Sometimes...

Photo: © S. Banos

You just adapt to the camera- actually, you always adapt to the camera. Guess what I'm really trying to say is that sometimes you not only change how you shoot to accommodate yourself to your new camera's quirks and advantages, sometimes you actually change what you're shooting because of it. I've rather unknowingly found myself taking advantage of the Q's FF sensor to shoot images featuring increased expanses of more dimly lit areas. The improved shadow detail is rendered in a richer, more pleasing manner that facilitates more nuanced lighting scenarios that previously went either without consideration or appreciation. 

That said, I was damn lucky to get these- right place, right time, nothing but coincidence. To think I could just walk about residential San Francisco (forgot just how beautiful so many parts of this city still are) and continue to find interesting sites kissed with just the right balance of light and shadow is far from realistic. But, at the very least, this has opened up both a new way and new time of seeing- and that is something to draw on for the remainder,,,

Photo: © S. Banos

Photo: © S. Banos

Photo: © S. Banos

Just Trying To Make Sense

Back in the day, if you weren't getting laid (assuming you uhhh... wanted to), it wasn't exactly a point of pride. I mean you could joke about it all ya want- hell, ya had to if it was the case... but a point of pride?!? I mean this whole incel thing is truly bizarre, perverted is more the word. So this guy can not only not deal with other races, he can't even deal with the opposite sex, or the same- and then starts pontificating about the virtues of Catholic autocracy, without any irony whatsoever concerning the rather well documented exploits of certain priestly "incels" and their male, childhood victims.

I guess no fellow White Power advocate has ever called Mr. Fuentes a "Spic," that just may have changed his perception while growing up. Just how does he get to be all Aryan like with that surname again?

And speaking of trying to make sense of shit that just don't...

Smile!

Happy Taco Tues... Thanksgiving!            Photo: © S. Banos

Don't know how many times I've said how I absolutely hate photos of people smiling and/or mugging for the camera, but every dog has its day and I just kinda like it for the silly snapshot that it is. It was taken on Halloween, the eve of my three week illness, and I had no idea that the thing that kept flopping on his head from side to side was supposed to be a taco, until I saw it on my monitor. But then, who knew Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the end of the dinosaurs?

That said...

Hope everyone reflects, takes stock and gives thanks in a life that is woefully short and made only shorter by all the things we humans purposely sabotage ourselves with: war, racism, greed... the whole sorry lot of human faults and frailties that plague the very nature of our being. And, not surprisingly, this holiday set aside to do just that has predictably mutated into one of gluttony and spending. Try as we might, the ideal somehow always devolves into the trivial, that realization being both the key for enlightenment, and the very basis for indoctrination, division and subjugation.

Good Riddance 2022!

How I felt early Fri-AM.          Photo: © S. Banos

As good as 2022 has been photographically, I coulda really done without this October and November. First, there was the plague of... bed bugs! Most likely courtesy of my next door neighbor who recently moved out- often were the times I wondered who could possibly survive in her place with the stench of rubbing alcohol seeping out into the hallway that would literally take my breath away in passing. Oh, that was a heaping, helping load full of fun- first the bites, then the denial, then more and more bites trying every which way to get rid of the damn things, and miserably, repeatedly failing. Fearing the very night itself, fearing for my own sanity... until I finally, finally concocted a working solution that mercifully worked and rid me of the little blood suckers (I refused to have everything I owned, including me, doused in pesticide). It's no small wonder that people have accidentally burned down their very homes trying in desperation to rid themselves of the evil little shits.

Then came... the health woes! Two trips to the ER, one in an ambulance, courtesy of a woefully inept health care service. If only life had bequeathed me such equal heights and peaks of absolute pleasure to match the severity of pain that so repeatedly savaged certain parts of my body. Last Friday (TMI Warning!), I was finally relieved of an appendage that was shoved into me with half a dozen thrusts that had me screaming bloody fucking murder each and every time (and that was far from the worst of it). I spent said morning just carelessly walking about practically giddy with joy just being able to do so, pain free and physically unencumbered. I even managed two keepers while doing so- and three the very next day! Not a bad antidote for vengeance and recovery.

And I would have been happy to leave it that... except that a good friend I've known since childhood just had the latest of a long series of his own health setbacks that have made mine look positively light hearted- and I don't say that casually. Hard to feel all upbeat and positive when someone you know has been dealt such harsh, repeated and life altering blows- accepting them without bitterness or complaint. Something I am well not accustomed to. I've just had periodic servings, some get the full course dealt them...

Post euphoric reality...     Photo: © S. Banos

Fool's Paradise...

I mean, seriously- if you ain't already deterred by the blatant illegitimacy of the offer, then you most certainly deserve... "The Fool Set." Back when I was very patiently stalking the best deal possible for a used Q, I would occasionally come across eBay offers such as this, originating in Eastern Europe- woefully underpriced, Mint Cond Q's and Q2's whose shipping exceeded their sell price, peddled by Sellers with 100% Positive Feedback... and one previous sale to their name! Always got an immediate chuckle- although the fact that eBay still allows this to occur (the one on top is but a coupla weeks old) is certainly not a laughing matter!

Best-Laid Plans Of...

Photo: © Stan Banos

I was recently sitting and thinking, had a pretty damn good year photographically, definitely got my share of keepers. Yup, sure did. Then I started contemplating on my long term plan, good plan, solid plan- crank out the work till seventy when my SS gets to $2k, and then- just roll with the punches with the bit I got stashed... Golden! 

Only one small glitch- I can be as good and faithful to plan as can be, but... there's no guarantee in any of it. Only one fool has agreed to the terms- and that be me! Having just turned sixty seven, I've seen one too many friends and acquaintances fold in that five year stretch starting at sixty five. Goddamn Danger Zone Supreme! And it really don't matter how good your health is, how good you've been taking care of yourself- Nature's gonna do what nature's gonna do... and it don't give a flying monkey what you got planned! 

Last two weeks I got pretty damn ill, spent a good portion of it exploring new heights and levels of excruciating pain in areas of my body I had already thought could not possibly be surpassed! Had my health care service (Thrive Baby!) been half what it so proudly touts itself to be, I would have been back on my feet in ten days- Tops! Somewhere between the two trips to the ER (one in an ambulance), I got to seriously thinking on my Grand Master Plan. That little bit o' money ain't gonna do squat for quality of life if I can't get out and enjoy it! I mean, lord knows what's headed down the pike next time I get laid out- maybe the smart deal is to quit while the going's not yet quite gone... 

Blue Pill/Red Pill

Photo: © Stan Banos

Here We Go...

Photo: © Stan Banos   (Click to embiggen).

This Tuesday, America votes; and (as previously stated) many a MAGA extremist, election denier has now been legally ensconced to positions of oversight in the most crucial aspects of the voting process in key swing states throughout our country (and yet more to come with anticipated Republican victories). All this, while America reels from the gaping wound of having 40% of it's populace no longer bound by the common earthly realms of: science, history or any remotely verifiable fact... All the doing of one man, and one man alone- The Greatest Con Man Of The 21st Century! A man who does not have to prove one single thing he says for others to revere as dogma, and who is totally above question or consequence even as he openly denies and defies an ever increasing cavalcade of grievous criminalities. An unhinged, narcissist elite who has single-handedly galvanized a nationwide community of those even more unhinged (and formally recognized as such). He has not faded into the shadows as many had hoped, nor has his followers who he continues to incite- many well armed, and vowing to outdo the other to make an impression.