GerrySiegel

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Just arrived today, and looking forward to do more than peruse this fat volume. How does one peruse a 400 page softcover book anyway? I know that other owners have kvetched about the Olympus manual which is not a quick field guide to this -er complicated- menu camera, ( did the engineers leave out anything likeo compass variation on hikes org.hjt. sunset times by latitude?) so others like me may want to cough up 23 bucks and spring for the book. All I can say is that it looks professionally assembled with color pictures and good indexing. And tosses in some freebies on digi picture taking too...... I will write a mini review after a week or so, don't rush me..... I have hesitated to send in my camera to factory, no camera still won't connect to my HDMI HD TV input from the micro D cable...bummer that. Not a big fat deal but surprising to see a dead port on top of line model.... HDMI is the current best (until something new gets standard approval...)standard to mate with my Panasonic TV for review and live shooting even, although I PAD is avaiabe but not 37" glorious inches, righrt? I am under warranty but decided to hsng in there until I can test the other ports like the audio stereo input with my external TASCAM mic. (Glad that Oly answerd their hotline fast (from Ecuador or Colombia, nice person got to add) but said rep only confirms that I may have to send it to the factory and do the on line form fill out etc. I hate to let the camera go. (Why because I like it a lot and it has become my go to machine, even beyond my very nice Lumix GH3. The camera has a well crafted RRS Arca Swiss base intimately designed to fit this model like it was grafted on by an orthopedist. Recommended, Fits like a sports bra....:-) Don't mention the cost.. yeah I sprung for the 12-35 Lumix a year ago, capitalist am I ..Hey.If not for top of the line camera I would spend my discretionary leftovers on cruises up the Amazon or genealogy trips on river boats down the Danube. Or a helicopter hire to land on a New Zealand glacier. You say why not do both? Reason is wife hates air travel... prefers first class or business and did not reveal said preference while dating:-)..need to learn solo travel again avec camera bag and backpack.... Actually, I have been thinking of portraiture again. May save for a session with an experienced model to get back in the mode or go to local community college with wall signs...Model Mayhem is a non starter I have found in islands, waist of time with y yokels who post with no intention of working and modeling is WORK..........when you have to pay and teach posing, it works not for me, sorry. Back to the purpose of the post. Someone was waiting for a Rosetta Stone for this new flagship one man band machine. So......Stand by for a recommendation on the book. Hey 23 bucks... same as .one 16 gb SD card. Right, sportsfans? aloha, gs<div></div>

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I think it is not heat but moisture and microorganisms. I would expect TAMRAC to be aware of deterioration problems with some of their inserts ( or adhesives if that applies) and give you a credit to a new bag or replacement bag. I keep my bags open to air as much as possible and give them a sunbath periodically. A little UV radiation I mean. Some plastics and organic materials are more resistant than others and I believe companies are learning how to mix the resistant chemicals into the product. Let company know your experience. Greasy is the plastic trying to return to its long molecule fuel oil origins...chemistry majors can say if that is likely....gs

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Charles, I think I can understand your perspective even as I disagree with your conclusion as it relates to this iconic image. I learned several things in the discussion that I had forgotten or never knew. And I just now looked up and read another article that looked at the fate of the flag raisers, the subjects themselves. Three were killed in action and one was wounded in that war. As to the parameters of the discussion, Fred, it is not my call as to the relevance of any opinion even if I don't dig it. Guess I am more on the side of putting a rope around a discussion which may be the result of my last career job. (team leader at group meetings which were task oriented in lieu of all night rap sessions or group chats or book discussions.) I had the same problem btw when I led a book discussion, i.e. trying to set out some closure or consensus or what have you.... No I do not see my way clear to judge any opinion when it stimulates conversation which is the goal after all in this sort of space. Still, in the conversation mode, guess I reserve the right to challenge (in my mind or on computer) an opinion that wanders away from my sense of history or facts as I understand them. My philosophy on war and peace? It's complicated. In a sense everything can be propaganda and journalistic propaganda is not always contemptible. Hmm. Latter could be basis for a new offshoot discussion. I look at and salute the flag with pride without hesitation. And this is what I see in the image, blindingly bright as well as citizens in combat who did as grim job for us. Although I will critique the Prussian or Bushido warrior mentality when I see it without a blink. No conflict in holding those two thoughts together, in my mind.

