On September 29th, Bert and I went to Cologne for Photokina.
Photokina is widely regarded as one of the biggest photography conventions of the world, and you get people traveling to it from literally all over the globe. We only went on the Saturday, because the other days it’s super expensive. But Saturday, the last day, is really affordable. We were very aware that it would probably be crowded AF, but whilst it was crowded, it wasn’t as bad as we had expected.
Bert loves shooting models, because he doesn’t get the opportunity for studio work normally. So he likes going to these events. I just like looking at what’s new and writing reviews (one’s coming up in BCM) so for us, traveling to Photokina isn’t a waste.
Let me start by giving you a few handy tips when you go by car. You will, inevitably, get stuck in traffic when driving to Koelnmesse. Make sure to get into the right lane as quickly as possible, because it will be Hell to get into the correct one. And the indication for the visitor lane is shit.
Incidentally, it is really the right lane, as it’s the one on the right side of the road, left is for stand holders and assorted. Which is why that one moves a hell of a lot faster.
When you just go to Koelnmesse, you do not need an eco vignette, if you go into Cologne, you do. So make sure to sort that out online beforehand!
Parking space at Koelnmesse is €10 for a day, but if you come by public transport and have bought your ticket beforehand via the Photokina website, they will not just email you your tickets, but also a voucher for free public transport to the venue.
Please note that this was all the case for the September 2018 edition, and things may change, so make sure to double check to see if this info is still correct before you go.
We went by car, and we had never been there before. So of course we got stuck in the wrong lane, and it got so bad that I ended up getting out of the car when we were standing still so I could walk to the next lane (the right one, literally) and ask the driver (also a Belgian) if could PLEASE let us get in in front of him. To which he, thankfully, agreed. Thank you kind sir!
But yeah, get in the RIGHT (literally, as it is the right hand one) lane the second you get onto the final road to the venue.
Getting past security was pretty painless, the security was very friendly and just did their job, so that was nice.
I wanted to meet up with Bellamy (aka Japan Camera Hunter), and I did succeed in the afternoon, so yay! I used the photo from his stories because I am the queen of derp and I was just too derpy in the one on my phone haha :).
I also managed to meet up with the Canon social crew, who I had been joking around with the day before. They were super, super kind and I hope I can run into them again at another event. Picture by Ben! Yeah, I did take a lot of dinosaur cookies to make friends, it works! :).
Whilst at Photokina you don’t really have photobooths (or at least I didn’t see them) like you do at regular photograph conventions (loved that about Photo Days), you do have several places where you can print free stuff.
Di let you print photos and a photo sticker sheet, and the Instax village had tons of free Instax fun. Not just photos you could have taken or take yourself, but also a scrapbooking section and letting you make a free little desk calendar with photos from your phone (and the app was non privacy invady, which was a total bonus!).
I bought some film at the Lomography stand, because we were going to France the next week and I wanted to shoot analog on all three days (yeah, find out how that went, here and here) and I didn’t feel like going into Antwerp to shop at Grobet because I only had 3 days left to do so and was super busy. So Lomography it was, even though I don’t like Lomo film. I actually wanted to buy a light painter for Bert, but they were sold out :(. I also saw a huge shopper I really liked that was only €10, but as I shoot a lot of digital, I didn’t feel like I should be lugging a bag that said something like “leave the digital grind behind”, as I have definitely NOT left the digital grind behind. Not fully at least.
Whilst I really enjoyed my day, there were a few things I didn’t like.
I’m going to list them here because this is a problem a ton of people will have. I shoot with a Canon EOS 800D. Generally with my favourite lens: the 18-55mm lens. Which is a starter kit lens. It is how it is, but I love that thing.
Sometimes I shoot with one of Bert’s lenses or my Lomography Diana lens (the former better lenses, the latter well, let’s not go there). But usually I don’t, and Photokina was no different.
I am REALLY good at getting a good spot to take photos in general. Because either other photographers let me have a nice spot because they feel like everyone should be able to get a nice model photo (these are the absolutely lovely photo people, and they ARE in the majority, thankfully). Or I am simply there in time and sit at an amazing spot because I am patient AF (waiting for shows and parades at Disney will do that to you).
However, small kit means that the super rude kind of fellow photographer, will feel like you have no business being there. And they will try to remove you from your lovely spot. By pushing, shoving or flat out telling you that you should leave because you have no business being there with “THAT” kind of equipment. Yeah, that happened. Especially at the Canon model shooting it was particularly bad. Because they had a ballerina, and floating fabric, which was beautiful.
So be prepared for that, because unless you look like Bert (who has an extreme case of resting bitch face on top of being very tall), this shit will happen to you if you have basic kit.
The other is the food. Which was SUPER OVERPRICED. I kid you not. Unless you don’t spending a lot for a mediocre meal, bring your own.
Douchebags and overpriced food aside, Photokina was good. I wouldn’t mind going back, but I also wouldn’t mind not going back. But Bert loved it, so I’m guessing we’ll be going to the May edition.
All my Photokina photos are here.
There’s also a couple more on Bert’s Instagram page.
Mandatory outfit shot, before we left and right after we got out of the con :).
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