Just a few photos from the first of May in Berlin.  Unlike last year at Myfest, our second May 1st in Berlin was spent walking around the city, stopping to meet friends at Holzmarkt and in Görlitzer Park with a quick walk through the festival on our way home.  After a long winter of hibernating, Erster Mai in Berlin this year felt like the real marker of spring and the upcoming summer and like always, it is a really special day to be in the city.

Police, Police, everywhere.  Mostly they were just hanging out prepared for the worst, which never came.

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with lots of engagement sessions right now, my mind is constantly dreaming up shots of couples in love.  My lovely friends happily obliged me with some PDA :)

Olympus is currently hosting a Photography Playground at the Opernwerkstätten here in Berlin, which is exactly what it sounds like- a playground for photographers.  Twelve international artists created installations in the 7,000 m² space with the theme of “Space and Art” creating a giant interactive exhibit.  Both of my visits to the playground had me feeling a bit like a kid in a candy shop, and took me back to my days studying photography in college where I was constantly experimenting and learning about my camera.  Olympus allows you to borrow and test out their new OM-D digital camera at the playground and then give you the SD card to take home with you, just make sure to bring your passport along so you are able to borrow the camera.  Half of the images above were taken on that camera by Andreas and the other half were taken by me on my Canon 5D Mark II.  Can you tell which are which?  The exhibit runs until May 24th and I highly recommend a visit for anyone in Berlin, whether you are a photographer nerd like me or a hobbyist, make sure to check it out!

Olympus OM-D Photography Playground
Zinnowitzer Straße 9 · Berlin (Sbahn Nordbahnhof)
11am – 7pm Daily until May 24, 2013

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The new issue of sisterMAG launched today and I am so honored to have photographed the cover at the Berlin Botanical Garden.  My friend and fellow sisterMAG photographer, Cristopher Santos, made a really fun behind the scenes video from the cover shoot, and I love it! Even though I always cringe a little seeing myself on film :-|  Read the issue online in German or English, or my favorite way to read the online only magazine, on my ipad with the sisterMAG app.

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 A few weeks ago when it was still very much winter here in Berlin, Thea and I found comfort in a warm oasis within Berlin.  We were doing a bit of location scouting at the Botanischer Garten for the cover shoot of the new issue of sisterMAG (which I photographed and will be released in early May).  Spending just a short time in the warmth of the greenhouse did wonders on my mood.  We spent all of our visit exploring the different climates within the greenhouse, but I imagine the space outside in the surrounding gardens are beautiful in the spring and summer when they are green and blooming, it is a shame that during our visit they were still covered in snow.  We will just have to make another visit back now that it is finally spring!

Berlin Botanischer Garten
Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8
14195 Berlin

S-bahn (S1): Botanischer Garten

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JR’s photo from his series Wrinkles of the City down the street from our apartment in Mitte

Waking up to these two cuddling makes my heart explode.  My phone is full of pictures like this one and on Saturday morning I managed to pull out my real camera to document the cuteness.

The rest of the images are from Sunday afternoon at the Park am Nordbahnhof and Humboldthain Park, which we discovered has some amazing views of the North part of the city from one of the World War II bunkers in the park.  This city never fails to surprise me.

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Spring’s arrival in Berlin was long overdue and welcomed with open arms, and it felt like everyone came out of a long hibernation and was enjoying the warmer weather.  There is something sort of magical about the beginning of a new season, especially spring as the days get warmer and longer.  In a city like Berlin it is amazing what a few days of sunshine can do for everyone’s spirits- suddenly people are smiling as they pass you in the street, shopkeepers are nicer and people seem to literally have a spring in their step.  We spent most of the weekend outside and soaked up all the sun we could, as no one knows how long it will stay.

We met friends on Saturday at the Winterfeldtplatz Markt and proceeded to eat snacks from almost every stand there, or at least it felt like that.  It was my first time at the market there and I loved all the local producers and food stands, we will definitely be visiting again soon.

After an afternoon catching up with friends, we walked back from Schöneberg and randomly decided to go to the top of the Siegessäule.

Hazel somehow forgot how much she used to love her bike basket and graced us with her annoyed face, which she pulls off oh so well.  what a diva.

