Random thoughts from an Internet island...
Many beautiful shots were taken of the recent Perseid meteor shower. The editorial staff at Yahoo! selected some of the best for this beautiful Flickr gallery.
The people who attacked us would never even consider building a mosque here. They're the kind of people who, rather than saying they wouldn't be caught dead on U.S. soil, would only be caught dead on it.
Ever had a friend you golfed or played pool with blame his less then stellar play on the clubs or pool cue? If he had better equipment, he'd argue, he'd kick ass. While there's no doubt equipment matters greatly to the skilled player, for most of us we're just deluding ourselves to think it'd substantially change our game.
Cameras are like that. I believe you either have an eye for subject, light, composition, etc., or you don't. No camera in the world will change that.
I posted before about great cell phone camera pictures, and here are 10 more. These were all taken with the iPhone, but as I said before the majority of modern cell cameras are good enough to take some great shots. If you can't take decent pictures with them, I don't believe a new $5K Canon is going to up your game as much as you think.
Note: The poem was written in January, 2005 after having received for Christmas a few weeks earlier a binder filled with hundreds of digitized family photos. There's something about seeing one's parents not as you remember them, but rather as they were from a time long before you entered their lives. The above shot (mom third from left, "me") was taken shortly after her 18th birthday, and seven months after the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor. The hopefulness in those faces despite that awful conflict struck me, and was one of many that inspired portions of the poem.
From 2005
I have here a book full of photographs
begun generations ago.
People and times who had lived but are gone,
yet captured for me to know.
Wearing clothes that are everyday with the
scene behind frozen in time.
They seem to be
Looking up at me
looking back from 2005.
A rough life to live on the central plains;
simple times in simple towns.
Days of hard work and the sweat of toil
‘fore a night’s sleep on eiderdown.
It was all that they knew and all that they had,
but of course all of this I survive,
With decades past
To compare and contrast
looking back from 2005.
And the lives behind some of those faces
was deceivingly shielded from harm.
Horror-filled days as the world declined
‘neath a madman’s ruling arm.
The balance of power so often in doubt,
Armageddon would surely arrive.
Yet still you sense
A confidence
looking back from 2005.
The news of those days
O’er the radio waves;
The forfeit of so many men.
But with laughing eyes
On those fourth of Julys
They are certain and hopeful again...
So they look back at me from these pages;
now inquisitive as they peer.
Have my forebears taken to judging me
as they gaze upon my year?
No, I see in those faces the thoughtfulness
of a simple and knowing smile.
They’re wondering when
We will visit again
looking back from 2005.
Tom_R
Should be checking in in about 16 hours.
Will be there for a couple days getting a little more relaxation in before Summer is gone.
Don't think a cellphone can take a good picture? These photos show it's much more than megapixels, aperture, etc. It's about having an eye for composition, and also about being there at the right moment.
All the pictures are works from a cellphone, meaning they were taken by the phone's camera, and any post-processing was performed on the phone as well. The above shot is actually several photos taken on an iPhone and then stitched together via an iPhone app.
It's not just the iPhone, however, many phones are represented in this collection, and there are some truly beautiful shots. Click the above link for more, and if you click through all the galleries you'll find nearly 400 photos in all.
Great stuff. At first glance they appear to be detailed photos, but they're actually the work of various artists who specialize in hyper-realistic painting. Many more at the above link.
It should be maybe four inches long, but it's a foot and a half! I wonder how much excess paper we go through every day to print these things.
