Rajd przez Polskę #2 Photography - M1key - Michal Huniewicz
This is part 2 of my road trip across Poland photo album. Have you seen part 1?
Rajd przez Polskę #2
Meet my dad. My dad and I set off to visit South Western Poland.
This was taken in Jakubów, Polkowice County [1].
This was taken in Jakubów, Polkowice County [1].
ISO 640, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/4000s.
Sign
Visiting the Rogalin Oaks. [2] The most famous oak tree in Poland is called Bartek, and it was estimated to be 1200 years old, thus the oldest in the country. That's apparently not true after its age has been recently established as under 700 years old. [3]
ISO 250, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/60s.
Oak Tree
Dandelion
Settle down now and sit with me
Let me tell you how this all came to be
A yellow flower with your petals to the air
And flying on paper wings that brought you here
Let me tell you how this all came to be
A yellow flower with your petals to the air
And flying on paper wings that brought you here
ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/640s.
Greek
Leszno
Tower
My dad recommended we visit Wschowa for its abundance of morbid themes.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/1600s.
Morbid
I could not resist, and we found plenty. This is a church inside a convent. [4]
ISO 1600, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60s.
Altar
Crucified?
We found a statue of Jesus crucified on horns, in a chapel dedicated to hunting...
ISO 1250, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60s.
Walls
Złotnik
The town was built using the Magdeburg rights, a medieval German blueprint for a city. Those laws were developed by Otto I (a Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire being an agglomeration of states that would over centuries evolve into Germany), and adopted in Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia. The laws were targeted at regulating trade to benefit local merchants and artisans. Polish implementation of it was different, as it came with a set of criminal and civil laws. [5] Your typical Magdeburg law city will have a town square with a town hall in the middle. My dad says, this is the type of towns where he feels most at home, as that's where he grew up.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/1250s.
Skull
This is a protestand graveyard in Wschowa with a vampire-like skull.
ISO 400, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/60s.
Tomb
Roof
It became Polish again after the Second World War, and there were plans to demolish this cemetery, but it was decided it would preserved by a Warsaw official, according to my dad.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/240s.
Miscalculated
This woman miscalculated when she had this tomb commissioned. Anna Herbrich assumed she would die and be buried here, presumably beside her husband, but due to the Second World War, Germany's border shifted West, and she decided (or was forced to) follow, therefore she's buried elsewhere. Or maybe she's the oldest woman in the world!
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/150s.
Book
Crypt
Serpent
Coffin Portraits
Here's a collection of coffin portraits. My dad laughed at me when the curator of the museum instantly identified my ghastly fascinations.
ISO 320, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Ligota
The village where I grew up has a Prussian palace, and I was assuming that it was a unique feature, but it's not.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/290s.
Building Held in Place By a Log of Wood
This one was is an even more sorry state.
ISO 500, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
There Are No Stairs
Chimneys
Quick drone flight revealed the agricultural edifices nearby, also from German times by the look of it.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s.
In the Shade
My Dad and I
This is another palace - in Bełcz Wielki. In 2016, it was set on fire. [8] Look at the roof.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/590s.
Another Palace
After the Second World War, Communist Poland inherited these palaces from Germany. Their previous wealthy owners departed. It seems, in many cases they were then owned by schools, and they took some care of them. Now, in capitalist Poland, the palaces are expensive to maintain, and most of them have sadly been left to rot.
ISO 1250, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/60s.
Anti-Semitic
Use Your Brain
As well as this note - "Use your brain! You have it for a reason".
ISO 1600, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/60s.
Gym
My dad reckons the problem with maintaining these palaces is that it would be so expensive to restore them (a completely unofficial estimate is 5 million euros for the Dobrocin palace restoration, that's from a few years ago), that it's cheaper to build a new, bespoke building.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/60s.
Burnt
Hence the plans of turning these into hotels or old people's houses are rather far-fetched.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/160s.
