Month: June 2018

In A Different Light

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I think that I’ve circled around. I made another version of this picture on a different day. The last time I did this I turned the meters into junk via heavy post production. This time I used a template that I used for something more natural like a flower. I was surprised at how well it worked on something industrially manufactured. We’ve been talking about the bleak state of the world driven by what appears to be a mad man  who seems bent on destroying all that is good. I need a short break from all of that. This is no sprint. This is a marathon. If you run full-out, you’ll burn out. So, I’ll leave you with this bit of federal stupidity. Toddlers are being forced to stand in the court box by themselves.  If you’ve ever known a toddler, when is he or she going to understand it, let alone comply? So, for the first day, a toddler let himself out of the box and climbed on a table. Go, baby boy. You …

Flying Part Two

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Into the sky we go. On a jet. On an airplane. Going somewhere. On business. For pleasure. Maybe going home. Some of us white knuckling the take off. Some of us not caring. Some of us drunk enough to board the plane. I posted a very heavily reworked picture of another plane taking off a few days ago. Some people saw it for what it was. Foreboding. I decided to tune this one back a bit. This may be about hope. The plane is flying out of the darkness into the light. It’s flying out of the clouds into clear skies. We found a little hope a few days ago. In New York. In Queens. And, the Bronx. With a young woman. A woman from the Bronx. Alexandria Ocasio – Cortez. She surprised everybody. She went from tending bar to defeating incumbent Joseph Crowley. He was the heir apparent to Nancy Pelosi. She’s 28 years old. Her’s is a Democratic district, so it’s very likely she’ll be the youngest person in the House and in …

Magnolia

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Two approaches. One before. One after. The news these days hasn’t been so good. In fact, yesterday’s news was downright bleak. Like anyone who is loosely called an artist, that affects me. As it does, us all. After yesterday’s picture, I thought I would publish something lighter. Something brighter. Something happy. The top picture is of a magnolia. A southern thing. Yeah. Right. Yesterday’s news turned worse and worse and worse. So. I made another version of the top picture. In addition to cropping it, I made it very dark by stacking images. The bottom picture is the result. I like it less than the bright magnolia, but it represents how I’m feeling these days. One friend, from Albuquerque, saw yesterday’s picture of the jet as what it is. Foreboding. Another friend, from Dallas said, after seeing all the news yesterday, that “this too shall pass.” Normally, I’d agree. But, appointing a supreme court justice is a generational thing. It will pass in about 40 years. Assuming I’m even alive, I will be around 105 …

Over and Over

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I’m taking a step forward. Or, back. It all depends on how you look at it. I haven’t been playing enough. I haven’t been experimenting enough. I haven’t been having enough fun. Like many people, in this age of nastiness, meanness and cruelty. I’ve been taking things far too seriously. So. While the dogarito was sitting in the shade and enjoying a bit of a breeze, I started listening for passing jets. My timing is still pretty good, so I was able to put the planes where I wanted them in the sky. Then I thought, “Where’s the fun in that?” When I got back into the studio, I started messing around. I kept messing around. I added layers. I added filters. I made this and a couple of other aeronautical pictures into something that I liked. Sort of. I kept going. And, going. And, going. This is the result. I’m still not entirely sure about it. It sort of has an evil foreboding that you don’t really want in airplane pictures. At least that’s what …

Like Magic

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A mushroom. In nature. Not to be picked or eaten. The dogarito won’t even smell them. She knows earthy poison when she sees it. I didn’t do much to the picture. I mostly just made it look earthy. Just like I saw it. So. Yesterday. My thanks to Gregory and Sharon for showing us what a debate could and should look like. I doubt that they’ll ever agree on the topic, but they each made their points respectfully. Instead of 2018, their discussion felt like pre-2000. If you haven’t read their thread, you should. It’s well worth your time. At one point, Sharon was concerned that I didn’t approve her comment. I never do that. Once you are approved, you are approved. It turned out her comment was in the spam folder. I have no idea why, but once I found it I reinstated it. The only posts I don’t approve and turn into spam are from trolls who show up just to fight. You know the ones. On the kids in cages front. It …

