BERLIN! BUENOS AIRES! & LONDON!

I've been slacking hardcore about putting up photos.  But now that its the middle of the winter and I'm stuck inside on the weekend when I much rather be outside riding bikes, I figure its a good time to put up some photos! So this past fall I was traveling almost non-stop.  While shooting for the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange project I ended up going to Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto.  Then in December I headed to London to shoot a project for PUMA.  Here are a handful of photos from those trips!

BERLIN! I missed the charm of Europe, its been three years since I was there last. Berlin was awesome!

I loved this.

Jewish memorial.

Between some tech issues with the rental cameras and long hours, the shoot in Berlin was pretty tough, but staying at Hotel Adlon made up for the street. The hotel room was by far nicer then my apartment in NYC. Man, this place was sweet, the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at!

BUENOS AIRES!

Next up was a trip to Buenos Aires. I flew in a day early and got a chance to walk around and "scout" the city. I also stay an extra day and made it out to the Tigre Delta, which was really cool and reminded me a lot of New Orleans! Highlights included coffee, cafes and more coffee! Oh and the food, my god, the food. No matter where we went, we had amazing food!

La Recoleta Cemetery and a street musician.

La Boca neighborhood.

La Boca at sunset. Great light.

Lots of great and cheap coffee. Cafe creama was my favorite (picture cafe con leche)

and with coffee comes really cool coffee shops.

Boat ride through the Tigre delta.

gas station in the Tigre delta.

LONDON

The final international trip I took this fall was a week trip to London to shoot a project for PUMA. I was staying and shooting about 45 minutes outside of London, but I made it into London a few times to get dinner. The job was extremely demanding so I kinda took a break from my camera at night, but here are a few stills i snapped off.

NYC TO NE BY TRAIN!

So my friend Emily was finishing up an artist residency outside of Lincoln, NE when I got back from Beunos Aires. She wanted company for the drive back east but with the amount of flying I was doing I couldn't image getting on another plane. Instead I used that as an excuses to do something I've been wanting to do for a while and that is, try out long distance train travel in the states. I took off from Penn Station on an overnight train bound for Chicago (via going north to Albany first), had a short lay over in Chicago and then took off on another train for Lincoln. All in all it was about a 28 hour journey. I wouldn't recommended it for everyone, but I had a great time. Slow travel really is the best travel sometimes. Much more about that later!

Waiting for the Shore Line Express at Penn Station.

Everything I need for the 1.5 day train trip and the week long drive back.

We headed north and right around sunset started to pass the Catskills. The train follows the Hudson all the way up to Albany.

I made it safe and sound to Chicago the next morning.

The best part of train stations is that they are in the middle of cities. During my "lay over" i was able to pop out to the Lou Mitchell's, an awesome and famous dinner located a few blocks from the train station.

I thought the ride after Chicago would be really boring, but it was really pretty!

The train I was on had a sweet observation car... this same train would continue on all the way to San Fransisco! Right through the Rockies!

A train yard somewhere west of the Mississippi.

I finally made it Lincoln, Emily was happy to see me, I was happy to see her. We stayed on the farm where her studio was for a few days and then took off.

We took Highway 2 through the northwest section of NE know as the Sand Hills. It was very different then what most people picture NE to look like.

The next morning we went and saw Mt Rushmore and then climbed to the highest point east of the Rockies (a look out tower in the Black Hills)

It was cold.

after making it to Rapid City (what a weird town) we spent half a day exploring the Badlands.... i think this was the highlight for both of us! I felt like we were on Mars!

After this we B-lined it home, stopping in Chicago to see friends, and Cleveland to play pool and western PA to go bowling! What a great trip, makes me realize how much more of the US I need to see.

CAMPING!

Wow its been way to long since I have updated my blog. This summer was the summer of camping! I took a few different and awesome trips. First up are some photos form a motorcycle camping trip I took with everyone at www.chinonthetank.com.

The Second was a super fun trip I took with my awesome girlfriend up to the Finger Lakes and then to Frontenac Park in Canada.

SEOUL!!!!

Seoul was the last big stop on my trip (except a short stop back in Nagoya, Japan for two days to get the rest of my gear). I have always wanted to go to Seoul but actually knew very little about it before researching my trip. For some reason I had a gut feeling I'd really like the city and I was totally right! Although Seoul is a super city, I really enjoyed the fact that most of the downtown area was very walkable. You could walk from one neighborhood to another and see completely different looking parts of the city. You could be in a posh area with lots of bars and coffee shops and 30 minutes later be walking through a street market. I felt like Seoul had something to offer everyone.

One of my favor spots in Seoul was Namdaemun Market (fairly close to Seoul Station). It was a great maze of street stalls and restaurants. I found it a great place to shoot photos and meat locals. Just like everywhere in Korea, everyone was exceptionally nice. The last night I was there I was offered drinks by an older gentleman who use to study Shakespeare. Despite claiming to never have study english outside of Korea, he had a very british accent. Interesting....

Other highlights include renting a bike, taking the cable car up to Seoul tower (which as an awesome view of the city) and getting to see the premier of my friend Tammy Chu's documentary film Resilience. Its always interesting attending film festivals / events in other countries.

Out of all the big cities I visited in the last 6 weeks (Portland, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Nagoya, Kyoto, Tokyo and Busan) I have to say Seoul was one of my favorites. The city had a good energy and reminded me in some ways of NYC. If I had to pick one city in either Japan or Korea to live in, I'd pick Seoul!

Looking southwest from the base of Seoul Tower.

Street vendors in Namdaemun.

1) Dumpling Stall = Pink 2) Bar = Green

Making it rain! Actually thats only about 9 bucks!

Namdaemun Market

These two women are respobile for the dish below! So good! Old Korean women are the best!

I lived off of Bibimbap! One of my new favorite dishes!

Cooking in the alleyway in Namdaemun.

Guards in traditional dress at the national fortress.

1) Robert Frank... do you get it? 2) A sax playing, street food serving Korean!

Seoul is not just tiny back alleyways... this neighborhood had lots of posh restaurants and coffee shops!

Serving up some traditional sweets on a posh shopping street!

Shoppers in a posh (how many times can I say posh in one post?) shopping center stop to watch a street performer.

A not so posh shopping street shortly after dusk.

Wondering around at dusk with my camera in hand is my favorite thing to do when traveling!

I dont think she is staring at my camera, I think she is staring at my red hair.

An alleyway with lots of texture.

Dongdaemun Market

Another great looking wall!

That there is a bottle of Makkoli, a very unique Korean drink.

To the left is "Jason" and to the right is his friend. Jason bought me a drink and told me about studying Shakespeare. Seemed like a nice guy, I had to cut out early to make it in time for the film fest, wish I could have stayed longer. Oh well, maybe next time.