Through Wolf's Eyes

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Sort Of...) Pt. 2

2011-12-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Pine trees. Very festive.

I really liked the wreath and the eagle positioned together.

Christmas light and the Liberty eagle. This seems to be my most common style of picture, with something in the foreground against a blurry but still-important background.

The eagle himself. I wonder if he has a name...

More Liberty happiness. (It looks like an advertisement for the school.)

Again with the object in the foreground.

The front of Demoss through a bench. I really like it.

Star and the front of Demoss.

The same bench after dark.

Shiny lights.

The front of Demoss after dark. Very bright and pretty.

The front doors to Demoss, complete with Christmas wreaths.

A white flower contrasted against the Christmas tree behind it. This is probably my favorite picture from that evening.

The street outside Demoss, currently known as ADD heaven.

I'm still not a fan of the trees still having green leaves, but they did make for a nice picture.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Sort Of...) Pt. 1

2011-12-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

Random candy cane decoration. Shiny.

"Wuv... Twu wuv..." -The Princess Bride

For those of you who have yet to meet her, this is my dragon Star.

And this is her younger cousin, Flame.

They make good models, mainly because they don't move. (cough-Matthew-cough)

I really liked the different colors and textures here.

Christmas lights!

It took a bit of work to get the camera in just the right place for this effect.

This one was also interesting to get right. The focus on my camera wasn't being very cooperative. I gave it some new batteries and it straightened out.

Despite the gorgeous colors, I find it very wrong that the trees still have leaves in December.

This is up by Demoss. It seemed to be the only wreath on the entire campus that didn't have the sun directly behind it at that particular moment.

More Christmas lights.

And still more lights. :)

What Christmas would be complete without Charlie Brown?

Good ol' M27.

England Trip Pt. 2 (Oxford)

2011-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

We spent the last two days of our trip in Oxford.

It's definitely a gorgeous place. Tons of sweeet architecture.

And more.

There were also lots of locations where scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed, like the hospital wing and the Hogwarts library. We got to see the place where Moody turns Draco into a ferret in HP 4. :)

After all the HP talk, I found this amusing.

Unfortunately, aside from the HP sights, there's not much else to do in Oxford. Except study.

One of the many colleges at Oxford.

Inside an old chapel with our tour guide.

EunBi and her camera. And some cool ceiling work.

This was in a market in Oxford. The signs crack me up. :)

Our last afternoon was free, so Beth and I went to a natural history museum. Pretty cool place.

Not sure why I like this picture, but I do.

Moi. And a pony. Sadly, I was told I couldn't keep it.

So I was trying to take a picture of the T-rex head, but the glass was at a weird angle so I got a really weird reflection. But I like it. The T-rex looks like something out of Primeval.

My partner in crime, Beth, and her friend, Mr. Cheetah. Thankfully by that point she had gotten over being sick and was no longer trying to convince herself that she was a dinosaur.

England Trip Pt. 1 (London)

2011-07-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Home of the famous Sherlock Holmes. :) Actually there was a museum just across the street. Too bad we didn't have time to go in. We were too busy looking for food. Nine starving teeagers are not a good thing.

Marcel being, well, Marcel.

Star and some awesome scenery when it finally stopped raining.

Awesome place, London. :)

Trick shot.

Can't remember what that thing is called... But the line was long and the tickets were pricey, so we took pictures of it instead of from it.

I win, Ms. Tymczak.

And again.

This cracked me up. Almost all of the streets in the city have arrows telling you which way to look because the Britts all drive on the wrong side of the road.

Trafalgar Square.

Joelle, Jess, and Marianna looking pretty.

Ms. Tymczak, Simon, Mr. Glenn, and Marcel. She said she wasn't going to get up there. Obviously we won that battle.

Me, EunBi, and Beth. Apparently Caroline was the only one who didn't get up on the lion. Not sure how we let her get away with that...

