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Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: fredjeang on February 20, 2010, 05:03:06 am

Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 20, 2010, 05:03:06 am
That dog intrigues,
It was first posing on the San Miguel bar's flat roof,
now model in the drugstore.

Stuffed?
Or Michael has made a new friend.
Title: That dog
Post by: Craig Arnold on February 20, 2010, 05:09:04 am
Wonderful shot Michael.

These are the shots you make that really resonate for me, never mind that landscape nonsense. :-)
Title: That dog
Post by: Ray on February 20, 2010, 08:11:05 am
Quote from: Craig Arnold
Wonderful shot Michael.

These are the shots you make that really resonate for me, never mind that landscape nonsense. :-)

The interesting thing about this shot is that from a purely compositional point of view, it doesn't work. There's too much boring space betweeen the woman with child, and the dog.

The eye tends to dwell too much on the boring shelves of cans and products.

However, from a psychological perspective, the image works if one considers that there's a message that the dog has become marginalised as a result of the addition of a child to the family.
Title: That dog
Post by: Shirley Bracken on February 20, 2010, 08:30:32 am
Where is the photo?  I don't see it.
Title: That dog
Post by: francois on February 20, 2010, 09:01:47 am
Quote from: Shirley Bracken
Where is the photo?  I don't see it.
Here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/1photo-p...pharmacia.shtml (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/1photo-pages/pharmacia.shtml)
Title: That dog
Post by: Shirley Bracken on February 20, 2010, 09:39:44 am
Oh thanks!

It's very intriguing.  I agree that the composition is a little tight but the intrigue does make up for it!  I love this kind of subject.
Title: That dog
Post by: DarkPenguin on February 20, 2010, 11:57:25 am
Quote from: fredjeang
That dog intrigues,
It was first posing on the San Miguel bar's flat roof,
now model in the drugstore.

Stuffed?
Or Michael has made a new friend.

LOL!  I was just going to ask if the dog was stuffed.
Title: That dog
Post by: michael on February 20, 2010, 12:02:22 pm
I always travel with life-sized stuffed dogs of different breeds, and position them strategically in my photographs.

Everyone knows that.

Michael
Title: That dog
Post by: francois on February 20, 2010, 12:09:48 pm
Quote from: michael
I always travel with life-sized stuffed dogs of different breeds
Check-in or carry-on?
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 20, 2010, 12:17:00 pm
The dog is a very powerfull meaning(s).
Intensively used in cripted messages in art.
[attachment=20385:velasque..._meninas.jpg]
Interesting.
Title: That dog
Post by: Rob C on February 20, 2010, 04:40:38 pm
At least it wasn't the Rottweiler.

I agree with Craig - have mentioned similar sentiments before. I think that's partly because the sort of image here is into the HC-B, Dosineau etc. ethic and above all else it reveals an eye for the quick opportunity, both seeing it and catching it. To me, that's worth any amount of hanging about waiting for clouds to shift...

I also think that the shot would have been much better had the camera been a regular 35mm format and the image made with a 35mm or 28mm optic. This is based on the perhaps naïve feeling that more content is needed on both sides, which (were it physically available - who knows?) would have decreased the weight of the 'gap' between the two main parts and made for a more comfortable viewing experience.

As usual, it lends weight to my dislike for zooms but for a different reason to my usual one, which concerns quality.

Isn't it quite amazing how much can be built up in the mind by just looking at a picture?

Rob C
Title: That dog
Post by: Rob C on February 20, 2010, 04:41:59 pm
Quote from: fredjeang
The dog is a very powerfull meaning(s).
Intensively used in cripted messages in art.
[attachment=20385:velasque..._meninas.jpg]
Interesting.



In this case, Fred, the dog in the painting reminds me of how I feel these days.

Rob C
Title: That dog
Post by: Ray on February 20, 2010, 10:02:35 pm
Quote from: Rob C
In this case, Fred, the dog in the painting reminds me of how I feel these days.

