Worth the Trip

I regularly question the sense of driving between 75 and 150 miles to one-day cycling events. But, since I don't really have any riding partners over here, and I've used up the majority of the available roads many times over, I still do it.

Saturday's Harvest Century started in Hillsboro, so I drove "The Barrel" and the Sunset Summit, much of it in full darkness.

The sun started to rise as I turned onto US 26. I risked making myself late by stopping several times to shoot.


The "fog in a bowl" image was at the viewpoint turnout. The balance were on the way in from US 26 a few miles from Hillsboro. The ride itself traveled through most of that area an hour or so later.

It was a beautiful day, and I was glad to be on the bike, but I could easily have burned up the morning chasing more photographs. Good thing I left the "big bag" at home. These were all shot with the Lumix, and a couple needed slight Photoshop adjustments to "give me back" the scene that I saw.

Well, I'll be...

Looks like the Nobel Committee is in strong disagreement with me.  Or at least they're a lot more optimistic than I am.

Well, good!

At least the "non-US" portion of the planet has stopped loathing our leadership.  That's what I take out of the Peace Prize selection, anyway.  "Hey, look!  They elected someone that doesn't hate the rest of the world, and he's not bent on killing us all through overt hostility or callous neglect!"

Not insignificant matters, to be sure, but we still need some real focus here.

If the Nobel Prize was offered in the form of a chalice (I know it's not), I'd see it as something to yet to be filled, a major project yet to be completed.  Expectations expressed but not yet fulfilled.

For all of our sakes (including the counter-patriot wingnuts currently freaking out en-masse), I hope the Nobel Committee remains happy with their choice in the coming years.

Mr. President, you've got yet another high bar to get over.  I know you didn't ask for it, but I hope you make it!

When the Hangover Starts

Trivia question:  Which 80s pop band released a song by that title?

But I'm talking about the electoral hangover, not the alcohol induced one. And I've got one.

As I've noted previously, I didn't expect miracles, an immediate reversal of a catastrophic economic slide or a sudden, inexplicable outbreak of peace and harmony on the planet.

But what I did expect and had reason to hope for was a change from "business as usual" in the White House, with a trickle-down effect into the houses of Congress.

Silly me.

Do I regret not voting for the old grouch from Arizona and his Froot-Loops-crazy glamor girl sidekick?  Oh, hell no.  I can induce nightmares in the daytime when I consider that scenario.

But my disappointment in the President is growing daily.  It's not hatred or bigotry or anything else that the crackers on the right have going for them.  Regardless of what their nutball signs might say, it's really that wing of the public that leans right far enough to approach Nazism.  The very fact that so many of them are utterly befuddled by the political spectrum points up either the failure of our education system or the complete success of the right-wing media machine.  Or both.

I'm disappointed with the President for not standing up for the ideals that he ran on.  Come on, Mr. President, let's make a fresh, strong pot of coffee and get a fresh start with some real focus!

Trivia answer:  Squeeze

Has the "Fox News" Mentality Taken Over Everything?

OK, so that's probably not the right question. Fox, while really awful, isn't the only outlet that I suspect in this...

The question is really much more broad. It's more like "Do people really not want to do their own thinking anymore?"

One of the most frequently asked questions that I get at work is "What laser printer should I buy?"

I understand why I get the question. I sell a number of products that are designed for use in laser printers. It's normal to ask for tips and things to look for when purchasing a new printer, and I help when I can, but I (and we as a company) do NOT make recommendations.

Why? The reasons are myriad, including but not limited to the fact that there are more printers than we can possibly test; people's needs are different; models and drivers change faster than we can keep up with and (this is a biggie) real, usable testing takes many months to accomplish.

With all of that in mind, simply testing printers and their output in a real-world setting could be a full time occupation. It wouldn't be one that many people would pay for, but it could be full time.

Many of our customers understand this without asking. A few more get indignant when I won't tell them which printer to go and buy, but then settle down when they consider the factors listed above.

A few more, however, get really, really upset when I won't say "Go buy this printer."

Sometimes they push harder. "You've GOT to tell me something."

No, really, I can't do anything more but to help you identify the features that are most important to you. "How can you stay in business if you won't help your customers?"

Helping someone and removing them from the thought process are two very different things.

Which is where the Fox (or MSNBC, or Rush Limbaugh, or what/whoever)question comes from. With all of these various ways that people are told what to think, and with all of the millions of viewers and listeners who swallow all of whatever flavor of spew that happens to resonate with them, has a large segment of our population just given up on thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for their thoughts?

Oh, For a Kayak Tonight...

Ripples are slow, too lazy to peak. The stillness stretches all the way across the river.

It's warm and so sticky that the grass is sopping wet, though there's been no rain for more than a day.

Breathless calm, muted hues, happy frogs, the soft murmur of contented ducks bobbing nearby, but out of sight.

I want to disrupt it ever so slightly, just to cut one long, broad wedge into the surface, pointing a slender craft out toward the trestle's cut, dipping a paddle quietly.

Flyweight Fight

Some of the hummers never left, but the ones that did are coming back in numbers.
The feeder is getting a little too crowded for some these days.

Click on the image for a closer view.

Copyright? What copyright?

The web is a great thing.  I don't know how I'd get along without it.  But there are some serious downsides.

I make photographs because I really like to.  No, I love to.  I like to share some of what I do.  I mean, for me, that's the point... capture a frame for the sake of its visual appeal.  Not everyone is going to like it, but some will.  So I put some up on the web and provide links for viewing them, particularly to the subjects.

Imagine my surprise when I looked at the front page of the print publication for our local community radio station and found one of my photos staring back at me.  When I looked below the fold, there was another.  Nobody had asked me for permission, and yet here's my stuff showing up in print, without attribution.

Musicians (at least the ones I like) get up on stage because they love to do what they do, because they want to share what they do, and usually because they'd like some appreciation for what they do.  Appreciation in the form of applause (at least) and in the best of worlds, some money.  Not an outlandish amount usually, just some to help offset expenses.

I don't expect applause.  Though I have to admit that when one of my subjects came up to me a week ago and told me that those were the best pictures she'd ever had from a performance, it did feel really good.

I don't expect a lot of money.  Usually, I don't expect any, but some would be nice.  I've got a few thousand dollars invested in equipment, supplies and software... think of it as an analogue to a few guitars and an amp or two.  They're necessary tools, and they're not free to me.

I do expect respect.  And sometimes it comes.  But sometimes it doesn't.

I got an e-mail from a performer who happened to be included in one of my sessions.  No compliments or anything, just "send me everything you took at high resolution".  Naw... I don't think so.  Even if he understood what he was asking for he wasn't going to get it.  I gave him express permission to use web-resolution images of the files that I chose for MySpace or Facebook use only, and I didn't charge him.  It was a better deal than he deserved, but he probably still thinks I'm being a jerk because I warned him that he really didn't want me to find that he'd used anything in print without permission.

I'm regularly astonished at what some people believe they're entitled to.  But it does make those occasions when real appreciation is shown even more memorable.