Germany - Day 2

After yesterday's misadventures, we needed to get three more shots and had a matter of hours to get them done. We also had a two-hour drive to get them done. Waking up early and cramming a quick breakfast of muesli, yogurt and pickled herring, I laughed when Josh texted to say that the car was frozen and we'd have to wait a bit before going. This was not a good sign.

The sun was out and the mountains were absolutely stunning above the town of Fuessen. We drove around taking images of the cute little altbau houses as part of the series and made our way quickly to Memmingen to do the same. The city of Memmingen is a wonderfully old city with an intact city wall. Virtually untouched by World War II, it is one of Germany's best preserved cities. Colorful houses with flower boxes line canals - we're talking straight up travel documentary here. We were able to get everything thing we needed - one down, two more shots to go.

In Munich, we arrived (again) at Nymphenburger Schloss and found that our luck had held out - it was still sunny! The only sunny day of the entire trip thus far. We used this to our advantage shooting swans and geese chilling out in the gardens and walking on the frozen pond.

Inside, we were able to get tickets and found our way quickly to the great hall and started shooting. The great hall is certainly that - great. Ornate chandeliers and the most colorful roof impress one right upon entering the room. Getting the shot that we wanted was only hindered by other tourists, but we managed to get our main image. The palace was so beautiful. We wandered the rooms, shooting details and items to be photoshopped into the final images - chandeliers, columns, clocks, candlesticks.

Anything that we thought we could use. In one of the rooms, we rounded the corner to find the most amazing nook. We looked at each other excitedly - we'd found our last location! We were done!

That was an odd feeling. We'd been so stressed and purpose driven ten seconds before, then... poof! We packed up and headed to the Munich central train station. This was my stop! He headed back to Milan and I headed off towards Roth, near Nuernberg to visit a dear friend. While in the train station, I think I practically closed the place - I got so much food. Kaesestangl (roll with cheese baked into the top), butter brezel (buttered pretzel) and a johannisbeerstreusel (current streusel pastry). I'm pretty sure there is more - I had a TON of food. When I lived in Munich, this was my most frequented place for food. It was so good to try it again!

Jet lag can be a pain in the butt. I'd woken up at 2 a.m. and hadn't been  able to go back to sleep. I sat down in the train... and woke up an hour later. Apparently I'd fallen asleep. I heard the announcement for Augsburg, where I was to switch trains, and I hopped off the train. A stop too early. Oops! I was at Augsburg - Hollerzahl, not Augsburg central station like I'd thought I was. I looked up the way to Roth, and found there was a train coming in half an hour that could take me there. I sat there freezing - it must be a full 10 degrees celsius colder here than in Fuessen. A few minutes later, I hopped on the train and was on my way.

Again, I fell asleep. I woke  up a few minutes later and asked the man across from me what station we were coming up on. He said Moettingem. I'd never heard of such a place - not a good sign. He asked where I wanted to go and I told him. I had hopped on the wrong train. I got off at the next station, took a train two stations back and then finally got to my destination in Roth (near Nuernberg) two hours later than I'd wanted to. All because of my jet lagged brain. I will also say that having not been in Germany for three or four years, you forget how to work trains and public transportation in general. It was embarrassing.

I met up with my friend Evelyn and we chatted late into the night. Now in the comfort of a warm bed with a German decke (duvet), I am ready to sleep through the apocalypse.

