So here's my advice to any other would-be photographers such as myself out there: Put your camera on the ground. The idea came to me in a funny way actually. One morning I was chasing after Lilly when suddenly I wondered what it is she actually sees when she's crawling around. Duh, I thought. Your camera can tell you. I put my camera on the floor, shot some pictures and here is what I got:
Look how huge those toys look! And the electrical outlets are also so enticingly strange and within reach (Opps. They actually aren't in this picture and I erased the other one. They are to the left of the pipes and, trust me, they look oh-so-enticing!) No wonder babies always go for them....Anyway, a couple of days later (Sunday to be exact) we took another trip out to Sakrow (if you are new to this blog, you can read an earlier post about the history and loveliness of the Heilandskirche in Sakrow here). When we reached the church I thought, "Hey, why not put the camera on the ground again just for fun?" Here is what I got:
I really love the change in perspective. So many pictures are taken at full height, why not mess with it a little? What I found really amazing were how many things I managed to capture without even meaning to.
I basically just put the camera on the ground and pressed the button without thinking, but I somehow managed to capture this couple in a tight embrace, looking off into the distance and walking away with the woman looking in my direction (probably thinking, what is that freakish woman doing with her camera on the ground??) I couldn't have planned it better. Further proof that my camera is, indeed, smarter than I am!
I first visited the Heilandskirche in the village of Sakrow right outside Berlin around fifteen years ago. The church is a lovely little Italian style brick building right on the water and was built a little over a hundred years ago. Besides it's beautiful location, however, what makes this church special is that for almost thirty years no one could ever visit it: From 1961 to 1989 it was in the Todesstreife; the death strip; between West and East Germany. The only living creatures that passed by this church during these 18 long years were birds, insects, bunnies and (probably) the occasional border guard from the GDR.
Although you can't see it from a distance, the outer walls of the church are actually covered in graffiti. Tasteful, pencil scrawled graffiti stating things like Heinrich was here in 1925. There are all sorts of dates there and different styles of script (the German writing style was slightly different before the war.): 1919, 1927, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1961....and then nothing until the 90s. The walls and floor are also partially puckered with artillery fire.
I always feel strange when I see old bullet holes in the city (they are all over the place). A solider could have died right here, I often think. From our side or from theirs. Now, over 60 years later, what is really the difference. The soldiers in the German Wehrmacht were not necessarily (often probably weren't) Nazis, just scared eighteen to twenty-five year olds like all the rest.....
Although there are some tourists at the Heilandskirche and the nearby chateau, it is never overrun. The place is just too off the beaten path: you can only get there by car or by a bus that doesn't run very often. But it's worth a visit for the peace, the beauty and, above all, for the 
history.
