fi_rondo1

<p>Adam... terrific shot there...</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>Hey Ton... I've been called worse. Turns out I'm listening to Dean Martin right now... (I'm also hallucinating...)<br>

<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>Sanford... you took it, it's yours... the shot I posted was scanned and, therefore, not mine. This one's a little different:</p><div></div>

<p>I wonder who's buying the wine, <br /> For lips that I used to call mine?<br /> I wonder if she ever tells him of me?<br /> I wonder who's kissing her now...</p><div></div>

<p>Strange thing. I had a dream that night and I heard a whispering in my ear, "When you are no longer what you are, what have you become?" And I thought of the pig who had by this time been dismembered and converted into spare ribs, tenderloin, or stuffed inside an order of dumplings.</p><div></div>

<p>Here's a picture I would have taken a long time ago, but never got the opportunity to do so. It was a day of coincidence (or synchronicity). Earlier in the day I was doing research on the differences between Halal and Kosher slaughter. It was also during Ramadan. Anyhow, I was in Chinatown and saw a man carting 4 dead pigs through the streets. I followed him to the backdoor of a restaurant and started taking pictures. "What are you doing with my friends?" I asked him. "Ah, your friend heavy! 800 pound a pig!" "Mind if I..." and I showed him my camera... "No, you take! You take!" So I did. Later when I got home my girlfriend had dinner ready. Her son had requested pork chops...</p>

<p>Like Paw used to say, I'll give you something to complain about:</p>

<p>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075683/The-brave-women-Middle-East-Female-protesters-brutally-beaten-metal-poles-vicious-soldiers-drag-girls-streets-hair-day-shame.html</p>

<p>"Just another hapless drama of no consequence" Lao Tzu upon being shown the image of Confucius handing a flower to a young girl</p>

<p>Thanks Ray... just got bored with a few things... and am now getting a little un-bored...<br>

Looking at that video, I thought, people don't take pictures like that anymore... Do they?</p>

<p>Ah... now here's the link:</p>

<p>

<p><em>Harold was an integral member of the New York Photo League. He exhibited at Helen Gee's Limelight Gallery in NYC, hung out with photographers including Helen Levitt, Weegee, Garry Winogrand and W. Eugene Smith. </em><br>

<em>There's more written about him on the link as well as a</em> short video of his work. This was put together by his daughter who put together a kickstarter project in his memory. Thought he might be of interest, not necessarily to donate anything but to get a glimpse of a guy whose talent was right up there with the best documentary photographers of his era...</p>

<p>Good going, Brad...</p>

<p>Terrific... the guy captures the essence of street photography with such a light touch... likable guy, memorable images... Thanks, Mr. Carrots</p>

<p>Steve... Brad... didnt' Diane Arbus specialized in this type of "candid"?</p>

<p>Or perhaps his toys were taken away from him?</p>

<p>Stay tuned!</p>

<p>Set up or not, that's a darn good shot...</p>

<p>Aye, Damon... but a colorful and quirky character nonetheless... <em>Go Down, Moses</em>, I say...</p>

<p><em>I read GQ to help avoid looking ludicrous also when I'm out shooting. </em><br>

<em>Jeff Spirer</em></p>

<p>Good to know, Jeff... Hope it's helped...<em></em><em> </em></p>

<p><em><br /></em></p>

<p>Midway through this thread Ton commented: Photography is quite easy when you think about it ;-)<br>

I'll add that it's even easier when you don't have to think about it. Simplicity is the way to go. Although I've used zooms in the past, I found that knowing my camera and the focal lengths make it easier to not have to think. Like the Boy Scouts: Be prepared... and a single 50, 40 or 28 on a small film camera does the trick for me.</p>

<p>If I use a zoom it'll be for a particular purpose or project. Having the tools and knowing the tools is what it's really about. But these huge digital cameras with their elongated lenses, objectively speaking, not only make you stand out in a crowd, but they look kind of ludicrous.</p>

<p>Personally, I think Fred adds a lot to the forum... I might disagree with him and his manner at times (goose and gander), but his comments can be pretty pithy...</p>

<p>Boy oh boy! If you guys aren't the Kill Joy Brigade... a little adventure and a handful of compelling photos, and you're all tangled up in property rights, legalities, ethical dilemmas, and fear and trembling that these intruders could have gotten a boo boo or stepped on an upturned nail...</p>

<p>No one was suggesting it would be a fine thing to break into someone's home. These are abandoned ships... They carried out a plot that was coordinated, planned and executed perfectly. If you can't admire the derring-do of these photographers then something has dried up inside and you should lubricate the valves a little bit (with the plum juice, preferably... or--if of necessity--prune juice)...</p>

<p>As Robert Confucius Plant once said: Does anybody remember laughter?</p>

<p>Obviously, Fred, the adults in the room are akin to Mencken's Protestants who suffer from a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere, is having fun...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Barry... how about posting a goodly sample for the folks down East... good luck out there...</p>

 

<p>Jeff... great pictures... glad you skirted the law in order to get them.</p>

<p>Paulie and Fred... no one was suggesting that it's perfectly fine to run roughshod over someone's property. There's a distinction between what you're assuming and what was being advocated.</p>

<p>What the boat photographers did was more in the spirit of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer than anything else. And that spirit is what I was talking about...</p>

<p>As Confucius said: In the land where Father always knows best, you're liable to have a nation of boys than a nation of men...</p>

 

<p>Maybe you should eat the plum, Will... you might get a surreptitious thrill out of it... I think Eric's word "adventure" applies to this. I seriously doubt vandals are going to plot and scheme and sail into deep waters just to create a little wreckage...</p>

<p>And as for proper authorities... don't count on it. Proper authorities have thwarted human endeavor as long as there have been authority figures, proper or not. Better yet , they could have applied for a grant, gotten funding, gotten permission, but, damn it, Will... I bet they had more fun doing this on the sly...</p>

<p>It was illegal for Walker Evans to shoot on the subway in New York in his day. Should the negatives be destroyed retroactively? Should his corpse be exhumed as an example to other photographers?</p>

<p>And what of those other photographers who risked their lives by photographing what the proper authorities had declared forbidden territory or taboo subject matter? Regimes in China, Chile... the USA... </p>

<p>As far as I know there's still a ban on photographing the coffins coming back from the wars we're involved in. At least there's been a ban on publishing these pictures. Should the ban be lifted? Should the authorities in this case be defied? Or is it good that no one can see the evidence that real people are dying?</p>

<p>What these guys did is child's play compared to defying authorities where they could easily pay with their lives...</p>

<p>As for the plum... that was not in defense of a photographer's actions... it was in defense of a certain type of spirit that is easily understood by some of the folks who've bothered weighing in on this incredibly grave matter of life and death.</p>

<p>Tomorrow's the 4th of July.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>O Will:<br>

The death of healthy mischief will be the death of ingenuity and, even more so, the death of street photography. When I was a kid we used to seek out abandoned houses and just hang out, go through old photographs, and just get into the feel of the place. Great joy comes from being where you're not supposed to be, doing what you're not supposed to do (even at my age)... Will, I suggest you go into the refrigerator and eat someone''s plum... and leave a note, just to say:<br>

I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox / and which / you were probably / saving / for breakfast / forgive me / they were delicious / so sweet / so cold<br>

I don't think museum ships are in any serious danger...</p>

<p>Good shots, too, by the way, and a real tribute. I echo Elmo Short...</p>