increasing number of tech startup companies moving into the Bear Pit.  Rents are relatively cheap—though steadily rising, as creative types and startup geeks continue to flock to Germany’s culture capital to stake their claims on the future.

Some of the more clever event planners have taken full advantage of Berlin’s ever changing city status to host tech events in art parks and open spaces in addition to the tried-and-true hotel conference halls.

The Tech Growth Summit in Berlin was one such event.  Innovators, inventors and investors all met in Berlin recently to throw their hats in the Silicon Allee ring.  The opening dinner reception was held at Urban Spree Gallery in the East Berlin neighborhood of Friedrichshain—a popular art/club colony sculpted out of some of the industrial rubble and rust of the former DDR East Berlin.  Urban Spree Gallery often hosts the latest work by up and coming Berlin street artists and urban sprayers.

The group team building exercise for the evening:  spray can graffiti competition. It was a nice change of pace from the typical event meeting to watch executives don overalls and masks, shake their spray cans and go to town on some blank walls in the open air garden.

The Big Day of the Tech Growth Summit commenced the day after in two equally exciting venues:  a refurbished, former electrical power plant in Berlin-Kreuzberg and the closed historical airport Berlin Tempelhof.  If nothing else, Berlin is the master of pulling trends out of detritus:  a swanky, modern interior with leather lounge couches filled the floors under the vaulted brick heights of an open former factory hall and wrought iron stairs ascended over fountains spewing bubbling jets of red-lit water.

Later in the day after the convention adjourned, we traveled to the former site of the Berlin Airlift, Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof (Tempelhof Airport, Berlin). Conventioneers consumed cocktails in the massive open space of the departure hall. Cocktail waitresses in vintage airline stewardess outfits shook their shakers at check in counters under the signage of various living-and-dead airlines, while suave barmen shoved crates of booze and glasses through the luggage conveyor belts to the waiting bar staff.

Cornelia Barbara Yzer, Senator for Economics, Technology and Research, Berlin, addressed the crowd of visiting foreign e movers and tech shakers.  Her message was clear: come to Berlin.  The doors are wide open and the forecast was mostly sunny—though I managed to pick out a parenthetical warning from one of the other speakers: let’s not make another bubble economy like Ireland or others who are still reeling from the fish-and-cut-bait methods of less-than-scrupulous investors in the last decade. Working together, they said, we could all build an economy that works for everyone involved.

And on that note, I grabbed a drink from the check in counter and raised it.

Contact Berlin event photographer Craig Robinson today to cover your Berlin event.

Berlin Street Art Portrait Shoot

Once in a while, not very often, someone asks me if I have a studio in which to take portraits.  I resist the urge to say GOOD GOD, WHY? and simply say that Europe is my studio.  For people who don't want the tired, trite and tedious fast food studio session photography, I offer my unique style of artistic location portraits in Berlin, Prague and beyond.

Berlin's vibrant street art scene adds the perfect splash of color to any portrait shoot.  The East Side Gallery section of the Berlin Wall monument is one of my favorite locations--miles of murals and swirls of spray can art are everywhere.


Viktoria wanted artistic, creative portraits with Berlin as a backdrop.  We chose the East Side Gallery and nearby YAAM riverside beach bar and club as our stomping grounds.  The people at YAAM were very friendly and helpful in letting us use their facilities for photography.  This warm feeling allows for more relaxed, natural portraits.

For more information on booking your portrait photography in Berlin please contact me. 
I look forward to working with you!

Your English-speaking photographer in Berlin

Craig Robinson Photography covers Prague, Czech Republic and Berlin, Germany.  My specialities are documentary style wedding photography and stylish, artistic portraiture.  I am also available to photograph your wedding or pre-wedding portraits anywhere in Europe.  I have been hired for photography assignments in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Cyprus and the Czech Republic.  After 10 years of offering my unique style of photography in the Czech Republic, I am now expanding my photography business to include Berlin and I frequently travel between Prague and Berlin on assignments.

Please feel free to leave comments and customer reviews of my services by using the comment form.

Visit my Berlin Photo website for samples of my work in Berlin and beyond.

www.craigrobinsonphotographer.com

Thanks for reading!

--Craig Robinson, photographer