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It never fails to boggle my tiny mind the effect those evil marketeers have on the mindset of the general public. That people are hoodwinked into gorging on the latest way to dress up lard and sugar is something I find quite disturbing. A slick advert here, a suggestion that it's normal to eat chocolate everyday and a complete disparity between the lifestyle of the real consumer and the model on the telly just makes it all the more shocking to me.
This is the first time chocolate has passed my lips in years.
I know you'd love to:
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Whenever you want a load, credit card, or some other sort of financial help you’re seeking consumer finance. You will go to your bank or another institution and ask them to help you get the financing you need. Car loans, mortgages, and credit cards are examples of consumer financing.
Be COOL! Country Of Origin Labels are a good way for an informed consumer to know where their stuff comes from and make reasonable choices about what is wholesome to eat or drink or avoid putting into their body. Knowing the origin of a product helps determine the authenticity of the product, and if you’re really on top of things, you might be aware of whether or not their growing is sustainable, their processing is healthy, and whether their regime is one you want to support or boycott.
In this photo, I chose wine from California, olives from Spain, and beer from Germany. Most German beers like this Warsteiner are named after their town of origin. All of their brews are subject to very old and strict laws insuring that only the best, traditional ingredients go into them. My olive oil is bottled in Italy and blended from olive oil originating from Italy, Spain, and Greece. Also on the back row is a Navel Orange from California probably grown from water that started out in the Colorado Rockies.
Moving a bit forward we come to some ham from the regional chain HEB. It is Made in USA, but I’ll have to look further into where their store brand ham and turkey comes from. I avoid all pork products from the Smithfield syndicate of factory farms, and that includes a whole shitload of common pork brands they acquired. If you eat pork, look them up or just buy local from a trusted source. Likewise, I now avoid all chicken from Tyson or Pilgrim’s Pride because they along with Smithfield, conduct massive Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations that are cruel to the animals, dangerous to their low-paid workers, extremely harmful to the environment, and potentially dangerous to the consumer. My shit list continues to grow. My chicken and bison comes from regional, free-range operations that avoid GMO feed, animal growth hormones, and antibiotics given to healthy animals. I also know that HEB gets their salmon from wild fisheries or sustainable fish farms.
My fingers are touching red grapefruit from Texas which happens to be the world’s best and will remain so IF the Rio Grande keeps flowing from Colorado, through New Mexico, and between Mexico and Texas. The cherry tomatoes are from Mexico. Most of my tomatoes come from Texas or Mexico. The sardines come from Canada. In recent years many sardines and most smoked baby oysters come from China, a country with HORRIBLE food purity laws. Avoid chlorine-processed chicken from China at all cost! There are attempts within the industrial and junk food industry to abolish mandatory COOL laws, and this would open the door to Chinese chlorine chicken or dog meat entering the US. If TPP gets final approval, the privatization measures could require that US municipal animal shelters be sold to Chinese meat producers.
Sausage is a family of meat products that can be produced clean or nasty. Smithfield owns many traditional brands that have become industrial operations whose products should be avoided. The sausage shown here is from Holmes Smokehouse, a local meat producer that I am familiar with. Their catering department used to supply lunch to my National Guard tank company, a few miles away in Rosenberg. I have seen their facilities and watched their company grow and product line expand.
The Jarlsberg cheese is a Swiss Emmentaler style of cheese made in Norway and is the most popular brand of foreign cheese sold in the US. I prefer the real Emmentaler, but it sells for about 50% more per pound. Depending what is available and what the going price is, I buy cheese from the United States, Ireland, England, Wales, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Australia. Kiwifruit originated in China but gained its popularity after being grown and exported from New Zealand. Most of the time, it is too expensive for me to buy, but recently I’ve gotten some from Chile at a decent price.
Sometimes it does take a magnifying glass to read the COOL labels, but it is important to know where your food comes from. You really are what you eat. It is also important for me to know where my makeup comes from. Most of my cosmetics come from the US, but a little bit comes from France, Germany, and the UK but never China. Heavy metal contamination of pigments, dyes, and paints is their special hazard. No “bargain brand” eye shadow from China for me. That stuff showed up recently.
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Millennial Wine Consumers in The United States
As millennials come of age and begin exploring wine as a passion and a pastime, they are causing a tectonic shift in the wine business. The fundamentals of the business have been tacitly accepted by wine drinkers for decades — the same...
I think I took this photo sometime in the late 90's. As you can tell I snapped it after the supermarket closed.
Osage Beach, Missouri
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Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The $2800+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
I went shopping for my brothers football boots he needed for school. I took a photo of the miles and miles of different sports shoes displayed at ludicrous prices and went with an idea I had. That idea was me, stood with £500 cash in my hands, trying to spread a message about consumerism and our desire for materialistic things. I'm not going to get all deep here, because that'd be hypocritical.
In the words of Madonna;
We're living in a material world and I am a material girl.
In all honesty, I made this image to challenge myself. I rarely do edits like these, and I've never been taught how to. With each new photo I edit, I'm learning new things.
www.intersectionconsulting.comEvery small business, product, service or brand goes through the process of building and maintaining trust with customers, a target audience or wider stakeholder group.
Essentially, an organization’s behavior in a number of different areas acts as a “trust filter” - positive actions let trust flow through while negative actions block trust.
HANDS OFF THE CFPB RALLY at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at 1700 G Street, NW, Washington DC on Monday evening, 10 February 2025 by Elvert Barnes Protest Photography
CFPB HAS RETURNED OVER $21 BILLION
NO ONE ELECTED ELON MUSK!!
Follow STOP ELON'S BILLIONAIRE GRIFT HANDS OFF THE CFPB at www.instagram.com/p/DF361lro1Nr/
Elvert Barnes Protests Photography 2025 at elvertxbarnes.com/protests
Elvert Barnes February 2025 at exbphoto.com/2025
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine and Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean visited Watkins ES in Washington, D.C. on Friday, March 17 in recognition of National Nutrition Month. They participated alongside 5th grade students in a “hands-on” FoodPrints lesson by the non-profit FRESHFARM and learned about harvesting and cooking nutritious collard greens and about the nutritional value of whole grains. The two also engaged in a conversation on nutrition and health with stakeholders including Watkins ES students and parents, District of Columbia governmental officials, public school leadership, and anti-hunger and nutrition advocates from the private and nongovernmental sectors. (USDA photo by Christophe Paul)