Photos from the March For Our lives on 6/11/2022 in San Francisco (woulda had a coupla more but the dang XT missed focus- yet again)... Looks like I just might have to train myself to manual focus again, just like I had to train myself to compose using my right eye, instead of my left...
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Amen- most definitely! Above and Below...
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| Photos: © Stan Banos |
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
Saw it from half a block away, a pure and simple snapshot to be sure- so full of life and promise and hope. Of course, it would all be over by the time I got there, and it was- but it wasn't... They were taking one more shot, one more try- and I was there!
Dad seems detached, but it don't matter none- cause Mom's bursting with such joy and pride! Young blood standing proud looks toward her with love, care, appreciation. That's all he needs- tripod at hand, he's already proving he can do it on his own. Youth = Hope; hopes and dreams as big as he is tall, as wide as the building behind them.
And I wish him all the possible best!
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
Gotta give it up to anyone capable of finding humor in any of this...
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
Ans: A good guy with a gun!
BTW- There's been well over 200 mass shootings in the US of A just this year... thus far!
Obviously, the sooner a child becomes acquainted with guns, the more responsible he becomes. It bestows a certain sense of maturity...
I was a child living through the Viet Nam War. Back then, it seemed like that one too would never end. But I remember what helped turned the opinion of many who continued to support the war- the photos of the bodies... children's bodies. The most iconic image etched into the minds of anyone from that era was the sight of Phan Thị Kim Phúc OOnt (aka- "Napalm Girl") trying desperately to escape and run from her pain, burnt flesh running down her body...
But even prior to that came the first hardcore salvo that had die hard supporters scratching their heads in bewilderment- morally, ethically, "patriotically." That was the My Lai Massacre photos, dead women, old men, and yes- dead children and babies. Many of them. Innocents slaughtered by the wayside, with the same maniacal, casual disregard- caused by the very same lineage of weapons that continue to slaughter civilian innocents to this day! Those photos caused anyone with a beating heart who still thought we were on the side of "right" to realize how we were blatantly allowing and perpetuating the most hideous of atrocities...
It's time to show the children's bodies here at home- time to clearly, irrevocably show and expose the slaughter that these bought Republican shills are allowing to occur on a now regular basis. All we are ever allowed are their never ending torrent of fantasy induced excuses. They are well beyond shame, beyond reason. It's time to actually see the results of their words, their policies, their willingness to do absolutely nothing in the face of continued carnage!
PS- Yes, that's one helluva ask of any parent or family, but when all we can possibly hope for are cosmetic changes of no real consequence- perhaps an Emmett Till moment is just what we need.
This pop tune (if it can be called such) is just so utterly catchy and contemporary, her movements so utterly steeped in tradition...
That shop sign somewhere in the UK about "All Americans must be accompanied by an adult?" Yeah...
In case anyone missed this over the weekend (and everyone should- particularly the families of those related)- Trump ended his slurred, mispronounced tribute insult to the slaughter of innocents with his now signature jerk-off dance. Truly touching... Bravo performance! Like him or not- the guy just oozes class and sincerity!
One of my recent self publications (Say What?) was featured last Friday on This Week in Photography at A Photo Editor. Needless to say, I was quite honored and more than a little surprised. Such things don't exactly happen everyday. It's nice to occasionally have what one creates noticed and seen by a wider portion of the public, particularly when the very raison d'etre of what one creates is- to be shared and seen! Sure one creates, one photographs simply because one has to, but... Photographs, paintings, movies only truly exist when actually... seen!
And rightly or wrongly (it shouldn't, but it does), a public review also garners the work a certain cache of legitimacy. Once 'approved,' the work has been officially vetted, condoned and now officially matters, ie- at least beyond the scope of... one!
Now, what's taking so long for Old Man Steidel to call? It is a holiday weekend, I suppose...
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
There they go again. Yet more crisis actors trying to ramp up sympathy and support to take away our god given right to own as many guns as we want. It just never ends...
