The Online Photographer

A Few Links the Morning After

Hybrid laser-scan/panorama photographs may be used to help rebuild Notre-Dame: Vassar Professor Andrew Tallon uses laser scanners to make incredibly detailed 3-D maps of ancient structures such as Notre-Dame cathedral, accurate to half a centimeter, originally to try to understand the methods of ancient builders. But his scanning maps (which he merges with panoramic photographs) of Notre-Dame could well become invaluable in the rebuilding and reconstruction process.

Because Andrew clambers around on ledges far above the stone floors of cathedrals, he refers to himself as a "tacklehead" rather than a gearhead. But you'll recognize a kindred spirit, albeit one with a honed sense of specific mission in life. Fascinating stuff!

Notre-Dame from the air. A photograph from the National Geographic
archives taken by the U.S. Army Air Service (cropped).

Notre-Dame from the archives of National Geographic: In the same article is a link to a selection of archive photographs of Notre-Dame over the years. Not exhaustive, but nicely inclusive. A portfolio worth seeing.

Bad coverage and good: Foraging for information, I happened across an almost absurdly hackneyed "news" clip from CBS News that managed to make even yesterday's epic conflagration seem rote and dull. They interviewed a fire chief from Philly talking about the difficulties of battling church blazes. Original. Forgive the sarcasm; actually it was straight out of the "When You Can't Think of Anything Else to Do" playbook. You almost knew what the chief was going to say before he said it, and the interview could do double duty for any little church fire in any little town anywhere. Really? Can't even work up a little juice when it's looking like we're losing one of the great wonders of the world's heritage?

By contrast, Frida Ghitis on CNN, employing the recently outmoded written word, got closer to the core of the event in her article "Watching Notre Dame burn, the entire world was in pain." Describes how I felt. "The conflagration brought a feeling of helplessness and foreboding—reminiscent of the devastation on 9/11, in some ways, and perhaps that was part of the effect for some people: the sense—real or imagined—that we were watching a metaphor, a prelude, a warning." The feelings she's describing are essentially religious/superstitious, so it was good she didn't add to her litany, "...a judgement." 

Soaring buttresses: I'm not normally a fan of Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist at a liberal paper, but he was inspired to write a beautiful essay this morning (speaking of judgements). He had been in the middle of writing a column about the troubles of the Catholic Church and was forced to incorporate the news of the fire into his thoughts, and—whether out of necessity or out of courage—he let the bones of both influences show through. The result embodied the sense of interruption that public catastrophes impose on us. He was focusing on the schism inherent in Benedict vs. Francis, the conservative and liberal strains within Catholicism, but returned to the idealism of rebirth, apropos Easter: "The church has always depended on synthesis and integration. That has been part of its genius, a reason for all its unexpected resurrections and regenerations. Faith and reason, Athens and Jerusalem, the aesthetic and the ascetic, the mystical and the philosophical—even the crucifix itself, two infinite lines converging and combining."

David Aschkenas: Finally, TOP reader David Aschkenas has put together a small portfolio of his pictures from the interior of Notre-Dame, taken over the years.

Mike

[CORRECTION: According to The Washington Post, Andrew Tallon died last year, and should have been referred to in the past tense. It brings up another wrinkle, however—the Post also references the fact that no one knows exactly where the late Prof. Tallon's laser scans of Notre-Dame are. Thanks to Ken Berke for this. —Ed.]

P.S. Most of this comes via the New York Times, by the way, my morning read; I'm cribbing from David Leonhardt. (Other still-functioning, not-yet-compromised newspapers are The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, and I routinely read The Atlantic and The New Yorker [on paper, which you must admit is quaint] and visit the BBC.) The Times, which I sometimes refer to as "the world's best photography magazine," has plentiful and robust photographic content, although it can sometimes be a challenge to corral it all. I officially recommend a subscription to the Times for the excellent photography articles. You can access ten articles per month for free. But subscribe. It's worth it.

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

(Not) everything must fade away

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

Kenneth Tanaka: "Thanks to David Aschkenas for sharing his Notre-Dame images. Also, you have a delightful collection of very well-seen international street images, David. I plan to take a deeper your of your work later this week."

Moose: "Re '"the entire world was in pain." Describes how I felt. "The conflagration brought a feeling of helplessness and
foreboding—reminiscent of the devastation on 9/11, in some ways, and perhaps that was part of the effect for some people: the sense—real or imagined—that we were watching a metaphor, a prelude, a warning." The feelings she's describing are essentially religious/superstitious.'

"I don't get it. This hyperbole and these feelings are highly personal; she and you are treating them as universal. It's an old church, Catholic, in France. Churches have been burning since the first one was built. Old iconic structures have burned or been otherwise destroyed, intentionally or by accident forever. Yes, I've seen this one. No, I have no emotional attachment to it.

"We are in Bhutan at the moment, where the central temple of the iconic symbol of the country was was destroyed by fire in 1998 <i>". . . leaving the country in mourning for their holiest of spiritual places. But religious leaders and the King . . . Today, the magnificent temple is completely rebuilt to its original glory. Another monastery destroyed by fire has been rebuilt, all but the altar in a new style. It's glorious, literally awe inspiring, at least to us and our travel friends! Every old fortress, temple, monastery, etc. that one visits has a history of fire and rebuilding, it's only a question of how many times. Getting so worked up about this one, seems a bit like getting hysterical when the sun goes down. It's something that happens regularly, and won't stop. The sun will rise again, as will Notre-Dame."

Chris Fuller: "I was surprised by my response to the news about this tragic event: I mourned and I wept. I mourned for a building, a collection of stones and glass. But it is a collection of stones and glass arranged in patterns of inestimable and moving beauty. It is one of those special places where history, culture, religion, and personal aspiration intersect with one another in a way that is rare anywhere in the world. It's a place that feels still even as thousands of people traverse through it. It's the place that gave birth to the University of Paris, and, thus, it stands as a monument what is good about the Western tradition (without denying this same tradition's many problems). I'm Catholic, so maybe that's part of it. But my Protestant and atheist friends also mourned and wept. So, maybe there is also more to it."

Notre-Dame is in Flames

One of the great landmarks of Western civilization, 800-year-old Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Île de la Cité in Paris, is burning. The roof has collapsed and the spire has fallen. The fire is still raging and the cause is not yet known. There have been no deaths reported.

The Cathedral, built over the course of one hundred years, was begun in AD 1163. It has been modified many times and had been undergoing reconstruction recently. One of the glories of French Gothic architecture and intertwined with French history, in modern times it has been the most-visited site in the most-visited city in the World, drawing more than 12 million visitors annually.

The structure was attacked by rioting Huguenots (French protestants) in 1548, and many of its treasures were destroyed or carried off during the French Revolution. Napoleon I restored it to the church and crowned himself Emperor in it. It had fallen into partial ruin and decrepitude when Victor Hugo's 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris (published in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) revived interest in it, with the result that King Louis Philippe ordered its reconstruction in 1844. It was then that the original 13th-century spire was replaced with the one which fell today.

