View allAll Photos Tagged gratification
الثورة فكرة وفكرة لا يمكن قتلها
“Some live for medals. Others find their gratification in living for an ideal.”
― Ammar Habib, The Heart of Aleppo: A Story of the Syrian Civil War :
"You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the revolution."
Fred Hampton (1948-1949) American Civil Rights Activist.
Photo: Syrian revolutionary activists gathered in Whitehall in solidarity with Ukraine's resistance against the Russian invasion.
It is not hard for me to savor my time within a great forest.
Gratification finds its way to me without much effort, as does
comfort. These confines, devoid of walls or doors are open in
concept and healing by nature. There is a stillness and hush
in ancient forests that awakens with moving water, a footstep
and a pounding heartbeat. Easy is my gait, never in a hurry,
with my eyes always searching for tangible evidence of pure
beauty. These interludes, however brief, become memories
of fondness with photographic evidence for another day!
Be well friends :)
I'm beginning to love my film camera. Even though it's bulky and there is no instant gratification, having to wait and see how the shots come out is exciting.
The Hasselblad camera and the Moon,
When in 1957 Victor Hasselblad designed in Sweden the 500C camera, the Moon was not at all in his mind. He was designing a solid, dependable camera that all professionals could rely on and enjoy using. Years later, while NASA was looking to design a camera for the Apollo mission, one of the engineers mentioned that he had a Hasselblad camera at home that was very sturdy. He was asked to bring it for an inspection. The next day the engineers sitting around a table examined the machine and started to take it apart. They removed the external crank, the viewfinder and other parts, ending up with a minimal set of essential parts. In the final version the liquid lubricants were replaced by solid ones to withstand the extreme condition of the lunar surface and other modifications were made to the selected lens. From Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 these cameras took hundreds of pictures of extraordinary resolution. All of them were abandoned stashed in boxes on the surface of the moon where they remain today, only the exposed film was brought back to Earth. This is just a camera many would say, and indeed I agree, but there is something that goes beyond. It is that Victor Hasselblad was not designing a "Moon camera", however his original design worked flawlessly on the surface of another world. Is this the way most things are conceived today? Would our designs go that far beyond its original intent? I truly doubt it, we live in a society of instant gratification and programmed obsolescence. Nothing is thought or intended to last for a long time, most designs are done in a rush and with a shallow vision instead of thought to have a long life of usefulness. When I hold this camera in my hands today, my inspiration comes from my mind and the stimulation of what surrounds me. However, I have the constant feeling that this mighty instrument that still works impeccably after almost 60 years, is also a source of inspiration and certainly an example of excellence.
Claudio Valdés
October 14, 2016
After more than four years, my Jollylook instant, folding cardboard camera finally arrived! It's made from laminated cardboard, takes Fujifilm Instax mini film and looks gorgeous. Unfortunately, the learning curve is pretty steep due to cardboard bellows being very stiff, and film flatness being not really.... flat, but nonetheless, it's fun to use it!
Taken with Jollylook instant folding camera, on Fujifilm Instax Mini film. Scanned with my trusty Canon CanoScan 8800F flatbed scanner using VueScan, this time, not scanning film, for a change!
Because this one is my 1000 iPhone photo uploaded here on Flickr.
And it's a big cause for pride to me, because my iPhone photography has brought me not only lots of joy, but every bit of opportunities to make my work be known. I'm very grateful and honored by every single person who expressed their interest in my iPhoneography skills and decided to feature or interview me in their blogs, magazines, etc.
This is a list of the most important features my iPhone photos have brought me:
1- AMERICAN PHOTO MAGAZINE: "Instant Gratification" (pages 56-63): www.scribd.com/doc/21561076/american
2- METRO UK: "Beauty in the iPhone of the beholder":
e-edition.metro.co.uk/2009/10/30/
3- IPhonegraphy.com:
www.iphoneography.com/journal/2009/1/16/the-iphoneography...
4- Photocritic.org:
photocritic.org/amazing-iphone-photos/
and photocritic.org/interview-with-an-iphone-photographer/
5- iPhography.com
blog.iphography.com/post/190847015/august-2009s-featured-...
6- CNET.com: "iPhone Photography: Art or Gimmick?":
www.cnet.com.au/iphone-photography-art-or-gimmick-3392972...
7- WINK blog: "Trends: iPhone Photography":
wink-blog.com/2009/07/27/iphone-photograph/
8- Time Out New York:
newyork.timeout.com/articles/nyc-in-pictures/77517/iphone...
Like I said... thanks to everyone who has encouraged me to keep working on this field where I have the honor to be among the pioneers who took the iPhone and tried to make something more out of it...
One of my new projects is an iPhone photography book I'm starting to work on. I'll keep you posted of the advances.
Photo taken at the Nikko Hotel
in San Francisco. California.
with my 3G iPhone
UPDATE (on November 15th - 2009): The latest of recognitions to my iPhone photo work came in the form of a cover for a spiritual book published in the UK. Check it out:
face-down tuesday #7. it's said that newspapers are dying out with our need for instant gratification from online news sources and cable news programs. i still love newspapers although i don't read them nearly as much as i intend to.
Quote from the 2009 Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog"
Everyone knows the story of the Princess and the Frog...but what you don't know, is that our little princess suffers from a disease called Paraphilia
Paraphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her. A paraphilia involves sexual arousal and gratification towards sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme.
Just as a PS-you all better fricken love this one haha I spent over 7 hours editing it! It's actually about 5 am where I am and i'm just now posting it :-P so I better wake up with a bunch of views haha
And another PS-I've never seen Disney's "Princess and the Frog" :O
There was a spot of color in the sky early this morning before sunrise but it didn’t last. Instead of growing, it just faded away. So there wasn’t much of a sunrise. But the Sun made up for it a few minutes later.
Nikon D7200 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
135mm
F40@1/30th
ISO 400
Retouched (dust spots)
(DOL_0590.JPG)
©Don Brown 2021
*** Please do not add notes to photos, graphics, or html with comments . All photos are © copyright Douglas Remington - Ethereal Light. Using my photos in anyway, including downloading, and or use in blogs without prior authorization is a violation of federal and international law. Violators will be prosecuted.***
Early morning perseverance.
