I've been home for about a week and a half now, and I've slowly settled back in! (to my couch!) I'm always amazed at how quickly I'm able to re-adjust to my old ways and habits that come with being at home. i.e. not working much, eating and sleeping in excessive amounts, and in general having a good time! I said that I would write more about my time in Poland, once I was home, but I'm not sure if I will right this minute. I will say that during my stay in Poland, I did take a day trip to Auschwitz concentration and extermination camps. This is, of course, the site of the the largest of the WWII Nazi concentration and death camps. Auschwitz is actually two main camps with hundreds of surrounding satellite camps. It was as every bit of mind boggling, sad, and fascinating as I imagined it would be. There were more than a million people who were either killed or died there in the four to five years the camps were in operation. Of those 1.1 million people that died at Auschwitz, 90% were Jews. Auschwitz was the home to the first tests of Zyklon B, or cyanide, used on humans. Auschwitz I, where I shot these pics, is almost completely intact to this day. Here are some pics. I decided to place a caption under each one, giving a brief explanation.

Ok, so I'm back in the states. Illinois to be exact. I flew in yesterday, and began the arduous cross country trek to Tulsa. I'm about 2 seconds from completely crashing in my last hotel bed, for at least the next week, but I wanted to go ahead and post some pics from Poland. I worked on them on the flight from Germany, yesterday, and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I'll try to write about my time in Poland, in my next blog, which will be about Auschwitz concentration camp. Until then, pics...

I'm a little sad to say that this will be the last time I post from here in Europe, for the time being. Last time I wrote, I was in Bratislava. It was a great city and I can't wait to go back. After a few days in Slovakia, I took a ridiculously stupid and scary train ride from Bratislava to Krakow, Poland. Krakow was also fantastic. I spent a couple of days exploring the city, as well as Auschwitz concentration camp. From Poland, it was back to Germany, via Warsaw. I spent a nice, long weekend in Berlin, and finally came full circle, back to Leipzig, this afternoon. I fly to New York tomorrow, grab my car, and drive a mind-numbing 21 hours to T-town. I'll be at the Soundpony and the Empire by Friday night, so come and speak some English to me!
I'll post the remaining pics from my trip, over the next week, so keep checking back! Here are a few from Bratislava. On a side note, I don't normally shoot photos of the homeless. I made sure to compensate the individual in the last shot, for a photo. I couldn't help but to wonder, did he purposely fall asleep below those sheep?

I'm still here in Bratislava, and it's been raining all day. This is the only reason I'm able to post a blog today, after having done so yesterday. I just finished my pics from Vienna, and I decided to go ahead and put a few up. We stayed in Vienna for 2 nights, but I feel like I was there even less. I enjoyed this city enough to return at some point. I think delving into the city's classic art culture a little more, would have rounded out my visit to Vienna. Instead of the opera, we hit the clubs on the river. Oh well, maybe next time!

After an hour and a half ride, on a very old, rundown, eastern European train from Vienna, we arrived here in Bratislava, Slovakia, yesterday. Wow. That's all I will say about Bratislava for now. It's truly a fantastic city. I think they have a supermodel factory here! I wish I was a scout for a modeling agency. Oh wait, I'm a photographer. That will work!
I'm still behind on photos, but I've been making a little time to stop shooting, glue my face to the computer screen, and do some editing. So, like I said before, I was in Vienna last, and Prague before that. I really wanted to write an extensive blog about Prague, but I really don't have the energy for it right now. Prague was interesting. I wasn't overly impressed, but I believe if I had visited the city several years ago, my experience might have been similar to the time I am having here in Bratislava. Prague was expensive as hell, over-crowded with Italian tourists and shady locals, and quite dirty. As pointed out by a friend of mine, the Czech Republic is going through some major economic and political changes, currently. In the next few years, Czech will dissolve it's borders with neighboring countries, as well as convert from their present currency, to the Euro. This explains a lot about the current situation in Prague. An explosion of tourism, matched with a change in currency has driven prices quite high in the city.
On the other side of things, the city boasts some of the most impressive and beautiful architecture in Europe. It ranks among the most visited cities on the continent. There's a lot to see and do in Prague, and I didn't even make a dent in my short visit. So, despite the downside to visiting Prague these days, I will for sure return in hopes of experiencing more of what the city has to offer. Ok, pics.....

Ok, so it took me a little longer to post this blog than I planned, but now it's done and I'm on a roll! I finished up my work in Leipzig last week, and I'm out on the road. On Tuesday, myself and a friend hopped a train from Leipzig to Prague, CZ. We spent a few days in Prague, then took the train to Vienna, Austria, yesterday. Obviously, I've been shooting since I left, but am way behind on getting through all of the photos. I hope to catch up and post Prague pics with a blog, in the next day or two, followed by Vienna.
The weekend before last, a few of us drove over to Dresden, Germany. I kept hearing what a great city Dresden is, but really didn't know what to expect. It was a nice surprise! Despite the fact that the city was heavily and controversially bombed in the second world war, it's once again a beautiful city. Dresden lies in far eastern Germany, and like the rest of the eastern German cities, the government has spent a considerable amount of money updating and restoring the city. Dresden sits on the banks of the Elbe river, so the landscape is somewhat hilly and very green. The original architecture (pre-war) was very dramatic and ornate, which is seen in churches, government buildings, castles, and monuments. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, so Dresden is on my must return list! Here is a sampling of my shots from there. Tomorrow we are headed to Bratislava, Slovakia, so I'm not quite sure when I'll have time to post my next blog. Point is, stay tuned!

Ok, so I've been here in Leipzig, Germany for about 3 weeks now, and I really dig the city. It's in, what was at one time, East Germany. You can really feel the sense of discovery and freedom that the people have been experiencing here for the past 17 or 18 years, since the wall came down. It's very cool. The city is waking up from a long nap, and it's amazing to see the sharp contrast of the old and new. The economy appears to be thriving, evidenced by beautiful buildings, a few high rises, high end shopping and restaurants, and big business (Porsche and BMW have factories here) All of this newness is sprouting up around many old, abandoned buildings and neighborhoods. They've been slowly renovating their town, bringing it up to speed with the rest of Germany, since '90 or so. It's a fascinating process to see! Anyway, here are some more pics that I shot over the weekend. I'm in the process of setting up a page, possibly with a blog, of everything I'm shooting while I'm over here in Europe. I'll post a link soon! Thanks for taking a second to check out my work!

Just wanted to post a few more pics from this week. I'm super busy with work right now, so I haven't gotten to spend as much time as I would like, shooting around the area. I'll be finished with work on the 8th of August, then it's on. Gonna spend at least a few weeks traveling and shooting everyday, so get ready!

So, I've been over in Leipzig, Germany for just about 2 weeks now. Fantastic city. Bach is buried here, in the Church of St. Thomas. Also, Leipzig hosts the largest goth festival in the world, apparently. It's a shame I missed it this year : ) Here are some pics from the area!