I found Joel Smith’s The Life and Death of Buildings: On Photography and Time at a Half Price Books some months ago. It was still shrink-wrapped from the publisher and looked like it might fit in with something I’ve been thinking about lately (and that Jim Grey touched on recently at Down The Road), so I snatched it up. Continue reading “Unwrapping ‘The Life and Death of Buildings’”
Two thoughts around Boredom, as reminders to myself first…
From Surah Ash-Sharh
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ
وَإِلَى رَبِّكَ فَارْغَبْ…For indeed, from hardship comes ease
Truly, from hardship comes ease.
So when you finished, then stand up [for worship] and to your Lord direct your longing
And, as narrated by Aisha, radiallahu anha, the prophet, peace be upon him said
Allah never gets tired of giving rewards till you get tired of doing good deeds
Kodak Plus-X 125 was a fine grained, sharp, black & white that Kodak discontinued back in 2011. It was the last of the low speed, traditional grain black & white Kodak stocks. If you want slow, black & white Kodak film now, T-Max is all you get (or you can go with some hand-rolled expired or movie film from the FPP, or try your luck at ebay).
It’s really a shame: I love this film, despite its horrid curl, and despise T-Max. Maybe Kodak will bring it back one day.
I won’t hold my breath. Continue reading “Kodak Plus-X 125”
Today, I’m grateful for water.
In Surah an-Nisa, Allah azza wa jall tells us
أَوَلَمْ يَرَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ كَانَتَا رَتْقًا فَفَتَقْنَاهُمَا ۖ وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ ۖ أَفَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?
Why am I surprised? I mean, I guess I’m not, really, but if I remember my history correctly, absolutely no Civil War activity happened in or around Dallas. Sure, there were naval blockades down south, and some skirmishes along the Mexico border and over around Louisiana, but nothing in this part of Texas. So why a monument? It’s a relatively early one too, raised by the Daughters of the Confederacy on June 25, 1896 according to a dedication carving on the base.
I don’t recall being aware of it before I looked at the WorldWide Photo Walk route on Gmaps, and I determined to photograph it before it gets torn down.
Surely the proudly multicultural City of Dallas would want to remove that thing, right? I mean, it’s right next to the Convention Center, after all.
Anyway.
I walked around it and shot at the various statues of dead people and tried to keep from shouting profanity or or spitting on anything. Each of the four corners has a statue of some traitor dead general or the “president” of those traitorous the Confederates. They’re not very well done, but maybe they’re just old and weatherbeaten. The Jefferson Davis one is particularly cartoonish.
And the whole thing is topped with a random soldier.
After wandering around the thing for a bit, wondering just what it was doing there and when it would get demolished, I paused to show it the proper respect before getting on with the photowalk.
Racist ideology has no place in the United States in the Twenty-First century. Maybe it was ok in 1896 (or 1961, when the city moved it out of the way of I35), but not now.
Back in June, some of my Twitter photo buddies threw a photowalk in London, and decided to put together a set of prints and sell them for charity. I jumped on the offer, and a few months later, here they are. Continue reading “Unboxing some London Photowalk Charity Prints”
Has it really been 2 years since I attended the WorldWide Photo Walk? I guess so… I’m not sure where I was or what I was doing last year, but I probably had something better to do, but from various blog posts around that time, I don’t see anything. Maybe I just missed it, or maybe I was feeling sick of photowalks or something.
But when the announcement came out back in August, I was quick to sign up, and even though it was my third photowalk in as many weeks (Waxahachie on 9/23; Polacon Denton Walk on 10/1), I was excited and ready… Continue reading “WorldWide Photo Walk 2017”