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Neuschwanstein

Today was kind of like the Alps - very high peaks and some extreme lows. I am here with Josh Rossi to work on a photo series involving some crazy composite images. For composite images, many different images are compiled into one larger than life, mind-blowing scene. We are here shooting backgrounds and details to be compiled into a series of several photos for a project to be released around Valentine's Day. We have a shot list that we are following to ensure we get all the elements needed for each image in the series. Travel time to and from each location cuts into the already short winter days and the available light we have to get the shots. He is driving back to Milan tomorrow to catch an early flight the next morning and the pressure to get the shots from each location is on. This morning started off amazing with an awesome traditional German breakfast in the guesthouse where I'm staying, Hotel Brauerei-Gasthof Braeustueberl in Fuessen. Broetchen with a million seeds baked into the top, current jam, muesli with yogurt and current juice is probably what they serve for breakfast in heaven, and we just had a taste. Even Josh, who is quite the self-proclaimed connoisseur, exclaimed how amazing it was and that America must be trying, and failing, to copy German rolls. If we ended the day right there, I would have called it a win. It was fantastic.

From there we drove the couple of kilometers to Neuschwanstein. The parking area is still a kilometer or two (about a mile) away from the actual castle in a little village. In this little town, you are surround by two castles on either side - Schloss Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. That is just insane. Within five miles, there are three giant castles - two of which are absolutely stunning. With our tight schedule, we opted to take the horse drawn carriages up to the castle rather than walk an hour. The driver was a grumpy woman that seemed to treat people like she treated her horses. On the way down, we tried to avoid her when she passed us for fear of being yelled at, again.

At the base of the castle, we were met with a very horrifying view - the entire side of the castle facing us was covered in scaffolding! The half of the castle that wasn't being renovated was blocked off. I ran over and asked one of the info desks how everyone got the view that was on all the postcards. She said by helicopter. Well that just sucked. How were we supposed to get our shot now? We looked around and saw that some of the photos had snow in the foreground - they were taken from the hillside opposite. A quick look at the chasm between us and the hillside ruled that option out quite quickly. I started to freak internally and was rather annoyed that every single photo that you see of this castle was taken from a vantage point that was not an option. We weighed our options and decided that some shots taken from the valley below would have to do as we had to get on our way to Munich.

That was a hard call. That castle was why we drove to Germany. It was why we were staying in this particular town. It was going to be for the main image of the series. We wanted that iconic shot. And the Universe apparently disagreed.

Disappointed, we started walking down the hill. Another shot on the list require a forest background and we were keeping an eye open for a suitable spot. A small trail veered off from the main road and we started wandering up as it looked like a promising forest shot. The trail was covered with at least a foot of snow and relatively steep. About twenty minutes into this little hike, we realized that we might be able to get a shot of the good side of the castle if it opened up at the top. With renewed, but hesitant hope, we booked it to the top. As it turns out, this little path met up with one at the castle that had been blocked off due to dangerous snow conditions. Not a few people were up there hopping the gate  and its "road closed" sign. We followed suit and scurried on over to the bridge. Oh meine Guete, it was glorious. Crisis averted! There was the shot! That lady at the info desk was wrong! We got our shots and some video in, booked it down the hill - one of us looking for anything that could be fashioned into a sled to speed up the process the whole way down.

It it is just shy of a two-hour drive to Munich from Neuschwanstein. Josh sang along to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, complete with voices. The rolling countryside and forest was magical.

A fine mist hung in between the trees and added a spooky vibe to the whole area. It's easy to see why the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm occurred in Germany.  It's not hard to see why such tales sprang up.

In Munich, we stopped at Yorma's for a quick lunch: wurste for Josh and leberkaese and a schnittlauchbrezel (pretzel with chives) for me. That pretzel was a pretty big part of why I was even in Germany and assisting on this shoot. Everything was right in the world again.

We drove over to Nymphenburger Schloss, another of King Ludwig II's castles, and asked for tickets to get inside. No luck. In winter, the palace closes at 4, and the last ticket is sold at 3:40. It was 3:50. Not again. Another location that doesn't want to work, on the same day? We tried explaining the situation - we had come from the US, were leaving right after and only wanted to shoot the room directly above. It would have taken 5-10 minutes tops and they still could have locked the doors at the same time. No dice. What the crap did we do now? Looking at similar locations, I called a couple - they all were open longer, but stopped selling tickets right then and wouldn't make any exceptions.  After a quick call to Josh's wife and behind the scenes location finder extraordinaire, we decided to go back to our hotels in Fuessen, regroup and make the two hour drive again early in the morning to get there right when it opens. Who knows, maybe there will even be better lighting.