Blue, Blue, Blue

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Blue. I made this picture that last time that we had rain. Seems like about ten days ago. According to the weather folks, we won’t see rain until sometime next week. That would be good except the temperature is still in the upper 90s and the humidity is in the 80% range. That means there is no time in 24 hours when it isn’t 80 degrees. Sheesh. The hothouse just got that much closer to the hell house. After reading a couple of replies here and on other social media, I want to make it clear that while the issues are important, screaming at each other online in the form of social media isn’t helping. It is especially bad when it comes from our so-called leaders. Trump v Warren was the height of stupidity. I don’t listen to the opinionated screams on cable news, nor do I read them in print. Why would I read flailing tweets? It’s like watching two toddlers in a sand box. At least the toddlers are having fun. For me, it’s …

Green World

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A semi-tropical place. Yep. That’s us. We look that way. The heat feels that way. The humidity feels that way. Essentially, we live in an outdoor hothouse. Even when the cooler air and lower sun of winter rolls around, we are still a hothouse. We just don’t feel it. I was out wandering around with dogarito. Don’t ask. The name just came to me. I saw this little stand of leaves. They were nicely backlighted. I took my time photographing them. When I looked at them on a big monitor I was happily surprised. I worked on a bunch of them. How many pictures are in a bunch? Oh. I don’t know. It’s sort of like the weather guy on television the other night. Instead of saying something like 97 degrees, he just said it was going to be “dang hot.” Do you have any idea how much I appreciated that? I did not appreciate that “dang hot” really meant 96 or 97 degrees with a “feels like” temperature of around 114 degrees.  Yep. That’s …

In a Fantasy

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Flower Fantasy. I have to look in the shady parts of the dogs’ walks. That’s where I find this stuff. That’s also where I decide that I can’t make a more “normal” picture. That I have to make some a little different so that I can eventually play with it in post production. In this case, I stuck the phone into the heart of the flowers and just pushed the button. I let it do whatever it was going to do. Then I brought it into the studio and worked on it. I wanted to make the original image sort of dream to counter act the week’s always terrible news. Speaking of the week’s news. Here are some numbers for you. 1,400. 2,021. 20,000. According to what I’ve read, in most cases an immigrant will wait 1,400 days to have his or her case tried. The judicial dockets for trying such cases are booked until 2,201. The military has been asked to plan for 20,000 beds on certain southern bases. The powers in Washington want …

The Dance

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Dancing flowers and a dog walk. I was a little late to this place. Still there was a little spring color left to catch my eye. It took some work, in the field and in post production, because this group was a little out of reach for my smart phone. If I actually got serious about iPhoneography I’d probably buy some little bitty lenses. I’m not really interested in doing that for two reasons. I still see my iPhone as a sketch pad. And, with every upgrade of a phone comes the needed upgrade for everything else. Anyway. Back to the news of the day. The man who would be king sort of fell apart. Between having being forced to back track with his almost meaningless agreement to stop separating young immigrant children from their parents and having to deal with his own political party who can’t agree on anything, he sort of slipped into a stream of consciousness set of comments that started with his usual nasty tweets and stopped with a speech. Apparently, …

The Longest Day

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The longest day. Summer solstice. Hot. Humid. Wet. Green. Summer in the swamp. It’s finally arrived even though it’s been hot since very early May, as it always is. It’s just official now. Oddly, from now on the days get shorter. And, hotter and wetter. Rain falls more often. Maybe there will be a big tropical storm or two. Maybe even a hurricane. We are due. Hurricanes danced all around us last year, but our last one hit in 2011. Seven years is a long time in the Gulf Coast states. No worries. We aren’t worried. Prepared? Yes. Worried? Not so much. The kids. The ones in cages. Don’t blink twice. The orange skinned liar in the White house signed a piece of paper. Essentially it says INS can imprison whole families now. And, they can be tried by U.S. Military J.A.G. lawyers which is illegal since immigrants — here legally or illegally — are not members of the U.S. military. More importantly, is what it doesn’t say. For instance how are all of the …