Category Archives: Getting Serious

50th State

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Alaska can put on quite a show when she wants to.

In June 2012, I visited my 50th state. My goal was to visit every state in the USA before I turned 40; I met it.

For the last month or so I’ve been sitting on this post, trying to figure out what to say. It’s not often I am struck speechless, but sometimes there are no words. The trip was amazing. Everywhere I looked there was a view more stunning than the last. The people were friendly and fun (especially in Skagway!). The beer was excellent. Almost every day there were bald eagles, humpback whales, bears, glaciers, and icebergs…things you just don’t see often in most of the continental US.

I want to go back…cruising gives you enough of a taste of a place to know where you need to spend more time.

One man I talked to commented “If you can’t take a beautiful picture here you need to turn in every camera you’ve ever owned…including the one in your phone.” I can’t agree more.

Taken with a Canon 30D with a Sigma 70-300 in Auke Bay, near Juneau, Alaska. My entire set of pictures from the trip are up in Flickr.

Open Doors

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Things change. Sometimes they change because we want them to. Sometimes they change because we need them to.

I’ve been working full-time as a paramedic since the beginning of 1999. In my working life I’ve done what seems like a million different jobs, most of them while living in New York City’s metropolitan area. My life is good. I have amazing friends and a job that I love (most of the time). I am lucky to be able to live comfortably, and I work hard for the things I have. My problem is that I feel my life has stagnated. I often find myself wondering “Is this all there is for me?”

So…what changes do I make?

Location? I’ve wanted to go back to upstate New York for years. Unfortunately, paramedics don’t make anything even resembling a living wage in the Albany area. The commute to New Jersey is doable, but not ideal. That being said, the commute would be more than worth it for a positive change. I can drive the 300 miles round-trip 3-4 times every 2 weeks.

Job? I have no desire to be in the EMS management structure; it’s like herding cats…we’re all too independent for our own good (and that’s a necessary thing in para-medicine). I have no desire to be a nurse or a physician assistant. I have no desire to be a doctor. Being a line medic is great, but (realistically speaking) I can’t do it forever. It’s hard on the body as well as being hard on the mind and on the soul. I’d also kill for the opportunity to wear something other than blue polyester-blend pants and black combat boots to work.

Both location and job? An amazing opportunity came up in the form of a job that could have been tailor-made for me. I was offered a job at a company that does translation and localization (of pretty much everything) as a project manager. I’m extremely excited about it. It’s a job I did in high school as a freelancer, and I had no idea that I could actually make a career of it. The company also happens to be located about three miles from the city I’d like to be living in.

I have a lot of change coming at once. That it’s what I’ve actively pursued doesn’t make it any less terrifying, but it’s what I want…what I’ve been working toward. You can’t make it as a paramedic without being able to handle a little fear (and a lot of blood, guts, tears, and body fluids…)

Sometimes you have to walk through a door having faith that your path to a better life lies on the other side.

Photo taken with an iPhone 4S and processed with Pixlromatic, Filterstorm, and FingerFocus.

Weeping Angel

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Weeping Angel

I’ve been catching up on my Dr. Who via Netflix, as I don’t get BBC America at home. I was able to watch “Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone” last night, streaming on my NookColor.

The Weeping Angels got me thinking about cemetery angels in general. Too many cemeteries have neither the personnel nor the money to maintain their statuary, even if there were enough people with the skills to do the work. It’s sad (and beautiful) watching the angels disintegrate over time.

Pictures keep these works of art alive.

Taken in Troy, NY’s Oakwood Cemetery on 22 April 2006 with a Minolta Maxxum 7D and a Sigma 28-105mm lens in the middle of a nor’easter. Never was I so happy to be driving a car with heated seats as I was on this day.

For more cemetery angels, please visit my Cemeteries & Monuments set on Flickr.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words…

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They say that a picture is worth a thousand words…

With all that has been going on in the U.S.A. over the last few days, I have been thinking about pictures and their power to heal, to hurt, and to communicate. Some people want to see the pictures of a dead bin Laden…other people don’t want the pictures to be released…


The decision was made to not release them. No matter which decision was made (or why), it was going to be the wrong one for half the populace.


Personally, I believe that the better decision was made. We’re a country that was horrified when photos of our dead soldiers in the Middle East were released…we’re a country that was mortally insulted by photos of people dancing in the streets at the “success” of the 9/11 attacks.


How is our releasing the bin Laden death photos any different than what was done to us…and that we took such offense at?


As a full-time paramedic in the New York-metropolitan for the last 12.5 years, I have seen my share of death, both of the violent and non-violent varieties. Death isn’t pretty. Death isn’t clean. Death should be a private affair. It is not for public consumption. Death should be treated with respect, no matter who the dead are. Every dead man has people who loved him. Respect that, if nothing else.


Do you really think you’re ready to see graphic photos of a man killed by violence? What you see in the movies isn’t real…you KNOW it isn’t real. This is something else entirely. This is a photo of someone who touched your life, dead by violence. If you don’t think that it would change you to see those pictures you’re fooling yourself. Remember that when the pictures are “leaked,” as I’m sure they will be, eventually.


Releasing the photos is tacky. It would prove what others say of us as a culture…that we demand others to do as we say and not as we do. How can we take offense at people celebrating our grief when we celebrate theirs? It would prove to the world that we are nothing more than the bunch of self-righteous, loud, obnoxious hypocrites so many think we are.