The building is owned by the government of France and the Catholic Church is is perpetual beneficiary. More than 400 firefighters have been mobilized. It is a cultural and artistic catastrophe rather than a human one, but the fire appears serious enough to cause irreparable harm to the iconic building and many of its priceless contents; the cultural loss is grievous.

Mike

UPDATE the morning after: the fire has been declared extinguished, and there is guarded optimism that much of the cathedral interior was spared—it appears the roof burned on top of the stone vault, but the vault is holding. Damage is extensive, but French President Macron has declared that France will restore the cathedral and already, hundreds of millions of euros have been pledged for the restoration.

Photo taken by a tourist, Brooke Windsor, as the cathedral was closing, just before the fire broke out. She's asking for help in finding the man and little girl in the photo so she can give it to them.

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

(Not) everything must fade away

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Featured Comments from:

Manuel: "This is a massive tragedy for humanity, Mike. One of incalculable proportions. The Nôtre-Dame is a symbol of Paris and of France, mostly for the reasons you've mentioned, but there is a cruel element of irony here too. France is a proud nation: they have pride in their past. France conserves its monuments in absolutely pristine condition. If you see, say, the cathedral of Chartres, an imposing Gothic building halfway between Paris and Normandy, only the style betrays its age. The French really excel at preserving their heritage. No wonder, then, that this tragedy, although one not measurable in human lives, causes the French people such grief. And not only the French, of course. Just about everyone with a modicum of knowledge of history is in a state of shock today."

Thomas Paris: "I was standing amongst the crowd of people on the banks of Seine river yesterday evening, all of us stunned by what we were witnessing. I was standing there and yet still can't believe it. Couldn't bring myself to look at the photos I made. I was looking all morning at one I made in December 2017, when it was still intact. Let's just hope the structure is still sound. Last I heard, it was anything but sure."

David Lee: "Was Peter in Paris? I know one of his favorite restaurants is just behind Notre Dame."

Mike replies: He was en route from Paris to New York when the fire broke out, and arrived in New York to the news—so he got right back on a plane and headed back to Paris. Here's a photo he took this morning with his comments:

Peter Turnley, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, April 16, 2019

"Notre Dame lives! She is injured, but alive. Mme. Martine Hercouet is one of thousands of people from Paris and the entire world that are lining the streets around the Notre Dame Cathedral that has suffered a major fire, but saved from total destruction by very brave French fireman who succeeded in putting out a blaze that has seriously injured the rooftop of this church that has touched the hearts of so many millions of people worldwide. I flew all night from NY to Paris and landed early this morning and made my way immediately to the cathedral. Like many, Martine told me her first vision of the cathedral today brought tears to her eyes."

The International Digital Photography Museum

Not that I mean to downplay this news at all, but, first of all, I'm getting married!

She's a TOP reader, and has been for the past eight years. She said she has watched my personal peregrinations with interest over the years, and 16 months ago now she decided to introduce herself. Her name is Magda, and she has residences in Budapest, Hungary, and New York City as well as a vacation home in a location she prefers not to disclose. After we get married we'll have two vacation homes, the second one being this little house I've been living in for three and a half years here in the Finger Lakes! I won't be giving this place up.

Now for the relevant part. Magda happens to be the widow of very accomplished and urbane man who was famously successful in business in Hungary. She married him when he was 54 and she was 32; he died five years ago now. She's one year older than I am. We both consider ourselves relatively young, and we're both in good health, so there is still time to do the things we want to do. And neither one of us is terribly interested in merely collecting the conventional trappings of wealth...we want to do something; something useful to society and, specifically, for photography.

Same shows, different audiences
Of course, I have spun my idealistic notions at her gleefully for some time now—a few of them, admittedly, pretty crackpot. (She would say "most," possibly with an exclamation point appended to that. I do get carried away with ideas sometimes.) But because her wealth is essentially limitless and her interest is in public architecture, we've decided on the following plan, which we're pretty well along with already at least in concept.

We've decided to create a series of "mirror" museums—so far, we have plans for three in the United States, one in Canada, and two in Europe—one each in Prague and Budapest. Each building will be proximate to existing museums that already draw crowds—for instance, the one in Corning (local to where I am now) will be a hop, skip, and a jump from the wonderful Corning Museum of Glass, and the one in Chadds Ford will be within an easy drive of the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

Each Museum will have its own architecture, designed to complement its setting and its culture, but all of them will have very similar facilities—three beautiful large galleries and two small ones, an entry atrium and book shop, a number of small offices, several workrooms, and so forth.

Celebrate the new
Here's where it gets interesting. We won't be showing existing art, at least in terms of the actual objects—we'll be making our own. The halo Museum organization, IDPM, will employ master digital printmakers as well as curators. The printmakers and curators will work with living digital photographers to create exhibitions that will then be mirrored in all six locations worldwide. This might be one large exhibit in all five galleries, or several concurrent exhibits split between the various gallery rooms. Since every venue will have its own conservator and framer and presentation specialist, all that's required for coordination between locations will be the shipment of the newly made unframed prints, whether they're made in Europe or America. Pretty simple. Each show will be up for three months, for a total of four "changeovers" per year.

Not only will every print be newly custom-made for each exhibits, but small limited editions of each photograph shown in every show will be available for sale to the public—with all of the proceeds going to the photographers. In that sense our strategy is something of a hybrid between a traditional museum and a gallery, as well as a hybrid of a business and a type of charity called a "grant maker." Oh, and by the way, photographers themselves will not have to bear any expense for their shows.

Here's a big difference from a traditional museum: the IDPM will not maintain a collection. We will keep a record of what we show, but we will not collect and archive work—rather, we will help create it and release it into the world at large, where it may fly on its own wings.

The Mission statement
That's because our overarching mission will be to support active, working photographers of all kinds with these shows. Not only will they receive the intangible honor of having their work shown in six premium venues in North America and Europe, with printed catalogues, but they get to keep all the proceeds from any print sales. (Unsold prints will become their property when the shows are over, too.)

As you can see, this is sort of like TOP's print sales writ large! Very large.  :-)

You would think all this would be a lot of work, but, it turns out, not so much. Magda is used to having "people" doing things for her. And boy, do we have people. We are in the process of hiring directors for every museum, curators, printmakers, architects, builders, you name it. And we already have a core staff of administrators and helpers. After working alone for a decade and more, it's heavenly, let me tell you.

Launch is scheduled for 2023. The initial locations are: Toronto, Canada; Corning, New York; Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Prague, Czech Republic; and Budapest, Hungary.

Magda has plans for more museums—three more in Western U.S. cities, and one each in the UK, France, and Germany.

To say this is all exciting is a vast understatement! Oh, and by the way, my title is Director of Exhibitions. Our curators will work under me and although they will work largely independently, with lots of freedom, I'll have the final word on who, and what, gets shown. I'm chomping at the bit.

I'll keep you posted.  :-)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Everything must fade away

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

Dave: "Mike, Congratulations, and congratulations! Wow, that's a lot of news to digest. I'll bet you'll be inundated with requests from photographers who never thought such a museum (with such fair treatment of the artist) would ever exist. From your description, Magda seems fascinating. Best of luck!"

