August was hot, sunny and full of anticipation waiting for the moment we would get onto a plane heading to Portugal at the end of the month where we would get the chance to relax and discover a new country…. I will do a seperate post for that and all of the images that came from it…soonish. From the very first day of August, the month proved to be a big one, filled with mostly warm, sunny days and all kinds of instances where discovering our new home here in Warszawa often meant playing the part of tourist while doing it and we often would voice our disbelief that this was actually our home and not someplace we were visiting.
Here in Poland, August 1st is the celebration and memorial of the Warsaw Uprising and I was extremely grateful to be in the city for the event and the One Minute of Silence that happens precisely at 17:00 (5 PM). The city itself during the month of August feels rather quiet as a great majority of its citizens step out for vacations while the central part of the city remains busy with tourists visiting and enjoying its history, culture, food and ambiance. Agnieszka and I thoroughly enjoyed playing tourist often during the month of August where we watched the meteor shower from the river, caught outdoor movies, wandered aimlessly through the city streets, visted museums and parks, sat in outdoor gardens sipping drinks and explored the hidden parts of the city that is now our home. This August specifically has proven to be one of my very favorite months in many years and will be a hard one to top in the ones to come I am sure. It was also one of the most challenging and even had the rare experience of camera failure while in Portugal where I learned to smile and roll with it.
The year before, I decided to do a Monochrome 365 and the final image of this year-long project would be made on August 31, 2018…not coincidentailly my birthday. And a big one at that. You can view all of the 365 images here and soon I will soon write a follow-up on the project which has been very challenging but highly rewarding leaving me feeling very proud of the results.
August was also home to many fun work sessions and interesting projects that included shooting products and wine for a local company, working with a variety of new people for urban portraits, hosting classes for photography (one on the ONLY day it pored rain but we powered on and had a blast anyway) and exploring and shooting old Mokotow for a client among others. I was also interviewed by Canon UK which you can read here which is a huge highlight for me. All in all a wonderful warm month filled with surprises, anticipation and discovery…and camera repair. Monday, my partners at Digital24.pl will pick up the Canon Eos 6DII to have it worked on and hopefully fixed quickly and back out working soon!
Here is a small selection of the images that made up a portion of August, the last days of summer. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have shooting them. And now, I am ready for my favorite time of the year to arrive. See you on the streets!
Erik Witsoe 