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gorgeous bubbles, and healthy SCOBYs!
PLEASE NOTE: I have never made kombucha before, and honestly, I don't know what I'm doing, other than trying to follow the instructions that were included with my starter kit. So I'm not offering instructions on HOW to brew kombucha, but simply illustrating how I attempted to brew kombucha this time.
First, I gathered my supplies. . . .
Bottles, sanitized and caps attached (once my daughter showed me how they go on the bottles. duh.)
Then, I prepped the fruit and flavorings I wanted to add to the bottles. . . .
lemon zest and juice, chopped granny smith apples sprinkled with
cinnamon and nutmeg, chopped strawberries, grated ginger root
I'm second-guessing my decision to include cinnamon, because (in bread making, anyway) it's not very compatible with yeast (which is contained in the kombucha tea.) I can't believe I had forgotten that! GRRRR. I wonder if the cinnamon will negatively impact the batch?!? Anyone know?
Fill 'er up. . . .
I added about 2 tsp of fruit, juice and/or zest to each bottle.
Then, I filled each bottle with the kombucha tea, leaving less than an inch of head space.
And now we wait. . . .
I placed the capped bottles in a box while they ferment a few more days. I'm INCREDIBLY afraid of bottles exploding, so I figured a box might minimize the mess and hazard should it happen. (And give me some peace of mind.) I placed the box on the fridge, for warmth from the fridge, and it's also right below our heater vent (to keep it warmer at night.)
I'll burp them daily, and in a few days, I'll place them in the fridge to slow the carbonation / fermentation.
Starting batch #2. . . .
Following the Kombucha Kamp directions, I made another batch of sweet tea, and added it to the vessel with some leftover kombucha tea and the 3 SCOBYs.
brew a tea concentrate
add sugar
add more purified water; cool.
add to the vessel with the SCOBYs
And start the process all over again! I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Other stuff. . . .
I hope you had an amazing Easter, and are enjoying this Easter season! (It's FIFTY days long!) We had a lovely day... loud and crazy and fun. Typical. :)
I haven't been sewing much, as we're focusing on school a lot these days. I'm trying to figure out the ever-elusive work / school / home balance.
I still haven't found it.
Talk to you soon! :)


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Tagged: Model
24th January 2019 – Paul Walker, Model.
The other end of the lens this week, with a presentation by Paul Walker, who has been a model at the club on several occasions, and his experiences as a model over the last five years. Paul has gathered about 20,000 images over that time from the photographers he has worked with, including present and former members of the club and his is an interesting perspective.
From the off Paul framed his presentation within the context of mutual collaboration, certainly within the idea put forward here before (it escapes my memory by whom, unfortunately) that we do not take someone's photograph, they give us their photograph, or as Jean-Luc Godard put it "When you photograph a face …. you photograph the soul behind it".
It may not be a scientific fact, but after a while of taking pictures of people, there are certainly those who the camera takes to more than others. In part that is to do with symmetry and features but it is mainly about the connection either side of the film plane. Paul talked about the photograph as a collaboration, having an idea and communicating it.
Certainly, there are two people in every photograph (at least) the subject and the viewer and it is the viewer that we work to engage. We, the photographers, are the unseen intermediaries, we are the mentors and the coaches as much as the producers and directors, we take and shape the light, we work with the subject to make the image.
"If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument." – Eve Arnold.
But the emotion, the feelings, the communication all comes from the subject. It is their story, we merely light and frame and take the image, a little slice of time and circumstance that never happened before or since and being unique to that time, but we need to do it empathetically.
Of course, there are the techniques of lighting and posing and exposure to apply but Paul's commentary on his favourite shots underlined photographer David Alan Harvey's advice "Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like," and that has to come from both sides of the lens coming together.
Certainly, there are differences in posing men, posing women, posing children, and using natural or artificial light and any number of different styles (High Key, Low Key, Noir, to name but three). Small differences between shots are worth recording and studying. And discussing with our model. Let's face it, an experienced model probably has more experience of doing these things than we do and though they may not be au fait with the technical side of the camera they know about how to work with light from their end.
And if it is all about communication then there needs to be a dialog of some sorts, allowing photographer and model to play to our strengths. To do that we need to be mindful of the atmosphere we are in and the one we are trying to create – pointless in being somber and funereal when trying to create a party atmosphere and vice versa, pointless not shooting what it feels like but shooting what we think it looks like. And always be polite. Be respectful.
And yes, it helps enormously if both sides have an idea of what point we are trying to get to, so time spent in reconnaissance, as Napoleon Bonaparte was apt to say, is never wasted. And it is better to stay positive when things aren't going to plan, doom and gloom will kill the vibe and as the photographer, we are the key to keeping the momentum going.
It is a collaboration and our thanks to Paul for providing an informative and stimulating evening in giving the far side of the lense's perspective.
November 15th 2018 – Shooting with Models
A practical in three parts using local models Ashley Claire, Steph Kiddle and Paul Walker, who were brilliant (as usual) and four lighting stations (the fourth being occupied by a mannequin's head) run by club members, Richard Clayton, Steve Dyer, Gerry Painter and Myk Garton.
Again, I am glad to report, there was much discussion and sharing of knowledge and practice between members and it just underlines the wide range of experience there is in the club and a shared willingness to develop as photographers together.
Using lights/flash/combination thereof we can, as was amply illustrated, create a wide range of lighting effects. All are about the light, of course and when we say light we also mean shadow. In fact without at least a hint of shadow we aren't going to have an image. There has to be a minimum of contrast.
There are two sorts of contrast, colour and tonal. Colour contrast (a.k.a. luminance or luminance contrast) is the difference in the colour and brightness of the object and other objects within the same field of view (or frame). Tonal contrast is created when light tones and dark tones lie alongside each other.
This weeks blog is going to concentrate on tonal contrast, easiest when referring to monochrome, more specifically black and white (there are other colour combinations, for example cyanotypes). Luckily there was a station using Film Noir as its inspiration, run by Richard.
Although the noir refers to the darkness at the heart of the story line, hard contrast lighting was, in turn, at the heart of its cinema photography especially in its mood setting scenes.
Although this can be accessed using natural light, by far the best technique is to choose the background first and then place the subject in it. That applies to nearly all photographs, one way or another, but, given the inflexibility of natural daylight at any given time, it is a pretty sound rule of thumb.
And keep it simple.
But we were talking about studio (at least indoor) photography, being by far the easiest for the amateur photographer to control. It is quite straight forward but takes application to master. Like any other skill it needs to be practised.
The nature of our cameras' sensors is that, at least at the current time, they can "see" a lesser range of dark to light than can our eyes. This means that certain decisions have to be made and introduces us to a rule of thumb known as "Exposing to the right" or ETTR. It applies to monochrome and full colour. It's also a strategy known as "Protecting the highlights".
The right referred to is the right hand of an exposure histogram. Most CSC/DSLR cameras produce one of these for each shot. The right hand side plots the brightest part of the picture. If not accounted for – if the end of the graph shows a big spike – then areas of our image will be burnt out – just white with no detail.
Generally we try and avoid this by exposing for these highlights. Shadows also hold a lot of detail and it is easier to get this back into the final image than detail in the highlights. We want to try and avoid a spike (the spike is evidence of something called "Clipping") to the left too, where everything is too dark to see detail, but, normally, shadows are more forgiving.
The reason that black and white is a good way to do this is that it takes the distractions of colour out of our equation. The results are a little more obvious and black and white has an aesthetic all of its own, particularly boosting the effect of shape and line.
Metering in general tends to be something that first timers, in particular, can find a little difficult. Yes we can buy flash meters, but they are not cheap. They do make things go a little quicker. However, good old fashioned practice will soon determine what is right using test shots.
The guide number for our flash gun is the how far that unit will project light at theoretical f1.0. This will be a GN xx and is usually printed on the unit or it can be found in the handbook. It is calculated thus: Distance x Aperture = Guide Number. So my Amazon Basics flash unit has a GN of 33 (Meters) on full power. So if I want to use an aperture of f8 my optimum distance to set the flash is 4.125 meters (13 feet 6 inches) calculated GN/Aperture=Distance or 33/8=4.125.
In reality I would probably set the unit to ¼ power and put the flash between 3 and 4 foot way. It would be a start because ambient light will play a part and whether the flash gun is the soul light source (rare for me) or balancing out ambient light. Again practice is the key and this is one instance where chimping is a desirable technique. Trial and error is a good teacher.
Thus far thus technical. But, and when shooting models it is a big one, by far the most important thing it is talking to not at or down to our model. If they are experienced they probably know a lot more about this process than we do.
101 Corner
Lighting the Portrait – by Richard Clayton.
How many lights does it take to successfully light a portrait, two, three, five? In reality, it only takes one light to make a successful portrait – and the best way to start, is to learn with one light. Look at the shadows it creates, lighting a portrait is as much about shadows as it is about highlights.
Add a modifier and see how that affects the quality of the light.
So what light should we use? The answer is any light will do, from a desk lamp all the way to an expensive pro level strobe, but don't forget that abundance of free light that comes through a window.
Whatever light source we use, we can modify it in much the same way. A soft box for a strobe or some heavy net curtain for a window. Why not a soft box for a window? Well, one of the jobs of a soft box is to make a small light source bigger, with a window, we already have a large light, we just might want to diffuse it a little.
If outside, and wanting to use the free light in the sky, AKA the Sun, our best bet is to find some open shade, this will act like a large soft box in the fact that the light will be softer and less contrasty, we won't get uneven highlights and shadows on the skin.
There are many options for a single light source that will make a great portrait. Mastering one light, gives us more confidence to add another. Recreate this video, it doesn't matter what light source, and black and white is as good as colour.
8th March 2018 – Gerry Painter playing with light and dark
Our thanks to Gerry Painter for a very informative evening, using his photography to show how to play light and dark using a basic home studio. Gerry showed us how to get great results using a sound grasp of how light and flash work, and the basics of posing your subjects for effect.
And it doesn't have to demand a big budget. There are hacks you can take in order to get the look you want without, necessarily, spending a fortune. You certainly don't need a full-time studio so you can use flash for portraiture, but a studio does present the peak of the idea of a controlled photographic space. We have touched on this before this season with club member Steve Dyer when we talked about a basic off camera flash set up, and I would suggest that post is worth a re-read from the point of view of building the hardware side. It also links back to two earlier posts, one covering hard and one covering soft light modifiers.
Photographing people is, quite possibly the major part of photography. Certainly, it makes up a large, perhaps the largest, sector of the professional market. What people are paying for is not, necessarily, a straightforward record, but a record of a connection, one that brings out their personality, a fraction of a life, something which speaks of them and of the moment. Even though we live in the age of the selfie there is still a perception that there is something else to be had from the viewpoint of another.
Even so, the motivations behind the selfie, which love it or loathe it are massively the largest by number photographs posted online, 24 billion 2016 according to Google, are not so simple. The motivations for those so bent on broadcasting their lives to the point of dying of it, more people were killed taking selfies than in shark attacks that year, are not just narcissistic.
Within this huge volume, the data for Instagram alone, and what can be derived from it, is far from trivial, there are, apparently, three categories of motivations : Communication – those who want to inititiate conversation; Autobiography – those who are recording key moments in their lives, not necessarily to bait a response, but as a record they can look back on in a handy format; and the smallest of the groups, the Self publicists – those with a personal or professional need to be "out there" and recognised. "It's a different kind of photography than we've ever experienced before" (Steven Holiday, Brigham Young University) important because it is today's social history for the future. It can also prove expensive, in more ways than one.
Even so, the basic human form hasn't changed and that means there are more natural and flattering angles than others, and Gerry took us through some of the basics. First off there is not taking pictures square on, something you can sometimes get away with on male subjects, but almost never seem to work with female ones. And there is a big difference to be had through the simple expedient of shifting the by slightly putting one leg slightly forward, shifting your model's weight and causing an S-curve. Shifting the weight onto the back leg Leaning forward from the waist and raising the chin smoothes lines around the neck and invites the viewer into the picture. For effect this doesn't have to be exaggerated, indeed it can look slightly comical if it makes the model look overbalanced. This works for male and female models. As does crossing the arms, which with the other moves described, makes the body look more dynamic.
If the model is sitting then the relative height differences are going to become exaggerated and the crops tend to be much tighter. The leaning forward posture still applies otherwise the model looks like they are backing away. Elbows on knees will tilt someone forward and an accompanying tilt of the head makes things much more personable. In all cases, the eyes are the most important point of focus. If there is one other thing that is universal is the general advice that it is better to have the model angle one shoulder towards the camera.
