Freedom ?

[lornem]

went on holiday to Poland last week, and visited Auschwitz, took lots of photos for personal reasons, but wanted to take one that showed just what sort of place it was, and it just didn't look right in colour, but anway, here it is, hope it's ok


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/fevlad/bwausch.jpg

[chrissyp]

A very moving place to go. I don't think i would be brave enough.The place gives me the creeps just thinking about the horror of it,but must never be forgotten.Good pic b&w is the right choice.

[LensBaby]

I think the B&W makes this photo. You have done a nice job. The skull on the stop sign also adds to the photo. Great capture. I would love to see more if you have more of Poland. I am a photo addict when it comes to being able to see other places that I may never have the chance to visit. At least I can this way. Thank you.

[lornem]

Most were personal pics but here are a couple more, first is the market square in Kracow, the second a salt mine on the outskirts of Kracow, first world heritage site, hard to spell, but would be a cracking score at scrabble, the picture is of a chapel there, thing is it's 300 feet underground ..... and carved out of the solid salt walls, even the chandeliers are pure crystal salt, i left the people in the bottom to show some sort of scale

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/fevlad/kracmark.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/fevlad/chapelsalt.jpg

[jerryph]

A picture of the same gate, but from the other side. You can likely see right where you were standing?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Auschwitz_gate_%28tbertor1%29.jpg/800px-Auschwitz_gate_%28tbertor1%29.jpg

I did not take the above picture. It was taken from THIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp) wiki site.

Truly a sad place. My family lost many members to the concentration camps, so I too can understand that pain.

The gate reads "Arbeit Macht Frei". A poor translation being "Work gives freedom". Yeah... right. I wonder why that even wasn't torn down at the end of the war?

Getting back to the pic, I feel it is a little too dark as a lot of the building's detail is lost in darkness and it would have had a little more impact if the words were not backward (but you can't have both the picture you had AND still be on the other side of the gate... lol). It does have the effect of bringing on sadness, though, so your pic does evoke a lot of emotion. That is always the sign of a good picture.

Your last picture, though lightly underexposed, is of just an incredible place. Next time I go to Europe, I have to visit the area. My ancestry is Czech, so its not that far away. :)

[lornem]

The pic you posted was the reason i took mine from where i did, everybody who goes there takes that one, i just wanted a different slant on it, to make you read the words on the gate, with the pp on the photo i took, i wanted it to be dark, the place comes across as being that dark to me

I wanted to take a pic that as you say "shows a lot of emotion" .... not a tourist snap, the place isn't there for that reason

[matty]

i also went here and took alot of photos,quite an emotional place to go,makes you think.

[jerryph]

It does indeed. And dark? There is no shadow dark enough to show the darkness that was there. :(

I may not have mentioned it, but I did like your picture, lornem.

[jonrayner]

As Lensbaby has said, this photo is definitely better in B&W. It is a very emotional picture.

[mrdoug]

P H E N O M E N A L ! ! !

That is incredible what you did with the B/W. It makes the photo... as mentioned already.