Here's one of my last Jefferson photos for now (I'll post a couple more over the next few days). This photograph I made in the early morning while camping in the Mt. Jefferson wilderness. I had a 10 stop nd filter on and was hand holding a 2 stop hard grad with a remote release with my mirror locked down. All of a sudden my camera was frozen. Nothing would work. I could not trigger the shutter. I played with all my settings to no avail. I thought, "wow maybe this is my first memory card failure." So I ran like a gazelle to my camp grabbed a fresh memory card. Nothing, same thing. So now I'm grabbing at straws thinking that somehow my new 25 megapixel camera was in effect a boat anchor at this point. The light was changing fast and I was getting bummed. So as I went to take everything down and pack it up, I noticed after I unplugged my remote shutter release, "the beast" came back to life! Now what? I have to take a very long exposure (turned out to be 144 seconds) with my frozen digits on the camera and hold a nd grad on it at the same time - and not breath at all, all the way through the exposure to avoid shaking the camera (including locking up the mirror). I had to invoke my previous experiences as a marksman and former x-ray and MRI patient - which means, do not breath or move for way longer than humanly possible! So I changed from a hard, to soft grad, and after I pulled it away at the end of the exposure I looked at the instant gratification on the back of my camera. I then zoomed in everywhere to see if I messed it up. Somehow, I lucked out, and here you have it. Nothing too special, but kind of pretty and serene. Left this one a bit dark and moody.
Lesson: Do not use cheap Chinese made shutter releases when important business is to be conducted! ;)
F16 @16mm. Bit of a vignette was added to pull the eyes in.
*** click below for larger and better view or to purchase prints***
www.ethereallight.com/Landscapes/Nature-and-Landscapes/88...
***click below for flickriver stream***
Rogue Hall
7 exposures
ADOX MCP 312 B/W RC paper, variable contrast, matte - used as paper negative.
Exposure: 5 seconds
Shot with custom large format pinhole camera designed and built in collaboration with talented and gifted master camera maker Kurt Mottweiler.
I spotted this boss sixties hardtop coupe at the local general store. The car's surroundings were so unphotogenic and cluttered that I whisked it to the beach via photoshop, where it looks much more attractive.
For decades I wouldn't look twice at this type of car. The problem was sociological: the guys my age and older who slaved away under the hoods of cars such as this one were not my tribe. I did not aspire to impress a pretty, blonde cheerleader with my ride. In fact, I wasn't allowed to have a car at school. The received ethos was delayed gratification.
Many decades later, I finally get this vehicle's wicked styling and its appeal.
Ocean Park, Washington.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Car Story:
Hemming's Feature
"New Math - 1965 Pontiac 2+2"
At Pontiac, in 1965, two plus two equaled 421
By Jeff Koch from June 2006 issue of Muscle Machines
Category: Muscle Cars
Once upon a time, a carmaker offered one size of car. Oh, an extra three inches may have been spliced into or out of the wheelbase to make a more premium model, and some of the bigger-money marques may have had limousine versions, but the basic architecture, the building blocks that made a manufacturer's lineup what it was, all consisted of the same hearty stuff.
On that chassis was your choice of two-door coupe, two-door hardtop, pillared four-door, four-door hardtop, station wagon or convertible. Beyond that it was all trim and options.
Bonneville was at the top of the line; Star Chief was a budget Bonneville, with fewer frills. The workaday Catalina and sporty Grand Prix were both built on the smaller B-body platform, though the GP got its own roofline. It's enough to make your head spin.
Sound confusing? Maybe. But Pontiac could do no wrong in those days--from the Wide-Track stance to the GTO, just about everything Pontiac touched (save perhaps the rope-drive Tempest) was a smash-hit--so much so that Pontiac vaulted to a solid third place behind Chevy and Ford in the national sales race. (It wasn't so many years before that Buick lived in the number three spot.)
Catalina was Pontiac's volume line in those days, so anything sporty would naturally be attributed to it.
@The Super Duty strip monsters of the early 1960s were Catalinas, and the Grand Prix, introduced in 1962 as a personal-luxury model to compete with Ford's Thunderbird, was also based on the Cat.
The venerable Ventura name first saw duty on an upscale version of the Catalina.
Add to that mix the moniker 2+2. A sporty subseries of the smaller Catalina (inasmuch as anything with a 121-inch wheelbase could be considered small), the 2+2 had been introduced as the sporty Catalina in '64--the last year for the old bodystyle and frame, and after the legendary Super Duty power-broker powerplants had been put out to pasture.
A variety of potent powerplants were available (the performance-image 2+2 came with a 283hp 389 and only went up from there), but the sporting intent was carried on inside, with bucket seats and a console.
The '64 2+2 tends to get a little lost in the news of the momentous arrival of the GTO, however.
And perhaps rightly so. A one-two punch could have lessened the impact of both models had they hit at the same time. It became clear that this was only a placeholder until the all-new '65s arrived. The deuce-y-deuce was available on convertible, hardtop coupe and hardtop sedan bodystyles, and for 1965 came standard with 421 cubes under the hood good for 338 horsepower.
Keep in mind that was the base engine: variations up to the 376hp HO engine with Tri-Power were available on the option sheet as well, with a selection of gears between 3.23:1 and 4.11:1; yours for the choosing.
It was redesigned with the rest of Pontiac's (and, really, GM's) B-bodies that season. That '65 restyle took Pontiac's contemporary styling themes--the vertically-stacked headlights, the split grille--and added its own dash of flair, with a deeply exaggerated "Coke-bottle" effect on the rear quarters.
The fastback roofline managed to look back (the first new postwar GM designs of the late 1940s were fastbacks) and forward (toward the Charger, Marlin, and other Detroit fastback-style rooflines) simultaneously.
The result was clean and harmonious, a combination of bold lines and tasteful restraint, and remains a high spot in American-car styling even today.
It's also one of the few cars that we think works as well with rear wheel skirts as without.
The press reports were beyond fawning, and bordered on the embarrassing.
