ITAP

So I just wanted to explain to you why you haven't heard from me today...my son Xander is visiting from Wisconsin, post-graduation and pre-new-job, and we spent the day together. This is an iPhone portrait of him goofing around at the Rockwell Museum in Corning.

A couple of months ago I loaned him my old Sony, and he's been having fun with it ever since:

Photo by Xander Johnston

This picture he took yesterday in the gully made me sad, given that our own three baby robins flew away from their nest out back just last week. (We have lots of robins around here.) But it got on the front page of ITAP, which stands for "I took a picture," at Reddit. ITAP is a subreddit just for posting pictures.

...Which is what this post is for too, come to think. I love that title, "ITAP"; it explains a whole lot of photo sharing.

Xander at Garrett Chapel. It's an exacting 1928 copy of a 6th-century medieval chapel in Scotland. We went out to the Bluff in a driving rain because the interior of the Chapel is open to the public in the Summertime.

Myself at the Rockwell looking at a painting of some very strange-looking cows. A900 Photo by Xander.

Behinder
So what I'm trying to say is that I got behind with posting what I was supposed to post this week, and sorry about that. I have a great post in hand from Euan Forrester, and another great one from Jim Hughes—some of the missing pages from his W. Eugene Smith bio. I'll post both of those next week. Reminder for when you're behind—don't get behinder.

I had a wonderful, happy day, though, FWIW.

Mike
(Thanks to X.)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Geoffrey: "That robin photo could have been posted under random excellence, it is really good."

Mike replies: Xander really appreciated that.  :-)  Thanks.

Comments

[Speed]

If you take a day off to make pictures and then post them to your blog, can you deduct your mileage and meals?

[I suppose so! I don't, though. --Mike]

[Stephen S. Mack]

Mike, every now and again you need to get behinder just as you did with Xander. It's good for the soul.

With best regards,

Stephen

[Dennis Mook]

As a child when visiting my grandparents in Lancaster, Pa, which is one of the mainstays of the Amish community in the U.S., there was a saying I was told was credited to the Amish that came to mind when reading your post. The saying went something like, "The hurrier I go the behinder I get." That may be a paraphrase.

Xander has grown to be quite a man. " The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree," as another saying goes.

[Michael Matthews]

A better investment of your time than banging away at a keyboard. Not that your readers don't appreciate the output. But some opportunities -- you just have to grab them while they're available.

[Daniel]

Strange looking cows? Surely you jest and are showing your sense of humor. Big Horn Sheep are not cows.

[I used to do that to wake up my students...refer to any animals in a photograph as cows. Unless they were cows, in which case I called them dogs. This only ever amused me as far as I know. --Mike]

[Paul B]

Just received my Paul Strand book. Carrying it home on public transit will be tough: nine pounds, really?

Second hurdle to overcome: breaking the news to my better half. I can hear it now: "But you already have a book by him!"

Ah, yes, my love, but not like this one. This book is almost as beautiful as you are.

Full marks to everybody for this sale: awesome book, great price, reasonable delivery time (ground, to Canada).

Thanks for undertaking this.

Paul

[Peter Wright]

Garrett Chapel does indeed look like it belongs in Scotland, but I am wondering which one is it a copy of? About the only possibility would be the present day chapel at Iona (and it does seem to resemble it based on your picture), and Iona would be the only location of any Christianity in 6th century Scotland (or England). However, it would not have been built of stone until much later – the only stone buildings extant would have been Roman (and in England) for some time after the 6th century.

Not trying to be pedantic, and I'm not a historian. It's just that early Christianity and church architecture is an interest (and subject of photography of course) for me. Someone who knows more can chip in.

I also very much like Xander's picture of the robin. If I had taken it I would be very pleased with myself. All that D-76 of yore must have seeped into your DNA, and now his!

[Ed G.]

That photo by Xander is quite fine. Photography really lends itself to surrealism. I thought at first the bird was a reflection in the puddle. (Poor bird; I'm guessing it was a window kill.)

Re: "cows", a friend of mine is in a photography club that has the club-wide habit of calling any bird in a photo a chicken. I'm sure it was funny the first few hundred times.

[Fred Haynes]

Xander has his 'old mans' knack with the camera!
Will we see more of his work in future?

[MikeR]

I tease my wife, a knowledgeable birdwatcher, by calling every bird I can't identify a "chicken." By this time, she's ceased being exasperated with my so-called humor, just shrugs in resignation.

I may have commented before re the Strand book - having seen the exhibition in Philadelphia, Strands notes on contact sheets and proof prints, and direct modification of negatives to improve composition, I think I can say that he would have LOVED Photoshop and digital photography.

[Paul]

That Robin photo caught my eye straight away. Stopped me in my tracks. Beautiful striking mysterious image full of questions. Maybe if Xander keeps up producing more photos like this he could do an Online Photographer print sale.

[Joel R]

Xander's robin photo looks like one half of a father/son print sale to me . . .

[Chico Ruger]

Mike...How do you pronounce Xander? Is it EX-ander?

[Mike Shwarts]

The Robin photo is worth a good print.

[Chris]

What a magnificent eye. Good to see the A900 is in very capable hands! Well done, Xander!

[Tim Bradshaw]

I don't want to rain on your parade, but: whatever the Garrett is it's not a copy of anything 6th century in Scotland. Superficially it might be Romanesque (so 11th/12th century), but in fact (based not on your picture but on their website) it's not even that, as there are elements of it which look significantly later than that. It looks to me like a sort of post-Morris medieval pastiche, which are fairly common in the UK and, I suspect, elsewhere.

Please don't take this as an being rude about it as I really like these buildings: the Victorians & Edwardians (and slightly later) did medieval far better than medieval people often did: I live near Castle Drogo which is a late, and fantastic, example of this sort of thing.

But there just wasn't anything like this in Scotland in the 6th century.

[I was just repeating what the caretaker of 35 years told us at the Chapel as he was locking up. Sorry I didn't look into it more thoroughly. --Mike]

[Reid Urquhart]

'Xander at Garrett Chapel. It's an exacting 1928 copy of a 6th-century medieval chapel in Scotland.' I live in Scotland so I looked up the chapel website. No mention of Scotland. There are no 6th century chapels here and according to Wikipedia only a few ruins that may date from then. Not sure what you mean by 'exacting copy' anyway.

[Mani Sitaraman]

I just caught up with about 2 months worth of posts on TOP.

Congratulations to Xander on his graduation and new job, and especially also to his proud papa on Father's Day. You done good, Mike.

[Michael Perini]

Xander's Robin picture is really wonderful, even the puddle is somewhat bird shaped.
Very nice

[Rob Griffin]

Xander's photograph is really a great thought provoking image. I keep coming back to have another look. I agree with others, it would be a great photo for an upcoming print sale. Happy belated Father's Day1

[Jim in Denver]

I'm looking forward to the Xander Johnston print sale!!

[Peter]

The robin pic is really good.