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I watched this fellow for a while, mostly because he was making a fairly loud racket. Indeed, I thought the police were going to have some words with him when they pulled up in their car. But the two ignored each other, and the police car quickly zoomed off somewhere else.
It turned out that the man was waiting for the M104 bus to arrive; the Verizon sign that you see on the left side of the picture is actually part of the "wall" of a bus-stop shelter. The bus eventually arrived, and the man got on the bus, and that was the end of this little mini-drama.
I watched carefully on each of the 14 days I spent at the Earth Cafe, and never saw the man again. With his bushy beard, it would be hard to miss him ... but it just demonstrates that some patterns do not repeat.
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As I’ve mentioned in a couple of recent Tumblr blog postings, I’m working on an exercise for a new class that I’ve started taking at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in the fall of 2015.( You can see the earlier Tumblr postings here and here.)
In addition to taking a bunch of photos (see the other Tumblr postings for details and descriptions of what the photos are supposed to illustrate), we also have the task of editing our images down to a maximum of 10 “presentation images” that we will share with the ICP class next week. When our instructor, Joanne Dugan, asked me last week if I anticipated having any problems with this aspect of the assignment, I shrugged and said, “No, I do this all the time …”
Well, yes and no: I do do a lot of editing/winnowing of my photos before deciding which ones should be shared with anyone else. But I had forgotten that I also do a lot of cropping, color-adjustment, tweaking, and general post-processing before I upload my photos to Flickr, Facebook, or even Instagram. For this particular ICP exercise, we were also told not to crop the photos, and not to do any post-processing. That makes things a lot more difficult …
On the other hand, part of the exercise is to assemble and share a maximum of ten photos that collectively tell a “story” of some kind – and to “tell” that story with anywhere from a word, to a sentence, to a paragraph for each of the photos. That makes things a lot easier … after all, if a photo has to be presented in isolation, then it truly stands alone. And it is intended to be viewed without any accompanying text, then it really stands alone. There’s nothing wrong with that; indeed, one might argue that that’s the whole point of photography: a picture should “tell” a story all by itself, without any extraneous verbiage to “explain” what might not be obvious to the viewer.
But not very many things exist in complete isolation of the rest of the universe, especially in today’s interconnected world. I suppose some people would debate that point quite vigorously; and some people might argue that a photograph of a person, place, or thing should be able to “stand alone” without anything else. I certainly have seen photos that fall into this category, and I suppose I’ve taken a few like that, too. Or, maybe if I never intended my photos to be considered in complete isolation from one another, perhaps that’s how some people prefer to look at them …
But for me, that’s a pretty rare phenomenon. Almost always, I find myself telling a story. The photographs obviously present one “dimension” of the story, in a visual form; and I’ve been trying to remind myself lately that videos can present can present one, and sometimes two, additional dimensions (motion and sound) that can add enormously to the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of the underlying story.
But even if one uses only traditional photos, I find that it’s almost impossible for me to crate (or make, or take) one photo by itself; invariably, I take dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands, which collectively tell a story. It may be a story about someplace I’ve been, or some event in which I’ve participated, or some individual (or group of individuals) that I want the viewer to know and appreciate in more detail than would be possible to communicate in a single photo.
And then there are the words … maybe it’s because I spend part of my time as a writer and teacher that I find it almost impossible not to augment my photos with words. Lots of words. Indeed, sometimes far too many words; and sometimes clumsy words, or the wrong words. And I do realize that there are times when the situation would be improved if I would just shut up, and let the photograph do all of the communication. But for better or worse, I guess I’m a photojournalist.
With that in mind, I began the process of editing the photos for my recent ICP assignment. Here’s what I found:
1. It’s not as easy as one might think, when you start with a large number. I began winnowing the original images when I had 2,700 (after 9 days of shooting), and I still had 5 days of shooting left).
2. It’s much more difficult than I had imagined, given the constraints of my ICP class: no cropping, no post-processing, and a maximum of only 10 images. I’ve worked within those constraints for the final images that I’m submitting to the ICP class; but for these Flickr uploads, I’ve ended up with 40-45 images – and they have been heavily cropped, tilted, color-corrected, noise-dusted, and tweaked in various other ways. C’est la vie…
3. Using the collection of photos to “tell a story” is both easier and harder than I thought it would be. I’m including these background notes in all of the photos that get uploaded to Flickr … because I’ve learned (form past experience) that some visitor will zoom in on just one particular photo, without necessarily looking at all of them, and/or without seeing the overall notes for the entire album. And I don’t think I’ll find it difficult to write a few sentences to provide the background details for each photo … but whether they “flow” and create one overall, coherent “story” remains to be seen.