A street with lots of British flags. And rain. Lots of rain. Very British, that.

Just before the changing of the guard. Which, by the way, is highly over-rated.

"Look! It's a Korean!" :D We love you, EunBi!

Another very British thing that was slightly funny.

Ms. Tymczak, Marcel, Beth, EunBi, and Caroline on the metro. We tried playing tag. It didn't go too well. Mostly because every time we tried we were all pressed up against each other...

Beth and Jess with the royal couple.

The inside of the new Globe Theatre. Cool stuff. And we had a Scottish who was absolutely hilarious and did a sweet workshop with us. Shakespeare was cooler than I thought. And I got a cool Macbeth shirt. Definitely a win.

A very cool looking bridge. Actually this is just one bridge down from the one that the Death Eaters destroy in HP 6. Or as Beth put it, "the bridge that goes wacko." Her way with words always astounds me. :)

ISK High School Trip to Schindler's Factory

2011-07-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last year Ms. Tymczak took all of her students on a trip to the Krakow ghetto and the Plaszow concentration camp. This year we went to Schindler's factory. It was my second time, but the museum was still incredible.

A uniform in the museum.

Beth with the mini-tank. The tour guide didn't notice.

For some reason I really like this picture.

As usual, I was drawn to the swords.

Me messing with angles. Don't ask.

A careful drawing of part of Krakow.

The cross, boxes, and small figure are examples of things prisoners managed to make in the concentration camp. The crucifix on the left is actually made of bread.

Part of our group across Schindler's actual desk with newspapers from the time.

Two coats hung up in a model of a train station cloakroom.

My schoolmates through a barbed-wire fence in a panorama room designed to look like Plaszow.

Ms. Tymczak and Stalin. I love the look on her face. "Really, Ash? Another picture?" Yup.

One room is covered in pieces of paper with single-sentence memories from various people. For some reason this one struck me.

Spring Break Trip Pt. 5 (Zamosc Pt. 2)

2011-05-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

This special cemetary in Zamosc is located on a sight where many people were slaughtered by the Nazis during World War 2.

The cemetary is reserved for the bodies of those who fought in the resistance, were in the concentration camps, or were killed on this spot.

The path down the cemetary is lined on either side by several tiers covered by white crosses.

As always, some of the graves have candles to show that some relative or friend still remembers.

Apparently I have a slight fetish for taking pictures of candles.

At the end of the path is a small walled enclosure. In the center is a monument dedicated to those who died in this spot.

More candles.

And again.

The wall around the enclosure is actually a tunnel with small alcoves dedicated to different concentration camps and various factions who helped fight the Nazis.

More of the crosses through an alcove window. There were so many.

The crosses with forever serve as a reminder of what happened in this place and as a monument to those who fought and died to put it to an end.

Spring Break Trip Pt. 4 (Zamosc Pt. 1)

2011-05-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

This was a cool doorway in this little town called Zamosc.

The town hall in the square of Zamosc.

The steeple on the town hall.

Another cool trick with reflections.

A scepter in a museum.

Scepter plus robe.

Some random pieces in the same museum.

There was a little miniature or a primitive village from a long time ago.

I really like this shot with the shadow falling behind it.

Some of the buildings on the Zamosc square.

The door to the town hall.

There was this awesome fountain with really cool lights, and when the little kid came along it was just too cute to resist.

The whole family with the fountain. Absolutely adorable. :)

Spring Break Trip Pt. 3 (Majdanek)

2011-05-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

One of our stops on our trip was Majdanek concentration camp.

One of the uniforms from the camp.

A gas canister.

These would have belonged to one of the inmates.

Playing with the flag reflection.

Cool angles.

Really, really like this reflection.

More cool angles.

They had enough shoes to line three walls of one barracks and still fill two cases in the middle. Pretty mind-blowing to think that each pair of shoes represented a person.

The spaceship-looking thing is a monument at the concentration camp.

The city skyline through the barbed wire.

