Saturday, March 10, 2001

Another poem from Hafiz the Sufi master, Some Fill with Each Good Rain, courtesy of Bill at End the War on Freedom. High marks according to my poetry rating system. If I can imagine Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir belting bits of it out as a tune, it gets a gold star. Gold stars as well to some of the interesting ideas and propositions put forth at ETWOF.
8:12 PM ::link::

If you check the cemetery list, you'll find a new addition. There are new photographs from last week's trip out to Prospect Hill Cemetery in Towson, Maryland. This brings the number of cemeteries listed here up to 19.

Though there are no grand and imposing monuments here, these simple memorials have a delicate charm of their own and their own unique tales to tell.

Go listen.
11:03 AM ::link::

Feeling pretty perky about a couple of your recent photographs? The Camera Club of New York is accepting entries in their 2001 National Photography Competition.

Go for it. You never know where you'll end up. This site's proof enough that strange things can happen. Or given the category heading, perhaps "Weird/Extreme" things can happen. ;-)
7:28 AM ::link::

Friday, March 09, 2001

As fascinated as I am with old technologies for bending light, I don't know how I missed the San Francisco Camera Obscura's listing with the National Register of Historic Places. Month old news, but the history behind these delightful attractions goes back to the 16th century, so what is a few weeks relatively speaking?
9:43 PM ::link::

Authorities in Elkhart, Illinois have arrested four youths in connection with last week's vandalism at Grace Lawn Cemetery. More than 12,000 dollars of damage was done during a wrecking spree that toppled 60 tombstones. Facing felony charges leading to a possible one and a half years imprisonment might give the youths cause to ponder why they considered such an activity "fun".
9:02 PM ::link::

Enough navel gazing for a while, not much there but my expanding lint collection. You may find this timeline of photography a bit more interesting. As part of the PBS series on George Eastman, he plays a central role in the items listed but you'll still find interesting tidbits about such pioneers as Daguerre, Eadweard Muybridge and the Lumiere brothers.
8:47 PM ::link::

Thank you, Amber, for such kind words and gentle thoughts. I hope that I can outshout your judges and tell you that you are a pretty amazing lady, yourself.

They are constantly clawing at our hearts, whispering their words of dread and doubt that bring a chilling wind to rattle the shutters of our souls. For this, we hate them and fear them. They are also the force that drives us to search within ourselves for improvement, because no matter what we accomplish, what we produce will never be quite good enough to silence their criticisms. For this, we should be grateful.

We've been given both a curse and a blessing. Yes, we have enemies that rip down the walls surrounding that small secret space where we try to preserve some essence of self worth and value. And yet, if we can maintain our strength and our will, continue to battle them by trying harder to accomplish what we hope will one day silence their taunting...

then perhaps, just maybe...

with a little luck, a lot of love and a whole lot of looking deep inside...

we can bring forth something so awesome and wonderfully beautiful that even we, with all our doubts, will believe it.

2:18 PM ::link::

Thursday, March 08, 2001

The long awaited day is here at last!!!

Kaycee finally caused the hospital staff so much trouble with her pranks that they had no choice but to kick her out!

Way to go, Tigger.

Big f'ing grins, hugs and lots of good wishes for you!

1:37 PM ::link::

Fascinating look at the customs surrounding death and burial in eighteenth century North Britain and which were preserved in the backcountry regions of America. The article traces the origins of these customs to the Scots that settled in the Appalachians. Link from the Grave-L mailing list.
8:39 AM ::link::

Wednesday, March 07, 2001

Boredom hazard ahead...
Rambling Alert...
Click "Back" button now.

Oh well, tried to steer you clear but I guess you're just going to come on in anyway.

I received a very nice e-mail this afternoon. They requested, so you can blame them for this rambling mess, that I write some longer entries. I've been reading their journal for a few months and have come to appreciate the clarity, strength and heart with which they write. So, when they said that they enjoyed my writing and asked that I step out from behind the camera, how could I say no?

This person and I have exchanged a few e-mails, not really enough to call a correspondence but perhaps enough to call the beginnings of an acquaintance. I guess most of what we know of each other is information that we have gleaned from reading each other's journals. We share some common interests, musical tastes and, as I learned when reading their journal today, perhaps more.

We must be a pair of sick little pups. We have friends that love us, that tell us everyday how talented and amazing we are, people we don't even know come to our web sites and some even stick around for a while. And yet, despite the love that surrounds us, that we know is there, somehow we cannot really believe that we are worthy of any of it. That it is the others out there that have amazing talent, the ability to see clearly and write with lucidity. That someday they will look closely at us and see how little we offer and laugh at us for daring to even imagine joining their ranks.

