Time to bury the hatchet???

May 3, 2016
Red Cloud, Nebraska

Anyone who knows me is probably tired of my rants about the unholy trinity of corporate America, the purveyors of the big lie, Walmart, Disney, and McDonalds, three toxic entities that have actually convinced the American public that they are public service organizations that exist only for the greater good while they poison the bodies, souls and minds of our countrymen and consign our young to lives of meaningless servitude while they rake in billions.  But I am not here to rant, I am here to reconsider.

Today was an amazing day in American history and American politics.  The very people whose minds and souls have been destroyed by the above named organizations have contributed to the election of Donald Turnip to represent the republican party for president of the United States.  They say countries get the leaders they deserve, and of this I have no doubt.

As I lay in bed in the Willa Cather House in Red Cloud Nebraska, writing this, I am reflecting on another quite strange occurrence which happened today.  While driving from Omaha to Lincoln Nebraska, Jackie was driving and I was amusing myself by taking pictures of clouds from the car window at 60 miles per hour with no particular intent.  Later in the day, while reviewing my shots, I came upon one that was so totally improbable that it gave pause for thought.  So far, this hasn't been a good year for photos for any number of reasons, primarily bad weather everywhere we've been and a bad attitude on my part.  Until today that is, when an impossible confluence of factors produced the following drive by shooting that occurred with no forethought or intent.

Walmart reached out to me and gave me hope.  The only conclusion to be drawn is that there is something wonderful about Nebraska that even makes Walmart look good.  So today the impossible has happened.  Donald Turnip has been nominated to lead our country and I took this totally unintended photo that magically broke the spell of my 2016 loosing streak thus far.  Maybe its time for me to bury the hatchet and stop hating the Walmart big lie and stop by to shop for some of the cheap chinese shit they purvey to the poor souls who have lost their jobs because the work they used to do is now being done for almost nothing by chinese slave laborers in their coal soot spewing factories.   

I can feel Walmart reaching out to me, but it sounds like I might still have a few anger issues to work through before I can set foot in a Walmart.  But the photo is a good start.

                                                              Pablo 

US I, Miami to Key West....

One of the most amazing drives in America, a country that does not want for spectacular scenery, is the southernmost stretch of US I, the 160 mile stretch of highway that runs from Miami to Key West, a road that connects an archipelago of tropical hideaways, if you happen to be wanting to escape, which at one point takes you across a 7 mile bridge surrounded by nothing but Caribbean blue waters.

The first few times I made the trip south from Miami was with Linda in 1978 and 79, late to the scene, but well before Key West became a cruise ship port o'call disgorging thousand of voracious tourists a day, and turning Duval Street into a tropical shopping mall lined with Tee shirt shops selling cheap shit from China and faux Hemingway hangouts selling expensive neon colored drinks to middle aged couples in search of authenticity.  Not saying I hit the glory years, but in '78 and '79 Key West was still a raunchy sexually tropical wild west we were there, where after 3 or 5 cheap drinks all hell broke loose.  Wasn't shooting much at that time, so  the only photos I have are the ones in my head of Linda and I drunk and stumbling down Duval from one of the ubiquitous peep shows to the next, grabbing a booth, dropping in a few quarters and having a go at it along with the fellow travelers on the screen sharing our passions.  That was then, and this is now...

The road from Miami to Key West is 160 miles.   I know that because that's what it says at the Midway Cafe where we stopped for a coffee, but it was closed for the day, which is often the case for us...

But now I am an just another existentially attenuated old hobo seeking comfort in the past, seeing myself in the rest of the tourists wandering down a different Duval Street than I remember, and not liking what I see.

But as I always like to say, if you get even one good photo, its been a great day, so in addition to having a pretty great taco somewhere I can't remember at the moment, I got this nice picture of the Strand at the far end of Duval...

Pablo

One great Afro...

March 4, 2016
Was walking home from the gallery, which is about 3 blocks from the house when I saw this young woman walking up the street in my direction and I thought "that's the best looking Afro I've seen since the mid 70's".  Its a great look and I always wondered why it went out of style.  As we passed, I asked her if I could take her picture.  She asked why and I told her I loved her hair and taking pictures is what I do and she said ok, wondering what she was getting herself into.  The quizzical look on her face reflects her wonderment about this strange request from this strange old guy with a camera.   I didn't ask her name because I didn't want to push it.

