The Outlaws Visit Berlin
Several members of the Outlaws recently enjoyed a hugely successful five-day photographic expedition to Berlin, a city where the history of the 20th century meets the radical innovation of the 21st. The trip provided a phenomenal canvas for our primary focus: the stark lines of architectural photography and the fleeting narratives of street life.
Our journey began at Nottingham’s East Midlands Airport where we boarded a mid-day flight to Berlin. Upon arrival we caught the overground train service into the heart of the city, the adventure had begun.
Our first evening was in the city’s modern core, where the Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Centre offered a masterclass in modern geometry. These structures demand precision if we were to capture the lines & scale. The coloured lights, water fountains and grandeur of the buildings was quite breath-taking and a memorable experience for the new arrivals. Following our first photoshoot it was an evening meal and time to rest before the demands of a new day.
Potsdamer Platz on our first evening photoshoot.
Berlin’s architectural landscape is defined by its dramatic contrasts, challenging us to use our lenses to capture both immense scale and intricate detail. Leading Lines and Symmetry; we emphasised them using wide-angle lenses to exaggerate perspective, focusing on leading the viewer’s eye through the composition, whether towards the Reichstag Dome or into the sweeping curves of the railway station canopy it was challenging but incredibly rewarding.
For long exposures and ensuring perfectly vertical lines, tripods were essential. Some members used tilt and shift lenses to correct perspective (or using in-camera/post-processing perspective correction) to avoid converging verticals when pointing upward.
Over the coming days the Outlaws transited across Berlin, photographing many of the famous locations such as the Brandenburg Gate (on the neo-classical columns, often shooting at dawn or dusk to capture rich, low-angle light that highlights the stone’s age), the Jewish Memorial (The stark, block geometry of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe provided a unique, sombre opportunity to explore patterns and negative space) here, telephoto lenses unexpectedly proved useful, compressing the rows of stelae to create a dense, overwhelming visual pattern that spoke to the memorial’s purpose.
Early on the Tuesday morning we had tickets booked us in for an 08:00 entry in to the Reichstag Dome, where silhouette figures could be seen and where we explored the interplay of light and shadow & texture and mood. After the early start and the prospect of taking some fabulous photos, the group were ready for a hearty breakfast and the social side of our trip was again enjoyed.
Many of the Outlaws favoured Street Photography as a genres and Berlin certainly had a lot to offer, the shift from the static certainty of architecture to the kinetic flow of street photography required a fundamental change in mindset and gear. Berlin’s diverse neighbourhoods —from the bustling markets of Kreuzberg to the public transport hubs—offer endless narrative potential. Many of us spent time at the HBF mainline railway station watching and photographing the hustle & bustle of commuters as they went about their daily transit routines.
Many club members opted for compact prime lenses (35mm or 50mm equivalent) on smaller, mirrorless bodies to maintain discretion. We prioritized fast shutter speeds (1/250s or higher) to freeze motion, relying on higher ISO settings (800-3200) to compensate for low light, particularly inside the iconic U-Bahn stations.
The East Side Gallery: This location offered a chance to capture people interacting with art, using the murals as a vibrant backdrop to everyday conversations and reactions. The key here was patience, waiting for the perfect moment when the subject’s posture complemented the surrounding graffiti.
The Berlin trip was more than just a tour; it was an intensive photographic workshop. It reinforced the idea that architectural and street photography, while seemingly different, share a common DNA: the pursuit of composition, light, and narrative.
It is now down to the travelling Outlaws to start editing and processing their shots so that we can visually share our experience with all members of the club when we hold a “Berlin Presentation Evening” sometime in the future.
For all of the Outlaws it was a fantastic photographic & social experience and one that hopefully we can repeat in 2026 to another new European city destination.
Author Nigel Stewart (October 2025)
Gallery of Members Images: