All Too True

I received the joke below, sent to me by e-mail, under the subject heading of "This is good". The sender thought it was funny... I found it all too true...

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

It is unfortunate that if you dare criticize the current administration, you are labeled someone who "hates freedom". What the hell does that mean?? It reminds me of the Clinton years, where everyone was doing everything "for the children", whatever that meant, and if you didn't like the policy, you somehow must hate children!

We have gone from a left wing liberal government to a right wing fascist government, not just conservative, but one that is erroding our freedoms under the banner of freedom, fascism by any other name. We were told to fear the "red" under the bed... do we now fear the terrorist on the terrace or the anarchist in the attic? I wonder how many government agencies are reading this blog right now... makes you wonder where our supposed freedoms have gone...

Some are more equal than others

Just read a story on Yahoo about a "retired doctor, a regular with his wife at their local Baptist church", that bought a DVD of Doris Day in "Pajama Game" and found instead a porn movie. Now this would not have been interesting in the least, except for their response:

"It was a pretty raunchy, explicit film, it certainly pulled no punches. My wife and I were very shocked but we watched it until the end because we couldn't believe what we were seeing."

Ya... right. So much for the righteous right and their fanaticism about sex, gay marriage, and controlling everything we see and do. Apparently, it's okay for THEM to see and do as they please, just not everyone else! Reminds me of the line in Animal Farm:
"All animals are equal, But some animals are more equal than others".


Doris Day Link

Cost of War

I found a new link concerning the war our esteemed president has chosen to involve us in. What affects me the most is the cost comparisons to other ways the money could have been used... at this writing, almost twenty million children educated for a year, over ninety million children insured for a year, and over seven million college scholarships. I guess health and intelligence are not valued in a society where cannon fodder is needed.
Don't get me wrong... there was a great evil in Iraq and no one was willing to address it in any meaningful way. But how is it possible to justify over a thousand of our young soldiers deaths, over 100,000 civilian deaths, including children? Aggression is not the answer... it is the problem.
Ultimately, the lies put forth by this administration have destroyed our standing in the world, and, even though I find far too many countries just as culpable in this matter, I also feel the only way for a powerful nation such as ours to make any kind of difference is to be respected, not feared. Any thoughts?

Digital Prices

In a previous post discussing digital cameras, someone commented that "The technology will increase and the price will drop. Just as it has for computers."
I must disagree with this statement. I have found that every computer I have bought has run me around three grand. Although each generation did more than the last, I required that it do so, so ended up having to buy those models that provided the increased functionality. If I had bought a computer that was exactly like my older one I would have paid less for that, but what would be the point? The older one wasn't broken! It seems to be the case with technology today... we don't replace things that are broken, we replace perfectly good things with things that do even more stuff!
The same can be said of digital cameras. The new Canon body runs eight grand, without lenses, flash, or just about anything else you may need to actually create a photo. And although previous models fall in price, the professional photographer will need the more advanced cameras. They may not need the highest priced Canon, but surely they could not use the Digital Rebel entry camera either (under a grand for that one... with a lens!). If all they had was that, it would be quite possible to meet a client with the exact same camera! And although it is the photographers EYE that creates the image, it is the client that will infer they can do just as well since they have the same model as the photographer they are hiring.
Prices aren't falling at all. They are remaining the same, just with more attachments!

The Price of the Digital Revolution

Although the advent of digital imaging has opened many paths, it has also seemed to have devalued others. My old reliable Hasselblad equipment is a good example. In the past, it has always retained its value, even as it has aged, something 35mm cameras were never able to do. They were so reliable and well built, that the market for them was always strong.
Now, because of the digital revolution, a Hasselblad's value has fallen dramatically. I would be lucky to get half of what I paid for mine now. In some ways, this seems very sad to me. We seem to be devaluing our past accomplishments for the glitter of what is new and fashionable. I assume that every generation goes through this, and it is just my turn to do the same. Any comments on this and similar phenomena out there?

The Digital Revolution

I have the new photo album started, and it is bringing up some interesting observations...

The advent of the digital revolution has really changed my views on photographic imaging! I would never have started a project where I just photographed things that popped into my view during the day. It is as if the entire process of film developing and printing was somehow "sacred", and only "worthy" images were meant to be recorded in such a fashion, especially if you used an "elite" camera system such as the Hasselblad! In some ways, film was holding me back, making me only shoot when "there was something to say", even though it was I all along that was attaching value to the subject in question, making it have a value or be of no value, as I saw fit.

Make no mistake... I do not feel film is somehow inherently elitist -- It is we that make it so. I still see great advantages to the film process... it is still able to capture far greater contrast ranges than does digital (at least in the black and white imaging that I am used to), and there is just something about creating an image in the darkroom that I feel sadly missing in my digital work on the computer. Although I am able to produce far more than when I used a darkroom, and I even feel some of my images are far more coherent and well thought out, I also miss the "feel" of the paper, the smell of the chemistry, the glow of the enlarger light in a safelit room.

I have also become willing to shoot in color, something that I avoided in the past. I have never felt charged with the energy I feel (when shooting in black and white), and the addition of color far too greatly subdues the form, shape, and tone of an image, making these powerful statements subservient to the color spectrum. Yet, somehow, digital seems to lend itself to capturing the moment, and that moment seems to be in color, at least for now.

Photo Album

Well, at least I've figured out how to add photo albums to this thing! Kind of a long process if you ask me! So far just the one album with photographs from the recent Shambhala Level V that I attended. Quite an experience that! I believe it was quite a significant step in this Buddhist path I am on... even if I do trip on a stone or two along the way!

I am just starting to photograph more with the digital Canon S70 and hopefully will have some things to show soon. My current project is photographing whatever interesting things jump into my view while I am out and about... hmmm... possibly a good title for the album...

Updates and such

An odd thing, these blogs. You seem to spend much time on them, but they essentially remain the same. Plus ca change, c'est la meme chose?

I've added some new links, although I still can't figure out how to create a rounded corner block around that section as are the 'About Me' and 'Previous Posts' sections. If you haven't visited yet, go see Dharma the Cat and EyesCoffee... two of my fav's!

I've also got AdSense (against my better sense!) just because they said the magic word 'money'! So, although I am sending email to friends saying click on the adds so I can make money, I am only joking. Click on the adds numerous times so I can makes LOADS OF MONEY!!

Blogging Frustrations

Getting somewhat frustrated with this blogging page already! I can't seem to post an image into my profile and I wanted to have some graphics on the sidebars, but being worse than an HTML novice (what comes before novice... ignoramous?), I have no idea what coding I need. It already took over an hour of searching to figure out how to just list links on the sidebar!

I downloaded something called HELLO, which seems to be okay, but when I uploaded an image, it just made it a new posting instead of leaving it at some URL somewhere where I could refer to it in my profile. I am sure I am being clear as mud... go figure!

If anyone out there in bloggerland knows what I am talking about, any help would be appreciated (after your laughter dies down, of course!).

Oh... and since I didn't say it before... Happy New Year! Of course, it's still the Year of the Wood-Monkey for many, so I'll say it again in February when it becomes the Year of the Wood-Rooster... assuming I remember!

A New Year

It's the morning of a new year! And in the spirit of things new, I thought I would write about some new views I have concerning photography.
As a photography instructor at a local community college (I don't teach in college... I teach in COMMUNITY COLLEGE!), I have seen amazing changes come about in the photographic profession in the last few years. Some die hards may think these changes are destroying what was photography, but I choose to see it as just one of those many hiccups we get throughout our lives.
Digital imaging is a new frontier, and we shouldn't be afraid of it. Even though all of our traditional views and processes are going by the wayside, new and challenging ideas are being created out of the debris!
It pains me to say it, but film is dead. Get over it. Ilford's film division is in bankruptcy, it is getting harder and harder to find professional films even in large cities, my favorite black and white paper (Ektalure) isn't even made any more, and digital output is all but indistinguishable from traditional forms of photographic output. I am even considering selling off all of my precious Hasselblad equipment! I shudder just writing that last line! Or perhaps I shutter...
As an experiment, I have purchased a Canon PowerShot S70 digital camera, a higher end point-and-shoot (is that an oxymoron?) and the Canon CP-330 dye sublimation printer that seems to go well with it. It has manual settings, and even a primitive manual focus (ha ha!), but let's face it, it's going to get used in Program! The initial tests are quite promising, and I notice that I am shooting far more than I have been in the last few years. It looks like it may be time to really sell off that old equipment and invest in a real digital SLR. Sigh. Change sure is a pain...