The Burbs | Day 26

Copenhagen is known for some of its unique architecture and I had seen some of the cool modern buildings in videos and photos. One such building is called “8 Home.” It is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen and boarders a nature preserve called Kalvebod Faelled. The plan for today was to venture out there and take an architectural photo of the building. The route out there wasn’t to tough and consisted of taking the M4 train to the central stop and then the M1 out to where it terminates, Vestamager. The morning was pretty standard and about noon I gathered my stuff and looked for a hardware store to replace the missing bolt in the tripod. Well turns out that on Sundays all of the hardware stores are closed. I looked over the tripod leg and deemed it wouldn’t just fall apart so lets just press on.

It was a much nicer day than yesterday and the sky was just partly cloudy and mostly sunny. I got to the metro station by the hotel and scanned my card. The machine came back red and said that I didn’t have enough on the card for the ride. That was odd because I had only ridden the train twice and it cost 17DKK a time so I should of had more than enough. I tried a few more times but still no success. I went to the ticket machine and loaded it with another 100DKK. The check in turned green and waited for the train. Boarded the train, made it to the central station, and transferred to the new train. Most of the time the trains are filled with some locals but mostly tourists. This train on the other hand was predominately filled with locals. Only after a stop or two we were in areas that were housing. There were kids, families, individual with bikes and groceries. When the train came out of the tunnel the landscape was filled with all kinds of apartment buildings. We surely weren’t in the city center anymore. As the stops went by the number of people dwindled. Finally we reached the end of the line and the 20 of us got off the train. The building was, from what I could tell, one of the upper end buildings in this neighborhood but the neighborhood wasn’t run down or anything. There weren’t to many people walking the streets as I made my way the two blocks before heading toward the preserve. As I was walking in between 8 House, and the adjacent apartment building, I kind of got a weird vibe. Not a scary one exactly but it felt like you were in one of those computer renderings you see when they are building a new building. The ones that have computer generated people and it looks ultra modern. I only passed maybe 4 or 5 people people which added to the vibe. There wasn’t much vegetation at the complex. It didn’t have a small canal running between the buildings and little trees along it but once you got toward the center it was just concrete. Almost felt like that movie 28 Days later where he walks out of the hospital to see no one is around. I hit the edge of the building and crossed the small bridge to the preserve. Unlike the buildings, the preserve trails had quite a few people. Some were walking their dogs, taking a casual stroll, or riding bikes. 8 House had a lake that separated it from the preserve. I followed the upper path until I found the perfect spot to shoot. I plopped my bag down and busted out the tripod. Luckily enough it still had all of it’s legs.

8 house is unique for and it the largest private development ever in Denmark. It is 10 stories tall and is shaped like a figure 8. The lower floors are dedicated to retail spaces, and the higher floors are residential. On the preserve side the building slants down meeting the ground. The unusual ramp looping around the complex is designed to foster a sense of community, encouraging interaction between neighbors. It is incredibly unique and different from anything I have ever seen. The sun was still a bit high in the sky but with it staying light so late it wasn’t going to change drastically any time soon. I snapped a few different exposure and then an idea dawned on me. I broke out the neutral density filter to get the shutter speed slow enough to get a slight blur of the clouds. I shot another bracket or two but it just wasn’t blurring as much as I wanted. I then remembered that I had an infrared filter in my bag. The neutral density filter knocks down the exposure by up to 5 stops of light. The Infrared filter knocks it down another 10 stops making the exposure time quite lengthy. Just to touch briefly on the color imagery. Infrared light doesn’t have any color as it exists beyond the range of visible light – which is where the colors that we can see occur. The R72 filter has a slight red tint to it which enables it to capture the infrared light and for this to have a slight color so we can see it. Once photographed, the color post-processing common to infrared images is known as “false color”. This is because the colors represented are not what our eyes would see or with a regular camera. Here the color channels are swapped and red tones are replaced with blues, and blues with red. This results in an array of different colors applied to parts of the image, depending on how they reflected or absorbed the light and helps to create the unusual and unexpected color combinations.To get the whole building in focus I need to use a higher Fstop, and with a low ISO the longest exposure time was 4 minutes. The bracketed exposure was anywhere from the 4 minutes to 8 seconds. This gave clouds plenty of time to moved causing that cool blur. I spent a bit of time just shooting different brackets and was super stoked on the result. During some of those longer exposures I was looking around at the preserve and noticed a ship that was in the grass just before the tree line. Debated going to check that out after I had finished shooting 8 House. In total I shot the building for probably 45 minutes or so and then gathered up my stuff. Like previous times I had debated just bailing on shooting the ship but reason kicked in and I was there so might as well.

