people
01-24-13 Self Portrait With Red Chair and Wooden Thing
01-23-13 Threesome
Here are three of my Lake Area Technical Institute photo/media students taking photo at the Coke Museum in Atlanta. I enjoyed our visit to the museum, though I think it is interesting that throngs of people (like us) are willing to pay Coca Cola Company $16 to be immersed in a giant advertisement. America: it's a great country.Canon 5DIII 1/400s f/10.0 ISO1600 22mm
01-22-13 The Promised Land
On the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, TN, Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed a small group of people. And in that speech he said
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life--longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now… I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”
The cause he was in Memphis to help further was a strike by the newly formed Sanitation Workers Union, who were working to get better pay and improved working conditions. One of the signs that the strking workers carried said, "I am a man."Yesterday, as I returned to my hotel, I rounded the corner on to Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta and encountered the Martin Luther King Day Parade. It was an eclectic affair, comprised of groups representing the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the "Free Tibet" movement. And many more.The group photographed here carried replica signs that copied and extended the message of the Memphis sanitation workers union: "I am still a Man."On the day after a black man took the oath of office for the presidency of the United States, I am left thinking about "the promised land." No, America isn't the promised land and I don't think Barack will lead us there. But I believe we have moved much closer to the promise that the US holds for all of its citizens.Two days ago, I gave up my seat at the front of the bus to an elderly black woman, who smiled pleasantly at me as she sat. I was not trying to make a statement. I was not thinking about race. I was only doing what was right. Today, I realize that perhaps my act stands as a small symbol of the promise King spoke about the night before he died.
01-15-13 At Ease
"And now," as Rocky would say, "for something completely different."Yes, the voyeur in me had to capture this scene: a man, sleeping quietly in a Denver, CO, park being watched by a squirrel. And, for my loyal readers, a trivia question: who was Rocky?
01-09-12 Mike, Scott & Clarence in Las Vegas
I have been to Las Vegas only once, and this photo documents the highlight of that visit: our hotel had a swimming pool! That's my brother Mike and my dad sitting on the diving board. And the story I am told (because I don't remember it) is that when no one was looking, little 7-year-old Scotty went out to the edge of the board and jumped in. The problem was that Scotty really didn't know how to swim. Whether that event occurred before or after the photo was taken, I can't say.This photo doesn't pass the test as far as quality photos are concerned: it has compositional issues and the photographer (my mom?) posed us with our backs to the sun, leading to underexposed faces. But like billions of other bad vacation snap shots, it is still an important photo - at least in my personal history.This photo, incidentally, was in an album that my aunt Betty had kept. In managing her estate, we ended up with several of her photo albums and it is obvious to me that even though she lived in California, her South Dakota family was very important to her.
01-07-13 Scott & Mike
01-03-12 Mi Amigos
12-25-12 Ocean View
It occurs to me that I should be posting something a little more seasonal, given that is is Christmas Day. But instead I give you young love, as seen from the inside of an abandoned building.It also occurs to me that the photographer can be a bit of a voyeur at times and that the camera is a willing accomplice.