Last month the Supreme Court’s Dobbs rulingoverturned Roe vs Wade, and ended the right for millions of women to get critical medical care (that care being blocked includes, but is not limited, to abortions) and threatening additional rights all Americans currently enjoy. In the days that followed I joined a small but vocal group of people from Aiken calling for protection of the rights of women’s and others. It’s taken me a few weeks to get these pictures off my camera and posted, but I did want to get them up for anyone who is interested. There are people in South Carolina who dissent.
For memorial day weekend my wife and I went camping at Price Lake for a few days. I took a couple hours one afternoon to hike around the Boone Fork Trail. In a moment when the country is in another downward spiral about all I can think to offer are a few images of a place worth being.
This is Faith. Faith has found joy, happiness, and contentment – except when she needs her toenails trimmed, dinner is late, or she gets woken up for a nap.
Life for Faith wasn’t always easy. She spent a little time on the race track before they closed, and was among the last dogs to ever race in Florida. Her first adoptive home didn’t treat her well, and she bounced back to the rescue group underweight, with a cracked tooth, and uncontrolled multi-drug resistant worms. But those problems are gone (at least we hope, the worm treatment takes several months and we just got our first clean test last month – need three in a row). But Faith found a life she loves in our home.
She loves to cuddle with her brother.
She loves paper towels.
She loves a good inverted nap.
She even loves hiking with us in the mountains of North Carolina (trust me on this one, she doesn’t hold still again until she’s napping when we are done).
Like many people I aspire to be more like my dog. She has handled life’s ups and down with grace (mostly) and forgiveness (graciously – even after I trim her nails). I hope to learn to be as openly loving as forgiving as her.
Back when we were allowed to go out and about, my wife and I spent a few days in New York City so she could attend a conference. We explored a few of the art museum and I got some time to just hang around Central Park and take pictures. I had started to post this gallery a while back, but got distracted by life and didn’t finish. So as a reminder that there is a larger world out there, and we’ll get to go back to exploring it one day I figured I’d finally get this finished.
The first day we just wondered a bit, including taking the Station Island Ferry across and back to get a few classic pictures.
Statue of Liberty from the Station Island Ferry, where we bumped into the sister of a good friend.
Ellis Island from the Station Island Ferry.
The memorial to the Irish Famine, which is a small Irish Hill side moved to Manhattan.
Ice skating at Rockefeller Center just before the tree came down.
People capturing their memories of the 9/11 memorial.
9/11 Memorial flowers
9/11 Memorial Flower
A friend let us use her membership to the Met. So we spent a long day walking the exhibits. Since you can get better pictures of more or less all their art than most people are likely to take in the galleries (and no small number of people were taking pictures of whole works) I focused on the faces within larger works.
We explored Central Park together and separately. I love getting a few hours to just stroll through a place with my camera. Trying to take a mix of classic pictures and few that are less common.
Like most amateur photographers I often attend friends’ weddings with my camera and take a lot of pictures. I’ve also been tapped to be wedding photographer for a few friends and family over time, usually as a planned favor or gift but not always with forewarning. From those experiences I’ve learned a few things about taking pictures at weddings that I think make the couples happy while giving you good pictures to share.
Have Fun. The whole point of being at a wedding is to celebrate the couple’s love and coming life together. I’ve gone to weddings where a friend or family member got obsessed with competing with the official photographer or couldn’t accept that the couple didn’t really care about having official pictures. Your job is not to get great pictures, it is to be part of the celebration. If that means you miss a great shot or you end up in the back during the cake cutting talking to a buddy you haven’t seen in ten years, that’s just fine. Enjoy this time your with friends and family first, the pictures take second place to everything else.
Don’t get in the way. Just because you brought a nice camera does not give you permission to be a jerk and push your way to the front of every group. Official wedding photographers can be pretty pushy about getting pictures at the best times from the best angles — it’s literally their job. Your friends are paying good money for their services, so don’t cause them trouble or act like you also can also be that pushy. If you stand next to the photographer you are just duplicating a picture they are already taking, go find a different place to stand. And don’t bother the couple for extra pictures either, they have enough going on and are getting lots of pictures taken of them, they don’t need a friend bugging them to do a few extra.
Focus on informal images. The official photographer will take portraits, family pictures, and other standard formal pictures. But while they are focused on those, all kinds of other things are happening that aren’t on their todo list — focus your energy there. I like to look for the things that are happening when the couple and photographer aren’t paying attention. Pictures of the couple being relaxed together; of friends who are behind the photographer; of the photographers, DJs, and others who are often trying to be unnoticed. If everyone turns to look at something glance back the other way and see if there is a great picture there to be taken.