We made the drive back to Fuessen and wandered around the altstadt in search of dinner. Traditional German fare. Nothing less. It had been a rough day and we (I) needed to drown some feelings in a plate of knoedel (potato dumplings) and schweinehaxe (pork shank). Mission accomplished there! The beautiful town of Fuessen in looked over by, yet another, castle. This one reminded me of the fortress above Salzburg. The city was lit with golden yellow lights and they bounced off the wet street. Store fronts advertising trachtenmode were filled with dirndls and lederhosen. It was homey for me.

Now, off to bed and time to get ready for a long day tomorrow. Send good vibes/thoughts/whatever our way that we get our shots!

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Milan, Italy to Fuessen, Germany

Pro-tip for photographers: traveling with other photographers will ensure that you have photos of you in the totally awesome places that you visit. Today we left Milan and drove through the Alps into Germany. By the end of the day, we had driven in five countries. That is just unreal to me, I totally wish that they made you stop at the border of each country - it certainly would have helped me on my goal of filling up my passport before it expires! The first part of our drive, from Milan to Bellinzona, Switzerland, could be summed up as "I bet this is really pretty in the summer." A heavy fog had settled on the area and didn't look like it had any intention of leaving until May. We stopped at the famed Lake Como hoping to photograph the lakeside town, but the fog was so thick on the lake, it left us so disappointed that we didn't even bother parking the car and I hopped out and took a couple quick photos looking for anything that might work for his series while Josh circled the block.

For someone who has never been to the Alps, coming from Milan or further south may find it a little depressing in winter. The beautiful green pastures are covered in snow, or just grey. The tall, snow-capped peaks surrounding the city might look ominous or dreary. I was excited - it started to look more like my beloved Austria. Memories flooded back as we drove through little dorfs (villages). I was absolutely floored by the scale and beauty of the mountains. We stopped above one village, no idea what the name is, and took some of the most beautiful pictures. The area was simply stunning.

The transition from Italian-speaking Switzerland to German-speaking was quick. All of a sudden, castles ruins stood atop mountains and Edelweis was spotted on building. We popped in to a grocery store for lunch and I was stoked to have a gouda, salami and rye bread open faced sandwich - I had eaten those soooo often when living in Germany and Austria.

The time flew away from us and it was quickly dark, leaving us to pass through Liechtenstein with little more than a view of the castle on the hill lit up. My phone carrier kept notifying us every time we crossed country borders and was frequently the only indication we had.

In Fuessen, we were greeted with a town full of adorable German architecture lit up and sparkling in the snow. The castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein were lit up in the mountains in front of us - those will be tomorrow's adventures!

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Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day. I spent the weekend with my parents, siblings and their children at my sister's primitive cabin in the Uintah Basin in Utah. It was amazing. We ate too much food, had campfires way too big, stayed up late playing games and watched the ISS and the Milky Way in the sky. I got to play cribbage to my heart's content. Blue went on his first off-leash hikes. My sister and I took my two youngest nieces on a walk and we got to teach the youngest how to pee in the woods. Proud moments with the fam. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have fallen in the service of our country. Both of my grandfathers served in the military and it's them I think of first when I think of those who have served. Men of integrity, of family, of sacrifice and humility, and of strength. My maternal grandfather was a civil engineer who served two tours in Vietnam. My paternal grandfather was an architect who served in WWII and had been in a Russian internment camp following a crash landing after a bombing mission over Japan. To me, what they left behind was a

legacy of family and a well-traveled one at that. A family that loves each other, and loves to explore. To me, there is no way better to honor their memory than to spend time with the family outdoors making new memories and traditions.

