50mm Street Notes from Berlin
The first thing I remember is the sound—boots on snowy ground. Then the light. Reflected in the snow, it adds a different mood. Berlin can be very cold in winter, so that’s one of the reasons I planned this year’s Berlin workshop in May. So we get some warmer weather.
At the last winter visit in Berlin, I started in Charlottenburg, where morning light threads between façades and slow walkers become almost silhouettes but still get light from the snow bouncing it back.
Photographic Simplicity
Winter simplifies. It strips the city back to lines and pauses and the way someone hunches their shoulders as a tram sighs past. In that simplicity, pictures announce themselves if you’re willing to wait. People dress differently in winter, and people move in a different way. All seasons have their own attitudes, making it interesting to study as a photographer.
Just my 50mm, Leica M9, and walking around to see what happens. I carried a single lens. That constraint is freedom: fewer decisions about distance and more attention to light and moment. It’s the same philosophy I teach—“One Lens For All”—because once the tool gets out of your way, you finally hear the picture before you see it.
People often ask why some frames end up black‑and‑white, and others stay in colour. When the story is posture, tension, and edge, monochrome says it with fewer words; it simplifies the U‑Bahn entrance, for example, and only when I have a clear colour, this is the voice I need.
Spring mood in Berlin
When spring arrives, I offer a Berlin workshop on May 1-2. Life gets different and positive when light and warm returns. The perfect time to go to Berlin.
On our workshop days, we’ll often trace a similar route—Charlottenburg to Fasanenstraße to Prenzlauer Berg to Potsdamer Platz—so everyone experiences Berlin’s different moods and learns to adapt their seeing to each one. The flow is simple: short orientation, shoot with a clear purpose, regroup to review what worked and why. The aim is to leave with not just pictures but a way of working you can repeat anywhere.
Sometimes, after we pack up for the day, we make an optional detour to the Helmut Newton Foundation. Standing among those prints resets your eyes; you feel how editorial intention and street serendipity can inform one another. You return to the hotel already framing tomorrow.
If that sounds like your kind of day, join me at the next Berlin workshop. We’ll keep it human‑sized, practical, and encouraging—just enough structure to grow, lots of room to photograph as you are.
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