"What difference does it make who took the picture? I took it, but the Marines took Iwo Jima." So wrote Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal (1911 – 2006) ten years after snapping the world famous image of the four U.S. Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima. He explains the remarkable impact that the photo had on the American psyche as well as the popular culture on the American home front, both during the war and afterward. Rosenthal was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for capturing on film one of the notable events of W.W. II and briefly explains that the three surviving men who participated in the event were thrust into fame for years afterward. So if we look at the photograph in light of the history of photojournalism, I suggest we have to respond to at lest a few questions: - Is it intellectually honest? In my view yes. If not, I say the burden of proof is with those who say no. That has not been convincingly evidenced in this discussion. We are all pacifists at heart, if we are sane. No one brags about smell of cordite or napalm I mean.... - Does it deserve status of classic in sense that it is memorable of the event in light of the time in question. Did the press and then the U.S. public see it as powerful and tributary. I say yes, especially in light of its use as the model for a much visited bronze monument. - Was and is it aesthetically and technically good as an image, something that stops and makes you look and think"? Well if we assigned a sculptor like Houdon to do a memorial for the Marine Corps, the placement of warriors "works." - Does it glorify an ugly war? Or all war? Only a certain frame of mind will strain to argue that from the photo itself. Just one photo, widely reproduced and known to generations and their offspring. That is how I look at the flag raising image.

Honolulu harbor from top floor of the Pacific Guardian tower. Notice that modern long bow vessel at the pier. A gazillion dollar yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. Crew of fifty. Has not only swimming pool but helicopter pad. I bet the chow is not bad either......<div></div>

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Michael : Whoops. Sorry old chap I got my Michael mixed up with my Colin whom I intended to quote. It happens, alas. (Knuckles rapped sound:;;ouch that hurts) I agree btw with the previous comment, it goes without saying that each image evokes a large and diverse response. Makes an image classic for that reason alone even if it were not a stirring subject, a good design and a moment of moments in a long battle that is mostly going to be history and a short paragraph in the bloody island campaign saga. Okinawa. Tarawa. Guadalcanal. Marianas. Leyte Gulf. More.

Hey Sanford. Neurotics and borderline psychotics make up the artistic fraternity. ( Van Gogh is great even with a fetish to self multilate) If the urge to capture all meals and all nuances of our mugs on film, why then it can become a compulsion. Like collecting old cameras. We all knew that photography used to be just chemistry and luck, right? Ever since the craft became collectible art and got into the fancies of the common herd, it soon enough became a pathology. Nothing that is not a pathology is very interesting. Take your NW forum. Some folks track down barstools. Some toilets. Some matchboxes from old bistros. Soup cans. One lady's OCD is tuned to another's aspiration. It makes for a very agreeable alliance and some wild and crazy cocktail conversation. I am not sure what I would say to Warhol in person. Do you?

Michael Linder: "So I look at this genre of iconic war images with respect and admiration for the real events, but also a nagging feeling that as well as celebrating heroism they also feed into some of humanity's darker sides." If they feed into a memory that is complete they must arouse a lot of thoughts. As they did among the survivors. ( Father in Law could not sleep for years after and polished the wood floors in deep of night) If you get a chance, do watch the series " Band of Brothers" now on Netflix, formerly an HBO ca.12 hour series. Why we fight is not to embrace militarism per se, only as a means to some end. Not to gain colonies. Nor oil or hegemony in the long run. At the least to maintain alliances which we need globally. To mediate with the Bully Pulpit as T.H. did in a more black and white world.... For the GI or sailor- same since Pellaponesian Wars; it was caring for you "mates"in the phalanx. The squad and the company on Iwo. Only from the macro view can we try to judge/evaluate the past What about VictoryGardens,anyone rmember them as kids?. I doubt anyone would go for the scenario that Philip Roth describes in his alternative history novel. Thing is that someone must lead and take the gaffe, someone with a few allies who have the means and the wealth and semblance of representative government. Until Klattu (Day the Earth Stood Still) and his silver clad companion issue a cosmic mandate to all nations. And put petty ethnic and religious squabbles to bed.) I still do not dig Sunni vs Shiite. Don't bother to demarcate for me. Thanks.