Car and Driver, hoping to re-capture the zeitgeist of the GTO vs. GTO test that launched the title to the stratosphere the previous year, hoped lightning would strike twice with 2+2 vs. 2+2... this time, a Tri-Power 421 4-speed Pontiac versus a Ferrari 330GT 2+2.
Prepped at Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac, where all of Pontiac's press-car ringers were tweaked in the 1960s, not only did the American 2+2 accelerate to 60mph in less than four seconds (!), without the benefit of 4.11 gears or slicks (!!), but it was just half a second slower around the Bridgehampton race circuit than the Ferrari in the hands of two-time USGP winner Walt Hansgen.
Quotes like "It doesn't just go around the corner, it does a mighty fine job of it!" and "I don't think the Ferrari would be quite as good in the rain as the Pontiac, but that's largely because of the [Ferrari's] disc brakes" and "if we could get every American car on the road to handle and perform this well, I think we'd be doing a tremendous job toward having safer American highways," all attributed to Hansgen, dotted the piece.
Motor Trend simply cut to the chase and gave the entire 1965 Pontiac line its Car of the Year award--2+2 included.
We were pretty sure that Bill Hatch of Palm Springs, California hadn't prepped his Fontaine Blue 2+2 like one of those Ace Wilson's Royal press ringers, so although we weren't sure exactly what to expect when we got behind the wheel, we suspected that four-second 0-60 times were out of the question.
Purchased from the original owner in 2000 and completed in 2003, this 95,000-mile original is driven regularly to the local Fuddrucker's car show in grand style.
New chrome, a respray, and some new interior bits (a headliner, a sewn-up driver's seat cover) comprise most of the modifications.
Such are the perils of buying a 35-year-old car kept in a garage in a warm climate. Oh, and Bill took this original four-barrel car to the next level of Pontiac-style cool by dropping a period-correct Tri-Power setup on top of the block. (Our performance numbers come from Car and Driver's four-speed 421 HO 2+2 test done 41 years ago.)
What's it like to drive? Slip inside, and shut that massive door behind you. The first surprising thing here is that you actually sit fairly high up, looking down on the gauges and the console, which seems so very far away.
Your head scrapes the headliner since the 2+2 is a card-carrying member of the longer-lower-wider school of design, but the view out the windows is SUV-like, doubly surprising considering how low the car sits as you stand alongside it.
Still, it's wide enough that if you wanted to lean across the interior to roll up the passenger's side windows, you're SOL.
The dark blue coloring gives everything a relaxed elegance; the relentless glitz of the chrome becomes even more eye-catching against this deep background, and the overall effect certainly offers more pleasant atmosphere than is provided in today's what-shade-of-gray-do-you-prefer cabins.
We turn the key in the middle of the dash and though it's not terribly raucous compared to a lot of what we've manhandled over the years, there is a mild lope to the idle that will ensure that you know when it's running.
The long exhaust and mufflers do their part in quieting the noise, so most of what you hear comes from under the hood. The tach isn't feeling well the day we're visiting and can't make it out of its slumber for the occasion.
Acceleration is a little trickier than just mashing the pedal on the right: you can only access the center carb, and can't give it more than half of the pedal, unless you want to hear that uncomfortable marble-in-a-coffee-can sound.
Since the engine in our test 2+2 hasn't been apart for a valve reseating, we can only guess that it's the contemporary 91-octane gas that's making things difficult.
When you're cruising at 70 (or 80) mph across the desert, operating only off the center carb works fine--and doubtless helps fuel economy as well. When you're trying to make an impression off the line, however, it's a different story.
On the open road is where the 2+2 shines. The ride is smooth enough--a little rough-and-tumble in town, in both noise and feel, but once you're out on the open road, everything smooths out and you're cruising. The steering offers a solid, quick-acting connection to the front wheels, and the steering wheel, wrapped with an aftermarket kit, doesn't feel as spindly as some we've twirled.
On the other hand, the power steering offers no feedback at all, like talking to an orange, and corners can be negotiated with a single finger.
Cornering feels flat--flatter than you'd expect from something this size, anyway--but boy, you sure slosh around in the cabin in the turns.
Surely we're not alone in admiring Pontiac's blend of melding form and function in the marque's eight-lug four-wheel drum brakes?
Aesthetics aside, they work fine too: nothing grabby or snatchy, and stopping distance is linear according to how much pedal you give.
The truth of the matter is, although Pontiac paid special attention to handling attributes in its cars and it is in fact several clicks tighter than some other big cars we've piloted, this isn't the car to buy if you want to carve corners.
As such, with hot intermediates in play, the notion of hot full-sized cars was losing steam, and the 2+2 version of the Catalina disappeared after 1967.
Hot full-size cars disappeared from GM altogether after 1969, until the return of the Impala SS in 1994.
Though it didn't sell in the numbers Pontiac might have hoped, the 2+2 was far from a failure.
A traditional-sized Pontiac that looks and goes better than most cars of its day couldn't be lumped into that ne'er-do-well category. It didn't quite cause the ripples in the marketplace that the GTO did, but some would argue it didn't have to. The 2+2 stood out on its own considerable merits, which are just as plain to see more than four decades on, even if it got a little lost in the hype of other performance models back in the day.
I spotted this sixties hardtop coupe at the local general store. The car's surroundings were so cluttered that I moved it and its shadow to the beach via Photoshop, where they look much more attractive.
For decades I wouldn't look twice at this type of car. The problem was sociological: the guys my age and older who slaved away under the hoods of cars such as this one were not my tribe. I did not aspire to impress a pretty, blonde cheerleader with my ride. In fact, I wasn't allowed to have a car at school. The received ethos was delayed gratification. In any case, I was much more interested in hunting for antiques.
Many decades later, I finally get this vehicle's appeal.
Ocean Park, Washington.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Car Story:
Hemming's Feature
"New Math - 1965 Pontiac 2+2"
At Pontiac, in 1965, two plus two equaled 421
By Jeff Koch from June 2006 issue of Muscle Machines
Category: Muscle Cars
Once upon a time, a carmaker offered one size of car. Oh, an extra three inches may have been spliced into or out of the wheelbase to make a more premium model, and some of the bigger-money marques may have had limousine versions, but the basic architecture, the building blocks that made a manufacturer's lineup what it was, all consisted of the same hearty stuff.
