Philipp Lahm Wedding

Philipp Lahm is team captain of German national FIFA football team, who just scored third place at the FIFA world championship in South Africa.

First thing he did when he came back to Munich was to marry his bride, Claudia Schattenberg. And as luck would have it he selected the St. Emmeran church of Kleinhelfendorf to do so. Just some of hundred meters away from where my studio is located.

So, I decided to play paparazzo and see what I could grab as a photo.

No question that about hundred true paparazzi were blocking my sight and -- as the number of them exceeded the population of Kleinhelfendorf ;) -- theirs as well. I can only say:

Bring your own ladder!


I am glad I don't have to earn my money this way. As soon as the bride entered the church, they started to run each other over in an attempt to be first to upload the photo. Of course, the 3G/UMTS infrastructure of Kleinhelfendorf wasn't really meant for this use case. To see scores of paparazzi left in frustration is a priceless experience :)

Also, chatting with some of the photographers, TV teams and moderators was interesting. I now have a better idea of the amount of money changing hands on events like this. Needless to say that the right to officially take photos was sold exclusively upfront.


Despite the competition for sight, I tried my luck and here is what I managed to achieve. Enjoy :)


















(Click on the images to enlarge. All photos © 2010 Falk Lumo. No reprint or linking without permission. All and more photos available in high resolution.)

Just a closing remark after you have seen the images... I used my mountain bike to be ahead of the horse drawn wedding carriage on its path thru small and rural roads. After a few kilometers only I've seen no more paparazzi photographers. They don't try as hard as one would imagine... ;)