This was where they burned the bodies. It's almost eery how serene the sunlight makes it look.

Someone had left this candle sitting on the gate.

The top of a candle holder. Pretty cool shot.

Another large monument. This one says "Shoah", the Jewish name for the Holocaust.

Spring Break Trip Pt. 2 (Lublin+Skansan)

2011-05-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

A church tower in Lublin.

Some random lock in a museum. Don't ask.

An old lady on a street. It reminded me of an old photograph.

Another street. I thought this looked better in black and white.

I liked the composition here.

I really like this shot.

More cool composition.

I seem to have a thing for taking pictures of candles.

Moi. :)

The sign said were weren't allowed to take pictures inside the chapel. So... I cheated.

Some of these trees had these signs on them. I guess that's who they were dedicated to.

Really liked this shot.

Same picture with a different focus.

Star in the sunbeams.

Once again, another cool shot.

Spring Break Trip Pt. 1 (Days 1+2)

2011-05-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

Star and a stone cannon outside a castle.

Mi padre.

A random hallway in some castle ruins. Complete with modern scaffolding. :P

Random rail with cool sky.

Star and some cool stonework in the floors.

More of Star.

The inside and ceiling of a cool tower.

The lack of ceiling in another tower.

Mom and her tea in a Jewish restaurant. The food wasn't just incredible, but the atmosphere was pretty cool.

A wall made of broken Jewish tombstones that were destroyed in World War 2.

A candle poised on the tombstone monument.

I really like the focus on the flower here with the tombstones in the back.

My parents and bro in the really cool gully thing.

March of the Living

2011-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Once a eyar every year in Krakow a crowd gathers to walk from the square of the old ghetto to the nearby concentration camp of Plaszow. Many of the participants are Jewish. Our family went this year with the Roberts family to participate in the March of the Living.

This is a remaining piece of the old ghetto wall.

On this particular day, many people leave flowers and candles at the foot of the remains of the ghetto wall.

This is Macie with the sign marking the entrance to the site of the old concentration camp.

A cute kid holding her dad's hand. I couldn't resist.

Marchers gather at the monument at the concentration camp for a ceremony.

Lots of people came.

A large monument on the site.

Cool shot of the sun coming around the monument.

The front of the monument. The crack through the middle signifies that the people had their hearts torn out.

Macie walking up to the monument. Pretty cool shot.

Star with the monument. Dad, Uncle James, and Aunt Angela are in the back taking their own pictures.

Matthew and Macie being cute together. A few of the Polish people were taking pictures of them too. One lady took a ton of pictures of Macie. She is pretty cute. :)

Another monument on the site of the concentration camp. This one is a large cross. An old lady was sitting there all by herself.

The top of the monument above. It seems appropriate somehow.

Small Trip to the Jewish Cemetary

2011-03-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

Saw this while I was walking in the Rynek with Aunt Ange. I thought it made a cool pic.

This is the base of a monument in a small Jewish cemetary.

This is a really pretty tombstone/pillar.

Cool shot of a gravestone with a candle in front.

Tombstone with a lamp.

Inside the cemetary is a small wall made of pieces of all the broken tombstones from the graveyard the Nazis destroyed when they came to Krakow.

Graves with flowers.

More graves. It was sort of cool to see them all piled on top of each other like that.

Cool reflections on a grave.

This flower was on the ground. I really like the focus on the flower with the grave in the back.

More of the tombstone wall.

The wall yet again.

A view of the cemetary through the keyhole in the gate.

The cemetary through the gate.

Same picture with a different focus.

The Best of Photo Club (Week 10)

2011-03-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

Matthew's face with some awesome shadow effects.

Close-up on some beads.

Don't ask, because I really don't know. It just seemed picture-worthy.

Once again, I'm really not sure why I took this one.

Hugo's camera.

More of Hugo's camera.

A random jar of marbles. (We were really bored.)

My hand with a marble. For some reaosn I really like this one.

If you look at the marbles, you can see an upside-down reflection of what's outside the window.

Now you can see my camera in the marbles.

My camera in another marble.

Random objects on Mr. Morgan's desk (he teaches second grade).

Moi. :)

The Best of Photo Club (Week 9), Plus More Student Council Boredom

2011-03-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

Matthew with a hand's shadow on his face. Pretty cool, I think.

My shoe. Don't ask. I just thought it looked cool with the red, blue, and grey.

More of my shoe.

Still more of my shoe. (We were REALLY bored in Photo Club that day.)

My shoe and Star. Again.

And again. (I think I'm developing a thing for pictures of my shoes...)

This is the logo Caroline drew for our Service Learning Project - Shed a Tear.

Somebody left their cup in the windowsill. So I used it. I liked the lighting.

Star and the many flags hanging over the lobby. (The stupid cage in the middle of the floor is the reason our high school "lounge" is so dang small.)

Flame and the same cup.

Star and Beth's dragon, whose name has escaped me... (Once again, we were bored in Student Council.)

Beth's dragon and an awesome picture in her new Tolkien Encyclopedia. (That's the Riders of Rohan, for any of you uneducated people who didn't know.)

Students Council productivity.

Star and Beth's dragon pose with my new book. Yes, I actually bought it. It was only like 4 dollars, and that's one of my fav movies. Beth also got one - "Hiccup the Hero". Kuba just shook his head. :)

Beth's dragon and a keychain fish. Just his size.

Warszawa Weekend (Jesus Loves the Little Children)

2011-02-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

Last weekend our team went to a conference in Warsaw. Me and the other three teenage girls ended up babysitting the six youngest ones. This is Nathan stacking cups. Those were literally our saving grace, seeing as we really didn't have any toys for the two younger ones. But as it turns out, everybody loves cup-stacking!

Nathan poses with his creation. There were many towers built and knocked down and rebuilt over the course of the weekend.

Falyn, Eden, and the stacking cup.

Megan helps Eden color. She thought all of the crayons were "puwpul".

My buddy Macie decides to get in on the coloring.

Nathan wanted to play cards, so he and Falyn made a game of seeing who could put their cards down faster (seeing as Liar was probably too far over his head!). He won, of course.

Ella shows off her freshly-painted fingernails, curtesy of Kari. They asked if I wanted mine painted. I told them very politely that no, I did not. (There wasn't any cool blue polish.)

More of Eden coloring.

Eden's masterpiece and her medium of choice: the crayon.

Arin tries her hand at cup-stacking.

Ella and Macie making crafts with Kari. Notice the matching shirts. (Have to say though, my favorites are the Thing 1 and Thing 2 hoodies!)

Nathan decided that as long as markers and glue are involved, maybe crafts aren't so girly after all.

Arin hard at work on her bookmark. (Yes, the glue did get a bit messy. But we cleaned it up afterwards.)

Kari making her bookmark. Just incase the "L<3" didn't give it away. :)

Falyn cutting ribbon for someone. (Yes, I also have a slight obsession with taking pictures of people's hands.)

More of my buddy Macie. My mom said it looked like a RoseArt advertisement. I was just excited because she made me a bookmark.

This was after she realized I was taking pictures of her.

Kaleb and Megan pose for the camera.

Eden playing with Falyn's phone. Falyn was trying to teach her to say "Justin Beiber". I told her not to teach the young child such dirty words. :) But we did get Eden to say my name. Totally made my day.

Lunch Boredom, Photo Club, and Galicia Museum

2011-02-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

Star and the ISK lobby.

Flags at ISK.

Star and the cage around the flags.

Out in the forest.

A branch and Matthew's head.

Star out in the wild.

Fun shot of the grass and the setting sun.

Mom and Dad through a window in the Galicia Museum.

Cool view of a typewriter.

Random posters in the museum.

Random light pole in the museum.

Liked the texture here.

Mom looking at a display.

Me playing around with cool reflections.

Auschwitz Trip Pt 2 - Birkenau (A Candle Against the Darkness)

2011-02-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

The famous entrance to Birkenau. This was where the trains brought people in. A single rail of the tracks holds a small collection of flowers and candles in remembrance of those who died.

A view of the tracks and the remnants of the destroyed barracks. A single cattle car serves as a reminder of what these tracks were used for.

Star and the train tracks with the entrace to Birkenau in the background.

One of the many guard towers along the fence. It started snowing while we were there, and you can see some of the flakes against the wood of the tower.

Inside one of the barracks. Someone has placed more flowers here in remembrance.

A plaque dedicating the camp as a memorial to all those who died. There was a long line of similar plaques, all bearing the same message in more languages than I could count.

An artistic shot of the main monument.

Star on a set of stone stairs.

The bottom step leading up to the monument held a long line of candles such as this one.

Another of the many candles. This one was placed in front of the remnants of one of the gas chambers.

Auschwitz Trip Pt 1 - Auschwitz ("Like a Rose, Trampled on the Ground...")

2011-02-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

The famous sign of Auschwitz. "Work will make you free."

A view of the barracks from a window reflection.

The length of the camp.

Someone had hung a stuck a flower in the gate, a reminder of beauty in the face of death.

A lamp with the barracks number.

The door to one of the barracks.

The view out of a barracks window. The focus in the glass gives it a cool feel.

They had a case full of glasses that were taken away from people. When you start to realize that each pair represents a person, the number of people who died finally becomes more than just a number.

Another case was full of prosthetics and braces. The owners of these would have been unfit for work, and so would have gone straight to the gas chambers.

An overwhelming ammount of dishes and cups brought by people who believed they were simply being resettled.

Both sides of this hallway are made up of cases holding shoes of those who were sent to the gas chambers.

The shere ammount of shoes is almost impossible to take in. But it isn't realizing that these were real people that really gets to you. It's when you realize that this was done to people by other people.

The reflection on the glass was completely unintentional, but it gives the picture a surreal feel.

There was something incredibly haunting about that tiny white shoe.

Most of the barracks have been turned into museums, and many of the hallways are full of pictures of prisoners who were held in the camp. Some of them were lucky enough to survive. Most of them were not.

A few of the pictures are accompanied by flowers left by friends or family in memory of those who have died.

The hard bunks inmates were forced to sleep on, usually about three to a bunk.

There is a wall in the camp where death sentences were typically carried out. Now it is a memorial, hosting many tokens left by visitors to the camp.

Someone had left this rose at the wall, and it had been buried in the snow. I was kneeling to take a picture and saw a hint of pink sticking out. So I dug it up and realize it was a rose. It reminded me of the song- "Crucified, laid behind a stone. You lived to die, rejected and alone. Like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all." Suddenly I understood that image as never before. So I pulled the rose off of the ground and placed it in a nook in the wall where no one can step on it.

A group of people comes to learn about what happened here two generations ago. We can not afford to forget.

Doodles, Snow, and Other Randomness

2011-01-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

The Rynek on a rainy night.

My buddy Macie catching raindrops on her hood.

Beth's awesome art skills.

My shiny ring. (Study hall can get pretty boring sometimes...)

Caroline being artistic.

Caroline and Jess, my Frosh.

More of Beth's awesome art skills.

Cool optical illusion. Star actually looks like a full-sized dragon. :)

A tree and snow. I really like the texture. And the snow!

Star in Narnia. (Okay, so maybe it was just the forest by the school. Close enough.)

Flame on a cool tree. It looks like he's on a mountain!

Star playing in the snow.

Flame playing in the snow. "Ta-da!"

Fuego. Me gusta lo.

Flame and a mini-campfire. (Yes, we made sure to put it out afterwards.)

This Little Light of Mine (a.k.a. The Best of Photo Club: Week 8)

2011-01-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

There was a partial eclipse this morning, and a bunch of us got out of class to watch. The idea was that they sent the sunligh through the telescpoe and the reflection of the sunlight hit the paper. The crescent of light in the pic is the reflection of the sun. Pretty cool.

Candle and lighter.

My bro holding the candle. Still can't believe he trusted me that far!

My bro wearing my gloves. The teacher said they look like hobo gloves. I said that was the idea.

"Same story, different version." -Tia Dalma (Pirates of the Caribbean 2)

My gloves back on my own hands. Really like the way the necklace catches the light.

Got the bracelet from Heath at AGM a year and a half ago. Still wear it every day. She got really excited when she saw it at MKR. :)

Flame and, well, a flame. (Hehe.)

My bracelet from back when CEE still existed. REALLY like this shot. It gives a cool message.

My ring is shiny. So is the fire. (And I'm slightly A.D.D.)

MKR 2011: Budapest (a.k.a. Memoirs of a Dragon Keeper)

2011-01-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

The top of a very cool church door.

Random composition with a hint of Christmasiness.

More doors and windows.

This was the top window of an absolutely goregous church.

More of the church.

Did I mention we had a 6-hour scavenger hunt in Budapest one day? It was CRAZY cold, but we got to see some cool stuff, like this square. And there was a guy there with a falcon. Very cool.

Me messing with the focus. Really like the texture.

This reminded me of a window in an old medieval castle. And of Narnia. :)

Star and the city. If you look really hard across the river, you can see the Parliament building with the domed roof.

More of the church. I cropped the picture down to my favorite part.

Star and Lindsey, a very cool volunteer who came to help with MKR. (This was in MacDo, btw.)

Fiona (Star's cousin) and her keeper, my incredible roommate who I miss very much.

Star and my nametag. Why they insist on putting my given name, I have no idea. Everyone there knows me as Ash.

Randomology Pt. 2

2010-12-24T04:30:00.000-08:00

This was part of an exhibit in the Schindler Museum in Krakow. (Great museum, btw.) Inmates in the concentration camp made these rosaries from whatever they could find.

I love this light fixture. The bird was total luck! :)

This is part of a model of old Krakow in the Sukienica museum below the main square. The barbican and Florianska Gate are still there, but the moat is long-gone.

Fun combination of textures.

A little extra saturation and this came out really nice.

The window of an old church. I really like the composition.

Don't ask, because I really don't know.

The statue of Martin Luther outside a famous church in Dresden, Germany.

Cool light effects.

Star and what is supposedly the best restaurant in Dresden. (We didn't eat there, so I wouldn't know.)

The view from a Dresden bridge at night. Absolutely beautiful.

Gdansk Trip Pt. 2 (August)

2010-12-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Really like this one.

Nice architecture (this is at Malbork, the biggest castle in Europe).

Really cool window shot.

More fun architecture.

REALLY cool sword hilt!!!

This was completely accidental. Love it! :D

"I believe I can fly!!"

Fun composition.

Also nice composition. Really nice texture, too.

It was raining pretty hard, so Mom and Matthew were staying dry. And making me a nice picture!

Playing around with composition. Really like how this turned out.

Gdansk Trip Pt. 1 (August)

2010-12-20T11:35:00.000-08:00

Pretty neat window.

Playing with the sunlight.

Same picture, different angle.

Some random person with a very cute kid.

Lights. Camera. Action!

Unique way of taking pictures of the town.

Looks like a cave, but it's actually a stone window.

This used to be the symbol of the Polish resistance during WW2.

Very cute kid learning to make pottery.

He was too cute to resist. :)

Nice shot of the Polish flag.

Really cool set up in a WW2 museum.

The Best of Photo Club (Weeks 6+7)

2010-12-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

Star and a telescope

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. :)

Ta-da!

There you are!

Flame being scholarly.

