This last weekend, I took the gear out and finally took some pics for the first time in over a year. I didn't stray too far from home on this trip, but I remembered the most perfect place to go. I had gone to this location in years past, on Halloween nights with friends, and on a few photography trips. For anyone from the area, that knows where the State Park is on Wilmot Road, if you drive a little farther north, before Route 173, there is a cemetery, in the middle of a field. I'm not sure what came first, the corn field, or the cemetery, but you can't miss it. The trees are like those that you would imagine in an old spooky graveyard, and the whole thing is enclosed by a cement wall. The strangest thing about it, is the age of the stones. It must be a family plot, or a neighborhood cared for final resting place. It is always well maintained, and within in, lie those that have passed on from the 1800's, to as recently as the 1990's. I was on my own on this trip, and although it was the middle of the day, I can't say I wasn't still a bit freaked out. The wind picked up as I walked through the field, the dirt in the cemetery seemed extra unstable, and although I came out with my life, I still felt as if it may have been the last place anyone would have ever heard I went. Winter and Spring photography is difficult, without snow, and without green grass, and trees, but you can definitely find places like these to get some great shots.

Good old Kenosha, Wisconsin. Never fails to take a quick trip out that direction, and snap some pictures near the lake. These were taken a couple of years back while venturing out to cheddar land with a good friend. Lake Michigan in general makes for cool subject matter, but finding places like this light house is always fun. A lot of people would say the graffiti is awful, and gang violence due to turf wars based on graffiti tags such as this, truly is. However, taking a picture of a lighthouse door in Kenosha next to Lake Michigan on such a beautiful day wouldn't be quite as interesting without the spray painted tags left by kids that thought they were leaving them to make some sort of statement. Over the years, I've been up to Kenosha several times for pictures - with bands, or just to shoot. So I would like to thank the great state of Wisconsin, not only for your sights, but for the many cheese snacks you provide as well.

As most of you know, I was born in Bratislava, Slovakia. These pictures were taken there a few years back. Bratislava is split up into two main sections. One part is old Bratislava, and the rest of the metropolitan area is a modern city. Stara Bratislava, or old Bratislava, is beautiful and full of amazing places to see. The first picture is of Michael's tower in that section of the city. If you ever have the chance to visit this amazing place, the tower actually houses a medieval torture museum, displaying all of the old instruments of punishment of those dark times. Bratislava is located on the Danube, and the main castle, Bratislavsky Hrad sits atop a bank off of the river. The second picture was taken next to the cathedral that sits just below the castle. This was a group of seminary students making their way through the street, a pretty cool site to see amongst all these old buildings. I wish I could go back and visit my home country more often. I hope to go again sometime soon.

So far, all of the pictures on my website have been from photo trips / shoots of the past. The latest of all of these is over a year old. I've put my equipment back together, and will be taking the first pictures of a new project this weekend! Putting the site together has been fun, but I'm really excited to get back out there, and actually start with new fresh ideas, and concepts. I can't wait to share it on here, and I will post the new pics and various artistic projects as I get them completed. For now, this was another one of my favorites from Death Valley. I think what I've learned the most of taking pictures in such various places - is to truly appreciate the beauty of everything around you. Whether it's something grand like this mountainous ravine in Death Valley, or if it’s a rusty bicycle on the side of the road in a town most people probably never see, it is perspective that makes it interesting.

Live band photography is truly an art form of its own, and I give so much credit to the guys and gals out there that do it for a living. I know I always appreciated seeing live shots of my projects, when a photographer captured the energy and magic of a performance. It's also not an easy art form! I tried my hand at live band photography for a good year at a local club, and it takes a lot of practice, and knowing not only when to shoot, but everything has to be taken into consideration. Lighting, equipment, and knowing when to get that perfect shot. This picture was taken of a band at Mickey Finn's in Libertyville, called Cold Comfort, during an all ages show a few years back. It's magic when you snap off a shot that brings out a performance during a live set. These high-schooler's were really talented. Not sure if they are still around now, or what they may be doing, but I hope they are still playing music in some form or another, as talent should never go to waste!

