Recycling Is A... LIE!

I'm gonna assume most some people know the aforementioned is true (I was blissfully oblivious for longer than I care to admit), but it still angers the Bejeesuz out of me... to say the least. Everyday we have countless citizens putting in the extra effort to do what is right, honestly thinking the extra effort is worth the beneficial result and making all our lives (including that of their children) that much better... and it's just another Matrix-sized LIE (at least in the good ol' USA)! Unfortunately, we're all just politely jerking each other off thinking we're actually doing a good deed for our fellow human. And all that's happening is that Big Oil and Company(s) have found yet another way to get rich at our expense, while making us smile- and fucking us in the ass while doing it! Efficiency at its finest.

And truth be told, I still do it! There is now so much plastic encapsulating everything we buy (particularly food) that I don't have room for it all in my garbage container. The plastic bins, containers and packaging that currently envelops our food products alone is simply overwhelming...

Exactly.

PLAIN & SIMPLE...

Yup.

This (difficult as it is) I understand fully.

This I can't even begin to fathom...

Lemons Into...

Yeah, I have seen this 'technique' used before, I just don't recall when the context so overwhelmed. It's unfortunate that its very usage lies in the most profound of tragedies- suffering due to sheer human greed and malice. Fortunately, we have someone with the skills to remind reveal to us the evil being perpetrated half a world away, by presenting it in a way that entices us to look and consider it anew, instead of turning away in apathy and disinterest. And that, of course, is what (great) art can do...

An Even Dozen, Maybe?

I submitted ten photographs this year to the NY Times Portfolio Review, just like I did the previous ten years. And just like those previous ten years, I thought I was submitting an invulnerable group of ten infallible images, each and every one a knockout, sure shot to success. It was only afterwards that I would admit that, well yeah, maybe there were one (or two) that I kinda threw in on a wing and a prayer. So this year I began editing early, carefully, extra carefully- one tight edit right on topic. Surely, they would now set this right, knowing how much this meant to me, realizing how wrong they had been before- no hard feelings, all would be forgiven. Finally, I'd get thrown a slice for 40+ years of image making! This was gonna be it, give it my Best shot, no second guessing, no regrets- full throttle I will not be denied! 

And uhhh... yeah, of course I was- again. 

I was right about one thing though- no regrets this time. This time I did give it my best, and why they couldn't find just one little slot in their list of one hundred fucking sixty- well, that's the one thing I would really like to know. Other than that, I took it pretty well; actually, better than I thought, and just went on with my day. Shit, people are being slaughtered and starved in at least two major conflicts half a world away- what the hell do I have to complain about! Seriously.

Anyway, here are the ten indomitable failures:

All Photos: © Stan Banos            1) Any Adult

2)  Trans Rights

3)  Abort Court

4) Protection

5)  Cap'n America

6)  Help

7)  MLK

8) Neither

9)  7X

10)  Declaration

So... that's it, right, Stan? No sense entering again next year, right? I mean what's the point? Ya gave it your best and...

True, true... but right now, I'm kinda thinking... just hit 'em with my Folsom Leather Street Fair dick pics from here on in, after all, they are my signature best- and who can resist that face:

BEACH BOY! 

Fascist-Socialist-Commie Pig!

"You have people in rural areas saying socialism is destroying their economies. But if you look at why the mom-and-pop shop closed and got replaced by a Dollar General? That's late stage capitalism. That ain't socialism. Right? If you look at why hospital and treatment facilities are closing, it's because rural hospitals don't turn a profit. That's capitalism, pure and simple. The same people who are complaining that socialism and communism are taking over America are watching their communities being decimated by late stage capitalism. And they're pointing fingers at cultural elites in faraway cities." 

'Cause it's just so much easier to blame what ya wanna (and who cares what all 'em big words mean anyway) ...

The Leg Bone's Connected To...

I have the noticeably bad habit of: taking a photo, getting excited, going back home, editing it, and then that night, if I have something to actually say that goes with it, posting it the very next day. The next day, I wake up and... Whoops! I didn't see a certain part of the photo the night before that really needs some attention, so I get about to fixing it, there done! And then the following day... aww shit- how did I miss that other part? And so it goes, as you perfect one problem spot, it demands you make better another...

And so here we are a full week later until I've finally got this down right! It's a backlit shot which always presents additional problems. That next day, I still had to deal with remaining tonal discrepancies in the mid and foreground- finally, good and done after three days. Then I noticed the sky area was good and fucked up, another coupla days trying to even that out- before realizing (and finally admitting) that it was too far gone to salvage... I would have to start all over! SHIT!!! So I did, and finally got it right after a coupla days incorporating what I now knew I had to do. Then I noticed the composition seemed a tad unbalanced- what the... that didn't seem a problem before!? I eventually came to realize I had to make the left hand side a bit darker, and that finally did the trick- one full week after the fact. It's still not the greatest shot, but at least it's properly edited. The End!*

*I f'n hope so.

ADDENDUM: Needed just a tad more work today (3/04).

Stand Off

Photo: © Stan Banos

Fortunately, we've had our fair share of weather this winter- fortunate in light of the years of drought we've had. Doesn't make for a host of picture taking opportunities though, bad enough here on good days with hardly a soul ambling about the streets of San Francisco anymore. One weekend I was fortunate to view two really good flicks in a proper movie theater, but this past Presidents' Day weekend, there was nothing on the menu via entertainment and it rained every day. So I forced myself to do what I had been putting off for some time and started consolidating my digital files for posterity, which included burning them on gold DVD-R discs. Actually, I had done this as recently as 2 yrs ago, but I had gradually reedited so many of my files, I really needed to update since I've continued to improve my editing skills (now in color) with my state of the art Elements 9 Photoshop. Yeah, yeah- I know, I know... I really need to dispense with that toy editing software, man up, put on my big boy pants and buy Lightroom, Capture One or whatever- I get it!. And that's exactly what I plan to do in a year and two thirds when I retire... maybe (I just dread the fact that it'll then take me at least a year and a half to familiarize myself with the subtleties of the program, and a whole 'nother year and a half to 'master' it- and then go back and reedit that last three years work to finally begin to get it right... Lawdy, lawdy!

Anyway, one of the nice things that occurred was finding the discarded image above taken that very first Summer of Covid back in 2020 in NYC. I had dismissed it then as not very much. And while it may still remain and forever be just that, it now seems to so perfectly encapsulate and remind one of that peak period of time when the whole world seemed so very stand-offishly beyond the perimeter.