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The future retro look of the external red lift at the new Standard Hotel in London, opposite St Pancras station.
2 Thessalonians 2:5-12: Remember ye not, that, while I was yet with you, these very things, I was telling you? And, what now restraineth, ye know, to the end he may be revealed in his own fitting time; For, the secret, of lawlessness, already, is inwardly working itself, - only, until, he that restraineth at present, shall be gone, out of the midst: And, then, shall be revealed the lawless one, - whom, the Lord Jesus, will slay with the Spirit of his mouth, and paralyse with the forthshining of his Presence: - Whose, presence, shall be according to an inworking of Satan, with all manner of mighty work and sign and wonders of falsehood, And with all manner of deceit of unrighteousness, in them who are destroying themselves, because, the love of the truth, they did not welcome, that they might be saved; - And, for this cause, God sendeth them an inworking of error, to the end they should believe in the falsehood, - In order that should be judged who would not believe in the truth, but were well-pleased with the unrighteousness.
Seems appropriate reading for 2017 (a few of these I've read in college, some never).
What books in this genre am I missing (besides George Orwell’s 1984, which was out of stock)?
I blogged about it briefly:
www.b12partners.net/wp/2017/01/28/uneasy-about-the-future...
Shanghai skyline at night with a touch of Blade Runner mood to it and hence the title. I remember watching movies back in the eighties where various visions of the future were presented and the cities often looked dark, glowing and with strange futuristic architecture. In some ways that future is now. Looking at Shanghai city at might, I could not help but feel taken forward in time.
I was down by my carport and I spotted a Pileated Woodpecker fly into the trees in the ravine. No camera with me but here is hoping that a Woodpecker like this one I photographed several years ago takes up residence nearby.
A last-minute flurry of snow in Cumbria on December 25th meant the UK officially enjoyed a white Christmas. The scene in London on Christmas morning was one of rain and icy wind but, even in the absence of snow, the conditions across the West End had a moody and photogenic quality that made it a lot of fun to shoot.
The billboard lights at Piccadilly Circus were recently switched back on after being renovated throughout most of 2017, and with the streets almost empty on the quietest day of the year, it was possible to walk into the middle of the normally frenetic roads and to photograph a vantage point that included the lights reflected in the rain-soaked streets.
This image is a blend of several exposures, taken using a miniature tripod and with the camera a few inches off the ground. Even on Christmas morning, the traffic was steady enough to require returning to safety on the pavement and then going back to the middle of the road to continue shooting, capturing the details that I wanted several minutes apart and then manually aligning the exposures in Photoshop to produce the finished result. It was important to me to capture the Coca-Cola logo among the billboard's rotating brands as this has been a staple of the display since the 1950s, as well as a composition that would feature one car and one person, which I felt would create a sense of depth within the image and complete the scene.
Once the various elements had been blended, I used luminosity masks to protect the highlights in the billboard and to recover detail in the shadows, leaving the midtones intentionally muted as I was aiming to convey the cold early-morning atmosphere. The colour cast had a cold tint straight out of camera, but I used Curves and Colour Balance adjustments to enhance the blues in the shadows, as well as a Colour Lookup set to Soft Light and using the Moonlight preset. After this, the colour-grading process was mostly a case of fine-tuning to achieve the right shade of red in the Coca-Cola logo and the right balance between blue and magenta on the roads.
Setting adjustments inside Nik's Silver Efex Pro to Luminosity, I selectively increased the structure within the reflection and the buildings to give them more definition, while lowering the structure along the road in the foreground, where it seemed like a softer finish would prevent the gritty detail from potentially becoming a distraction. Finally, inside Colour Efex Pro, I used sparing amounts of the Low Key and Glamour Glow filters for a dark and slightly ethereal finish, portraying the tone of a usually bustling part of the city which, except for the occasional person and car, felt as if it had been abandoned.
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Hello friends, I leave you with my latest work on Flickr....its name "Future mom" in which my girlfriend Zaleyna Reyez participates, and who will make me a happy father....
follow me!!
So I’m sitting alone at the kitchen table past any sane person’s bedtime, staring at my son’s canvas wallet. It is much too thick and stuffed for a kid who is unemployed and dependent. I lift it, hold it, weigh it in my hand. I’m surprised to find that it is filled with coinage. Bulky, and heavy with coins. It is also a bit soiled with light dirt, from serving as an inadvertent hand rag for the hands of a teenage boy.
Will was right, this bit of pocket organization will probably go on forever. Never wear out.
