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This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

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Entries in relationships (11)

Monday
Jun212010

relationships # 11 ~ family style relationships

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Mother and daughters • click to embiggen
I decided to accompany the wife on her trip to South Jersey where we hooked up with her 2 sisters to visit her mom. Their mom is in a nursing home and in rapidly declining health. Other than mid-stage Alzheimer's, she has no painful / debilitating disease - her body is just deteriorating as a natural process of old age.

In any event, this trip/visit was centered around informing her/their mom about her brother's recent death. It was a little weird at first since no one was sure how the news would be received or, for that matter, if it would even be cognitively received.

The wife is pictured above as she read the eulogy that was delivered at her uncle's funeral this past Wednesday. It was liberally sprinkled with humorous family anecdotes and good humor. Mom seemed to understand everything and it was a very emotion-filled and "connected" experience.

Monday
Jun212010

civilized ku # 542 ~ elvis has left the building ...

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Elvis, Marilyn, and Wheel Chairs & More ~ CherryHill-opolis - South Jersey • click to embiggen
... and is standing outside playing his guitar and singing for Marilyn Monroe.

As Marilyn stated - and it seems perfectly suited to this situation - in her autobiography, Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words:

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

Thursday
May062010

relationships # 10

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Les 3 Brasseurs sidewalk cafe ~ Rue St. Paul Est - Old Montreal, CA • click to embiggen

Wednesday
Apr282010

relationships # 9 

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At The Italian Grille ~ Cumberland County, Tennessee • click to embiggen

Tuesday
Mar092010

civilized ku # 416 / relationships # 8 ~ 36 years of hauling mail

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Retirement party mental wandering • click to embiggen
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Retirement party • click to embiggen

Thursday
Feb112010

relationships # 7 ~ primarily primes

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Les 3 Brasseurs moments ~ microbrewery-restaurant, Old Montreal, CA • click to embiggen
One of the things that I have rediscovered by picturing with the EP-1 and prime lenses is the joy of making pictures with prime lens.

Last year, when I acquired my first and then only prime lens for my Olympus E-3 digital camera - a 25mm f2.8 Zuiko pancake - I did so on a complete lark of sorts. I was just plain curious with a side-interest in starting to explore primes with relatively fast apertures for wide open / narrow DOF picturing. I also did so with a bit of apprehension regarding the commitment to picturing with a single focal length lens.

That apprehension was somewhat ameliorated by almost 3 decades of prime lens-only picturing. Prior to my entering the digital age, picture making wise, back in 2002, the only zoom lens that I ever owned was the Nikkor 43-86mm and it spent most of its time sitting around unused. Pre-digital picture making, primes ruled the roost. Period. End of sentence.

And, to be completely accurate, prior to my digital picturing days, I did not even own an AF lens.

All of that said, I was rather surprised to find that the "standard" lens on a dslr was a zoom lens. In fact, it seemed that prime lenses were scarcer than the proverbial hen's teeth. So, it was on with the show and zooms it was.

Long story, short - I became quite acclimated to using zoom lenses. My kit included/includes a 11-22mm, a 14-54mm, and a 50-200mm (22-400mm range, 35mm equiv.). For about 90% of my personal picturing, I used the 11-22mm lens and about 90% of that use was limited to and around the 11mm end of things - not exactly like picturing with a prime, but pretty close.

In any event, I was still a bit concerned about using just a prime lens - you know, things like did I still know how to use my legs and feet instead of a zoom ring to get the framing I wanted? Would I be left out in the world feeling foolish and confused because I didn't have the means / lens to get the shot? You know, dumbass things like that.

Long answer, short - my feet and legs still work and I have yet to feel foolish and confused out in the world of picture making. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that I can live on without ever again mounting a zoom lens on my camera (for personal picturing) - I don't need no stinkin' zooms.

BUT .... I am I asking too much by hoping that lens makers refocus some of their design and manufacturing expertise on producing some fast and compact prime lens? Is there a big enough market / demand out there for such products? Or, are so many "serious" picture makers buying up zooms simply because that's virtually all that's available or is that what the really want?

Any prime lens picture makers out there who might add their 2¢ on the topic? Is anyone discovering, has discovered / re-discovered, the joy of primes?

Monday
Feb012010

relationships # 6 / civilized ku # 370 ~ good eats

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Black Iron Burger ~ E5th Street - East Village, NYC • click to embiggen
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Black Iron Burger patrons ~ E5th Street - East Village, NYC • click to embiggen
I always return from NYC a few pounds heavier and a little more bloated than when I left home. Or so it seems.

That condition is primarily due to the fact that my good friend, the professional chief, with whom always stay, never ever cooks at home. Never. Ever. However, needless to say, he knows all about quite a few exceptionally good places to eat. He also keeps his place with-stocked with Knob Creek Bourbon and designer beers.

Add to that the fact that my favorite NY restaurant, Perbacco (check out the menu), is directly across the street from his place and, well, it's good eats all the time.

FYI, the restaurant pictured above is not Perbacco. It's a great beer and burger joint, Black Iron Burger Shop, on E5th in the East Village.

Wednesday
Jan272010

relationships # 5 / civilized ku # 368 ~ pure, unadulterated populist bullshit - PT. 2

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A Congressman • click to embiggen
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At dinner with the Congressman • click to embiggen
One of the more popular populist lines of BS which has been taken to heart and soul by the poor (or near poor / struggling) deluded "little-guy" saps is that their life would be so much better if the big bad government would just let the market work its magic by getting of the backs of the the ruling oligarchs / oligarchies, re: "burdensome" taxes and "restrictive" regulations. They believe this big lie to be true because the oligarchs and their operatives have told them so and they, the little guys, know that those guys, the oligarchs, never tell a lie.

But, in fact, much more often than not, what's going on in my neck of the woods is a prime example of how the oligarchs are decimating the middle class (not to mention the working poor).

It seems that a big regional energy provider, National Grid (natural gas and electricity), in our area - an enterprise which made $1.5 BILLION in profits last year - has decided to outsource much of its information services work, including software programming, computer networking, and other functions. The net result would be the loss of up to 1,200 jobs in here in the NE region.

This corporate "citizen" is not under any pressure to outsource other than to increase profits. Apparently $1.5 BILLION isn't enough.

A visit to the National Grid's website will result in a tip-toe through the tulips of corporate double-speak wherein they extoll their virtuous "community involvement" and "corporate giving". Hell, they even claim to "support programs designed to help improve the way people live, work and play."

How they can make that claim with anything approaching straight face is way beyond my ability to comprehend.

That stated, what is even further over the horizon of my ability to comprehend is gullibility of people of the "populist" bent who do not grasp the intent - the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away - of this blatant sleight-of-words attempt to distract them from the real business at hand - profits over people, the new gold standard of American business.