miscellany "HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND"

oh man, this looks like my kind of place!

!!!!

Thanks Linda and Drew. Much appreciated.

It is an interesting night frame ,with what looks a huge ice cream cone....( my preferred sweet.....;-)) the black and white( night) atmosphere is very well presented and a good choice. I wonder if it was photographed with a flash? I would have liked a bit more details on the ice cream, it is huge and overexposed, which leads the eye and is a competition to the rest, I like the walking man in the FG giving the scene a nice Dof and helping in presenting the action. A nice place to spent some time there.... ;-))

This was at the county fair. I'm not much of one for crowds, but I do love a fair, or a small town celebration. Something comforting about old-fashioned traditions I guess. Anyway, this was taken with a point and shoot, and I don't think the flash would have done anything but illuminate the sidewalk immediately in front of me. I guess I could have gotten closer. But it really wasn't meant to be crisp, clear and full of detail, so much as to give an atmosphere and a feeling.

A strange mood due to the strong light of the ice-cream-roof dominating the whole image...interesting to see you have used a song lyrics for your title, something I've also tried (in parallel) lately...image and music are so much part of our life (for the better)....

Thanks. I often quote Simon & Garfunkel, as I not only like their music, but love some of their lyrics. After Bob Dylan, I don't think anyone has ever written lyrics so well as they did. In this and many other situations, I'm tempted to extend the words about the words of the prophets being written on tenement halls and subway walls, to include the signage that inundates us daily. But there is often more history that prophesy in what they tell us.

kinda surreal. Halloween fitting. I hope that "Bubbas" doesn't refer to the stuff he digs out of his nose with his index finger. I think I'll turn the Xmas light on now. Cheers, Micheal

You sure know how to put your finger on these iconic scenes. "Have canoe and camera; off to explore the tributaries that branch away from the main river."

Boy would I love to take you two to the fair. I think that would be a riot.

"Big Bubba's Bad BBQ"

 

You livin' down South, boy?

 

David, this is a great shot. Tell me this is greater Atlanta somewhere, not really California.

 

--Lannie

No, it is right here in California. The Big Fresno Fair. I grew up in Iowa, where one of the biggest state fairs is held each year. We went every year, and it's a habit I still have. Except that now I have to settle for the Fresno Fair. I still get a kick out of them.

FWIW, in the south, every guy is called "Bubba".

 

This is another great capture of American culture. I love the alliteration in the sign. It lends an additional element of absurdity to the gigantic ice cream cone.

 

Great stuff!

 

michael

Thanks. Much appreciated.

You can take the boy outta Iowa.....

 

 

Somewhere, there's a funnel cake that needs some love.

 

 

(I think the glowing cone is hysterical).

Thanks. Yeah, that sucker could erupt at any minute. Imagine that. The headlines would read, "Thousands of fair goers inundated in mountains of ice cream." "Search goes on for victims."

This assumes, of course, that the victims would want to be rescued from such a tasty catastrophe.

Dave;

 

I love it ! Everything is so much ' larger than life ' in a down home comfortable sort of way, like old friends trading fishing stories after a few brews. You said that fish was HOW big ??

 

You have a gift for turning the limitations of a P&S camera into genius.

Thanks for such high praise. Even if undeserved it is much appreciated.

It's interesting that you used the S&G lyric here. Having grown up nearby their Flushing haunts in Queens, Sounds of Silence always struck me as such a city song. Use of it at a county fair with the kitsch accompaniment of bad BBQ and ice cream is jarring for me, who always associated the song with the isolation of the nighttime city streets and a more inner voice.

 

I like the over-the-top highlights, especially at the BBQ stand where the light mingles with the smoke. The blurriness of the light and smoke, on the other hand, feels strange. Did you add a photoshop glow or was that the exposure?

 

The indifference of the man walking by to it all is palpable and in tune with all the backs of the people being turned toward the camera.

 

There's a certain sense of limbo I get looking at this. It's a staged set, to an extent, but a very in-between moment, which is a nice device for telling a story.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. You always bring so much to the table. First, let me say that I used the S & G song title, because I have always been in love with their lyrics. While I see your point about viewing this as a kind of urban anthem, I don't think it must necessarily be so. But aside from that, I thought I could get away with just disassociating the words I used from the song. The strong light is countered by the shadows and darkness, and isn't that the way lives are?

 

I used several processes that I don't think you would normally approve of. :-) I think the one that contributed most to the appearance you mentioned was the "diffuse glow" filter.

 

I won't say that this image does a good job of capturing it, but what I love about this type of scene is all that can be read into it. The hard working vendors that struggle to eke out a living, the loners looking for companionship, the lovers lost in their own revelries, the carnies waiting for tomorrow to bring something more promising into their lives, the entertainers that dream of a discovery that will take them out of the fair circuit, and the list goes on and on. And then there is just the plain absurdity and ourtrageousness of a fair. Over the top is the fair, and perhaps the image too.

The title is jarring to me because of my own associations with and feeling about the song. For me, particularly this opening lyric doesn't easily disassociate itself. We agree that it shouldn't necessarily be taken that way by anyone else.

I view technique within the context of the given photo, (i.e., how it reads to me visually, how it relates to the content of the photo, etc.). I sense you're being tongue-in-cheek, but I meant no approval or disapproval of your methods. My comment on the glow was based on what I'm seeing and my own taste, and may or may not ring true for you.