Broken Promises

With election season over, on this Veteran's Day I'm hopeful that our government can set aside partisan politics to make the decisions necessary to work for the American People and the American Idea.

I was troubled to hear about a Veteran's Jobs Bill that was reduced to political fodder back in late September.    The bill aimed to set aside Government funds to help soldiers get back into the private workforce upon returning home.  Instead of working together, the two parties came to an empasse and the bill died.  The Republicans say it's unconstitutional, incorrectly proposed and not within the funding policy.  The democrats say the Republicans are stonewalling the legislation.  

I think most voters you speak with would say "c'mon guys... work it out."

I've heard it said that you can be a Medic in a war-zone for a branch of the US military and prepare/stabilize  critically injured soldiers for the next echelon of care but those same individuals, once in the private workforce, lack the credentials necessary to be a school nurse.

It seems as though bridge-certifications, taking those soldiers credits in an experiential fashion would help things along..  But, I presume there is no room for common sense in Washington, DC.    :|

Saluda Hill

Saluda Hill is a private historic cemetery dating back to 1824.  Of those interned here, it is said to be the resting place of a revolutionary war veteran as well as several confederate soliders.

Behind this cemetery you can see the progress of Alabama's First State Veteran's Cemetery.    The cemetery has been under construction for a good period of time but I first learned of it from a local At&t representative & a city councilman, trying to get DSL for my home/office and trying to address larger issues concerning media delivery franchise rights in the town.

As they told me..

"But, I know/see you have available ports.   Can we get a management/override to get service at my address?"

"Look, they wouldn't open a DSL port for the veteran's cemetery just North of your house.  So, you don't have a chance."

I heavily commend Dr. Barry Booth of Spanish Fort, Alabama for his donation to help the new cemetery become a reality.    Anything we can do to honor Veterans' sacrifices  --- we should.

Perspectives on Motive

The owner of this boat came to the Gulf Coast to cash in on opportunities in the BP Oil Cleanup.    At those times, rumors flourished that basically anyone with any type of craft could get paid a per diem for oil cleanup services, with little supervision as how they spent their days.

Sure, plenty of well meaning folks put their boats in the water and checked in with coordinators, working their butts off in oil-cleanup related tasks.    But, disasters are distractions and it's easy to make a buck in the frenzy of moments like that.   Some, got paid a fair daily rate to go out on the water and spend the day, accomplishing very little work.

Did this boat owner do this? Who knows.   What I DO know, is he left his craft in this slip, unmaintained until the point that it sank.    He created a mess for the really nice folks that run the Marina to deal with.  As the dockmaster told me, "He got his BP check and left town."

I've always been drawn to the classifications that some people trully intend to leave the world a better place through their actions while others are simply here to take what they can.

When I was younger, I was a taker, for sure.   

My parents would do whatever they could legally get away with and often some things, they didn't.   From their example I learned that being smart was my weapon and I could wield it freely and unexpectedly to "get" what I wanted from people.      

In my younger times I was a manipulative little creep and nowhere near as smart as I thought I was. 

In my personal life, through exposure to my father in law, I found a model for integrity.  Through my career life, I worked for one of the most honest and decent human beings to ever occupy Earth.  At first, my exposure to these guys was more of a curious novelty.    I was fascinated and generally confused that they would do things for other people completely unphased by imposition and unexpecting of something in return.

Years later, my father in law passed away unexpectedly. (On April 1st, no less.)

The line of people that came to see him into the next life was something like I'd never seen before.  His funeral procession spanned two towns.    It was in the wake of those moments that I looked back at my own motives and learned from the model of his life.    

If I scratched and clawed,lied and cheated my way up the corporate ladder, I'd gain the forced respect I always sought after but the victory party would be a lonely one.    If I touched as many lives as possible through random acts of kindness, not only would I find the respect I sought but I would gain lifelong friends along the way... 

To Fred, I say -- Thanks for living a life of example.

And to the creep that left the mess pictured here, in Fairhope -- "dude, not cool." :)

Go Vote

I know that it is increasingly easy to be cynical about our election process, the candidates and the coverage of it all.   Regardless of who you see as the bad guy in this election, I hope you find time today to exercise your hard-won privilege to vote!

Shoot the Moon

I went out this evening to shoot the October Moon through the telescope with an iPhone 5.

