Medieval event - „Die Feldschlacht um die Ortenburg“, Austria, May 1.-3. 2009

[Bwaze]

Didn't really have time to take a lot of photos, since I was taking part in the event, but some have turned out quite nice, I think.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Market/IMG_8610.jpg


http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/IMG_8227.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/IMG_8289.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/IMG_8799.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%202/IMG_8890.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%202/IMG_8998.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Our%20Camp/Panorama2.jpg

[gjam99]

WOW! Amazing costumes. Nice looking pictures.

[Bwaze]

Thanks. I wouldn't call them 'costumes' - we were dressed like that for 4 days, so they have to be fully functional as well as fairly accurate. Especially if you're going to the battlefield.

Those suits of armour mostly run into thousands of Euros, so this can be even more expensive hobby than lets say, photography. If you can imagine that.

:-)

[S-Man]

I was just going to say I bet their expensive. The craftsmanship it takes to form such items out of metal has to be superb, not to mention the amount of man-hours spent forming them!
I can't even begin to imagine what it took back in the old'n days!
A chain-link coat of mail? fuggedaboudit!
Nice captures. Did you get any shots of you suited up holding your Canon? :D

edit: Oh, and I'm not sure how often blunt-ended sticks were used in warfare...:lol:

[johnstoy]

Great occasion to capture some fun stuff... The detail and sharpness make this a real nice set to look at...

When I was a little boy, I spent a lot of time visiting old European castles... This armor brings back those real fun memories... Thanx.

[Bwaze]

Hehe, blunt ended sticks were weapons on their own accord (quarterstaff and similar), but not in a military context. Here they were used for safety reasons, and they enabled the fighters to be a lot more aggresive than with normal rounded steel points.

I wasn't in armour when I was taking photos, but I did make several people laugh, dressed in 15.th century clothing, taking my 450D and 70-200 2.8 IS from a linen bag.

[S-Man]

Yeah, I was just messin ya about the sticks. Safety first.

Is that a jester in your avatar?

[Bwaze]

Hehe, that would be me, with a hood rolled in a chaperon. :rolleyes:

Some more medieval goodness:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/IMG_8724.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/IMG_8796.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%202/IMG_8902.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%202/IMG_9070.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Camping%20grounds/IMG_8389.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Market/IMG_8038.jpg

[S-Man]

These are cool. Do you have a link to an entire gallery?

Is that metalsmith bangin' out actual pieces of armor, or is he just making for a show?

I'm a bit of a fan of ancient warfare, with the hand-to-hand combat and strategies used, it just fascinates me.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but not everyone on the battlefield was so generously equipped with metal armor, right?
I seem to remember reading that mainly the privileged knights and certain high-ranking soldiers had custom-made armor.
But I could be wrong.

I'm not trying to question the authenticity of the event, just trying to jog my memory.
Thanks for sharing!

[Bwaze]

Yes, metalsmith (a Swiss) is actually banging some pieces of armour. Of course this is just one step, before next dishing they must be annealed. Those finished helmets in front of him cost 400, 600 and 800 EUR. :cool: And I didn't ask how much for the "cap-a-pie" armour.


You are right about the equipment of soldiers on battlefield. But those on the first lines that are pictured here, would certainly be best equipped, because they would be best paid. In case they survived. :p

I only have a helmet, gloves and a gambeson, a cloth armour. Yeah, I know it sounds silly, but it's quite protective. Although a bit hot.

I have uploaded quite a lot of pictures on Photobucket, but unfortunately I left the vertical images too tall, so their viewer resizes them with very ugly artefacts. But here it is:You can view them full size by using main view, not Grid view, an clicking and enlarging them individually. I know, I should reupload them...

Albums:

Ortenburg 2009 Battles 1: http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%201/?albumview=grid

Ortenburg 2009 Battles 2: http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Battles%202/?albumview=grid

Ortenburg 2009 Market: http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Market/?albumview=grid

Ortenburg 2009 Camping Grounds: http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Camping%20grounds/?albumview=grid

Ortenburg 2009 Our Camp: http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/Ortenburg%202009%20Our%20Camp/?albumview=grid



Have fun. :cool:

[DwightMcCann]

All quite excellent and surely most fascinating, but I can't figure out why there are only a couple of women ... that's what all the fighting is about ... gettin' the wimmen! :-) Amazing hobby. How is it organized?

[Bwaze]

Ah, yes, women. On one side there's too many of them (fighting on the battlefield, a thing almost unheard of during middle ages). On the other side, the camps can be a bit too 'males only'...

These events vary very much in their organization, but this one was fairly straightforward - most of the groups were there only for the battles.

[LSUConnMan]

The timing of the second one is nearly flawless...it looks like every face is visible, despite all the free flying poles. I'd imagine if that pic's taken 1/10 of a second earlier or later, and that moment is sent to the trash bin.

I also really like the musket flash shot, and I would love it from an angle that faced the shooter.

I'm not so sure about the pano of the 16th century camp, and the 21st century cars. I'm also not so sure about the last pic with the only object in focus is the backside of an infantryman.

[Bwaze]

Well, the setting wasn't the best for having a completely medieval camp - as you have noted, there were cars, ambulances, fire trucks, and a large modern tavern in the middle. That's also the reason why the shooter is "shot" ( :D ) from the side - behind him was a tavern.

The second picture is from the whole bunch of similar pictures, first lines dropping their lances. But this one Is I think the best framed, and as you have noticed, most of the faces of the group are seen.

Yeah, maybe the last picture would have been more informative with everything in focus, but I have those pictures, and this one strikes me as better. Perhaps because I appreciate the lines of the armour too much. :D

In the links I provided above are around 250 photos, and I think even some better ones than these here. I'm not very good yet at categorizing, beginner as I am. But I think I selected the best ones from 1200 I took in 3 days.

Thanks for all the comments!

[ShaforDesigns]

Very nice work. The images are all clear & turned out wonderful nice work