Take pictures of as many friends and family as possible. The photographers are rightly focused on the couple, their families, and whoever else they were told to focus on. It used to be normal for them to skip nearly the entire reception — after the cake was cut and the bouquet tossed they would bolt — and while that’s changing they still focus on the main action of the dance floors and toasts. But dear Aunt Marge may not be much of a dancer anymore and that pregnant friend from college might be happy to sit the whole time. Try to document for the couple as many people as you can so they have at least one image of everyone on the guest list.
Don’t sweat the editing. Leave the perfectly polished images for the professionals. Sure you might want to color correct or make other tweaks cause you enjoy it, but mostly your friends will be happy with what comes in because it’s part of the celebration. The photographer will provide a perfectly edited set (at least they should), so focus on giving your friends a more complete overview of events.
Share what you take, quickly if possible. It often takes a busy photographer weeks or months to turn around a set of images that are properly edited. Couples often like to start to share images on social media as soon as possible, and pictures from other friends’ cell phones will pile up quickly, so help them enjoy that part of the celebrations and get yours into the mix as soon as you’re able. I tend to give my friends copies of just about everything. Even if I edit some I will often send the original in case they want the version where Aunt Marge was at the edge of frame and I cropped her out.
Be prepared to pinch hit. A few times I’ve been to weddings where the photographer was a no-show and I was the only person around with a nice camera. Take a deep breath, ask the couple what they want from the pictures, scribble a list of the most important images to capture, find a friend to assist in gathering people for group shots, and then do your best from there. While you do now get to push your way to the front of crowds and ask the couple to pose for portraits, your first job is still to make sure the couple — and the guests — are enjoying the day. The union and celebration is still more important then the pictures.
This year’s Arts in the Heart of Augusta was not hurricane plagued the way last year’s was, and was a great weekend of good food, performances, and generally great chances to take pictures.
Each year opens with a parade to celebrate the diverse set of communities that have settled in and around Augusta.
Drummers from the Chinese community welcomed everyone to the annual opening parade.
Representatives from various communities waiting their turn.
Children from the Lebanese community.
And at the end of the parade everyone dances.
The whole event is built around artists selling their work. They manage to pull in people from a fairly large area, but also make space for young local artists to try to get started selling their work.
For us, and for many others, the variety of ethic foods available for purchase is a large part of the draw.
It’s also a great event for just plain people watching. Between watching the various performances, enjoying the vendors, and the many activities, there are lots of chances to watch people having a good time with their friends and family.
Mixed in with the vendors, food, family activities, stages, and other goes on are always a mix of street performers.
He said he had picked her up at the rescue that morning. Because where else to you take your new parrot?
There are several stages setup throughout the event, spanning several city blocks. The performances range from local signers to dance troops, street performers
This week marks the 20th Anniversary of the Hague Appeal for Peace.
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Hague Appeal for Peace and everything that happened (and didn’t) as part of that event and since, I decided to post some of my pictures from that adventure.
In my post on being an activist back in March I mentioned attending the Hague Appeal and the peace walk that followed. I was part of a delegation from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; a group mostly made up of college students and a few older high school students, along with a few adults who handled the logistics and kept us on track more or less.
I have ten boxes of slides, and a few years ago I scanned them as best I could but frankly the scans aren’t great. The slides, which were more than ten years old at the time, had already started to fade and color shift as a result of their age. I did some color correction as I prepped them for this, but I also like the feel of some being somewhat faded and shifted with time. There are shared here full frame, and some are roughly cropped, but none carefully realigned. Since they are now pushing twenty I decided that I wanted to leave them all at or near full size and try to capture a bit of the way I saw the world then, and less of how I would edit it now. I like the rough visual feel they have as part of reflected on partially faded memories.
My guide and canvas bag from Hague Appeal for Peace. Wayne features in lots of these pictures, and still has a spot on my desk.
Kofi Annan gave one of the key note speeches (closing I think).
Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest, back before she left the Rohingya to die, and gave a recorded speech that was smuggled out for us to see.
This was the first time I saw Desmond Tutu speak in person. He was one of the bigger draws for his sessions.
I also learned that Tutu has a great sense of humor, making fun of all the people taking his picture.
HAP happened during the US intervention into the was in the Balkins, and some attendees became concerned that the Russia might join the conflict with Nuclear weapons. So a protest sign was created and a march planned in a bar one night.
Lots of people signed the banner when it was set out near the entrance.
People signed from their own perspectives.
The banner was carried to the Peace Palace, home of the international court of justice.
At the Peace Palace survivors of the Hiroshima bombing were invited to speak to share their stories.
I got to wander by the Peace Palace a couple times to took a feature pictures.
There was a group of monks who walked for peace on a daily basis. They eventually joined the walk to Brussels.
There was a group, from East Timor I think, who came on bikes.
