Who Are Those People?
After my parents died, I was left with a number of photo albums. Some of the people and places I recognized, but most I didn’t. We’re not talking photo albums from the last 40 years. We’re talking [now] about photo albums – and miscellaneous loose photos – from the last 100 years or so. You know, those black covered books with the flimsy black paper pages and the black – or white – corners that held the photos to the pages. The kind of albums you might see in museums, or that your great-grandparents had. Well, three out of four of my grandparents were born in the 1880-1890 range so a good deal of these photos were taken between 1900-1940, 1950 or so. Yeah, we’re talking OLD photo albums.
So, every now and then I sit down with these old photos and stare at them like I am just seeing them for the first time and wishing that the people in them could magically tell me their name and their age at the time the photo was taken. I have gently removed a few of them to see if there was anything printed on the back in pencil, but no, nothing there. Why oh why? I do have a photo of a woman I assume is my great-grandmother with a pencil written caption of “Suk, guess who?”. WHO??? Caption-writer, who are YOU?
And then, there are those photos with only first names on them. Okay, some of these people I kind of know from my genealogy research, but most I don’t. Were they friends? Relatives? When were these mysterious black and white photos of people and places taken? It is frustrating to know that I have hundreds of these photos to pass along to family and can only wish them luck. Other than what could have been valuable family history to pass along, they now have become something that will probably just be tossed away at some point, ending their history.
So, here we are in 2016, a century in the future from when most of these photos were taken. We are in the age of digital cameras and digital media. We go crazy posting photos online in places like Facebook, Instagram, and send them through email to family with cute little captions. Pictures of the new baby, cat, dog, house, boat, vacation, friends, co-workers, sunsets and sunrises, fun at the beach, at the fair, restaurants, etc. We think they’ll be cached for future and posterity, but how long is that? Digital doesn’t mean permanent. Any more, nothing is permanent. Especially photography; digital photography to be exact.
I print photos, those that I like a lot. Mostly of places, not of people. I am guilty of not captioning or labeling them. So, MY questions to myself sometimes are, where was this taken, and when?
So, in fifty years or so, when you might be dead and gone and digital media are left – and maybe even not playable/viewable – will your memories be lost to those who find and see them, or forever? Or will they ask, “Who ARE those people? When and where were these taken?” Or even, “Can anything on this be recovered?” While we might not want to admit it, a printed photo with a label can be invaluable to those generations after us.
[FWIW, and just as an aside, I own one tintype of some unknown man, and a glass plate with an image of my sister.]
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Two Ducks
Sometimes, when you least expect it, opportunity knocks, and if you’re lucky, you have your camera handy.
Two ducks. Swimming pool. Late afternoon.
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Surprising places
Sometimes, when you least expect it, and in the most surprising places, you find….
(Found in an open stairwell inside a quadruplex in my apartment complex.)
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Faces
The irises at the end of my building have begun to bloom. Sadly, they never stay around very long, but I enjoy them while they’re here and try to get some nice photos of them. Irises are not my favorite flower – that would be tulips – but they are pretty and I enjoy taking photos of them.
I was out the other day taking photos when I suddenly noticed a fun little “oddity” in one of the ones I was photographing. It was, at least to me, somewhat amusing. I could see “faces” in the flower. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, but I took several photos and decided I was seeing faces and it was not a trick of the light. I guess these kinds of things are in the eye of the beholder because some people I have shown the photos to are not able to see the “faces”. You tell me. I have the faces in this photo pointed out with an arrow.
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Simple
Sometimes we try too hard to get the “perfect” picture. Focus, center, objective, lighting, exposure; it gets complicated. Occasionally the shot is lost. Sometimes, though, the “perfect” picture is the simple one. I have taken some really nice photos since I got back on my feet, but I think my favorite one is the one below, expressly because it IS simple. And that’s all I’m saying about that.
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Spooky Nature
Once again, it’s that time of year where pumpkins are carved up and placed on front stoops, hay bails and scarecrows decorate the lawns as well as spooky characters from witches, black cats to ghosts. And, of course, the scariest of all: parents and adults dressed up!
Occasionally, however, Mother Nature surprises us with a “spooky” character of her own. Such was the case for me last weekend as I was out visiting a “new to me” park near my apartment. Since I am not much of a people or event photographer, I’m always looking for “different” things in nature to photograph. I had just finished taking some photos of a bird when I turned around to leave and had a creepy feeling I was being watched from somewhere near to where I was standing. Looking around I was alone; no other soul in the park that I could see. And then, I looked up, and there it was. No, not a squirrel, or possum, or bird or snake – nothing in the animal family. No, it was like something from a children’s play had wandered in and settled down and it fixed on me. And I just had to laugh.