They were kids. They had to take Iwo to gain an airstrip on a volcanic wasteland. Japanese could not afford to lose the strip and built deep concealed bunkers. Lots of marines got shot and killled. Same for Seabees who followed closely. The story of Iwo was critical to our strategy to get our B-29s closer to the mainland of Japan. Why, to do terrible fire bombing in a war where, as a training film quoted" The Japs have thrown the book away." Who is to blame for such a war. Not the United States. We won by our industrial power and willingness to draft young men, eventually some with a kid and wife like my Machinist Mate father in law (farmer from Illinois who drove a truck, then a bulldozer and anything the Marines needed). And we used horrible weapons, like napalm and eventually nuclear weapons. Now moralists will try to spin this photo into something it is not. I see it and the bronze replica in Arlington as a tribute to the heroism of our fighting Marines and Seabees. The photograph is a powerful and perfect image of a team who reached the hights after great sacrifice. It was widely popular for the homefront then....and some movies delve deeper into the men. To me it represents all the young heroes (broadly defined as being there and doing a nasty job in malarial waterless chunks of volcanic rock) who in fact volunteered-many many- for this type of combat against a well trained militaristic foe, acolytes of the Empero God, and that boasted it never had lost a battle..since Port Arthur. And not going to lose to weak indulged, mama boys, over nourished and underspirited, - no Emperor God to serve- GIs and Marines and Sailors in LSTs and landing craft and EOD teams. Who fell into the hands of the Army and its code of bushido. Who arranged prisoners in a Battaan deatj march. And did not care to take prisoners, and despised and mutilated captives....dying for a ruthless code of conduct. A good piece of history however you embrace it or define it....a good choice. What we did for Japan after the war redeems some of our actions to snuff out this relentless empire. So. Stop by Arlington Cemetery on your DC trip. Worth it. Stop militarism if we can reach that elusive goal. But keep our powder dry..

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Alan, I like the photo. It shows to me that our skyscrapers didn' t grow like Jack's beanstalk but took a special breed of high steel men to place the beams and toss the rivets and walk with little from them and eternity. My great uncle had a job with the Roebling company placing catwalks along wire ropes strung along the twin towers of Golden Gate Bridge. Talk about risk. The winds are worse than NYC in winter. He left a memoir of some ugly days: in 1936 " There's two kinds of freezing in bridge work. One is where you are so scared you can't move a muscle. That happened to me once,when I went across a walkway and hit a wire and turned a foot. It literally froze me and I couldn't move a muscle. A steel worker was above me, He started calling me nasty names. A trick---you get your mind off being scared and get angry. We wore three sweaters on those catwalks and still couldn't keep warm." So my guess is that a few high iron workers, despite good pay, wet their skivvies a few times on the job. Hey, the cost of falls and injuries was factored into the mid thirties construction overhead. The GG Bridge had nets, which helped a whole lot. And the photographers who lugged big Graflexes to those pinnacles deserve credit. The photo is iconic because we can share some of the danger and yes the wonderful view from the Top of the World about then. Today it is left for window washers, and they deserve the pay they get. Irish then, I don;t know ethnicity now or if it is a family thing like the flying Wallenders......nice memory pic, Alan.

Old color slide salvaged by B and W conversion.<div></div>

I think the categories of posed, staged, unstaged categories are a taxonomy that is overly rigid. Can we not get a "staged" ( move to make the light do its thing and see moment about to happen) and seem natural for the person. Art of the family photo if you like. We all catch a few. Staging pet animals, now that is an Art.....<div></div>

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Do we people persons have an instinct to staging under a cloak of improvisation. Being sly and using what is available and moving around the subject. All that stuff... And why not, that is what we do whan we finish digesting the manual. Can get to the point where adults will tire of the posing, and let you know. Though their complaints are dubious. What do I mean. Not necessarily putting on special head dress, or setting up lights, asking for a special tableau with a group, and such stagecraft. But still llooking for same or maybe trying something with natural actor/showoffs. I have some of those of course. But certainly, taking advantage of light from a frosted window and placing faces in a triangle sometimes. Three cousins, all married now, but still photogenic girls. So. Reaches for a category of "art" in the lowercase way. I do cliche´ all the time, for my family album.<div></div>

Family photos for me are indeed snapshots which capture moments in time that can trigger a memory of a narrative, usually pleasant, - not always,- and always have value as they relate to the trigger of memories. We are as they say making a 'capture'...Photo albums no doubt stir up that part of the brain where dusty memories are tucked away, in the amigdela or wherever.. And are for many, and I am one, an enjoyable legacy to the family as it grows and disperses. A part of mutual identity. And a task of fun to think of in that frame of mind. Unlike art which is an expression of point of view, family pics do not put a complexion/ slant on the memory. If that is possible which is debatable, but who cares. In sum, offers the venue to recapitulate personal history in a sequence rather than be an exercise in single composition for display, for workmanship, for expertise etc. Of course it can become that as it can get fixed to a history. (Many biographies I read are flavored with the family photo taken without regard to history when snapped.) Often unintended personal revelation that is a slick conversation starter. " Holy cow, you really did have a big head of hair.." How long did it take to climb to that spot?" But regardless of the why...it is as natural as writing used to be when people used pens and stationery. So I believe.<div></div>

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