A great, manufactured, picture

Americana, Photography, Psychological Musings, Uncategorized,

First, a disclaimer. When I showed this picture to Michele, she didn’t see the cross made by the banner and Romney. Without the cross, it is just a snapshot and I am even more convinced that the photographer was shooting the cross than Michele is that she wasn’t. Of course neither one of us knows for sure. End disclaimer.

I like this picture so much because it seems so “made” rather than “taken”. I can just see the wheels turning in the photographer’s mind.The photographer is Christina Clusiau and I imagine her first shooting from the side. Then seeing the potential of the banner and moving to the center to get Romney and the banner to line up. Then, maybe, getting lower to get the banner higher.

If this had been film, Christina probably would have already shot some pictures with the body on which this lens was mounted – sure, she probably had another body but that would have the wrong lens on it – so she would have to hoard her shots. But today, and this is why digital is so great, she probably started with her camera having a clean card and she probably had atleast a  hundred pictures left. So she could shoot, maybe adjust the light, shoot again, and wait. When Romney looked up beseechingly, maybe pointing to someone to ask a question, she shot again. Making this picture.

When the light is right and the picture is right, it is easy. An almost opposite picture is one I took of Yosemite last year. We were driving through Yosemite to get to the other side of the Sierras which included driving through the Wawona Tunnel. On the other side is the Tunnel Overlook – a National Landmark because of the view – and it was late in the day. The light was great and all we had to do was get out of the car and point the camera in the general direction of El Capitan. The shot below would have been hard not to get.

Glow in the dark

Current Affairs, Psychological Musings, Uncategorized

In an article on looking for a cure/vaccination for AIDS, I read – almost in passing – that they have made a kitty that glows in the dark. It seems that researchers were able to place genes a from a glow in the dark Jelly Fish into a cat’s egg. The glowing gene is used as a marker insuring that the egg accepted an anti-AIDS gene they are working on. This leaves me pretty much speechless. For all sorts of reasons.

One is that the article is so nonchalant about the whole glowing kitty thing. A little bit like the glowing kitty part is something we all know about and the interesting part is the AIDS, well, it is probably more important in the short run, but making a kitty glow in the dark; that is – as Che said about sanitation – revolutionary.  How long before we have Replicants?

Imagine killing somebody

Americana, War

Just think about it for a second. Over the last, say, 65 years – I’m hoping and going with the premise that I didn’t want to kill anybody before I was six – I have wanted to kill many people. Not for long enough to actually imagine what it would be like, more of a That fucker should be shot. kind of killing. But, imagine killing somebody. A man, say, in a dirt poor third world country.

Somebody who doesn’t want the United States there. Maybe they have kids and a wife who depend on them. So you are not just killing them, you are fucking up a whole family. But, hopefully, they don’t have a dependent family. But, surely, they do have a mother and a father who have invested their hopes and dreams in him. Maybe they named him Ibrahim – Abraham – after the founder of their religion, maybe they named him Anthony. What difference does it make? Just think about killing them. Make it easy on yourself, make the killing from a distance with a high powered rifle.

Now watch this video.  I think that it is a simulation – a training film – but, maybe not. Either way, this is what it is like to kill a person today.