mjh's blog

Mom

My Mom hated having pictures taken of her. Despite that, she gave cameras to people who would inevitably train them on her from time to time.

I don’t believe in an immortal soul – when you’re dead, you’re dead. (If I’m wrong, I owe you a coke.) Still, I marvel at the immortality in photographs. Yes, she lives in my memory, her voice in my head and, sometimes, coming out of my mouth, but here she is caught once so lively.

A remembrance on the 25th anniversary of her death.

My Mom 12 photos

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Counter-attack

Every time a Republican brays “Benghazi!”, say “Iraq Invasion. Afghanistan invasion. Economic collapse.” They’ll NEVER get that message, but everyone else will.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Photographs of American Robins

I consider myself a nature photographer, including wild landscapes, wildlife, and plants. In town, I particularly enjoy birds and one of my favorite birds is the American Robin. Here are a couple shots plus links to more.

Few birds relish a bath the way robins do. I’ve seen them slosh water out of the bath with their joyous flitting, take off, then return for more. One time we had 4 robins at the bath at once.

More photos

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Poetry and photography

Speaking of me, you may have noticed my twin interests: photography and poetry. I think of them separately, but both are creative expressions or the Universe talking back to itself visually versus verbally. I hesitate to bring the two together in the most obvious way, which would be to associate a poem and a photo. Foremost, there is "the thing not named," a concept I get from Willa Cather, although it is older and widely practiced. I have felt that if one *needed* to explain a poem, something went wrong (possibly in the reader’s head, not mine). The urge to explain is strong in me and all of my poems arise in a context that I could document and my 3 readers might even enjoy that.

I’m certain a poem and a photo could work together, but I’m reluctant to yoke the two together, to require you to see what I see in a poem or hear what I hear in a photo. I don’t even want to do that to myself, let alone to you, Dear Reader.

However, some things go together like [insert one thing] and [insert something that goes with that]. For example,

Of course, over a period of 30 years, I’ve taken a lot of photos of Merri, any one of which might work as well here. And, she figures into more than one poem. But these two are a good fit, you have to admit.

Likewise, the pairing of my preaching raven with Wind Makes Crazy.

Poetry and photography are always on my mind, but in particular, I’ve wanted for quite a while to produce a book of either or both. Maybe someday.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Please to meet you, won’t you guess my name?

And I thought New Zealand is such a cool country. Imagine requiring government permission for a name? Granted, anyone who names their kid * or /.. is just asking for trouble, but let them do it. peace, mark JUSTICE hinton [a tip of the bowler to StEvE Lucifer 0^Neill+.]

New Zealand’s List of Banned Baby Names Gets Updated | TIME.com By Erica Ho May 02, 2013

The name Justice was rejected the most — a whopping 62 times, CNN reports. …

Eight parents wanted to insert backslashes into their children’s first names, while four wanted to put brackets around their middle names. Not to mention that the government has already rejected Lucifer at least six times.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/02/new-zealand-updates-banned-baby-names-list/#ixzz2SXBumflp

New Zealand’s List of Banned Baby Names Gets Updated | TIME.com

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Cinco de Photomayo

Hey, if I can’t be self-indulgent on my own blog, where can I? In May of 2010, I aspired to post a photography-related item every day. I called the project Photomayo, even if that only means something to me. I stumbled almost immediately that year, but have attempted to do better since. Today, I’m declaring Cinco de Photomayo and inviting you to explore any (or all — hah!) of these topics from prior years:

• photomayo Mon 05/03/10
• Hiatus (photomayo) Mon 05/10/10
• My Favorite Memory of the Bush Administration (photomayo) Fri 05/14/10
• Florida 2010 Mon 05/31/10
• Photos by mjh Sun 05/01/11
• The Catalyst Mon 05/02/11
• Life Glows Tue 05/03/11
• Other Photographers Wed 05/04/11
• Be Ready for Good Luck Thu 05/05/11
• Bokeh and DOF Fri 05/06/11
• Digiscopy Sat 05/07/11
• Panoramas Mon 05/09/11
• How Much Excess is Enough? Tue 05/10/11
• Snapshot Memories Wed 05/11/11
• Your Subject is One You Never Tire Of Thu 05/12/11
• Photojournalism Fri 05/13/11
• Abstracts Sat 05/14/11
• Shooting the Moon (Tonight!) Mon 05/16/11
• ISO Tue 05/17/11
• Backlighting Wed 05/18/11
• Portraits of MJH Thu 05/19/11
• Where’s Waldo? Fri 05/20/11
• Macros Sat 05/21/11
• Remembering My Dad Mon 05/30/11
• Our Anniversary Mon 05/28/12
• Ann’s New Mexico Trip Wed 05/30/12
• my most interesting photos according to flickr Wed 05/01/13

Please come back to see what happens next. peace, mjh

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

What’s your orientation? (photographically)

Most of the time, we hold our cameras horizontally, creating an image that is wider than it is high. Anytime, you can turn your camera 90 degrees for a vertical shot. Which is better? It depends …

Either of these photos could be called a landscape or a portrait, as far as the subject is concerned. But the orientation has some impact on the resulting photo. Don’t hesitate to experiment and compare the results.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...