On that chassis was your choice of two-door coupe, two-door hardtop, pillared four-door, four-door hardtop, station wagon or convertible. Beyond that it was all trim and options.
Bonneville was at the top of the line; Star Chief was a budget Bonneville, with fewer frills. The workaday Catalina and sporty Grand Prix were both built on the smaller B-body platform, though the GP got its own roofline. It's enough to make your head spin.
Sound confusing? Maybe. But Pontiac could do no wrong in those days--from the Wide-Track stance to the GTO, just about everything Pontiac touched (save perhaps the rope-drive Tempest) was a smash-hit--so much so that Pontiac vaulted to a solid third place behind Chevy and Ford in the national sales race. (It wasn't so many years before that Buick lived in the number three spot.)
Catalina was Pontiac's volume line in those days, so anything sporty would naturally be attributed to it.
@The Super Duty strip monsters of the early 1960s were Catalinas, and the Grand Prix, introduced in 1962 as a personal-luxury model to compete with Ford's Thunderbird, was also based on the Cat.
The venerable Ventura name first saw duty on an upscale version of the Catalina.
Add to that mix the moniker 2+2. A sporty subseries of the smaller Catalina (inasmuch as anything with a 121-inch wheelbase could be considered small), the 2+2 had been introduced as the sporty Catalina in '64--the last year for the old bodystyle and frame, and after the legendary Super Duty power-broker powerplants had been put out to pasture.
A variety of potent powerplants were available (the performance-image 2+2 came with a 283hp 389 and only went up from there), but the sporting intent was carried on inside, with bucket seats and a console.
The '64 2+2 tends to get a little lost in the news of the momentous arrival of the GTO, however.
And perhaps rightly so. A one-two punch could have lessened the impact of both models had they hit at the same time. It became clear that this was only a placeholder until the all-new '65s arrived. The deuce-y-deuce was available on convertible, hardtop coupe and hardtop sedan bodystyles, and for 1965 came standard with 421 cubes under the hood good for 338 horsepower.
Keep in mind that was the base engine: variations up to the 376hp HO engine with Tri-Power were available on the option sheet as well, with a selection of gears between 3.23:1 and 4.11:1; yours for the choosing.
It was redesigned with the rest of Pontiac's (and, really, GM's) B-bodies that season. That '65 restyle took Pontiac's contemporary styling themes--the vertically-stacked headlights, the split grille--and added its own dash of flair, with a deeply exaggerated "Coke-bottle" effect on the rear quarters.
The fastback roofline managed to look back (the first new postwar GM designs of the late 1940s were fastbacks) and forward (toward the Charger, Marlin, and other Detroit fastback-style rooflines) simultaneously.
The result was clean and harmonious, a combination of bold lines and tasteful restraint, and remains a high spot in American-car styling even today.
It's also one of the few cars that we think works as well with rear wheel skirts as without.
The press reports were beyond fawning, and bordered on the embarrassing.
Car and Driver, hoping to re-capture the zeitgeist of the GTO vs. GTO test that launched the title to the stratosphere the previous year, hoped lightning would strike twice with 2+2 vs. 2+2... this time, a Tri-Power 421 4-speed Pontiac versus a Ferrari 330GT 2+2.
Prepped at Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac, where all of Pontiac's press-car ringers were tweaked in the 1960s, not only did the American 2+2 accelerate to 60mph in less than four seconds (!), without the benefit of 4.11 gears or slicks (!!), but it was just half a second slower around the Bridgehampton race circuit than the Ferrari in the hands of two-time USGP winner Walt Hansgen.
Quotes like "It doesn't just go around the corner, it does a mighty fine job of it!" and "I don't think the Ferrari would be quite as good in the rain as the Pontiac, but that's largely because of the [Ferrari's] disc brakes" and "if we could get every American car on the road to handle and perform this well, I think we'd be doing a tremendous job toward having safer American highways," all attributed to Hansgen, dotted the piece.
Motor Trend simply cut to the chase and gave the entire 1965 Pontiac line its Car of the Year award--2+2 included.
We were pretty sure that Bill Hatch of Palm Springs, California hadn't prepped his Fontaine Blue 2+2 like one of those Ace Wilson's Royal press ringers, so although we weren't sure exactly what to expect when we got behind the wheel, we suspected that four-second 0-60 times were out of the question.
Purchased from the original owner in 2000 and completed in 2003, this 95,000-mile original is driven regularly to the local Fuddrucker's car show in grand style.
New chrome, a respray, and some new interior bits (a headliner, a sewn-up driver's seat cover) comprise most of the modifications.
Such are the perils of buying a 35-year-old car kept in a garage in a warm climate. Oh, and Bill took this original four-barrel car to the next level of Pontiac-style cool by dropping a period-correct Tri-Power setup on top of the block. (Our performance numbers come from Car and Driver's four-speed 421 HO 2+2 test done 41 years ago.)
What's it like to drive? Slip inside, and shut that massive door behind you. The first surprising thing here is that you actually sit fairly high up, looking down on the gauges and the console, which seems so very far away.
Your head scrapes the headliner since the 2+2 is a card-carrying member of the longer-lower-wider school of design, but the view out the windows is SUV-like, doubly surprising considering how low the car sits as you stand alongside it.
Still, it's wide enough that if you wanted to lean across the interior to roll up the passenger's side windows, you're SOL.
The dark blue coloring gives everything a relaxed elegance; the relentless glitz of the chrome becomes even more eye-catching against this deep background, and the overall effect certainly offers more pleasant atmosphere than is provided in today's what-shade-of-gray-do-you-prefer cabins.
We turn the key in the middle of the dash and though it's not terribly raucous compared to a lot of what we've manhandled over the years, there is a mild lope to the idle that will ensure that you know when it's running.
The long exhaust and mufflers do their part in quieting the noise, so most of what you hear comes from under the hood. The tach isn't feeling well the day we're visiting and can't make it out of its slumber for the occasion.
Acceleration is a little trickier than just mashing the pedal on the right: you can only access the center carb, and can't give it more than half of the pedal, unless you want to hear that uncomfortable marble-in-a-coffee-can sound.
