Your Canon Photos No. 6: 11th to 17th June 2023

In Vienna there are six enormous flak towers, built by the Nazis with forced labour between 1942 and 1945, the purpose of which was to serve as anti-aircraft defences. Luckily, the Second World War ended before they came into use for anything other than shelters. Hamburg and Berlin also had such towers.

The towers were built in pairs from reinforced concrete with walls 8ft thick. The two towers that I photographed yesterday are 400 metres apart in the Augarten. This is a large park in the city with forested areas divided by tall hedges and gravel paths. One (the Feuerleitturm) is 172 ft high for radar, and the other (the Gefechtsturm) is 180 ft high for artillery. At the end of the war it was decided that these towers were indestructible, so they have remained in place. A few years later, an explosion in the Gefechtsturm raised the roof -- literally -- and it then fell back again, causing damage, which has been contained by means of wires stretched around the tower.

There are several pages about them on the internet (mostly in German), but these three (in English) are quite interesting and have additional photos: A : B : C

The Feuerleitturm (for radar)

The Gefechtsturm (for artillery)

David

Interesting, and great photos too David.

David,

Are the towers used for anything today?

Can a person go up in them?

Steve Thomas

Hi Steve!

There is no public access to the two towers that I show, and they are not used for anything other than radio antennae mounts, though it is said that there may be computer servers in the Leitturm. Another pair, in the centre of town is used. One is used by the army, and the other has been converted into an aquarium, which one can visit. Of the third pair, one is used as storage.

David

Great shot! Perhaps a little bit too bright for my taste, but it works well either way and conveys a "sunlight" feel - well done!

Wonderful and impressive shots! Even though I am from Austria, I didn't know about these towers in Vienna. I've seen similar ones in Hamburg and other cities in Germany though. They're certainly impressive. The one I've been in featured a music store and some kind of restaurant I think. It's great seeing those monstrous scary buildings being used for something like that.

A couple of shots with different lenses (featuring a tiny Zeiss macro lens, a Leica projection lens and even a Canon microfiche lens 😅):

Seedy center by simple.joy, on Flickr

Mo-no-tone by simple.joy, on Flickr

Five and time by simple.joy, on Flickr

Caught wet handed... by simple.joy, on Flickr

I'm heading off to Cornwall tomorrrow, and I thought I'd share something different before I leave.
These are photos taken on camera traps in the last few years. The photos are very low quality, but they are pretty good for what they are - coming from a couple of £30 cameras from Ebay.
These are not Canon photos, but I hope y'all can forgive me, as usual.

Hi davidwein,

Those are interesting structures, well photographed.

Hi simplejoy, love the photos. If I've got to pick a favourite its got to be 3, excellent.

Hi Dunlin, all interesting shots, what we can do with auto gizmo's eh!!

Raining at the moment where I am in Cornwall, but looks good for tomorrow, we've had some high temperatures this past week.

This one is a doe, I think. She joined another one a few seconds later, but they skedaddled before I could get a shot of both of them.

Steve Thomas

Well Done Steve, good captures.

This week's thread has continued the variety of topics that we have come to expect. Thank you all for contributing.

Simplejoy continues to amaze with his unusual macro shots of flowers and other objects, taken with unconventional lenses.

Fotoworld/Paul was lucky to have some interesting birds pose elegantly for him: I liked them all.

Digirame, currently culling unusual shots on his vacation, presented some rhododendron bushes that are larger than I have ever seen, and quite magnificently photogenic. No.6 is my favourite. Plus his Renaissance Faire photos. Strange that such things are so common in the USA, whereas I have never seen one in Europe!

Dunlin provided more lovely flowers, a cute herring gull chick and some candid camera shots of visiting animals. He is also off gathering shots in Cornwall.

Mocha was already in Cornwall and uncovering fascinating "ancient" remains.

Steve told us about the "small white Baptist church" that got away from him! I had a similar experience seeing a building being demolished, with rooms exposed and concrete reinforcement hanging down; but I was driving... Steve made up for this by his deer shots.

Thanks for all your comments: keep these and the photos coming.

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The new weekly thread is now open here. Please move to it now.

Cool doe pics Steve, I enjoyed seeing them.

I saw this morning that DPreview was sold to some gear company. Talking about a mess they created.

Here's a picture from three weeks ago. The most beautiful tiny island on our lake was destroyed last year with this gigantic storm that we had (I was without power for six days). To put it simply, most of the trees on the island were uprooted or broken in two. Here's a photo. Then I decided to equip my house with an automatic generator one month ago. No more cranking and hauling gas as this unit is a propane model (I have two huge tanks). I also installed a sound suppressing panel that I made myself. I still have to finish it but I was waiting so see how well it was suppressing sound. Actually, it's doing a pretty good job. I'll finish with pine boards. The weather seems to be becoming more and more extreme. Also, we're still stuck with damaged trees from last year breaking on electric wires and posts.