Shadows of construction cranes,
fencing and blank windows...

The new conflict with Berlin's
omnipresent past...
as the struggle between past and present,
battles anew.

Image 1 and 2, Unused East German government buildings look for new uses, the first one complete with bullet holes from the 1945 Battle of Berlin.
Image 3, A pile of earth marking a new building site.
Image 4, The former East Berlin being rapidly transformed.
Nikon D600, 28mm-70mm AFD Nikkor lens.

And blocks away,
once no man's land between east and west,
is Potsdamer Platz, and next to it, Leipzig Platz...
places feverishly building into the future...

Image 1, All that is left of the wall, cutting on an angle through Leipzig Platz.
Image 2, Skyline of construction cranes, just south of the Hitler's buried bunker.
Image 3 and 4, the interior of Potsdamer Platz.
Image 5, Layers of busy train platforms just below the shopping of Potsdamer Platz.
Image 6, The covered roof over Potsdamer Platz.
Nikon D600 and Minolta CLE

And outside the Jewish Museum,
and Daniel Libeskind's visions of the holocaust,
are the gardens, fountains of redemption...

And we enter again, Berlin's tapestry of multiple personalities...
Nikon D600, 28mm-70mm AFD Nikkor lens.

Gott in den Himmel...

Even in the darkest days,
in the heavens,
there was still light..

Architect, Daniel Libeskind's vision of hell, remembrance,
and a hopeful redemption...
Judisches Museum, Berlin
Minolta CLE, 21mm F4.0 Voigtlander lens, Kodak Tmax 100 film

Our foot steps make the sounds of clanking train cars,
as we step on the thousands of metal faces,
staring up at us...

making silent cries,
on a journey few returned...
The Jewish Museum, Berlin.
Minolta CLE, 21mm F4.0 Voigtlander lens, Kodak Tmax 100 film.

Perhaps less then 2 kilometers apart,
2 modern places of remembrance...

and,
with eyes to the future...
and the heavens...

Image 1, The new roof over Potsdamer Platz, once in the middle of man's land between the eastern and western worlds.
Image 2, The ceiling in the Death Chamber Memorial in the Jewish Museum.
Minolta CLE, 21mm F4.0 Voigtlander lens, Kodak Tmax 100 film

Though perhaps Berlin is not representative of the rest of the country,
it certainly has been in its cross hairs of history...
Our first day seemed like a crash course,
in Berlin's multiple personalities...

Image 1, The Holocaust Memorial for the murdered 6 millions under the Nazi's, located just south of the Brandenburg Gate.
Image 2, Strasse des 17 Juni, a grand boulevard named after the 1953 East Berlin uprising against the Russian occupation forces, looking east from the Peace memorial in the middle of the Tiergarten towards  the Brandenburg Gate and the former East Berlin just beyond.
Nikon D600, 105mm F2.8 Nikkor lens.

My youngest son has been living in Berlin since January,
and reluctantly must return to Canada in November.
Fortunately we were able to send some time visiting him back in June of this year...

Maybe this can begin to paint images of the multiple personalities of Berlin...
And it seemed as New York isn't really America,
It could be easily said,
that Berlin,
isn't really Germany...
Nikon D600, 28mm-70mm AFD Nikkor lens

A short time,
in an unforgettable place...

Haida Gwaii...
one of our world's special places.
Nikon D600, 28mm-70mm AFD BNikkor lens.

Haida Gwaii,
and The Haida cultural revival
will continue to struggle with the modern world,
and a host of new threats for our energy hungry world...

From small boat fuel spills to giant oil tankers,
beauty and threat remain close at hand...
Nikon D600, 28mm-70mm AFD Nikkor lens.

And a few things left behind by our ancestors,
who didn't quite see Haida Gwaii as a natural paradise...

Image 1 and 2, Rusting boilers for the long gone whaling industry, Queen Charlotte City Beach.
Image 3, Rusting iron plates, Queen Charlotte City.
Image 4 and 5, Boiler remains, Queen Charlotte City Beach.
Image 6, A more intact boiler used for reducing whale fat to whale oil in Rose Harbour.
Nikon D600, various Nikkor lenses.

And a few more images of Haida Gwaii...

Image 1, a hundred plus dolphins cut through Juan Perez Sound.
Image 2, patterns between land and sea, Gilbert Bay.
Image 3, another hundred or so basking sea lions.
Image 4, salmon shark.
Image 5, Low tide and setting sun, Windy Bay.
Image 6, Forest chicken, Hotspring Island.
Nikon D600, various Nikkor lenses.