The ship was life size and looked quite old. The middle had been removed and it was a play area for kids. On top of the ship there were large wood poles which made for a really cool visual. I stuck with the infrared filter since there was grass all around the ship. Immediately I knew this was going to be a cool image. Looking at the back of the camera I could see the blur of the clouds which gave a sense of motion in the ship. I hung out for 20 or so minutes running through all of the different exposures. I am so glad I went and shot that ship! Having sufficiently shot the building, and ship, I decided to start making my way back. I was hungry and as I crossed through one of the courtyards I could see a pizza place on the corner a block or two over. I headed that way and still didn’t really see to many people. I reached the pizza spot called Roman Pizza. It was probably the most crowded place I had seen in this area. I ordered the standard Pepperoni and Mushroom pizza and the price was much more favorably than in the city. The pizza was $9 and the soda was $2.50. There were a few other orders in front of me so I sat at the counter and waited. Collected my pizza and since the small restaurant was crowded I headed out the door to find a place to sit. I walked back to one of the 8 House courtyards and found a concrete ledge and had a seat. I enjoyed the pizza quite a lot and was nice to sit in quite and just enjoy my food. I sat there for about 30 minutes and then continued onward. On the way back to the train station there was a market on one of the corners and figured I could use a Redbull. The market was actually a bit busy but it was approaching 3pm so possibly people were on their way home from work or something of that nature. I grabbed a Redbull and found my way back on to the train. It was relatively filled. Rode it the 5 stops back to the central station, switched trains, and ended back at my hotel’s stop. I had enough time to download the memory card and check out the photos before it was time to go to the final concert in Copenhagen. The shots are by far the most unique I have shot but I dig them so much! I will for sure be offering prints of these. If there wasn’t a Metallica show to get to I would have worked on the photos through dinner. A different afternoon than probably many would do but boy was it worth it!

At 4:30pm I put the computer away and started to get ready for the show. I headed downstairs and in the lobby there were decorations on the ceiling and a gathering of people dressed in football jerseys. They had a beer cart in the lobby and they were for sure gearing up for a match watch party. I had a few minute so thought to have a beer at this watch party. It was reasonably priced and I found a seat amongst the people. There were probably 25 or so people and the match was to start in about half hour. I asked the nice barmaid what the match was all about. She told me that this was the season opener for their team and they were playing a “easier” team and should get a win. I watched the pre match coverage, which was in Danish, but I got the drift. I finished up my beer and headed toward the metro. As I was waiting for the train there was a couple, who were older than me, that was heading to the show as well. They looked at me and I said “going to to the Taylor Swift concert too?” They laughed and said “nah a little band called Metallica actually.” The train pulled up and we all boarded. Rode the train the two stops, switched, and arrived at the stadium stop. When I got top side the streets weren’t nearly as crowded as Friday. I walked toward the stadium passing all of the headphone sellers, the house that was serving sausages, and other food venders. I hit the Enhanced Experience tent and ran in to the same guy as Friday. We chatted for a little and I showed him the photo of the ship which he thought was insane. He said that they will be at the Warsaw and Madrid shows as well so would run in to each other again. I skipped the Gasoline Burger but did hit a beer tent that was next to it. There were about 25 people in line so took a minute to get my beer. Once the beer was secured I headed toward the floor entrance. An employee handed me another one of those QR code cards. Sadly not a winner. I shall keep trying haha. I asked the security person if I needed to finish my beer before entering and he simply said, no. I should have recognized that was a dumb question after seeing the beer damage the crowd could do on Friday. I had thought to stand on the opposite side of the stage this time but had a good standing spot on Friday and met that father son so decided to go over there again. Made my way through the crowd and found myself in the same spot as I was Friday and sure enough there was the father son against the rail.