My father's dad passed away last May. He was my last remaining grandparent and my biggest supporter for my photography. He had me restore and enlarge a photo of him and my grandmother after she passed away as a memorial. Whenever I'd stop by his house, he'd ask me "How's the pho-tography business going?" in the most optimistic, and encouraging tone. I'd grown up listening to stories of their travels. My favorite book was his National Geographic Atlas. We'd spend hours and hours looking at maps. He'd tell me stories about his travels. During World War II, he was shot down over Russia following a bombing raid on Japan. He spent several months in an internment camp near Petropavlovsk. He had a little worn out notebook that he'd used to write down Russian words as he learned them. He would trace the route he took from Petropavlovsk to Afghanistan, to Iran, to Italy, eventually to home in the States. Following his military

service, he took the job for the LDS Church as an architect and spent many years travelling around the globe as the job required. He had stories about every country it seemed like. When he passed, I got the atlas.

My mother's father passed away when I was nine. I didn't get to know him personally as well. He was a Texan who taught himself to speak without an accent and was quite proud of that. There are several miraculous stories from his tours in Vietnam that lead me to believe he was being watched over. He stayed in the military following Vietnam and their family was stationed in Germany, Italy, France and all across the US. Following his military service, his work took him to Belgium and Saudi Arabia. My grandmother

unsuccessfully attempted to smuggle the family dogs into Saudi Arabia. He travelled across Africa and had several extensions in his passport book.

The topic of how my father proposed came up around the fire one while we were out this weekend. My grandfathers knew each other - they both worked on the 21st floor of the Church Office Building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon). They set up their two single kids, both in their late twenties, and decided to set them up on a blind date with all the parents as chaperones. (Awkward!) Upon my parent's engagement, they had to make two very expensive long-distance calls - one to Germany and the other to Argentina to announce the good news to their parents. The dads had a life-long contest to see who could visit more countries. My mother's parents got the news that I was born while they were living in Saudi Arabia. Both of their homes were filled with treasures brought back from far away places and visiting the grandparents was like visiting an awesome museum - a stone tablet with picture of Nefertiti that I grew up adoring, matryoshka dolls from Russia, large Hawaiian wooden bowls that we used at family gatherings, and Persian lamps.

Photos of theirs travels were an endless source of interest and have fueled my own fascination for exploration and travel. Their lives are an example of how I try to live my own. Their love made me feel secure, welcome, and confident. Their knowledge piqued my interest and curiosity. I'm happy to have had their influence in my life, and to see it in my family. What a great holiday, to remember these remarkable people.

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Confessions of a Human Being

I've been putting this off for a couple of months now. Sometimes, you just get scared and don't want to put yourself out there. You don't want to actually take the plunge, so you go about it a step or half-step at a time when you should really just go for it full-throttle. Fear. It's a wonderful thing if you never want to achieve anything worthwhile. Not being able to conquer it is a terrible thing when you have ambition, dreams and goals. And I have those, so I'm getting over this. The biggest announcement is that I'm now a full-time freelancer. I quit my job as a studio manager and head photographer for a national sporting goods company about two months ago in order to pursue these goals. I've avoided putting my website up and marketing myself out of feelings of inadequacy, vulnerability and all that fun horrible stuff. It's absolutely ridiculous. The reason why I was able to quit my job is because I am a skilled photographer that companies and individuals value and hire. So, in line with that, I've created a new website (see link below). I will be revealing new sections of it each day this week - through this page and my Instagram account (@explorophile). I've also put together additional projects for others to enjoy and take advantage of. Those will also be unveiled over the course of this week on and through this page. Feedback would be great to hear - you can shoot me a message and I'll be all ears. I hope that you find value in these projects. Heck, I hope you or your company hires me or supports one of my projects (This is not meant to sound pathetic, but bold.) In any case, I've taken the leap and kicked fear, inadequacy and whatnot to the curb. Let's get to work!

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