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Committed to Ilford Delta 400 using a Hasselblad 503 CX and 60 mm lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to expired Fujifilm Superia 100 using a Leica M6 and 28 mm Summicron ASPH lens. Developed using a C-41 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion, colour and levels done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to Lomography Fantome using a Leica M6 and 35 mm Summicron v3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:50 as per the suggested times and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro. Dust removal and further contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
I have committed to making 24 projects this year, and the first will be a new pole to help put out campfires when I am camping.
The first one I made off an idea and design I came up with while walking- it was a rare gem of an idea that worked perfectly. I have tweaked a couple things with this design and hope it will be perfection.
Theme: Crafty Creations
Year Fifteen Of My 365 Project
the wine was excellent - very refreshing - while I couldn't put down his first book, The Sympathizer, this one is dragging.... not sure if I'm committed to finishing.
Committed to Ferrania P30 using a Leica M6 and 50 mm Summicron V3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Having shut himself off from access to Heaven and having several times repeated—within ever narrower limits—his initial fall, man has ended by losing his intuition of everything that transcends himself, and he has thereby sunk below his own nature, for one cannot be fully man except through God, and the earth is beautiful only through its link with Heaven. Even when a man still believes, he forgets more and more what religion really demands: he is astonished at the calamities of this world, without its occurring to him that they may be acts of grace since—like death—they rend the veil of earthly illusion and thus allow man “to die before dying”, hence to conquer death.
Many people imagine that purgatory or hell are for those who
have killed, stolen, lied, committed fornication, and so on and that it suffices to have abstained from these actions to merit Heaven; in reality the soul is consigned to the flames for not having loved God or for not having loved Him enough; this can be understood if we recall the supreme Law of the Bible: to love God with all our faculties and all our being. The absence of this love does not necessarily involve murder or lying or some other transgression, but it does necessarily involve indifference; and indifference, which is the most generally widespread of faults, is the very hallmark of the fall.
It is possible for the indifferent not to be criminals, but it is
impossible for them to be saints; it is they who go in by the “wide gate” and follow the “broad way”, and it is of them that Revelation says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth” (3:16).
Indifference toward truth and toward God borders on pride and is not free from hypocrisy; its seeming harmlessness is full of complacency and arrogance; in this state of soul the individual is content with himself even if he accuses himself of minor faults and appears modest, which in fact commits him to nothing but on the contrary reinforces his illusion of being virtuous. It is this criterion of indifference that makes it possible for the “average man” to be so to speak “caught in the act”, for the most surreptitious and insidious of vices to be as it were taken by the throat, and for every man to have his poverty and distress proven to him; in short it is indifference that is “original sin” or its most general manifestation.
Indifference is diametrically opposed to spiritual impassibility
or contempt of vanities as well as to humility. True humility is to know that we can add nothing to God and that, even if we possessed all possible perfections and had accomplished
the most extraordinary works, our disappearance would take nothing away from the Eternal.
Even believers themselves are for the most part too indifferent to feel concretely that God is not only “above” us “in Heaven”, but also “ahead” of us, at the end of the world or even simply at the end of our life; that we are drawn through life by an inexorable force and that at the end of the course God awaits us; that the world will be submerged and swallowed up one day by an unimaginable irruption of the purely miraculous—unimaginable because surpassing all human experiences and standards of measurement. Man cannot possibly draw on his experience to bear witness to anything of the kind any more than a mayfly can expatiate on the alternation of the seasons; for a creature that is born at midnight and whose life will last but a day, the rising of the sun can in no way enter into the series of its habitual sensations; the sudden appearance of the solar disk, unforeseeable by reference to any analogous phenomenon that had occurred during the long hours of darkness, would seem like an unheard of and apocalyptic prodigy. Now it is thus that God will come. There will be nothing but this one advent, this one presence, and by it the world of experiences will be shattered.
---
Frithjof Schuon: Light on The Ancient Worlds
In a nation criminalising dissent, these two protesters committed their "crime" in broad daylight: they held a sign. Their simple placards directly challenge a government that prosecutes peaceful protesters under terror laws while remaining complicit in an assault that has systematically killed over 63,000 Palestinians. They acted in defiance of a state that ignores the deliberate weaponisation of starvation which created a confirmed famine in Gaza.
Their stance isn't radical; it reflects a powerful academic and human rights consensus. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, and even Israeli human rights groups have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide. The deep, weary but determined resolve on their faces is a silent testament to a profound moral clarity, a refusal to be silenced in the face of the gravest of all war crimes - genocide.
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Protest and the Price of Dissent: Palestine Action and the Criminalisation of Conscience
Parliament Square on Saturday, 6 September 2025 was a scene of quiet, almost solemn defiance. The air, usually thick with the noise of London traffic and crowds of tourists, was instead filled with a palpable tension, a shared gravity that emanated from the quiet determination of hundreds of protesters, many of them over 60 years old, some sitting on steps or stools and others lying on the grass.
They held not professionally printed banners, but handwritten cardboard signs, their messages stark against the historic grandeur of their surroundings. This was not a march of chants and slogans, but a silent vigil of civil disobedience, a deliberate and calculated act of defiance against the state.
On that day, my task was to photograph the protest against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. While not always agreeing entirely with the group’s methods, I could not help but be struck by the profound dedication etched on the faces of the individual protesters.
As they sat in silence, contemplating both the horrific gravity of the situation in Gaza and the enormity of the personal risk they were taking — courting arrest under terror laws for holding a simple placard — their expressions took on a quality not dissimilar to what war photographers once called the “thousand-yard stare.” It was a look of weary but deep and determined resolve, a silent testament to their readiness to face life-changing prosecution in the name of a principle.