A couple weeks ago, Allison presented me with a new wallet. I’m not sure why, except that I actually needed one. But that doesn’t really seem like an adequate reason. I’ve used the same wallet for all the years we’ve been married, which in 16 days will be 22 years. That wallet has held up quite well over the years, but of course 22 are a great many. The edges are worn, torn, and the seams are opening,. When I reach in to pull out a bill, if there are any, I also always pull out a thread as well, and of course this furthers the deterioration process. The once textured leather, alligator-like, is worn smooth and flat and polished to an unnatural sheen.
Upon receiving the new one, I sat at this very table and emptied its contents into sorted little piles and rid myself of the bulk of bits of paper and notes that had long since lost meaning, of receipts for possible returns that showed no signs of ever having contained any written information. Several years of expired car and motorcycle registrations found their way to the trash. I carefully folded and stowed bits that would of course, always be needed – like the yellow legal pad corner that contained, in the blue ink, all-caps, block printing style of my father, the fuel/oil mixture ratio of gasoline and 30-weight detergent motor oil on which the boys’ Maytag engine runs.
When finished, the new wallet made its way to my pocket and the old, no doubt feeling suddenly cold and deserted, lay where it was emptied.
The next day, Will asked me what I would do with the old wallet. “I have no idea,” I told him, “I suppose it will lie around until mom gets frustrated and throws it away.” Will asked if he could have it. I told him of course he could, but asked why he’d want a falling-apart, worn-out billfold. He answered that he thought he’d like a wallet that could be worn out. He didn’t think his wallet could be worn out, and that there was something friendly about a wallet that would grow old and worn.
My heart smiled and wondered at the depth of his contemplations. I wondered if he was feeling vibrations of my years in the emptied, frayed folds. Perhaps he was picturing me in younger, more textured, less worn and thinned days. Maybe he was reaching into a past that he could only trust existed but of which there is no evidence, save bits of weathered and worn leather, textile, and saggy skin. It is possible that he could be merely fantasizing that he, too, as apparently his dad had, could grow older, and richer, and have a deeper past on which to ponder, for at the moment there was no evidence that he was any different than his canvas wallet. In fact, they seem quite the same – rough, indestructible, sturdy construction, and slightly soiled.
There is a moment, maybe a long one, between the invulnerable, immortal, forever-young freedom of adolescence and the growing responsibilities and reality of growing up, during which a boy’s thoughts begin to morph. He begins to contemplate if maybe this slow becoming never actually comes. Suddenly his short past life and shallow experience whisper to his untrusting heart that he’s had all there is. His short past grows longer in his mind and he feels as if he’s lived forever with nothing to show for it. He begins to look for himself before he existed. He searches through the past of his father for glimpses of his becoming, and perhaps sees his reflection, but as of now, he feels no gathered wisdom, no garnered confidence, no assurity of future success based on past work. He glances at himself in the now and sees smooth skin, peach fuzz, lean muscle, tender feet, and green behind his ears. These observations provide little confidence for the young man who has only begun to imagine the road that lies ahead, has measure himself against, and found that his whole being is out of balance.
It may seem like a strange request, the owning of a discarded, worn out leather wallet to replace a newer, indestructible, hip, canvas one. But there is great solace in knowing that hard work makes a mark and assures us that we’ve done well. Reminds us that we work toward an end, and that the infinite vanity we feel in our seemingly pointless pursuits and preparations actually moves us slowly forward toward a goal that brings with it the trophies of physical erosion and the marks of the passage of time as evidence of work well done.
Indeed, many of us carry the previously discarded, the finished-with, the no longer needed. I carry, and use a pair of 60 year-old pliers, and wire clippers in my guitar case as I live out my routine and search through my pre-existence for images of me as assurance of purpose, and meaning, and perhaps even immortality in the post-Rod era.
Until now, I’ve had only the past for promise. I’ve had only the bits that I carry. But I guess I’ve reached a stage where I begin replacing the used-up and the used-up is used for future promise.
It is profound what promise is held in the empty folds of worn out leather, what image is reflected in the polished shine of the tired surface of an old wallet. Promise and reflection, these are elements of wealth, and one should always carry them.
Aaaaand bike week finally comes to a close. It’s a Friday, so we’ve got to go out with something sporty.
Many thanks to everyone who followed along this week and viewed/commented/favorited. I’m sure I’ll get the mini motorcycle bug again some day, but for now it’s back to sorting… :-)
Future Shop was a major Canadian electronics retailer many years ago. It was shut down by it's parent company, Best Buy, earlier this year.
Seed pods burst open on a tree as Spring slowly approaches in Southern California.
My photographic images, and photo-transformed graphics are free to download under Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs. Some Rights Reserved. Thank you for your continued fellowship in imagery.
I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul
J.G. Ballard
Shot for Week 16 of my "52 Weeks of 2023" flickr group project given the theme "Black & White Architecture".
This walkway not only looks futuristic, it's on the path I take every day to and from my office. So for me, it literally is a look 'into the future" every day.
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