~ i n c a m e r a ~
expanding iris
captures the room forever
the shutter closes
A Poem – Lyrical Sunday
I remember Sunday morning
With Sunday morning silence
A Sunday, bloody Sunday
It’s Sunday, time is slow
They call her Sunday’s child
Has a Sunday smile for you
She’ll turn once more to Sunday’s clown
and cry behind the door
You can read it in the Sunday papers
Sunday driver with his hands off the wheel
Another unsuspecting Sunday afternoon
Live in dreams, Sunday girl
I’m easy like Sunday morning
And Sunday always comes too late
On Sunday, hated Sunday
The Sunday evening sun goes down…
* Each individual line is taken from a song. I am grateful to the original lyricists and performers.
1/40 of a Picture
“A picture is worth a thousand words” is not, as oft thought, an ancient saying from a mystical eastern philosopher, but rather a construct of the advertising manager at Street Railways Advertising, Frederick R. Barnard.
In an advertisement in “Printer’s Ink” in December 1921 he used the phrase “One Look Is Worth a Thousand Words” with a fictional attribution to “a famous Japanese philosopher” to add gravitas to his copy which was, in the end, designed to sell photographic advertisements rather than to be particularly philosophical.
That being said, today I offer up perhaps one fortieth of my picture of the Republican front runner in the 2016 GOP presidential campaign:
~ Richard
St Patrick, Aesop, and the Donald
Yesterday was the big celebration all over the (western-influenced) world when millions of disparate people became “honorary Irish” in order to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, which really marks the Irish diaspora, especially the 5 million or so who emigrated to the United States. Although the migration started in the early 19th century it was during the Victorian era (from 1840) that it became almost a national industry such that 40% of Irish-born people had emigrated from the Emerald Isle by 1890. Today around 36 million Americans – that’s more that 10% of the population – claim Irish as their primary ancestry* and hence we have the huge St Paddy’s Day parades in New York City, Philadelphia and many other towns and cities throughout the land. We even had a “St Patrick’s Day Potluck” at my place of work. All this largely to celebrate the huge benefits this massive influx of people from a single country have had on other nations (especially the USA), as well as a good excuse to gulp a few pints of Guinness.
So, it is with more than a touch of irony and bitterness that the day preceding this event I was sent a link to a Trump video where the polemic pouter, whose mother (née Mary Anne MacLeod) was a Scottish immigrant, reading the Oscar Brown-penned song The Snake, that was made famous by Al Wilson in the late 60s, against a background of selective videos of violence.
This song is based on one of the famous fables of the Greek slave and storyteller, Aesop, specifically, The Farmer and the Viper, and is the source of the idiom “to nourish a viper in one’s bosom” (little used today). It’s not difficult to see the claim he is making, albeit crudely.
The gist of the tale is that the farmer (or woman in the song) finds a viper that is injured and feeling compassion for the animal’s plight takes it home to heal it. Whilst ministering to its needs the snake bites him, delivering a fatal dose of venom. Dying, the farmer asks, “why did you kill me when I was helping you?” to which the viper replies dispassionately, “I’m a snake, what did you expect me to do?”
Now, I’d like to turn this around somewhat and say that given the Donald’s past history of narcissism, deceit, misogyny, racism, vitriolic ranting, violence inciting, and general disregard for humanity as a whole …
“Who’s the snake?”
* Although I am an immigrant, who enjoys a Guinness (or Murphy’s), I am not of Irish descent, as far as I know.
A Story – The Swaffham Pedlar
The old historic market town of Swaffham, in Norfolk, England was brought to fame a few years back as the fictional town of Market Shipborough in the British TV series Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry.
The locality has links back to Boudica, the queen of the Iceni, famed for leading the uprising against the Romans in AD 60-61 but the town celebrates a more recent (only 300 years old or so) and humble ancestor who has been depicted on the town sign for years.
The Pedlar of Swaffham makes an interesting tale and was first recounted in the Diary of Abraham de la Pryme in November, 1699:
Constant tradition says that there lived in former times, in Soffham,” alias Sopham, in Norfolk, a certain pedlar, who dreamed that if he went to London bridge, and stood there, he should hear very joyfull newse, which he at first sleighted, but afterwards, his dream being dubled and trebled upon him, he resolv’d to try the issue of it, and accordingly went to London, and stood on the ridge there two or three days, looking about him, but heard nothing that might yield him any comfort.
