Monday, February 15, 2016
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Too Much Snow
Okay, if I hear one more person say, "oh, I just love that first snowfall and how pretty it looks" I think I will either scream or be facing assault and battery charges. One or two inches of snow is an inconvenience, five or six inches is a real bother, but receiving a thirty inch delivery of snow from mother nature is just plain sadistic. As you have probably gathered I am not a snow lover to start with, I prescribe to the group that realizes that SNOW is a four letter word and is the root cause of a great deal of misery and pain. For those of you who long for the slopes and wish to sit by the fire and watch the snow come down here is a dose of reality for you. Forty-eight people died in Winter Storm Jonas and there is no telling how many other people were injured by the dam thing, not to mention the property damage, loss of income and tax dollars spent on snow removal.
I know by now some of you are ready to have me lashed to sled and pushed over a cliff for abusing your precious white powder, wait a minute that might be misinterpreted, oh, you know perfectly well I was talking about the wet snow, not the blow snow. As for myself I spent three days digging, pushing and walking behind my snowblower in order to free myself and my wife from a white prison, hmmm, that might be misinterpreted too. In any case once I got free I was so crazed from the effort I decided to make a video of my efforts and here it is.
I know by now some of you are ready to have me lashed to sled and pushed over a cliff for abusing your precious white powder, wait a minute that might be misinterpreted, oh, you know perfectly well I was talking about the wet snow, not the blow snow. As for myself I spent three days digging, pushing and walking behind my snowblower in order to free myself and my wife from a white prison, hmmm, that might be misinterpreted too. In any case once I got free I was so crazed from the effort I decided to make a video of my efforts and here it is.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Cold Weather Riding
I have held off addressing the subject of Cold Weather Riding until January rolled around so I could examine the subject with the due respect that it deserves. In other words, it's hard to remember riding in the cold when you are dripping sweat from under your helmet in the middle of August, I think it has to do with the human psyche and its ability to forget unpleasant memories. For years I have subscribed to the Sammy Hagar approach to riding or "I can't ride till it's 55" degrees that is, but recently my attitudes towards winter time riding have changed a little, by say ten degrees or so.
Partially due to our friends who enjoy the sport of snowmobiling in some of the coldest conditions on Earth, and partially due to the fact that a generation of die hard riders, and partially due to new and improved materials manufacturers are now cranking out suits, jackets, and some pretty gnarly gadgets to keep us warm while tooling down the highway. Now before we get started let me say that I won't be discussing any of the electric battery operated or plug in suits, gloves, socks, or boots that are available which claim to work miracles when it comes to keeping warm on a motorcycle. If you own this stuff and love it then I am very happy for you, but since all these articles of clothing and footwear come in close contact with your body and rely on electronics made in that paragon of quality control "The Republic of China" I will be omitting them from this post.
Now lets begin! Rule number one, road going motorcycles operate superbly on warm to cool dry asphalt or concrete surfaces, they perform reasonably well when in that same temperature range on marginally wet surfaces. That's it! Were you expecting more? Alright I'll expand on this, you see a motorcycle requires its rider to defeat "Old Ma Gravity" who is trying to pull the machine and rider to the ground any way she can, and poor road conditions just stack the odds in her favor. It's easy, just remember if it's wet and freezes it should be considered the enemy, and an enemy that doesn't fight fair too boot! The pavement can look dry and the thermometer may even read above freezing, but that's the time when those two old crones "Mother Nature" and "Old Ma Gravity" get their heads together to create a little winter mayhem. So in case you haven't realized what I am trying to convey yet, DON'T RIDE A MOTORCYCLE WHEN IT GETS WITHIN FIVE DEGREES OF FREEZING! Or you might end up like the young lady in this photo who seems to be overjoyed at the fact she has just cost herself a minimum of $500 worth of damage to her motorcycle after falling on a snow covered road, so much for the old cliche about women being smarter than men.
But again I have strayed from my original point, better winter riding gear. First I would like to take the time to dis-spell a popular myth as to what material makes for the best cold weather apparel. You will hear from a great many riders (especially the ones who ride a certain V-Twin brand) that leather is the best form of cold weather protection, and while leather does afford many fine qualities including abrasion resistance when skidding along the pavement on you backside, durability, and good looks, it simply sucks at keeping you warm. The fact of the matter is leather turns frigid as soon as winter air passes over it, true it does resist air penetration but then so would a jacket made of solid ice, which come to think of it feels sounds about right. If you placed enough synthetic insulating fabric underneath it you could probably create a nice warm garment, but then the good looks aspect of the thing would go out the window when you found your self resembling half a fully inflated leather football. The cost aspect would also have to be considered since it would probably require the skins of a whole herd of cattle to make a jacket and pair of pants. So that leaves us with the only sane choice for winter gear, the petroleum based thermal insulated Textile line of gear.
The invention of thermal insulated clothing sounds more like fiction than fact, it seems the the famous outdoor apparel designer Eddie Bauer while on a fishing trip circa 1936 nearly died from hypothermia and the experience drove him to find a way to improve the insulation qualities of outdoor winter clothing. As a result he invented and patented quilted down linings for outdoor jackets and pants. His invention has probably saved more lives since then than all the St. Bernard rescue dogs to ever live, although I will say a good jar of brandy on a cold evening is hard to beat. Nowadays petroleum based synthetics have replaced good old goose and duck down but the idea is still the same, use a layer of air in a fluffy fabric to create a separation which prevents the loss of body heat and the penetration of cold outside air. We motorcycle riders owe a great deal to the snowmobile riders for our modern cold weather textile jackets and pants. Those brave and hearty boys and a few girls (now this really does get back to the old saying of girls are smarter than boys) who wait in breathless anticipation for the snow to fall by the foot and the thermometer to plummet into single digits so they can hop on board their snowmobiles and whisk across the frozen tundra at speeds that create wind chills in double digit degrees below zero, and I say to each his own! But the fact is that when companies started producing ultra cold weather gear for the snowmobilers we motorcyclists began to think that if we donned this type of outer wear we might be able to ride our machines in something other than t-shirt weather.
So, now that we have driven my original point into the ground lets get cracking on my list of absolute essential garments and then work our way towards accessories that can be added to the motorcycle itself. First of all the helmet, now I know that this will drive the Harley riders crazy but for winter riding there is nothing better than the full coverage helmet, end of story. That same full coverage helmet that can boil your brain during the summer can also help to keep your head warm in the winter. Next is a very inexpensive accessory to the helmet called the Balaclava which is named for a homebrewed British version which was sent to the British troops during the 1854 Crimean War to protect them from the bitter cold of the winters. This seemingly insignificant piece of under helmet wear will make the difference between an invigorating winter jaunt and OMG I can't feel my chin anymore!