This scene poses a profound and unsettling question for modern Britain. How did the United Kingdom, a nation that prides itself on its democratic traditions and the right to protest, arrive at a point where hundreds of its citizens — clergy, doctors, veterans, and the elderly — could be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for an act of silent, peaceful protest?
The events of that September afternoon were the culmination of a complex and contentious series of developments, but their significance extends far beyond a single organisation or demonstration. The proscription of Palestine Action has become a critical juncture in the nation’s relationship with dissent, a test of the elasticity of free expression, and a stark examination of its obligations under international law in the face of Israel deliberately engineering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
To understand what is at stake, one must unravel the threads that led to that moment: the identity of the movement, the state’s legal machinery of proscription, the confrontation in Parliament Square, and the political context that compelled so many to risk their liberty.
Direct Action and the State’s Response
Palestine Action, established in 2020, has never hidden its approach. Unlike traditional lobbying groups, it rejected appeals to political elites in favour of disrupting the physical infrastructure of complicity: factories producing parts for Israeli weapons systems, offices of arms manufacturers, and — eventually — military installations themselves.
Its tactics, while non-violent, were disruptive and confrontational. Red paint sprayed across buildings to symbolise blood, occupations that halted production, chains and locks on factory gates. For supporters, these were acts of conscience against a system enabling atrocities in Gaza. For the state, they were criminal disruptions of commerce.
That clash escalated steadily. In Oldham, a persistent campaign against Elbit Systems, a key manufacturer in the Israeli arms supply chain, culminated in the company abandoning its Ferranti site. Later actions targeted suppliers for F-35 fighter jets and other arms manufacturers.
These were no random acts of mindless vandalism but part of a deliberate strategy: to impose costs high enough that complicity in Israel’s war effort would become unsustainable.
The decisive rupture came in June 2025, when activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest airbase, and sprayed red paint into the engines of refuelling aircraft linked to operations over Gaza.
For the activists, it was a desperate attempt to interrupt a supply chain of surveillance and logistical support to a state commiting genocide. For the government, it crossed a line: military assets had been attacked. Within days, the Home Secretary announced Palestine Action would be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Proscription and the Expansion of “Terrorism”
Here lies the heart of the controversy. The Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism with unusual breadth, encompassing not only threats to life but also “serious damage to property” carried out for political or ideological aims. In this capacious definition, breaking a factory window or disabling a machine can be legally assimilated to mass murder.
By invoking this law, the government placed Palestine Action on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda or ISIS. Supporting it — even symbolically — became a serious offence.
Since July 2025, merely expressing support for the organization can carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
This is based on Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The specific offense is "recklessly expressing support for a proscribed organisation". However, according to Section 13 of the Act, a lower-level offence for actions like displaying hand held placards in support of a proscribed group carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or a fine of five thousand pounds or both.
Civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have denounced the proscription move as disproportionate. Their concern was not primarily whether Palestine Action’s tactics might violate existing criminal law. One might reasonably argue that they did unless they might sometimes be justified in the name of preventing a greater crime.
But reframing those actions as “terrorism” represented a dangerous category error. As many pointed out, terrorism has historically referred to violence against civilians. Expanding it to cover property damage risks draining the term of meaning. Worse, it arms the state with a stigma so powerful that it can delegitimise entire political positions without debate.
The implications go further. Proscription does not simply criminalise acts. It criminalises expressions of allegiance, conscience and even speech. To say “I support Palestine Action” is no longer an opinion but technically a serious crime. The state has moved from punishing deeds to punishing expressions of solidarity — a move with chilling consequences for democratic life.
Parliament Square: Civil Disobedience on Trial
It was this transformation that brought nearly 1,500 people into Parliament Square on 6 September. They knew what awaited them. Organisers announced in advance that protesters would hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” In doing so, they openly declared their intent to break the law.
The crowd was strikingly diverse. Retired doctors, clergy, war veterans, even an 83-year-old Anglican priest. Disabled activists came in wheelchairs; descendants of Holocaust survivors stood beside young students. This was not a hardened cadre of militants but a cross-section of society, many of whom had never before faced arrest.
At precisely 1 pm, the protesters all sat or lay down silently, cardboard signs raised. There was no chanting, no aggression — only a quiet insistence that they would not accept the criminalisation of conscience.
The police response was equally predictable. Hundreds of officers moved systematically through the crowd, arresting anyone displaying a sign. By the end of the day, nearly 900 people were detained under counter-terrorism law. It was one of the largest mass arrests in modern British history.
Official statements later alleged police were met with violence — officers punched, spat on, objects thrown. Yet independent observers, including Amnesty International, contradicted this. They reported a peaceful assembly disrupted by aggressive policing: batons drawn, protesters shoved, some bloodied.
www.amnesty.org/zh-hans/documents/eur45/0273/2025/en/
Video footage supported at least some of Amnesty's report.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQGFrqCf5U&t=1283s
The two narratives were irreconcilable, but only one carried the weight and authority of the state.
The entire event unfolded as political theatre. The government proscribed a group, thereby creating a new crime. Protesters, convinced the law was unjust, announced their intent to commit that crime peacefully. The police, forewarned, staged a vast operation. Each side acted out its script. The spectacle allowed the state to present itself as defending order against extremism — while in reality silencing dissent.