Dunno why I took this, but I like how the colors compliment each other.

Playing around with staging pictures.

One of my all-time favorite pictures.

I liked how the blacks and whites looked together.

Another favorite.

Also looks good in black and white. Really like the texture.

More nice texture.

Star-sized soccer (a.k.a. foosball)

Fun composition.

Another favorite. Really like how this one turned out.

All Saints' Day 2010

2010-11-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

In Poland and many other Catholic countries, November 1st is known as All Saints' Day.

All Saints' Day is a national holiday in Poland, and is a day dedicated to the memory of those who have died.

People clean the graves of their relatives, and also place candles on the graves.

Sometimes a grave will be covered in candles, most encased in glass holders.

The candle holders can be found in all colors, but the most common are white and red.

People may also place candles on memorials, or on the graves of saints or heroes.

The grave of a famous Polish poet was covered in a sea of candles that overflowed onto the ground around it. People from all over had come to pay their respects.

One belief is that as long as a candle burns, it carries a person's prayers to heaven.

With enough candles, you can help decrease the ammount of time the deceased spends in Purgatory.

In the Catholic faith, Purgatory is a place where good people must go to pay for their sins before being allowed into heaven.

People in this world can pray, light candles on All Saints' Day, and do other things to help cut down the time the deceased must spend in Purgatory.

Many candle holders bear crosses, and a few bear a likeness of Jesus' face.

In some countries All Saints' Day is followed by All Souls' Day, a day dedicated especially to the memory of children who have died.

As the night grows darker, the cemetary becomes awash with tiny lights.

People stand quietly at graves and pay their respects to the dead.

Most people bring extra candles to place at important monuments, such as the one to all those who died in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Because the bodies were cremated at the camps, the monument is built on ground containing soil from each of the concentration camps.

The candles burn through the night, and often on into the morning.

The holiday is so important that no one cares what the weather is like. Last year it was below freezing, and people were still outside, placing candles on graves and saying prayers for the dead.

Some people may travel to another city to visit the graves of their relatives.

The sight of the cemetary after dark is truely beautiful.

The candles are like small beacons of hope in the darkness...

...hope that God will somehow hear their prayers.

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." -John 8:12

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." -John 1:5

Pray that the eyes of the Polish people will be opened so they may see the light of Christ.

The Best of Photo Club (Weeks 4+5)

2010-11-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

That was totally not planned. The leaves behind him just happened to be orange, and this is what came out. Pretty cool!

Flame and somebody's physics project.

Star in front of our school, ISK.

Matthew's friend Daniel in after-school baseball. Batter up!

Photo club is in full swing.

Caroline's camera and shoe. They just looked good together.

Joelle and Caroline being goofy.

Hugo taking pictures. I love how you can see the players on his camera screen too.

Eventually we all got tired and sat down to watch the baseball kids.

The school name on the basketball court.

Tennis club practice.

Caroline, Jess (my adopted freshman) and Sonya (my adopted junior)

I have absolutely no idea what they're trying to do.

Aw. Such cute little freshmen.

Ms. Ata supervising Hugo.

Estonia Pt. 2 (also known as We're Off to See the Wizard)

2010-11-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

On the last day we took a ferry over to Helsinki, Finland. This is right after we got off the ferry.

Thought this was cute.

Lee taking a picture.

Andrea being goofy. Again.

There was a really beautiful church we saw.

Pretty cool architecture.

More cool architecture. (We visited another church later on and sat around talking about whether or not we could get ourselves kicked out of Finland... Would've made a great story!)

Lee taking another picture.

Awesome doors.

Me messing around with the focus on my camera.

Happy meal toys! Alvin is mine and the dragon is Lee's. In five days we had three happy meals in three different countries: Estonia (Talin, the city where we were staying), Finland (Helsinki), and the Czech Republic (Prague airport). That's gotta be a record of some kind.

Very cool fountain.

