To all of our followers at 2 Guys Photo, Ed and I wanted to let you know that we’re not likely going to post in the coming days as we have full agendas and need to take a bit of time away. We’re going to use the time to consider where we’re at with the blog and will certainly keep you posted. Thanks for following and enjoy the coming days of Spring!
Ed & Rey
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.” — Rosa Parks
Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal. Elbert Hubbard
Remember, him? You know where he is?
Yeah, I remember him. Met the day after Christmas, ’83. I know ’cause he was wearin’ a stupid red sweater his mom gave him. After an hour of us cuttin’ him up for it, he ripped it off and tossed it out the car window. We all loved that. His mom didn’t, I bet.
We traveled together for the next twenty or so. I got caught and so went inside. Last I heard, he was short orderin’ up north someplace. Probably always thinkin’ I’d catch up to him. I’m sure he doesn’t want that…
Saturday was the first full day of spring. Somewhere.
iPhone 5, Snapseed
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” — Mark Twain
I’m asking all 2 Guys Photo readers to settle a dispute, one that’s been rolling around in my head for a while now. It has to do with photographic intent, the notion of being deliberate in the manner in which you work. To pre-establish an artistic vision and then to go out and realize that vision.
There’s a famous Ansel Adams quote about making, not taking great photographs. Ansel would suggest that photographic intent comes right down to working with the elements you have, manipulating, processing, contorting. Ansel would have, I’ll presume, used a lot of action verbs in describing the meaning behind his quote.
But then there’s this…
Discovery.
Donning some type of photographic recording device and then entering the world where beauty is to be discovered, not made. Where the artist’s job is to see and then to use the tools at his or her disposal simply to record. Sure, processing and manipulation can follow, but those always serve the purpose of refining the beauty, not creating it.
Is this a hollow argument? Am I thinking too much about it? Are these extremes really extremes at all? Options? Or am I simply awash in a gigantic bowl of semantical spaghetti?
For me, I like to discover. The camera provides me with a 1×1 or 4×3 or 3×2 aspect window through which I merely peer.
What about you?
Boarded up, abandoned. She read that he lived in it right up to the end. The plywood looked old, worn, so that was his existence.
She ran from the side door when she was 17 years old, without shoes or even socks. His voice trailed off as she ran. “You can have her, good luck” he screamed… as though the world would understand his warning.
He left it to his brother’s son who would tear it down, sell the land. Probably worth a few bucks but not to her.
In her dreams she stood in front of the house and hurled a giant rock, crashing through one of the windows, but most of those were gone now… or already shattered, ruining the effect.
Instead she stood there, motionless. She reached down and took the largest stone she could find.
Peering downward, she offered loudly: “You can have him, good luck”… as though the netherworld would understand her warning.
And she placed the stone into her pocket and moved onward.
It had been a decade, almost to the day. The resentment and regression from that one trip cost her two years in recovery. In her mind, she bade a final farewell. Never again, she reasoned… never again.
But the note containing the news, a note she knew would someday come, brought her back to there.
She expected more changes, noticed few.
The two local coffee shops on the way in were Dunkin’ Donuts now and the strip mall where her parents both worked was gone, an empty parking lot for the furniture store complex next door. That seemed appropriate.
She expected a welling up, to be overtaken by it.
But instead it rolled past her, like franchise coffee shops and flattened sorrows in slow motion. Like water stained memories on color drained photographs.
She drove on and toward it.
She had recovered.
“I have nightmares that I’m going to wake up and everyone’s driving a Prius and living in a condo and we’re all getting health insurance.” — Kid Rock
Homemade tomato soup by Chef Claire, who doesn’t even like anything to do with tomatoes. But the title of this post says it all! Thanks Claire.
Iphone 5, a little seasoning in Snapseed
A few years back, it was a long drive from the coast where we were put up in modern luxury and then here to scuffed wooden beams and ancient scenery. A darkened morning storm gave way to an hour of light. We packed up with purpose and sped along to this iconic vista.
And then the dark and stormy returned.
Yosemite National Park with a lowly Olympus Pen.
A proud male as seen near Hoover Dam, the Arizona – Nevada border.
From DesertUSA:
Description
Gambel’s quail are pear-shaped birds with short legs and roundish wings. Both sexes are gray above and buff below, with white-streaked russet sides. Males have a black throat and face and a head plume (called a “topknot”), a red cap and white headband. Females have a less prominent plume and lack black coloration and red head cap. The birds have a 14-inch wing span and average weight of six ounces.
Range
The species’ range is focused in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico, but it extends into southern New Mexico, up and down the Rio Grande, up the Colorado River drainage into Utah’s canyon country, and west to California and southern Nevada. Read more…
Experimenting with high key portraiture — not something I’ve done much of before. Also experimenting with a side-lit semi-profile composition.
Does this work?
“There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” — Nelson Mandela
It wasn’t as I recalled it. Back then, you’d be lucky just to get a seat. And you always knew you’d be there for at least an hour. It was a curious thing: the bowl full of lollipops. It’s as if you’d go to see a pulmonologist and notice him taking a drag on a Winston.
Didn’t fit.
Doctor Spag would great you with the visual equivalent of a bear hug. He’d remember about your kids, details too, and that you were sick. No weather or how-bout-them-red-sox.
But I stepped in and was alone there. Coats no longer competed for the overburdened rack. Doctor Spag’s greeting was less a hug and more the faint wave. Lollipops gave way to small packets of waxed dental floss.
I looked around the room and wondered where the coats all went.
We proceed toward this.
And the man himself.
“Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” Pope John XXIII
I recently had an opportunity to do something I loved doing as a child – hanging out in the basement with Dad. I‘m still mesmerized by all the interesting tools and unique parts he has down there, and appreciating the vast experience he has in using them.
“I have a thing for tools.” Tim Allen and Dad
More tomorrow…
I wrote recently that I was going to start posting more portraits. In keeping with that promise, I’m adding more to the portrait gallery and sharing with the 2 Guys Photo audience.
Dear Ed and Rey –
Over the years I have enjoyed your wonderful display of posts and sharing of news and advice in the world of photography. Today I saw your post of a warm weather photo and a plea for more to help you defrost from your frozen world. I immediately thought of this photo from earlier this week.
We escaped the winter cold this year by flying down to Buenos Aires, Argentina for 8 weeks. It has been fabulous. We love the energy of this city and all the sights and sound of city living. This is a fairly common sight when out on the streets. So many people have dogs here, but not the time to walk them…definitely had to be a warm day for this scene to play out.
I hope spring will arrive soon for you and that the snow will not cause too many problems when melting away! Hang in there! Hillary Shemin
Thanks very much Hillary. This scene gives us a great “slice of life” from a warmer climate – just what we needed!
We appreciate not only your photo but your support over the years.
Any more warm weather photos anyone??🌅
We're the guys: Ed and Rey!
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