There were lots of presentations by various groups, often with cultural song and dance included.
I don’t take a lot of self-portraits, but I like this one taken near where our group stayed on the coast of the North Sea
We stayed on the coast of the North Sea and had great sun sets. I managed to get this picture there one evening.
Some of the folks from the PYM group sitting around chatting.
The walk to the Hague started the day after the main conference ended. This banner was carried in front for most of the distance.
We walked in all kinds of settings from highways, to bridges, to fields (just missed tulip season so didn’t see many in bloom).
This was actually taken the first evening, I’ve always liked this image of the bike by the lake.
As we progressed we’d stop and hold public presentations and random die ins.
One of the survivors of the blast in Hiroshima came along with his daughter and shared his story of survival during several of the stops.
This young man from India knew more about international politics by 18 than I’m likely to really ever understand. It often was carrying this UN flag.
This little guy also made the walk with us.
Meals were provided a group that provided a small mobile kitchen for such events across western Europe. They would drive ahead of us, setup with a lunch of sandwiches and soup, and then meet us for dinner at the main camp site.
Wayne posed for a couple pictures with our meals. The bread, and much of the rest was donated or bought locally in towns.
This little girl and her parents where along for the journey as well. They would literally clown around with make up, costumes, stiltes, and juggling.
I was never clear on the idea of the juggling and other acts, but it was a nice distraction – which may have been the point.
Group meetings were a regular feature of our walk.
Wayne enjoying some of the treats I picked up along the way.
We camped each night in a town park or similar arrangement. Tents were moved by truck and bus between each stop so we only had to carry day packs.
Several people from PYM started the walk. Some had to leave before the end, so we took this picture before the first of us had to depart.
Much of the walk was low key along small roads through various towns and cities.
Even Wayne needed a break at times. It was a lot of walking.
This is one of two guys I talked to a lot along the way and whose names I cannot remember. I think they were both IT techs or programmers.
This is the second of the two. I’m pretty sure of the general advice I’ve followed in my career was based on things they told me, but the details are largely lost.
In Brussels we were protesting in front of Nato headquarters, and we took some time to practice basic passive resistance strategies for those planning to get arrested.
Practice also involved mock police trying to antagonize people.
A group of Indian farmers joined for the last few days. It had taken a while to get their visa’s cleared. I honestly have no idea what they thought they were joining, but that were good fun to have along.
The final approach to Nato headquarters involved lot of excitement and nervousness.
These three kids were from a community in Columbia, and were the only minors at the final protest. My job would becoming keeping them out of trouble and getting them back to our lodgings safely. The boy in the red shirt elected to ignore me and got arrested.
There was a heavy police presence, and concertina wire strung to keep clear boundaries. But early on things were relaxed. These guys were taking our pictures so I took theirs.
This got decided to get naked for some reason. Didn’t really make sense to me at the time, or now, but he had a nice time (and was charged with public nudity).
This was also the first time I ran into the Raelians. Even a group of anti-nuclear marchers thought them a bit odd, but we welcomed their support (this was before they started to work on human cloning).
In Europe they don’t have to associations we do with water cannon so they had two deployed, and were used to move people that started to cut and cross the wire.
This is just after the best picture I didn’t take. Bill, a Friend from Brooklyn Meeting, he stood between the streams of the cannon shaking his fist as they tried to knock him down. He withstood their pressure but I missed the image.
They tried for a while to dislodge a group that grew the more they tried to move it. They positioned the second truck to create a crossfire, but then changed approaches.
After an initial round of tension, water cannon bursts, and a few arrests, we all settled in for lunch in the shade. We debated politics with these offices and gave them some of our watermelon. Everyone seemed to get along most of the time, the police and protesters all encouraged calm from one another.
When the mounted police started down one side, it didn’t take a great military mind to spot a flanking maneuver, so I started to move myself and my charges away from the action.
I nearly did get swept up but this line, but got through with the help of the event organizer who used his connections to make sure those who didn’t want to get arrested could leave.
That trip was an important few weeks in my life, and I’ve been having a great time going back through the pictures. If you were with me on that trip and wonder if I have other pictures of you kicking around I might so send me a note and I’ll try to see what’s around and sent some your way.
A few weeks ago I took a few hours to scratch an itch and went out did a little local photography. I spent much of my time wondering the trails through Aiken State Park. Although there are a few included here from another stop I made, and from the Lunar eclipse on January 21st.
The trees along the entrance to Aiken State Park.
Several parts of the trail were partially under water from recent rains and poor maintenance.
Other places the small bridges were an interesting diversion.
Move bridges in the wood.
Grasses dancing in the stream
Aiken apparently has its own Dalek.
One of several small streams.
Fungus close up, mostly to play with the lens.
