We drove through town and I got a local tour.  We then proceeded to the farmhouse where I’d be staying.  It was a traditional style house for the region with a white and dark wood exterior adorned with flower beds beneath the windows.  Outside there was a summer house with large doors that opened to an expansive lawn and views of the lake.  An occasional train would pass by on the distant tracks.  After getting settled in, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant.  The waitress was wearing a dirndl.  The dirndl is a traditional dress from the German speaking alps region.  Although the dress is often associated with Oktoberfest, in the past it had been worn by women daily.  Even today all women and girls own one.  They occasionally wear them to church, weddings, and a variety of other celebrations.  Naturally, this iconic dress was what I wanted to highlight in the German photograph.

We spend the remainder of the weekend exploring and enjoying nature.  We rode bikes down to the lake for sunset and had a cold drink on the autumn shores.  On the bike ride we stopped to feed llamas at a local farm.  One morning we drove into Austria and visited Zell Am See, a picturesque Alpine lake just over the border from Germany.  We also spent a day touring the Chiemsee.  There were a number of villages on the shores and an island to explore.  At first, Herreninsel is an unassuming island, but upon exploring the interior we came upon a massive palace.  The Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee is a sprawling complex built by Bavarian King Ludwig II in the late 1800s.  Ludwig II had been known as ‘The Fairy Tale King”.  He lived in his own world and built a number of whimsical castles through the region.  Interestingly, rather than hiring architects, Ludwig hired theatrical set designers to bring his fantasies to life.  This particular palace was modeled after Versailles.  While King Ludwig was beloved by many Bavarians, his tendency to live in his own fantasy world and ignore his duties as a leader coined him another nickname, the Mad King of Bavaria.  

It was time for me to venture to Munich and figure out who I might photograph.  The city had an old world charm to it. Each morning I would go out for a walk along a small wooded stream.  The morning light would illuminate the mist coming off the water.  Everything from the forests to the architecture made the region feel like a fairy tale.  

I spent a few days touring the city and contacting my German friends asking if they knew of someone I could photograph wearing a dirndl.  No luck.  I turned to one of my trusted apps again and tried finding someone through there.  I finally got in touch with a German man who was very interested in the project.  He told me that his daughter owned a dirndl and he’d ask her if she wanted to take part.  She agreed and we arranged to meet two days later.  I told them I’d like to have a Bavarian farmhouse in the background and they suggested a place about an hour outside of Munich.  Perfect.  In two days time, the three of us would venture out on a little road trip together.

The following morning, I took a day trip down to Neuschwanstein Castle.  The fairytale-like palace is perched high on a hilltop and was actually the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella Castle.  It was built for, you guessed it, our beloved mad king, Ludwig II.  The castle is the most visited in Germany and one of the top destinations in Europe.  I arrived at the base of the hill.  There were a number of tourists visiting that day. We all started the hike up the paved road.  Eventually there was an option to go right.  It was a steep dirt path through the forest with a sign that read ‘bridge closed’.  I had asked at the information desk for the best view of the castle and they informed me that while the bridge was closed, I could still get next to it and take a good shot.  Obviously with the ‘closed’ sign present, no one was taking the path.  I did.  It was grueling.  I hadn’t come prepared for that climb but I knew it’d be with it.  I made it to what I thought would be the top and the path connected to the paved road I had abandoned.  I met the other visitors who had taken a much more leisurely stroll to the same destination.  I continued my ascent and sat at the top of the hill overlooking the castle before a sprawling painterly landscape.  I was alone in the spot I found.  I sat and took in the view for a time before heading back down the mountain and boarding the train back to Munich.

The next day, I met Kathi and her father at his office in the city.  Both of them had very colorful personalities, especially her father.  He was a riot.  She was wearing her green and white dirndl.  It looked stunning.  We made our way to the car and drove for an hour or so to another lakeside village in the south.  Along the way we talked about the project and more about Bavaria and Germany as a whole.  When we reached the village, we walked around briefly and came across a farmhouse in the distance.  There was a large field of grass and wildflowers separating us from the house.  The location was perfect.  I asked Kathi to sit in the long grass and I cropped in so that the farmhouse was slightly blurred out in the distance.  The result looked timeless.  I knew I had already gotten the perfect portrait, nonetheless we continued walking through the town until the water's edge.  I took a few more shots here and there, some on a bridge, some by the lakeshore.  We talked and Kathi told me a bit more about when she would wear the dirndl.  She hadn’t worn it in quite some time and was excited to have an excuse to put it on.  We wrapped up shooting and headed back to the car.

We dropped Kathi off at her flat and proceeded to her fathers house.  I prepared the paint and paper for her, but she wanted to go home and change into her regular clothes first.  Once she arrived, she sat down and painted a beautiful line creating a heart.  The three of us then proceeded to a local biergarten to have a drink and some dinner.  We shared many laughs and talked more about random topics.  I learned more about German culture (and perceived German culture) from them.  I left completely satisfied with a full belly.  The following morning I would board the train to The Netherlands.