Octoberfest generally is an easy place for candids, but in terms of speed, especially focusing speed with longer focal lengths, it can be demanding. But the people usually don’t object being photographed. Only inside the beer halls the breweries now imposed quite strict regulations to stop the publication of images showing drunk or half-naked customers.
I am more interested in small details like those gingerbread hearts. Last year I photographed them in the food stalls where the color is really overwhelming, especially at night when the lack of light makes it easy to direct the views. The small collection of Octoberfest posts you can find here.
These hearts are interesting. Is there a significance to them or is it simply an Octoberfest tradition?
Now those would be some interesting photos: half-naked drunkards! Street photography gets a lot easier when nearly everyone is walking around an event with a camera or in areas that are well known tourist areas.
@Earl: These gingerbread hearts are tradition, just the writings get updated a la mode. Usually the texts are variations of ‘I love you’ or ‘My sweetheart’.
@Paul: Believe it or not, half-naked drunkards are reality in those beer halls, just see this video on youtube for a harmless glimpse. This definitely is not tradition, but it is reality now – and I regard it as a wonder that with 10.000 (more or less drunk) people in a beer hall the amount of incidents is still low and the mood, as it is reported, seems to be good.
Did you see Boston Globe’s The Big Picture from September 21, 2009? I almost found the comments more interesting than the photos. Since I have never been there I am not sure what to think about all this … .
I always love those hearts, but the dirndl is also very cool ;-)) Have a nice weekend!