Rob C

Move on, Rob. Life is a journey. Don't get stuck in the past. Embrace the future. Travel the world with your D700 and record your impressions, but always remembering to bring your medication along.
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 21, 2010, 03:57:39 am
Quote from: Rob C
In this case, Fred, the dog in the painting reminds me of how I feel these days.

Rob C
Rob,
If you feel like the Velasquez's dog, you are lucky indeed !
Wisdom, strength and mastering your own purpose(s).
Sometimes these emerge as a quiet nostalgic feeling that might look like
inaction or meditation but that is in fact the sign of "overcome obstacles".
You master, you lead, you have the clew...as Velasquez.
Not bad at all!!  

Fred
Title: That dog
Post by: Rob C on February 21, 2010, 04:49:41 am
So that's what it means to think of life as a dog, then?

I think Velasquez is the wrong painter - maybe Goya's Black Paintings are closer to the truth?

Life as a journey is a strange sort of metaphor - it is often applied but seems oddly inappropriate somehow: a journey is supposed to be the route to somewhere, but life doesn't really take you anywhere at all; regardless of successes or failures, you end up in the same damn place, in your head at least, from whence you thought you'd set off on that wonderful trip. The problem is both mechanical and spiritual: your genes make you what you are and all the experiences in the world can't honestly change that. I have had personal experiences from a very young age that I wouldn't even recount here, anywhere in fact where I'm not personally known, because I would be written off as a romancer, a fibber of the first waters.

But where did any of it lead? I'm still me and the highs are now long gone; excitement was certainly enjoyable in youth but now would probably prove fatal; belief in a rosier tomorrow gets washed out of the system if only because of the unavoidable lessons of experience. I remember a time when one could depend on over 15% tax-free interest offshore - now, all you get is a hole in your capital and ever increasing bills. And no, it isn't a matter of life on any breadline - yet! - but something far more destructive. Think of your own history: how do you think you might feel if you come to realise you are the last of a certain section of a family's  generations, that there is nobody left alive with whom you can talk about things that happened in your youth; people who know the same people, songs and movies...? That's not to say there are not others much older around, simply that they are not part of a personal landscape of references. This could be taken as a huge dollop of introspective shmaltz, which it might be, but it is the truth nonetheless. Far from being on any journey I think we are all in a private little capsule which holds all of our references and experiences, dreams and fears. We bob about on a sea of random currents and imagine we are actually in control! The thing is, that little capsule contains everything you have in life, and as it decays from within there is no lifeboat able to come out and tow you away to your safe-haven.

But at least the dog doesn't know this - I hope!

;-)

Rob C
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 21, 2010, 05:41:14 am
Quote from: Rob C
So that's what it means to think of life as a dog, then?

I think Velasquez is the wrong painter - maybe Goya's Black Paintings are closer to the truth?

Life as a journey is a strange sort of metaphor - it is often applied but seems oddly inappropriate somehow: a journey is supposed to be the route to somewhere, but life doesn't really take you anywhere at all; regardless of successes or failures, you end up in the same damn place, in your head at least, from whence you thought you'd set off on that wonderful trip. The problem is both mechanical and spiritual: your genes make you what you are and all the experiences in the world can't honestly change that. I have had personal experiences from a very young age that I wouldn't even recount here, anywhere in fact where I'm not personally known, because I would be written off as a romancer, a fibber of the first waters.

But where did any of it lead? I'm still me and the highs are now long gone; excitement was certainly enjoyable in youth but now would probably prove fatal; belief in a rosier tomorrow gets washed out of the system if only because of the unavoidable lessons of experience. I remember a time when one could depend on over 15% tax-free interest offshore - now, all you get is a hole in your capital and ever increasing bills. And no, it isn't a matter of life on any breadline - yet! - but something far more destructive. Think of your own history: how do you think you might feel if you come to realise you are the last of a certain section of a family's  generations, that there is nobody left alive with whom you can talk about things that happened in your youth; people who know the same people, songs and movies...? That's not to say there are not others much older around, simply that they are not part of a personal landscape of references. This could be taken as a huge dollop of introspective shmaltz, which it might be, but it is the truth nonetheless. Far from being on any journey I think we are all in a private little capsule which holds all of our references and experiences, dreams and fears. We bob about on a sea of random currents and imagine we are actually in control! The thing is, that little capsule contains everything you have in life, and as it decays from within there is no lifeboat able to come out and tow you away to your safe-haven.