Zack Schindler: "Does this mean that the with your newfound riches that the first ten posters here will be sent one of the new Leica Safari Edition M10-P's with matching lens?"

Mike replies: Since you suggested it, yes!! Unfortunately, you are commenter number 13. Chance is cruel.

Robert Harshman: "What day is it?"

Mike replies: It's Monday.

Jnny: "Magda sounds lovely. Has she asked you to forward expense fees yet?"

Mike replies: Made me laugh....  :-)

Bahi: "Why am I reminded of buried Leicas? That one still hurts. :-) "

Happy New Year!

As I type this it's the very last little remnant of of 2018—in a few minutes it will be 2019. Just a moment to thank all my readers who came by the site in 2018 or read some of my articles on feeds. I'm especially grateful for "regulars," who come by every day or most days, and of course the often brilliant, always interesting Commentariat—you're a big part of my own enjoyment of my site. I'm extremely grateful for the generosity of contributors, including people who send checks in the mail, people who donate cameras or send other gifts, and of course all my Patreon subscribers. And if you ever ordered anything through one of my links, whether it's a D850 or a $13 pair of socks, bless you.

I'll be back in 2019 with the camera of last year! Happy New Year to you and all your friends, family, and pets. God bless you and keep you safe. May you have a most wonderful 2019.

—Mike Johnston
Penn Yan, New York

Earthrise and Merry Christmas!

Fifty years ago today—50 years ago this morning, at a few minutes after 10:30 Central U.S. time—a former USAF fighter pilot named William A. (Bill) Anders, who is now 85 years old and lives in Anacortes, in the State of Washington on the West coast, took one of the indisputably great photographs of the 20th century.

Even if you've seen this before, watch and listen as it happens—

Bill Anders was later the Chairman and CEO of General Dynamics, and started a Foundation to support educational and environmental issues. Oh, and do you happen to remember that scene in the movie Top Gun where the pilot played by Tom Cruise encounters a Russian plane and gives the pilot the finger? The pilot who did that in real life was none other than the guy who took "Earthrise," Bill Anders.

I've seen this clip before but it's inherently moving. Each time I see it I enjoy it. And if that's not just the quintessential "hurry up and get the shot" moment, I don't know what is, unless it was Ansel frantically setting up by the roadside near Hernandez. (First, get the shot.)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! From here in the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York to wherever in the world you are.

I'll be back after Christmas. We have a backlog of topics to cover. May great blessings be yours.

Mike
(Thanks to Gary Morris via Jack McD., and PDLanum)

Original contents copyright 2018 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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Featured Comments from:

Tim S: "Thanks! Great background info on one of my favorite images. It has been a background on my phone and computers for years. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to TOP!"

Yoram Nevo: "And he said: 'Oh my God, look at that picture over there.' A photographer state of mind. Merry Christmas Mike, from the sunny winter of Israel. Best wishes for 2019, your regular—Yoram Nevo."

Rod S.: "Thank you for the link. The reconstruction is beautiful and adds significantly to our collective understanding and appreciation of the Earthrise photograph. I recall vividly watching as a 12-year-old the reading of Genesis 1 during the live television broadcast by the crew of Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968. During the reading, the television image was of the cratered lunar surface passing beneath. The clear implication to me was that we were, at that moment, re-living how God might once have gazed down upon the early Earth. It was electrifying."

Mike replies: It was the most-watch TV program ever, at the time. Here's the address from the crew:

William Anders: "We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

James Lovell:

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman:

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas—and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

George H.W. Bush

© Peter Turnley, the White House, Washington, D.C., 1990

Guest post by Peter Turnley

One of the most surreal moments of my career was when I was introduced to President George H.W. Bush by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House.

During a summit meeting in D.C. in 1990, I went in to the White House for a photo call, and President Bush recognized Gorbachev's personal photographer and said, "There's my old friend Yuri!" After the translation, Gorbachev looked around and saw me and said, "There's my old friend Peter!"

Then I heard Bush say in English, "Who is Peter?" Gorbachev replied in Russian and his translator Pavel said, "Peter is an American photographer—he's photographed me for a long time." President Bush laughed and said, "Nice to meet you, Peter!"

Peter

Text and photo copyright 2018 by Peter Turnley. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Ken: "Check out Kirk Tuck's story as well."

Cold!

I had a pretty good Thanksgiving despite being mostly alone. I treated myself to some smoked salmon, which I love and seldom eat any more, and bought a ready-made dinner from our esteemed local supermarket chain, Wegmans, the best grocery store in the U.S. (it really is, too). Turkey, squash, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry jam, and stuffing, $13. It tasted...a little lonely! I'm kidding. It was delicious.

As it happened, Thanksgiving yesterday was the first cold day of the Winter here, too. It was 11°F (–11°C) when I woke up at 7:00 and got down to 7°F (–14°C). So it was nice and crisp.

I much prefer freezing cold—for several weeks it's been hovering right around the freezing mark (zero degrees Celsius) which I find uncomfortable. There's something inhospitable about wet cold that goes away when the mercury dips. The air dries out and your metabolism kicks in to help you stay warm. Butters and I went for a long walk. I really need some warm mittens, if there is any such thing.

Falling leaves on top of the snow cover. This morning the
waterfall was silent—a sign of the freeze.

The air was vividly clear, and last evening the almost full moon (it's full tonight—"the Beaver moon") was dazzling in the freezing air, lighting up the countryside with a ghostly light on the blanket of snow. The oak leaves are finally releasing their hold—oaks really hold on to their leaves in the Fall. Still plenty of leaves left on the two majestic sycamores, too.

The two sycamores with the sun behind them—photo
taken before last Thurday's big snow

It's unsatisfying to take pictures of the sycamores. They're towering in person, but every photo that gets all of the two trees in the frame just seems to miniaturize them. They're nearly 12 feet in circumference at the base! Butters and I just went out and measured. (See what we do for you?) I've always been frustrated trying to show scale in photographs. Bugs look as big as flowers which look as big as mountains. The medium seems to fit normal human-sized subjects best, and equalizes everything else. It's almost more fun to play with scale in photographs than try to soberly show it. Timothy O-Sullivan would insert his darkroom wagon or himself into his early photographs of the West to indicate scale.

But that's a different topic. Now I'm off to...well, fake up a composite image. Me?! Really. I'll tell you about it if I manage to pull it off. (One problem about never faking up images is that my faking-up skills are poor.)

Anyway, you'll just have to take my word for it, those sycamores touch the sky.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 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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Andrea B.: "The leaves-on-snow scene is wonderful."

Mike replies: Thanks! And you know, apropos the "Lunatic" post, even that scene went past pretty quickly. The day prior, there weren't many leaves on the snow; the day after, the stream was frozen; and now, it's raining. Granted, the window in which I could have taken that picture lasted hours, not minutes, but one day in either direction and it wouldn't have been the same picture.

Seems to be just what this area is like.

Happy Thanksgiving

So here's a little conundrum. You could be forgiven for thinking that the big holiday this week is a thing called "Black Friday," and that we're in the middle of something incongruously called "Black Friday Week." (What?) But the holiday is actually Thanksgiving. Yet one of the things I'll be thankful for is if some of you use my links for, well...your black friday shopping tomorrow. Kinda circular, then—you see how that goes? On the one hand I'm critical of the confusing of greed with gratitude, and on the other hand I'm just like everybody else, in that I need to make a little money too. It's not like it used to be way back in 2010. There's so much competition now.

