Chance Ridge

I've been waiting for this photo for around ten years. It's out near my in-law's house in Elkhorn, NE. I've driven by this spot hundreds of times, and each time when I see it, I think to myself "that would make a cool shot."

I tried a few times - but they all stunk. They were flat. They contained the phone lines just above. Or they just had poor composition.

Maybe this time, I finally got a good photo. I got closer. I put more depth-of-field in the photo. I "composed" the shot, and then I added some effects in Photoshop.

Poem Ten

This is a spot in a back alley in New Hope, PA, just off the main tourist-trap street. I walked right by the scene before it registered in my brain moments later. I stepped back and grabbed some shots with the my Pentax.

Poem Nine

Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

Poem Eight

you're keeping in step
in the line
got your chin held high and you feel just fine
because you do
what you're told
but inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

just how deep do you believe?
will you bite the hand that feeds?
will you chew until it bleeds?
can you get up off your knees?
are you brave enough to see?
do you want to change it?

what if this whole crusade's
a charade
and behind it all there's a price to be paid
for the blood
on which we dine
justified in the name of the holy and the divine

just how deep do you believe?
will you bite the hand that feeds?
will you chew until it bleeds?
can you get up off your knees?
are you brave enough to see?
do you want to change it?

so naïve
to keep holding on to what I want to believe
i can see
but i keep holding on and on and on and on

will you bite the hand that feeds you?
will you stay down on your knees?

NIN - Trent Reznor

Poem Seven

Poem Six

A Clear Midnight
by Walt Whitman


This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson
done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the
themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.

Poem Five

I wait.
I compose myself.
My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech.
What I must present is a made thing, not something born.

Margaret Atwood - from The Handmaid's Tale

Poem Four

THEIR NAMES


Their names linger on the tongue:
Fallujah, Ramallah, Samarra, Ryad --
Like water, whispers, illicit love.

But in the rubbled streets
Fear, hunger and flames
Embrace flesh, whole families

Burning homes to ground
Memories to ashes
All that was precious to the dead

But is of no value on this earth
To the living who ignite the fires
The ones who erase their names.

- Nancy Metcalf - http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org

Poem Three

On Deaf Ears - by One Minute Silence

Nobody listens any more to the lies
Is there a woman who keeps swallowing flies
Is there a Jesus waiting arms open wide
Too many stories, and too many.

Nobody listens any more to the trees
All moving too fast turning birds into bees
Some say the hurricane will soon be a breeze
I want to see it I want to believe

Wake up and smell the roses trust me and leap
The hand that rocks the cradle rocks you to sleep
It's not what you think it's not what you see
Is there a future or is it just me

Poem Two

The hills find peace
Locked armed guard posts
Safe from the screams
Of the children born as ghosts
Gates guns and alarms
Shape the calm of the dawn
Peering down into the basin
Where death lives on
When young run foaming at the mouth with hate
When burning batons beat the freezing who shake
Under the toxic sunsets they dine and toast
Of walls deny the terror faced
By the children born as ghosts

-Zach de la Rocha

Poem One

Democracy


Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

Langston Hughes

REBOOT

To match my new commitment to posting more often, I've made some changes to memory. All archives are still there - but there will be only one post on the main page for daily updates. Photo size was also increased, and a new header published. I hope everyone likes the changes...

All of my photos this month will be themed as poetry - in spirit with my wife's post on National Poetry Month (http://poemfish.typepad.com/poemfish/2008/04/sidewalks-and-s.html).

Poetry Month

This is how I write poetry -

with light.

G9 Love

I just might be in photography heaven. While it's cool and all to lug around the 5D or 40D out when I'm taking photos, sometimes it's a drag. While the quality, when matched with L glass, is just outstanding, the gear is big, heavy, and intimidating. The G9, however, is a whole different ball game. The photos below were all taken today - all with a camera that fits in my pocket and was a joy to use. Not one photo is blurry or missed focus. The camera was reliable, fun, and gave me a new perspective. While the high ISO photos are horrendous and mostly not useable, and the widest you can go is around 35mm, under the right conditions this camera packs a powerful punch.

New stuff

www.jzportraits.com

My new personal site. Oh - and comments now enabled on memory (for you, Rob).

Lost my way...

I finally updated: http://theomahaproject.blogspot.com/ .

I don't know why, but getting out there and working on the project has just been so difficult for me. Maybe it's because it's a bit of a depressing project... like someone looking out a window afraid of the truth the world has to offer them.

