Gifts

A priest, a pastor, and a rabbit walk into a blood bank. Nurse says to the rabbit, "What's your blood type?" The rabbit says, "I might be a Type O."

I don't often post jokes, but I liked that.

Gifts
Good pictures feel a lot like gifts. My friend Mary and I were driving to the funeral on Friday and came across a remarkable scene—every so often I'll see an atmospheric phenomenon I've either never seen here or else never seen, period. Even though we were on a schedule—Elmira is an hour and three minutes from me and you don't want to walk into a funeral late—we decided to stop, not once but twice.

I'll post the new picture in a day or two. To make it a little different, I also have a picture of me taking the picture, taken by Mary. (She's a painter.)

Another gift I'm experiencing, in terms of shooting, is that once I start shooting I start seeing pictures. Almost like it flips a switch and turns something on. After stopping north of Watkins Glen, I saw four more things I should have stopped for between Watkins and Elmira. One was in the town of Horseheads. I've passed by nine pictures lately (all they are is opportunities, though—you never know if a picture is a picture until later). I passed them all by. But I remember each one. You can't go back again because the light will be different and it won't be the same. 

Maybe that should be the next Baker's Dozen—a picture of you taking a picture. You think? Let me know if that sounds like it would be fun. (Don't link it or send it now, though—hold off until, and if, we decide to do it.)

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

Merle: "I see pictures all the time while I'm driving and can't stop—the clouds, the combine climbing the rise between the wind turbines, whatever. The great thing is that it's inspiring to remember to go out and look and be more aware when I'm not driving. When I am driving, though, I do have to be more careful and not get too distracted."

Dave Haberman: "Like most photographers I think about the many images I saw but didn't take...take photographically at least, because I have found that one of the gifts of practicing photography is learning to see and remember scenes around us. I believe that, with practice, we have a better visual memory of what life has to offer. A nice gift even though we don't have a print in hand."

DavidB: "Re: '...every so often I'll see an atmospheric phenomenon I've either never seen here or else never seen, period....' You have my attention. I mostly photography atmospheric phenomena—and I'm a retired atmospheric scientist."

Mike replies: I will count on you to tell me the scientific name for the subject of the picture. I've been frustrated trying to search for it. Even asked a retired weather man.

Comments

[Mike Plews]

Howard Zehr wrote a nice little book on contemplative photography. In it he talks about thinking of photographs as gifts to be received not trophies to be taken but it looks like you have already figured that out so I will go straight to a joke.
What do you get when you throw a hand grenade into a French kitchen?
Lineoleum Blown apart.
Sorry

[MikeR]

There are some days when everything is "just right." A few weeks ago, on a drive from Keuka Park to Seneca Falls, and then later on the return, the clouds, the light, everything, was spectacular. Had I been alone, I might have stopped a dozen times.

Back home in PA, the cooling towers of the Limerick nuclear power plant with their effusion of water vapor have been nudging me to create a series I would title "Cloud Maker." Today, the air was still, and as I looked across the valley (I was driving) I saw that the column of vapor rose straight up at least a thousand feet, until it merged with the bases of puffy cumulus ... "cloud maker" indeed.

[Peter Conway]

I’ll share a comment my wife made to me many years ago as she went off to explore on her own, while I worked on a setup: “There’s nothing interesting about your ass bent over a tripod.” I’ve never come up with a good counter-argument.