At last it happen’d that a shopkeeper there, hard by, haveing noted his fruitless standing, seeing that he neither sold any wares, nor asked any almes, went to him, and most earnestly begged to know what he wanted there, or what his business was; to which the pedlar honestly answer’d, that he had dream’d that if he came to London, and stood there upon the bridg, he should hear good newse; at which the shopkeeper laught heartily, asking him if he was such a fool to take a jorney on such a silly errand, adding, “I’ll tell thee, country fellow, last night I dream’d that I was at Sopham, in Norfolk, a place utterly unknown to me, where, methought behind a pedlar’s house, in a certain orchard, and under a great oak tree, if I digged, I should find a vast treasure! Now think you,” says he, “that I am such a fool to take such a long jorney upon me upon the instigation of a silly dream ? No, no, I’m wiser. Therefore, good fellow, learn witt of me, and get you home, and mind your business.”
The pedlar observeing his words, what he sayd he had dream’d, and knowing that they concenterd in him, glad of such joyfull newse, went speedily home, and digged, and found a prodigious great treasure, with which he grew exceeding rich; and Soffham church, being for the most part fal’n down, he set on workmen, and re-edifyd it most sumptuously, at his own charges ; and to this day there is his statue therein, cut in stone, with his pack at his back, and his dogg at his heels ; and his memory is also preserved by the same form or picture in most of the old glass windows, taverns, and alehouses of that town, unto this day.
It is an interesting tale and one perhaps that we should all take heed of as we rush about our days: sometimes it isn’t always obvious where we can learn something of benefit. Everything we do or see can be an unexpected learning experience and we have to be open to it like the simple Pedlar of Swaffham, who is still commemorated for his open mind over 300 years later.
Haiku: Aedes
~ Aedes ~
softly it alights,
a vector of misery.
odious insect
~Richard
Making Sense of Sensor Cleaning – Part 2 (or the benefit of camera insurance)
Making Sense of Sensor Cleaning – Part 2 (or the benefit of camera insurance)
Disclaimer: I am recounting only my experience and not endorsing any form of sensor cleaning through this posting. You take full responsibility for any actions you take as a result of reading my ramblings…
This is a continuation of my previous post on sensor cleaning from three weeks ago. I will start off by saying it didn’t go the way I expected, but in the end turned out as a pleasant surprise.
As mentioned in the previous post I had purchased a VisibleDust m4/3 sensor cleaning kit and used it to try and clean the blemish on the sensor of my GX8 which was causing all sorts of problems when the lens was stopped down. Although this kit appears to be adequate for general dust removal, the blemish I had seemed very stubborn. I used all the swabs and solution in the kit and had a beautifully clean sensor – apart from the bit I wanted to clean! So, I am now thinking it may be sensor damage, although it doesn’t look like a scratch under a magnifier. My last-ditch attempt was to think big and go the route of using Pec Pads and Eclipse solution, that someone on fineartamerica had suggested, so that I could try more than four attempts at sensor cleaning before running out of pads or solution again! The new products duly arrived from Amazon and I carefully removed a 4” x 4” Pec Pad, cut it into a strip and then folded it over the end of one of the plastic swabs from the earlier kit (having first removed the original pad, obviously) and fastened it with a piece of tape to the handle. I repeated the cleaning process with the new Eclipse liquid and it did a great job, but still couldn’t budge the mark! In desperation I tried this 5 or 6 more times and it seemed to be having no impact whatsoever. The mark didn’t get any smaller so I finally resigned myself to having to send the camera for repair.
As I was mumbling to myself about the likely cost of this and trying to figure out how the sensor got damaged I suddenly recalled that I took out Squaretrade accidental damage insurance when I bought the camera 6 months ago. Well done great pre-senile memory! Ironically, this is not something I would normally do, so perhaps it’s not surprising I had “forgotten”.
Amazingly I found the details buried in my gmail, completed a claim form online and the same day I received confirmation that the claim is good and a return label. Over the weekend I found a suitable box and packed up my beloved camera with charger and battery and sent it off. I didn’t expect to hear anything for several weeks and then thought I’d be in for a fight. So, imagine my surprise when I returned from work last night, only 5 days after shipping it back, to find a brand new GX8 sent to me straight from B&H Cameras!