Past its prime

Growing

Inspiration

I think I’m finally starting to believe.

While I’m not really fond of putting too much political talk on this blog, I can’t help but be impressed by Obama and an honest opportunity for change in this country.

I don’t know where the historian Howard Zinn stands in this election, I can’t help but think he’s impressed by the youth that is out there supporting Obama, and the unprecedented number of people paying attention. To me, this is what the election is about, and I finally believe that there is a possibility of change.

It’s taken a while for me to get here. I’ve written before about politicians and my skepticism of their ability to actually do anything. Obama now seems capable of this – but not because I think he can change things on his own.

As a teacher I’ve not seen this level of attention given to a political candidate. My students know what’s going on. They know the candidates. Although you would hope that they would always know – they simply don’t normally pay attention.

Obama has them riveted.

So maybe there is something more to this election than one man. Maybe Obama has the message and the chance to bring in the rest of the population into the mix.

Zinn is fond of seeing history through the eyes of the people – how people change things, not politicians. I agree… and I now think that Obama may be the first politician in my lifetime that can inspire young people of all races and beliefs to get outside their doors and change the world.

As I watched the speeches McCain and Obama gave, the differences were striking.

McCain was surrounded by old white men and women. You could almost smell the dust in the air. In his speech he tried to warn against believing too much in a message that the Democrats might bring. It seemed he was trying to warn people that Obama was falsely offering a vision of America that could never be. I didn’t believe a word of what he said, and he represents everything I despise in politics.

Obama gave me chills. I watched the crowd around him, and the faces there were youthful and vibrant. They were inspired and roared approval throughout. More than anything, they were hopeful . Sure – Obama’s words are powerful, and his charisma is simply unmatched – but I think there is something more in the air than another politician who knows what to say and how to say it.

The people in that audience see not only what Obama can do for the country as President, but also an opportunity to be a part of that change. Not just change that is cast with a vote – but change in their own lives that they can control.

Not very long ago at all, black men and women were not allowed to vote in this country, and yet right now we are on the brink of possibly having a black President. Mr. McCain warns us of the dangers of hoping too much, yet if we never believed in hope and the possibility of change, then Obama would have never stood on that stage tonight giving that speech.

I don’t believe one man or woman can change this country, even if they are President. We must always remember that the civil rights movement was not a movement that was started or even championed by politicians. Real people were there, fighting and sometimes dying for the hope of a better America. Regular people with bravery I could never imagine would protest - would fight - would bleed. What we are seeing now, with Obama on that stage, is a result of their pain. We are seeing their hope, even if we still have along way to go.

I believe that an inspired America is one to watch out for – one that I can finally be hopeful for and believe in again.

Sign me up.

I used to suck

I was recently going through the archives to get ready for a new art show we've got coming up. In doing so, I forced myself to go through some really old stuff. You know it's old stuff when I see jpegs coming up - back when life was simple and I didn't have to convert all the RAW files that fill up six hard drives and counting...

I used to drive around and try to find cool things... exactly like I do now. Except now, when I find cool things, I know how to photograph them.























A recurring theme for me is photographing graveyards. I love them, and each time I go, there are new things to photograph. Back in the day, I just wasn't very good at it. The picture here, taken with some really unflattering, harsh light, just doesn't work. I, of course, was trying to do "framing" and I probably thought I was being cute... but the final photograph lacks any kind of complexity, and it's just dull.


















I've always liked old trucks. this one is especially cool, but it's ruined by me using the camera on program mode, shooting (again!) with some horrible lighting conditions, and trying to get the entire truck in the photo.


Here is me tragically trying to take pictures of trees that I thought were cool... but taking bad photos of those trees.
Things began to change, close to when my buddy Zach began to get into photography. Here, on one of our photo trips, is Zach at Toadstool national parks in Nebraska. My photos are getting better at this point, even in the harsh mid-day sunlight coming down through the clouds.

Here, on another trip to a small town (again with Zach), is a somewhat cool photo of a cemetary grave marker juxtoposed with the town's water tower in the background. At this point, it's still pretty bad light, but I'm getting better and trying to be a bit more visually stimulating.

More recently, at the Botanical gardens, I didn't take one photo of the ENTIRE building to the left. I just focused on the unique details, and came out with much cooler stuff.



















Now, at this point, I'm beginning to think in terms of the final print and what my audience will see. I'm now learning how to communicate the beauty I find to the world in ways that simply make for better photos.



I'm still learning, and that's what makes it fun. I hope I'm still saying the same thing when I'm 70.