The Humanitarian Context: Why Protesters Risked All
To see the Parliament Square protest as a parochial dispute over free speech is to miss its driving force. The demonstrators were not there merely to defend abstract principles. They were responding to what they, and a growing body of international experts, describe as a genocide in Gaza.
By September 2025, Gaza had descended into almost total collapse. Over 63,000 Palestinians had been killed, the majority of them women and children. More than 150,000 had been injured, many maimed for life. Entire neighbourhoods had been flattened. Famine was confirmed in August, with Israel continuing to impose and even tighten deliberate restrictions on food, water, and fuel, a strategy condemned by human rights groups as a major war crime. Hospitals lay in ruins. Ninety percent of the population had been displaced.
It is in this context that the term genocide has been applied. Legal scholars point not only to mass killings but also to the deliberate infliction of life-destroying conditions, accompanied by rhetoric from Israeli officials dehumanising Palestinians as “human animals.” In September 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions met the legal definition of genocide.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o
Major NGOs, UN experts, and even Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem echoed that conclusion.
For the protesters, then, the question was not abstract but immediate: faced with what they saw as a genocide, could they in good conscience remain silent while their own government criminalised resistance to it? Their answer was to risk arrest, their placards making the moral connection explicit: opposing genocide meant supporting those who sought to stop it.
The Price of Dissent
The mass arrests in Parliament Square were not an isolated incident of law enforcement. They were the product of a broader trajectory: escalating tactics by a direct-action movement, a humanitarian catastrophe abroad, and a government determined to suppress dissent at home through the bluntest of instruments.
The official line insists that Palestine Action’s campaign constituted terrorism and thus warranted proscription. On this view, the arrests were simple enforcement of the law. Yet this account obscures the deeper reality: a precedent in which the state redefined non-lethal protest as terrorism, shifting from punishing actions to criminalising expressions of solidarity.
The cost is profound. Once speech and conscience themselves become suspect, dissent is no longer tolerated but pathologised. The chilling effect is already evident: individuals weigh not just whether to join a protest, but whether uttering support might expose them to years in prison. Terror laws, originally justified as a shield against mass violence, are recast as tools of political management.
The protesters understood this. That “thousand-yard stare” captured in their faces was not only the weight of potential arrest, but the knowledge of Gaza’s devastation, the famine and rubble, the deaths mounting daily. It was also the recognition that their own government had chosen to silence them rather than address its complicity.
In a functioning democracy, the question is not why citizens risk arrest for holding a handwritten cardboard sign. It is why a state finds it necessary to treat that act as a terror offence. The answer reveals a narrowing of democratic space, where conscience itself is deemed subversive. And that narrowing, history teaches, carries consequences not just for those arrested, but for the society that allows it.
Family Church is on mission to make disciples of Jesus in the places where we live, work and play. We are continuing a legacy of people committed to taking the gospel—the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead—to the ends of the earth.
We were founded as the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach in 1901 when there were fewer than 1,000 people living in the city. A small group met first in a home, then in the city’s reading room and then in a donated building on Clematis Street. As the church grew, we changed location and acquired buildings and property to accommodate the growth. Our current downtown worship center was built in the year 1965. Over the years, buildings have come and gone but our church has reinvented herself to continue spreading the gospel in South Florida.
This mission is more important now than ever before. There are an estimated 1.4 million people in Palm Beach County and 96% of them remain unconnected to God and His church. When Pastor Jimmy Scroggins came as our Lead Pastor in 2008, he brought to us a vision to plant 100 neighborhood churches. We want to more effectively go out to reach people rather than expecting them to come to us.
We are growing as a multicultural, multigenerational and multisite church. The name “Family Church” incorporates this vision and has allowed us to plant campuses across Palm Beach County and beyond. Our church planting residency program trains bi-vocational campus pastors as well as other pastors and ministry leaders in areas such as worship, assimilation, adults, students, kids and operations. These men and women are planting churches all over South Florida—turning a vision into a reality.
Each Family Church campus has been launched by a group of courageous individuals who are willing to go and make disciples. God raised up our first church plant, Family Church Abacoa in October 2010, out of a partnership between Family Church Downtown and Central Baptist Church. Our first Spanish-speaking campus, Iglesia Familiar Downtown, was launched in January 2011 and expanded in April 2014 when we partnered with Centro Familiar Cristiano to form Iglesia Familiar Greenacres. We are intentionally reaching out to the fastest-growing demographic in our area — those whose heart language is Spanish.
Family Church West was launched in October 2013 to reach our western communities, and Family Church Sherbrooke joined them to the south in October 2014. Then in March 2015, believing they would be better together, Family Church Abacoa partnered with Palm Beach Community Church to become Family Church Gardens. Continuing to pursue the vision of planting 100 neighborhood churches, Family Church Gardens launched the first Family Church “grandbaby,” Family Church Jupiter, in October 2015. We all partnered with the Church in The Farms and Harvest Bible Chapel in October 2016 to launch Family Church in The Farms.
God is still writing our story. There is no master plan other than His. We constantly challenge each other to be His ambassadors, joining God in the work He is doing to reconcile broken people to Himself. At each campus, we are committed to teach the Bible, build families and love our neighbors. We are on mission to be the church OUT THERE, helping people discover and pursue God’s design.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
This morning was the wettest, windiest and foggiest day you could imagine, saturated, but happy to see the Mighty steam locomotive 6029 pass. Assisted by C502 and S311.
First of all (1 & 2) down and through the Goondah Sweeper then (3) entering Binalong.