It was a mild form of disaster.
I back out a eyepiece thumbscrew out too far and drop it in the grass.  After fumbling around in the dark with a flashlight for twenty minutes, I declared martial screw-it-ness and went on with the project.

As I pointed the telescope the Azimuth lock-down nut on the telescope broke off at the base. (sigh)

With my Sony NEX cameras, I'd always shoot in quadrants and then stitch the imgaes together as a composite in Photoshop.     I did manage to shoot about 9 shots of the various quadrants before I put the telescope up.

Now, as I sit trying to stitch the images together the natural light fall-off totally 0wns photoshop's stacking algorithm.

On a brighter note, I thought the natural light falloff looks kinda cool, so I thought I'd share, anyway..

#firstworldproblems
:)

Baldwin County Fair

 

This week, the County Fair is in town @ Robertsdale.   I suppose I'm not like alot of people I know that are bullish on the fair.   I've heard alot of comments on the price of admission, the price for ride tickets, etc.   In fact, as I scarfed down a $6 nacho, I overheard the people next to me bitching about $8 beer.

To me, if you are going to be a Lemming and drink Bud/Miller/PBR at a fair... Expect to be gouged.  :)

At any rate..  I suppose my fond memories relate back to high school.   A good friend of mine lived right across from the old fairgrounds.   While, for them it was an annoyance in traffic, I always thought it was really cool to have the lights and rides right outside your front porch. 

Of course, being a devious sort, fair-time often signalled a week-long war of police tape and any possible thing he could do to keep people from parking in his dad's yard.  Toilet paper...  was just the beginning. 

This time, met up with a photography friend as as always, I had a really fun time shooting over at the fellow troublemaker, Brody, We had plenty of laughs and he showd me some tips on shooting long exposure.

Light-writing for the lazy person :)

This also made for a good opportunity to put the new iPhone camera to work.   This shot is using the iPhone 5's internal panoramic sweep mode, adjusted in-camera with snapseed and slightly noise-reduced on upload to smugmug through lightroom.

The result, I thought was pretty respectable considering it came from a camera-phone..

..And of course, I toted around the D800 with a tripod.  Received many odd looks but also took a slightly tighter cropped panoramic with it:

I learned in this.. that I really-really want a better wide-angle lens.   The 14-24mm is calling me. :)

If you are in Baldwin County, take some time and go out to the fair. Grab some Nachos and enjoy the sights and sounds. You'll have fun -- I did!. The Eastern Shore Camera Club, goes Friday night. Jump on over to their facebook area and hook up with a great/fun group of people that enjoy the call of photography.

As Light Travels

As someone who fancies myself a photographer at times and general connoisseur of electron-equipped devices a-plenty, I know very little about light.    I mean, I know that light travels in waves and that different wavelengths are perceived on that part of the EM spectrum as colors by the gelatinous orbs in our skulls.  I know about some of the various units of measurement that humans have devised to describe it's intensity and other properties.

But to comprehend the movement, speed and dynamics of how light travels?   I just don't REALLY understand it.

I've read every possible simplified thing on relativistic speeds, the effects on light as it travels through space-time, as gravity distorts its path or as observers perceive it.

I don't REALLY- FULLY understand light.

I can look through a telescope and get that, yes -- that point of light I see is actually the state of that object millions - or - billions - of years ago.  I get that.. Kinda.

But.. what is light.  Can you describe it? I can try but I always fail.

Is light, merely the absence of dark?  What does it taste like? What does it feel like?

Maybe our senses weren't designed to really understand things like light or.. gravity.

Maybe even those highly educated PHD's you see on the History Channel describing physics to us, really don't understand light either.  

(or maybe they do.)

I'm comfortable in the fact that in the way that most artists don't know what their paint taste like, most photographers really don't "get" light..  Even if they say they do.
 
You can make - or capture - an image without being a physicist.   Don't let them tell you otherwise.

Casual

I was asked to speak on a panel this week with a group of professional photographers.    

Among those on the panel..

Probably the best nature and wildlife photographer in Alabama

A renowned, published-more-times-than I can count fashion and portraiture artist

A state-wide photography contest winner, accomplished photography trainer & portrait master

A well recognized & respected portrait & dance/arts photographer

Then me.

I really had no business being there but I sure had a good time.

The questions from members were strong, often too strong to honor with useful answers in a 1 hour panel.