But at least the dog doesn't know this - I hope!

;-)

Rob C
Rob,
What an interesting post really, and it all came with the Michael's intriguing dog.
Whatever Velasquez or Goya, the Dog is consciousness. It is not that the "dog" does not know this, it is that it does not care about this.
I agree with you when you say we do not go anywhere, there is nowhere to go. We stayed in the same f......g place, a place that we have never leaved.
Also true that we are not doing anything, although we like to beleive so.
But in your post, there is a reference of a kind of "feeling of powerlessness", and you also talk about identity. One=the other.
The dog does not have identity, it is above, neither male-female. It is there.
It is not only our genes who make us what (we think) we are: it is our conditionning. Where you born, cultural codes, things you hear baby, climate, external circunstances like war or peace etc...these determine the "programming". As 99%, we are programmed to respond in a way or another, we stay in the same place because this programming correspond to that space. To go somewhere, we would need to change the programing, but it is so difficult that we stay where we are. When older, you realize that you did not do a meter ahead!...
The dog (symbolic of course) does not need to go anywhere, does not need excitements because excitements make us beleive we are "alive"! when we are more deads than anything else. Excitements need to be feeded, you will need more in order to be satisfied. Onces you reach one step, it is not exciting any more so you need to go further...more intense excitments.
You're out of the system? Welcome then, who wants to be a ship? Dogs control ships, and force them to go where it wants to.

What you are feeling is really good.

Fred.


Title: That dog
Post by: Robert Roaldi on February 22, 2010, 07:57:12 am
Wow, heavy stuff. Thank god it wasn't a cat.
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 22, 2010, 08:20:00 am
Quote from: Robert Roaldi
Wow, heavy stuff. Thank god it wasn't a cat.
   
Michael has exhausted his 1 cat per year credit.
But nothing has been said so far for dogs.

Fred.
Title: That dog
Post by: Rocco Penny on February 22, 2010, 08:44:55 am
Quote from: Rob C
So that's what it means to think of life as a dog, then?

I think Velasquez is the wrong painter - maybe Goya's Black Paintings are closer to the truth?

Life as a journey is a strange sort of metaphor - it is often applied but seems oddly inappropriate somehow: a journey is supposed to be the route to somewhere, but life doesn't really take you anywhere at all; regardless of successes or failures, you end up in the same damn place, in your head at least, from whence you thought you'd set off on that wonderful trip. The problem is both mechanical and spiritual: your genes make you what you are and all the experiences in the world can't honestly change that. I have had personal experiences from a very young age that I wouldn't even recount here, anywhere in fact where I'm not personally known, because I would be written off as a romancer, a fibber of the first waters.

But where did any of it lead? I'm still me and the highs are now long gone; excitement was certainly enjoyable in youth but now would probably prove fatal; belief in a rosier tomorrow gets washed out of the system if only because of the unavoidable lessons of experience. I remember a time when one could depend on over 15% tax-free interest offshore - now, all you get is a hole in your capital and ever increasing bills. And no, it isn't a matter of life on any breadline - yet! - but something far more destructive. Think of your own history: how do you think you might feel if you come to realise you are the last of a certain section of a family's  generations, that there is nobody left alive with whom you can talk about things that happened in your youth; people who know the same people, songs and movies...? That's not to say there are not others much older around, simply that they are not part of a personal landscape of references. This could be taken as a huge dollop of introspective shmaltz, which it might be, but it is the truth nonetheless. Far from being on any journey I think we are all in a private little capsule which holds all of our references and experiences, dreams and fears. We bob about on a sea of random currents and imagine we are actually in control! The thing is, that little capsule contains everything you have in life, and as it decays from within there is no lifeboat able to come out and tow you away to your safe-haven.

