52 Week Photography Project

September

This month I wanted to use photos from a single week’s effort. Our trip to Lublin, Poland, was the perfect place for that challenge.

There was no lack of subject material in Lublin. A city southeast of Warsaw, it has always been at the crossroads of east and west, creating unique history and architecture.

The mission was to keep the list of prompts on my phone and focus accordingly. Armed with my Nikon camera, drone and trusty iPhone, I and my wife spent four days in Lublin capturing the essence of the city.

Photo Walk: Take Your Box for a Stroll.

I usually have my full frame camera by my side. Mounted with my go-to lens, a Nikkor Z 24–120mm zoom, the camera rides in my daypack at the ready.

It is large and my wife complains, from time to time, that I spend too much time fiddling with it. But the photos it gives me are delicious.

However, my full frame camera is no match for these two enterprising youngsters and their street rig. I think it was an iPhone in the box, but it looked impressive.

With a donation to their basket, we pose for the photo. Within seconds, a flyer is produced, and we become the front-page photo for the Lublin Happy People News!

Same But Different. Interpret that as you will.

Like all European Cities, Lublin is a collection of old interlaced with new. Arched gates mark the boundaries of the old. Set along the boundaries of old city walls, they allow passage into old town.

On the east side, Lublin old town is the Grodzka Gate. Unchanged since the 18th century, it allows passage to and from the Lublin Castle.

This photo is from my early morning walk about. The scene is unchanged for hundreds of years, except it’s different. Modern technology now marks our current times. Can you spot it?

Forever Young. Like Bob Dylan, or not.

I always thought of this as a Rod Stewart song, but I know better now. For me, the words “Forever Young” describe my lovely bride. She defies the march of time, looking unchanged from the day we met.

Her sense of humor hasn’t changed either. Or maybe it’s the wine we had with dinner.

The goat next to her represents youth as well. Legend has it that Tartars attacked Lublin in the middle ages, sparing only the children. Orphaned and stranded without food, the children survived on milk from a lone goat until rescue came.

These surviving children adopted the goat as a symbol of the town and depicted it in the city’s coat of arms. Today, we find statues of the goat throughout the town.

Heavy Metal. Keep it light.

Monuments cast from bronze are as heavy as it gets but with the right lighting, they become fluid and purposeful.

The monument to Jozef Pilsudski, the First Marshal of Poland during WWI, is no exception. He would later become a key leader in the formation of the Second Polish Republic (7 October 1918 and 30 September 1939).

He sits astride his bronze horse, looking over the Lithuanian Square in central Lublin. In the distance sits IBB Grand Hotel Lublin.

Light and shadows against the evening sky accent the details of the bronze statue commanding the expansive square.

Rider and horse moving with purpose in defense of a nation.