A Softer Geometry

I think I'm beginning to begin to get a feel for photography.

It is easy to take lovey pictures of gardens; nature in essence is our pattern book. But man-made structures are, relatively speaking, impoverished. The Central Library, where I've worked for almost 30 years, is a grand, large-scale, neglected public building that can easily look cold and impersonal.

Which is not my experience of the library at all. My library does not feel like the above picture, even though it is an effective, realistic photo. So how can I depict my library, a lived unity of objective and subjective?

Unusual angles help, but it's the light that holds the key. At the library there are often different types of light illuminating a single space: natural, florescent, incandescent and reflected.

While we may not consciously see the different tones within the lighting of a room, my guess is our bodies do. These invisible colors have an effect. So by being able to bring forward that inner perception, the hard geometric angles are softened  And since the different lights' washes of color are not arbitrary; the photo they create remains realistic.

 

Now that's my library. 

The secret  is not to overdo it; it may be a blessing that I'm a techno-klutz. There are a lot of photos out there that I would like if they were just a little less processed. They have crossed the line out of realism.

But here, years worth of dust bunnies certainly keep it real!

 

The Wisniewski Pledge, or a well-mannered rant leading to action

Mostly I've been doing pictures on this blog, but today, watching the News, I knew I needed to bloviate about matters I probably do not know enough about. I've interspaced some recent pics of Fairmont Park amidst the blow to rest the eye. Just read the bottom part if you want to cut to the chase--the middle just gives the reasons for it.

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This is what bothers me. Military-grade weapons (ones best suited for invading a foreign country,) are being handed over to the insane with the supposed blessing of the Constitution. Really--this was the framers' original intent?

The NRA pretends to speak for gun owners. It doesn't. It speaks for gun makers. And gun-makers are not people; they are corporations. As corporations their moral imperative is their own prosperity. That's it. Nothing else. In short, they are the equivalent of psychopaths. And the NRA gets the majority of its money from gun makers who care about nothing but selling more guns.

 
These are military weapons. Even though handguns bought to protect the home are 44% more likely to be shot at a family member or oneself, no one wants to ban regular  handguns. And no one wants to ban hunting rifles either. 

And those people who argue that they need military weapons to resist the government? Because they feel the government could go evil in a snap? Now, while I doubt that our government is constructed to go rogue, as a government worker myself, I gotta point out one huge problem with this scenario. It assumes that government can attain the level of efficiency, effectiveness and secrecy necessary to produce such a doomsday horror.  People who think that such a thing could happen have obviously never worked for the government. 

And all joking aside,  if the government did go nuts,  do you honestly think  a bunch of fantasy soldiers, even if armed with assault weapons, could take down the United States Army? So the argument that we need arms to resist the government is just not logically valid. As if that really needed to be explained.

O.K., so much  guns. What about the shooters? The shooters do not surprise me. I work in a public library in a major city--we are the day room for the local homeless shelters. Many of the homeless are mentally ill or have substance abuse issues (which may be a mental illness.)

There is a psychosis of the sane in this country. It is simple. It is that the insane do not exist. As long as most citizens do not see them, they are not real.

But the fact is, the insane have always been with us, and probably always will. Just because they disappear into cities to become floppy bundles of dirty clothes that you spy as you drive through, does not negate their existence as human beings. 

Shouldn't we learn to deal?

If someone with psychological difficulties is lucky, they belong to a family that understands mental illness as well as most doctors, is amazingly wealthy or has topnotch medical insurance, and is so functional and supportive that its structure is not destabilized by the stress of the whole thing. Most people aren't so lucky. Most families are overwhelmed. And a psychotic on his or her own has little ability to handle care or cooperation. So they get their Social Security Disability and are left to rot. But hey--like owners of assault weapons,  they do have their rights! Yeah, they have the right to suffer.

So what to do?

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The NRA's power comes from its money. As long as they have the most power at the table it will be hard to get meaningful reform.

But how many of us who support gun control will take action and cough up dough? Not enough, and I'm very much part of that problem. So here is my pledge.

Americans for Responsible Solutions is the foundation set up by Gabby Gifford and Mark Kelly to prevent gun violence. I pledge to give them the princely sum of $50 this year, and every following year that this work needs to be done. I am a cheapskate -- I should give more. But this is what I can handle. And if everyone of us who knows this is a problem gave $50--the problem would get solved.

So why this organization?

1. Visibility
2. I believe Kelly and Gifford will be effective stewards
3. The organization is middle-of-the-road politically. This is not about Republicans versus Democrats; this is about reality versus magical thinking.
4. This may not register for everybody, but as a Christian, I am sensitive to how God's grace can  work in strange ways. Gifford was a rising star in our political system and must have had ambition to gain power in order to do good for her country. Then evil stopped her. The personal powers that made her so promising were diminished--but not destroyed. And in her greater powerlessness may arise her greatest power. I hope so.

