Anyone who knows me, knows I’m fascinated by history and the context it provides for current geopolitics. And few places have been more intriguing to me than Central Europe so I jumped at the chance to tour a handful of cities recently from Warsaw to Budapest with Megan.

It only seemed fitting that I grabbed my favorite camera and the remaining rolls of tri-x from my fridge for the trip. I was lucky enough to stand in front of some pretty amazing history. What was my favorite place? …I’d have to say I felt the strongest connection to Poland.

Hope you enjoy a few frames.

“A history of Europe is a history of Wars,” I was told. World War II is a part of history I don’t really think many people from my generation fully appreciate or understand. I say that because I’ve tried to study a decent amount of it and still find myself at a loss for comprehension of reason and scale. I don’t know that seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau or so many other places ravaged by war helped me understand, either. But undeniably, I came away with something I can’t put my finger on. Here are a few more frames…

I’d been driving past these old cigar factories in Tampa since I’ve lived here, having no idea what they were or how much history they had in the area until I got a call from Tanner Curtis, a very talented editor at the NYT.

Stepping into the last cigar factory was like taking a step back in time, quite literally. I mean, when was the last time you saw an ashtray in a urinal stall- an ashtray that people still use. Still, it didn’t get any nicer than the people I worked with at the J.C. Newman Cigar Company. It’s a family-owned business that’s been around for 119 years.

You can check out the story by Lizette Alvarez here.

Thanks goes out to Tanner for the great direction and edit with the piece.

The first clue you’re being photographed is usually when you see the photographer raise a camera and point it in your direction. Not so with Google Glass.

My assignment was to photograph Rick Sare, a trucker who has been utilizing Google Glass to avoid becoming distracted while on the road. Sare was a super nice guy and very down to earth- you could tell he really enjoyed the technology and embraced everything it allowed him to do. I think it’s pretty safe to say that he way more tech savvy than myself.

Below is how the selected image ran in the magazine and the two images below that were taken by Rick from the Google Glass during the shoot. It was interesting being on the other side of the camera, while I was on the other side of the camera!

TAMPA, FL - MAY 2: Alison Crumbley, Chairwoman of the Pasco County School Board, poses for a photograph at the Pasco County School Board complex in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., on Friday. Florida insurance regulators are reviewing proposals for investors offering

Every assignment is interesting- after all, that is the nature of photography and photojournalism, right? If it weren’t interesting, no one would be doing a story on it. So I showed up to the Pasco County School board to photograph Alison Crumbley about third party investors offering free life insurance to teachers. The catch is that they would also be the beneficiaries along with the school district and the families of those insured. Sounds pretty crazy, right? Check out the rest of the story here.

Visually speaking, we didn’t have a whole lot of options, or time for that matter. But Alison was great and accommodated a torrential rain storm that day as well as me for the shoot. Thanks for looking!

Some shoots you go on and never really see how the images end up being used. I finally got a chance to see one of my first advertising shoots in print recently. I shot these images in late 2012 and they were published sometime in 2013.

Up until that time, I was still shooting almost exclusively for newspapers so it was an interesting transitional time for me in my career to say the least. I was incredibly fortunate to have been able to work with a great team on this project, including Bruce and Suzette Moyer as well as Brian Blanco and Chip Litherland- some true professionals to whom I still look up to today. Except for Brian… he’s pretty short.

The shoots consisted of environmental portraits of “friendly faces” in the tourism industry. We even got to photograph inside the new Dali Museum here in St. Pete. What is interesting is that in the grand scheme of things, these images weren’t made that long ago. But when I look through the take I’m already asking myself how I could have done things differently. It’s amazing how your perspective constantly changes.

Here are how some of the images were used when published. Please note that I did not shoot the cover- I’m just including it for context.

Thanks for looking!