More playing with depth of field on the new lens.
This guy was trying to hide in the bark.
This flag has caught my eye several times driving by. Finally stopped to capture it.
The building itself is mostly abandoned.
While getting images of the lunar eclipse I usually get tempted by other night scenes.
For Christmas this year my wife and I took off and went to Belize. I took some 2,500 pictures and I’m working my way through them. The gallery below will get captions, alt-text, etc soon.
First sighting of Belize on the flight in.
GJ’s Restaurant picked by our driver on the way from Belize City to San Ignacio.
His guy came running when he spotted customers.
We stayed at Midas Resort in San Ignacio, which we’d recommend.
“Husky” the Midas office husky was an important part of our visit.
Midas has two large male green iguanas roaming the property.
Our room at Midas
Midas was also home to several Agouti.
This hand powered ferry coveys everyone going to Xunantunich
The main temple at Xunantunich from the main plaza
This Iguana spends the day watching tourists explore his home on the temple at Xuanatunich
The frieze on the side of the temple (larger version below).
People looking out from the top of the temple
A view from the furthest building at Xunantunich back toward the temple.
A view from Belize from the top of the temple.
The Howler monkeys were yelling from tree tops when we arrived, but quietly feeding later in the morning.
One of the buildings at Cahal Pach in San Ignasio.
The central, but smaller, plaza at Cahal Pach.
My wife walking through one of the passages at Cahal Pach.
Belikin the beer of Belize served in standard style.
The tonic was pink which threw me off at first.
San Ignasio is home of a large and busy open air market.
All the way to Belize to watch my first Sixers game of the year.
The east temple from Complex Q at Tikal.
My wife walking down from the top of the east temple.
The two of us on the steps to the east temple.
First view we got of Temple I
The back of Temple I
The buildings from the main plaza in Tikal.
Temple I from the plaza.
The view from the top of Temple IV in Tikal.
All ships leaving Yavin base pass through this scene.
There were lots of people at the top, and that fence in the background was the only safety rail
The spider monkeys were one of the coolest things we saw.
This guy stopped to watch us for a bit.
He scooped water out of a hole in the and drank upside down.
We got really lucky to see this mother and baby passing by.
This Coati was snuffling in the grass near the visitor center
A green iguana from the rescue program in town.
Another green iguana from the rescue program in town.
The males turn orange to show off.
My wife and I with one of the rescued iguana.
This guy kept his distance and his eyes on us.
The entrance to Barton cave.
The view back out from the Barton creek cave.
The Big Rock Waterfalls in the Pine Mountain reserve.
Butterfly from the San Jose Succotz TrekStop
Butterfly caretaker from the San Jose Succotz TrekStop
Butterfly from the San Jose Succotz TrekStop
We spent Christmas itself in San Pedro
The view from our hotel room in San Pedro
There are some nice views on San Pedro beaches.
They were just enjoying people watching.
This guy sells nice carvings like the ray he’s holding to visitors.
Cause what else would Santa ride on a beach.
There was a party in the town square Christmas morning starting at Midnight. I didn’t stay for much.
Rode bikes out to Secret Beach which is anything but secret.
There are at least two bars at Secret beach
Machete, Coconut, and drinks. What could go wrong (nothing for her).
Took bikes down to Marco Gonzalez Mayan site. The path looked like something from Myst.
Marco Gonzalez is mostly still covered in jungle.
Mayans here used Conch shells to build walls. They are kinda creepy 500 years later.
Beatrice is one of three Black Iguanas with names at Marco Gonzalez
Sun rise from our hotel room.
These panoramic pictures were created with a combination of my iPhone in pano mode and some that are stitched together with Hugin.
Picture of Belize taken from the top of the temple at Xunantunich. Stitched with Hugin.Same angle made with iPhone.Picture of Guatemala from the other side of the temple at Xunantunich stitched with Hugin.Another of Guatemala with the iPhone.The frieze on the side of the temple. This is actually a cast created over the top of the original to protect it from weather.The temple taken from the main plaza.Taken from the side of the temple.The main plaza at Cahal Pech ruins at the edge of San IgnacioThe main plaza at TikalTaken from the top of the observatory at Tikal.Taken from the top of Temple IV at Tikal. Scenes from Yavin base in Star Wars were shot near this spot.Another stitched image from Temple IV.Dock on the beach in San Pedro.A bit north of Secret Beach (which is anything but secret) we found a nice dock to enjoy our lunch.
We got out last night to the opening night of Arts in the Heart of Augusta 2018. With hurricane Florence creeping over the region that’s probably all we’ll get to this year, but it was great to get a meal and enjoy a bit of the festival.
Update: we did manage to get back on Sunday for another meal and to see a few more performances.
