Photography & Politics 101

Small Lake Michigan bay and Canada Geese at sunrise.  Shots like this are always nice and they are also easy.  Photography 101.  This image is a wide-angle shot (about 40mm) and I used manual spot metering, taking my reading from the brighter clouds.  That is the mid-toned section of the image.  That left me with a picture basically as my eyes saw it.

Late afternoon shadows in the desert.   When shadows in a photo fall across areas that we feel the need to see, they can ruin an image.  They can however, add drama and sometimes mystery to a scene.  In this case they took a rather ordinary scene of the Sonoran Desert and made it more interesting.  The sunlit cactus pop out and separate from the shadowy area.

Pop and the kid.  This pair of pronghorns is likely the father on the left and one of his offspring.  They watched the distant horizon intently.  There was supposedly a wolf pack in this area of Yellowstone N.P. just a short time earlier.  A good enough reason to be wary.

This was one of three coyotes that my pal Ron and I saw in about an hour in Yellowstone N.P.  This was the most cooperative and it was a good time watching him hunt.  An unsuccessful hunt I must say.

We found this yearling moose near The Grand Tetons of Wyoming.  Mom was just out of camera range.

This small image of a moment in the life of a portion of a waterfall was made a long way from my Wisconsin home.  This is in the Northern Cascade Mountains of Washington State.  No I did not travel that far to make an image like this.  No matter where I am I always keep my mind open to any subject, be it big or small.

The Grand Tetons at Oxbow Bend, Wyoming.

This is the landscape location that I have worked the most.  The Badlands of South Dakota.  Many photographers who work this national park don’t return because they feel that there are not enough different ways to photographically view the Badlands.  I believe there is no end to the varied ways one can photograph this “gateway to the west”.

No matter where in the world you live, there are unique and interesting landscapes waiting for you.  They wait for us not only in the parks and refuges but along the trails and even the public roads.  I made our next image near dusk when I stopped my car and looked down to see this northeast valley in Utah.

Next to nature my favorite photographic subject is historic architecture.  There are many wonderful historic sites and parks waiting for interested photographers.  The above example of a roadside landscape is also true of old rustic buildings.  Our final image was found along a deserted road in New Mexico.  This long abandon adobe ranch house and wind mill made for a great scene in the desert.   The mountains in the background added frosting to the cake.

Thanks to one of you who reads this blog, I did find out that some of what I took for hacking on Facebook was in fact a news feed by the Facebook people themselves.  I have no idea how they targeted me for that feed, but they were that of political action groups of both the left and the right.  The bad news is that I am still being hacked.  Someone actually loaded an image into the area where we keep our profile pictures.  I am talking about our personal and secure area where we load and change those profile pictures.  That picture (of a woman) then went out as being my profile picture and was tagged as such.  That post was actually a link to a video.  I did not click the link as it appeared to be a porn site.

When you write comments as I do that criticize both sides of a political argument I am well aware, and in fact I expect to raise the hackles of both sides.   That is in fact the reason I write it.  Who it is that attacks me does however bring to light who carries the most, notice I only say the most, hate.  In a world of political liars it also shows which side will lie first and the loudest.  As you may expect it is the side that cries the loudest, and expects the most.  The champions of “group think”.

Having written the above I am quite sure I have aggravated both sides once again.  I wonder which side will attack me and lie about me?

My thoughts (today) on this subject.  I am now speaking specifically about a fight that is occurring in my original home state of Wisconsin.  It is easy for me (easier than most) to find fault with both sides of a political argument.  My father raised me to be cynical about politics of all kinds.  Way back in the 1960s he sat down and showed me why (way back then),  political ads from both parties were in fact each filled with lies.  He and my  mother were government workers and members of the state public employees union.  My mother worked at a now closed county hospital and my father worked in the public school system.  It is not difficult to understand where my father stood on many issues.  He also always taught me to think for myself.  To think “outside of the box”.  My family was always happy that my blue-collar parents were able to raise my sister and I at a life style level,  that was a bit higher than my blue-collar friends whose parents worked in the private sector for a smaller benefits package.  He also never shirked his responsibility to teach who paid for that and how.  About the quite often criminal types that were involved with both political parties and the unions.  He also taught me to take care of myself, but to care about my country and to put that first whenever I could.  I want to thank him now for helping me to view both sides of an issue.  For the few of you who do not know me and are curious about my background……I have been both a blue-collar and white-collar (mostly blue)worker in my lifetime.  I have been a boss and a regular worker (mostly a worker).  I have been a member of the AIW Union and also the Teamsters three times.  The final time for the Teamsters was in the early 2000s and I helped bring that union to Jays Foods in Milwaukee, WI.  I believe it was the right thing to do.  One year later as the union came up for review, I helped remove that same union.  It was also in my opinion the  right thing to do.

On the national (U.S.) scale let us ask ourselves a question.  If tomorrow the Democrats and the Republicans made an honest change of issues.  I mean if they both completely swapped issues, would all of you Democrats and Republicans change your allegiance.  You would.  Right?  I mean if your current party represents what you believe in, and now the other party represents that point of view,  you will avidly support the other party.  Right? Some people would and many will say that they would but most would continue to support the party they have always supported.  They would support all of those things that they have claimed not to believe in.   Do you know how I know this?  Because if you really look, this happens every day.  Environmental groups never give credit for good things, and yes there are good things that Republicans do during their time on top.  They also never directly criticize Democrats for the bad things that happen during their term.  That is because picking a side, hating one side and supporting the other is more important than the actual issues that they say they support.  When Republicans are in power and support a tax increase (yes they have) in the end they will be supported by the same people.  When Democrats support a tax decrease you will never show them your support.  The need to support your team is strong but this is life, not a game.  It seems that hate rules over beliefs and issues.

Everyone has friends and family members that are on “the other side”.  People that we like and love.  The simple disagreement is okay and can even be a good thing.  If you hate the other side ( for those who will admit it), you hate your friends and family members.  I mean really, who do you think the other side is?

No matter what pops up on some forced news-feed or might be hacked into my comments, I do not make political statements or support political groups on Facebook or Twitter.  I will remain respectful that many of my friends may not agree with one side or the other and may in fact just be sick and tired of the arguments.  Blogs like this one are completely free and it allows people just like you and I to comment at our hearts content in a format where all are free to view those coments or not to view them as we see fit.

So for those 2 or 3 of you out there that are offended by my opinions, you may continue to hack my internet presence, attack me personally, and above all continue your life of being ruled by “the group”.  Of course group thinkers never really think they are. For all of the rest of you let us continue at least for a few weeks to explore the natural world ( I am also an environmentalist) and have great fun with nature photography.