After a very successful first blog post about rowing in Frankfurt I decided to take advantage of the good weather and take out another disposable camera for a slightly different route. Join me for some sunrise action on Frankfurt's Main river.
I was surprised as to how popular my last 'Rowing perspectives: Frankfurt from the water" post was, so I decided to shoot a Part 2! Part 1 saw a row up towards the city and past the ECB on a unusually foggy day. This time I did a slightly different loop rowing up towards the City, then turning and heading down towards Griesheim lock. I spent some time down at this lock as part of my 52 rolls of film project, so other photographs and more details about its history can be found here.
About the gear and photos
I picked up another disposable camera, although this time it came unbranded, so I have no idea what type of film it had in it. It was an ISO400 film and I believe the lens is a fixed f1.7 lens. I think the other Agfa disposable camera I used for my Part 1 of this post produced more interesting photographs.
Regarding the photographs this time, I simply threw the camera into the boat and took snaps at anything interesting that I saw, also not stopping too much as I was out for a row first and foremost!
This is the route I took, first heading up to the city then down and back in a big loop.
Before first light.
Heading up towards the city and under one of the main railway bridges. Actually not a bad shot given this is a disposable camera.
Amazed I managed to get the composition right on this one as I didn't turn around fully, I just guessed what I would take. You can see the bow of my boat on the side of the shot. Time to put sunglasses on too!
My usual turning point is at this green building. Not the cleanest of images, but as expected given the camera cost me under 5 Euro.
You can see the skyscrapers of Frankfurt in the distance. Impossible to row without sunglasses with such strong sunlight. This was taken about 15 minutes after sunrise.
They have created a new office block and entertainment area here nestled between the still functioning energy plant of Mainova, pretty cool.
I cropped this shot as I managed to get half of my hand in the shot...I remember doing that as a kid with these cameras, I guess we never learn!
I use the ray of sunlight to navigate as it creates a straight line pretty much exactly the route I want to take until the river turns.
Another working dock area, sometimes there are big barges parked along here too. This is opposite my rowing club.
The calm waters at Griesheim lock, also giving a nice long straight line for a bit of race pace work towards the end. The barges go towards the other side where they enter the lock.
This is the view turning around.
Reflection of an oar.
Heading back up there is an old style Frankfurt building nestled between the trees.
The river's fire & rescue team are based here.
Just about finished the outing and the sunlight is super strong!
Reminds me of when we would take photos and not call them selfies, those were the days indeed.
Overall observations
I actually think this camera managed low light better than the other one, although given it was so foggy last time I think the cameras internal light meter had a really difficult time. Sometimes it is better to focus on your shots and worry less about the camera/lens combination. I am a firm believer in taking out any old camera to remind yourself that its your compositional skills and creativity that make a great shot, not the camera.
I thought the previous post had more interesting shots as I went up through the city and was lucky to experience a really rare episode of thick fog. That being said, I still got some decent sunrise shots here and was able to capture a completely different part of the river. As you can see from the shots I had the river to myself, another reason why I row so early!
And with that in mind, I recommend that you wake up early tomorrow, grab a camera, and go find some decent light...
Thanks for stopping by!
Neil