But I'm definitely still celebrating the secular holiday (quaint little old-fashioned Thursday Thanksgiving) in the middle of the other, bigger secular holiday (sprawling, modern, big-shouldered and brawny Black Friday). I hope those of you among my countrymen are with your families—my son was at my brother's house last night and I very dearly wish I could have been with them or with other family today. I did get to have breakfast with the family of some younger friends this morning, and that was a treat. Kinda made my day.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. All that's demanded of us is that we gather, eat a good meal together, and be mindful all day of our gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. And, in spirit, to all you non-celebrants outside the United States, too.

Mike

P.S. The engraving was made after a painting by one Charles Lucy, a native of Hereford in Britain, as published in Dibby's Annual in the Summer of 1911. His obituary states that "through life [he] devoted himself, at the sacrifice of many opportunities of immediate gain, and despite much unmerited discouragement, to the higher branches of historical painting." He died at age 59 in 1873. The phrase "Pilgrim Fathers" could not be more apt; estimates vary, but worldwide there are thought to be at least 7 million and as many as 35 million people alive today who are descended from that tiny band of immigrants.

Original contents copyright 2018 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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Featured Comments from:

Tim Farnham: "Mike, you may be interested to know that here in the UK the retail industry has adopted Black Friday with enthusiasm and it looks like becoming Black Friday fortnight. And we don't even celebrate Thanksgiving. Best wishes, Tim."

Terry Letton: "Looks like dropping in background from another image is nothing new.  :-)  That darn sure isn’t Plymouth MA or Cape Cod behind those folks."

Mike replies: See, now isn't that annoying? Exactly what we've been talking about these last few days.

Fred Haynes: "We will know ‘the end is here’ when we start greeting each other with 'happy Black Friday!' My iPad said that should be initial caps! But this comment is more about saying Happy Thanksgiving to you Mike, and all you readers!"

Mike replies: Like this email I got this morning....

The 'Great' War

Field gunners loading shrapnel shells

I suppose I should have posted this yesterday, but I was having too mellow a day off to dip my head into thoughts of war. Yesterday was Veteran's Day, which used to be called Armistice Day. Yesterday (at 11 a.m., to be exact—the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) marked the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.

World War One—called "The Great [i.e., large] War" until there was an even greater one—was perhaps the most pointless catastrophe in modern human history. There was no reason for it to happen. It solved nothing. And no good came of it—many historians make the case that it laid the foundation for the rise of Hitler and WWII.

The human waste was utterly appalling. The Wikipedia page begins, "The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. The total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel. The civilian death toll was about 8 million, including about 6 million due to war-related famine and disease." It killed so many young men that males born from 1883 to 1900 were known as "The Lost Generation" in Great Britain.

The head of the German delegation that signed the Armistice
was murdered by right-wing German assassins in 1921

"Armistice" means truce, but the end of WWI was not a truce. It was a surrender. Yet, as one writer put it, if there was ever a war with no victor, WWI was it. Very little fighting occurred on German soil, and home-front propaganda was so relentless and pervasive that the surrender took the German population largely by surprise, planting the seeds of resentment and dark conspiracy theories about betrayals that surely contributed, at least indirectly, to the Holocaust. The head of the German delegation that surrendered to the vengeful French Field Marshall Foch, Matthias Erzberger, was murdered three years after the end of the war by members of an ultra-nationalist death squad—two former German naval officers—while he was out for a walk at a spa town in the Black Forest. The weapons of war were so brutal and the conditions so miserable that it marks the point at which all of humanity became aware of what's now called PTSD—in the 'great' war it was called shell-shock. The unending rain of explosives was as likely to unhinge soldiers' minds as blow them limb from limb. Roughly 60% of physical military casualties were caused by artillery.

 

As if relentless shelling wasn't bad enough, soldiers in the trenches had to deal with poison gas—the first widespread use of chemical warfare—which was so universally agreed to be inhuman that it later contributed to the establishment of the the Geneva Convention.

There are many great books about the First World War. Best of all might be Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August—although her book The March of Folly might actually be more pertinent. ("Folly" is beginning to be an old-fashioned word, known mostly to people who read—it means foolishness. The book chronicles four of the greatest examples of foolishness by governments. She didn't include WWI, probably because it was the subject of her masterpiece, but she could have.) Great books came out of the war, including Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On the Western Front, Robert Graves' bitter but darkly comic memoir Goodbye to All That, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory. (Consider getting the illustrated edition.)

Veterans Day is a day to honor all veterans—the survivors of wars—but, as a separate occasion commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice, the fictional veteran I can't help thinking of is Joe Bonham, the protagonist of Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. I like reading books in pairs, and I'd pair that one with a book that is subtitled "The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier": U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler's War is A Racket. He should know. He was a veteran.

Soldiers washing in a shell hole

Off to play pool! I put this together in two torrid hours of work—please forgive typos! I'll proofread, fact-check, and make corrections when I get back home. [UPDATE: Done now. I had a great time playing pool with my friends, some of whom are veterans. My friend Loyle's father Fred—Loyle is soon to turn 90—had the unusual distinction of serving every minute of both WWI and WWII, beginning way back when WWI broke out in 1914. —Ed.]

Mike

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Patrick: "Someone tweeted this link yesterday. It's quietly very striking, about a minute or two audio clip."

Mike replies: Wow. There are so many written accounts of those moments, many of them very moving.

V.i. Voltz: "It’s little known, but a great account of the First World War is Frederic Manning’s The Middle Parts of Fortune. Manning died at 53 in 1935, still wracked by the memory of the war."

Mike replies: The writeup says that Ernest Hemingway re-read that novel every year.

Thomas Rink: "The men who murdered Matthias Erzberger—Heinrich Tillessen and Heinrich Schulz—were members of the Organisation Consul (O.C.), a right-wing terrorist group. The O.C. was founded by Herrmann Ehrhardt, a former Captain of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy).

"In the winter 1918/19, the political and social situation in Germany was very unstable; in some of the major cities, workers and disbanded soldiers seized power and established soviet republics (most notably, in Munich). Among other cities, this happened in Bremen. In this situation, Captain Ehrhardt gathered 300 troops and overthrew the local soviet system. This was the origin of what should later become the infamous Brigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps (militia).

"The problem for the Weimar Republic was that the Brigade Ehrhardt was not a singular case. Around 1919/20, there were dozens of militias which had tens of thousands of well-armed and battle-tested combatants. Initially, the social democrat German government under Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske relied on the Freikorps to quench leftist turmoils and soviet republics. But, what to do with these militias after the political situation had stabilized? It was not possible to integrate them into the Reichswehr (provisional army of the Weimar Republic), since the treaty of Versailles limited it to 100,000 troops. An attempt to disband them ended in the attempted coup d'etat by Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Lüttwitz in 1920 (in which the aforementioned Brigade Ehrhardt played an important role).