Since the engine in our test 2+2 hasn't been apart for a valve reseating, we can only guess that it's the contemporary 91-octane gas that's making things difficult.
When you're cruising at 70 (or 80) mph across the desert, operating only off the center carb works fine--and doubtless helps fuel economy as well. When you're trying to make an impression off the line, however, it's a different story.
On the open road is where the 2+2 shines. The ride is smooth enough--a little rough-and-tumble in town, in both noise and feel, but once you're out on the open road, everything smooths out and you're cruising. The steering offers a solid, quick-acting connection to the front wheels, and the steering wheel, wrapped with an aftermarket kit, doesn't feel as spindly as some we've twirled.
On the other hand, the power steering offers no feedback at all, like talking to an orange, and corners can be negotiated with a single finger.
Cornering feels flat--flatter than you'd expect from something this size, anyway--but boy, you sure slosh around in the cabin in the turns.
Surely we're not alone in admiring Pontiac's blend of melding form and function in the marque's eight-lug four-wheel drum brakes?
Aesthetics aside, they work fine too: nothing grabby or snatchy, and stopping distance is linear according to how much pedal you give.
The truth of the matter is, although Pontiac paid special attention to handling attributes in its cars and it is in fact several clicks tighter than some other big cars we've piloted, this isn't the car to buy if you want to carve corners.
As such, with hot intermediates in play, the notion of hot full-sized cars was losing steam, and the 2+2 version of the Catalina disappeared after 1967.
Hot full-size cars disappeared from GM altogether after 1969, until the return of the Impala SS in 1994.
Though it didn't sell in the numbers Pontiac might have hoped, the 2+2 was far from a failure.
A traditional-sized Pontiac that looks and goes better than most cars of its day couldn't be lumped into that ne'er-do-well category. It didn't quite cause the ripples in the marketplace that the GTO did, but some would argue it didn't have to. The 2+2 stood out on its own considerable merits, which are just as plain to see more than four decades on, even if it got a little lost in the hype of other performance models back in the day.
I was at the Lucky Flea Market, standing in the shade of a tree on a street corner, when I noticed Rudy, a few feet from me, inserting film in his 35mm SLR camera, a Nikon FE2. I thought it was interesting to see a young man with a vintage film camera, and I asked what got him interested in film photography.
His father worked at Kodak for 30 years, but Rudy didn’t become interested in photography until after his father had retired. It started, he said, when he was shooting pictures with his iPhone. Rudy often shot pictures of people, and he said many people have asked him to shoot photos of them because they liked photos of others he had captured.
He said, “Photography found me, in a way.” Rudy was inspired to advance in photography while he was shooting photos exclusively with his iPhone, and people kept praising the results he was getting.
His first dedicated camera was digital, but he wasn’t fond of the look of images from that camera. When he was visiting friends in Kentucky, in August 2020, Rudy went to an antique store and found a film camera. It was his first time shooting with film. He liked the results and decided to buy a vintage SLR (single-lens-reflex) camera, a Nikon FM2 (fully manual).
He didn’t understand shutter speed or aperture at first, but he’s enjoyed the learning process. He’s self-taught, and YouTube was his main resource for learning. “YouTube was my biggest teacher,” he said.
When I met Rudy, he said this was his second weekend shooting at the Lucky Flea Market. He said people were coming up to him and requesting that he shoot a photo of them. A woman had approached him earlier and said she was hoping he would ask him to shoot a photograph of her. “That was my moment of the day,” he said.
He also carries a Fujifilm X-E4 digital camera. Rudy’s not fond of post-processing, and the X-E4 has filters that simulate film, so if he wants instant gratification, the digital camera does the trick. The film and digital cameras “go hand-and-hand with me, wherever I go,” he said.
When he does edit images, Rudy uses his iPhone’s native image-editing tools. “I spent a thousand dollars on the iPhone anyway, so I might as well use the tools I have.”
“And that’s where people are looking at photos the most,” he said.
Meeting and chatting with Rudy was “my moment of the day.”
This picture is #37 in my 100 Strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100strangers.com/.
Thanks, Rudy!
I was among the first to grab a Diana Instant Back from Lomo about a week ago. After trying out a few packs of Instax films with lots of failure, I finally learned something. Even under broad daylight, flash is almost necessary. Any photos taken in partly cloudy condition with flash will result in a very dark background since the shutter speed of Diana is around 1/60th sec. To get a fully lit environment behind your subject, you have to use the B mode and time yourself to 1/8th sec in addition to using a flash.
The fun of having a Diana camera with Instant film is that you get the nice look as well as instant gratifications. In addition, there are so many Diana lens accessories you can play with a lot of different effects. I'm particularly interested in the surprise effects from double exposures. One interesting method to get a nice collage is to type some light color text with black background on your computer monitor, shoot once using a Diana close up lens, then double expose the film with another scene with flash on your subject. It works great with black and white graphics on your first exposure since you are going to fill up the black space with things you shoot on the second. I haven't perfected it yet but it gave me hours of fun by burning money.
The difference between "Diana Instant" and Polaroid is that with Diana Instant, you can't frame your shot as precisely as a Polaroid, but you get to play with double exposure, different lens effects, color flash, etc. And of course I love the square image Polaroid produces along with its surreal color, smaller size photo from Diana Instant is less impactful but cute. One more contrast between Diana Instant and Polaroid, for me: fast snap shot vs. slow photography.
More on Scription: moleskine.vox.com/library/post/diana-instant-vs-polaroid....
My brother-in-law promises that he is going to teach me how to develop film in a dark room. All he has to do is build the dark room.
Until then, I will rely on my old Polaroid land camera for some instant gratification in vintage camera land.
I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness. (Malcom Muggeridge) Why? Because the constant pursuit of self gratification, which the vast majority of people mistakenly identify as happiness, can never truly satisfy. It has to be repeated over and over, and will never complete us, but will invevitably lead to frustration, bitterness and sorrow.
Delayed Gratification. 2:3 Queen Anne's Peppermint Dark Chocholate covered cherry. Testing some new lenses. Stobist: Elenchrome 250 softbox my right (main light), Elenchrom 250 shootthrough umbrella cherry 45 back right.
delayed gratification. A birthday present just two and a half years or so late. He is worth it-thank you.
