wlewisiii
Just another hotel clerk
It might not be there later. We know that in our minds but sometimes we get reminded of it.
I have subjects I go back to repeatedly. I call them my "usual suspects" after Casablanca. This is one of them.
No more for that one. I'm just glad I got it across as many seasons and in as many different lights as I did.
I have subjects I go back to repeatedly. I call them my "usual suspects" after Casablanca. This is one of them.
No more for that one. I'm just glad I got it across as many seasons and in as many different lights as I did.
GMOG
Well-known
This was the old rail depot in Melrose, New Mexico. It was demolished a couple years ago. I would stop there when driving back and forth between home and Texas.
One time I was there I found an open door, so I snuck in and snapped a few.
One time I was there I found an open door, so I snuck in and snapped a few.
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p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
This tree was quite photogenic- I took this picture in 2011
Unfortunately two years ago, storm Eunice blow it down.
Unfortunately two years ago, storm Eunice blow it down.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Keep shooting the "Usual Suspects". We do not know how long they will be there, and the light changes. Sometimes it is wonderful and sometimes not. Keep shooting.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
gelatin silver print (summicron 50mm f2 rigid) leica mp
Amsterdam, 2018
Amsterdam, 2018
Tim Read
Established
On the road to Scone, NSW, Australia - a classic of its kind. Colour and B&W to cater for both preferences.
x-ray
Veteran
raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
Great idea for a thread @wlewisiii!
p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
I took the picture on the left in 2007 when I first visited the small town my wife grew up in Central Poland (Wielkopolska). I had a Yashica T4 with me and took the picture on the left.
We hadn't visited that area until a year ago when we took the kids to show them around where their mom used to play as a kid. When we passed through the same street I took a pic with my mobile.
Things don't change much with time in those villages.
We hadn't visited that area until a year ago when we took the kids to show them around where their mom used to play as a kid. When we passed through the same street I took a pic with my mobile.
Things don't change much with time in those villages.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
I have a lot of pics going back to 2000 when I was living in Mexico. Many I would have thrown away and some I thought were just junk. But I have reviewed them and some are not so bad. If I want I can always throw away the ones I do not like but I can never do anything with the ones I did not take. With digital it is a good idea to take a lot of pics. And wait a few weeks to look at them, or months, or years. Some age well.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
As for "The Usual Suspects" I shoot a lot of the West Mooring Basin here in Astoria. I do not travel as often or as far a I once did. And there is a variety of activity and color in the basin, at the docks and in the drydock, "up on the hard". So I shoot day and night, morning and afternoon and have assembled a collection pf pics of what is happening at my doorstep. And like you folks I get lucky sometimes. I grabbed this one off my back porch some years ago. It is a great view of the WMB. OK, I think it is a great view of the WMB. But the point is that I looked out my window and said, "Hey, I should take a pic of that."
x-ray
Veteran
It’s not just the places it’s the people. I live in Appalachia and the culture is disappearing quickly. It’s good and it’s bad. The kids are leaving the “hollers” and thanks to 2 years of free state college in TN they’re going to college and old traditions are going away as the older folks die off. So when you have an opportunity to photograph someone go ahead and make their photo if it depicts a unique aspect of the culture.
These folks were the last of their kind.
These folks were the last of their kind.
Attachments
x-ray
Veteran
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
What you are doing might seem trivial to some but it is an important record. This is a part of our country, like it or not. I remember when Foxfire came out for the same reasons. These small cultural realities should be preserved as they are us and we need to know about us from before TV. We can all capture what is vanishing and now may seem trivial. It won't in twenty years when it is only a memory. And you can look at it and say to yourself how you remember so-and-so the day you took their pic and what they were saying and doing. It is part of your life, too. It is important.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
I lived in Mexico for a few years. Part of that time was in Baja California Sur "La Frontera". I lived in Mulegé. It was a magic little town and I loved it. Up about 20 miles on Mexico 1 in Santa Rosalia was where the banks were and such. There was a bakery there. I decided to take some pics there and asked the head baker, the owner. He was OK with it so I went with my buddy Bob and shot a bunch. It was pedestrian then but not now.
The fellow who ran it took in street kids and taught them a valuable trade. Bakers are always in demand on the peninsula. And he was just a nice guy. I told him I would give him some pics. When I went back a few months later he told me lots of folks told him they would give him pics but I was the first who did. I had two or three large ones and had them laminated and a bunch of small ones. That baker was immensely pleased. He deserved to be. So doing what seems small and trivial can sometimes be big. Here is the bakery in Santa Rosalia, BCS. Bakery - Santa Rosalia, BCS
The rolls are a type sold all over Mexico, bolillos. They were invented or first created in Santa Rosalia to cater to a Belgian mining company, BOLEO. They were there to mine copper. The rolls were respelled in Spanish to bolillo, now sold all over Mexico. The fellows in this bakery made great ones. And they brought out the butter when the bolillos came out of the oven as a treat for us who were visiting. Really nice folks there.