"After the coup failed, the Brigade Ehrhardt finally disbanded in April 1920. Some members, Ehrhardt among them, later founded the Organisation Consul.

"Given all this, the treaty of Versailles doomed the Weimar Republic from its very beginning. It provided the anti-republican extreme right-wing forces with a founding myth (Dolchstoßlegende, or stab-in-the-back legend—allegedly, the German army would have won the war wasn't it for politicians like Erzberger), and made it very difficult for the democratic government to properly disband all these armed militias."

John Krumm: "I have my grandfather's diary around here somewhere, where he described the excitement on the ship heading over, how good the food was. Like most diaries, the entries became shorter and shorter as the fight went on. One was just the date and 'Gas.'Here he is before shipping out:

"But he made it back and started a family in Medina, NY. Later, working as a state trooper, he was killed by a drunk driver."

AlexV.: "Tragically for the people of northeast France, WWI's legacy of killing continues. Due to the stagnant battlefields in muddy terrain, poorly implemented technology, and the sheer volume of the shelling, a large swath of the region is polluted with unexploded ordinance.

"On maps, is is the 'Red Zone.' Animals and plants now thrive amidst the scenery, but no one is supposed to walk in many of these places.

"In other areas the have been returned to agriculture, farmers regularly dig up so many shells that they now place them by the side of the road for disposal. This 'refuse' includes shells with still active gas agents. The casings are now rusted and brittle, hence one can crack them open like an egg to release the toxicity inside. In the papers, one apparently still reads of the unlucky farmer who ran into one with a tractor, or a member of a disposal unit who had an unlucky day.

"National Geographic put up this site, but it is one of many.

"Just as tragically, Laos is even worse, because that country is covered in cluster bombs ('bombies' in the local patois) dropped during the Vietnam war. (I am sure there are other regions with equally grim tales of land mines, etc.)"

Joe Holmes: "My grandfather was in the trenches in France for WWI. He was living in Pennsylvania at the outbreak and volunteered at age 16, lying about his age.

"But over there he was gassed and also lost one finger on his left hand to a shell that landed nearby. (I inherited his Purple Heart.)

"He never told any of his children about his time in the war. When they asked about his missing finger, he joked that he had accidentally bit it off when he was eating a slice of pie. As far as I can tell, I was the only one who ever heard him say what really happened.

"In the trenches, he was so frightened that he promised God that he'd become a minister if he survived, and when he returned from the war, he went to a seminary and became an Episcopal priest, the rector of our town church for more than 30 years until he retired in 1970. He died only two years later at age 72—his lung cancer may have resulted from that early exposure to poisonous gas in France."

James Symington: "I spent a four years in the British Territorial Army (National Guard equivalent) as an artillery command post officer. As part of the training we were put in a bunker, on Salisbury Plain, with tiny, very thick perspex windows looking out over an impact area just outside. We were then subjected to a battery firing different kinds of 155mm shells at us. Even in the absolute safety of this bunker the concussion of the shells going off 10 yards away was breathtaking. I cannot imagine what months or years of it felt like whilst sitting in a muddy, open bunker."

Chuck Holst: "I once met a soldier of the Great War. It was 1966, and it was in a laundromat at 9th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis. He might have been in his early 70s, but he seemed older to me at the time—I was 22. As I recall, he just started talking about the war out of the blue, about the gas attacks and how so many of his friends and comrades had died in the war. I didn't know what to say to him, but I think he really just wanted someone to listen to his story, someone to serve as an excuse to talk about it. The war was still very much present for him 48 years after the events. I wish I had taken the time to sit and talk with him and hear more of his story, but I probably had things to do."

And So It Begins

I have four windows in my bedroom and this was the view this morning when I lifted the shade I always open first. It's always a bit of a surprise. And so it begins. Another Winter.

I never understood "snow birds," defined as Northerners who migrate to warmer southern States during the winter. Until I was about 55. That was six years ago. Now I understand.

The day matured into a brilliant one. The skies cleared, the wind began to buffet the land and the lake and stir the trees, and vast, solid clouds moved fast across the skies, creating quick transitions between brilliant sunlight and cloud-shadow. I drove home from town through plumes of snow and leaves spinning up the hills and arcing over the road. Whitecaps appeared on the usually well-protected lake. The wind moved a lot of snow around and mixed it with falling leaves before the snow began to melt.

I made a lot of progress on the X-H1 review today. Later I'm going to work on my photography book. (Working title: "Success in Photography," although please make no assumptions about what that means.) Now I'm tired. It's Saturday...I think I might need a nap!

And so it begins.  :-)

Mike

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Anders: "Out of necessity, since I live in Norway: Photography is possible also in the winter. Another light, another temperature, another mood and another result—but possible, still. We have to think that.  :-)  "

James Weekes: "I moved here, to North Florida, after 21 years in Vermont, a lovely state full of lovely people and a really long, harsh winter. I have not seen snow in person for 25 years and still shudder when I think of it. Most of our trees still have leaves and those that do lose them, regain them in 6–8 weeks. When I was younger (like you, younger than 55) I loved the snow and cold, and getting in wood, and the lovely smell of a wood fire, the warmth only a wood stove can generate, and skiing. But I cannot tolerate cold as well as I used to (nor can I tolerate high heat and humidity) so being here suits me better. It is 68°F here today and very pleasant, as the oppressive humidity is finally leaving. Very nice picture, by the way."

Sharon: "I moved to Nantucket from Texas 14 years ago. Thought I would die the first couple of winters. Now I love it. We shot in weather so cold the ocean froze!"

Christopher May: "Maybe this will change when I hit 55 but I’m a huge fan of winter and the photographic opportunities it offers.

Photo by Chris May

"I took this photo at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs on Halloween morning. There were a few other people out enjoying the amazing views that the fresh snow offered but for the most part it was very quiet. Given the choice between sharing the park with thousands of people on a summer day or being out in the cold with a few hardy souls witnessing scenes like this, I’ll take the latter every time."

Vote

You?

Today's the day. It's still a democracy. Get out there, if ya haven't.

Mike

P.S. This post is OT for you non-U.S. peeps, but I'm sure most of you will sympathize. I should also confess I'm not in the best mood today. My usual good-natured self shall return!

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Happy 50th, 747 (OT)

Photo: Eduard Marmet

Ned Bunnell tells us that today it's been 50 years since Boeing announced the 747 on September 30th, 1968. It was expected to be retired after 400 planes were made, but the latest version of the aircraft is still current and production reached 1,546 last July.

Credit: University of South Florida

To put that in context, it was only 54 years, 8 months, and 29 days between the date of the very first commercial passenger flight (January 1, 1914) and the day the 747 was introduced!

Mike
(Thanks to Ned)

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R. Edelman: "The Boeing 747—what a great plane! I first flew on one in 1971, when they were still being introduced to the airline customers. I flew from Amsterdam to New York on a KLM 747, and what a ride. The entire plane was a student charter (the only criterion was that you were a student somewhere), so there was only one class of passenger. I asked for a forward seat, figuring correctly that I would get a larger, first-class seat. The cabin crew decided to open the bar (free Heineken!) and proceeded to kibbitz with the passengers. Some of the passengers finished smoking a certain mood-altering drug in the extra large open spaces that they had by the exit doors back then. (The drug was tolerated in Amsterdam, but not in the US, so the incentive was there to finish the stuff before the flight was over).