By turning my bloviation into a public pledge I can turn my hopes into action. If you have read this--thank you for reading. And think about donating. Or better, just donate.

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City Angles

Taking pictures in the city is very different from taking pictures in suburban or country climes. In the city--it feels like it is all angles.

Probably because it -is- all angles. Though sometimes curved angles.

Awhile ago I had some training on the top floor of our Muni-Services Building. I figured that if I could dodge the cream cheesy schmears on the glass and the stuck, outside, vertical blinds,  I might  get some interesting shots.

The above is the old Wanamaker Building in late light; the below is a noonish high point in Jersey. I wonder exactly what and where it is. A good telescoping makes you want to explore.

 

Here's a late afternoon shot of Billy with radiant clouds, please ignore the reflection streaks. I do not  feel comfortable (at least as of yet,) Photo-shopping all the defects out of my photos. Too pristine scares me. (And besides, I haven't quite figured out how to do it.)

Who knew Love Park could look like a bit of Lady Liberty's crown?

And below a shot up into the river wards.

And so from one bridge to the other.

Shutter Speed Priority

Mike and I were recently in NY--my dad has broken his hip. For the drive home I figured it was a good occasion for testing out the setting "Shutter Speed Priority" on my new camera-- since I was in a moving car (and shooting through a dirty window, no setting for that.) Here are some of the results.

I grew up just a tad South of here, with the window by my deep-green, corduroy-reading chair looking  down on Madison Ave from the 5th floor. I would pause from my book to watch the world go by. It was quite a world.

Just for the record--I still love NY.

And so home.

I love this new camera.

Strange Thanksgiving

Strange Thanksgiving, when things happen that are hard to feel thankful for. But which remind you of all the things that you never stop to be grateful for, the backdrop of life, all that keeps going, Creation. Which make it easier to be thankful.

One thing I am grateful for is my new camera, which allows me to take pictures like the above, which I'm pretty sure I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Or this one, of nature in my neighborhood.

Or a little farther afield

The town where I work

The place where I work

The people who I work with, though I do not have a group photo with permissions. And the people who I love, alive, sick or dead.

And the maker of it all, of whom, obviously, I do not have a photo or permissions ;-)

PhillyPhotoDay

Last Friday, Oct. 26th was PhillyPhotoday and the Library hosted a workshop in which I took part. Above is the pic I submitted. I pushed myself to try and go beyond my usual traditionally composed, bucolic mode. I like this one because I was able to combine so many disparate elements without losing balance. Framing the image, to the far right and left, and the lower center, are curves. The rest of the picture looks like what could be chaos--different angles, materials, colors, time-periods, planes of perception, yet balanced and harmonious. Like a city, like Philly, like a human being. My camera's dating is set with PM and AM topsy turved, so I hope the wrong dating doesn't disqualify it.


Here are a few more I took.

 

 

And one bucolic I could not resist, the Horticultural Society's grass planting in the Library's Shakespeare Park.

My new camera is bringing me a lot of happiness by allowing me to do good stuff that previously I had only been able to imagine.

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

Library Workshop Leader: Joseph Baumgarten

Autumn in Vermont

Recently came back from a beautiful place, beautiful in a mighty, magnificent, gentle way. And no, that's not an oxymoron.

We stayed at a small B&B in Arlington on the Battenkill River where my husband could walk outside to fly-fish. Below is the view from the bedroom window,

Southern Vermont between the Green and Taconic Mountain ranges is one of those places where wilderness rubs right up against culture. One of the highlights of our visit was a Rockwell Kent show at the Bennington Museum.

Rockwell Kent, well, rocks. Many of the paintings in the show were done in his studio that was on the Northern ridge of Red Mountain. In Arlington. The same Red Mountain whose Southern face towered over our B&B.

 Beautiful country. The below shot was taken on Red Mountain facing South.

Besides art and wilderness there is one of the best independent bookstores around--Northshire Books.

 

Also pleasing is the sculpture garden of the Southern Vermont art Center.

I think I may have found a street where some of "The Trouble with Harry" was shot.

And went on a successful quest for the church in this Kent painting, which is called"Pilgrim Church," or "Hen and Chicks."

 Found the hen.

And ditto the chicks.

 And of course I found some sheep.

Either I have writers block, or the pictures really are more elegant than any possible words I can find.

 Either way, I want to go back. Did I mention the food is really good?

The above pic was taken from an outlet shopping mall parking lot. Cause yes, there are lots of outlet shopping malls. And no bad views from any of the lots.

But then it is hard to go indoors, cause for a moment, you miss out on the views all around you.

Here is some illustrative commentary from the Kent show.