On Assignment - Dresden

I recently shot an assignment in Dresden for Food and Travel Magazine, the same people I was out in Sri Lanka with earlier this year. You can read about some experiences from that shoot here. This one was rather different however.

Firstly, it was focused on a single city, whereas for Sri Lanka we covered half the country. Being based in a single hotel for the entire 5 days meant it was easy to take a bit more gear than usual, meaning a couple of extra lights and lenses over what I would take on a job with a more demanding travel schedule.

Whereas in Sri Lanka we would spend 6 hours in the car every day, in Dresden many of the locations I needed to photograph were within walking distance of the hotel, which was wonderful.

There were only two problems with this situation. Firstly the fact that it rained heavily for 3 out of the 5 shooting days. And secondly the cobblestones. I had taken my gear in my LowePro Pro Roller, and wheelie-bags and cobblestones don't mix very well!

The second big difference to Sri Lanka was that Dresden, being a European destination, it was inherently familiar. Although I hadn't been there before, the fact that the architecture and culture are not so different from home makes it a bit more challenging to find inspiting points of view for photographs. In more exotic locations I find subjects seem to jump out at me from every corner. I found it necesarry to re-tune my visual eye a little to find the subjects and compositions that stood out.

Obviously a big part of a Food and Travel assignment is the food, and I'll talk a bit about photographing food while travelling in another post.

The issue had just hit the news stands so keep an eye out for it view it online here.