Next we have the all important jacket. On this front all I can say is don't pick one for color, or graphics, or name brand, pick the one that everyone says works. Personally I wear a Field Shier Jacket which is the most incredible piece of cold weather clothing that I have ever owned. At 65 MPH in 48 degree weather it is like being wrapped up in your favorite blanket at home, the wind simply does not penetrate this garment. That's the great part, the bad part is Medieval suits of armor weighed much less than this jacket, I'm not kidding, so help me if this thing weighed any more I would need a young squire to help me on with it. The list of great textile jackets and matching pants is nearly endless and varies greatly in price and features, so do your research, watch the reviews and then make your decision.
If a jacket doesn't suit your needs then maybe what you want is a one piece suit, without a doubt this is the warmest alternative, after all it started out life being called a snowmobile suit, so that ought to tell you something. I myself am the proud owner of one of the original Refrigiware one piece snow suits that dates back around 40 years and I am not kidding you when I say that I wore it just today while using my snow blower to open up my lane in our record breaking 35 inch snowfall that hit the Mid-Atlantic this week. They by the way are still in business and are still the benchmark for survival one piece suits. The advantage of a one piece is that it blocks out almost all outside air while trapping your bodies warmth inside it, the disadvantages are it's hard to put on and take off, massive in size, and will roast you if you have to stop for any reason or encounter traffic.
Gloves are my next item of apparel to be considered, and again the number of choices are mind bogleing and some careful choices have to be made as far as balancing frostbite vs safety. When it comes to warmth insulated waterproof textile gauntlet style gloves are unbeatable for keeping you in possession of all your fingers and thumbs, but they afford nowhere near the protection that leather does from accidental encounters with the road. Textile deteriorates quickly when sliding along asphalt or concrete surfaces and has even been know to heat up enough due to contact friction to partially melt and burn a riders hand. Good old venerable leather on the other hand is renowned for its ability to withstand road rash during a fall and if proper insulation is used in the gloves construction it will provide reasonable warmth down to say 55 degrees, below that it is purely up to the individual to decide how much they value their fingers and thumbs. So which do I use? Both, I go with the leather when I can and the textile when I begin to lay eggs, grow feathers, and start pecking at the ground. The last and perhaps the most important consideration for gloves is usually the one we don't think of until we go to use the motorcycle and that is, can I properly control the levers and throttle with the gloves I have chosen. It does no good to protect your hands from the cold if you crash out due to lack of control when riding.
It's time now to consider our feet. At least here we don't have to agonize over the old question of which is better, textile or leather? Leather wins hands down! Now all we have to do is choose between ugly cumbersome dedicated riding boots such as Alpinestars or some other style like cowboy, engineer, work, and hiking boots. The Sportbike or so called racing boots provide the most protection from injury that can be had, and in recent years they have also become more bearable to wear and might even do for walking as long as it's not too far, but very few of these style boots provide any winter time protection and will turn feet into ice cubes within a few miles of beginning a ride. The other group including the work and hiking boots on the other hand can be found in the insulated version and will help to keep you feet from turning blue. Best solution I have come up with is a bit expensive but does the job for me and that is to have two pairs of boots, one for summer and one for winter with the only difference being their size. The winter pair are exactly one size large than the summer ones which allows me to wear up to two pair of insulated socks when riding in sub 55 degree temperatures. This solution might not be for everyone but it works for me and a lot of my fellow riders.
The last thing I will mention is the actual motorcycle and its cold weather armor. In cold weather nothing and I repeat nothing can substitute for a well designed fairing coupled with grip and seat heater options (note that these electrics are installed by the factory and therefore designed not to set your motorcycle on fire). Nearly all the cruiser style motorcycles produced today have some sort of heat options available to the buyer which can make cold weather riding quite enjoyable, but if you are a sportbike lover, naked bike fan, or have just inherited a fortune these road warriors will probably not be appearing in your garage. There are several accessories that you might consider, the first is an accessory windscreen or windscreen extension offered by your motorcycles manufacturer. Like the droll old sex cliche, size does matter, especially when it comes to windscreen height and here like in the cliche a few inches longer can make all the difference. Accessory handguards can also be found ranging in size and cost with the cheapies costing around twenty dollars and the elite models price in the hundreds of dollars. I consider this one of the most effective accessories that you can buy. They aren't that noticeable, can come off for the warmer weather, and most importantly allow you to go with a more moderately insulated glove that will give you greater control of the levers and throttle.
Well, since I know I have bored you to tears by now I feel that I should go before you start throwing vegetables and eggs in my direction so ride safe and stay warm.
Partially due to our friends who enjoy the sport of snowmobiling in some of the coldest conditions on Earth, and partially due to the fact that a generation of die hard riders, and partially due to new and improved materials manufacturers are now cranking out suits, jackets, and some pretty gnarly gadgets to keep us warm while tooling down the highway. Now before we get started let me say that I won't be discussing any of the electric battery operated or plug in suits, gloves, socks, or boots that are available which claim to work miracles when it comes to keeping warm on a motorcycle. If you own this stuff and love it then I am very happy for you, but since all these articles of clothing and footwear come in close contact with your body and rely on electronics made in that paragon of quality control "The Republic of China" I will be omitting them from this post.
Now lets begin! Rule number one, road going motorcycles operate superbly on warm to cool dry asphalt or concrete surfaces, they perform reasonably well when in that same temperature range on marginally wet surfaces. That's it! Were you expecting more? Alright I'll expand on this, you see a motorcycle requires its rider to defeat "Old Ma Gravity" who is trying to pull the machine and rider to the ground any way she can, and poor road conditions just stack the odds in her favor. It's easy, just remember if it's wet and freezes it should be considered the enemy, and an enemy that doesn't fight fair too boot! The pavement can look dry and the thermometer may even read above freezing, but that's the time when those two old crones "Mother Nature" and "Old Ma Gravity" get their heads together to create a little winter mayhem. So in case you haven't realized what I am trying to convey yet, DON'T RIDE A MOTORCYCLE WHEN IT GETS WITHIN FIVE DEGREES OF FREEZING! Or you might end up like the young lady in this photo who seems to be overjoyed at the fact she has just cost herself a minimum of $500 worth of damage to her motorcycle after falling on a snow covered road, so much for the old cliche about women being smarter than men.