The fellow who ran it took in street kids and taught them a valuable trade. Bakers are always in demand on the peninsula. And he was just a nice guy. I told him I would give him some pics. When I went back a few months later he told me lots of folks told him they would give him pics but I was the first who did. I had two or three large ones and had them laminated and a bunch of small ones. That baker was immensely pleased. He deserved to be. So doing what seems small and trivial can sometimes be big. Here is the bakery in Santa Rosalia, BCS. Bakery - Santa Rosalia, BCS
The rolls are a type sold all over Mexico, bolillos. They were invented or first created in Santa Rosalia to cater to a Belgian mining company, BOLEO. They were there to mine copper. The rolls were respelled in Spanish to bolillo, now sold all over Mexico. The fellows in this bakery made great ones. And they brought out the butter when the bolillos came out of the oven as a treat for us who were visiting. Really nice folks there.
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Archiver
Veteran
What a great topic, and awesome images from everyone.
I could write for multiple paragraphs about this, but this is what I've had in my flickr About page since 2007:
"So many things pass by in our lives, things that are fleeting and poignant in that transience. The arrangement of books in a bookshelf; the little coffee shop that you thought would always be there; the job you swore would only last for a few months but ended up becoming a years-long affair; the smile of a child or the pattern of leaves on a footpath. I believe in capturing it all. I believe in the immortalization of time."
Below that is this image, taken of the historical Nicholas Building in Melbourne. I was out with my Contax T3 and thought the light looked good on the building, but when my old lab guy gave me the images, he asked if I knew what was in one of them. He showed me this, which I didn't know happened at the moment I pressed the shutter. For me, it doesn't get much better than this.
T3 - Taking Flight [explore #177, 2007 02 07] by Archiver, on Flickr
I could write for multiple paragraphs about this, but this is what I've had in my flickr About page since 2007:
"So many things pass by in our lives, things that are fleeting and poignant in that transience. The arrangement of books in a bookshelf; the little coffee shop that you thought would always be there; the job you swore would only last for a few months but ended up becoming a years-long affair; the smile of a child or the pattern of leaves on a footpath. I believe in capturing it all. I believe in the immortalization of time."
Below that is this image, taken of the historical Nicholas Building in Melbourne. I was out with my Contax T3 and thought the light looked good on the building, but when my old lab guy gave me the images, he asked if I knew what was in one of them. He showed me this, which I didn't know happened at the moment I pressed the shutter. For me, it doesn't get much better than this.
T3 - Taking Flight [explore #177, 2007 02 07] by Archiver, on Flickr
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
I'd like to add that with a camera and curiosity/nosiness a doorway opens to worlds not yet known. I have dragged cameras around to places I would never have gone without those cameras and those cameras have introduced me to folks I never would have known otherwise, like the folks in that bakery in Santa Rosalia. The camera is in a way a passport, it unlocks doors all over the world. Passport does mean pass port, or allow passage through doors. So let's enjoy those cameras. Regard the saying that the perfect is the enemy of the good. We will not be well-known photographers. Well, I will but not you. LMAO Joking, joking. Hey, they're fun and we can have fun with them and record what we see and want to remember. And with digital that shutter button push costs nothing.
JohnWolf
Well-known
It WON'T be there later. At least probably not in the way that triggered our response.
Allen Ginsberg used the phrase, "First thought, best thought." In Miksang they call it "Flash of Perception." We have to be open for and receptive to that and respond. Or, like you say, it's gone. But it's hard to transcend the patterned vision that comes with years or decades of shooting and looking at so-called great pictures.
Love this Henry Wessel video on the subject.
Lake Michigan, Chicago by John Wolf, on Flickr
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x-ray
Veteran
I’ll go a little farther and say you have to isolate yourself emotionally from certain things you photograph. No matter how I feel about some of the subjects I’ve photographed I always isolate myself and visualize myself looking through a large glass window. I don’t interact in what’s happening, I’m only there to record the event in an HONEST manner and not bias my images with my personal feelings.
I started my career in college in the 60’s as a photojournalist and covered some pretty ugly events.
See below. I’m in no way a part of these groups and do not believe in their philosophy or tactics but tried to remain inert in the process as though I were watching through a window.
Whether you like these people or not they’re historically important and hopefully we’ve learned something but I’m not sure.
I probably should have separated the neo nazis from the klan because they’re opposite ends of the hate spectrum. A few years earlier they would have been killing each other but due to financial troubles there was an attempt to merge the groups about 15 years ago. I believe their attempts failed. Fortunately the groups are fractured and small in numbers now.
The klan images were from 1971 and the nazis from 2005.
I started my career in college in the 60’s as a photojournalist and covered some pretty ugly events.
See below. I’m in no way a part of these groups and do not believe in their philosophy or tactics but tried to remain inert in the process as though I were watching through a window.
Whether you like these people or not they’re historically important and hopefully we’ve learned something but I’m not sure.
I probably should have separated the neo nazis from the klan because they’re opposite ends of the hate spectrum. A few years earlier they would have been killing each other but due to financial troubles there was an attempt to merge the groups about 15 years ago. I believe their attempts failed. Fortunately the groups are fractured and small in numbers now.
The klan images were from 1971 and the nazis from 2005.
