Loyalty

By Scott Shephard

On August 6, 2011, 30 US troops, including 22 Navy Seals, died in action when the helicopter they were riding in was shot down in Afghanistan. One of these soldiers was John Tomlinson and on the day of his funeral, his dog Hawkeye was allowed to attend.

As a precedent for today's post, you need to click here to see where Hawkeye chose to lie during the funeral. You might even want to read the article that accompanies the photo. I had seen the story about Tomlinson and his beautiful dog a couple weeks ago and today, when I was looking for something to post, I encountered a photo I had taken of the Monument to William of Orange in the New Church in Delft, Netherlands.

William was murdered by assassins' bullets, but his loyal dog, clearly oblivious to political machinations and violence, seems to wait patiently for his master to rise to action. Hawkeye, oblivious to precedents and analogies, was said to have sighed as he lay by Jon Tomlinson's coffin on the day his master was laid to rest.

First Color

The Last Days of Summer

A Sign of Summer

I'm not sure if this macro photo of an ear of sweet corn is too abstract or not but when I was unwrapping this ear to prepare for tonight's supper, I knew I had to stop what I was doing and photograph it.I liked the beautiful soft glow of window light on the deep yellow kernels. I also liked the symmetry of the rows, though there is an interesting asymmetry at the focal point of the photo. Nothing's perfect, I guess.I was about to take the tenth photo in the series when Deb told me to put my camera down so we could eat. I think the 11th photo would have been the masterpiece of corn macros. She's a bit of a spoil sport sometimes. :-(Canon 5DII 1/60s f/4.5 ISO800 100mm

Summer Morning

Prairie Home

He's Been Framed!

Alte Pinakothek

Avalon

This sailboat is owned and operated by Steve and Kitty. It is a Tartan 32 (?) and it lives just a fews slips down from Wandering Star. It the kind of boat I wouldn't mind moving up to some day. Yes, I have boat envy. What would Freud say?

Standing Out

If you saw yesterday's post you might recognize this flower. Is it really the exact same tulip that Katie is holding? Only the tulip knows.But, like dandelions, this tulip is a genetic clone. It is an exact duplicate of all the other lavender tulips that came in the package of bulbs my wife planted. That's what you get when you have self-pollination and asexual reproduction. Humans, on the other hand, are a rich and varied species. Human duplication (I'm trying not to use the word "sex" here) is a little less convenient but the results are worth it.Which is to say that I'm glad I'm not a tulip. . .

A Bit of Color

I generally don't like selective coloring, which is what this photo illustrates. It's done in Photoshop. Compositionally, this is very simple photo but the software processing wasn't - I ultimately had 6 different layers in this photo. A goal was to emphasis the flower, which would have been the focal point even if I had done nothing to the photo.But I also wanted to soften the skin texture in Katie's hands, blur parts of the photo but keep the detail in the bodice of the dress.

Fairy Tale

This is not your every day walk in the park; it's Brian and Katie walking in the park. Overdressed? I don't think so.