But again I have strayed from my original point, better winter riding gear. First I would like to take the time to dis-spell a popular myth as to what material makes for the best cold weather apparel. You will hear from a great many riders (especially the ones who ride a certain V-Twin brand) that leather is the best form of cold weather protection, and while leather does afford many fine qualities including abrasion resistance when skidding along the pavement on you backside, durability, and good looks, it simply sucks at keeping you warm. The fact of the matter is leather turns frigid as soon as winter air passes over it, true it does resist air penetration but then so would a jacket made of solid ice, which come to think of it feels sounds about right. If you placed enough synthetic insulating fabric underneath it you could probably create a nice warm garment, but then the good looks aspect of the thing would go out the window when you found your self resembling half a fully inflated leather football. The cost aspect would also have to be considered since it would probably require the skins of a whole herd of cattle to make a jacket and pair of pants. So that leaves us with the only sane choice for winter gear, the petroleum based thermal insulated Textile line of gear.
The invention of thermal insulated clothing sounds more like fiction than fact, it seems the the famous outdoor apparel designer Eddie Bauer while on a fishing trip circa 1936 nearly died from hypothermia and the experience drove him to find a way to improve the insulation qualities of outdoor winter clothing. As a result he invented and patented quilted down linings for outdoor jackets and pants. His invention has probably saved more lives since then than all the St. Bernard rescue dogs to ever live, although I will say a good jar of brandy on a cold evening is hard to beat. Nowadays petroleum based synthetics have replaced good old goose and duck down but the idea is still the same, use a layer of air in a fluffy fabric to create a separation which prevents the loss of body heat and the penetration of cold outside air. We motorcycle riders owe a great deal to the snowmobile riders for our modern cold weather textile jackets and pants. Those brave and hearty boys and a few girls (now this really does get back to the old saying of girls are smarter than boys) who wait in breathless anticipation for the snow to fall by the foot and the thermometer to plummet into single digits so they can hop on board their snowmobiles and whisk across the frozen tundra at speeds that create wind chills in double digit degrees below zero, and I say to each his own! But the fact is that when companies started producing ultra cold weather gear for the snowmobilers we motorcyclists began to think that if we donned this type of outer wear we might be able to ride our machines in something other than t-shirt weather.
So, now that we have driven my original point into the ground lets get cracking on my list of absolute essential garments and then work our way towards accessories that can be added to the motorcycle itself. First of all the helmet, now I know that this will drive the Harley riders crazy but for winter riding there is nothing better than the full coverage helmet, end of story. That same full coverage helmet that can boil your brain during the summer can also help to keep your head warm in the winter. Next is a very inexpensive accessory to the helmet called the Balaclava which is named for a homebrewed British version which was sent to the British troops during the 1854 Crimean War to protect them from the bitter cold of the winters. This seemingly insignificant piece of under helmet wear will make the difference between an invigorating winter jaunt and OMG I can't feel my chin anymore!
Next we have the all important jacket. On this front all I can say is don't pick one for color, or graphics, or name brand, pick the one that everyone says works. Personally I wear a Field Shier Jacket which is the most incredible piece of cold weather clothing that I have ever owned. At 65 MPH in 48 degree weather it is like being wrapped up in your favorite blanket at home, the wind simply does not penetrate this garment. That's the great part, the bad part is Medieval suits of armor weighed much less than this jacket, I'm not kidding, so help me if this thing weighed any more I would need a young squire to help me on with it. The list of great textile jackets and matching pants is nearly endless and varies greatly in price and features, so do your research, watch the reviews and then make your decision.
If a jacket doesn't suit your needs then maybe what you want is a one piece suit, without a doubt this is the warmest alternative, after all it started out life being called a snowmobile suit, so that ought to tell you something. I myself am the proud owner of one of the original Refrigiware one piece snow suits that dates back around 40 years and I am not kidding you when I say that I wore it just today while using my snow blower to open up my lane in our record breaking 35 inch snowfall that hit the Mid-Atlantic this week. They by the way are still in business and are still the benchmark for survival one piece suits. The advantage of a one piece is that it blocks out almost all outside air while trapping your bodies warmth inside it, the disadvantages are it's hard to put on and take off, massive in size, and will roast you if you have to stop for any reason or encounter traffic.
Gloves are my next item of apparel to be considered, and again the number of choices are mind bogleing and some careful choices have to be made as far as balancing frostbite vs safety. When it comes to warmth insulated waterproof textile gauntlet style gloves are unbeatable for keeping you in possession of all your fingers and thumbs, but they afford nowhere near the protection that leather does from accidental encounters with the road. Textile deteriorates quickly when sliding along asphalt or concrete surfaces and has even been know to heat up enough due to contact friction to partially melt and burn a riders hand. Good old venerable leather on the other hand is renowned for its ability to withstand road rash during a fall and if proper insulation is used in the gloves construction it will provide reasonable warmth down to say 55 degrees, below that it is purely up to the individual to decide how much they value their fingers and thumbs. So which do I use? Both, I go with the leather when I can and the textile when I begin to lay eggs, grow feathers, and start pecking at the ground. The last and perhaps the most important consideration for gloves is usually the one we don't think of until we go to use the motorcycle and that is, can I properly control the levers and throttle with the gloves I have chosen. It does no good to protect your hands from the cold if you crash out due to lack of control when riding.
It's time now to consider our feet. At least here we don't have to agonize over the old question of which is better, textile or leather? Leather wins hands down! Now all we have to do is choose between ugly cumbersome dedicated riding boots such as Alpinestars or some other style like cowboy, engineer, work, and hiking boots. The Sportbike or so called racing boots provide the most protection from injury that can be had, and in recent years they have also become more bearable to wear and might even do for walking as long as it's not too far, but very few of these style boots provide any winter time protection and will turn feet into ice cubes within a few miles of beginning a ride. The other group including the work and hiking boots on the other hand can be found in the insulated version and will help to keep you feet from turning blue. Best solution I have come up with is a bit expensive but does the job for me and that is to have two pairs of boots, one for summer and one for winter with the only difference being their size. The winter pair are exactly one size large than the summer ones which allows me to wear up to two pair of insulated socks when riding in sub 55 degree temperatures. This solution might not be for everyone but it works for me and a lot of my fellow riders.
