Winter Photos of Berlin and the Hell I Endured to Get Them

I’m going to do something different this week and put up a post of photos. This is generally only done by good photographers, but I’m going to buck that trend. Besides, as the author of a post on how to take crappy pictures, I feel I should demonstrate just how qualified I am to be giving out such advice.

I’ve been in Berlin for the past few months and have been trying to take more photos during that time. Mostly, as you can probably tell from the photos above, this involves me lazily pointing my camera out my window, but on one occasion, I actually ventured outside to snap a few photos.

I only did this because the sun was setting and on this particular day, you could actually see it. Beautiful sunsets in Berlin appear slightly less often than Halley’s Comet, so I felt I had to take advantage. Add to that the fact that the ground was covered in snow, that the river was partially frozen and that I live right next to said river and need less than two minutes to get there and you have an idea of what it takes to get me to venture outside for a reason other than food or drink. Alcoholic drinks, of course—I have a faucet.

Naturally, I didn’t bother to put on the appropriate clothes, in large part since I don’t have the appropriate clothes, so I quite literally froze solid. With HDR photography, you basically need a tripod and mine is barely knee high, meaning I pretty much have to lie on the ground to use it. When that ground is covered in snow, it only makes sense my clothes would quickly get wet. When the air is below freezing, it only makes sense that those wet clothes would freeze.

And freeze they did. My already way too tight jeans (a gift from my mom and quite the departure from my usual ten-sizes-too-big—and much more comfortable—preference) turned rock-solid and limited my movements to the Frankenstein range. But I persevered and kept snapping photos, not wanting to let the rare sunset—and the even rarer occurrence of me leaving my apartment—go to waste.

I only wrote this so that you can truly appreciate the hardships I endured to get these photos. Yes, I know some photographers brave war zones and the like, but I took an elevator down eight floors and crossed a street. A wide one with four lanes! And a bike lane! Nevertheless, please feel free to put me to shame with tales of difficulties you had to overcome for a photo….