Five Finger Death Punch started and the crowd loved them. They had come to Copenhagen a couple of years ago but Ivan needed hernia surgery so they had to cancel. This was the first time they had been back since then so people were excited. Per the usual Ivan went round and round the stage interacting with the crowd and always had a smile on his face. He waves at people and gives out all kinds of items. People really respond to that and they can tell that he is truly having a great time. During the set the father son duo recognized me and we gave out high fives. FFDP wrapped up and was going to head for another beer but first had to hit the restroom. This was a suicide mission haha. It took a solid 25 minutes to exit the floor, go up the stairs, fight through the insane crowd, and wait the line at the restroom. As I was hopefully almost there the dad came walking past with a similar face to mine. This was a nightmare and something that the venue should address lol. After the restroom I fought my way back toward the floor entrance. Had contemplating getting a beer from one of the stands I was walking by but there were just to many people. I finally made it back to the floor and hit the beer stand right next to the entrance. I almost got myself one of those carriers so I could get 2 but in the end settled just for one. Now the next part of the operation, returning to where I was standing. The crowd had filled in a bit more sense I left all those minutes ago so I attempted to use the Snake Pit walkway and then slip in just before the rail. Being a single and also a smaller person the tactic actually paid off. A series of excuse me, sorry, and pardon me’s I was back the group. We all chatted and they wanted to see the photos from 8 House and the pirate ship. The colors and look of the images really blow people’s minds. We noticed that the Weekend at Bernies man was back and he was upright this time. Shirt was still on but give it a few minutes and that will probably be thrown in to the crowd. The lights went down and Metallica started. They were great as always and my man over on the elevated platform had removed his shirt and was solo dancing away. They did play a song that I hadn’t heard on the Europe tour which was King Nothing. I really enjoy that song and cool to have heard a new song at every stop. About half way through our guy was passed out in his chair. A new shirt had been located but his feet were up on the railing and head back with sunglasses on. For how much those seats cost that is crazy thing to get so hammered you miss half of the show. I will say he is consistent though haha. Some of the previous shows one of the heads of security for the band has let people in to the Snake Pit late in the show. That is how I got in there at the first stop. He had done this on Friday so I was on the lookout this evening. As we got deep in to the setlist I saw him walk toward the railing area. I made an executive decision and made my way close to that area in the event he does let folks in. Unfortunately that didn’t happen but it did put me in position to beat the crowd out of there. Enter Sandman is their last song and since I had left my close standing area, and they band was on the opposite side of the stage, I started to make my way toward the exit. I watched the last song from there and then the moment it was over dipped out. Was a whole different experience not having to fight 30,000 people out a few doors. Like Friday I knew the metro would be jammed so I opened the Lime app and looked for the closest bike. There was a small army of them just in the park across from me. I snagged one of those and rode through the park heading home. When I reached the hotel I parked the bike in the same spot I did on Friday but the app told me I couldn’t park there. The nearest spot to park it was about 5 blocks and across the rail tracks. I backtracked to the area parked it and then walked the 10 minutes to the hotel. That was a bit of a drag and negated some of the convenience of riding the bike home. At least the weather was nice so made the walk perfectly fine. When I got in the hotel the couple I had met earlier were sitting in one of the seats and they waved. I grabbed a beer and asked if I could join them. They said, “100%” Their names were Dave and Loo. They were from the UK and we chatted for quite a while about travel, concerts, Copenhagen, and more. They were incredibly nice and they were heading to Bali in the Fall so told them a lot about my experience there and that they would have an absolute blast. We attempted to get another drink but the bar closed early so we were out haha. That was the flag that meant bedtime. My train trip for tomorrow was a bit uncertain as well. I had tried to book a ticket from Copenhagen to Berlin but the Eurail app kept giving me an error message. The train I had wanted to take left at 9:15am so would try again when I got to my computer in my room. I tried the app multiple times but still it gave me the error message. I went through the help guide and even reached out to the help desk but all they could offer was to respond via email when they got to it. There wasn’t much more I could do tonight so planned to wake up at 7 and try get someone on the line to help me. What a cool day today was and was neat seeing a different side of the city. Got some insane images and saw a Metallica show so I would call that an amazing day. Tomorrow might not be as easy so until then will get some rest and start again in the morning.