"That summer I also visited Israel. El Al had just taken delivery of its first 747, and they showed it off by flying it in circles over Tel Aviv a few times. The 747 was designed to be a luxurious jet in an era when airlines still felt that all of their customers deserved to experience a comfortable flight, no matter where they were seated. I think that we all miss those days."

Mike replies: ...Flying high while flying high. And yes, I miss the days when all the seats felt roomy and luxurious.

Speed: "The 747 is still in production at Boeing's Everett plant but it is almost a special order item. Wikipedia reports orders for six and 14 in 2017 and 2018 respectively and shipments of 14 and four also for 2017 and 2018 respectively. 2018 isn't over yet. For comparison, Boeing's 737 build rate is almost two per day! A tour of the Everett facility where 767, 777 and 787 aircraft are also built (cameras not allowed—not even phones) is time well spent. The 747 is almost hand built, riveted together from thousands of small bits of aluminum and magnesium (I'm oversimplifying) over many weeks, while the newest 787 is assembled from large components (lots of composites) in days.

"When I visited last year they were working on an order from UPS for 14 747 freighters and one 'executive' version for a wealthy middle-eastern customer. I was already amazed that such a large machine could fly but the engineering that goes into designing and manufacturing such a massive and complex device that routinely and reliably carries people and packages around the world is quite remarkable."

Geoff Wittig: "The Boeing 747 is indeed remarkable for its longevity, when many commercial and military aircraft run the gamut from first flight to scrapyard in a decade or less. But the champion for active lifespan has to be Lockheed's remarkable C-130 military transport. It's a strikingly homely and utilitarian aircraft, yet its efficient, practical, durable design has never been bettered. The first example flew in 1954, and it is still in active production to this day, an astonishing 64 years later. That's vaguely analogous to a Sopwith Camel [a WWI biplane —Ed.] still being produced in 1981."

David Zivic: "I remember two things about the Wright Brothers' first flight, one involving a 747. The length of the first flight was shorter than the wing span of a 747. And, the iconic flight photo with one brother the pilot and the other releasing the wing tip from the ground was taken by a friend, and it is the only photo he ever took before or after...you know, squeezing a bulb for a shutter release."

c.d.embrey: "In August, 1960, I flew from Monterey, California, to Baltimore, Maryland. A 24-hour trip flying on four different piston powered planes. In January, 1961, I did the return flight from Baltimore to LAX in a 707. What a difference a few months makes when it comes to technology.

"When I was young, Pan Am was the USA's premier overseas airline. Juan Trippe invented tourist class, and Boeing built the 747 at his request. Pan Am went out of business in the early 1990s."

Mike replies: There's a vivid and informative book that I enjoyed about the fall of Pan Am called Skygods by Robert Gandt.

Paul De Zan: "United made an excellent video on the occasion of their retirement of the aircraft."

John Masters: "As a young man, I worked for Delta for a number of years at both DFW [Dallas/Forth Worth] and ATL [Atlanta]. During those years, Delta had no 747s, and I would always pause when I saw one land or take off for American, Lufthansa and other airlines. For me, being drawn to a 747 is one of those nebulous things whose attraction could only be summed up as '...there's just something about a 747....' As awesome and long-serving as the L-1011, DC-10, etc., were, they didn't have the immediate eye appeal of a 747.

"I never flew on, but was part of ground crews on British Airways' Concorde aircraft in and out of DFW in the late '80s. The interior of the Concorde, while very nice, was necessarily cramped and disappointing. But seeing that Concorde take off was the only commercial jet that could cause more shivers in me timbers than a 747 roaring for takeoff. (Military jet roar is a whole other beast.) I was able to ride a 'tug' around and under one of the two Presidential 747 in Texas (in for electronics upgrade at a company I was interviewing with). That was beyond awesome for me. There's just something about a 747...."

Rick D: " I was a Boeing Kid whose dad worked there; he was part of the crew relocated from Renton to Everett to build and then run the new factory home of the 747. Heady days. Boeing supposedly developed the 747 after losing the C-5 transport contract to Lockheed. I picture them sitting glumly around a conference table asking, 'So we have plans for this ginormous airplane, what are we going to do with them?' Thus, they tackled the plane that changed an industry.

"Only problem was it cost so much to get to production the jumbo jet nearly bankrupted the company, and Seattle. Dad was among many thousands who lost their jobs and a famous billboard appeared: 'Would the last person leaving Seattle please turn off the lights?' Hard to imagine in today's tech boomtown Seattle how dire things were then. On a recent visit I took the kid past my childhood house and saw its eye-popping Zillow 'Zestimate' was precisely one hundred times what my folks paid for it when we transplanted there from Seattle. Dad found other work and we stayed.

"My junior high overlooked Boeing Field and we kids were all quite versed in their product line, literally able to I.D. the models by sound. The 747's sound was very different from the others and they were worth looking at; it has always seemed to just hover on its approach. Something about the scale has the brain asking: 'How does that thing stay in the sky?' If I understand correctly, very long-haul point-to-point aircraft like the 787 are shoving hub-and-spoke jumbos aside. I think they'll always be around, but no longer the dominant planes of intercontinental travel."

Coming Up at Christie's

Christie's will auction The Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann Collection of Photographic Masterworks two weeks from now. The auction will take place on October 4th and 5th at 20 Rockefeller Center in New York City.

It's pretty much all "greatest hits." A few samplings:

Edward Weston, Nude, 1934. Estimate $30,000–60,000

Dorothea Lange, White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco, 1933.
Estimate $100,000–150,000

Paul Strand, Blind Woman, New York, 1916. Estimate $70,000–100,000

Edward Weston, Pepper No. 30, 1930 (printed 1940).
Estimate $150,000–250,000

You can see the entire catalog of the collection, with nice JPEGs, at this link. A PDF of the show catalog can be seen here, and the print catalog itself can be ordered from Christie's here.

Mike
(Thanks to Dierk)

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Andrew John: "The estimated prices imply that some people have lots of pocket money. Are they happy? I'd love to hear the reaction to this auction of that poor man in the bread line."

Mike replies: Well, you and I can own every photograph in the collection for $40, and that makes me happy!

Also Due on the 25th (Fuji and Sigma)

Also expected on the 25th is the announcement of the Fuji GFX 50R, the rangefinder-style counterpart to the medium-format SLR-style GFX 50S. The new camera is expected to be somewhat lower spec and somewhat less expensive.

But we'll see.

And Sigma is expected to introduce a portrait lens in mounts for both Micro 4/3 and Fuji X-mount this week—a 56mm ƒ/1.4. I'd be in the market for that, so I'll be watching. But given that I have a Micro 4/3 camera and a Fuji X camera at the moment, the choice as to which mount to get could mean I'd be making a hard choice between the two cameras and formats, and it could potentially make my head explode. So if you stop hearing from me.... :-)

[UPDATE: Oh, sorry, "brain fart." The new Sigma will be Micro 4/3 and Sony E-mount, of course. Sorry for my confusion. Or wishful thinking, whatever. —Ed.]

