Doctor HP Flowers

On a Slow Night

This is what can happen
On a slow night.
"Honest, Officer."

    

© d060609-09 Fields of Green
  Nantahala National Forest
  Graham County, North Carolina
  Friday 9 June 2006

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Juvenalia

     Rummaging thru old boxes in the garage can unearth surprises, long forgotten.  Here we see the first picture I ever took with a 'serious' camera. A Minolta x-570 manual SLR now considered to be a well-made classic in the advanced amateur cost range.  It works fine; I still use it every trip.
     This shot was taken on auto with Fujicolor ASA 100 print film.  At the time, my reaction was delighted surprise that it worked the way it was supposed to.  Today my reaction is a quiet relief that I've had plenty of time to practice over the  years.

    

© r0001-04 Solitary Rose
  DeKalb County, Georgia
  Thursday 24 August 1983

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Take Your Pick

     Elected officials. Governors. Mayors. Republicans. Democrats. Looters. Looting peace officers. Liberals. Conservatives. Anarchists. Pacifists. Smarmy TV anchors. Unctuous loudmouths. Hysterics.   Histrionics.  Addled bureaucrats. Venal name callers. Witch hunts. Scapegoats.  Hatemongers. Posturing fakers. Gouging profiteers.

     I went to my background file and plucked out an old yellowed article on 'How the Wheel was Invented.'

Stage 1:  Place rollers beneath heavy objects
Stage 2:  Place skids under heavy objects
Stage 3:  Place rollers under skids under heavy objects
Stage 4:  Skids gouge grooves on rollers
Stage 5:  An illiterate peasant notices how good it works

… 3500 BC was a very good year for that!

Cull 001: Stone Mountain

  The other day, I was rummaging thru my garage and came across four dusty, mildewed 3-ring notebooks stuffed with polyvinyl slide pages all sticky and kinda glued together from humidity and who knows what. They were labeled: “Extras, Culls, and Used Titles” – 1984, 1985, 1986-1988, and 1989-1998.
   I’m pleased to report that these are authentic archaeological relics that thankfully survived my grand slide-library throwout about 10 years ago, right after I began to believe (falsely) that I knew how to take a good photograph. With that pissy attitude, I viewed much of my earlier work as crude juvenilia, an embarrassment of sorts, best destined for the trash can. Many hundreds and thousands of slides ended up in the local landfill - a ruthless plundering of my earlier mistakes, my juvenilia, a comprehensive narrative of my determined struggle to learn and grow as a photographer. I now deeply regret that ill-considered impetuous act.
   Even a bad snapshot can provide a superb record of where I was at the time, what the weather was like, what I was seeing then and how I approached the shot.  Like this view of Stone Mountain -- an early attempt to juxtapose urban clutter and subjects best left uncluttered. So, here’s new category: Culls. Maybe, Better Living Thru Culls. After all, only a photographer can love his culls.

Title:           © Stone Mountain. r0054-17
Series:           Culls
Location:       Stone Mountain, Georgia
                    DeKalb County
Date:            Sunday 17 June 1984