Sunday was spent riding bicycles and lounging at Tempelhofer Feld, along with what felt like half the city’s population.

Beer and French Fries = an incredibly nutritious lunch at the Biergarten at Tempelhof, which was followed up with a scoop of ice cream from Erste Sahne.

And we finished the weekend off with an evening scooter ride to Charlottenburg where we randomly decided to stop at Aroma for Chinese food.  In case you are curious, their pork buns were AMAZING.

I hope all of you had great weekends too!  Inspired by my friends, Field Office, I decided to open a shop on Society 6 and am excited to offer more print sizes and iPhone skins and cases of my photos.  Check it out here!

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My search for the perfect camera bag has taken years. More often than not, I have my camera with me when I am out and about town, but the last thing I want is to look like I am carrying a camera with me.  For a lot of obvious reasons, most camera bags are not only ugly, but they almost instantly brand you as a tourist or as a nice target for thieves.  Frustrated with the lack of camera bag options, for years I have used (and destroyed in the process) giant handbags in place of a proper camera bag and my poor cameras paid the price of not being protected.

I was so excited when I discovered ONA Bags because I finally found a company who made high quality, stylish, good looking camera bags and I shared my love for the Brooklyn bag almost two years ago here.  My Roma camera insert got a lot of use over the last year, but the Brooklyn bag that Santa brought me for Christmas has pretty much replaced every other bag I own.  It fits my Mark II camera body and 2 lenses perfectly and it is so well padded, I never worry about what is inside.  Now I just need another one in black and my life will be complete :)

I am so honored to be featured on ONA’s blog as a part of their photographer profiles, check out the post here.

From ONA’s website: ”In Swahili, the word ona (pronounced ō’na) means, “to feel,” “to believe,” and “to experience with the eyes.” This is the essence of photography and style.”

**all the photos of me were taken by my very talented, and very handsome husband, Andreas.

Also, my contributor profile is up on the sisterMAG blog!  I feel really blessed to have had so many great adventures working with sisterMAG over the last year.  Not only are they  truly amazing clients, I am lucky to also call the sisterMAG sisters dear friends.

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 I was so excited to see that the Postman had delivered the new issue of Cereal Mag today, and I was lucky to be asked to photograph two stories inside the magazine.  Cereal Magazine is a beautiful new print magazine from the UK focused on food and travel, which just so happen to be two of my favorite things as well. :)  The new issue has a wonderful Berlin travel section including not only the stories I photographed featuring R.S.V.P. and the city’s most popular street food, currywurst, but also two beautifully written and photographed stories about the Jewish Museum and the Bauhaus Archives (both are places I still need to visit- maybe this weekend we can go check them out, it is certainly perfect museum weather!).  For Berlin friends, you can pick up a copy of Cereal Magazine at Do you read me? and for everywhere else, click here for a full list of stockists.

I will definitely be spending the long weekend enjoying the new issue as I am hoping to take a much needed break away from my computer.  Do you have any big plans for the Easter holiday?  Usually we get away for the long weekend, but this year we will be lying low, catching up on sleep and trying to not slip and break any bones on the icy streets.  Please tell me some of you are going somewhere warm!

Check out some outtakes from the shoots for Cereal Mag here.

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the guy on the right had a boombox inside of a suitcase and was blasting “I’ve been looking for freedom” – mood music at its finest!

When I saw all the excited chatter on twitter that David Hasselhoff was coming to Berlin to support the protest against the destruction of the East Side Gallery, I knew we needed to go and witness this piece of youtube history.  I have always found his connection to Germany mildly fascinating and yesterday’s event was definitely an experience.  I somehow got swept up into the massive crowd following behind David and made a silly little video of the highlights.  Keep in mind I was getting pushed from pretty much every direction so it is pretty shaky, but you can hear the Hoff break out into song :) which is obviously what we were all hoping he would do.  Although, I am not going to lie, I was a little bummed that he didn’t bring the jacket he wore in 1989 when he sang on the wall.  Apparently he has promised that if the petition to save the East Side Gallery is successful, he will come back and throw a huge concert here in Berlin. Drücken wir die Daumen (fingers crossed)!

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