Last time I got to visit Europe was in 2007. On this particular trip we toured around my home country of Slovakia, went to Prague in the Czech Republic, and also went to Vienna, in Austria. Vienna is only about an hour away from my home town of Bratislava, so we woke up early one morning, and took a shuttle boat down the Danube to this amazing city. The boat ride was at 7am, and we made sure to start our tour off right - with beer. Then more beer every time we wanted to sit and take a break, which was often as the day before we were in Prague, and walked about 20 miles sightseeing.  We decided to take a part of the scenic tour of Vienna via a horse-drawn carriage. It was awesome. The first picture is of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The history of places built over 1000 years ago, just puts so much into perspective. To think 1000 years of history has passed through the walls of a building like this, gives you chills when you get to see it. The last time I walked around Vienna, (other than being at the airport for trips to and from Slovakia), was when I was 7 years old and my family and I were in a refugee camp waiting to come to the United States. It felt like I everything came full circle, being a tourist on vacation there, after so many years.

It's not very often we sit back and actually think about where exactly we've been, and where life has really taken us. When you're in a zone, nothing can seemingly snap you out of the hypnotic trance towards whatever path you are heading down. The time spent on that path begins to define you. Once you need to change direction, and quickly - you get caught up in the whirlwind and the momentum of that force, and for a single second, in your excitement, you hope to forget why you had to change direction in the first place.
 
These pictures were taken somewhere between Las Vegas and Death Valley.  I would probably sell a limb to be able to just get in the car and go on one of the trips that these pictures were taken on. Nothing but the open road, coffee, and laughs with good friends and an approximate idea of when we should be getting back home.

Today's "Word of the Day" kind of corresponds with the darkly titled picture for the blog, as well as one of the few things I thought I would never see until yesterday. If any of you have seen the Addam's family movies, circa early 90's, the funniest thing about them was always the dark humor. Yesterday, I got to experience what was probably a real life dark comedy, and had to correlate the two. I was asked to be a part of a panel of Chicagoland muscian's for a library event to answer the questions of aspiring kids and teens who are starting out in their first bands, or what to be musicians. The talk was awesome, and my fellow panelists and I talked to these wide-eyed kids for almost two hours on how to start, and our experiences playing shows, and how we achieved our varying success. After the panel, several bands played, what was some of their first shows. Now if there weren't other's there with me, or if I didn't have a camera, no one would have believed that a library would have allowed power thrash and death metal bands to play there. It was surreal, and am realy glad I got to be a part of it. When one particular group called Monolith, covered Slayer's "Angel of Death", I almost peed my pants a little. They did an amazing job, and I had to keep reminding myself that there was a book return next to them and I was probably seeing something most people would never get to see... and then the moshing began. Thanks for the invite Joel Beverly of happyheadbanger.com! Also check out these two great Chicgaoland bands that I got to share the panel with.

Deadmanswake
http://www.facebook.com/#!/DEADMANSWAKE

Sutured Pscyhe
http://www.facebook.com/#!/suturedpsyche

Today's pic was taken in a graveyard outside of Galena, IL. It was only late afternoon, but at the time I was using a slide film called Fuji Velvia. It is an extremely light sensitive film, and even though it was much brighter out when the photo was taken, that is why it has this dark look, with the amazing red hue.

I just want to thank everyone that has supported me by visiting this site, and for all of the wonderful messages I have received from all of you. It was pretty much a week ago today I got this thing up and running, and have had over 2000 unique visits to my page! I really don't know what direction to take the site yet. I know I've been blogging about the photographs themselves, and I think I like that format for the time being.  I will eventually get a system up and running for the sale of prints where you can order and pay online if you would like. I'm very new to all of this format, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I have a lot of new projects coming up soon, in both photography and music, and I promise i will keep you all posted. Today's pics are of an amazing local band called Indolent. I not only have had the pleasure of sharing a stage with these talented guys on many occasions, they are also very good friends and probably some of the nicest and funniest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Look for their new CD coming out soon and check them out on Facebook!

Indolent
http://www.facebook.com/#!/indolentworld

Cross country road trips to see as many national parks, monuments, and places that a normal family would see over 20 years of vacationing in seven days isn't crazy, it's insane. I had  the absolute pleasure, however, of doing this type of road  trip with my closest friends in the world, on three seperate occasions. Seven days, ten gallons of coffee, two cartons of  cigarettes, and the lives of 100,000 dead bugs on the bumper later, our experiences would never be forgotten. This picture was taken on one of those trips while we were in Death Valley. Hell may be a few degrees cooler than Death Valley in the summer.  It's not a good sign when you walk from your car to the souvenir shop to buy a shot glass, and burst into flames. This photo is also a bit 'old school' and was taken with a camera that used film. Please look it up on Wikipedia if you've never heard of it.