Mike
(Thanks to Hugh Crawford)

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The Coming Panasonic FF Camera

Most of this comes, directly or (probably) indirectly, from 4/3 Rumors: Apparently Panasonic will introduce a full-frame camera on the 25th of this month, six days from now—next Tuesday. (Photokina begins the next day and runs through the 29th.) It will be one of those "development" announcements, or pre-announcements—it will not announce the rollout of a camera that's nearly ready for sale, but one they're working on for next year. Supposedly it will have a body similar to the GH5's, no sensor-shift IS, excellent video, and have "way more" than 30 MP. The specs they'll release on Tuesday are believed to be pretty firm.

There are two reasons why the announcement's noteworthy: one is that it puts an exclamation point on the Q4 2018 FFM tipping point, with many companies deciding all at once to follow Sony's lead into full-frame mirrorless; and the other is that it marks the first departure of a major member of the 4/3 consortium into a format other than 4/3.

Personally, I think what underlies all this is that the camera companies are being chased. "Serious" interchangeable-lens cameras are going to have to flee from the smartphone juggernaut if they aren't already.

This doesn't mean Micro 4/3 is doomed—it would be jumping the gun considerably to say that—but I think the cameramakers are already thinking more about differentiation than they would have if they still had the camera market to themselves. As ever, I could be wrong, but that's my sense of it.

Mike

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Andrew: "The interesting thing about the Panasonic FF camera possibility is the relationship with Leica, which I believe would continue. They can both concentrate on the FF format, which is Leica's bread and butter. Leica would maintain all-out lens designs for its own FF cameras (i.e. the SL, which might have a v.2 soon) while working with Panasonic on still-very-good but cheaper FF lenses. I love the G9 (+ "PanLeica" 12–60mm) and a FF version of that camera would be divine. In any case, a FF camera from Panasonic would be telling. Where would that leave Olympus?"

A Very Special Issue of 'LensWork'

LensWork 138 arrived in the mail the other day. The cover says it all: the 25th anniversary issue, with 88 images from the publication's first 25 years.

I enjoy collections, and this one's special. So many reminders of great portfolios past. Don Kirby is here, and Huntington Witherill, Cosmin Bumbut (I own an original of Cosmin's, framed and hanging in my house), Clyde Butcher, Fay Godwin, Shelby Lee Adams, Bradford Washburn, John Sexton, Phil Borges, Wayne Levin, Merg Ross, Lois Greenfield, Ryuijie, Michael Kenna, Jay Dusard, Cheryl Medow, Bill Jay, and so many more. (And so many more than that couldn't be included.)

"Our little corner of photography uses the medium as a means of artmaking," Maureen and Brooks write in the introduction, "—of personal exploration and personal expression." Always with respect toward craft, too, one might add. You can purchase the print edition or the extended digital version here.

Twenty-five years of independent publishing! It's an amazing, amazing achievement. Admiring and sincere congratulations to Maureen Gallagher and Brooks Jensen, and all the artists they've featured and supported over their first quarter of a century.

Mike

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Eric Brody: "Congratulations to Brooks and Maureen. Lenswork is a wonderful publication. It's unique in its focus (pun intended) on photography, not on cameras or lenses (despite the title) as well as its ad free content. I listen to Brooks' podcasts regularly and marvel at his ability to keep going and keep being creative in his approach.

"I knew him when he lived in Portland and were part of a group of photographers who shared work regularly. My first 'workshop' was with him, Stu Levy, Stewart Harvey, Barry Peril (now sadly deceased) and others at the Oregon Coast in the early '80s. It was the start of my own journey in photography."

It's Street Photography Day

Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time they're sittin' and cryin' at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin'
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.

—The Grateful Dead, "Truckin'"

It's the birthday today of the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He was born in 1908 and would have been 110 today.

In some quarters that makes today "Street Photography Day," although I find suspiciously little on the Internet about that apart from old TOP posts. Maybe this is just something I imagined, or dreamed.

But anyway, today we go out and take a picture on the street. Here's my contribution, presented with the two-legged subject's permission:

The doggie is the spiritual advisor of the pilot. Her name, appropriately enough, is Sidecar Sadie.

I'm sure you have not failed to note Sadie's cool goggles! Those weren't just for the picture. She wears them when she rides.

I actually took this last week. It was taken with the 2018 equivalent of a Barnack camera—a smartphone. Not that I would have minded taking this with a real Barnack camera*, not at all.

So the idea today is to get out and take a picture—any picture. You can award yourself life points for conforming to the genre of street photography, for any similarity to the work of Cartier-Bresson, or for technical appropriateness of any sort as understood by you. You're very welcome to share.

Main requirement: be cool and have fun.

Mike

P.S. To put your image in our Comments, please use this code:

Where the bit in quotes is an image on the Web. Make sure the original image is not wider than 470 pixels wide, or it will be cut off.

*A Barnack camera is any Leica before the M3 of 1954. All were derived from the original designs of Oskar Barnack, hence the name.

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Jan Kwarnmark [you remember Jan —Ed.]: "To be honest, it's my own idea. I simply claim this day as dedicated to street photography. I used to send a mail to TOP, to Peter Turnley, and write on Facebook. Some people think it's a nice idea and respond kindly. I suggest we meet in a special café in Gothenburg at noon. Until now one friend has said he will come. After all, street photography is is something you do alone. Walking around in a crowd has nothing to do with it. By the way, is there really an 'official' way to make August 22 The International Street Photography Day?"

Mike replies: Aha! And sure enough, you're the guy who emails me about it year after year. Well, I'm on board. Why not?

Photo by Hans Muus

Hans Muus: "Shot one day before HC-B day, hopefully close enough. Folding doors at ground level (presumably the house was build as a small shop a long time ago) on a medieval square in the centre of my hometown, Utrecht, Netherlands. I liked the way the two blokes were sitting there, reading quietly. Took a sneaky (pardon, 'candid') shot. Too far off. And they noticed me. Walked up closer, moving my camera aside. 'Goedemorgen!' 'Sorry...English.' 'I see, good morning! I just took a picture of you, because you make such a nice image the way you're sitting and reading, but it doesn't feel good to do it secretly—mind if I take another one?' 'Not at all—we'll just smile!' When it is done friendly, I really love subtle British irony. I think I smiled. 'Or just keep on reading, if you will.' So they did.

"Later that same day I brought them a small print, which was appreciated. And I wonder, the contraption on the otherwise empty chair at the right—does it suggest one of the men has a handicap—anyone?"

A Little Local Sadness

I learned something new about the iPhone 7+ camera(s). Smartphones are handy in that you can sometimes get them into spaces where an IL camera won't fit, but the "selfie" camera on the screen side of the phone doesn't focus as close as the main camera modules on the back. I couldn't see to compose this picture any other way than by using the "selfie" camera, and it wouldn't focus on the eggs. The nest is right under the eaves and I couldn't get the phone far enough away.

