Rolando Gomez

Today in Garlstorf, Germany, while on my Calumet Europe and California Sunbounce tour in Europe, we took the day off and attended the Erntefest in Scharmbeck. While in America we tend to think of a fest as a big party, this fest is more of a Thanksgiving festival for the local community of Scharmbeck celebrating the successful harvesting of crops for the year. Apparently they had a great crop as demonstrated from the farm tractors that pulled decorative trailers, trailers with themes of farming and harvesting often made of the plants and grains.

There were also carnival type rides for the children with food and drink booths too, though not as commercialized as we often see in the United States—these booths and attractions centered more around the locals than trying to draw people from other communities, a small and quaint atmosphere.

We stopped and ate the local bakery pastries while sipping a diet Coke. Sure, the smell of grilled bratwurst was temping, but we only visited enough to take in the parade and see the country side, then back to the office we went to prepare for our trip tomorrow to Hamburg. From Hamburg tomorrow we’ll come back and pick up our luggage and then head to Dusseldorf before we set sail to the Netherlands were we visit the Calumet stores in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Ok, we really won’t set sail, we’re driving from location to location in a large panel truck that looks like a cross between a passenger van and a old U.S. Army deuce and half, or 2 ½ ton truck. Our vehicle I’m sure is not rated at that tonnage and it’s practically brand new, but sometimes it feels like I’m riding in a truck as yesterday we did six hours of driving to Berlin and back.

I was shocked to see the outcome in the Calumet Berlin store, my thoughts were, “Why would European photographers come and see an American glamour photographer?” I’m still trying to figure that out, but what I did realize today, Calumet spent tons of money to promote the event as they took out full, two-page advertisements that featured the tour and my photography in nine different European magazines that targeted the countries of Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg (BeNeLux area). I picked the current copy of PHOTOGRAPHIE, one of the most prestigious magazines in Europe, which carried the two-page advertisement and an article on my seminars in Europe.

I also picked up a copy of foto Magazine, another great European magazine that carried the two-page ad and I’ll search for the other six photography magazines as we travel. The folks at the Berlin Calumet store even gave me a copy of the full-color posters advertising my seminars that are on display at all the stores. Add to that marketing blitz, Calumet took out newspaper ads too, so again, I’m thrilled to see how much coverage they are giving not just me, but an American photographer.

All this reinforces what I said on an earlier post in the Glamour1.com photographic forums, the people in Europe are not only friendly and kind, but literally accepted me with open arms. We also had the local press attend the Berlin seminar and word on the street is that tomorrow in Hamburg they’ll have television coverage of my seminar too. Wow is all I can say! Well, I ok, I’ll also say, thanks to the folks at Calumet Europe, California Sunbounce and the people of Europe, without you none of this would ever be possible.

Well that’s it for now, it’s Sunday evening and I have much work to do in preparation for our travels that really begin tomorrow and on top of working on my new books and images, the day is getting shorter as we’re seven hours ahead from home in this time-zone and I have to eat, then get some rest. From Europe, thanks, rg sends!