Launched a New Site Here – www.dougklembara.com
Germany – Getting to and Traversing Berlin
So we arrived in Berlin yesterday. Immediately the first thing we all noticed was the cool breeze on our skin as we walked off the plane and towards the shuttle. We are not in Texas anymore! The air flight was really nice. Wait! The flight was great but the screaming baby in front of me for 6 hours nonstop and the mom fully reclining her chair on me the whole flight wasn’t. But then I had a few cups of coffee to get me going for a full day after a complete empty night of sleep.
We then made our way to get some winerschintzel and beer while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive. After they did we hopped out of the airport and boarded a charter bus for a city tour of Berlin. We drove around admiring and sometimes disliking the really modern architecture. We stopped at the Berlin Cathedral which I liked a lot. It was fascinating to me because every European cathedral I have every been in has been catholic but this one was a Protestant cathedral with statues of Luther, Mecatholan, Zwingli and Calvin on the walls and throughout the nave. I ran around photographed as much as I could and then headed outside for another perspective.
After that we made our way to the Brandenberg Gates. I had been hear about ten years ago and all that I remembered was that there were lime green air couches in the middle of the street. Much to my dismay those couches didn’t make it for ten years but the Gates did. We walked throughout the people and through the gates to the other side of it. As we walked pass the gates and onto the street a man pointed out to us a line of bricks that split the street directly down the middle. It was the base of what used to be the Berlin Wall. I was blown away.
After that we made our way to an open field outside of the German Parliament where locals literally sprawled out and enjoyed the weather. We then jumped into the bus and headed to the Berlin’s Square where plenty of shops resided. We skipped some of the shops and went for the first coffee place we could find. It so happened to be McDonalds and let me tell you. This McDonalds had a café just for its coffee and pastries, never have I seen something like this before. From there we downed the coffee and walked around for a bit, then made our way to our hotel. We had a wonderful dinner and that leads me to now. I am sitting at the desk upstairs writing away and editing away. Wirless internet in the hotel costs 4 euros/15 mins Ridiculous! Thats like 8 dollars ish. So tomorrow I am waking up early and heading down the coffee house across the block to hopefully post this. Well I am tired and I am starting to make less and less sense. Until next time.
– Doug
P.s. Thank you to everyone who is following my trip to Germany, I hope you enjoy the photographs and please keep checking back to see more, hopefully tomorrow.
Downtown Chicago and Evanston
Today we woke up early, ate breakfast and stopped at Borders so I could get a moleskin to journal through the trip. Side note, I am infatuated with moleskin journals, all kinds of them. They are sooooo awesome.
Okay so we drove for an hour or so and came into the windy city. Chicago was overcast but before I even fully went into the city I knew I would love it. The city rests next to Lake Michigan and the skyline holds one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Sears Tower. We drove on Lake Shore Dr. around the city through various parks and up to the north side of Chicago. We made it up to Evanston and drove through Northwestern College, which was right alongside the coast of the Lake Michigan. I am not sure I you have ever seen a great lake but take my word for it, they look like oceans. After that we drove by Wrigley Field and what was really neat was the surrounding buildings we installing stands on their roofs so people could see the game from them.
We then drove around til we found a local restaurant called Trattoria Demi. It was a small café alongside the rode. We walked in and there were maybe 20 seats in the whole place. The ceiling was lined with Christmas lights (my fav) and the waiter explained that everything was homemade when you ordered it. So I ordered a meatball sub with mozzarella cheese on it. It was awesome. After that we grabbed coffees at the corner shop on that same street and then we headed off.
We drove onwards past the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway and then through Concordia University. Grandpa and I are very into our family’s genealogy and we both knew that there was a statue that my great great grandfather Franz Englesman created in Humblot park so we drove there and photographed it. This was so awesome I am honoring it with a different blog post later.
After that we went to our hotel called the Palmer House. While walking it felt like I was checking into the 1920’s. The whole city has a nostalgic feel to it, which I love. Chicago is fascinating because there is just so much history to everything here. Well this hotel is off of State, which is in the heart of downtown. We couldn’t be staying at a better place. Well we unpacked and walked around for a bit. One of the places we stopped was a 12 story Macy’s.
After we walked around we went back to the Palmer House and I through on a sport coat and went with everyone to the all so famous “Berghoff’s Restaurant”. It’s a german restaurant that my family and Grandfather have been talking about since I can remember. That had all the right to talk about it because it was phenomenal. I had Sauerbraten which recipe was found in The Berghoff Family Cookbook. We finished the meal off with German chocolate cake and apple strudels.
After dinner Amy and I walked around State Street, which is one of the main streets downtown and I took some time-laspe photographs. I totally got some weird looks and got harassed by some uber-creepy homeless people but the photos turned out well so I was happy. Anyways thanks once again to all of you who are following my photographic adventures in Chicago this week.
Crazy Moon Circle
Okay John David Swiger, a fellow photographer friend, told me to walk outside and look at the moon, so I did. I looked at it and there was this crazy circle thing around it. I mean this was really weird. I was wondering if any of you all know about it or saw it. Anyways finals are starting to come up and that means I need to study like crazy. So I hope you all have a great beginning of your December and once again if anyone can offer any explanation, please comment.
NOTE: I didnt photoshop anything and its not some crazy lens flare. I put it into black and white too here it is.
Once again thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with my blog and photography, yall are great and I really do value all the encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
—–JAMES UNTHANK FOUND THE ANSWER——
Okay its called a 22 degree halo and here is the wikipedia article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo
Thanks James
Philly Cheese Steak
Alright we are sitting in the philedelphia airport and we all just ate philly cheesesteaks. They were so good. Well we are going to fly for seven hours and then we will be in Shannon, Ireland. Photos from my camera instead of my laptop soon to come.
So It Begins
First off thank you for taking the time to look at my blog, I hope you find some neat things here. I believe I will start off by explaining my title. Yes that’s what I will do…
{Photography. Witness. Passion}
Photography – It started off as a technique I used to capture beauty. For some unseen reason I strive to find this in the world. It doesn’t matter what form I find it in, I just want to experience it, see it, photograph it. There is defiantly a part of me that is a romantic. This romantic part of me developed junior of high school when my favorite teacher (Mr. Lund) introduced me to incredible symphonies and music. At that time I was also delving into literature that I had never experience before. From my beginnings in photography to now, I am always learning and experimenting, searching and capturing.
Witness – This has two interpretations for me. The first being that in photography. I want to portray different events, nature, people through my lens to viewers. I believe that I can do that and not only can I do that but I believe that I can even do it sometimes better than the actual event. Sometimes when you slow down an event in life to a 1/1000 of a second things become a little different. That is just one example but stay with me I will show you more than that. My second interpretation of Witness comes from the Bible. I am a follower of Christ and I am in deeply in love with him. I strive to bring him glory, for he deserves it. He is my source for ultimate beauty, passion, joy.
Passion – This is the reason I photograph. I strongly believe that God gave me this passion for photography. He has formed me, blessed me, and strengthens me. It might sound weird but this has definitely become a spiritual thing for me. More to come on this in future blogs. Main idea though is that I driven with a deep passion for photography.
So I believe this blog will be a beautiful collaboration of my photographs, thoughts and experiences. At least that is what I believe right now. Mostly it will be about my photography. Thank you for reading this and I hope that you have a glorious day.
{Photography. Witness. Passion} 