It is on its way to do shuttles at Dubbo over the weekend. - www.canberrarailwaymuseum.org/dubboshuttles
New South Wales, Australia
- if it wasn't snow, it was only a minor technicality in the difference!!!
Committed to Fomapan 200 using a Leica M6 and 35 mm Summicron v3. Developed in Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:50 for 9 minutes and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro. Dust removal and further contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
Committed to Lomography Babylon using a Leica M3 and 50 mm Summicron dual-range lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:99 in a semi-stand process for 80 minutes and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to Film Ferrania P30 using a Leica M6 and 50 mm Summicron V3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Family Church is on mission to make disciples of Jesus in the places where we live, work and play. We are continuing a legacy of people committed to taking the gospel—the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead—to the ends of the earth.
We were founded as the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach in 1901 when there were fewer than 1,000 people living in the city. A small group met first in a home, then in the city’s reading room and then in a donated building on Clematis Street. As the church grew, we changed location and acquired buildings and property to accommodate the growth. Our current downtown worship center was built in the year 1965. Over the years, buildings have come and gone but our church has reinvented herself to continue spreading the gospel in South Florida.
This mission is more important now than ever before. There are an estimated 1.4 million people in Palm Beach County and 96% of them remain unconnected to God and His church. When Pastor Jimmy Scroggins came as our Lead Pastor in 2008, he brought to us a vision to plant 100 neighborhood churches. We want to more effectively go out to reach people rather than expecting them to come to us.
We are growing as a multicultural, multigenerational and multisite church. The name “Family Church” incorporates this vision and has allowed us to plant campuses across Palm Beach County and beyond. Our church planting residency program trains bi-vocational campus pastors as well as other pastors and ministry leaders in areas such as worship, assimilation, adults, students, kids and operations. These men and women are planting churches all over South Florida—turning a vision into a reality.
Each Family Church campus has been launched by a group of courageous individuals who are willing to go and make disciples. God raised up our first church plant, Family Church Abacoa in October 2010, out of a partnership between Family Church Downtown and Central Baptist Church. Our first Spanish-speaking campus, Iglesia Familiar Downtown, was launched in January 2011 and expanded in April 2014 when we partnered with Centro Familiar Cristiano to form Iglesia Familiar Greenacres. We are intentionally reaching out to the fastest-growing demographic in our area — those whose heart language is Spanish.
Family Church West was launched in October 2013 to reach our western communities, and Family Church Sherbrooke joined them to the south in October 2014. Then in March 2015, believing they would be better together, Family Church Abacoa partnered with Palm Beach Community Church to become Family Church Gardens. Continuing to pursue the vision of planting 100 neighborhood churches, Family Church Gardens launched the first Family Church “grandbaby,” Family Church Jupiter, in October 2015. We all partnered with the Church in The Farms and Harvest Bible Chapel in October 2016 to launch Family Church in The Farms.
God is still writing our story. There is no master plan other than His. We constantly challenge each other to be His ambassadors, joining God in the work He is doing to reconcile broken people to Himself. At each campus, we are committed to teach the Bible, build families and love our neighbors. We are on mission to be the church OUT THERE, helping people discover and pursue God’s design.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
At this point, the bird in the image is committed to landing on the large branch in the forground. It had flown in from a launch point 100m or so off to my left front, during a photoshoot day at The Hawk Conservancy just outside Andover. You can see another member of the day's group already checking his shots in the upper left of the picture. I will admit it was a mistake on my part to have him in the image, but it gives great context and some sense of size.
The White-headed Vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) is the least well-known vulture species in Africa. There has been no comprehensive study done of this species and, compared with other vultures, relatively little is known about its basic biology. Key features such as feeding ecology and factors affecting breeding performance remain poorly understood.
In 2007, the category of risk assigned to it by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) increased to ‘Vulnerable.’ This assessment incorporates recently reported severe declines in West Africa. These have exceeded 60% in protected areas, whilst the species has completely disappeared from rural areas.
In southern Africa the population was estimated to number 500 pairs in 1997 and has been revised more recently to 430 pairs in 2004. Zimbabwe holds a significant proportion of the regional breeding population, whilst in South Africa, the Kruger National Park and neighbouring conservation areas contain the largest population of White-Headed Vultures in South Africa. In southern Africa, the species is largely confined to conservation areas. - Hawkconservancy.org
It has a pink beak and a white crest, and the featherless areas on its head are pale. Its has dark brown upper parts and black tail feathers. The feathers on its lower parts and legs are white. It has a wingspan of 2m and spends a lot of time soaring looking for food. It roosts in tall trees near to water at night. - Wikipedia.
The Hawk Conservancy is helping to better understand these birds. Field sites are in South Africa (Kruger National Park) and Mozambique. Research efforts are focused on: habitat requirements; feeding ecology; specific relationships; and biology. Fundraising efforts raise money for supporting fieldworkers and research costs.
A green heron goes all in after some prey while fishing on Horsepen Bayou. I am always amazed that they will make this type of commitment.
Today I’ve committed a serious crime,
By kidnapping a moment in time.
The present is put on permanent hold,
As all within my view is denied a right to become old.
Once imprisoned in a 16:9 frame,
They shine as my Trophies of Game.
In return I hand the gift of existence for eternity,
By uploading and releasing them again digitally.
Poem: Jan Elemans
2011
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Canterbury Cathedral
England
Name: Lawrence Armstrong alias Hanby
Arrested for: not given
Arrested at: North Shields Police Station
Arrested on: 30 September 1915
Tyne and Wear Archives ref: DX1388-1-262-Lawrence Armstrong AKA Hanby
The Shields Daily News for 8 October 1915 reports:
“A SOLDIER COMMITTED FOR THEFT.
