"The Crystal Ball" (German: Die Kristallkugel) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 197.
A sorceress was afraid of her three sons. She turned the oldest into an eagle and the second into a whale, and each could take his human form for only two hours a day. The youngest son fled before he could suffer the same fate and went off to seek the king's daughter, bewitched and held prisoner in the Castle of the Golden Sun. He saw two giants quarreling over a wishing cap and they asked him to settle the dispute. He put on the cap, forgot he had it on, and wished himself to the castle.
The king's daughter told him that only a crystal ball would break the enchantment. She directed him to go down the mountain and fight a wild bull beside a spring. If he killed it, a bird would spring out of it. If the bird was forced to let free an egg in its body, the crystal ball was its yolk, but the egg would light everything about it on fire if dropped on the land.
He fought the bull. The bird sprang free, but his brother the eagle harried it until it dropped the egg. This landed on a fisherman's hut, setting it ablaze, but his brother the whale drowned the hut with waves. The youngest brother took the crystal ball to the enchanter, who admitted himself defeated and told him that the ball would also break the spell on his brothers. The youngest hurried to the princess, and they exchanged rings.
The mini photo series was done on the busy streets of Venice during Carnevale. Just some random clicks using only natural lighting.
My Italian friends Emy and Gabriele enjoy fairy tale and fantasy costumes. They are a hit with photographers and tourists whereever they go. They are true celebrities at the Venice Carnevale and have foreign tv stations from Japan coming all the way to Venice to do an interview with them...