You are being watched!
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One of those “funny” photos
Once in a blue moon you’ll go out to take photos and as you take them you catch a quick look and all looks fine. All excited you get home to upload them to your computer and see what they really look like. And there it is. You know what you took, and it is indeed that photo, but there is just the way it turned out, which isn’t what you saw in that quick glance. Sure, it’s that object, but with a twist.
This is what happened with a photo I took several days ago. There was a pretty iris next to my apartment building. Well, yes, it was pretty, but it also wasn’t dynamic. This poor solitary iris had to work to even look like a flower. It was droopy and in need of watering and apparently the sprinkler right there wasn’t doing the greatest of jobs, so the flower was struggling. I really wanted a photo of it, but, bad me, not in that sad looking condition. I waited. And then, it started looking better, so I grabbed up my camera and went out to take a couple of dozen photos from different angles. Along the way I glanced at some of the ones I took, but it wasn’t until I uploaded them to my computer that I saw it. I guess this photo could fall into the “caption this” category. I think it has become one of my favorite “funny” photos.
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Short Update
It’s been a slow, warm Summer for me. That basically means that I haven’t taken very many photos. But, I have taken some, mostly of the irises and day lilies that are in a little garden close to my apartment building. I would say they aren’t the best photos I have taken, but they are certainly not the worst, either. I wish I had a macro lens so that I could take close-ups of flowers, something I really enjoyed doing with my Canon PowerShot Pro 1 camera. But, right now, it wouldn’t matter much because it’s been breezy, which means flowers sway back and forth and capturing them in closeup is like trying to catch a rambunctious puppy: next to impossible.
However, I’ve never been the best flower photographer, so this is good practice for me. My ex-wife takes beautiful flower photos and I am envious of her abilities. Her success, though, makes me a better photographer because I try to emulate what she does while keeping with my own style. There is nothing wrong with making comparisons and then trying to emulate photos of someone you admire. There is no competition, but it makes you a better photographer, at least in my opinion.
I am looking forward to the weeks and months ahead and getting back into the swing of photography on a regular basis. For now I am just concentrating on getting my strength back. Believe it or not, holding a camera requires back muscles that you never notice until they’re cut or strained.
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Posting
It’s been a while since I last posted. There are a few reasons.
One, I had back surgery last November, and that put me off my feet for four months while I was learning to walk again. Only had my phone because rehab isn’t a place you want to keep a good camera and I certainly didn’t want to lose mine. While I can carry my camera now, it does take a lot out of me. Heck, just walking takes a lot out of me! I have taken some photos since I got out in March, but have yet to download them to my drive. Yeah, I’m slow.
Two, once again I have moved. Hopefully it’s something I won’t have to do for a while now. I really love my new apartment, but it has taken me far from my usual “haunts” of the State Park and Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. So, while I am again driving, those two places take driving to a considerable time. And, because of my back, unpacking is taking time because I can’t bend over a lot or like I used to, I can’t really carry anything heavy [not that I have a lot that is heavy], and I have chosen to unpack alone. It’s a personal thing. It means that unpacking is S L O W, and I have to rest a lot. This means I’m usually not physically up to taking any photos because I am basically still weak despite really wanting to be out with my camera. Just not happening right now.
Once I recover sufficiently and have a bit more time, I will be able to post more. Until then keep taking those photos!
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When a bad photo looks good
I have finally come to believe that not every photo has to be perfect, sharp, completely well framed, etc. Sometimes the “misses” can turn out quite interesting.
I went to a Marina over the weekend, late in the afternoon, to take photos of the ducks there. Lots of ducks, lots of people feeding ducks, lots of duck photos. Well, not really lots of photos. It was getting dark and I don’t really care for flash photography; I do it when needed. But, anyway……
For the most part I don’t really look at my playback screen, although sometimes I do because I know that a photo I have just taken has turned out badly and I will delete it, especially if I have little idea of what it was because of blur. That day was no different.
So, I got home, uploaded the photos to my external hard drive, and started going through them. And there it was. A bad photo that was actually cool looking. I had tried to take a closeup of one of the mallard’s head, but just as I hit the shutter button, he turned his bill down. The result looks a bit psychedelic but I think it turned out rather interesting.
What I learned is that you should always take a second look at some of the photos you are thinking of deleting. They could actually be really neat and give you ideas about other “bad” photos and you don’t necessarily need to edit them, either.
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