Today at North Shields, Laurence Armstrong (21) of the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers was charged with having stolen on Sept. 20th a box of cigarettes valued at 5s from the shop of Henry Nicholson, tobacconist, Saville Street. An assistant of the prosecutor’s said she was serving a customer on the above date, when accused entered the shop, picked up a box of cigarettes and went away.
Defendant was further charged with having stolen a dress ring, valued at £1, the property of Valone Harrison, conductress of a tramcar on Sept. 14th. The prosecutrix said the accused boarded a car on which she was following her employment. He asked to look at her ring. She took it off her finger and showed it to him. Witness then went to collect some fares and while she was thus engaged the accused got off the car.
Detective Mason said that when accused was arrested on the previous charge a pawn ticket relating to the ring was found in his possession. Accused pleaded guilty and said he was very sorry. He had been seven months at the front and had been gassed. He was committed to prison for 14 days on each charge”.
These images are taken from an album of photographs of prisoners brought before the North Shields Police Court between 1902 and 1916 (TWAM ref. DX1388/1). This set is our selection of the best mugshots taken during the First World War. They have been chosen because of the sharpness and general quality of the images. The album doesn’t record the details of each prisoner’s crimes, just their names and dates of arrest.
In order to discover the stories behind the mugshots, staff from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums visited North Shields Local Studies Library where they carefully searched through microfilm copies of the ‘Shields Daily News’ looking for newspaper reports of the court cases. The newspaper reports have been transcribed and added below each mugshot.
Combining these two separate records gives us a fascinating insight into life on the Home Front during the First World War. These images document the lives of people of different ages and backgrounds, both civilians and soldiers. Our purpose here is not to judge them but simply to reflect the realities of their time.
(Copyright) We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk.
Committed to Lomography Fantome using a Leica M6 and 35 mm Summicron v3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:50 as per the suggested times and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro. Dust removal and further contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
Someone committed arson and burned this lovely church down on May 20, 2017, just a handful of months after this photo was taken. I was looking forward to photographing it again. There is a long and complicated history of mistreatment of indigenous peoples in Canada, and the arson was possibly linked to that history. There is talk of rebuilding, but that is challenging due to changes in materials and workmanship over the years, and also that aforementioned history.
[Once again I’m writing this for the committed photographer.]
Review: David Ulrich, “Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography” (Watson-Guptill, 2018) 217 pages. creativeguide.com/zen-camera/
I do hope that Jim Williams from Canada www.flickr.com/photos/55920888@N08/ doesn’t mind my quoting a recent message from him:
“The way I shoot is very deliberate - almost a Zen exercise.”
I responded that this is exactly the way I like to work too and that indeed photography is my therapy. So I said that I would write a brief review of a book I still find a source of much inspiration.
“Zen Camera employs the camera for its most noble purpose: to learn to see what is.” (p.3)
David Ulrich teaches photography at the Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu, Hawai’i. This book is both an inspiration and a practical workbook. Ulrich believes that discipline is required in mastering the craft of photography. The principal discipline in this workbook is to photograph every day. Real progress is only possible he believes by taking 100 to 200 photographs a week following this advice:
“Give yourself the space and luxury of the pure enjoyment of taking pictures for their own sake. Refinement and completion come in their own time. Do not edit. Do not judge. Merely watch with interest what images arise.” (p.17)
Ulrich provides the reader with plenty of his own examples, but the work of many other historic and contemporary photographers is featured as well. He is a Zen Buddhist practitioner by conviction, but everyone can learn from his method. Ulrich has a lovely shot of the Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard taken in Hong Kong. Ricard (a former leading French scientist and son of the famous French philosopher Jean-François Revel) also practices photography as a meditative discipline. www.matthieuricard.org/en/photographies
LESSON ONE: OBSERVATION
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange (1895-1965).
I love that quote. Lange of course gave us some of the most powerful images of The Great Depression. She learned to see things that most other people couldn’t, and that is the essence of great photography. So we must begin by looking.
LESSON TWO: AWARENESS
Mindfulness and heightened awareness of the world around us are the two key elements of this lesson. Training our minds to be like a camera sensor soaking in the light (both real and metaphorical). Once again Ulrich quotes one of my favourite photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004):
“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds – the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate.” - From “The Decisive Moment” – one of the most important books ever published on photography.
LESSON THREE: IDENTITY
“Know thyself.” – Socrates.
Here Ulrich deals with two important elements: Personal style and Authenticity. In order to communicate effectively we must find our own voice. But, it’s one voice within a community of voices (so history and context matters).
LESSON FOUR: PRACTICE
This is the central chapter of the book. All forms of success in art flow from its practice. Ulrich cites Malcolm Gladwell’s research that it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to gain mastery in a field. Nothing comes easily and one must pay their dues. This is not a popular message in a world of instant gratification. But then, that’s why our photographs are so quickly forgotten.
LESSON FIVE: MASTERY
“Freedom flourishes in a climate of discipline.” – David Ulrich.
It may seem counterintuitive, but true freedom always works within boundaries. The true “master of a discipline” can only push the boundaries once the fundamentals have been established. Two of my examples here: (1) Before ever Picasso became the master of Cubism, he had already mastered classical portraiture, and (2) Jazz musicians can only ever succeed in improvisation when they understand the rudiments of musical form.