Gerry packed a lot into one evening not least the need for a connection between the model and the photographer, especially with a model who might not be used to having his/her photograph taken. A lot of people don't like having their photograph taken. A lot of people buy a camera to make sure they are the comfortable side of the lens. Our job is to put them at their ease. This can be easier said than done and the reasons are pretty hard-wired because the thing we as photographers are looking for is the thing we as individuals do not want to give away.
Experience in other fields leads me to believe that the single biggest factor is the attitude of the photographer towards the person being photographed. Put simply, the attitude you give dictates the attitude you get back. If you are wound up and edgy guess what your model is going to pick up on? Give out a "This is going to be a nightmare" and you get a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's as much to do with what we do before we start shooting as it is during the shoot. It's about time spent introducing ourselves and what we have in store for our subject. It's about promoting the shoot as a joint project either side of the lens. It's about making being the model on a photo-shoot as something enjoyable. You only have to get part of the way to free things up.
On a slightly different note, regular club members will know that Myk Garton last year had a successful exhibition called AS I SEE IT at the Totterdown Canteen (141 Wells Rd Totterdown Bristol BS4 2BU). Myk has got the club a return gig which will be called AS WE SEE IT and photographers within the club have opted to show in the exhibition which will be in May June this year. This is a great opportunity to get and see the club in action. Opening times are 8 a.m. till 3 p.m. seven days a week, More on it as we get closer to the date.
2nd February 2017 – An evening of portraiture
Taking someone's photograph. Simple enough concept. A person, a camera, a photographer, a photograph. We might hope that the exposure is correct, the focusing correct and the person in the photograph recognisable if not by name at least as a person, as opposed to a smudge in a frame, a blur, a blot on the landscape. The technicalities don't cover that, the story, the connection between viewer and subject. It could be the technically inept smudge, barely recognisable in some anonymous background, means the world to someone, because the person it is, or was, the world to them, or a substantial part of it. The casual observer cannot tell, for each of us, regardless of connection are pulled in or gloss over the representation of the person/s in the frame according to our own lives.
So much so passport photograph. Easy enough to gloss over the stare-into-the-lens, remove-all-distractions, flat-light-hard-lit likeness used for identification, though there are simple reasons for that style in an identification document. Its value is embedded in its function. It is a statement of who we are, where we are from, rather than an expression of it. Yet it is only an issue when we lose it or use it. The photograph on our photo-id is probably far more important to us than any other in the practical sense, but among the least regarded.
Take that self same fixed-stare, clean-background, no-distractions and Rembrandt light it. In reality we are adding, rather adjusting, the full-on photo booth glare for an unequal amount of light and shadow to construct a more pleasing aesthetic (More accurately, if not so informatively, we are subtracting light, but we will let that pass). By moving the light up and to one side we get a very different story. By doing so we immediately break the rules of passport photography, we render it bureaucratically void, but we make another, aesthetic, case for that image. The strength and appeal of that case is dependent upon the viewer, their literal and psychological perspectives.
Pull back a bit. Step backwards, zoom out which ever takes your fancy. Create a little space around your subject. Yes I know what Robert Capa said, and we are still looking at a plain background and the Rembrandt light because that is where we more or less started. What can you do with that space? Space doesn't sound very productive, but handled in the right way adds to the overall balance. Essentially the way we use space in a frame is to give the subject a focus when not looking directly to the camera, so that there is enough space in the rest of the frame for the subject to look into. This helps form the question within the viewers mind as to what we cannot see what it is that takes the subjects attention. It is a well of curiosity and viewers will tend to look into the area the subject is looking into.
Space used in this way (usually asymmetrically) divides into two. The active space is the one described above. Negative space, apart from being the rest, and also being known as dead space, is what makes the subject stand out from the background but it needs to be handled carefully or it detracts from the overall image. As such this is all part of the rules of composition and the visual balance, which we last visited last two weeks ago.
Now comes the but …. Robert Capa was right. At least he was also right. Different crop, different picture, same image. Take a look at the pictures you took of Ashleigh, Becki and Keith last meeting (and thanks to you three for being such patient models). Some great one's posted by club members but not a single one that couldn't be made into one, two or three other pictures. Cropping in post is one way of doing it for sure, but changing your position, up, down, left, right, nearer, further gives you six variations of that first framing. Seven different pictures. Have a go in post. Just the cropping – at least at first, then maybe light and shadow – you will get two or three useable, different pictures out of the exercise. Then go find someone to photograph, natural lighting will do, but using those six variations to get seven pictures.
So, following the above, we have a Rembrandt lit square on image of someone in too much space. Time to move the model. Now there are posing guides and techniques – Gerry Painter did a very informative evening based on Lindsay Adler last season and Mark O'Grady and Rob Heslop did a studio lighting presentation back in November that showed a lot into a short time – aplenty on the web.
It is important to establish exactly why whoever you are taking the pictures for wants them taken. Business, fashion, blog, CV, anniversary, all have different requirements in formality and style. That really is question number one when taking portraiture – why am I taking this? Even when we are taking them on a club night for pleasure, the question is what story am I telling here? Mystery? Mirth? Sadness? Loss? Happy times? Want? Wanton? When Damien Lovegrove took a session a couple of seasons back, he was happy to show how a story colours our perception of the picture. That is what we allow others to see, no matter that their story is different.
There are certain conventions attached to certain types of portraiture which is tied up with their use. Corporate head shots is the obvious one that springs to mind. They differ from actors head shots in some small ways. Then there is the whole baby/infant/toddler/child thing. For all those expectations, indeed to meet those expectations, it is still the contact with the subject that counts.
Rule, and I do mean rule, one. Talk to your subject. Do not talk at your subject. The point is the person in the picture, not the smart-arse button operator. For sure some people have a very strong opinion of how and what should be done on both sides of the camera, however, this whole interaction is a bargain. A bargain, in the most colloquial sense, is the receipt of something that represents more than the time, effort and most frequently hard cash that we have put into something. Effort takes time and time is money if you need that squared away. It is an agreement between two or more people based around give and take and when entered into proportionally can produce something more than either party bargained for – in a good way. Good rapport is at the centre of any successful portrait session.
9th Feb 2017 19:30 – Guest Speaker: Lyn James LRPS: "People and Places".
24th November 2016 – Studio Portraiture
Two propositions to start with this week. Firstly, light travels in straight lines in a single direction until it hits a surface that changes its direction or other properties. Secondly, there are, in nature, three basic shapes: the sphere; the cube and the cylinder. Simple as that. Everything, I am reliably informed, is made up of those three shapes, and light travels in straight lines.
So to become a studio photographer: (A) Point your light at one or all of the above shapes and (B) press the shutter. And off we go. Shortest blog post ever ….
Er, no. These are three dimensional shapes and we, nearly exclusively in photography, work in a two dimensional world we spend a lot of time and more or less conscious effort to make the third dimension appear. Also this is, as was pointed out at the beginning of the evening, as much about shadow as it is light.
Surely that doesn't apply to people, though?
Yes it does. When learning lighting it is normal to start by learning to light these three basic shapes. Cones you can make out of a sheet of paper. For cubes a box will do (doesn't need to be particularly cuboid just represent a square in three dimensions, so a cereal box will do). A ball or even an egg will do for the sphere.
When you understand those and how light and shadow work on them thoroughly (many, many, many hours later) the rest is a mixture of experience, knowledge and imagination. And lighting, of course.
Starting as ever, with the rule of KISS (polite version: Keep It Short and Simple), members Rob Heslop and Mark O'Grady took us through a basic use of lights and reflector in the pursuit of some classic look portraits, not forgetting our model for the evening, Summer. Summer, her working name, was rescued from redundancy from a closing Ann Summer's shop late one Sunday evening, some seven or eight years ago and who has since been kept in a trunk by Mark. Summer, I should point out, is a mannequin. We don't say shop window dummy any more, that would just be rude. However, it is still legal to keep her in a trunk. In two parts. If Burke and Hare, sorry, Mark and Rob, are to be believed.
Yes, well, we shall move on.
This is one of those areas of photography, and there are a few, where the general mantra of practice, practice, practice, is especially pertinent. It is also one of a very few where control is total (in a studio) and thus results easily replicated. So are mistakes. It is something worth taking a little time over (and recording, see below) because there is even less excuse than usual for saying "I'll fix it in post". If you have ever tried it and wondered why it never came out right it could be that you haven't had enough practice yet. Or you're not thinking in such a way as to develop your practice. Enter the sketchbook, a pre-photography art idea that really helps individual progression. The basics are fairly straight forward and this can be a process of getting to know your kit as much as it is getting to know the techniques. I really cannot overstate how useful a sketchbook is in purposeful development.
Mark and Rob produced a set of low key portraits (members see the club Facebook Page) using first one then two lights and a reflector. The key element to remember is that an image is a balance of light and dark. Light is what we control as an input, but dark is where the story is told, rather the interplay of light and dark is where the story gets told. There is nothing in the light without shadow. No depth and without depth a flat, unflattering, uninteresting picture.
One important thing that came across was that you have to remain aware that there are two elements in the setup that are or can be mobile. The model and the equipment. Most of a shoot can be taken up just changing the lighting positions, or adding light modifiers or changing the angle the photograph is taken from and it is quite surprising how relatively minor changes can make for quite large differences. Similarly slight changes in posture can radically alter the mood of a photograph – I refer you to Gerry Painter's session last year on posing.
Ambient light is also an important factor, especially with flash. The first thing to note is that the shutter speed you are employing isn't anywhere near as important in producing the look of your final shot up to the synch speed of your camera. Flash is of very short duration, thousandths of a second, the shutter has to be fully open so that the curtains do not make shadows across the frame. This is the synchronisation speed and is mechanically limited to around 1/250th of a second. Most cameras have a synch speed of either 1/160th or 1/250th. Some top end models have electronic synch where the shutter itself is part of the sensor and electronic. The problem with this can be that it affects the image by being too quick and hence the subject hasn't been sufficiently bathed in light. The same end as with the mechanical shutter but a completely different reason – the shutter being too quick rather than too slow. Synch speed is about controlling the amount of ambient light the image contains. This is true for film or digital.
It is different with constant light, of course, where the shutter speed can be whatever is compatible with the constant provided by the exposure triangle and your processor. There are other considerations with constant light v flash, especially in a studio environment, which we don't really have space for here. Most considerations evolve around compactness, other uses and intensity of light. Layout in terms of initial cost can also be a consideration, especially for the occasional user.
All in all a very informative evening and our thanks go out to Mark and Rob.
Light painting practical.
August 2016 -New Season Approaches