This past Saturday's Large Format Workshop at Aperture: A Photography and Variety Store in Cleveland, OH was a huge success! Folks that came out got a two hour introduction to large format, including: types of film, cameras, accessories, loading, setting-up, shooting, developing, and organizing images. On top of playing around with the cameras of their choice, students also walked away with their very own portrait, taken on Fuji FP-100C instant film. The final icing on the cake was in impromptu large format shoot with Scott's lovely wife and daughter. ^__^
BIG thanks for this image go out to Mr. Scott Meivogel of Aperture for the willing models, for Julie and Evelyn waiting the 5 minute processing time b/t shots, and, of course, The Impossible Project that gifted the PQ 8x10 film this past Christmas. Thank you all very, very much!
www.the-impossible-project.com
Sinar P2 8x10
Schneider Symmar-S 360mm f/6.8
1/30th @ f/11ish
Impossible PQ 8x10
I continually find myself disenchanted with where we've come as a society. War and senseless violence abound (if you can even differentiate the two). We exhaust our resources and grossly overpopulate our planet like a flesh-eating virus. Our economy is in shambles. Angst-filled extremists perch themselves across a great divide while masses of the naive and the indifferent plug the middle. We are an on-demand-instant-gratification-me-first civilization made closer by technology yet each isolated in our own electronic cocoon. Each night at work and each night on the news I routinely see the absolute worst of humanity. And I wonder if this is it? Is this what we've come to?
But then I stop for a moment to look at a scene like this: a tree emerging from a long winter's sleep to delicately erupt with a flurry of pink at the mere hope of sunlight. And I imagine a little sparrow flitting among the blossoms with a twig in her mouth, steadfastly building her home. So then I wonder, if they can see the promise, shouldn't I?
Minolta X-700 • Kodak Ektar 100
Stop theTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain (whether physical or psychological) as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has taken on a wide variety of forms, and has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion. In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of the torturer.
Torture is prohibited under international law and the domestic laws of most countries in the 21st century. It is considered to be a violation of human rights, and is declared to be unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention officially agree not to torture prisoners in armed conflicts. Torture is also prohibited by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which has been ratified by 147 countries.
National and international legal prohibitions on torture derive from a consensus that torture and similar ill-treatment are immoral, as well as impractical.
Despite these international conventions, organizations that monitor abuses of human rights (e.g. Amnesty International, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims) report widespread use condoned by states in many regions of the world.
Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, some of them openly.
Whoopee! It's Sarah Palin day!
Sarah Palin And The Flagman in Pahrump, Nevada.
Ray "Mallow" Mielzynski, also known as "The Flagman" is running for Sheriff of Nye County.
I chatted with Ray for a while, and got to liking him right away. He is one of those dangerous (to Liberals) wackos that believes in the Constitution of the United States. You know, the document all of our politicians in Washington ignore.
Ray was packing heat, he had two guns visible for all the world to see.
I don't know what the situation in Nye county is, but decided to reproduce the leaflet he was passing out because it interested me.
As we stood there and chatted, passing cars would honk and wave at Ray.
Yesterday I presented Angel Delgadillo, a man who watched his town die right in front of him and decided to do something to change that.
Today I present Ray The Flagman, a private citizen of Nye county who is also looking to affect change.
To me, that is what route 66 is all about and it's not just one street, but all of America.
His leaflet reads:
I pledge the following:
1. Restore Freedom to the People!
2. Only criminals go to jail and they will go to jail.
3. No revenue enhancement!
Warning tickets on minor violations for first offenses.
4. Deputies will be polite and non-threatening.
5.No Roadblocks
6. No searches without warrants. This includes car searches.
7. No property seizures!
8. No deals with criminals wanting to trade their property for a cushy plea bargain.
9. Reverse current policy and restore coffee to Nye County inmates, many of whom are only charged and not convicted of any crime.
10. No ridiculing of people arrested.
11. No more "Them or Us" attitude that is the current line of thinking in the Sheriff's department.
12. SWAT teams to be disolved. Officers to be trained to resolve stand-offs without a military (kill'em) Gung-Ho mentality.
13. No high speed chases. With technology there is no way a car can escape from the valley. Too many people are killed in these chases mainly for the instant gratification and adrenalin rush of the pursuing police officers. (The Wyatt Earp Syndrome)
14 Deputies will not lord over citizens with the "I've got a badge and you don't attitude.
15. The Sheriff's Department will be here to "Serve and Protect".
The people of Nye county will be the boss.
The Department will serve.
16. I will accept a $1 a year salary. I will donate that $1 to charity. If there is a requirement that I accept the full salary, every dollar will be donated to feed the hungry in Nye County, not in my name but in the name of Jesus.
"I do not know why or how the circumstances in life have put me here in this situation, which I have never sought or desired. I do know that there is a reason for my running for Sheriff. That reason is: The people of Nye county will have a seldom offered opportunity to regain the freedom so stealthily stolen from them by the gradual erosion of their Constitutional rights.
At least the opportunity is now offered.
As Sheriff, I will do everything possible to restore and maintain the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States. I will take an oath to this effect, and all the deputies will re-affirm by oath their allegiance to the Constitution with specific mention of the Bill of Rights.
What I consider my best quality is that I have not been corrupted by the police mentality.
No doubt if I was considered qualified, through police experience, I would maintain a cop's point of view. Namely, the "Them or us" attitude. I have no such malady. I am a citizen who sees abuse of power, outrageous behavior and a condescending attitude toward the people of Nye county and since I am not part of this corrupt sickness, I am not corrupted by it nor afflicted by it!
I will be the remedy for it!
What the Sheriff's Department lacks is common sense! Priorities are misdirected to minor victimless, revenue providing violations while major crime continues. Concentrating on the REAL problems will allow officers more street time to patrol & make their presence known, rather than all the time lost involving insignificant detainments.
The window of opportunity is small - - but the window is wide open. (At this time.)
Citizens of Nye county, regain the freedom stolen from you! Take back what is rightfully yours. As a "Citizen Sheriff", I will do this or die trying.
So help me God!
