Fall, continues\d

More square views of the autumnal world...

shadows and stripes

Autumn

Today is the first day of autumn--I guess that is the positive way to say this is the last day of summer. Overall, we have had great weather, and with autumn comes tremendous light. These square shots were from this morning, and the light and the fog make these photos worth looking at. At least I think they are...

I am such a square...

And for awhile, so are my pictures! These were taken on my way to work today, with the same camera phone but with a different film--I won't bore you with all the technical or non-technical details, but I think that I like this combination a bit better. It is still a bit over-dramatic in presentation, but this film has a wider dynamic range and looks more like traditional black and white film. It is still interesting--please bear with me as I explore this...

New things, continued

One of the great things about having an IPhone, other than it is about 10 times smarter than me, is that it does have a pretty good camera. We have talked about it being the "best camera ever" just because you carry it everywhere, but I think it can be more than that.

This past weekend I was "doing" an art show (total prints sold, zero) and there was a photographer showing his work who I really liked. He was a great guy and a very very good photographer. He is a freelance corporate photographer, but has a substantial body of personal fine art photography. One part of his portfolio is kind of minimalist series he calls "Wanderings." What is fun about this series is that it is all taken on his phone. Dark, moody, square photos filled one wall in his booth, and they were stunning. His work confirmed that it isn't at all about the camera, but rather, it is all about how someone sees things and light.

The technology (an IPhone 4) and the software "App" Hipstamatic is all that is needed. I have been fooling around with this set up and I have a long ways to go before I can even carry his matt board. But I see it as having potential--certainly the camera doesn't get in the way of seeing. You viewers will have to suffer through my learning curve on this, but here are two of my early photos in my new series...

New things...

You know, this blog has allowed me to take new and different photos than I have done before, and this picture is one of them. Of the many photos I have taken, I can say until this morning, I have never taken a photo of a dew-draped and bejeweled spider web. Well today is a great day for new things, so here is an attempt. Of course if I was up earlier and was paying more attention when I was up, I might have done better, but hey, it's my birthday. You don't have to be on top of things everyday.

Self portrait with rose

The light (and life) is good this morning--this is probably the best self portrait that I have posted on this blog. I think I look best in the shadow.

I saw frost on the low points this morning, and lows tomorrow are predicted to be in the 20s...fall is sneaking in, whether we want it or not. It feels great, this cool crisp air, and perhaps with a hard frost tomorrow, the (@!*#$*!@#^& ragweed will fade away...

Calla Lillies, first try

I would place the Calla Lilly as among the most photographed flowers ever--all the famous photographers had this flower in front of their lenses and cameras. As beautiful as it is, it is not an easy flower to photograph, and I have never made a photograph of a Calla that I liked or would post. I am not sure that these are definitive photos of this flower, but these are a start. I have been teased for taking only flower photos of late, and I am aware of that. But at least there are new photos on blog.

3,650 days

I have been hesitant to join the bandwagon of commemorative voices for the 10^th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. As an historian, my knowledge base is filled with anniversaries, April 18^th, June 6^th, November 11th, August 8^th and on and on. I am sure that few could recall the importance of those dates, though in some ways, these dates are more momentous than 9/11. Certainly some of them mark dates/events that cost more lives and had more impact than 9/11.

But we are apt to remember and give importance to dates that we recall and that have had an impact or meaning to us, and for most of us, 9/11 is truly a date like that. It marked our lives, and it is one of those days that even divide our lives. I have heard people say countless times “before 9/11, I could or did, or after 9/11 I couldn’t or did things differently.” That is no less true for me. I can recall no real other event of such magnitude. I remember where I was when I heard that MLK was shot, when Nixon resigned, when the US hockey team won, when an actor, a scion, a hillbilly, a son and a Black man became president, when the Challenger exploded and Black Tuesday and I suppose many more days, but these events were comparatively tiny blips in world history.

But for all of us who were more than about 10 years old in 2001, 9/11 is a bright line that does divide our lives. What is sad for me is that for many things I see the world as less bright and promising—that is no doubt naïve of me. It was for many and for me, too, the moment when I felt like I discovered that there was true and simple evil in the world. Certainly it existed before this date. But 9/11 brought it home much more than from when Pol Pot reigned or where Bosnian Serbs ruled and killed thousands just because of the person’s religion, though these were two horrors that took place in our lifetimes. And most of us could name other evils just as dark.

Yes, Virginia, evil exists, right along side of Santa Claus. I say it like this because there are some things that came out of the 9/11 attacks that make me proud to be, well, proud to be part of the human race. I have observed and celebrated tremendous acts of personal and group courage and sacrifice, whether it was from a firefighter who gave her life, the 6,400+ US soldiers who have died fighting in the decade of war that followed, or in a group of National Guard soldiers who sacrificed their lives in so many ways. Or, in how many people stood up at great personal cost to challenge things just because they were wrong, whether it was standing up for a Muslim who was wrongly targeted or accused or fighting for the right to voice our dissent.

But 9/11 and the ten years since has exposed some evil that does make it harder to view the world so brightly. Many would comment on torture, extraordinary rendition, civilian casualties, or the loss of many civil rights and protections as the things that make us look at the world and our fellow citizens so darkly. Yes, things like these sadden me and cast a pall. It is more than just living in a world where people can find out which books I checked out of the library, or where they scan (all of) me at the airport. Do we make ourselves less by sacrificing some of or all of our rights and personal liberties to perhaps make ourselves safer? Many do think this.

But these things pale in comparison to what is truly weighing down my heart. That is the simplistic prioritization of things that seems to have become the norm since 9/11, and the real costs of this. Since 9/11 the so-called “war on terror” has cost the United States at least 3.4 trillion dollars, and it cost the rest of world almost that much. These are actual costs for guns and bullets and people sniffing dogs and machines and for paying for the thousands of security changes and for spies and drones and and and… And this in no way counts or measures the costs of human life—this is just the checkbook account of all this.

But what of the opportunity costs of all of this? Even if you can justify a trillion or two, what of the costs of not spending a trillion or two on our schools? Would we be safer if we had a more educated and successful population? What about if we used a trillion or so for public works which would put people to work and make our bridges safer or an internet infrastructure equal to some of the countries who are ahead of us, like Spain and Finland, those other world powers? Would a trillion have helped reform our health care system so more people could have health care? Or remember that we borrowed most of that money—would a trillion or two less in national debt help the country and make us safer and more secure? Does this guns vs butter argument even matter?

I don’t know. Maybe every penny of that 3.4 trillion was well and appropriately spent. Many do believe this. It may take a few more years and more history to know if this is the case. But it will take that same amount of time to know whether or not the opportunity costs of not spending that money on people or schools or bridges outweighed any gains in world security or safety. I know that this is just pondering, but I have to wonder if we are better off than we were on 9/12? Are we the United States that we want to be or should be? Maybe we will know this in a few years as well.