4. Aside from a narrative “story,” there are some “themes” that I noticed throughout this entire two-week exercise. The most significant one was exactly what I had anticipated: patterns. If you are lucky enough to sit in the same spot at the same time, day after day, you see the same rhythms, the same people, the same repetitions of life’s little actions and emotions. Many people have the opportunity to see these patterns, because they do follow the same schedule, day after day, on their way to their job or their school. But some of us have irregular routines, and any, most of us don’t pay any attention. If you slow down, and pay attention, you’ll see the patterns.
But sometimes the pattern involves uniqueness – i.e. strange and unusual people or events that seem to happen only once. But I have to keep reminding myself that my visits have lasted only two weeks; if I was here for a month, or a full season, or perhaps an entire year – then perhaps I would see these strange incidents repeating themselves
5. Another theme – which I did not anticipate, but was delighted to see – was the pervasive sense of affection and caring between and among everyone on the street. Mostly it was apparent in the interactions between parents and children; but sometimes it was between dog-owners and the dogs they were walking; sometimes it was between friends who happened to be walking along together; and sometimes it was between complete strangers and me, as the strangers would smile and nod and say “hello” if they noticed I was watching them. It was a great experience.
Because my mother's tourist visa is only for U.S. we did not crossed Canada where the view is better. However, because there were fewer visitors on the U.S. side, the line for the boat tour is shorter. We were done early and had time going somewhere else on this part of New York state.
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Niagara Falls are massive waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. The falls are 17 miles north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, 75 miles south-southeast of Toronto, Ontario, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.
Because, myth or manipulation, we all want to fall in love.
That experience makes us feel completely alive.
Our everyday reality is shattered, and we are flung into the heavens.
lt may only last a moment, an hour, but that doesn't diminish its value.
We're left with memories we treasure for the rest of our lives.
l read, ''When we fall in love, we hear Puccini in our heads.''
l love that. His music expresses our need for passion and romantic love.
We listen to La Bóheme or Turandot, or read Wuthering Heights, -
- or watch Casablanca, and a little of that love lives in us too.
So the final question is: Why do people want to fall in love -
- when it can have such a short run and be so painful?
- Propagation of the species? - We need to connect with somebody.
- Are we culturally preconditioned? - Good, but too intellectual for me.
l think it's because, as some of you may already know ...
While it does last, it feels fucking great. - The Mirror Has Two Faces, Barbra Streisand
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Each year on August 27th it is National Just Because Day. Feel free to celebrate this day any way you choose. Just because!
Every day we all do things that are expected or required of us or because we have to. Well, on National Just Because Day, that does not apply. This day is a chance to do something without rhyme or reason.
It could be that there is an outfit at the mall that you are admiring; buy it…just because.
Maybe you want to use a vacation day just to go fishing; do it…just because.
Perhaps you would like to pay the tab for the table next to you at your favorite restaurant; do it…just because.
Possibly you want to sing really loud while you’re in your car, by yourself, with your windows rolled down; do it…just because.
Surprise someone with flowers…just because!
I put a "SMILEY" rock in a little pot in Vancouver.
Because this was a juvenile Peregrine, he had not yet learned that humans were a threat and he allowed me to get quite close.
Peregrine Falcon
Falco peregrinus
Member of the Nature’s Spirit
Good Stewards of Nature
© 2013 Patricia Ware - All Rights Reserved
So here is my new look at the Great Nebula in Orion, this time made with narrowband filters and mapped color. Because the nebula is so bright a good image is possible with only seconds of integration - even in my bright skies here in Phoenix. But because it is so bright, it is also an opportunity to study the detailed structures of the nebula by making very long integrations. So this image was created from nearly 30 hours of integration time over several nights. That cluster of bright, young stars in the blue (oxygen emission) part of the nebula is the Trapezium cluster, the center of a stellar nursery where new stars are being born. These stars are lighting up the entire nebula which is roughly 25 light years in diameter - in angle, about the size of two Moons in Earth’s sky.
I feel so lucky that an infinitesimally small fraction of the photons created in this nebula travelled for such a long time (1500 years) through space and found their way into my tiny 6 inch telescope and onto my camera’s sensor. They subsequently produced an electronic signal that was recorded on a bit of silicon and finally rendered into an image viewable by our eyes and brains by even more silicon based devices. This all seems like a miracle to me.
And when we look at the image overall we see colors representing the different kinds of atoms in this amazing structure. These colors are not the colors we would see with our eyes if we were in a spaceship close enough to see colors with our unaided eyes. This image was made by assigning red, green, and blue colors to monochrome images made through filters that admit only a very specific color. Those filters are designed to pass photons coming from the atoms of sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen. In the image here, yellow is a mixture of hydrogen and sulfur, red is mostly sulfur, and blue and shades of blue is oxygen. The molecular clouds and dust in the sky background are mostly a reddish brown.