LESSON SIX: PRESENCE
This is by far the most challenging chapter philosophically. I won’t go into detail here, but a few summary thoughts. Ulrich contrasts “spectacle” with “presence”. What do we mean by photographs with presence? We see plenty of spectacle in social media; in earlier days these sorts of pictures were referred to as “chocolate box”, but today they are probably over-processed spectacular sunsets with more than a little post-production fakery. They are made photographs to attract attention (something essential for social media success).
But “real presence”, that’s something much more difficult to achieve. It is central for instance to the Christian concept of a sacrament. Here the photograph is a representation of something ineffable behind it. You can’t quite define a photograph with presence, but you know when you see it. Try any number of Ansel Adams’ photographs. A mere landscape is somehow transformed into a meditation on the glories of nature with a minimum of darkroom fuss. The scene is spectacular, but only because the photograph reveals the TRUTH about the scene. We are brought face to face with the essence of Nature. The same with a great portrait: It reveals a truth about the character and personality of the sitter, in a way that a selfie doesn’t.
Annie Leibovitz www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQtXoseZMuo
For David Ulrich one of the keys to achieving “presence” in photography is to learn to pay attention. And this takes us back to mindfulness practice. Being awake, alive, attentive, observant, present!
It’s a great book with plenty of practical suggestions for exercises in moving beyond the snapshot to mastering the discipline of photography.
* Cover photos taken with the Leica D-Lux 7.
Committed to Rollei RPX 25 using a Mamiya 645 1000S and 80 mm f1.9 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
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A deeply religious people committed to their Creed, the Mandalorian Forgemasters serve as priests to their people. Armor and weapons are part of the Mandalorian religion, none more sacred than Beskar. It is the hands of the Forgemasters that shape their most sacred steel.
The Forgemasters tend living as the Morticians tend to the dead, presiding over the day to day lives of their highly communal tribes and distributing supplies among members of the covert under the guidance of their principles of justice, merit, and equity.
The Mandalorians of Taris is now without their Forgemaster, slain in an honor duel with a claimant of the title of Mand'alor. Beloved and respected among the vode of the covert, his death sparks strong emotions among the Faithful that remain.
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European court of human rights: Moscow responsible for murder of civilians, and looting and burning of homes
Russia committed a series of human rights violations during its war with Georgia in 2008, the European court of human rights ruled on Thursday, saying Moscow was responsible for the murder of Georgian civilians, and the looting and burning of their homes.
In a landmark judgment, the court said the Kremlin was guilty of unlawfully rounding up ethnic Georgians and their subsequent “inhuman and degrading treatment”. This included the torture of Georgian prisoners of war and the expulsion of Georgian villagers from their homes in South Ossetia.
The ruling comes 13 years after a bitter five-day August conflict between Russian forces and Georgian troops. The then Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili launched a doomed attempt to wrest back control of the Russian-backed breakaway territory of South Ossetia.
Russia responded with a full-scale invasion. It evicted Georgian forces, sent tanks into the country, and bombed civilian and military targets. In evidence presented to the Strasbourg court in 2018, Tbilisi accused Moscow of presiding over a “rampage” through Georgian villages inside South Ossetia and in a nearby buffer zone.
South Ossetian forces and local militia groups were responsible for many violations, including the execution of two Georgian soldiers taken prisoner and the beating to death of another, the court said. But it ruled Russia had effective control of the war zone once an EU-brokered ceasefire came into effect from 12 August 2008.
Amid international recriminations, Russia failed to investigate war crimes and systemic human rights abuses, the judges ruled. It further prevented the return of 20,000 Georgians who had previously lived inside South Ossetia, and whose villages were burned to the ground, they said. Nor did it cooperate with the proceedings, they added.
Georgia’s justice minister, Gocha Lordkipanidze, described the verdict of the court’s grand chamber as a “historic victory”. He said it upheld his country’s claim that Russian-occupied South Ossetia – or the Tskhinvali region, as he put it – was an integral part of Georgia, together with Abkhazia, another breakaway territory.
“The European court confirmed that these violations carried out by Russia amounted to ethnic cleansing of Georgians during the 2008 war,” Lordkipanidze declared.
The lawyer Ben Emmerson QC, who acted for Georgia, said the court’s decision to release its findings a day after Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington was not a coincidence. Biden is set to take a tougher approach to Vladimir Putin than Donald Trump, he suggested.
“After years of delay, the ECHR seems to be finally taking a strong position against Russian human rights violations,” Emmerson said.
The Kremlin is likely to react furiously. It has argued that the court is biased and politicised. It accused Saakashvili of starting the conflict and said its role was that of an honest peacekeeper. The court on Thursday instructed both sides to make submissions about reparations.
Putin’s response could be consequential. In 2015, Moscow said it was on the brink of withdrawing from the European court of human rights, which has found against the Russian state on numerous occasions.
In a separate case last week judges ruled that Russia unlawfully annexed Crimea in 2014 and that the peninsula remains sovereign Ukrainian territory. In an interim finding they said there was prima facie evidence that Moscow had violated the rights of ethnic Ukrainians and Tatars in Crimea, with enforced disappearances and torture.
In its submission, the Georgian government said Russian planes carried out more than 100 attacks on Georgian targets over five days. There was overwhelming proof that Russian bombs were dropped on civilian areas, killing and injuring innocent people, it added. The evidence included witness statements, satellite footage, and video and phone intercepts.
Tbilisi said Russian troops poured into Georgia’s two breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia when the conflict erupted. Approximately 30,000 soldiers were deployed.