The question about micro-four-thirds...   Easy big boy.. :)  I could speak for hours on interchangeable lens mirror-less cameras.   The goods, the bads, where I see this heading, which cameras I've used and what I thought of each. 

(I've used most of them)

Afterwards, I strolled down to the Fairhope Pier Marina to check on my sailboat, which has been waiting patiently to receive power from the City.   There amongst the slips, I saw parallels in the evening and my "career" as a photographer.

One boat, something near a 40-footer, houses live-aboard transient world-travelers.  Professional Sailors.

One boat, another 40 footer was decked out with two furling and all the rigging to be single handed by an accomplished sailor.

 

Then, there was my boat.  Freshly sailed but dirty.   In need of some canvas work, minor engine repair and some time-consuming cabin window cleanup.    Not even close to sunk like some of the other ghostly boats in the marina but not exactly a showpiece, either.

I think that describes me pretty well.   Not quite sunk but not quite "done" either.

Either way, I'm pretty happy being a casual photographer.  Those professionals have deadlines and expectations.  Every one of them are orders of magnitude better at this craft than I but hey - there's something liberating about being free to create and explore.  

The pool-side Moscato later on, pictured here, was pretty tasty, too. :)

Thanks for the invite!  It was totally fun!

In the Rain

After Last Month's Eastern Shore Camera Club meeting, the sky opened up briefly for a typical summer shower.    I snapped this shot of a park bench across the path -- I liked the water bokeh.

What about you?   Does your camera come out in the rain or stay safe in the bag?

Perspective

Last weekend I sailed from Orange Beach to Fairhope.   The straight-out-of-the-north wind made it a 10 hour Journey.  I'm not complaining, mind you.   It was a beautiful day, we made it safely.   Not much broke.

Here's a clip from that trip:

As you sail, expecially with a purpose, you spend alot of time looking up at the Windex.  Not the stuff you clean windows with but the little spinning arrow thingy at the top of the mast.  It denotes your apparent wind and helps you to locate and manage your points of sail.   This is where, when sailing, some finesse can come into play -- you try to balance the heading you wish to travel against the optimum wind angle.

As I'd stare at the Windex for minutes on end, switching between it and the compass, the rolling waves, dancing dolphins and playing gulls around the sails would disappear into the purpose of the moment.   Maintain a heading of 315 for 30 minutes, then tack the other direction, rinse and repeat as they say.

I suppose that's the trick of perspective.   We can sometimes see only what we let ourselves see.

We measure cold as an absence of hot, bad as a negative good.  Everything being relational. 

Against my own better judgement, I watched both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, this year via selective coverage points.    I shouldn't have.

I'm continually amazed how we, nieghbors, brothers and sisters can be so far apart on so many issues.   That too, is a trick in perspective, I feel.  The Republicans can't be all right or all wrong.  The Democrats can't be all right or all wrong.  If so, who'd follow them.

In my perspective as an independant, a sailor and a ponderer of things over my head I see things in the most simplistic of terms.   If I lived in a town with only two Air Conditioner Techs and my AC broke, I'd call the one with the most compelling offering.  If, after only four years, I found that tech's work to be lacking, I'd try the other guy.   At the end of that four years, what then?   

I know this.. I wouldn't be dumb enough to pay the same two guys to undo each others' work every four years.

Yet, that's where we are headed.   Alas, though, it's time for me to switch headings again, from politics to life we go, eyes on the Windex, not too far now...

Boarded Up (Kinda)

For us here on the Alabama Gulf Coast, the effects of Isaac have been pretty tame.   If nothing else, maybe it provided a good fire-drill for when a storm will hit us directly.

This shot is of Yardarm on Fairhope Pier, mostly boarded up. 

Silvery Strands of Falling Water

I took the camera out for some in-the-rain shots, while the first rain bands from Isaac started to reach the Eastern Shore.    In Daphne, the rain started to come down pretty hard and I talked a little with a nice couple about cameras.  "Hey, that guy has a nice looking camera, let's ask him what we should buy."  

What I thought was cool about this shot was that I didn't go through any heavy post processing to get this silvery effect.  This is essentially how it looked, due to haze and shooting through active rainfall..  I did tweak the contrast a bit but that's about it.  The result was neat I thought...

Isaac at the Gates

Today around lunch I found myself an hour to wonder the Eastern Shore with other gawkers, looking for interesting things related to the storm.  As a sail enthusiat I tend to gravitate to marinas.  I found marina life to be fascinating, especially with a storm on the way.  