Blog has taken a bit of a break these last three weeks – what do you mean you haven't noticed? – so this week is a little bit of a digest of things that have crossed my viewfinder. Over this period the club has been up to Gloucester for a very pleasant evening and a model photo-shoot around the docks, Bath for stroll around the Royal Crescent and Severn Beach for the sunset. Our thanks also to models Ashleigh Claire, Keith Bristow, Carl Hawkins and Alice Jordan for their endurance and patience at the Gloucester Docks shoot, which from Facebook seems to have generated some interesting shots. Not quite as billed (the theme was originally going to be Victorian) but it was an entertaining evening nonetheless and we had the space largely to ourselves and another photographer and model who were doing a shoot. There was also an American car meet going on and all in all it was an interesting, if slightly humid couple of hours.
But the humidity of Glos. docks was nothing compared to a windless evening in Bath, which seemed to pile heat upon heat. Severn Beach was a little more civilised even if the evening did end in rain. The fact is we don't very often get extreme weather in this part of the UK, for which we should be grateful, but still half a dozen people have lost their lives on the coasts around the UK in the last ten days or so. In fact the climate and geology of the UK is particularly stable yet still manages a huge variety of land, sea and urban views. But it's not without its dangers.
One of those is people taking exception to you taking photographs. In this country the level of paranoia around children and photography is on the increase. I met with this some years ago – taking photographs of my own children. Now I am a reasonable man but telling me (wrongly) what I can and can't do vìz a vìs the photographing of my own children in public, does rather try my patience. It always pays to be polite though and I am sure I was a lot more polite than I seem to remember being.
Scare stories are will always generate interest, trouble is when people act erroneously on them. And, of course, different countries different rules – over the weekend it has emerged that the "Burkini Beach" photographs of the armed French Police enforcing the law have led to the former Mayor threatening the prosecution of social media users sharing pictures of them doing so. Now the reasons for doing so are complicated and the reason for the Burkini ban is tied up to do with the 84 deaths on Bastille Day in the City of Nice, where the photos were taken. The point is, whatever you may think of these rules (a) ignorance is no defence and (b) your opinion of them does not change the law.
So, simply put, find out what these rules are before you take the camera out of its bag and stick with them. This Facebook Page is a good place to start.
On a more cheerful note the 2016-2017 season starts at the club on 1st September and we are kicking off with an event called my summer, where members bring in photographs they have taken over the summer and present them. That's a sort of hint.
There is a lot on the programme again this year and we urge all members to participate as widely and as often as possible – it's sort of the whole reason for the club after all. One issue that has arisen and needs addressing. The evenings where we use models on the basis that they get the images we take in return for their time do require that we honour our side of the bargain, whether we as individual photographers, think they are good enough or not. It doesn't take much time and it is only fair. We can now use the photo entry system so that can be covered among its many other attributes, I believe, as it can be set up relatively easily, so no excuses really. Give up your best three (at least) and let the model worry about whether they are good enough or not.
We are fortunate in having such an active club but we also recognise and welcome new members. There has always been someone around to answer questions and there is quite a breadth and depth across the club and members always seem happy to give freely of their time. Long may it remain so. The programme for September includes: Photo's we have taken over the summer break; Q and A session; A talk that looks distinctly chilly; and a photo mini marathon, ever popular. That is all in the next five weeks (photo-marathon and photo-marathon judging taking place in consecutive weeks).
So, what is your goal for this season? It's always a good idea to have and we learn more when we have an idea of what success looks like. It might be to get yourself off auto/programme, not actually sins in themselves but the tool is making decisions for you creatively and artistically. There will be plenty of opportunities within the club schedule to practice that and to ask people about how they do it and why they do it that way. You might want to set yourself a one a day project over 7, 28 or 365 or some other number of days. Or take on some macro or portrait projects, the point is there are lots of opportunities and there is a lot of experience in the club, you can call on. Essentially next season is what you make of it, and the club is what you make of it, the opportunities are there for the taking.
Good luck!
January 8th 2015 – On Woodland Photoshoot and Mounting Prints
Aaaaand we're back. A happy New Year to you all. Two things to write about from the club this week. The first was a model shoot at Leigh Woods with Paul Walker and Kelly Wolf Rogers, (and Allison's dogs Otis and Basil) Sunday last (4th Jan) and the second was the session on club night on the process of mounting photographs.
If nothing else, then the great outdoors in January offers inspiration, even if that inspiration is to keep moving to keep warm! In fact the weather was relatively good to the two models and dozen or so club photographers who spent an interesting and fruitful day in which the rain – if not the mud – held off. Overcast meant a fairly flat light, but that is a more of a problem when taking landscapes than details in portraiture, though keeping the grey sky out of shot (unless dramatic – or plain grey is the desired effect) certainly applies and lighting from the side and shooting when the sun is low are both possibilities, of course. What can't be escaped is that the light is both cooler and more diffuse. The former can be compensated for via the white balance control on the camera and the tonality doesn't have to be "natural" – that's an artistic decision. Of course the ideas of "warm" and "cool" are psychological responses, they have nothing to do with the physics of light, but there is no doubt that the feel of a photograph is effected by its white balance.
Diffuse light presents different challenges. There is no doubt that a controlled, soft light can be a tremendous influence in the composition and interpretation of an image, as can a harsh direct light. The key word is controlled. The chief problem, if problem it is, is the lack of shadow. Light from an undirected source (the sun) is bouncing about all over the place. On the other hand it tends to be a fairly even light, background and foreground, unmodified, tend to be bathed in the same light. This can lead to a lack of separation between foreground and background. This, in itself, suggests that there may be a fairly straightforward option available. Get in closer and open the aperture, either or both depending on the focal length of lens available and the desired composition. A 50mm prime at f5.6 close in (say 1.5 meters) gives the same depth of field as a 100mm at twice the distance (3 meters) or a 200mm from four times the distance (with an APS-C 1.5 crop censor the depth of field would be 0.16 meters from nearest to furthest and F5.6 is a reasonable-to-assume achievable aperture on lenses covering those focal lengths). You would capture an area 71 cm high by 46 cm wide in portrait mode, i.e. with the camera rotated 90 degrees so the controls are on the side rather than on the top (as it would be in landscape) and keeping the frame tight would let you concentrate on the details.
Before zoom lenses it was the photographer who moved, see last blog's Cartier-Bresson quote, something we should keep in mind. It also makes communication with your model easier if you are not having to phone in your requests for a tilt of the head or a sweep of the hair. More practically the logistics of moving angle are quickly and precisely in the hands of the photographer, leaving the fine detail adjustment, a tilt of the head, a slight angling of the body, a sweep of the hair and so on, with the model.
Flash, on or off the camera and a reflector, you know the one you didn't leave on the settee (mea culpa), can be a great boon in getting some of the light contrast back into the scene. The flash on the camera can be limited, but DSLR/SLT cameras mostly have ways of altering the power of the flash. Failing that you can diffuse the light using material in front of the on camera light source, being careful that it doesn't give you an unwanted colour cast. A Speedlight or similar is more flexible, just remember that the needs of curtain synchronisation limit the shutter speeds you have available to you. A reflector, especially a 5-in-1, can be a cheap and easy (if you have someone to hold it for you whilst you take the photograph) way of concentrating the available light onto your subject.
Using Camera RAW and post processing is another way of giving yourself options. RAW leaves all the details in whereas JPEG makes a certain amount of processing options away by making decisions about light levels etc at the image processing stage i.e. the click. Contrast, the available dynamic range that can be manipulated using RAW, is greater than in JPEG and for these reasons many people choose to shoot in RAW as default. There are interminable arguments about this, as you may have experienced and I have voiced my opinion before and regardless of format if you don't press the shutter the arguments are irrelevant and the shot is lost. Forever. There are options for editing in JPEG they just aren't as wide or flexible as in RAW. Or you can use black and white either to shoot in or post production. There are lots of options, either singly or in combination to try. So try them! There are also the creative styles that cameras, even basic ones, increasingly have built in, especially the ones where you can exhibit some fine control like saturation to experiment with too.
So your masterpiece has been captured, processed and printed and it's now ready to mount. Mounting itself can be something of an art and there are little preferences that people develop with practice. There are some choices to be made at a basic level. In terms of increasing ambition we have to decide whether our pictures are to be Card mounted (as we have to do for entering prints in the club competitions, indeed for any print competition), foam mounted or canvas mounted, aka Gallery Wraps. We can even use wood (as per canvas but with some sort of clear varnish to finish) but I prefer the more recycled approach, well we are living in the European Green Capital for 2015, after all. Card mounting is the more traditional way. For club competitions prints must be mounted on card exactly 50cms by 40cms AND a digital copy following the 1400 : 1050 width/height convention must be submitted too. Rules are to be found here. There is no doubt that the mounts have their own contribution to the aesthetic and if anyone tells you that your print has "A nice mount" and leaves it at that they are probably leaving out "Shame about the picture". Ignore them. That said the mount must complement the image not compete with it, so the most effective colours are muted and white (in various shades) and black are the most frequently found – for a reason. They are not, however the only option.
The link for Bristol Framing Supplies is http://www.bristolframingsupplies.co.uk/
Wednesday 14th 19:30
Club Battle: Bristol Photographic Society
Where: Basement, 12 West Mall, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4BH (Downstairs Door)
Description: The return match for our club battle against Bristol Photographic. This time its at their venue. Turn up and support us.
From Myk Garton:
On Sunday 1st March we are holding another Woodland Photography Day.
We'll be spending a day photographing models (both male and female) in woodland and other settings at Blaise Castle Estate.
We'll meet up at 9:30am at the main car park and start shooting by 10am. The plan is to use one location up until 12:30pm, stop for lunch and then shoot at another location until 4pm or later depending on conditions.
There will be a minimum of 2 models. one male and one female.
There will be a small charge of £10 to take part. We'll shoot for 5 hours minimum, so you'll be paying just £2 per hour. All money raised will be split between the models.
I'll be adding more info soon as well as mentioning it at club meetings. We'll work on a first come, first serve basis. If you are interested in coming along please reply below.
The date is Sunday 1st March.
Any questions, please ask Myk.
And from Eddie and Roger:
"Roger and I have volunteered (for our sins) to oversee the Reflex Camera Club entry to the WCPF Kingswood Salver Competition 2015.
The competition rules are as follows:-
Entry is five prints – colour, mono, or a mixture of both, and must be from five different photographers. Mounts to be 50cm x 40cm as per usual WCPF Rules. All elements of the work must be no more than 2 years old and not previously entered into this competition.
The ideal is that all of the images are good in their own right but must fit together as a panel of five.
Follow the links below to see examples from the 2014 competition.
Our target is to make up 3 panels of 5 with different themes and then pick the best of these to enter the competition.
To start the ball rolling we would like to ask club members to suggest themes based on what we could achieve as a club, we will then choose 3 subjects to target.
We are considering using our evening on the 26th February as a practical night when we would like to set up various still life studios (with a little help) and attempt to create a panel or two based on a theme of collectables. For this we would ask members to bring along items to photograph, more details on this to follow".

