Blog | Jakob Berr Photography

In February I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, Calif., one of the largest of its kind. On the second Sunday of every month, 20,000 buyers and almost 3,000 vendors gather around the famous stadium to sell junk and hunt for treasures. While I was there, I played around with the reflections of people in the mirrors that are displayed all over the place.

Some of these pictures I really liked, so this weekend I went there again to hunt some more mirror shots. Here are some selects from both days:

I love shooting with my Leica, but it does have some downsides. One of them is that you can’t do any macro photography – at least not with the lenses that I have.

A while ago, my friend Valerie Mosley posted photographs she took with a so-called poor man’s macro (holding another lens in front of the lens on your camera). At the time, I didn’t think that I could do that with my rangefinder. Since you’re not able to see what the camera sees through the lens, it’s kind of impossible to focus on such a small scale.

During a hike on the San Juan loop trail at the Cleveland National Forest today though, Beth suggested that we try it. And – much to my surprise – after some initial feebling around, we were able to get some really nice results. Here are some of my favorites:

I’ve been wanting to post these for a while now, but never got around doing it. Here are a couple of frames from a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park back in February. It was my first time in the desert, and it was amazing. I can only recommend going there – but bring some extra blankets, because it gets awfully cold at night…

Panoramic of the Eagle Mountains, taken from the Lost Palms Oasis nature trail in the Sonoran (Colorado) Desert at Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., Wednesday, February 23, 2011. The four-mile trail leads from Cottonwood Springs to a secluded canyon filled with California fan palms.

A Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) grows in the Mojave Desert near Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., Thursday, February 24, 2011. The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.

Cholla cacti (Opuntia bigelovii) grow in the Cholla Cactus Garden in the Pinto Basin in the Sonoran (Colorado) Desert at Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., Wednesday, February 23, 2011. The plant is infamous for its spines covered with tiny, barbed hooks. The spines easily penetrate skin and flesh and are extremely hard and painful to remove. The information plaque at the head of the nature trail leading into the garden features a quote by J. Smeaton Chase who writes in his California Desert Trails (1919): ''If the (cholla cactus) bears any helpful or even innocent part in the scheme of things on this planet I should be glad to hear of it.''

California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) grow at Lost Palms Oasis, a secluded canyon in the Eagle Mountains in the Sonoran (Colorado) Desert at Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., Wednesday, February 23, 2011. The oasis is the largest collection of California fan palms at Joshua Tree National Park.

Here are some shots from down at the beach that I did a couple of days ago. They’re nothing special, I mainly just played around with my camera. But I ended up liking these four, I think they have a nice feel to them. Let me know what you think!