This shot is from the Fairhope Pier, City Marina.   A couple things of note.   Two boats are already sunk in the marina, before the storm even gets here.  One boat owner, on the left, just off the frame from this shot, apparently thought it was clever to come, open the companionway of his boat and leave it, ostensibly to join the other two sunken boats and make his insurance claims.  

Why is the City Marina, a nice little marina in a picturesque surrounding with decent facilities and super-nice management, the place for people to take their boats to die?

At any rate, Isaac is at the Gates, I hope for those in his path that he doesn't turn to a Hannibal..

From the Ground Up

Evening Blues

 Not that I had the blues.. but there were some blues in the sky,.. so you know..  Blues..... :) 

meh

 It's not going to win any awards.. but this is what I have to share for now :) 

Mother Earth's Veins

A Break in the Darkness for Something Colorful

I was seeing a whole page full of Black & White images from my last few posts, so I thought it would be agreeably bipolar to post something extra-colorful, now.

This is another Disney Do-Over.  The original shot, in 2011, I show at ISO 6400.   It was uber-grainy, so here's a clearer re-do!

Into the black

Another kinda moody shot from after the Eastern Shore Camera Club Meeting the other night in Fairhope.   Wasn't feeling particularly moody just playing with some night-time scenes. :)

Darker Motives

 As a suspicious person, I can't help but question motives.    

Sometimes, that serves me well.   Like, the craigslist ad respondent who wants to paypal me the money up front.  See, he's buying for his son in Russia and will arrange to have a mover come pick up the item in the future.

I click Delete and move on.  If I'm feeling froggy sometimes I reply from my special Gmail account that looks like an official person. 

But, what of less nefarious, more subtle hidden motives?

The guy that friends you on facebook because he wants a job and feels you can make that happen.    The NRA robo-calls.   The seemingly helpful semi-famous photographers on social media who happen to offer training, ebooks, prints, iphone apps, camera accessories and cardboard stand ups of themselves for sale on their sites.

Look, I get it.  People gotta eat.  I don't hate commerce and I sell stuff too..     It is when that line between "content' that "commercial" get blurry is where my consumer spidey-senses begin to tingle.  I attended a webinar recently on photography as an art form.   It was a good webinar.  It was a paid webinar.  I enjoyed it, I got something out of it.  I like the person who put it on, I think he's honest and sincere, despite relative fame.
 
They had stuff to sell.  I bought some.   Everything was "above-board" and open.  I like that!

Then, I'm listening to talk radio the other day. Commercials start to take on the format of a "news desk".   "Hey, this is Art Artinson here from the Institute on Made-up made-upness.    This just in, there has never been a better time to invest your savings in a company that sells and processes information related to the acquisition of the details necessary to begin investing in Gold!!  Gold is at a 2,000/year high.  Not sense Cleopatra has gold been valued and as those evil democrats continue to kill our country, it will only go higher!!!!"

(I'm not a democrat or a republican)

..and the ads don't stop there.   "Food Insurance, Hero Tabs, e-Cigarettes"... and all manner of nearly-scam-seeming items for sale.    The ones that really get me are the in-midst-of-the-content ads.    "Let me take just a minute to tell you about (blah).  I use it, love it.   I keeps me (happy) and makes life better.   Go to (blahblahblahDOTCom) and use referral code (TalkingHead) for a .01% discount".

I kinda shudder to imagine the closed-minded demo-republicrat hanging onto every word with their check card in hand.   That's probably not the economic stimulus we needed.

I had a guy, awhile back, friend me on G+ to push on me the merits of Islam.  I think it is great when people are excited about their beliefs and this guy was a well-meaning soul.   But what was his motive?  To follow my photography and programming exploits? Nope.  Every day, I'd get these notes on how in Islam you can astral-project to some other time or location or the immense sense of peace it brought to his life.   The guy was a living breathing brochure.

Hey, cool man. 

I'm happy with my vacuum cleaner, I can pray for myself and I'm not looking for magazine subscriptions no matter how badly you deserve to go to college.  I'm happy with my Tupperware and I know where to buy soap.  

The sad part is.  When my virtual doorbell rings and the person standing there is simply inviting me over for coffee, I will miss at least the first 5 minutes of our conversation while I size them up for potential commercial dangers...