News and History

Posted on 29 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

This week Twitter brought me the horrific news (and video if I had wanted it, which I did not) of Russian guards castrating a Ukrainian Army officer and prisoner of war before murdering him via a bullet to the head. While I allow for the fog of war and the power of propaganda, this story seems to be true. Indeed, some say this event was not a one-of, but just the first to have a widely circulated video.

News like this could make anyone despair of humanity altogether. I am tempted to weep. I am tempted to go spit on the Russian embassy. I am tempted to turn away from the news. How can I stand to even hear about such atrocities? How can any of us?

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Feeling Clearly, Through History | Tagged | 18 Comments

Shot by Shot

Posted on 22 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

“Shot by shot it looks great,” Avakian [film editor] reported to Evans [head of production, Paramount Pictures]. “Kubrick couldn’t get better performances, but it cuts together like a Chinese jigsaw puzzle. We spent two days in the restaurant with Pacino, Sterling Hayden, and Al Lettieri. Each take was great, but nothing matches. The [expletive deleted] [Coppola, the movie’s director] doesn’t know what continuity means.” [emphasis added]
– Fifty Years of The Godfather

Ooh, Mr. Kah-tuh, Mr. Kah-tuh!  *I* know what continuity means, but I’m lousy at definitions so let’s go with Merriam Webster again.

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Posted in Mortality, New Perspectives, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Whaddya See?

Posted on 16 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

Write what you know.

What does Google turn up for this sentence? Various attributions — Twain and Hemingway most frequently — none of them validated. Various takes on its meaning. Various opinions on whether it’s good or terrible advice for would-be writers.

Inexplicably, what doesn’t turn up — unless it’s several pages down — is my memory of a mid-term exam in political philosophy a lifetime ago. Nor does any discussion of how this advice relates to photography, likely because it hasn’t been written yet. Let’s rectify that now.

The place? Prescott ON.

The scene? The St. Lawrence riverfront.

The day? Gray.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Thinking Broadly | Tagged | 22 Comments

Airborne 1b

Posted on 15 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

air•borne (adjective)

1 : done or being in the air : being off the ground: such as

      1. carried through the air (as by an aircraft)
      2. supported especially by aerodynamic forces or propelled through the air by force  // a plane becoming airborne
      3. transported or carried by the air  // airborne allergens

2 : trained for deployment by air and especially by parachute   // airborne troops

We’ve all had enough of airborne 1c lately, at least with respect to viruses, so today, thanks to Merriam Webster, let’s talk about another kind of airborne: supported especially by aerodynamic forces.

In this category, the Big Guy notices aircraft; I notice dragonflies and birds. A trip to White Lake last weekend offered all three but I only got photos of the latter two. That was enough.

Dragonflies are close to hand, but a little skittish. Identifying them is not my long suit.

Possibly a female Canada Darner.

Possibly a Widow Skimmer.

By contrast, ospreys hang out for long periods in huge messy conglomerations of branches at the tippy-top of tall conifers (Look waaay up!) on uninhabited shorelines, accessible only by boat. A gently rocking boat. So, although they stick around for longer than the dragonflies, they present their own photographic challenges.

Definitely two osprey.

The sitting-in-the-deep-nest part isn’t particularly striking but the getting-into-the-nest part can be spectacular, as the osprey transitions from being airborne 1b to being tippy-top-tree-borne. Merriam Webster is silent on this latter adjective but you get the idea.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Fauna | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Dwarf-planet Gazing

Posted on 06 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

As you’ll see in the side notes, on Jul 12 we will see pictures from the new Webb Space Telescope for the first time. I respectfully suggest we haven’t dealt yet with the archive of data we have from earlier telescopes . . . and I think it matters.

Let me explain. In 2016, NASA published this video showing images of Pluto.Their website waxes eloquent about the former ninth planet.

Pluto – which is smaller than Earth’s Moon – has a heart-shaped glacier that’s the size of Texas and Oklahoma. This fascinating world has blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows – but the snow is red.

This week I saw this colour-enhanced photo.

Before we do *anything* else, and dwarf planet or no, I think we need an answer to this question: WHO MADE THAT FOOTPRINT?

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Through Space | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Cloud Face

Posted on 04 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

This isn’t my photo: it was taken by Mark Gray, who lives in the town of Bonavista on the (wait for it) Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador. That puts him near  Elliston, which is home to a puffin colony for several months out of the year. Puffins!

It also puts him near some spectacular scenery where the land meets the sea and the sky.

This atmospheric piece, as it were, caught my attention not just for its moodiness but also for its devilish face.

Not jumping out at you? Try this.

My thanks to Mark for his permission to use his photo here. If you’d like to see more of his work, you can find him on Twitter at @GrayMarker99.

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Faces, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Pitter Patter

Posted on 02 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

Here we are. It’s the first day of Canada’s 156th year. Let’s celebrate! Some like to dance; some like to eat. You there in the back: You might like to do both. It’s all good.

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Posted in Feeling Clearly, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Canada Day

Posted on 01 July 2022 by Isabel Gibson

As I write this, it’s Canada Day. We’re 155 years old.

I think I had 155 photos to choose from . . . You’ll be glad to know I didn’t use them all.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Event Videos, Nature Videos, Travel Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

What Goes Around

Posted on 25 June 2022 by Isabel Gibson

What goes around comes around, they say, and that’s at least as true on social media as anywhere else in life.

Two weeks ago I replied to a photo of a Newfoundland puffin with one of my own from the Shetlands — and just thinking about being able to “reply” to a photo with another photo makes me smile — and suddenly my Twitter feed was full of puffin photos (even a Welsh one) posted in response to mine. And that made me smile, too.

Last week I cited James Garner as an example of an actor who seemed to wear a role as a second skin, and suddenly my Twitter feed was full of nostalgic posts/photos by Garner’s daughter and his fans. OK, OK, I smiled again.

Contrariwise, when I retweeted a cranky-but-fair op-ed assessment of a given politician’s failings, the blasts came from both sides. Apparently my retweet of a thoughtful and carefully worded critique was UNACCEPTABLE for, simultaneously, going WAY too far and not going ANYWHERE NEAR far enough. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I admit that I can’t recover my exact state of mind when I hit “retweet” on the political commentary, but I know my current state of mind exactly and it is this: The world has a surfeit of anger. I likely can’t keep it from coming around, but I can refuse to send it out in the first place.

If cranky generates outrage, and cute puffins generate . . . more cuteness, then I’m in. Like, with the puffins I mean.

And James Garner. He was pretty cute, too.

Posted in Thinking Broadly, Wired | Tagged , , | 8 Comments