Pirate ship cafe. Andrea and I wanted to steal it, but Lee wouldn't help so we gave up.

Randomology - a sampling of my favorite pics

2010-11-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

Jax's knee, Converse, and guitar. Not really sure why I took it, so don't ask.

Jax playing the guitar.

This is the gate to a small monument in a town near Krakow.

A random couple in the park.

A door in a castle.

I have a weird obsession with taking pictures of doors, windows, and light fixtures.

A stone wall through iron bars.

A random tree through a random window.

This is one of my personal favorites, taken through a stone window.

A random door.

Not really sure what that is, but it looks cool.

This one's really cool.

Another light fixture with sunbeams.

More doors and light fixtures.

The top of a church in a small town near Krakow.

Still more windows and light fixtures. But note the reflection in the window. Pretty cool.

Estonia Trip (also known as The Three Musketeers and Me)

2010-11-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

My partners in crime: Andrea, Lee, and Shera. They're so awesome. In the four nights we were there we watched 5 of 6 Harry Potter movies. (After Prisoner of Azkaban we spent the whole night talking about which memories would work best for the Patronus Charm.) I don't think we ever made it in bed before two in the morning. We were too busy talking. It was definitely the best week of the year.

Random sign.

A side street near the center.

Random composition. For some reason it felt picture-worthy.

Flags. Lots of flags.

Shera and Andrea took us to this awesome pancake restaurant, and we got this incredible appetizer that was basically garlic toast sticks made with dark bread. And it came with this garlic sauce. SO good!

Andrea being photogenic. And a bit goofy.

Lee the photographer.

Random light fixture with sunbeams.

This looks exactly like Krakow, with people selling things on the side of the street.

A beautiful Orthodox church.

Shera and Andrea with their knight in not-quite-so-shiney armor.

More random composition.

This was on an overlook with a beautiful view of the city.

The view from one overlook.

An interesting collision of old and modern.

Thought about trying to run away with the shield, but it was bolted down tight. Sadness.

They had some archery targets set up and you could pay to shoot. It was sort of funny, because all these people were trying who had obviously never shot before. Shera, Andrea, and Lee talked me into it because I really like archery. They said afterwards I made it look really easy!

You only got ten arrows per turn, but the guy was really nice and gave me five extra because I got one of the high scores. And then he offered me another arrow if I got so many points with the extra five. I did. So I got sixteen shots total. Oh, and they had a board on the side with high scores. I got the second highest with 39 points. :) (That was only including the ten arrows I paid for.) Shera, Andrea, and Lee were almost as excited as I was. Andrea called me Robin Hood for the rest of the evening.

The Best of Photo Club (Weeks 1-3)

2010-11-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Flame's sister Star on the first day of Photo Club. (Sophie, Hugo, and Matthew in the background.)

Star and Bob, the skeleton in the Biology room.

We were working on motion blur, so the teacher brought some toy cars for us to work with.

kid toys + pictures = awesome!!

Flame and one of the cars.

Pretty cool effects.

Star and Jess (my "adopted" freshman)

Flame playing Foosball.

Photoshoot.

Dragon cave, sweet dragon cave.

Double-take.

Random plant from the Bio room.

Star in her "natural" habitat.

Flame and Hugo, who also likes taking pictures of my dragons.

Me, Matthew, and Hugo messing around with mirrors.

The Adventures of Flame the Dragon

2010-11-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

This is my dragon Flame on a swing at a playground. Behind him is the Grunwald Mound. (My dad has this weird obsession with seeing all of the mounds in Krakow...)

More playground.

Flame and the side door to a church.

A random bar with part of a small town behind.

Flame in a stone window.

I think my Pepsi addiction may be rubbing off on him...

Mom and Flame.

Canonball!

Flame and the Krakow version of "The Thinker."

Some random door.

That's my mom and bro in the background.

Okay, so there was this random statue-thing of this REALLY big knight, and this is Flame with the hilt of his sword.