Below is a photo of the strange old guy (me) taken in the gallery about an hour before.  As I said in my 2015 annual report, I did very well last year and it may be a hard act to follow, so I may have to find interest and adventure closer to home. 

Pablo

Pablo's fish eye misadventures...

I have never owned a fish eye lens or any other devise to manipulate an image and still don't, but by some mistake of trial and error fiddling around in the Light Room lens correction area, I discovered a setting that allowed me to create a fish eye effect that turned out to provide the solution I didn't even know I was looking for to deal with a few problemsome images I had taken that had potential but somehow left me flat emotionally and aesthetically unsatisfied, so manipulate I did, with quite satisfying results that my teacher Arthur Leipzig would have given me hell for, like the time I submitted a sepia toned photo for an assignment and was admonished for handing in something that "looked like I rubbed shit on it".  He was a purist from the old school and he was kind of right but sometimes extreme measures are required to pull something out of the dust bin of photos that were almost good enough.  My first effort at artifice was an image I liked a lot when I took it, but never felt satisfied with later because I knew there was something there but it wasn't coming across.

All the elements of a compelling image were there, but they didn't add up.  The whole was not greater than the sum of the parts.  And then I started to fool around with the distortion bar in the lens correction setting and it all came together in a tight composition with a touch more saturation and contrast that just reached out and grabbed me...

Sometimes you take pictures, sometimes you need to create an image....

Today I was puzzling over another photo I sort of liked a lot when I took in Silver City, New Mexico that seemed to have the potential to be a good image, but it also fell flat as it was.   

It was a good enough picture but it left me craving more.  Its a feeling that's hard to explain, but when its there (or not there) you know it.  There was just something lacking, so after trying a few adjustments that didn't do anything for me, I hit the distortion bar, pedal to the metal, and just couldn't stop.  Here the manipulation is blatant and unapologetic, but as an image, it works.  I don't want to rely on artifice, but I don't want to be a rigid purist left holding the bag on a good photo that wasn't quite good enough and ended up being relegated to the trash heap of photos that sort of seemed good enough at the time but didn't pan out in the end.  I've got enough of those.

Pablo

Addendum:

3/9/16

Till now, I haven't taken a photo with the intention of distorting it to make an impression, but I'm not getting around as much these days, so I have to make the best of my limited range of activity.  We just got back from Stony Brook, Long Island where we spent a few days attending the funeral of our brother in law Billy's mother.  I have always admired this post office in Stony Brook, built in 1941 as part of a pleasantly successful effort to recreate a New England village on the north shore of the island, although of late many of the residents are not happy about the fact that the previously utilitarian shops (butcher, baker, hardware, grocery, etc) have been replaced by trendy boutiques and fancy eateries.  So goes America, but as of now, the post office abides.  I present it here, before and after, with modifications to enhance its graphic impact,  Hope I am not reduced to this degree of artifice to keep my output interesting.

I shot this knowing it would need some "post production" work to make it a more compelling image and I think it worked out well...

Pablo, otra vez

Back to Cozumel Mexico for just one more beer (or two)...

2/21/16

It's been a while since my last posting, I know, and I have been needing to jumpstart myself.  Haven't been out much since out Thanksgiving week in Miami and there hasn't been  much to say.  Jackie fractured her ankle and has been laid up, its been overcast and gloomy in Albany, and I haven't taken any new pictures till recently although I have been at the gallery as much as possible, printing furiously to catch up on the backlog of work that remains undone when you are out in the field.  In spite of Jackie's fragile circumstances we managed to get out of the cold and make it down to Cozumel and the Florida Keys for 3 weeks.   

If you've been following the blog, I'm sure you recognize some of the old photos in this posting to catch you up on our 9/14/11 return to Cozumel after who knows how many years, and my delight in finding out that indeed, that it was not just some alcohol inducted Gilligan Island fantasy/delusion, but the exact place I had been dreaming about, untouched, unchanged, and unAmerican.  No malls, no hotels, no shirt ...no shoes...no problema!!!  The same 15 or 20 grass thatched huts scattered along the coast,  peeking out of the jungle overlooking the ocean selling cheap beers and tequila shots and questionably edible food.  Couldn't find Lucho, our faithful manservant of old, so hoping that maybe he's moved along since we last saw him 5 years ago...