Reused
This Głogów tower has had its bricks used for another purpose, presumably to restore local buildings after Second World War damage.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/1000s.
Blue Sky
Bullet Holes
You can still see holes made by bullets during the Second World War!
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/2500s.
Drains
Alley
Lion
Książ Castle, located in a picturesque location in the Waldenburg Mountains.
ISO 1000, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/2000s.
I Stayed Here for the Night
Tower
Baroque
Powder House
The castle hill has housed numerous fortresses since medieval times.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/2000s.
Child's Play
When the Second World War began, some of the family supported the German side, some supported the Polish side.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/30s.
Sunset
At Dusk
Volvo
Jakubów
We visited the Jakubów village so I could check out its romantic ruins.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/1050s.
Shaft Mining
Interestingly, I noticed the mining site of St. Jacob's Shaft in the distance.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/600s.
Bożków
We did another palace just because I saw it from the road. Super photogenic village of Bożków. We ran into this boorish janitor guy who told us to leave when I asked him about the history of the palace.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/450s.
Take Off
Little did he know we would get our photos one way or another. Buzz!
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/1500s.
Disney
Look at this, it's brilliant. There's even a church and a graveyard. We could see the man looking at the drone helplessly.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s.
Kłodzko
My dad wanted to pop in to Kłodzko which he had visited as a child.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/500s.
Gracja
Grave of Five Children
Kłodzko was where I met the most polite Polish person - a local tourist guide who could actually speak proper Polish (rare trait these days), and had impeccable manners.
ISO 2500, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Old Town
Landscape
Main attraction of the city is its fortress, seen in an old painting here.
ISO 1250, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Star Fort
Tunnels
Needless to say, I had to visit the tunnels. Those were dug up to counter attack any assaults of the fort.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Wrocław
Aula Leopoldina
The main hall of the Wrocław University sports some serious baroque decoration.
ISO 2500, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/60s.
Nespresso
Maroon
Blocks
Dzinman
Reinforcement have arrived! We picked up a Kiwi girl from the airport.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/40s.
Capitol
Spectacles
This is where I had the best coffee in my life (Colombia being number two now)! Place called Gniazdo.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/550s.
Old Town
WBK
My dad says, when German tourists visit Wrocław, they are generally impressed with the restoration that Poland has done. But then they always say "And why did you build this horrible building in the town square?!" To which Polish guides say "YOU built it!" It's a pre-war German building.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/1100s.
Visor
Treasure!
Three Women
My cousin works here. Her job is to restore wooden artifacts of the past, like this one.
ISO 1600, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Portraits
I thought this was cool, paintings and sculptures of two man from the past.
ISO 400, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Chins
Generations of inbreeding made the Habsburg dynasty people, men and women, grotesquely distorted with protruding jaws.
ISO 640, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Nazi Guillotine
Tools
Helmet
Organ
Brush
Blood on the Floor
Immigrants Welcome
Dzinchan
Lights
Market
Bones
Ay ay ay, even more skulls and bones. These ones are real. Found in a church.
ISO 320, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Orthodox
Gate
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Orange
This place was first inhabited by the Piast dynasty, and it is the oldest part of the city. Apparently, Casanova lived here!
ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/1600s.
Into the Void
Garden
Cathedral seen from the gardens with countless species of plants.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/750s.
Wooden Bridge
Japanese Path
Oak
Wrocław Station
My Secondary School
Lastly, we went to one of my home towns, Toruń. This is my secondary school!
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/280s.
Monka
A building that might have been made of ginger bread, a local specialty.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/60s.
Heels to the Wall
And lastly, the leaning tower. If you can stand up against it, it means you're truthful, or something.
I'm planning to upload one last batch from Poland, just a small bunch of photos from my home village, and that will be Poland sorted.
I'm planning to upload one last batch from Poland, just a small bunch of photos from my home village, and that will be Poland sorted.
ISO 2500, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/60s.