But at least the dog doesn't know this - I hope!

;-)

Rob C


Friend;
You are my new Champion!
A trailblazer with a not so common flair for the maudlin!
A bleak and threatened view of the temporal
AND
spiritual.
Well, you sir
land squarely in the center of the least of my tempestuous moments!
It would be hard to find interesting people in this world if there were no adversity...
ell not to bring too fine a point to it,
but I'll read all your posts from now on
Have a nice day
Rocco
Title: That dog
Post by: mtomalty on February 22, 2010, 12:26:04 pm
Quote
The dog is a very powerfull meaning(s).
Intensively used in cripted messages in art.

Ain't that the trurth.

http://coolrain44.files.wordpress.com/2009...aying-poker.jpg (http://coolrain44.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/dogs-playing-poker.jpg)
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 22, 2010, 01:43:11 pm
Quote from: mtomalty
Ain't that the trurth.

http://coolrain44.files.wordpress.com/2009...aying-poker.jpg (http://coolrain44.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/dogs-playing-poker.jpg)
 
Title: That dog
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 22, 2010, 02:40:11 pm
Quote from: Robert Roaldi
Wow, heavy stuff. Thank god it wasn't a cat.

Maybe it's time to turn this thread into another all-out Fanboy Flame war -- between the Kitty lovers and the Poochophiles. 
Title: That dog
Post by: Rob C on February 23, 2010, 04:46:34 am
Quote from: Rocco Penny
Friend;
You are my new Champion!
A trailblazer with a not so common flair for the maudlin!
A bleak and threatened view of the temporal
AND
spiritual.
Well, you sir
land squarely in the center of the least of my tempestuous moments!
It would be hard to find interesting people in this world if there were no adversity...
ell not to bring too fine a point to it,
but I'll read all your posts from now on
Have a nice day
Rocco




Mama mia - now a sense of responsibility heaped on top of everything else!

Ciao

Rob C
Title: That dog
Post by: schrodingerscat on February 23, 2010, 11:42:48 pm
Quote from: Rob C
So that's what it means to think of life as a dog, then?

I think Velasquez is the wrong painter - maybe Goya's Black Paintings are closer to the truth?

Life as a journey is a strange sort of metaphor - it is often applied but seems oddly inappropriate somehow: a journey is supposed to be the route to somewhere, but life doesn't really take you anywhere at all; regardless of successes or failures, you end up in the same damn place, in your head at least, from whence you thought you'd set off on that wonderful trip. The problem is both mechanical and spiritual: your genes make you what you are and all the experiences in the world can't honestly change that. I have had personal experiences from a very young age that I wouldn't even recount here, anywhere in fact where I'm not personally known, because I would be written off as a romancer, a fibber of the first waters.

But where did any of it lead? I'm still me and the highs are now long gone; excitement was certainly enjoyable in youth but now would probably prove fatal; belief in a rosier tomorrow gets washed out of the system if only because of the unavoidable lessons of experience. I remember a time when one could depend on over 15% tax-free interest offshore - now, all you get is a hole in your capital and ever increasing bills. And no, it isn't a matter of life on any breadline - yet! - but something far more destructive. Think of your own history: how do you think you might feel if you come to realise you are the last of a certain section of a family's  generations, that there is nobody left alive with whom you can talk about things that happened in your youth; people who know the same people, songs and movies...? That's not to say there are not others much older around, simply that they are not part of a personal landscape of references. This could be taken as a huge dollop of introspective shmaltz, which it might be, but it is the truth nonetheless. Far from being on any journey I think we are all in a private little capsule which holds all of our references and experiences, dreams and fears. We bob about on a sea of random currents and imagine we are actually in control! The thing is, that little capsule contains everything you have in life, and as it decays from within there is no lifeboat able to come out and tow you away to your safe-haven.