P.O. Box 1790 - 127, Pahrump, Nevada 89041
Next Election - June 2010
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(C) 2010 Lila & Joe Grossinger Photography
All Rights Reserved
Bloggers welcome - I like the publicity.
Because I do not wish to show the world as it is and instead prefer
to show it as I wish it to be, I handcraft each and every picture in photoshop.
This picture is S.O.O.P!
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If you have to use this picture to decorate your hovel, or to hide some holes in your walls then don't forget who created it.
Drop me a line. Give me credit. Link to my photostream
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There you will also find my thoughts on Explore and my Flickr philosophy.
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Joe Grossinger
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One would assume that staying on the 11th floor of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Ottawa would afford at least a decent view of something. And one couldn't be any more wrong. This bunker-ish building from I'd guess the 50's is what dominates the view from your room. Taken as the sun was dipping below the horizon - I just held the shutter on bulb for approx. 2 - 3 seconds. All shot handheld, with the camera lens pressed hard up against the window to steady.
Diana F+ with Instax Back, Fuji Instax film.
I have heard photographers say that their most favorite photo is the one they will be taking tomorrow. For me, this photo of Carmela, at 97 years of age, taken just over a week ago, on March 23, 2015, with a Nikon F4s using Kodak Portra 400 film, is undoubtedly my most favorite one.
Not because this image reflects any photographic skills (or lack thereof) -- in fact, I have not used a 35mm film camera in over 20 years -- but because of the subject in the image. Carmela is perhaps the most graceful and fascinating person I have met and it was a treat to capture her beautiful face and deep glance on film. Seeing this image today for the first time (there is no immediate gratification with film) brought tears to my eyes, something that no digital image has managed to do thus far.
I had been looking forward to traveling to the Dominican Republic and visiting Carmela for several months and I had already made plans to bring my D610 to take a few digital images of her during my visit. Shooting film was the last thing on my mind until I happened to browse through a few film images on Flickr and the sense of nostalgia was so overwhelming that I felt compelled to go out and buy an old film camera to use with my existing Nikkor lenses. I lost my F3 while dining at a restaurant on City Island in New York and the F4s, though heavy and a bit bulky, seemed like a perfect fit.
I bought a pack of lesser quality film to play around with but, to photograph Carmela, I made sure that I brought along some professional rolls of film. I was pleasantly surprised. Although I had never used an F4, my new 20-year-old camera performed with excellence and the results of the Kodak Portra 400 film did not disappoint me.
I had a wonderful time at Carmela's home on the northwestern part of the Dominican Republic, along the Yuna river, and I was treated to some of her favorite foods with flavors as compelling as the colors and appearance on film images. At 97, she is still witty and has an impressive ability to remember. I am humbled by her ability to recall the names of the members of her extensive family and friends. I truly believe that God has blessed her with a long life and health as a result of her selfless love and kindness. She remains the matriarch of her family and, despite her lack of any formal education and inability to read or write, she was able to raise seven children with love, character, and integrity, under the most humble of circumstances; to care for most of her grandchildren as four of her sons and daughters moved to the United States to pursue the American dream; and to touch and continue to influence the lives of her great grandchildren.
During our conversation, she acknowledged with strength and some degree of sadness that she had run a long race that will soon be over. But she was confident and reassured by the fact that she had so many children, grand children, and great grandchildren who love her and are committed to her care and well being.
Finland turns out to be one of the best places in the world for finding wild foods and foraging them in the beauty of the wilderness. As spring transforms into the summer season, the forests around the country produce new vegetation. With new vegetation, the sweet aroma of newly harvested berries fills the air. Whether you wish to experience the unique Finnish culture or simply get a taste of wonderfully delicious organic berries from the forest, rest assured that this tour in the wilderness of Finland will be one of the most memorable moments of your life.
If you are fond of nature and love foraging mushrooms or berries, the forests in Finland are a real treasure. Picking berries in the forested wilderness is a highly relaxing and fun-filled activity. In Finland, the northern climate and pristine nature along with long sunny summer days come together to create a delicious flavor to the forests’ berries. It is not just the aroma that attracts. These clean and natural superfoods also feature abundant nutrients and vitamins to fulfill your health requirements.
The locomotive driver waves to Grandma happily and I love to move around in nature in a leather outfit..
Originally, jodhpurs were snug-fitting from just below the knee to the ankle, and were flared at the hip to allow ease for sitting in the saddle. Modern jodhpurs are made with stretch fabric and are tight-fitting throughout. They are supportive and flexible.
Kullivaara, Suomussalmi
N=7188932.515, E=592148.552
(ETRS-TM35FIN)
Bismarck & Hiss unlike Harrison in the previous shot, spends his time with some mates on the street in Accra - Ghana, working car drivers for money. They are despite their suffering from Polio, very mobile diving around among the cars.
This shot made me fall in love with large format Polaroid and l took some advice from Don McCullin to get a Mamiya Universal camera on E-Bay. The new camera was a snip and the sharpness and clarity stunning. Harrison is an example of this - www.flickr.com/photos/11954252@N00/9506187331/in/photostr...
There is some weird form of real gratification getting an instant print in your hand after you take a shot. And a lot of hassle trying to keep it!!!
Magic Photo Series - No2
The boys are hard workers. Like any of us, they expect some form of recompense. They don't wait until payday, though. They expect immediate gratification. The good news is that once they understand a job, they no longer ask for payment. Now that's a sweet deal for me.
Griffen usually finds food to be the ultimate reinforcer. He loves clicker training and he is a joy to shape (they all are, really). I can capture behavior instantly with Griffen. He is not very forgiving about bad clicks and clicking once on the wrong behavior can sometimes be an immediate set-back. He is never hesitant to offer behavior to get things going.
What can I say about the other three? It's all about the balls. Nothing - dogs, cats, deer - nothing will lure them away from the chance to chase the ball. A strange dog could be sniffing their butts and they won't even acknowledge it if I have a ball in hand. There's something to be said for that kind of dedication.
Ham, Briggs, Griff, Fritz
Daily Dog Challenge 104: Just Desserts - our dogs all like to get rewarded in some way, what is your dog's idea of what his or her "just desserts" are?