The last thing I will mention is the actual motorcycle and its cold weather armor. In cold weather nothing and I repeat nothing can substitute for a well designed fairing coupled with grip and seat heater options (note that these electrics are installed by the factory and therefore designed not to set your motorcycle on fire). Nearly all the cruiser style motorcycles produced today have some sort of heat options available to the buyer which can make cold weather riding quite enjoyable, but if you are a sportbike lover, naked bike fan, or have just inherited a fortune these road warriors will probably not be appearing in your garage. There are several accessories that you might consider, the first is an accessory windscreen or windscreen extension offered by your motorcycles manufacturer. Like the droll old sex cliche, size does matter, especially when it comes to windscreen height and here like in the cliche a few inches longer can make all the difference. Accessory handguards can also be found ranging in size and cost with the cheapies costing around twenty dollars and the elite models price in the hundreds of dollars. I consider this one of the most effective accessories that you can buy. They aren't that noticeable, can come off for the warmer weather, and most importantly allow you to go with a more moderately insulated glove that will give you greater control of the levers and throttle.
Well, since I know I have bored you to tears by now I feel that I should go before you start throwing vegetables and eggs in my direction so ride safe and stay warm.
Monday, January 11, 2016
The Use of Vignette and selective forcus
Vignette and selective focus are the most overlooked and at the same time overworked software gadgets contained in the modern photographers tool box. How is this possible? Simple, most amateur photographers don't invest in a proper image editor for processing their photos so they have no idea that you can use masks and layers to create different effects on different areas of the photo. Professionals on the other hand know how to used the mask and layer tools residing in the more sophisticated software programs, they just don't know when enough is enough, your's truly being no exception. You see the use of selective vignette and focus is rather like a magic trick, if you do it correctly the audience is amazed at the result, but if your lovely young assistants foot is seen sticking out from under the table you have just made her disappear from then they are liable to assault you with vegetables and eggs. Perhaps a more appropriate description would be to quote "Mae West" a sultry movie star from the early twentieth century when she said "Too much of a good thing can be taxing." Certainly the same thing goes for photo effects, but if used judiciously selective vignette and focus can transform an ordinary photo in great photo.
In order to use these techniques you will need to know how to apply slect, mask, and layer tools in an image editing software, there are free packages available such as "Gimp" or you can purchase programs from companies like Adobe, Corel or many other fine software publishers. As I have stated numerous times before I use Corel Paintshop, and Photoshop Elements for my photo editing and that is what I will be using to demonstrate the use of the vignette, focus, and selection tool on some sample photos. This photo of a P-51 Mustang that I took during an event at a Military Aviation Museum Show in 2015 will be our Guinea Pig and should do nicely to demonstrate how selective focus can improve a photo. As you can see, everything in the photo is in relatively clear focus which makes for a nice but plain photo, but we can alter this by adding some depth of field. This is accomplished by masking off certain portions of the photo while applying effect to the non-selected portions. In order to do this we will have to use what is called a selection tool of. Each software maker has a slightly different tool and process for selecting a portion of a photo but the end result is the same, and that is we want to segregate a portion of the photo that is either to be altered or left alone while we alter some other section, this is called masking and layering.
In order to use these techniques you will need to know how to apply slect, mask, and layer tools in an image editing software, there are free packages available such as "Gimp" or you can purchase programs from companies like Adobe, Corel or many other fine software publishers. As I have stated numerous times before I use Corel Paintshop, and Photoshop Elements for my photo editing and that is what I will be using to demonstrate the use of the vignette, focus, and selection tool on some sample photos. This photo of a P-51 Mustang that I took during an event at a Military Aviation Museum Show in 2015 will be our Guinea Pig and should do nicely to demonstrate how selective focus can improve a photo. As you can see, everything in the photo is in relatively clear focus which makes for a nice but plain photo, but we can alter this by adding some depth of field. This is accomplished by masking off certain portions of the photo while applying effect to the non-selected portions. In order to do this we will have to use what is called a selection tool of. Each software maker has a slightly different tool and process for selecting a portion of a photo but the end result is the same, and that is we want to segregate a portion of the photo that is either to be altered or left alone while we alter some other section, this is called masking and layering.
As you see here in the unaltered photo the plane, trees and grass are all in focus.
We will now open the photo in our editor and use the select tool to outline the Mustang.
After we select the area to remain unaltered we open the Depth of Field effect and apply it.
While I have the plane selected I will also ad some vibrancy to the colors.
And finally, we save the finished photo and it looks like this.
The plane is now in focus and the surrounding grass and trees are slightly blurred, but there is a major flaw in the photo as it is. If you had set your SLR camera to obtain an aperture setting to blur the background while keeping your subject in focus the foreground would be in focus along with the plane, and in order to achieve that you would have to carefully plan out how and what you selected with the selection tool. In this example I wanted the entire attention of the view to be centered on the P-51 and didn't bother with maintaining the foreground focus. If wish for something more dramatic you might consider the use of the Vignette effect.
Applying the Vignette effect.
Here you see the finished effect.
So why is selective focus and vignette important to me if I when I sell my photos or videos? Let's say you take a photo of someone's birthday celebration and the photo turns out great, but the subject isn't too thrilled by part of the picture. By using the select tool to zero in on a specific area and then applying selective focus or vignette we can tweak the image so that the offensive portion of the photo is not visible. A sample of this would be the following photos of the lovely and still hot, Brooke Shields at her 50th birthday party.
Before Enhancement
After Enhancement
So, the moral of the story is, being able to offer your clients tools with which you can improve their appearance or alter the surroundings the more valuable you will become to your clients.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Is Photography Changing?
Is photography changing? Of course it is, every day little lab rats around the globe come up with more and more sophisticated gadgets for us to use when capturing an image. High end smart phones now take incredibly high resolution photographs, at the time of this writing I believe the highest pixel count award goes to the Nokia Lumia 1020 with a whopping 41 megapixel capability. That really is incredible considering my good old trusty Canon T3i only takes an 18 megapixel images and even the newest Canon model SLR only boasts 50 megapixels and costs four thousand dollars. Of course there is a caveat to all this you don't have features like optical zoom and..... what's that you say, Samsung has brought out a model called the K Zoom which has a 10X optical zoom! By gosh your right sports fans you can now have your cake (get ready for a bad pun) and talk on it too so to speak! The new K Zoom has take camera phones to the next level a slim.... well maybe not so slim, light....er, well maybe not so light, which features great battery life....okay so not so great battery life, but who cares it does have a zoom lens!