Photo: © Stan Banos
Recently I photographed a tag consisting of three words that I sorta suspected was somehow tied into something larger- it was. Then I chanced upon this particular number and wondered the same- drug reference maybe, Nazi code? Obviously, yours truly's not the brightest bulb in the pack, or I would have recognized it right off as... The Golden Ratio!
Last Sept I took a photo (with my X-T1) that turned out to be out of focus on close examination. Both of my X-T1 bodies had occasionally taken out of focus photos so it was just a matter of time before it occurred with a shot that was actually near and dear. When it finally did happen, I actively began searching for an X-T2, something I had been contemplating for some time to alleviate said problem. I didn't need increased burst or continuous focusing modes- just something to nail focus on a single shot in good light. That's not asking much these days. So I was more than happy with my LN X-T2 for $600. Confidence restored, focusing issue resolved...
The eye actually blinked (as did the camera). Photo: © Stan Banos
So this past weekend I shot a very similar shot with my new and improved X-T2- a funny snapshot of some guy in a ridiculously weird costume; an easy-peasy, plenty of light and contrast, non action, full length portrait if ya will. And... BOOM!!! Every freaking bit as unfocused as with the X-T1; and once again, Focus Magic software somewhat rescued the image (at least for online viewing).
Get an X-T3 or X-T4, they really nailed the focusing issue, Stan. Uh-huh... If I wanted a body as big as, or bigger than a FF Sony- I would get a FF Sony! Well, just manually focus then and STFU! And that's exactly what I'd do, had I my younger eyes and patience. But I don't, and I wish I had something learned or clever to wind this up with, but I ain't got that either. Maybe Fuji just doesn't like silly ass costumes- but I'm waiting for the day when it's not just a funny snapshot, and instead, is one of those once in a lifetime portfolio highlights that will be little more than a blurred (and accursed) memory...
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
For over two years since my wife and I went our separate ways, I would experience an emotional gut punch on a daily basis- the lost joys of times past, the guilt of future times lost, and always, always... always, the questions of "what if." What if I, what if she, what if we? The reminisces and reevaluations, whatever place or time of day- opportunities rife with the chance of daily repetitions, so I simply kept as busy as I could, as long as I could.
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
So it came as quite the welcomed surprise a coupla months past when I realized I had somehow abandoned said routine- or it had abandoned me. How or why it dissipated I don't know, and that's not to say that all is forgotten and carefree, but it's now been relegated to a more manageable, less debilitating, background pain- present, just not overwhelming. Amazing how these things have their very own time lines, and how one is clueless to predict and powerless to preemptively intervene.
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
Also managed to venture downtown to The Blue Sky Gallery on a Saturday, where I caught Matthew Moore's excellent Post-Socialist Landscapes.
*How did Portland, of all places, become the supposed king of pizza? When growing up in NY, a slice of great pizza could be had, in practically any neighborhood, in any borough, at any time of day- guaranteed (and for 15 cents a slice in the mid '60s- yeah, you heard right)! Now, you can count the number of places in my hometown on one hand...
Most Americans (as in 99.99%) don't know about the first attempted coup in US history- not that it makes Trump's any the less traitorous. And this ain't the first time I've called attention to it. Funny how it's always the "law and order" party that attempts coups. And for a brief moment in history some of them actually had the decency to call out their own during the reign of "I Am Not A Crook" Nixon. Of course, any such decency, patriotism... call it what you will, has long left that particular party- as it is now the unbridled- Party of Q!*
*You know, the good folk who told us about Hillary's Child Sex Pizza Parlor; and for those whose imagination didn't get fired up by that particular piece of creative license- the exact same folks who went on to the zombie JFK, Jr. reanimation at Dealey Plaza to reinstall Trump in the White House... and had people believing it!!!
Can't make it up - But they did - And bought it... hook, line and sinker!
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
So... look for The All Star Confederacy of Dunces this end of year. Interest in the coup, I mean "the legitimate political discourse" will quickly wane as we dive clown first into Huntergate. And unless Trump is criminally indicted and convicted for any of the multitude of crimes committed before and during his term of office, he'll be back selling beans from the White House yet again in 2024...