These eggs have apparently been abandoned, which is making me unaccountably sad, probably because it echoes the rest of the sadness in my life. A mother robin raised an earlier brood in my robin condos under the pavilion (there are now three nests, which are re-used year after year), and I even got to see one of the fledglings make its first flight—a first for me—because I dropped something by mistake and scared the little guy right out of the nest. There has since been a second batch—robins will raise up to three batches of eggs per season—but the mother of the second batch seemed more nervous than the others, and never entirely got used to me and the dogs like the others did.

Then one day she wasn't at her nest, nor the next day either, and I became concerned.  The third day I saw a robin standing on the edge of the nest and I thought, good, she's back! But then two more days went by with no signs of life. That's when I decided to stand on a stool and, carefully, not touching anything, use the phone camera to spy into the nest; I wanted to see if some predator had gotten the eggs and they were gone.

As you can see, the camera showed the eggs still there. But it's been two days now since the photo and I haven't seen any further signs of the mother.

It's such an enormous investment of effort to raise a brood of chicks that robin parents will abandon the task if there isn't a reasonable chance of success. If the mother is killed, of course, the eggs are doomed. The male can't incubate the eggs and doesn't know the other necessary behaviors such as turning the eggs. But the mother will often abandon the eggs if the male is killed, too—one website notes that the male performs "finishing school" for the fledglings, teaching them how to gather food and other worldly skills. Without him, the youngsters' chances of survival go way down.

What I suspect happened in this case is that the mother was killed and the bird I saw hanging around the nest on the third day was the male. But I'm no ornithologist, and of course I have no way of investigating or knowing what became of this poor family. Whatever happened, it appears that the eggs in this blurry picture are never going to become birds to add to the ever-diminishing avian population, alas.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 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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Congratulations France! (OT)

Congratulations to all our French readers for France winning the sporting world's most coveted trophy, the World Cup!

Does anyone have a World-Cup-related photo they own the rights to? I'll gladly post it.

(Or, you can post it yourself in the Comments, using the code:

The image must be on the Web and cannot be wider than 470 pixels.)

Congratulations also to the great Novak Djokovic for his fourth Wimbledon Men's title and his successful comeback from injury.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 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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Andy Sedik: "Four years ago we took a trip to Germany so that we could watch the World Cup matches in Germany with friends and family. We were in Berlin at a friend's house when Germany won. She drove us to the Ku'damm afterwards so we could join in the celebration. We got a few hours of sleep before heading to Brandenburg Gate for the celebrations. The routes were blocked but as we walked side streets we noticed people lining the sidewalks. Fans were guessing the team bus might pass by and we figured if we were going to see the team this would be our only chance. We lucked out and they passed right in front of us. I've been in San Francisco when a local team has won a championship and it was nothing like what I experienced when Die Mannschaft won the World Cup."

kirk Tuck: "I'm a bit confused; did your French readers actually participate in the field play? Why are you congratulating the spectators? It's the players who won the game. Hate this whole idea of the 'home' team being the entire country. What did the rank and file citizens of France do to capture the world cup? And I have to correct you on one more thing. The World Cup for Soccer is hardly the most coveted sports award. That honor would surely go to a gold medal for any Olympic swimming event. Soccer is only a sport for those who can't swim.... Delete as necessary to retain world peace."

Mike replies: Wait...the Mac post was the one that was supposed to get all the arguments, not this one!

A Visit from B&H Photo

Mike and Izzy

A nice thing—my rep from B&H Photo, Izzy Flamm, actually made a trip out from NYC to see me yesterday. I've always had good contacts at B&H—Itzhak (Isaac) Buchinger, then Menashe Wodinsky, and lately Izzy. Izzy lives in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, which Wikipedia calls "a hub of Orthodox Judaism." More than half of Lakewood's ~100,000 residents are Orthodox. Izzy commutes two hours to New York City each way. He rather liked my commute, which consists of a) coming downstairs and b) moseying out to the porch.

We had a great visit, and we are cooking up a number of ideas for ways of working together. I'll keep you posted going forward.

I think Izzy enjoyed his brief trip to our area. (My town has 5,000 people, and they're building a new building across from the B&H Superstore in Midtown that will house more people than that.) All the same, it was very kind of him to come all this way to meet me. Thanks Izzy.

Mike

P.S. I have one more post for today, a "Random Excellence," but I'm awaiting permission to post the picture. My hopes are fading at this point, but who knows, maybe I'll get lucky before the end of the day.

Original contents copyright 2018 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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rube39: "Gotta love a New Yorker in a Cubs cap!"

Tex Andrews: "You know, I'm not that surprised. There was a time when B&H rocked that gruff-to-the-point-of-rude NYC thing, but in my dealings with them for the past decade they have been unfailingly polite, helpful, dare I say it, even gentle, in their dealings with me. Henry Posner has done a great outreach job over at that infamous site (in the midst of a family tragedy a year or so back, at that...). I feel like B&H has decided to be...good. I liked that they seem to have expanded their religious holidays as well, in a way that makes me think that take their faith seriously, as opposed to what I'm seeing from some others. I was sad to hear about their labor issues out in Brooklyn because it seemed so out of character with what I have been experiencing."

Mike replies: B&H's warehouses at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as well as the one in Bushwick have been closed, and fulfillment has moved to a newer, larger facility in Florence Township, New Jersey, just south of Trenton. From what the news reported, all the warehouse workers from the Brooklyn facilities were offered jobs at the new facility. The old Navy Yard warehouse, with no further connection to B&H that I'm aware of, is reportedly being converted to movie and television studios.

By the way, in case you're curious, "B&H" stands for "Blimie and Herman," the first names of the man who owns B&H Photo, Herman Schreiber, and his wife. Herman (Izzy used a nickname that sounded like "Heshy" but I don't know if that's the correct spelling) is still living and still comes in to work.

Chip McDaniel: "I've been dealing with B&H for over 30 years now by phone and Internet and in both the old 17th Street store and the new one. Even when they were doing 'gruff-to-the-point-of-rude NYC thing' that Tex Andrews refers to above, they were always fair and transparent about which were USA goods and which were gray market. I once had a shipment of an expensive lens go missing, and they shipped another the day of my phone call, even though the courier service showed delivery of the package to my home. In my experience this is typical of B&H and actually of 'gruff' New Yorkers in general, who, when asked for directions or other help, go out of their way to be helpful. Also, B&H's prices were always great, and they still are. I'm glad that you are a click through for them and wish you a fruitful future collaboration."

Mike replies: My favorite gruff-to-the-point-of-rude NYC story: I was walking from Columbia University to Penn Station with a suitcase once (not realizing quite how far it was), and about ten blocks north of Penn Station on 7th Avenue, after walking for quite a long time, I saw two policemen standing on the sidewalk casually talking to each other. I approached them and said, "Excuse me, officers, can you tell me where Penn Station is?" Both cops abruptly fell silent and looked me up and down from head to toe, as if they were completely affronted that I had dared to interrupt their conversation. Finally one of them cocked his head to the south and said, in a thick New York accent and a scathing tone of voice, "It's right down the f---ing street!" He then turned his back on me and they resumed talking. I had to try hard not to laugh.