Superb little Micro 4/3 camera made by Olympus
I first heard about this abandoned village near an old quarry a couple of years ago and decided to add it to a road trip being planned at the time. Sadly when we arrived the place was overrun with film crew and trailers so we bailed on to our next destination, reasoning that if it’s so well known it’ll likely be trashed and boring. I forgot all about Örtelsbruch until a recent visit presented me with the chance for a return – and a headlong dive into the rabbit hole.
There’s nothing like an impromptu explore on the way to the airport, and the Sprungschanzenhaus in Frauenwald fits the bill nicely: a bit of history, zero security, and all the crumbling paint you can eat. OK, so it’s a bit trashed in places and if you’re not careful you can fall down eight flights of stairs or through an open window, but then that just adds to the charm of this wedge-shaped wonder.
A chanting barging smiling waving cider smoking laughing falling cheering stumbling whistling noodles hare hare krishna cider mandolin heaving rozzers chips dips spliffs lager lager lager shouting photos dancing mega mega lightning chanting shouting parking strip-search cider friends cider men in robes smoking cider cider kind of morning.
Nothing is as big a turn off – on any level – as a caravan. Their sad, beige contents are usually flimsy, they smell of chemical toilets, and they make your car handle like a combine harvester. You’re unwelcome everywhere you go, except for authorised caravan sites where you can mingle with your balding peers and bicker about the latest outrage in the news.
Why anybody would voluntarily do this is beyond me, but a camper van – now that’s an entirely different proposition. For a start you’ve got a vehicle which drives like a car, reverses like a car, and fits in a regular parking space. There’s leather, alloy wheels, a rack for your surfboard and a towing hitch for the trailer with your dirt bikes. Could this be the ideal mix of camping adventure and home comforts? We rent a VW California and take it for a lap of Britain to find out.
This place isn’t just larger than life, it’s larger than everything. Whoever built it didn’t read the rule book because they had no intention of playing by the rules. Keep up.
I can’t walk past an abandoned building, even on holiday, even if it’s raining and I know the pictures will be rubbish. This was very much the case with Antigua and the Half Moon Bay Hotel, though something I couldn’t guess as we walked up the beach in a storm was how much filth we’d uncover once we started poking around the history behind this place. A tale of corruption, scandal, and global fraud; this rabbit hole goes deep…
You’ll have to excuse the radio silence for the past few days. No, not blog fatigue, it’s been rather … interesting; I’ve wandered through abandoned Napoleonic forts, nearly come a cropper while riding in snow, and slept in a river…
Ever since I first heard about the E-M5’s “Live Bulb” feature I’ve had one thing on my mind: lightpainting. By way of explanation, Live Bulb is essentially the same as regular bulb photography but with one major difference: while the…