As I mentioned last time, when I first posted this picture, it is not photoshopped.  It was taken as is, and just happens to be perfect, that's all;  kind of what the world looks like on an idlic tropical island after 3 or 4 (maybe 5) beers.  The place looks the same, only I've gotten older...

....the bar, Señor Iguana, Marilyn Azul, the gift shop and the beach.  Since we circled the island in the reverse, Mezcalito was our first stop heading in reverse direction toward Punta Sur...

Not much has changed as I said and what has changed looks the same as what was there before, so just a few new photos taken on the road to Punta Sur to close out my Cozumel state of mind thing, and if I don't get back, no biggie...

Be sure to check out the 9/14/11 Cozumel posting...

                                                                             Pablo

Addendum...

Found this photo of Jackie and me in Cozumel the first time around, when Cozumel was just a port o' call for us on a cruise we took with my father and sister...

                                                                             Pablo

Year end report...

12/21/15

As I always like to say, there is something uniquely American about America.  It is a generous country.   If you ride around in circles long enough, it is likely to reward you with a few good photos.  It has been a good year for travel, pictures, and things in general, so a few more nice photos to close the year out and I'll see you in 2016.  Here are the best of a pretty good bunch of photos from the year which you would be familiar with if you have been following the blog...A hard act to follow, I'm starting to feel some performance anxiety about next year...

Cheers!!!

Pablo 

A walk on the beach...Miami Beach...

November 30, 2015...

This year Jackie and I decided to spend Thanksgiving 2015 in Miami Beach not eating turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, in fact now that it is a few days after the fact, I can't remember what we ate, which was the whole idea, after all.  The Royal Palm at16th and Collins Ave had free bikes on loan, my favorite way to travel, you can go slow enough to see everything up close, stop wherever you want, and cover a lot more ground than on foot.  I was, therefore, able to continue working on my project of taking pictures of all the lifeguard stations in Miami.  The one above is probably the most photographed and while I'm sure that mine breaks no new ground, you are now at least aware of it and its siblings.   The weather was strange.  It was warm, but partly cloudy most of the week and the wind blew almost constantly at about 20+ mph with gusts in the 30s, although we should count ourselves lucky because beginning the day after we left, the week of 12/3-12/7 during the annual uber Art Basal event,  it rained incessantly for days, flooding Collins Ave. and putting a damper on  the event and ruining a lot of Jimmy Choo's.

We were there on November 27th as you can see, Devora's birthday and she wasn't too happy about it but really it was for the best since going up to Ottawa would have been a burden on her given all the other goings on in her busy life these days.  I think she did appreciate it in the end, at least I hope she did.

It is always a burden on me to present pictures in some kind of meaningful order and therefore this was the last lifeguard station I took on 11/30 as Jackie and I were taking our farewell Miami walk on the beach at about 5 pm, just before getting ready to catch a cab to the airport and wishing we didn't have to leave.

As I always like to say, there is something uniquely American about America, (and there is something magical about the lighting in late afternoon).

I read that a number of years ago the city of Miami Beach had some kind of competition in which they asked architects to design lifeguard stations, and these are some.  Many of the earlier ones were  washed away by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and this provided the opportunity to extend the deco theme to the beach front.  These are some of the more interesting ones I saw as well a bunch of other  sights seen during my walks on the beach and boardwalk.  There is so much going on, this is only a sampling.

 

Depending on which direction you are walking, this lifeguard station is the first or last one, down by the jetty at 1st Street and Ocean Drive.  It is one of the original ones deriving from the design competition which was not washed away by the hurricane a number of years ago and replaced by something a bit more generic.  The next three pictures are objects if interest found  along the way.

Not exactly sure what they were getting at here, but I didn't take the time to check it out.  If water sports are your thing, Miami might be the place...

So that's the short report on my/our Thanksgiving in Miami.  Not everyone was happy with our choice, but we had a great time...a lot of exotic drinks to fuel the excursion, lazing around a number of amenably interesting hotel lobbies for happy hour, and late afternoon pina coladas at the News Cafe enjoying the sights, heavy on the floaters....Cheers!!!

                                                                       Pablo