Actually Hamburg is the home to the Deichtorhallen, one of Europe’s largest art centres for contemporary art and Photography.   

So of course I had to investigate.   Three things really caught my attention.   The first was walking to the cloakroom there were several tables with coloured pencils white a4 paper, wrapping papper, scissors, sticky tape, magazines, and glue.    The second and more serious  was a series of front pages newspapers documenting the Sept 11 attack on the Trade Centre in New York.     I was amazed at how many different angles the photographs came from.  And, the third was a series of photographs of people at each age 1-100.    Of course i wanted to immediatly go to my age person’s portrait.  I wonder how many other people think the same.  The other interesting thing about the last twenty aged 80-100 most were female   in fact all but 3 were women.   Seems us women outlive you guys.

On heading back to the cloakroom i took more notice of the wall of results behind the tables of paper and pencils.   There was some amazing stuff some obviously by children – some more sophisticated.   So i spoke to the guy behind the counter   –  he advised that the featured artist had left it there for people though mostly children to contribute.  Well i saw wrapping paper and got itchy fingers so i asked if it was ok to do something which received a positive yes.   

i sat at one of the tables letting my inner child out  all by myself in a gallery in Hamburg.  So for 15 minutes i was oblivious to everything around me as i created my usual wrapping paper art of the shirt tie and jacket.     Just as i am finishing   –  someone sat close to me  and i looked up and around and the table behind was full of other adults working on their master piece and the table i was on was also filling with cloak room headed passer by’s.  So  i was not the only one who was drawn in by the paper pens scissors etc.    

Interesting that it took someone to do what most are thinking.  

So i walked away with a smile and a unique experience.   OH and if anyone visits the gallery during this month (March 2013)   look acrros the bottom row and look for a single white page with pink shirt and blue jacket made of paper.

This story began on my travels last year.   I had arrived in Iceland hoping to capture some aurora.  My two  fellow travelling photographers (1 was a local)  and I set out to circumnavigate the Island.   On the second day, the local photographer advised that there would be good aurora activity that night but we may not see it because the forecast was for overcast skies.  To which I replied “don’t worry it will be clear”.    Even as we headed for dinner the clouds were still dark and gloomy looking.  As we finished dinner, the local decided that he would go outside and check as he had received an alert to the activity above.   I was slowly following him out when he  turned around and said get your  cameras we have aurora.  

 Each night I was asked what type of weather it was for tomorrow and in the morning what weather for the evening.    Lets just say I was more accurate then the weather bureau including a prediction of a blizzard (well I wanted to see one so I requested it and it happened).

 So this brings me to my current travel.  Today it is raining (again) and it’s not what i ordered (so far), but i think i used all my Wish Craft yesterday on my most ambitious weather statement to date.   

 It all started just after the 4 of us left Svolvaer in Norway.   T (i am only going to use the first letters of my travel companions and fellow photographers for no real reason other than it’s only 1 keystroke)  discussed what he wanted for a photo shot that day, which was along the lines of a a red house, a good foreground and a rainbow.   I turned and said to A, that “I take care of the rainbow if you take care of the red house”.     Yeah right, conjuring up a rainbow is as easy as clicking your fingers.

Well it was just over 2 hours and a lunch later, and A liked the look of a frozen river area which had a small island with a red cabin on it.   So we got out an took a couple of photos.  About 5 minutes later a small rainbow appeared.  I heard  L who travelled with me in Iceland start to laugh and I was still chuckling over this a few hours later.

Photography and weather can be used as analogies for life in general.   You can have a perfect blue sky day and the photo you take no matter how good the scenery is rather boring and cliche; or it can be overcast and miserable, but the the photo turns out to be exciting and dramatic. 

 To be honest i think all my weather requests were higher than average coincidences.  Especially when today we are stuck inside again with the weather not being very friendly to “the way of the Photographers.”  So the choice today is stay in or go out and see what possibilities there are.

The Weather.!!!!!

Before i left on this current travel the weather in my home town of Brisbane was extreme.  One day we were having fire alerts and within a week we had severe weather conditions that caused brisbanites to hold their breath and hope there was not a repeat performance of the floods 2 years ago.

Now the weather affects my travels    -   you know having Parkinson’s is a challenge with balance at the best of times but add sloshy snow and ice  to the picture and its a recipe for entertainment for those watching and  frustration for me  especially when i just cant jump out of the car or  get to “the best” vantage spot and take that “moment’s photograph”.   So to the outside world i think it looks as if i don’t want to or i am not interested but its more a case of hiding that loss of independence.  The worse thing is that sometimes you can do it with ease then only 30 minutes later as drugs wear off  so does the balance and confidence.

I really can’t complain too much about the weather   –   as it was amazingly beautiful in Sweden (albeit a little on the cold side with -22 on the morning we left Abisko).    But  on my first 3 days of aurora hunting i got 3 nights of the green stuff .   Its amazing  last year i thought i was lucky to see what i did  and the hope was that i might get something this year.  But for some reason the Aurora gods have been very kind to me.    I can not describe it   and photos do it no justice, unless it is not overly bright- then the camera on long exposure picks up what the eye doesn’t.

Today we leave for Tromso  -    The weather has been dramatic –  mostly wet – which was a little bit of a shame – but we all still managed to get a couple of great shots out.  So make sure you check out my Current Travel Gallery  http://handshakephotography.com.au/?gallery=current-travels

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more soon 

Ok, as most of you know I am still pretty mobile as far as my Parkinson’s is concerned and only under certain circumstances do I use it to get around certain thing.    Well  my flight from Brisbane to Bangkok was a midnight via Singapore and i had a relatively short period to transfer between flights.   Knowing i was struggling a bit with my movement pre-morning tablets, and that there was a possibility that i would have to walk some distance to get to the next gate, i spoke with the flight attendants who arranged for me to be met at Singapore airport and taken to the new gate to ensure i would get there.   As always the Singapore airline staff can not be faulted, however not all could be said for the Changi Airport Staff who i was handed over to.   Basically she walked me up the gang plank,  pointed to the hand luggage trolly and gave me the gate and terminal number and told me the direction.  Ok so I was a little more mobile then i thought i would be, but all i could think about was –  for those where this disease affects them more, how do you deal with something like this.  Where there is very little people about – because you are last off the plane, you voice no longer carries as well as it did.  Thankfully i didn’t find out  this time and hope that a little more pre-planning on my behalf will circumvent anything like this happening.