Explore 2/14/12 Highest Position 190
In a continued test of my fondness for immediate gratification, I shot 35mm film for the early (Tuesday) morning rocket launch, and I received the scan last night.
So, may I present the #HISPASAT30W-6 #Falcon9 launch by #SpaceX, captured on Kodak Ektar 100 35mm print film using a 40-year-old Canon A1 (thank you, Wayne Seeley).
The exposure time I used will be a guess, as I may or may not have forgotten about this camera. I triggered the shutter at 12:32 am, one minute before the launch, and then I didn't remember it until after I had processed images from my DSLRs and posted them to Twitter. After doing so, the always cool Chris G asked me if I was running a time-lapse (he thought I might have caught one of the burns during the first stage landing sequence), and it was only then that I remembered this shutter was still open. I posted the photos to Twitter at 12:45 am, so I'd estimate this exposure to be in the neighborhood of 13 minutes at f18.
Other than dealing with film's reciprocity failure (if I want anything other than the streak to be exposed correctly, I need a much longer exposure), the other issue is focal length: 24mm is too much. Especially for these shots from the media area on the ITL Causeway, under 3 miles away from the pad, I need a wider-angle lens. This shot does work pretty well framed vertically, but I'd like more of the down-range streak in the frame.
Thanks to The Darkroom for the quick and high-quality processing and scanning of this image. From the time of receipt, it took them only one day to get this image to me. The real delay was with the USPS, who took three days to deliver to The Darkroom the Priority Mail Express (overnight delivery, guaranteed!) package containing the film.
We hosted an absolutely wonderful event in our bookshop recently, with storyteller Mara Menzies, who had adapted her own storytelling performance into a novel, Blood and Gold, which draws on her Kenyan and Scottish roots, history and mythology, exploring family, history, colonialism and more through various lenses.
Mara treated us to some of her live storytelling, which was just a delight to experience. Much as I am forever in love with the written word, I'm always aware the roots of the modern books (and plays and films and other media) run back millennia to oral storytelling.
Long, long before even the most ancient stories we have written down, such as Gilgamesh, there were storytellers talking, acting and singing and dancing these tales, each putting their own spin on them. Some would have been professional storytellers like Mara, others just the person in a village or small, wandering tribe, who had the gift and knowledge, and would spin them around a flickering camp fire at night to their small groups.
We have aways told stories, it's part of the spiritual element of our DNA as humans, and it's something that is still wonderful and thrilling and magical to experience, even in an age of instant digital gratification or giant screen entertainment or shelves full of books on every subject.
Mara's book Blood and Gold is published by Birlinn, and you can follow her on Twitter twitter.com/marastoryteller She may be bringing her performance back to the Edinburgh Fringe next year, if she does I highly recommend catching it.
The Hymn of God's word "All Men Live in God’s Light"
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/hymn-all-men-live-in-god-...
The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts (woo …) fills every place on the face of the earth (woo …), the air is brisk and fresh (woo …), dense fogs no longer blanket the ground (woo …), and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent.
On this jubilant occasion, at this moment of exultation, God’s righteousness and His holiness (hoy), have gone abroad throughout the universe (woo …), and all mankind extols them without surcease, and all mankind extols them without surcease. (Ah … ha….) The cities of heaven are laughing with joy, and the kingdoms of earth are dancing with joy. Who at this moment is not rejoicing? And who at this moment is not weeping? (Yee yeah.) Earth in its primordial state belongs to heaven, and heaven is united with earth. (Hoy.) Man is the cord uniting heaven and earth (ha), and thanks to his sanctity, thanks to his renewal, heaven is no longer concealed from earth, and earth is no longer silent toward heaven. The faces of humanity are wreathed in smiles of gratification, wreathed in smiles of gratification, and secreted (secreted) in their hearts, is a sweetness that knows no bounds (sweetness that knows no bounds). Man does not quarrel with man, nor do men come to blows with one another. Are there any who, in God’s light, do not live peacefully with others? Are there any who, in His days, disgrace His name? (Yee ya.) Earth in its primordial state belongs to heaven, and heaven is united with earth. (Ha.) Man is the cord uniting heaven and earth (ha), and thanks to his sanctity, thanks to his renewal, heaven is no longer concealed from earth, and earth is no longer silent toward heaven. The faces of humanity are wreathed in smiles of gratification, wreathed in smiles of gratification.
The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts (woo …) fills every place on the face of the earth (woo …), the air is brisk and fresh (woo …), dense fogs no longer blanket the ground (woo …), and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent. The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts fills every place on the face of the earth, the air is brisk and fresh, dense fogs no longer blanket the ground, and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent. And the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent.
from “The Eighteenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh
location: N=7113942.270, E=606909.850
(ETRS-TM35FIN)
64.135360,29.196716
Island name Mulkkusaaret or [(cock island) Finland]
Finland is a land of thousands of Lakes
After hitting a few of the good picking areas I go Lakeside to the campfire site to have a Finnish-style lunch cooked over a fire ! While lunch is being prepared, I will have free time to explore the area, take photos, or find your own peaceful place to enjoy the forest.
Several tasty and healthy wild berries ripen during the nightless nights of Finland – cloudberries, lingonberries, blueberries, crowberries and cranberries. Same goes for the mushrooms since delicacies such as porcini and matsutake can be found from the pure arctic forests. Anyone can freely pick wild berries and forest mushrooms in Lapland and elsewhere in Finland thanks to the Everyman’s Right.
Fun, educational and also cultural activity during the summer is to .berry picking and it is as Finnish as it gets when you look at summertime pastimes and is an essential part of Finn’s love of nature and way of living of the land. On top of gathering healthy vitamins and flavonoids, on a foraging excursion, you will also learn more of the arctic nature, its flora and fauna, and work on your nature connection. Truly healthy in many ways !
Leather pants provide effective protection against mosquito bites and are therefore practical for outdoor use. However, there exists a small mosquito species ( Culiseta ) that torment people. Nevertheless, the actual mosquito season in the north does not start until the mid June with an annual slide of week or two depending on the weather conditions of the spring. Only the female mosquitoes suck blood because they need the nutrients of blood for their efficient egg laying.