But at least the dog doesn't know this - I hope!

;-)

Rob C

The dog doesn't know, nor does it care. The journey is the destination and more fun with your head out the window.
Title: That dog
Post by: Rob C on February 24, 2010, 05:01:56 pm
Quote from: schrodingerscat
The dog doesn't know, nor does it care. The journey is the destination and more fun with your head out the window.




This is all true, except that when you go into the tunnel you always get coal in your eye. It's a bitch... or a dog - I'm no expert at this distance.

Rob C
Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 25, 2010, 02:38:50 am
Quote from: schrodingerscat
The dog doesn't know, nor does it care. The journey is the destination and more fun with your head out the window.
Yes, we are in the Tao now
Title: That dog
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 25, 2010, 10:16:46 am
Quote from: fredjeang
Yes, we are in the Tao now
"The Tao of Cat is manyfold mightier than the Tao of Dog." 

--Anonymous 3rd century Master.    


Title: That dog
Post by: fredjeang on February 25, 2010, 10:42:24 am
It seems that we have some enlightened masters here in the Luminous Landscape  
Title: That dog
Post by: Philmar on February 26, 2010, 01:46:44 pm
Quote from: michael
I always travel with life-sized stuffed dogs of different breeds, and position them strategically in my photographs.

Everyone knows that.

Michael

Well, I see no reason to doubt you.
I photographed that very bar last October. There was definitely no dog on the adjoining roof that day, or the next! Do yourself a favour Michael and have a drink inside - but after 5 PM. What a hoot.
You are lucky to be there for such an extended stay. Sadly I was only in San Miguel and the nearby city of Guanajuato for 4 short days. Both are incredible locations for a photographic journey.

http://www.fluidr.com/photos/phil_marion/s...157622470811739 (http://www.fluidr.com/photos/phil_marion/sets/72157622470811739)

Make sure you walk around as much as possible because you'll need to work off all the great food you'll eat. San Miguel has an incredible number of great (but somewhat pricey) restaurants for a city of that size. It has many bars like the one in your photo - seedy bars that look like a typical old fashioned western saloons, swinging doors, long bar.....cheap booze.

Someone told me the presence of the swinging doors meant that women were not allowed. I never thought to verify this.

So jealous, as we sit here in Toronto under a foot of fresh snow.
Keep living the dream, Michael.
Title: That dog
Post by: schrodingerscat on February 27, 2010, 01:05:38 pm
Quote from: Rob C
This is all true, except that when you go into the tunnel you always get coal in your eye. It's a bitch... or a dog - I'm no expert at this distance.

Rob C


Hi Rob -

Yep, and the longer one hangs out on this plane the likelier the lumps of coal. When life hands you lemons, forget the lemonade and make pies. Then toss 'em in the face of adversity. Like cats, nothing irritates the gods more than being laughed at.

DG

PS - Back to the subject. Mexico is one of those Decisive Moment hotspots, perfect for just wondering around with a camera. In the old days used to carry a Polaroid as well to give subjects a photo of themselves. Excellent icebreaker.
Title: That dog
Post by: Philmar on April 14, 2010, 11:58:31 am
Quote from: schrodingerscat
PS - Back to the subject. Mexico is one of those Decisive Moment hotspots, perfect for just wondering around with a camera.

Agree 100% - I was rather pleased with the opportunities I saw in my short week. I would still rate Cuba slightly higher  - thanks to the absence of commercialism, advertising and presence of mass media....plus the 50's cars don't hurt.

Michael - will you be posting more shots from San Miguel - as mentioned in my previous post above I was there for only 2 days and was taken aback by the numerous opportunities for photos.
Here's a gallery of the ones I took on my 48 hours there:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/phil_mari...57622470811739/ (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/phil_marion/sets/72157622470811739/)

I really am looking forward to seeing more of your photos Michael - hopefully online...PLEASE don't make me take the subway to see them.