subset: commoncrawl


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Hiya Folks.. !!
I don't have much imagination - but I am very good in copying stuff. So.. in line with
What Are You Reading Now? ( Click Here for A Discussion About Books and Books.. !!)
What Are You Watching Now? ( Click Here for Movies, TV, and Beautiful People in Movies.. !)
In this thread we will discuss about our current favorite music..
What Are You Listening Now? :P :P :P
Please share your choice of listening, that captivating buzzing song in your head, that music you listen so avidly...
Any type of music is welcome. Discuss your artists, sound tracks, classicals, western/indian classical music, Pop, rock, and especially crossover Jazz... :P :P This is the thread, and lets hear from the listeners... :P :P
Have fun.. !!


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Two years ago my life was not what it is today.
School used to drive me crazy with all the classwork, homework and tests. Sometimes teachers wouldn't give much attention to me or other struggling students. School was not for me. Failing all my classes straight for two years was something I was not proud of but definitely did not care about. In my second semester of junior year I was sent to Highland Park Continuation High, where I enrolled with only my freshman credits.
I came in thinking this school was going to be the same as any other high school, but within the first few days I realized the difference. The effort all the teachers and staff put in was more than enough to say, 'Graduation for our students is our No. 1 priority.'
Once I realized my mistakes, I told myself, 'Wow, I nearly threw my whole life away.' I had so many questions – What if this? What if that? I didn't even know if I was going to get the chance to graduate. My little brother looks up to me and so knew that it was time to change – not just for me but for the people around me. With my school's help, I saw my opportunity and chance to rise day by day.
I am now a senior with 190 credits, and I am working to complete my education by December. I am looking forward to attending Los Angeles Trade Tech and studying culinary arts.
Oscar TorresSenior Highland Park Continuation High


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Maxime Nocher and Alexia Fancelli were the fastest kiteboarders at the International Kitefoil Speed 2014 competition, held in Port-Saint-Louis, in France.
Foil kiteboarding is gaining momentum, and sailors have been making experiments on the new kite class. The French event was organized by Alex Caizergues, the fastest kiteboarder on Planet Earth.
The rules were quite simple: set the fastest speed record over a 500-meter race course. Maxime Nocher reached 33.40 knots, while Alexia Fancelli accelerated to 24.52 knots to claim the Men and Women divisions, respectively.
All sailors were equipped with GPS devices. The International Kitefoil Speed promises to return in 2015, with the logistical help of the local club Delta Mistral Camargue.
The favorable winds of Southeast France are refocusing the speed sailing attentions as Namibia struggles to reconquer the world record lost to Salin-de-Giraud.


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I watch a LOT of Food Network TV. And, many times I have heard of them adding Guinness to shepherds pie, to increase its "heartiness" (as if it needs to be more hearty).
So we have this beer, a very expensive, very fine beer that we enjoyed when we bought it. But, having attempted to cellar-age this beer, it is not to fine anymore. Sorry, Goose Island, but your 2008 Bourbon County Stout tasted much better in this recipe than it did to drink! So, here is the recipe. Any good stout beer will do; however, I don't actually recommend Guinness here. In the past, we have cooked with Guinness and found the taste turned bitter when cooked.
Shepherds Pie With Stout Beer
For potato topping:
In a pot, start with:
4 large potatoes, diced (I like the peels on, but you may peel if you like)
Cover with water and about a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until fork tender.
While the potatoes are cooking, in a large saute pan, saute:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced fine
When onion becomes translucent, add:
1 pound ground beef or venison
2 teaspoons Montreal steak seasoning
Cook until meat browns. Add 3/4 cup stout beer and 1/2 cup beef stock. Cook down until liquid is almost evaporated. Put mixture in a large, deep dish pie pan. Top with 1/2 cup of frozen peas or mixed vegetables.
Potatoes should be done at this point, so drain water from them, and place them back in the pan. Add 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup milk, salt and pepper to taste, and mash until fairly smooth. Spread on top of the pie, sprinkle with paprika and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.