Before and after a ceasefire, Russian soldiers entered ethnic Georgian villages, sealing off entrances and exits, it alleged. Ossetian forces and other irregular soldiers then systematically burned down Georgian homes and entire villages, he said, adding that they carried out summary executions and threatened individuals with death if they refused to leave.
Georgia took its claim to Strasbourg the day after the hostilities stopped. In a hearing in 2018, Emmerson told the judges: “It is an open secret that Russia has been lobbying in public and in private for a favourable outcome, mumbling dark threats that it will de-ratify the European convention on human rights and starve the court of funding if the case goes against it.
“There is no middle ground in adjudicating this case. The evidence is all one way.”
More than 30 witnesses gave evidence. Their testimony covered the war’s most gruesome episodes: the alleged ethnic cleansing of 20,000 Georgian villagers living in or adjacent to South Ossetia, who were driven and burned out of their homes, a deadly rocket attack on the town of Gori, and the torture of prisoners.
An Iskander SS-26 rocket exploded in Gori’s central square on 12 August 2008, killing a Dutch journalist, Stan Storimans, and 11 other civilians, the court heard. Cluster marks at the scene and shrapnel recovered from the journalist’s body identified the rocket as Russian.
However, Russian military officials who gave evidence denied an attack had taken place. Instead, they suggested Georgia’s evidence was fake, or that the Georgian army had bombed its own people to falsely implicate Moscow.
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/21/russia-human-rights...
Committed to Lomography Fantome using a Leica M6 and 35 mm Summicron v3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:50 as per the suggested times and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro. Dust removal and further contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
Committed to Kodak Ektar 100 using a Hasselblad 503 CX, with Zeiss 100 mm f3.5 lens and 55 mm extension ring. Developed with a C-41 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and levels done with Negative Lab Pro.
At the We Like'em Short Film Festival at Churchill School in Baker City Oregon
The We Like ‘Em Short Film Festival is committed to celebrating the art of the short film, and providing a platform for independent filmmakers to showcase their talent. This festival seeks original and entertaining animated and comedy shorts from around the world.
The We Like ‘Em Short Film Festival was started in 2009 as a very small local festival featuring local filmmakers. In 2012 the festival decided to seek entries online, which has led them to becoming an international film festival with films now being submitted from around the world. In 2014 festival decided to pare the festival down a bit, seeking only the films that staff and audiences had consistently found to be the most entertaining, creative and engaging: animated and comedy shorts.
In 2014 the We Like'em Short Film Festival was named Oregon's Best Fine Arts Festival by the Oregon Festivals and Events Association.
Churchill school includes a sound studio, a working woodshop, metal fabrication studio gallery space and multiple artist studio spaces and the cafeteria has become a new music venue regularly hosting musical artists from throughout the PNW
For more information about Churchill School including upcoming classes exhibits, and events, visit their website at www.churchillbaker.com/index.html
For more information about the We Like'em Short Film Festival or other Baker County cultural and art events, visit Baker County Tourism's website at www.travelbakercounty.com
The flower comes in several varieties but originally the chrysanthemum was just a small yellow flower. After generations of cultivation, the number of varieties grew rapidly. In the Chrysanthemum Book of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 35 varieties were noted but by the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the number had risen to 136. In Li Shizhen's famous book, "Ben Cao Gang Mu", finished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), more than 900 varieties of chrysanthemum were listed. Today more than 3,000 varieties are blooming in China.
'Autumn flower'
One reason for the flower's popularity among the Chinese people is the favour it found with scholars.
The chrysanthemum, also known as the "Autumn Flower", is one of the four "honourable plants". The others are plum, orchid and bamboo which are symbols of nobility.
In most ancient essays and poems, writers use the terms "jade bone, icy body, pearl petal and red heart" to describe the flower. For on cold autumn days, when all other flowers were fading away, only the chrysanthemum was able to flourish in the cold winds. The combination of beauty with strong character made an ideal personality in the eyes of romantic Chinese scholars.
Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), the famous poet who committed suicide because he was unhappy with the dark reality of life, was among the first to write poetry about the chrysanthemum. He wrote in his poem "Li Sao": "Drink dew from the magnolia in the morning and take autumn chrysanthemum's falling petals as food in the evening."
Another famous poet, Tao Yuanming (365-427), is also recognized as a poet who had a deep affection for the flower. His most famous poem is about the chrysanthemum: "Pick a chrysanthemum near a fence and enjoy the mountain in the south at your leisure."
This poem, entitled "Drinking Wine", was written when he resigned from his high official post and returned to the countryside to live as a farmer.
Even when he was too poor to buy wine - drinking was his hobby - he could pick the petals of chrysanthemums and use them as food. In his poverty-stricken and lonely later life, the chrysanthemum was his only friend and comfort.
Since Tao, many other writers and poets have sung the praises of the chrysanthemum and it became almost a traditional topic for every scholar to write about with the arrival of autumn. In "The Dream of Red Mansions", readers can find more than 10 poems about the flower written by the beautiful ladies of Jia's family.
Tough life
It is easy to compare women with flowers. In Chinese literature, flowers such as the lily, peony or plum have all been connected with notable beauties. But when comparing the chrysanthemum with people, the tone is totally different and much more manly.
Actually, rarely is the chrysanthemum compared with women - it is more often associated with independent, proud, noble, willful and tough men, such as Qu Yuan and Tao Yuanming.
Another famous figure identified with the chrysanthemum is Huang Chao who lived in the 9th century. Huang was the leader of a peasant revolt towards the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He led an army of thousands and occupied Luoyang after several years of fighting.
