Read this in: German
Perhaps you noticed it last year: Many, many thousands of people made a pilgrimage to a certain street in Bonn, which shows a wonderful cherry blossom splendor. We were in Bonn shortly after the cherry blossom 2019. And happened to pass this Instaspot on the way to the botanical garden. What we saw was very interesting. An Asian couple was rather taken aback when they saw this photo location without flowers. But how do you find a suitable photo location?
We will answer this question today, true to the motto: Many roads lead to Rome.
Platforms
There are some English-language platforms like SightsMap, where you can find out about such locations. Photo platforms like Flickr can also help, there is also something like maps. And even Google Maps nowadays has the option to see whether a café of your choice also looks instagramable from the inside.
In Germany only 22 places are known for photo locations. Be happy to instruct me if there are others. Especially on this platform you can find good and detailed lists for cities like Hamburg, Berlin or Munich.
Give me a geotag
You can also see directly on Instagram whether you find something nice. For example, I do this by storing geotags of beautiful locations on Google Maps and then looking at those places before traveling. Therefore I can only recommend: Write precise geotags! Sharing is caring and if you are nice, you also link your source. Through the Berlin blogger Andysparkles, for example, I discovered a great photo location in Berlin last year through her story. It’s a point of honor that I of course mentioned her in the Instagram post.
And also on Pinterest you will find good listings of which cities have good photo spots to offer. just enter the name of your city and you will often find many blog posts.
We discovered this location in Hamburg through a photo walk with @igershamburg. And recently I discovered it in a Tom Tailor advertising campaign.
Photo walks and city accounts
Unfortunately, you don’t always have a precise geotag on Instagram and hashtags? Don’t ask for sunshine! I am not sure why some believe that enumerating as many cities as possible is useful. I am honestly a complainer. Back in 2014 I complained that they simply post Bremen as a hashtag and then come from Nuremberg or the photo was taken in Nuremberg. I think that was even before the geotags.
A good tip for this case are city accounts and at least every city has a dozen. Bremen z. B. @bremermoment, Hamburg @igershamburg and so on. If you want to discover places in your city or a city you want to travel to, these accounts can help you enormously. And if you can take part in a fotowelk in your city, I can only recommend it to you. From my own experience I can report that I have really found all the Insta treasures in various photo walks.
Copyright law
We talk about public places most of the time, but of course you have to admit that of course not everything you see on Instagram is legally secure. For example, did you know that the photo location “Eiffel Tower at night” cannot be photographed or filmed and then published. Not even on Instagram or Facebook. However, this is not due to the Eiffel Tower itself, but to the light show. The lighting company SETE illuminations has secured the copyrights for the illuminated Eiffel Tower. You are not allowed to take pictures without permission.
Can you then post photos on Instagram or Facebook? Yes, if it happens privately. Then write as the caption “copyright Tour Eiffel – illuminations Pierre Biteau”. Commercial use is, however, taboo and also a tricky question where it starts with the commercial use. An image for a paid cooperation at night should be avoided without permission from SETE.
Behave yourself
Sometimes you see such great places and would like to use this photo location yourself. However, one should not forget that some people are private property and not public property. A nice example of this can be backyards in cities like Hamburg, Göttingen or Berlin. If in doubt, just ask a resident, if there is a sign, the matter is clear. You should also be careful with props, because some things like smoke torches are simply taboo in some places.
Instagram Museums
Of course there are also more and more Instagram museums in Germany and Europe – I had already reported on some of them. I predict that there will be a few new ones in 2020. The advantage here is that you don’t have to buy expensive props, but sit in the nest. You usually pay around 30 euros per person. But you have well-lit locations. And on site you have a corner to put on make-up and straighten your hair. This should not be underestimated either, because when we take pictures outdoors, I am sometimes very painless and change my clothes and put on my makeup on the park bench.
If you want to send Instagram photos regardless of the weather, you can simply search for an Instagram museum nearby. I know some who have traveled 1000 km or more for pop-up museums like the Supercandy Museum in Cologne. Incidentally, this small but fine Instagram Museum is free and in Wolfsburg.
No sea nearby? with the right lens, the lake becomes the sea. Roxi photographed us with a prime lens. Photo: Roxis Fotos.
The best is sometimes right on the doorstep
It doesn’t always have to be London or Paris. I know many fashion bloggers who specifically search for older buildings in their city in a noble, classicist style with columns. No city and no there is too small – you can find interesting places for photos everywhere, maybe even where you least expect them. One of my absolutely favorite photo locations, for example, is a narrow corridor in the Bremen district. There are walls on the left and right, plus a bit of graffiti. not really a special place, but it looks really nice when you put someone in this aisle and take pictures. A photo location doesn’t have to be a famous monument. You can also work with accessories and colors. Some instagrams look for graffiti or pink walls, for example, in Hamburg there is a street that I affectionately call Insta Street because so many fashion Instagrammer photos were taken there.
It doesn’t always have to be the big wide world. Sometimes it is enough to look around the area. For example, my in-laws live in the middle of the heath.