So back to the my original question, is photography changing? The answer is no. I realize, I just went through a long dull dissertation on all the changes that technology has made in photography, but, has the reason for taking photos or subject matter really changed?. Today we take pictures of what interests us and that is exactly what the early photographers did, and as far as the so called "selfies", well take a look at the early professional photographers bread and butter photos, they were portraits. The only difference is that the people who wanted a portrait of themselves before the invention of modern cameras couldn't take it themselves or they most certainly would have. Actually though there is one enormous difference between the early days of photograph and now, and that the percentage of the public that is taking photos and videos. In the mid nineteenth century the percentage of people that took photos was so minuscule that it wouldn't even qualify as a percentage. Even when Kodak brought out affordable cameras like the "Brownie" the percentage probably never exceeded single figures. Today that is all changed, every cell phone now has photo and video capabilities, and their owners are not shy about using them. Teenagers and preteens routinely take and post millions of photos each day, and some experts (that has to be taken with a grain of salt) say that over one trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 snapshots were taken in 2015. Those figures seem a bit high to me since that would mean that every individual in the world each have had to have taken 133 photographs last year. The true figure is probably substantially lower but it would still boggle the mind.
Let me give you an example of just how many people are taking photos and videos. On November 22,1963 the 35th President of the United States of America was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a motorcade. Thousands lined the streets cheering the popular president and yet there are only about ten poor quality films in existence showing the events that took place, and only one of those clearly show Kennedy being shot. If that event were to reoccur today how many high quality videos of the shooting do you think would be published on Youtube? Well, it's only a hypothetical question but I betting it would be in the hundreds. Today's TV news is filled stories that are accompanied by video footage taken with a cell phone, some of which have sparked social upheaval and rioting. The fact is that the Orwellian supposition that "Big Brother is Watching" has finally come true, only the "Big Brother" Orwell was talking about is not only the government it also is us! The truth is that unless you live in a remote or third world area you are living in a digital image fishbowl. Traffic cameras, store surveillance cameras, Helicopter News cameras, home security cameras, baby monitor cameras, dash cameras, weather cameras, and of course personal cell phone cameras. Good thing cameras don't emit X-Rays, we would all glow in the dark. It used to be that if you did something wrong or idiotic you stood a good chance that you might get away with it being unnoticed or forgotten. Not now, if it doesn't wind up on the evening news it will surely be posted to Youtube, Vimeo, or perhaps if you really did something regrettable, "Redtube."
This finally brings us to the point I have been getting around to from the beginning of this post, is your right to privacy being assaulted by the digital camera crazy public? The first amendment to the United States Constitution contained in the "Bill of Rights" states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." That seems to make it pretty clear doesn't it, the First Amendment" guarantees your right to take photos of whoever, wherever, and whatever you want, right? Wrong, the "First Amendment" guarantees your personal right to speak, or write your opinions without fear of government censure or disruption, it does not however guarantee you the right to violate someone else's right to privacy. For example just because your overweight next door neighbor chooses to do Yoga exercises in his back yard wearing only a Speedo swimsuit that does not give you the right to video him and post it on the internet, by doing so you have just violated his rights. If you do this you may be the object of a civil suit under "The Privacy Laws of the United States", more commonly know as "Tort Laws." In short, take care of what you photograph and in particular carefully evaluate the items that you might be tempted to post on the internet. For example: Recently a Kentucky man walked out into his back yard where his sixteen year old daughter was sunbathing when he observed a quad copter hovering over his property with a camera pointed at his underage daughter. After making several futile gestures towards the copter to leave the man went back into his house, came back with his shotgun and blew the $2500 plus drone out of the sky. The indignant owners of the drone promptly called the police and had the man arrested for destruction of private property feeling that their "First Amendment" rights were violated. Unfortunately for them a Kentucky Judge did not feel that way and ruled that the man had every right to shoot the drone down, citing the privacy laws as her precedent. Hard to say what the final outcome will be but it would seem that the shotgun toting father is now withing his legal right to pursue financial awards for damages caused to him and his family. Could be the $2500 drone will only be a drop in the bucket when that Kentucky dad gets through with the aerial "peeping Toms."
So I guess the moral to the story is, before you take advantage of that "hey dude, wait till you see this" moment try and use as little common sense and restraint, even if it's not in your nature.
I'm not sure about how popular the new K Zoom will be with today's consumers though, you see people who use nothing but their camera phones to take pictures (usually of themselves) aren't really interested in serious photography. The teenagers and millennial generation Smartphone uses aren't interested in creating something that will pass the test of time, it only has to last long enough to share it with fellow smartphone addicts accompanied by text messages filled with nonsensical abbreviations like "OMG, FYI, and LOL. If they don't have time to write full sentences, what would make you think they would take the time to use a proper camera with real settings to take a photo. I guess the problem is we have created a society believing that unless you pack a new experience, or sensation into every waking moment of your day you will fall behind your contemporaries. What ever the reason may be, the fact that nearly every living breathing human on the planet capable of holding a cell phone snaps images of everything from their kid's kindergarten graduation to images of a full moon, and I don't mean the astrological kind!
So back to the my original question, is photography changing? The answer is no. I realize, I just went through a long dull dissertation on all the changes that technology has made in photography, but, has the reason for taking photos or subject matter really changed?. Today we take pictures of what interests us and that is exactly what the early photographers did, and as far as the so called "selfies", well take a look at the early professional photographers bread and butter photos, they were portraits. The only difference is that the people who wanted a portrait of themselves before the invention of modern cameras couldn't take it themselves or they most certainly would have. Actually though there is one enormous difference between the early days of photograph and now, and that the percentage of the public that is taking photos and videos. In the mid nineteenth century the percentage of people that took photos was so minuscule that it wouldn't even qualify as a percentage. Even when Kodak brought out affordable cameras like the "Brownie" the percentage probably never exceeded single figures. Today that is all changed, every cell phone now has photo and video capabilities, and their owners are not shy about using them. Teenagers and preteens routinely take and post millions of photos each day, and some experts (that has to be taken with a grain of salt) say that over one trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 snapshots were taken in 2015. Those figures seem a bit high to me since that would mean that every individual in the world each have had to have taken 133 photographs last year. The true figure is probably substantially lower but it would still boggle the mind. Let me give you an example of just how many people are taking photos and videos. On November 22,1963 the 35th President of the United States of America was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a motorcade. Thousands lined the streets cheering the popular president and yet there are only about ten poor quality films in existence showing the events that took place, and only one of those clearly show Kennedy being shot. If that event were to reoccur today how many high quality videos of the shooting do you think would be published on Youtube? Well, it's only a hypothetical question but I betting it would be in the hundreds. Today's TV news is filled stories that are accompanied by video footage taken with a cell phone, some of which have sparked social upheaval and rioting. The fact is that the Orwellian supposition that "Big Brother is Watching" has finally come true, only the "Big Brother" Orwell was talking about is not only the government it also is us! The truth is that unless you live in a remote or third world area you are living in a digital image fishbowl. Traffic cameras, store surveillance cameras, Helicopter News cameras, home security cameras, baby monitor cameras, dash cameras, weather cameras, and of course personal cell phone cameras. Good thing cameras don't emit X-Rays, we would all glow in the dark. It used to be that if you did something wrong or idiotic you stood a good chance that you might get away with it being unnoticed or forgotten. Not now, if it doesn't wind up on the evening news it will surely be posted to Youtube, Vimeo, or perhaps if you really did something regrettable, "Redtube."