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Over the last few weeks I've had a number of very interesting artistic experiences, including the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, the ELISION concert 'An ocean beyond earth', and reading Jordan Lacey's Sonic Ruptures as well as Rebecca Solnitt's A Book of Migrations. These together have provoked some reflections on musical creation that I'll try to sketch out here. These is only some early thoughts and make no claim to coherence.
I think the main thing that came out of the BIFEM weekend was that I have something of a renewed interest in the concept of 'truth' or 'truths', in particular 'experiential truths'. Being a pretty big fan of the work of Alain Badiou, I've for a long time been keen on his idea of truths as creative processes that construct a new order by following a kind of logical progression from an axiomatic point of rupture with the status quo. Musically, however, for a while I have been kind of avoiding this category of truth in favour of novelty and experimentation. In the latter idea, experimentation becomes an end in itself, and the act of experimenting becomes liberating in and of itself. The argument runs something like this: the status quo imposes fairly strict ideas about what music is and could be, stultifying the development of our aural sense and the emotional and intellectual content that goes with it. But by exploring aspects of music that are hidden from or by this status quo, we expand and diversify our experiential world, and that makes us better as human beings, richer, more fulfilled, more open. The benefit of this idea is that it doesn't require any stark dualism between a false music and a true one: all musics are good, but the greater the diversity of musics experienced, the better for the human individual and their community. 'New Music' – in the sense of music that is self-consciously exploratory – simply is a particularly useful vehicle for this diversity of experiences. I recently read Jordan Lacey's book Sonic Ruptures, and I think his emphasis on the 'diversification of affect' is a good expression of this basic idea.
What I began to think though, while at BIFEM, and in particular in the discussion session 'What's Your Fetish?', was that perhaps the idea of 'truth' should not be abandoned in favour of this diversity/novelty hypothesis. I began to feel that something was lost if we drop this aspect. Without this idea of truth we can very easily get lost in a 'fetishisation of materials' (someone brought up this idea of the fetishisation of materials during the BIFEM discussion, but seemingly only to suggest that we should inject direct political or social content into our music, which I think is a somewhat simplistic solution). Because in essence, the diversification-novelty idea is a purely formal question, and does not deal with the issue of content. Forms are explored as ends in themselves, with the overall horizon being that of human development, which is in any case a purely formal conception by this stage.
This is all quite fine as a defence of new music and diverse music practices (and certainly as a defence of arts funding, since it is acceptable to a liberal discourse), but the thing I began to realise over the BIFEM weekend and the following week is that I feel experimentation should have a telos or aim. Experimentation (as in the sciences) is experimentation for something. You experiment to try to achieve a result. That this result is not fully understood or conceived before the experiment does not change the fact that something is aimed for beyond the experiment itself. Some experimentalists may be so committed to the diversity-novelty idea that there is or should no criteria for judgement of an experiment's success (which is an admirable perspective, and useful at times, but I think insufficient), but mosts artists will form a judgement about whether something 'worked' or not. It is here that the concept of truth needs to be raised, in order that the criteria for judgement of an experiment's success does not just rest with the order of things as they are.
The concept of truth that I'm toying with here therefore shares something in common with Badiou's formulation in Logics of Worlds that "there are only bodies and languages, except that there are truths." There are only criteria of judgement for music based on physiological-psychoacoustic research or based on stylistic norms (and their institutional support), except that there are experiential truths that are not sanctioned or guaranteed by these criteria. As with Badiou, obviously these truths are exceptional and not very frequent.
On the other hand I'm not using the idea of truths quite like Badiou, insofar as I'm currently not considering the truth-procedure aspect, including the evental rupture, trace, fidelity, construction of a subjective body, points, etc. On the other hand, I'm hesitant to say that the idea of truth here is one of representation or revelation, whereby an experiential truth represents in an immediate way a pre-existing, but somehow inexpressible experience, which is of course a common idea of the arts and something like a theory of catharsis. Or, shall I say for now that I think there is this aspect, where a truth is revealed, but at the same time, a truth is constructed and always something new and adds to our experience. It doesn't just represent or reveal experience, it also creates experience. It changes us as much as it reveals us to ourselves.
I guess what I'm trying to avoid here is thinking a stark division between content and form. Content in this view is not something that pre-exists form, but form viewed from the standpoint of its web of relations (resonances, metaphors) to our experiential lifeworld. (Perhaps this is what Adorno means when he speaks of 'mimetic comportment'.) Which is also to suggest that this web of relations 1) always already exists, and 2) that it is sufficiently socially stable to have something more than just 'personal truths'.
Anyway, I don't know how defensible or interesting all this is philosophically. The point is that, for an artist, experimentation is an activity whose purpose is to try to reveal-create an experience or experiential mode that neither our mere bodily tendencies nor our stylistic constructs can reveal or create. There is therefore something mystical about experiential truths, something beyond what can be rationally conceived or articulated, even if rationality plays a large part in constructing or revealing them. I guess this is the sublime aspect of art. It reminds me of that Rimbaud quote: "I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer." Which is not to say that I think we need to see 'beyond' a false reality into a 'true' one, perhaps some kind of aesthetic state allows us to experience fully the reality that is already here. "One must be as radical as reality itself"; "the Kingdom of God is the present moment".
Something like the idea I'm trying to get at is found in David Metzer's book Musical Modernism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, where he talks about 'compositional modes'. For Metzer, 20th century music is characterised by a number of different 'lines of enquiry' into some essential compositional states: purity, the fragment, modern silence, lament, etc. I take these to be experiential truths. Of course the truths are not reducible to these concepts, but the concepts provide the best method to group them and talk about them. I increasingly like this way of looking at things (as long as it plunges into the technical-formal dimension and gets past the merely impressionistic) because it avoids suggesting that there is a 'stylistic' element to truth, or talking about musical truth in the singular, or talking about it as entirely negative (truth as that absolute 'beyond' of reason). For instance, Liza Lim's music tends to reveal something about the experiential truth of tangledness, of obscurity of relations, and the occasional burst into clarity, where the clarity becomes conversely just as obscure, even more so, as the dense moments. This is some essential experience of the subject, individual or collective. This was particularly obvious in her recent How Forests Think, premiered by ELISION a few weekends ago at BIFEM. Aaron Cassidy's The Wreck of Former Boundaries, as with much of his music, was an attempt to get at some kind of truth about experiential intensity, though I'm not quite sure it succeeded.
What's clear here is that the musical structures reveal-construct truths of broader human experience by way of some formal mimesis. What exactly the dynamic is here is something to think about some more, but increasingly I don't agree that music only has 'musical truths', but that it can only partake of experiential truths – great music somehow links into, as a kind of synecdoche, our whole experiential or affective world.
At the same time, music is not capable of delivering economic or political (or scientific) truths. Music is not a means for 'consciousness raising' or agitation, but connecting with the total experiential world conditioned by these economic and political processes. This is always an obscure, irreducible relation.
It is not that music has no role in social change, though. It's just that its role is through the liberation of human affect through the construction of experiential truths. This is allied, at the horizon, with the attempt to decommodify human relations, and to build a new world. And my argument today is that, since we human beings are 'amphibious' (always both universal and particular), no fundamental social transformation will be possible on the back of reason and political struggle alone, but will need a cultural dimension that is true to its own nature.
I guess the last thing to make clear is the experimentation-liberation nexus I raised earlier. My thinking at the moment is to suggest that there is a link between experimentation, liberation, and experiential truths. Experiential truths cannot be constructed without experimentation on materials from a starting point subtracted from, or exterior to, the demands of style and what 'suits' our perceptive capacities. Likewise the inverse is the case, without an attempt to manifest some experiential truth, experimentation and material innovation lose their ontological ground.
The main consequence of this shift from the diversity-novelty idea of music to that of the revelation-construction of experiential truths is a switching of ends and means. Whereas in my research over the last year or so I have conceived of counterpoint as a means for exploring new realms of sound and performance (insofar as it allows the 'thinkability of a world'), now I think that exploring new realms of sound and performance are themselves different means to understanding the experience of simultaneity. I'm trying to find the best way to express what the experiential core of this is. I think it has something to do with the experience of the presence of heterogeneity, where one is forced to ask themselves (not necessarily consciously), "how do both of these things belong?" Obviously it isn't as simple as just putting two heterogeneous sounds together; one must have an ear for the conflicting experiential resonances of materials and also the understanding of how to explore what the identity of these differences in fact is.
One final point is that music would be one of the few artforms (along with dance, I suppose) that would be capable of presenting this experiential truth. Obviously literature and poetry can describe a state in which there is heterogeneity, but the form itself is diachronic and unilinear (one concept at a time). Painting can present simultaneous heterogeneity, but can't handle simultaneous motion. Film has a slightly greater capacity, but it is also limited to what action can be on the frame or field of vision at once.
That turned into a very large rant, and perhaps no one has made it this far. But it's been useful for me in clarifying a few thoughts, so too bad. Hopefully I'll come back an clarify this a bit more and talk about practical implications soon.


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Ron DeJoseph graduated from UNC Charlotte in 1994 with a Bachelors in Sociology. After completing his degree, Mr. DeJoseph attained a certificate in broadcasting from the Carolina School of Broadcasting. These experiences provided Mr. DeJoseph the foundation to pursue an outstanding career working for companies like ESPN and Cox Media Group. Mr. DeJoseph is currently the Promotions Manager with WSOC-TV, where he has won 10 Midsouth Emmys for his work in broadcasting. Mr. DeJoseph's job is research driven, and he notes that his Sociology Degree offered him an understanding of research that helped him feel comfortable when he began working in an environment where market research is widely used to understand people and their viewing habits.
His advice to current sociology majors: "Try everything you can in terms of your career. It's not easy when you are 21 years old to know what you want to do with your life. If you work hard, opportunities pop up when you least expect them." - Ron DeJoseph


