Capture Date/Time: October 11 2004
Camera: Canon 10D
Lens: 28-200mm F3.5
Focal Length: 40mm
Aperture/Shutter Speed: F/4.0 – 1/45 sec
ISO: 400
Flash: None

This is the Lowendenkmal (Lion Monument) in Luzern, Switzerland. Scultped by Bertel Thorwaldsen in 1821, it commemorates the heroic Swiss soldiers who fell defending Louis XVI of France during the storming of the Tuileries in 1792. My jaw just dropped the first time I saw this monument in 1995 when I was working in Switzerland. The monument is carved into the side of a mountain and rests above a small pond. The emotional expression of pain and sadness depicted upon the lion’s face stirs emotions in me that I never thought possible from a sculpture.