This finally brings us to the point I have been getting around to from the beginning of this post, is your right to privacy being assaulted by the digital camera crazy public? The first amendment to the United States Constitution contained in the "Bill of Rights" states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." That seems to make it pretty clear doesn't it, the First Amendment" guarantees your right to take photos of whoever, wherever, and whatever you want, right? Wrong, the "First Amendment" guarantees your personal right to speak, or write your opinions without fear of government censure or disruption, it does not however guarantee you the right to violate someone else's right to privacy. For example just because your overweight next door neighbor chooses to do Yoga exercises in his back yard wearing only a Speedo swimsuit that does not give you the right to video him and post it on the internet, by doing so you have just violated his rights. If you do this you may be the object of a civil suit under "The Privacy Laws of the United States", more commonly know as "Tort Laws." In short, take care of what you photograph and in particular carefully evaluate the items that you might be tempted to post on the internet. For example: Recently a Kentucky man walked out into his back yard where his sixteen year old daughter was sunbathing when he observed a quad copter hovering over his property with a camera pointed at his underage daughter. After making several futile gestures towards the copter to leave the man went back into his house, came back with his shotgun and blew the $2500 plus drone out of the sky. The indignant owners of the drone promptly called the police and had the man arrested for destruction of private property feeling that their "First Amendment" rights were violated. Unfortunately for them a Kentucky Judge did not feel that way and ruled that the man had every right to shoot the drone down, citing the privacy laws as her precedent. Hard to say what the final outcome will be but it would seem that the shotgun toting father is now withing his legal right to pursue financial awards for damages caused to him and his family. Could be the $2500 drone will only be a drop in the bucket when that Kentucky dad gets through with the aerial "peeping Toms."
So I guess the moral to the story is, before you take advantage of that "hey dude, wait till you see this" moment try and use as little common sense and restraint, even if it's not in your nature.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
The Top 5 Photos and Moving Pictures that changed the World
My number 5 pick is another motion picture and it without a doubt brought about more change at its introduction than Star Wars, Jaws, Lawrence of Arabia, or Gone with the Wind. Its name was "The Jazz Singer" and stared that multitalened singer actor "Al Jolson" who graced us with immortal ballads such as "My Mammy" all while wearing black face makeup. What's that you ask, why would I pick a movie that was obviously so poorly acted, and racially insensitive to boot? Because no matter what its faults (and there were too many to count) it holds the distinction as being the first full length motion picture featuring the addition of sound, and additionally it launched the whole era of the Hollywood Musical. Today we have digital and surround sound add to our movie watching enjoyment with companies like THX creating not just ordinary sound but a sound experience. In fact they sometimes create so much of an experience that you can't understand what the actors are saying, or the actor's voices are so low that you turn up your system sound to hear what they are saying only to have your ear drums blown out by a blast of audio fx added for effect to a scene that the drug induced director felt needed a little extra punch. A little extra punch is what I would like to give that idiot while I am desperately trying to find the down volume button on my remote while simultaneously holding both hands over my ears. But that's for another post, getting back to "The Jazz Singer" we probably can't even imagine today what impact sound had on the movies after its 1929 release. Overnight the competing studios found themselves in a very awkward position and they were hard pressed to catch up with Warner Bros. Motion Pictures who produced the film and get the credit for the first "Talkie". Billionaire (then millionaire) producer Howard Hughes had just finished an incredibly expensive silent film called "Hell's Angels" which featured complex aerial footage of recreated World War I dogfights ever attempted, along with the sultry looks of James Hall and the rugged manliness of Jean Harlow, wait maybe that was the other way around? Oh whatever! In any case when Hughes saw the Jazz Singer he calmly informed everyone involved in the movie to be back on the set bright and early Monday morning as they were going to re-shoot the entire movie with sound. Even the actors themselves were effected, staring in silent features an actor didn't need to worry about how their voice sounded they just had to know how to over act, but with the advent of sound that all changed and you had to have a voice to match your face. Years later MGM would make a musical by the name of "Singing in the Rain" which featured a story line about the transition from silent to sound films expounding on the trials and tribulations of the actors and studios. If you don't think the audio track is important, try turning the sound off during the car chase in that Steve McQueen favorite "Bullitt." I think you will realize pretty quick just how important sound is to a film, and that is why one of the worst films ever made gets my Number 5 nod and goes to "The Jazz Singer."
My number 4 selection is a news film from December 8th, 1941 documenting a speech in which the 32nd President of the United States of America Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the joint houses of Congress following the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the Pearl Harbor Naval and Army bases in Hawaii on December 7th 1941. Prior to the Japanese attack the American public had made it quite clear to Washington politicians that the people wanted no parts of another in a long line of European wars. The general feeling was that Americans had been lied to when they were told that World War I was the war that would end all wars, when less than twenty years later the nations of Europe were at one another's throats again with that old perennial favorite Germany acting as bandleader once again. The people wanted no part of this conflict and even the immensely popular President Roosevelt had trouble convincing them that it was impossible to remain on the sidelines while our friends were being slaughtered. Roosevelt had done as much as he possibly could to help the allied nations with the creation of programs like the "Lend Lease" which helped funnel war supplies and machines to nations like England and Russia but these offered modest results and were comparable to applying a band-aide to a gunshot wound. The Japanese attack changed all that overnight, and Roosevelt wasted no time on taking advantage of the public outrage over the perceived sneak attack on the fleet lying at anchor at Pearl Harbor. FDR was a masterful speaker and he may have hit his peak with this speech. It turned a once timid, pacifist nation into fire breathing industrial juggernaut intent on revenge at any cost. When Roosevelt used the phrase "yesterday December 7th 1941, a date which will live in infamy" it's hard to say if he knew just how iconic those words would become, but it was enough to convince me that it deserved the Number 4 position on my list.