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Jewish World Review Dec. 27, 2001 / 12 Teves, 5762
Jonah Goldberg
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- DON'T get me wrong; I'm a huge fan of Rudy Giuliani. He has been arguably the most successful and important mayor of the 20th century. What he did to make my hometown livable again cannot be praised enough. And the poise, courage and humanity he displayed in the wake of Sept. 11 established Rudy as one of the great politicians of his generation.
But come on, he was not the person of the year. Henry Luce, the founder of Time magazine, intended the "Man of the Year" (now "Person of the Year") designation to go to "the person or persons who most affected the news of our lives, for good or ill, this year."
According to this obviously unscientific standard, Giuliani doesn't even come close.
I can understand Time magazine's dilemma, though they deny, as they must, that this was a cop-out. The economy may be in recession, but for the news media it's more like a depression. Ad revenues are through the floor, competition for scarce dollars is intense.
Putting Osama bin Laden on the cover of Time as the "Person of the Year" would have had the magazine's ad reps tearing out their hair. I'm not suggesting Time Managing Editor Jim Kelly merely looked at the balance sheet and picked a feel-good winner. But in a climate of renewed patriotism, especially for a magazine based in New York City so close to Ground Zero, it's understandable that his news judgment would be a bit off-kilter.
But as a matter of hard news judgment, it seems to me bin Laden was the obvious winner -- with George W. Bush coming in a close second. Giuliani, in a sense, merely lived up to expectations while Bush far exceeded them. Bush's leadership, and the need to focus on the tasks at hand, all but buried the lingering disputes from the Florida recount for all save the most embittered partisans.
Regardless, it was bin Laden who set all of this -- and so much more -- in motion. Giuliani argues bin Laden doesn't deserve the title since the villain failed to achieve his goal.
Bin Laden had intended for the Sept. 11 attacks to sow fear and chaos in the West and a desire for a holy war. Instead, they fostered patriotic resolve among the American people and invited a swift retribution from the U.S. government, which may have resulted in bin Laden's own death. The editors of Time agree, Osama bin Laden is "too small a man to get the credit for all that has happened in America in the autumn of 2001."
To me, that sounds like anger talking. Bin Laden is hardly an insignificant figure, here or abroad, and we should not diminish his villainy by denying the magnitude of what he has done.
Even though bin Laden failed to make the changes he desired, he still managed to change the world. In a matter of months, tectonic plates of world history have lurched into an entirely new configuration. Just look around.
Whether you trust Russian President Vladimir Putin or not, it's clear the relationship between our two countries has changed drastically. The Bush administration, to its credit, understood before Sept. 11 that the Russians were no longer our chief foe or rival. But it was unclear whether the Russians actually understood it.
They understand it now. No better evidence can be found than their near total silence in response to our withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. For Putin, the "war on terrorism" is merely a useful euphemism for a war between the West and Islamic extremists to the East, with Russia on the frontlines of that war.
Additionally, the war on terrorism has awakened American citizens and policymakers alike that the Muslim world is a very real challenge to democracy and globalization. This has brought America closer to Israel -- another frontline state in the war on terror -- and it has pushed us much further away from once-close friends like Saudi Arabia, which deserves a great deal of blame for the spread of radical Islamic ideology.
Perhaps more important, bin Laden's surprise attack on America has convinced a whole generation of Americans that the best defense in foreign policy is a good offense. What constitutes a good offense is open to considerable debate -- whether, for instance, we should next set our sights on toppling Saddam Hussein. Most Americans do, though, now understand that passivity only breeds contempt and invites more such attacks.
In fact, it's hard to find a significant sphere of public life that hasn't been substantively changed because of the events orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. He may be a loser, a fiend, a fraud and a coward (much like Hitler, who was a winner of the Man of the Year award). But it's hard to say that he hasn't affected the news of our lives, for both good and ill, more than anybody


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User Reviews
View reviews where users commented on categories.Clear selections
Displaying 1 - 10 of 16 1989 Ford Ranger reviews.
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Wth — like it, it's good little truck that is easy to do a frame-off resto, if you wanted, it can also be easily converted to a flat bed, or lowered to a super stance, the conversion package to a V8 is out there and cheap compared to other small truck to big engine swaps.
Primary Use: Sport/fun (spirited driving, track racing, off-roading, etc.)
Pros: The four banger gets good mileage and the truck itself is in between the ages, meaning that it's not so old that parts are scarce and it's not so new that parts are spendy
Cons: power, and finding modifications for the engine with out having to swap a v8
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Great Work Truck — Built Strong. Great for hauling and saving gas at the same time. Great interior design. You can tow, haul or just go off road if you want. Fun truck to do whatever it is you are needing to do and more.
Primary Use: Commuting to work
Pros: The size to tow capability
Cons: Doesnt look the best
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Ford Built Quality 1 — My 1989 supercab XLT is amazing.It has 242,000 miles and still runs like a champ.The original transmission died at 200,000 miles.Body is in great shape.I would have liked a v-8 option and better gauges back then.It is an amazing little truck.I think I will own this pickup until the die I die.
Primary Use: Family transportation
Pros: 242,000 still running
Cons: I may put A V-8 in someday,but I doubt it.V-6 is still running strong.
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Great Little Truck! — Acceleration is just as you would expect from a little 4 Cylinder and so is the top speed. Build quality of the vehicle is definitely one of Fords strong points, but I will later do a front end swap over to the 1984 Ford Ranger look as well as an Interrior downgrade to the 1984 look, after all, older looks better!
Primary Use: Commuting to work
Pros: Great Gasmileage and very easy to drive
Cons: Not enough cab room
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Great For A First Car — this car has lasted me since I was 16 years old. its not fast and its not pretty but it is reliable and always gets me where I need to go. I learned how to drive a stick in this truck and have only replaced the clutch once.
Primary Use: Commuting to work
Pros: reliability
Cons: not a performance vehicle
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Also Own An F-150 And A Car, I Have No Use For This Ranger But I Like It Too Much To Get Rid Of It. — 4 cylinder or automatic trans rangers suck, but not this 2.9L V6 5-speed manual. 2WD, standard cab. The little thing will pull anything I hook to it. Last year I drove it 525 mi to Nebraska, bought my friend's 3200 lb travel trailer and towed it 525 mi home with no problems other than wind/handling issues. Engine always starts immediately even when it's been sitting in the barn for 6 months. 100k miles, everything's still tight but it rides like a lumber wagon compared to my '88 F-150 and the rear end likes to skip to the right when I hit bumps.
Primary Use: Utility (towing boats, transporting cargo, etc.)
Pros: tough little truck
Cons: volts, temp and oil pressure gauges don't work
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Great — It runs great . not super fast but it goes. it does not handle wel l. brakes work like they should.extremly fun to drive does not cost much gret gas mileage body is a little beat up. no rattles or squeaks . so its great.
Primary Use: Sport/fun (spirited driving, track racing, off-roading, etc.)
Pros: its a 4X4 so it goes almost anywhere
Cons: none its a great truck to me
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Stick Ford — My truck has good gas mileage. It runs good. The performance is good for a truck. Brakes well. handles good even on gravel. It needs new shocks. The inside is great. Needs new paint. Not expensive to drive. Depending on what type of road I am driving on, it can be very fun to drive.
Pros: Handles good, Brakes well, Inside great. Non expensive
Cons: Needs paint, small
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
Decent Pick Up — Good, basic small truck. No torque at all, no towing power, good AC, great gas mileage for a pick up. Cheap entry model vehicle. Perfect for a high school and college student (which is what I was then). Driving from Fayetteville to Jacksonville wasn't too bad in my truck. It was good to have because I was able to move all my stuff in it, like my couch and bed...
Pros: good on gas
Cons: lacked power
CarGurus https://www.cargurus.com
1989 Ford RangerReview
The Outlaw Ranger — I have owned this truck for 4 years and it has taken everything i have thrown at it and i have thrown alot at it!It has never let me down! it handles very nicely and it has a quite suprisingly a lot of get up and go!
Pros: built like a rock
Cons: a little on the small size!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 16 1989 Ford Ranger reviews.
Reviews From Other Years
2011 Ford Ranger Reviews
Overall Great Vehicle
I like the dependability of this vehicle. I purchased it because I had previously owned a 2001 Ford Ranger that lasted me 10 years 225,000 miles. The 4.0 V6 engine is very strong and the towing capaci... Read More
2011 Ford Ranger Supercab Sport
One of the main reasons I need to get rid of it is the fact that it isnt a family vehicle and I really need more space for car seats. It does not have a bed liner. It accelerates very smoothly and has... Read More
2010 Ford Ranger Reviews
Acts and drives like a small truck. Doesn't pretend to be anything other than a truck. No mushy car like ride. Provides good utility. Daily driver. Road and cabin noise is louder than normal. Fr... Read More
Great Starter Truck.
I like the small size and good fuel milage. it is easy to drive and handel, that is why is a great starter vehicle. Not enough room for many passergers. overall a good pick up truck for a young driver... Read More
2009 Ford Ranger Reviews
Great Compact Truck
Power dome hood looks great in black. 4ad is easy to operate and works great. Good hauling capacity and a reliable truck. It's my 3rd and I had 210,000 miles on the last one and it still looked grea... Read More
Good Looker
I liked the sporty look of the hood and fender flairs. The color is very pleasing as well as the interior color. The Rally Gauge Cluster gave interior a sporty look as well and was surprised that it... Read More
2008 Ford Ranger Reviews
I love this truck - it drives great, and the Grabber Orange color makes it a head-turner. It is fun to drive, and does a good job at towing. The only down-side is I wish it had "real" rear seats, rath... Read More
Great Little Truck!
very dependable,its my 3rd ranger.there tough,never had any issues with them,there great off roaders,they hauls very well for a small truck. hauls my 3 atv in my 7x14 trailer and packed for a fami... Read More
2007 Ford Ranger Reviews
Great Truck, Very Fun To Drive, And To Keep Clean (well I Enjoy It Anyways)
I love my truck what can I say... She has given me some problems but always comes out stronger in the end! She has about 65k miles in her right now and I have people come up to me ans ask if its brand... Read More
Love My Truck, The Only Thing Is That The Double Cabs Should Come Out In 3ltr As Standard Though.
Performance - acceleration - Great, braking - Needs ABS and EBS, handling - Great Build Quality - has it needed repairs? - No repairs, squeaks/rattles - None Appearance - interior - basic and functio... Read More
Cars compared to 1989 Ford Ranger
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I'm a Ubuntu noobie - but I got my laptop dual-booted with XP and Ubuntu 11.04, with all updates installed.
I have a Dell Inspiron 5160 with an XGI Volari XP5 video card. It supports 640x480 - 32/16/8 bit color, 800x600 - 32/16/8 bit color, and 1024x768 - 32/16/8 bit color.
I'm pretty sure this is an unsupported chipset for Linux. But, the low-graphics mode works fine when I boot in recovery mode.
How can I set this as my standard video configuration?