So, having faced our perceived inadequacies, do we decide to continue down this same sad path or can we perhaps find a new turn in the road? If we cannot believe in ourselves, for what ever it may be worth, can we start to believe in each other? Would it embarrass you terribly if I said that I believe in you?
I hope not too much.
Because I do.

Faring thee well now.
Let your life proceed by its own design.
Nothing to tell now.
Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine.
-Cassidy
words by John Barlow, music by Bob Weir

9:33 PM ::link::

I've been using a dark red filter to screen out the blue and green wavelengths when using infrared film. There have been two reasons that I haven't tried using a totally opaque filter that will pass only IR and block all of the visible spectrum. One reason is the hassle of removing the filter between each shot, since a completely opaque filter will block what I can see through the viewfinder. A second reaon is the cost. A glass screw on filter runs about $70-80. Ouch! That'll buy a lot of film and processing.

But what if there was a simple alternative? I could make an improvised infrared transmitting filter from some unexposed but developed E-6 film. Might be just the ticket, especially for pinhole experiments. I could even try mounting the filter material between the film rails in the camera body and do away with any obstructions on the lens. New stuff to try,I love it.
2:55 PM ::link::

Look into a reflection of Kaycee's soul in her new companion page to her blog. A small picture of a long journey, from a lady who writes from the heart.
12:04 PM ::link::

Nice examples of some old stones in the U.K. from Inspiras. Check the "Grave Intentions" section for the tombstones, quite a few interesting and unusual carvings. Wander through the rest of the site for some other treats, as well. "Strange Light" has several IR photos, "Doorway to Souls" is a study of church doors in London.
11:16 AM ::link::

Tuesday, March 06, 2001

If you've been here before, you may notice a new little button on the right. It links to HandsOffMy.org. It seems that the ICANN, the jokers in charge of keeping domain names and IP addresses all nice and neat, have decided to change the rules about who can and who cannot have a domain name using ".org". This change would affect those who currently and legitimately, sometimes at the suggestion of the domain name registrars themselves, have obtained and are using a .org domain.

I don't have a .org domain. I have no desire or intention of obtaining one. So, why the hell should I care? While I admit being tempted to include the famous poem by Martin Niemoller, that might be a bit melodramatic. This is just one more instance of "I'm from Wahington and I'm here to help you." Republican, Democrat, regulatory boards, or whatever.... the main purpose of government and like institutions these days seems to be to screw with your life.

Click the button already. Read what these ICANN clowns are up to and then follow up with an e-mail to ICANN telling them in clear, polite and reasoned tones (better chance that someone will actually read it than if you fill it with rude and obscene language) why their proposed actions are unneeded and unwanted.
8:53 PM ::link::

Epson and eight digital camera manufacturers will be working together to enable digital images to embed picture specific printing parameters. This will allow a user of Epson Stylus Photo printers and selected cameras to print images which are more accurate renditions of the image captured by the camera.
3:03 PM ::link::

You've got to love a scholarly online publication that replaces the usual "Call for Papers" with a "Call for Rants". That's the Journal of Mundane Behavior.
2:49 PM ::link::

Catherine Jamieson's LivingArt has a new gallery of photos and writing. Once again, this artist has found and shared the art of the everyday.
10:04 AM ::link::

Monday, March 05, 2001

I'm glad to see that folks are discovering Raven Lunatique. Raven has done so much work to draw together and to strengthen the cemetery photographer community around the world. Yep, that's right. There are more of us than you think. ;-) Raven runs a great web ring, Cemetery illusions, for us boneyard crawlers and has put together a few issues of a great e-zine, Necronicles, to show off our work. Raven rocks.
10:08 PM ::link::

Victoria Tombstone Tales has a wonderful section on Grave Art. The section includes examples of the symbolism used in funeral art and an explanation of the different types of monument styles that you are likely to encounter during a stroll through an old cemetery.
11:17 AM ::link::

Sunday, March 04, 2001

This review of early Christian art may be useful to taphophiles as an aid to interpreting some of the images that are commonly seen on gravestones.
2:15 PM ::link::

It's not always a block of granite or a slab of carved marble that makes a memorial to time spent with a loved one. Brooke's sharing of the memories brought back by her grandmother's watch tells a nice story of the ways in which a simple everyday object can keep the good times with us.
10:03 AM ::link::

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