They say a picture is worth a thousand words.”They” underrate the power of a picture.


A picture can be a reason to love…or a reason to hate.


A picture can prevent a war…or start one.


A picture is worth a lifetime of joy…or a lifetime of regret.


A picture is worth all the words we know…and all the words we don’t.


A picture is truth, lies, and consequences in one neat two-dimensional package. Never underestimate the power of a picture to change you.


The above photo was taken on 13 March 2004 with a Konica KD-500Z at Ground Zero, accessed through the PATH station at World Trade Center.

Tribute in Light, 8 Sept. 2010 taken with Fuji IS-1

9/11 Memorial at Eagle Rock Reservation, taken 11 September 2008 with a Canon EOS 30D

Rebuilding, taken 8 September 2010 with a Fuji IS-1

These, and other photos I have taken out and about in NYC, appear in this set on Flickr.

Reflections

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Reflections

I  miss film photography. I miss the smells of the film and the chemicals, the feel of the paper, and the anticipation of seeing my photos for the first time. I even miss the fears that I had screwed up somewhere and that nothing would come out at all.

My life as a photographer, for a long time, was defined by those things. What I learned as a film photographer bleeds through into my rebirth as a digital photographer.

I still try to take my pictures in such a way as to minimize (or eliminate) post-processing. I try not to be lazy, assuming that I can fix my images after the fact. I know the “rules of photography” (Sunny 16, Rule of Thirds, etc.). I understand the zone system (and use it daily!).

Instant gratification has its place, but that doesn’t mean that everyone with a cameraphone is a photographer.

You need to know the rules before you can break them…and you need to understand them before you can use them.  Some moments are fleeting, and missing one because you didn’t take the time to learn the basics is devastating.

Beluga Whale

Taken in March of 2004 with a Maxxum 7xi (film camera!) and a Sigma 28-105 lens at SeaWorld in San Diego. exposure information unrecorded, no flash

I apologize for using Wikipedia as a reference, given that all content is user generated; however, the explanations of the rules and zone system are well explained for people who are new to them as of the time I linked them. -m

The Writing on the Wall

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The Writing on the Wall

The writing on the wall often speaks sense. Take time to read it, what other people think is important; you may choose to disregard it, but ignorance is dangerous, and it can be deadly.

Learn all you can. Make educated choices.  Don’t follow blindly. If you don’t get educated, you have no one to blame but yourself when you don’t like the paths politics take.

Song of Choice, by Solas

Early every year, seeds are growing
Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground
Would you know before the leaves are showing
That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears
Hold your mouth, how can you know?
The seeds you cannot see may not be there
The seeds you cannot hear may never grow

In January you’ve still got the choice
You can cut the weeds before they start to bud
If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice
And in December you may pay with your blood

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth and take it slow
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn’t know

Everyday another vulture takes flight
There’s another danger born every morning
In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite
How can you fight if you can’t recognize a warning?

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth and then you know
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn’t know

Today you may earn a living wage
Tomorrow you may be on the dole
Though there’s millions going hungry, you needn’t disengage
For it’s them, not you, that’s fallen in the hole

It’s alright for you if you run with the pack
It’s alright if you agree with all they do
If the fascist’s party slowly climbing back
It’s not here yet, so what’s it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they’re growing
It will soon be too late for the knife
If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing
You may pay for your silence with your life

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth, they’re never there
And if it happens here, they’ll never come for you
Because they’ll know you really didn’t care

Taken with a Minolta Maxxum 7D with a Sigma 28-105mm lens on 30 December 2005 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. If you’ve never been there, go.  It’s an amazing city.

At the Dentist

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At the Dentist

It’s hard to remember life before camera phones. I remember that a phone with a camera used to be a rarity, even when the quality of the camera was miserable.  Now camera phones are the norm…and the quality of both the phones and the in-phone applications to edit pictures are getting better and better.

What does it mean? It means we all take more pictures. It means we’ll stop to take a second look at something, and perhaps photograph it, for no other reason than “it looks cool.” It means we can share our every day lives with our friends and family.

Who would have thought that something as simple (or as complex) as putting a camera in a phone would have so much impact on our every-day lives?

Taken with an iPhone 3gs, with help from the Hipstamatic app, then post-processed through Instagram and posted directly from my phone to my mobile’s Flickr account.

Angel, Un-Winged

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Angel, Un-Winged

Of the images I collect, cemetery angels are among my favorites. I love to see how different artists sculpt them. I love to see how they change with the seasons. I love to see how they age.

I hate to see them defaced…or, as in this case, de-winged.

You may be looking at this picture and thinking, “She’s not an angel! Where are her wings?”

I have no answers for you other than to tell you that they were there…and that they were beautiful. She mourns their loss, as do I.

Taken with a Fuji-IS-1 on 31 October 2010 (IR spectrum blocked) in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy NY (Uncle Sam is buried there! Yes…he WAS a real person!).

The Sleicher Angel, with her wings intact: 24 July, 2005

Taken with a Minolta Maxxum 7D (digital SLR) and a 17-35mm Sigma f2.8-4.0 lens.

(2 pictures in one post for missing yesterday!)