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Dog-walkers in North Kirklees are being asked to clean up after their pets after junior sports pitches and graveyards were among the grounds plagued by dog mess in recent weeks.
The training session of youngsters representing the Shaw Cross u14 girls rugby league team was delayed earlier this month as coaches picked up no fewer than 14 separate bags of the filth on council-owned fields off Leeds Road, near Bywell Junior School.
And St Peter's Church in Birstall has had to erect new signage asking owners to keep their dogs on a lead after volunteers had to clean dog mess found on graves in its grounds.
"It's pretty disgusting," said Andrew Fawkes, coach of the Shaw Cross side, "we had to ask the girls to walk around the pitch and put a cone down over any mess.
"And then I had to go around picking it all up. We had to stop training for about 15 minutes all-in. And it's not the ifrst time it has happened.
"We're sick of it. It could be very dangerous if onw of the girls was to fall in it. People need to wake up to this and take responsibility."
A Kirklees Council spokesperson said: "If a dog fouls while being walked, the dog owner or person in charge should clean up immediately.
"Many public areas in Kirklees have Dog control Public Space Protection Orders which designate them as poop scoop areas.
"If you don't clean up after your dog in these areas you can be issued with a fixed penalty notice, or prosecuted in the Magistrates Court where a fine of up to £1,000 can be made.
"If a council officer sees anyone breaking the law we will take action."
Any dog fouling can be reported to the council via an online form on their website at www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/animals/dog-fouling.


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This health survey of almost 14 000 adults looked at measures of lifestyle and mental well-being. Not surprisingly, higher vegetable and fruit intake was strongly associated with better mental health. Imagine that — the brain prefers to be well nourished!
Major health-related behaviours and mental well-being in the general population: the Health Survey for England. Stranges S, Samaraweera PC, Taggart F, Kandala NB, Stewart-Brown S. BMJ Open. 2014 Sep 19;4(9):e005878. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005878.
BACKGROUND: Major behavioural risk factors are known to adversely affect health outcomes and be strongly associated with mental illness. However, little is known about the association of these risk factors with mental well-being in the general population. We sought to examine behavioural correlates of high and low mental well-being in the Health Survey for England.
METHODS: Participants were 13 983 adults, aged 16 years and older (56% females), with valid responses for the combined 2010 and 2011 surveys. Mental well-being was assessed using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). ORs of low and high mental well-being, compared to the middle-range category, were estimated for body mass index (BMI), smoking, drinking habits, and fruit and vegetable intake.
RESULTS: ORs for low mental well-being were increased in obese individuals (up to 1.72, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.36 in BMI 40+ kg/m(2)). They increased in a linear fashion with increasing smoking (up to 1.98, 95% CI 1.55 to 2.53, >20 cigarettes/day) and with decreasing fruit and vegetable intake (up to 1.53, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.90, <1 portion/day); whereas ORs were reduced for sensible alcohol intake (0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.91, ≤4 units/day in men, ≤3 units/day in women). ORs for high mental well-being were not correlated with categories of BMI or alcohol intake. ORs were reduced among ex-smokers (0.81, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.92), as well as with lower fruit and vegetable intake (up to 0.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.92, 1 to <3 portions/day).
CONCLUSIONS: Along with smoking, fruit and vegetable consumption was the health-related behaviour most consistently associated with mental well-being in both sexes. Alcohol intake and obesity were associated with low, but not high mental well-being.


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The "Harry Potter" movies are history, and the stars of those films are branching out into other roles and other genres. One of those movies will be shown in a one-time-only screening on Saturday, Jan. 16, at Real Art Ways in Hartford.
"Moonwalkers" is an action-comedy about an unstable CIA agent (Ron Perlman) who, after failing one mission, is forced to team up with a low-life rock manager (Rupert Grint, aka Ron Weasley) to stage a huge con: a faked mission to the moon.
Showtime is 1 p.m. at the art space at 56 Arbor St. in Hartford. realartways.org.


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Home Equity Loans
A home equity loan is secured by your primary residence and allows you to use the equity in your home to pay for home improvements, college, autos and much more.Open end home equity line of creditThe open-end loan program will have the revolving line of credit feature.
APR /Floor / Ceiling
APR / Floor / Ceiling
60 Month Revolving Line of Credit / 180 Month Repayment Period - * The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on the above grid, assumes a loan amount of $25,000.00 and assumes FNB holds the first mortgage on the property. The APR is a variable rate indexed to the Prime Rate as Published in the Wall Street Journal, currently 4.75% as of 10-31-2019 and adjusts monthly. Rates are subject to change. Monthly payments are interest only based on the average daily loan balance for the first 60 months which constitutes the draw period. At the end of the draw period the principal balance of the loan will be fully amortized over the next 180 months. Changes to the rate will prompt a payment amount change and be reflected on the monthly billing.
Closing costs *The borrower will pay fees charged by certain third parties such as appraisers, credit reporting firms, and government agencies. These third party fees generally total between $225.00 and $575.00. Upon request, we will provide you with an itemization of the fees you will have to pay to third parties.ApplicationTo apply, please visit any of our 9 locations. Please do not hesitate to contact a Loan Officer with any questions.Convenient automatic paymentsYou can make your monthly loan payments by having it automatically deducted from your First National Bank checking or savings account. Simply request an authorization form from one of our lenders.


text: Description Big Green Egg Lump Charcoal - Just as a person of good taste would never drop a Hemi into a 1989 Camaro, you'd never put Brand X Charcoal into your Big Green Egg. Nor into your medium, small or mini green egg either. In fact, according to the GGOS (Great God of Smoke), it would be sacrilegious to do so. It's kind of like the 11th commandment, eh. Big Green Egg Charcoal contains only 100% organic American oak and hickory "ultra premium" hardwood. Eggers will tell you that you can literally see — and taste — the difference immediately. So how could you cook with anything else? (And no, we do not sell Brand X. Nor do we know where you can buy some. And sorry, but we're not sorry.)