scouting locations

So yesterday i headed into Landstuhl, one of the local German towns looking for locations for my photo shoot next Tuesday. The client wanted an "urban" setting so Landstuhl made sense, & suits the individuals in question more then the hills i used last week. So naturally i set out with my camera looking for suitable places for backdrops when photographing the couple in question. & these are the images i ended up with, hinting at some of the locations i feel will work well, & in fitting with my photographic style.

religion

So here i am relaxing on my couch, so completely bored & the door bell rings. We live in a little village in deepest darkest germany, there's only 2 reasons our doorbell rings: 1. a friend has arrived 2. jesus has come to save me!

well it was number 2. Now i personally have no issues with people & their religious beliefs until it results in the deaths of others (growing up in england during the 1980s you get used to this), & believe we all have the right to our own catholic/muslim/pagan/hindu etc ... beliefs but i'm really not a fan of having someone stand on my doorstep & preach it to me. I believe in god, in fact i have a huge faith in him but to me it's a private thing & my choices themselves are private too. I don't appreciate the point where someone stands up & tells me what i'm doing is wrong because of something that was written how ever many years ago. Faith is still faith, & how i choose to practice is my choice. I'm pretty comfortable with the fact god isn't going to send me to hell because i don't go to church on a sunday. To me god created us different, he gave us choice & freewill & the ability to question his beliefs. We're not designed to follow one path instead we are able to get to that final destination our own way, sometimes easy & sometimes not so much. 

So having someone stand on my doorstep & tell me the choices i'm making are wrong doesn't make for a happy bunny, & it's not how i picture god showing us the way. I mean how are we supposed to learn from our own mistakes when someone else is showing us our "faults"! Plus (& no offence to anyone meant) there are some really crazy religious nuts out there (check out "god warrior on YouTube for proof).

Anyways before my tangent turns into an essay here's some "religious" photos i have taken on my travels.

D-Day photos

Here on request are some more photos from our recent trip to Normandy. With the 65Th anniversary this weekend & memorial day just a few weeks ago i decided now would be a good time to show these, & hopefully a few of them will be up for sale in my shop the next few weeks. The images are all very different, i hope showing the different styles i prefer as well as high lighting the cultural effects on the Normandy beaches of today.

Below is a photo of  the beach at St Laurent, more commonly known as part of Omaha beach. Who'd have thought somewhere so peaceful could have experienced so much blood shed just 65 years previous?

 

Postcards in a souvenir shop, showing the many different depictions of the Normandy beaches from 1944 until today.

Pointe du Hoc is a french cliff, located between the Utah & Omaha beaches, it was the site of 6 casements of German guns, aimed on the beaches below. The job fell to the rangers to destroy this battlement of D-Day. Firstly the area was heavily bombarded before the rangers climbed the cliff. For 2 days the rangers held the German forces at bay until reinforcements could arrive & destroyed the guns. Of the 225 rangers who climbed those cliffs only about 90 survived. 

Part of a  US Sherman tank, preserved outside a museum dedicated to Omaha, St Laurent.