Summer and Change

 Summer is, well, it is, isn't. It just is.

Random thoughts:

It's the last day of school for me until August, when I will start all over again, with new classes, faces, and teachers.

This past year has been a year of experimentation and change for me. Up until just a couple of years ago, I had never worked in a school setting before. The learning curve has been interesting, scary, and boring at times, but all in all, good.

With summer here, now I must shift gears from work into what else, work.  Painting the outside and inside of the house. Inside, no problem, except for the awful wallpaper in the bathroom. ( think red cardinals all over the wall) Outside, problem. You see, I have a two story house, and my wife, parents, and daughters tell me, I can't be up on the second story working, if someone is not there. What is up with that? Are they saying something might happen to me, or are they really saying, I am getting too old?  It does bring to mind however two issues that I am dealing with, first, making working in school a career, and second, the whole idea of just getting older.

First, a school career, I worked as a special education aide this year. Not much money, little preparation and responsibility in leading, but still rewarding. The question is, should I pursue me teaching degree at the ripe old age of 57, or just remain an aide? Is it just about money, or about being passionate about something? Should a person go get another degree just because of money? I have pondered it, ( I love that word.) meditated, scratched my head, observed my teachers, and the students, and still don't have an answer as of yet. Maybe it will come to me while I am slopping paint on my house, in 100 degree heat. Paint or teach, hmmm, let's see.

Second, getting older, it's not easy. I take a hand full of supplements and vitamins every morning. I've developed allergies, and take shots for that. Exercising is no longer my friend. It hurts. Plus, I wonder what retirement will be like. Will I turn into a couch potato, gain more weight, and die while drinking a RC Cola and MoonPie? ( BTW, my contention is that the word MoonPie, is a noun, not and adjective and noun. Being from a the south, it's a given.) Being retired means I'll have time to do what I've always wanted to do, but what is it?

So there you have it, my summer of discontent and decision making.

Summer, it is what is, and will unfold as it wants and is.

Stairs, you can walk up or walk down, it's really up to you. JDF










P.S. Both photos taken with my Blackberry Playbook. So, what do you think?

A Chair

 It's a chair, just a chair. It wasn't mine originally. It was given to me. When I got it, it was old and needed to be repaired. I took it apart , re-glued the joints, and put a new coat of varnish on it.




I wonder what this chair has been through and what it has seen, felt and heard. The owner of the chair, before me, lost his wife to cancer, and had a daughter. There were tears and laughter, shouts and yes, maybe even anger.

Short people, tall people, heavyweights and lightweights, all sat in this chair. Some even abused it by leaning back in and straining it's joints to the limit.

Everything and everyone, has a story. Behind the scars and bite marks from teething babies, to the lined face and wrinkled hands of a dads and moms, lies the truth of life, the good and the bad.

Yeah, it's a chair, but there's much more. Can you see it? It's there.

Ideas

I am trying to take a few pictures each day, slowly seeing what is present and what is absent. With that in mind, this morning I took a couple of random pictures with my p&s camera after breakfast. The last one picture, of my feet, I took with my Blackberry Playbook, while I was waiting to students to write notes. Killing time so to speak.

Any idea of  common things around the house and yard to take photos of, that would give me good practice with composition and exposure? 

Another quote by a famous photographer:

May I say that a photograph gives us the naked truth, which has to be clothed by imagination.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Understanding

You can only transmit well what you perceive well.

Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne

 

I came across this quote in a photography book about 150 of the greatest photographers from the past up to modern times. This thought transcends more than just photography. It speaks of life, understanding it, and being able to comprehend nature, people, and the world around us, then share what we have learned with others. 

 

Perception, is a road well traveled, but never fully understood. JDF

 

  Taken with my cheap $79.95 P&S Canon. I like the image, but the colors are too harsh for me. 

My perception?!

This & That

 I haven't posted in a while. I don't really know why, or even have an excuse. It's just life I guess.

I have been reading commentary on photography and came across some thought provoking thoughts.
Here's one:

"Observation is the locomotive to be attached to the train of thought and engineered under your conductorship; the power which turns the revolving wheels must be created by fuel from your own stores; your freight is to be truth, and knowledge, and wisdom, in all their purity, from the overflowing treasuries of the Infinite Creator of Nature."

Albert Sands Southworth, and Josiah Johnson Hawes

I love the image of the train. It's a great word picture.

For some reason, I am drawn to the image of the angel. It speaks to me. The photo is not really all that good. There are shadows in the face, it is cut off at the bottom,and I see a speck of dust in the bottom right corner. I just like it. The other two, well, I am still learning how to convert images from color to black and white. Success, I don't think so, at least not yet.