‘I know the word that you long to hear
I know your deepest, secret fear’
– lyrics from The Spy, The Doors
Shot on the streets of Brussels during the lockdown.
Where, then, indeed, were the spies when they were,
…most needed?
Keeping an eye on subversive selfie shooters perhaps?
The spy.
for WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Eye Spy
‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’
― nelson mandela
This is my response to this week’s WordPress Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge.
As ‘constant readers’ may know, I try to respond to this challenge most weeks, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, inspiration and consequent success (or not).
I’d like to be a pro-photographer. My biggest challenge? My best shots come from the heart, from my emotion, my passion, my anger, my love, oh dear HID, how would I fare in a studio (we shall see, maybe).
Anyway, back to the task in hand.
The image above is a composite. Obviously. I made it using my iPad and the Adobe Photoshop Mix app. It’s not great, I’m not proud of it technically, I rushed it, it’s now late and I’m tired. But I’d like to make my point so I will continue.
The two photos are separated by a few weeks in time in terms of execution. In terms of publication less than 24 hours separates them.
The first, in chronological terms, was actually shot on 26 September, 2015. I took a walk in the woods in Tervuren, near Brussels, I had a lot on my mind. Made a decision, whether it was a little or large decision is (now) of no consequence. Things changed. Life changes. And will continue to change. This image, of three geese (I think, I am no bird expert), was first published here on the evening of Friday, 20 November 2015 in response to last weeks’ challenge which was entitled ‘trio’. When I awoke on the morning of Saturday, 21 November the world had not only gone through the transition from night to day, from one day to the next, it appeared to have spun upside down and inside out. The Brussels Lockdown had commenced.
So, the second shot, taken during the afternoon of Saturday, 21 November 2015 could not be more different.
Transitions can be very difficult. They can be well orchestrated, they can be planned with care, or they can rip apart the fabric of our lives in an instant.
Paris. London. Madrid. New York.
And many more. Every nation, every race, every creed. All have suffered brutalising change. No one has been spared.
What matters now is how WE manage the next transition.
Do we hit back, bomb and blast and scream and shout. Do we ‘change’ the life of others with righteous vengeance? Are our bombs that rain down from the sky, the silent instant deaths that we deal by drone, are they any harder to bear, to rationalise? Who is right? We teach our children to turn the other cheek, to avoid fights and disputes in the school yard. Then, we have to explain why those sleek and shiny, sexy, steel tubes send sudden death to families far away.
Is there another way?
We shall see what we shall see.
What would you do?
For WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Transition
(and for Lucile’s Photo 101 Rehab as we approach one year of comradeship)
‘everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism
well, there’s really an easy way: stop participating in it’
― noam chomsky
today
in
brussel
(see also http://andytownend.com/2015/11/21/twentyfour/ )
(submitted to lucile’s photo101rehab)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens and edited in lightroom cc*
‘what i tell you three times is true’
― lewis carroll, the hunting of the snark
ever met a snark?
even, in belgium?
didn’t think so
(for wordpress weekly photo challenge – trio and lucile’s photo101rehab)
(a trio from me
‘life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes*
don’t resist them
that only creates sorrow
let reality be reality
let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like’
― lao tzu
(birminghamstraat, molenbeek)
(for the monthly photo challenge named the changing seasons, which runs from the 7th to the 15th day of each month throughout the year, hosted by Cardinal Guzman and also for Lucile’s photo101rehab)
shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens slightly tweaked in lightroom cc, change is the only constant**
*eminem – going through changes (official music video) via youtube
**heraclitus of ephesos
‘and the trees are stripped bare
of all they wear
what do I care’
lyrics from october by U2
(birminghamstraat, molenbeek)
(for the monthly photo challenge named the changing seasons, which runs from the 7th to the 15th day of each month throughout the year, hosted by Cardinal Guzman)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens slightly cropped in lightroom cc with added “punch”, oh, and i do care really, a lot*
This post is a response to the tough new challenge from Mitch Zeissler, Imagecraft Bootcamp, which is hosted on his own site Exploratorius and on Lucile’s bridging lacunas.
My original image was shot with my Nikon D700 with Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 lens set at 16mm, ISO 3600, 1/125s and f/4. The image was a ‘throw away’ from a set of images I captured for a previous post (the) walking (with the) dead
My intention was to focus on the stone table and funerary urn at the back of the shot. The images below show how I progressed from the original untidy image to the image that I wanted.
Of course, had I attached my 70-200mm zoom in the first place then I might have captured the same thing in camera.
But it’s the taking part that counts, right?
original untouched in lightroom cc library
lightroom cc lens correction adjustments with some cropping
photoshop cc perspective crop
wet filter applied in analog efex pro 2
‘A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limit of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(for breendonk, concentration camp, willebroek, belgië)
(for DP weekly photo challenge – boundaries and for lucile’s photo 101 rehab)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens at ISO5600, 1/125s at f/4, edited in lightroom cc and analog efex pro 2, reflection on boundaries that should never have been crossed*
“stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing…”
― maya angelou
(tram 44, montgomery)
(for daily post weekly photo challenge – change)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at ISO200, 1/125s and f/2.0, edited in lightroom cc with wet plate filter applied with analogue efex pro 2*
“Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road…”
– Jack London
(elsene and molenbeek, brussel, belgië)
Once a year, the streets of Brussel close to motorised traffic, well except for buses, taxis and people who think they know better.
And then, well then, the people take to the streets by cycle, scooter and board.
(for lucile’s photo 101 rehab)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor af-s 50mm f/1.4 lens all at f/1.4 time flies*
belgianstreets 