Because of the unique head and bill markings this is one of the easier female ducks to confidently identify. The nearest lookalikes are the Scaup family... but their females all have all-gray bills that lack additional decorations. The bill markings become more pronounced and defined as the breeding season nears.
IMG_9526; Ring-necked Duck
I took this a couple of years back now. Always liked the rapeseed field with the red lorry yellow thing going on. Next week sees the anniversary of us losing my mum. So this one's for her. x
Because it's a fully functioning window. It shows better than on previous pictures. I've still got much to learn about photography though...
Because of the intermittent rain, we owned this carnival. Imagine a carnival, candy color lights, popcorn smells, at dusk, in January, nice and warm, and void of kids. Does not get any better than this. It was a photographers dream come true. It was sort of like a giant outdoor studio, filled with amazing backgrounds, over-sized lightbulbs on stands, pop music blasting, the occasional natural wind machine, and all I had to do was walk around and look for the best light/background.
Because of mow on the hi speed route (June 26, 2022), The Benelux, Intercity Direct, ICs Gvc-Ehv and Thalys trains were detouring over the classic route today. I got up early to get some shots at Willemsdorp, south of Dordrecht. I saw many trains, including some freights. The weather didn't always cooperate, but at least it stayed dry.
Because of the proximity to Central Park's Children's Zoo many native New Yorkers, as well as tourist, can recall sitting on this bronze dog's back and posing for a parent with a camera.
But there is quite a bit more to the story of this almost one hundred year old statue. The plaque begins with "Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dog" and the dedication is about Balto leading more than 20 sled dogs in a team through Alaska's snow and cold to deliver medicine that was needed to fight a diphtheria epidemic.
In the winter of 1925 the sled dogs made the 674-mile trip from Nenana to Nome, Alaska in just 20 hours. That's almost 34 miles per hour!
Because it is unusual to see one of these in the daylight, I am posting several photos of this Barn Owl at Matsqui Trail, Abbotsford, B.C.
Because when I left home a few hours ago for my bike ride I was in full winter uniform. It was no more than 5C and very windy. Looking at this young guy cooling himself down in the water at the Upper Lake at the Rudan nature reserve you could think it was a Summer day.
Because of the Starlings always showing up in large numbers, a few years ago I decided to move the suet cake feeder away from the other feeders to a more secluded area in the backyard. This way, they can eat in their noisy, chaotic way, away from the others, which seems to suit everyone.
This year has been no different. Since the Starlings arrival, they have taken possession of that suet cake feeder - one or two adults will perch on top of the feeder and peck away, allowing crumbs to fall below for the rest of them to devour like starving maniacs, as seen here.
Because Lemon requested I drew this, multiple times. So here you go.
I'll be uploading drawings between builds so you all know I'm still very much alive. I've been here six years, can't quit now. :P
Gone shooting after a while because of the bad weather. Finally my head was free for a couple of hours. Made this shot in Troldhaugen park, Bergen, Norway.
During lockdown we were told to shop for essential supplies only. Some of my make up ran out over the months, though it hardly mattered because I wasn't wearing much.
Now I'm out again and I declare make up to be essential supplies, so I went shopping.
Because of the mow at Leiden, lots of trains are detouring now. This long ICMm train was seen at Sassenheim.
Because Halloween is not my cup of tea I wasn’t too highly motivated to join this game and therefore suitable ideas failed to appear. Yet it is fun to play with post processing capabilities so I created a reasonably strange (black) ghost on the basis of an aptly caterpillar damaged Solomon’s-Seal leaf I shot in the past. For Halloween is a fun theme I hope that this might go.
Here in the UK at moment we have to remind ourselves that it is spring because it doesn't feel like it with this easterly wind blowing.
I've just woken up the the fact that it is much better to keep the good old wild primroses rather than the brighter cultivated primulas, especially as the latter never seem to seed themselves, probably sterile on purpose to make you keep spending money, whereas primroses do and this year I have quite a few new ones popping up. Besides I much prefer the paler yellow colour.
116 in 2016 # 100 A Yellow Flower
Because of the adverse publicity about plastic waste and how it's killing off our wildlife, I've renamed this shot "The Killer".
Carnaval de rua, 1971
Kodak Tri-X (at 650), D-76, Nikon F, 28mm, print scan (Genius HR7X), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
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Uploaded on August 21, 2005
Because I missed Sundays, I am adding 2 of the photos I took today to my 365 set :) Thats the great thing about doing this my own way - its fine to do that!
Created with www.dumpr.net - photo fun
As time goes on will I ever be ok again? I will never get over you, because no one has ever touched my heart like you....so when people keep telling me..give it time...I just want to scream...time won't erase my love for you.
You called me soulmate and promised me forever.....I just wanted it to be true...every day I woke up....and I chose you...I just wanted you to do the same...