Now I am a very happy photog again 🙂
So, what are the lessons I have learned from this rambling episode?
- Sensor cleaning is nothing to be scared of, as long as you are methodical, careful, and clean.
- Pec Pads and Eclipse solution work as well or better than a cleaning kit and will do a great job for general cleaning a sensor of minor dust at a lower cost. (They can also be used on lenses too)
- SquareTrade insurance is a great value product for your camera, especially if you buy it in conjunction with your camera purchase through Amazon (which makes it about half the cost of their own website).
52-week Challenge: week 11
WEEK 11: Landscape: Reflection – Find a way to show your landscape/natural beauty in reflection. The mirror world revealed.
I had contemplated this assignment ahead of time and even went to the dollar store to get a mirror for inspiration. Nah, I thought that would be too cheesy. Then I considered perhaps a reflection of the countryside in a pair of sunglasses, but that would require a willing model! My next brainwave came when one of my daughters decided she needed a ride to the shopping mall – use the car window to get a reflection of an urban landscape – brilliant!
Of course, things never work out quite that way, do they? Rather than dropping off my daughter and her friend I was told I could pick them up instead. This is always the worst of the two standard unpaid “Uber” roles for a parent as there’s no definitive meeting time or place. Ho hum, thinks I, I can still do this as I’ll get there a little early and take time to position the car for its job as photographic canvas.
I hadn’t anticipated how full the parking lot would be, nor the rain.
As I was driving around searching for a place I thought to reverse park in one space at the edge of the lot. This way I would be able to use my driving mirrors to get a shot across the road and modify my original idea.
As I did so, I saw the reflection of a this guy across the street begging money from cars at the stop signal. The light was fading fast and he was there only for a few minutes, presumably after a long day. The irony of the red and blue umbrella and the stars and stripes hanging limply nearby was not lost on me – a reflection of humanity in the world’s richest nation, perhaps?
Spring forward or jet lag for non flyers
Today is a day when those of us in the USA can experience the phenomenon known as jet lag, without all the inconvenience of leaving home. For it is ordained that we must spring forward, like eager little bunnies and lambs and so enjoy the lighter evenings that the season affords.
For those of us who are early birds that get up at the crack of dawn this is a right royal pain in the derriere as we have to go back to darker mornings, but I guess that’s besides the point.
So, why do we think it’s a good thing to interfere with our biological clocks, interrupting our established circadian rhythm and generally upsetting the status quo?
Well, we have to look no further than one of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, to take some of the blame for it was he who, back in 1784, penned the idea in an essay entitled, “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” in The Journal of Paris, along with other more Draconian ideas such as taxing window shutters, rationing candles, enforcing a curfew to reduce noise at night and conversely ringing bells and firing cannons and daybreak to awaken Parisians!
His rationale for this? Purely to save money, or the cost of candle wax, to be more specific!
As far as I can tell, his idea went unheeded until World War I when Germany implemented the system of putting the clocks back in order to increase diurnal productivity during a time of conflict. Britain and other nations soon followed and (much like the pub licensing hours in the UK within the Defence of the Realm Act from a similar time – but I digress…) the idea stuck and never went away.
On April 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into effect the Uniform Time Act to “promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones” to stop states from changing their clocks on different dates, standardizing it at the last Sunday in April. Eh, but it’s only March, so what’s going on?> Well, it seems that the powers that be were still not happy with this so the law was amended again in 1986 to move the date to first Sunday in April from 1987 and then again in 2005 to the second Sunday in March (i.e., today!).
If that wasn’t bad enough, other countries change their clocks at different times and even some US states and territories don’t observe this practice (namely Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands).
So, what is a person to do?
Well, as there’s very little I can do about it I will be forced to embrace the extra hour of light in the evening and sit outside on the deck with an alcoholic beverage, fortifying myself for the return of the dark morning on the morrow…
Haiku: Reflection on Debate
~ Reflection on Debate ~
to expose our souls
he proffers a looking-glass
happy, Narcissus?
~Richard
searching4theshot 