The date was May 25th, 1961 and I was 12 years old when then President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke to a joint session of congress and asked them to commit seven to nine billion dollars (55 to 70 billion in today's dollars) in an attempt to put a man (hopefully breathing) on the moon, and then return him to earth (again, hopefully breathing). I remember thinking at the time, "humph!, what the heck do we need to go to the moon for, there's no water, there's no air, and there's no Dairy Queen?" That's right McDonald's fans, Ray Kroc had just bought out the McDonald brothers in 1961 and the Golden Arches were still mainly a west coast thing, Dairy Queen was the king, I mean the Queen, I mean....... oh heck, they were really big. I know that my opinion was kind of short sited and cynical but it hasn't changed much except that now I say, "go to Mars, what the heck do we need to go to Mars for, the water's frozen, the air is thin, and there's no McDonald's, happy now? I know you won't believe this but my twelve year old's opinion went unheeded and the United States embarked on what has been nicknamed "The Space Race", although truth be know it really wasn't much of a race. You see the Russians had some really good rockets, and some really good rocket scientists, but they lacked the one commodity that you really needed to get to the moon, and that was lots and lots of Rubles, but you can't fault them for not trying. Why those Russian boys launched a ton of people into space during those early days, unfortunately according to rumor most of them bit the big one which severely slowed the rush to volunteer. Then the Russians came up with a brilliant plan, sit quietly back and watch us spend a fortune trying to prove we were better than them by landing on an uninhabitable rock that held very little strategic value, while they pursued other goals. So instead they went to work on an orbital space station that really could help tip the balance of power, oh, if say they were to mount a couple nuke missiles on the cute little thing just for kicks. To our great surprise again in 1971 the Ruskies launched Salyut 1 and proceeded to give us the proverbial raspberries again! But, that's another story, so back to the race sports fans, we've just spent 8 years and a ton or two of money in order to boast "my rockets bigger than your rocket", but all that was forgotten when on July 21st, 1969 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Old Neil proved to be a pretty good writer too when as he placed his foot on the moon for the first time and uttered that unforgettable phrase, "hey this isn't the moon it's a movie set in....." Just kidding, his actual first words were "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind", confirming the reason for my number three pick for photo or videos that changed the world is Neil Armstrong saluting the American Flag.
My number 2 choice is really photos and videos of two events that have helped shape the world even though they occurred twelve thousand miles apart. One took place in post World War II Germany which following Germany's surrender had been carved up by the winners like a soup kitchen turkey. The Communists took the eastern half of Germany along with half of Berlin, while the allies got control of Western Germany and the west half of Berlin. Things were tense from the start but when West Germany began to prosper and grow while the Communist East disintegrated into poverty East Germans began a run for the west by the thousands which prompted the Communists to build a little deterent called The Berlin Wall in 1961. For 28 years the wall had served as the iconic symbol of the "Cold War" that had been waged between the Communists and Democratic nations since the end of World War II. But in the late 1980's the hard line Communist leaders left over from the war were being replaced by more moderate leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev. There were many reasons behind the change of heart over normalizing relations between the two Germanies, but it boiled down to two major factors. The world was changing at a break-neck pace and the old dodge of promising the people milk and honey times at some vague future date while they presently languished in poverty just wasn't working anymore. The global economy that was always dreamed of was becoming a reality and if you were going to compete you needed workers that weren't oppressed and depressed to produce goods. The second and probably more significant factor was the expense. East Germany and East Berlin were bogged down by that old Communist nemesis aka "lack of incentive." The motto for nearly all the Communist satellite nations had become "If I'm not going to get paid any more if I do it, and I'm not going to get paid any less if I don't do it, why would I do it" and was alive and thriving in East German. Adding heat to the pot which was already near boiling, President Ronald Reagan visited West Berlin in June of 1987 and issued a personal challenge to Mr. Gorbachev that still ranks as one of the most important political speeches ever made. So on November 9th, 1989 the East German government announced that their citizens would be allowed to travel to West Berlin and West Germany which sent tens of thousands of East Germans to action. They crowded through checkpoints and then as a sign of their new gained freedom began demolishing the wall by hand. The official demolition of the wall began on June 13th, 1990, the same year the East German state was dissolved making Germany whole again.
The second photo in this pair comes to us from that ancient Asian giant, The Peoples Republic of China, you know, the one where we get everything from now. In the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall the Chinese Government was experiencing its own problems with controlling self determination. It seems that the desire for more freedom had reared its ugly head in the world's largest Communist nation and Chinese leaders were determined to "nip it in the bud" to quote Deputy Barney Fife of Mayberry. Students and demonstrators had occupied Tienanmen Square in the heart of Beijing for nearly seven weeks following the death of Communist Party General Secretary and liberal reformer Hu Yaobang At first the government took a conciliatory approach to the demonstrations but when they began to spread to 400 other Chinese cities the government instructed the Chinese Military to disperse the demonstrators. In the insueing confrontations many Chinese civilians were killed, some say hundreds others say thousands, at any rate the Chinese Government has never released any actual figures. The morning after the military crack down a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks entered Tienanmen Square and proceeded to cross it when a lone young man (aka Tank Man) stepped out in front of the lead tank. Each time the tank made an effort to get around the young man he would again place himself in front of it. The world watched this incredible act of lone defiance holding their breath to see what the tank commander would do. Remarkably the tanks shut off their engines and the young man climbed on top the lead tank and held a conversation with the commander before getting down and blocking their way again. Two men in blue suits appeared and escorted the young man from the square and the tanks then proceeded on their way. No one knows for sure what the man's name was or what happened to him, some say he was executed, the Chinese Government says he got away. In either case the films and photos of him blocking the tank, and the thousands of East Germans tearing the Berlin Wall down by hand made 1989 the year that marked a decided softening of the grip Communist nations had on their people, and that's why the two images come in as my Number 2 entry for images that change the world.
September 11, 2011
No explanation necessary.
My number 4 selection is a news film from December 8th, 1941 documenting a speech in which the 32nd President of the United States of America Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the joint houses of Congress following the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the Pearl Harbor Naval and Army bases in Hawaii on December 7th 1941. Prior to the Japanese attack the American public had made it quite clear to Washington politicians that the people wanted no parts of another in a long line of European wars. The general feeling was that Americans had been lied to when they were told that World War I was the war that would end all wars, when less than twenty years later the nations of Europe were at one another's throats again with that old perennial favorite Germany acting as bandleader once again. The people wanted no part of this conflict and even the immensely popular President Roosevelt had trouble convincing them that it was impossible to remain on the sidelines while our friends were being slaughtered. Roosevelt had done as much as he possibly could to help the allied nations with the creation of programs like the "Lend Lease" which helped funnel war supplies and machines to nations like England and Russia but these offered modest results and were comparable to applying a band-aide to a gunshot wound. The Japanese attack changed all that overnight, and Roosevelt wasted no time on taking advantage of the public outrage over the perceived sneak attack on the fleet lying at anchor at Pearl Harbor. FDR was a masterful speaker and he may have hit his peak with this speech. It turned a once timid, pacifist nation into fire breathing industrial juggernaut intent on revenge at any cost. When Roosevelt used the phrase "yesterday December 7th 1941, a date which will live in infamy" it's hard to say if he knew just how iconic those words would become, but it was enough to convince me that it deserved the Number 4 position on my list.