He wrote two poems about the chrysanthemum, one of which contains the lines: "If I could be the king of the flowers, I would allow the chrysanthemum to bloom with the peach blossom; The fragrance (of the chrysanthemum) would fill Chang'an City, and the city would be clothed in golden armour."
At the peak of his life, in 884, his revolution failed and he committed suicide.
Effective herb
To the common people, chrysanthemums also had uses as a herb. You still find today that Chinese women drink chrysanthemum tea instead of coffee. One variety of chrysanthemum, known as "Hang Bai Ju" (Hangzhou White Chrysanthemum), is said by experts to have healthcare properties.
Ancient people believed that this flower, which was able to endure very cold weather, must have attracted "the soul of the sky and earth" - certainly a health benefit.
A book from the time of the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC) said there used to be a village named Gangu in Central China's Henan Province where people drank from a nearby stream that contained the petals of chrysanthemums. The petals had fallen into the stream up in the mountains and all the villagers lived to a great age, some as long as 130 years.
The well-known doctor, Tao Hongjing, also encouraged people to eat chrysanthemum petals. He said good-quality chrysanthemums tasted a little sweet and the bad ones, bitter. So why not try some chrysanthemums this autumn?
Committed to Ferrania P30 using a Leica M3 and 50 mm Summicron dual-range lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:99 in a semi-stand process for 80 minutes and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to Lomography Fantome using a Leica M6 and 35 mm Summicron v3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago R9 (rodinal) 1:50 as per the suggested times and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro. Dust removal and further contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
Committed to Rollei RPX 25 using a Mamiya 645 1000S and 80 mm f1.9 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
I’ve seen multiple exposure shots like this in the past and have made mental notes that this type shot might make for an interesting stranger portrait. I’ve actually considered this specific shot for at least a year, but have never committed to making it happen. This past Sunday afternoon I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself because I had not taken my camera out of its bag all weekend. Therefore I forced myself to get out of my chair, threw my gear into the car, and headed to the skate park to finally make this image happen.
I was a little surprised when I got there to see that the park was more sparsely populated than I would have expected for a Sunday afternoon. There were a few people just hanging around, and only one person zipping up and down the concrete skating bowl. I viewed this reality as both good and bad. It was unfortunate that I did not have an array of potential strangers from which to choose. That said, the one skater there seemed to be proficient enough, and the fact that the bowl was otherwise empty would certainly allow more flexibility to make the shot happen.
I addressed the lone skater when he eventually rolled near me. The one assumption that I had going into this shoot was that almost any skate boarder would welcome the opportunity of getting an action shot of themselves, and in this case my assumption was spot-on correct. I introduced myself to Gavin and described to him my intentions. Gavin was an entirely affable guy, and he was clearly game for the photo shoot. I think that he was even more enticed when I pulled out my camera with the big lens and tripod, indicating I was serious about getting a high quality shot.
I know nothing about skateboarding, so at this point I had to rely entirely on Gavin to suggest a shot that would both fit the scope of my idea as well be within his skating ability. He suggested that he could perform a 180 degree turn in a specific area along the top edge of the bowl. So with that, I placed my tripod in the area I thought the trick would occur, adjusted all of my camera settings in manual mode, set my focal point to my best estimate, and told Gavin to go for it. He swooped up the side of the bowl, performed a perfect 180, and then once he rolled to a stop he turned to me and said,” That felt pretty good. Did, you get it?” I had successfully captured the images, but unfortunately I was not set up in the correct location. The apex of his turn had occurred about 4 meters down the wall edge from where my tripod was set-up….not the shot I wanted. Therefore I moved my tripod to the point at which the trick had just occurred, and gave Gavin the go ahead to once again roll toward me again. I was in perfect position, but this time Gavin missed the landing. He tried again, and once again stumbled on the back half of the move. We then went through a series of attempts, all with his feet and board failing to come together on the down slope. I had my ultra-wide angle lens attached to the camera, so I was set up only a few inches away from the edge. Therefore I was right in his face as he attempted his moves, and I was almost apologetic for putting this type of pressure on Gavin to perform. Gavin was in good spirits however, and with each run he returned with a smile more determined to stick the next landing. Finally, on the ninth attempt Gavin nailed the landing….thank goodness I successfully captured the feat.
Afterwards, Gavin and I got together to exchange contact info and chat for a while. We both agreed that this had been an enjoyable experience, and of course he was excited to see the final image. For the record, I actually captured sixteen exposures in this sequence, but I chose to limit the number in order to prevent this final image from looking too cluttered. Now that I’ve finally made this shot, I am pleased with the results and in fact I see a lot of possibilities for multiple exposure portraits. I recommend to my fellow stranger photographers (even challenge, if you will) that if you’re looking for a change of pace from the head and shoulders portrait routine, you might find dabbling with a multi-exposure image to be a fun opportunity to test your creativity. I probably won’t do another skate boarding stranger, but don’t be too surprised if you see other multiple exposure shots from me sometime in the future.
Check out the rest of the stranger street portraits in my project at Paco's 100 Strangers Project and find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
Committed to expired Fujifilm Superia 100 using a Leica M6 and 28 mm Summicron ASPH lens. Developed using a C-41 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion, colour and levels done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to Film Ferrania P30 using a Leica M6 and 50 mm Summicron V3 lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
Committed to Ilford HP5+ using a Leica M3 and 50 mm Summilux ASPH lens. Developed using Ars-Imago FD as per the Massive Dev chart and scanned with an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion and contrast done with Negative Lab Pro.
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