The date was May 25th, 1961 and I was 12 years old when then President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke to a joint session of congress and asked them to commit seven to nine billion dollars (55 to 70 billion in today's dollars) in an attempt to put a man (hopefully breathing) on the moon, and then return him to earth (again, hopefully breathing). I remember thinking at the time, "humph!, what the heck do we need to go to the moon for, there's no water, there's no air, and there's no Dairy Queen?" That's right McDonald's fans, Ray Kroc had just bought out the McDonald brothers in 1961 and the Golden Arches were still mainly a west coast thing, Dairy Queen was the king, I mean the Queen, I mean....... oh heck, they were really big. I know that my opinion was kind of short sited and cynical but it hasn't changed much except that now I say, "go to Mars, what the heck do we need to go to Mars for, the water's frozen, the air is thin, and there's no McDonald's, happy now? I know you won't believe this but my twelve year old's opinion went unheeded and the United States embarked on what has been nicknamed "The Space Race", although truth be know it really wasn't much of a race. You see the Russians had some really good rockets, and some really good rocket scientists, but they lacked the one commodity that you really needed to get to the moon, and that was lots and lots of Rubles, but you can't fault them for not trying. Why those Russian boys launched a ton of people into space during those early days, unfortunately according to rumor most of them bit the big one which severely slowed the rush to volunteer. Then the Russians came up with a brilliant plan, sit quietly back and watch us spend a fortune trying to prove we were better than them by landing on an uninhabitable rock that held very little strategic value, while they pursued other goals. So instead they went to work on an orbital space station that really could help tip the balance of power, oh, if say they were to mount a couple nuke missiles on the cute little thing just for kicks. To our great surprise again in 1971 the Ruskies launched Salyut 1 and proceeded to give us the proverbial raspberries again! But, that's another story, so back to the race sports fans, we've just spent 8 years and a ton or two of money in order to boast "my rockets bigger than your rocket", but all that was forgotten when on July 21st, 1969 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Old Neil proved to be a pretty good writer too when as he placed his foot on the moon for the first time and uttered that unforgettable phrase, "hey this isn't the moon it's a movie set in....." Just kidding, his actual first words were "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind", confirming the reason for my number three pick for photo or videos that changed the world is Neil Armstrong saluting the American Flag.
My number 2 choice is really photos and videos of two events that have helped shape the world even though they occurred twelve thousand miles apart. One took place in post World War II Germany which following Germany's surrender had been carved up by the winners like a soup kitchen turkey. The Communists took the eastern half of Germany along with half of Berlin, while the allies got control of Western Germany and the west half of Berlin. Things were tense from the start but when West Germany began to prosper and grow while the Communist East disintegrated into poverty East Germans began a run for the west by the thousands which prompted the Communists to build a little deterent called The Berlin Wall in 1961. For 28 years the wall had served as the iconic symbol of the "Cold War" that had been waged between the Communists and Democratic nations since the end of World War II. But in the late 1980's the hard line Communist leaders left over from the war were being replaced by more moderate leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev. There were many reasons behind the change of heart over normalizing relations between the two Germanies, but it boiled down to two major factors. The world was changing at a break-neck pace and the old dodge of promising the people milk and honey times at some vague future date while they presently languished in poverty just wasn't working anymore. The global economy that was always dreamed of was becoming a reality and if you were going to compete you needed workers that weren't oppressed and depressed to produce goods. The second and probably more significant factor was the expense. East Germany and East Berlin were bogged down by that old Communist nemesis aka "lack of incentive." The motto for nearly all the Communist satellite nations had become "If I'm not going to get paid any more if I do it, and I'm not going to get paid any less if I don't do it, why would I do it" and was alive and thriving in East German. Adding heat to the pot which was already near boiling, President Ronald Reagan visited West Berlin in June of 1987 and issued a personal challenge to Mr. Gorbachev that still ranks as one of the most important political speeches ever made. So on November 9th, 1989 the East German government announced that their citizens would be allowed to travel to West Berlin and West Germany which sent tens of thousands of East Germans to action. They crowded through checkpoints and then as a sign of their new gained freedom began demolishing the wall by hand. The official demolition of the wall began on June 13th, 1990, the same year the East German state was dissolved making Germany whole again.
The second photo in this pair comes to us from that ancient Asian giant, The Peoples Republic of China, you know, the one where we get everything from now. In the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall the Chinese Government was experiencing its own problems with controlling self determination. It seems that the desire for more freedom had reared its ugly head in the world's largest Communist nation and Chinese leaders were determined to "nip it in the bud" to quote Deputy Barney Fife of Mayberry. Students and demonstrators had occupied Tienanmen Square in the heart of Beijing for nearly seven weeks following the death of Communist Party General Secretary and liberal reformer Hu Yaobang At first the government took a conciliatory approach to the demonstrations but when they began to spread to 400 other Chinese cities the government instructed the Chinese Military to disperse the demonstrators. In the insueing confrontations many Chinese civilians were killed, some say hundreds others say thousands, at any rate the Chinese Government has never released any actual figures. The morning after the military crack down a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks entered Tienanmen Square and proceeded to cross it when a lone young man (aka Tank Man) stepped out in front of the lead tank. Each time the tank made an effort to get around the young man he would again place himself in front of it. The world watched this incredible act of lone defiance holding their breath to see what the tank commander would do. Remarkably the tanks shut off their engines and the young man climbed on top the lead tank and held a conversation with the commander before getting down and blocking their way again. Two men in blue suits appeared and escorted the young man from the square and the tanks then proceeded on their way. No one knows for sure what the man's name was or what happened to him, some say he was executed, the Chinese Government says he got away. In either case the films and photos of him blocking the tank, and the thousands of East Germans tearing the Berlin Wall down by hand made 1989 the year that marked a decided softening of the grip Communist nations had on their people, and that's why the two images come in as my Number 2 entry for images that change the world.
September 11, 2011
No explanation necessary.
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