Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: John Camp on March 19, 2020, 02:13:51 pm
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If we're all pretty much forced to sequester ourselves to some degree, what will you do during that time? I'm lucky to have worked at home for 30+ years now, and will continue to do that. But, I won't be doing my usual routine of working, photographing in crowds, going out to eat most nights and at least once a day...I'll be somewhat isolating myself. I'm 76 and worried about this thing, and I plan to stay away from the virus as long as I can. Right now, I'm thinking about structure -- how to structure my days with work, exercise, hobbies, etc.
So what are your plans? Business as usual? Are you staying mostly at home? Hobbies? Can't sit and watch TV all day...
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It's already getting really cheesy here! ;)
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Business as usual for as long as I keep getting business. I chose to do product photography decades ago and it has been very resilient so work is still coming in and as long as it does I will do it. I was kind of hoping for a break and had/have plans.
I want to do more meditation, that’s big plan. A local retreat centre has asked me to take over its management and I was planning on working on that. Then There is my personal project where I take photos every day on my dog walk through my neighborhood, I need to start sorting and sequencing that.
By the way Joe my partner also makes cheese. Mostly Halloumi. I love that stuff. Perhaps she will make some of that. We both like to cook so that will happen. Mutton curry this weekend I think. Oh and Ice cream. I have developed a very nice recipe for ginger and Tumeric Ice cream. I will definitely make that. Perhaps I will just get fat n this period. If it gets reallly quiet there is a small reserve about 30 min from here with a very nice 17km walk. Eland, baboon wildebeest and zebra. Will head out that way as well.
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Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up. Seems you can grill it?
Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream. So high fat content cheese is hard to do. More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking.
I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere. If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum.
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Timely. Just saw a thing on Petapixel yesterday about stay-at-home photography ideas. I might try to dream something up in that vein although I haven't been successful in the past. I'm more an opportunist, might be a good mental exercise to force myself. I've been procrastinating about making some goofy stop-motion videos about traffic using matchbox cars, so may finally get around to that. I may return to my tongue-in-cheek physics videos, my former colleagues have been asking (I'm retired.)
When I shoot outdoors it's rarely of people and never in crowds. Not my thing. If anything the current situation may help that a bit. I'm going downtown early in the morning this weekend hoping for desolation (sort of, not real desolation). The hardest part about that is walking past my favourite cappuccino places and not stopping. My wife has asthma so we're being very cautious, bypassing all frills. This is difficult for me, because of my Italian family background I have to have 2-3 cappuccinos per week or I might lose my privileges. Hope nobody rats me out.
I'm curious about outdoor full moon urban photography, except I keep missing the full moons, or it's cloudy, or really really cold, or I am glued to a book.
The other thing I do a lot of is to photograph local bicycle racing and/or automobile rallying. Although those activities draw crowds, as a photographer I'm never all that close to the competitors. But all those events for April and May (and probably June) are cancelled, so that's that for a while.
I won't stop the outdoor and nature photography though. Those are solitary activities, as risk-free as anything, less risky than buying groceries.
Constraints sometimes force you to be creative, maybe it will work on me this time. Fingers crossed.
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Fortunately my wife and I are retired so we can stay home and isolate. Unfortunately that means we're old enough that if we get sick, who knows what will happen? Getting out by yourself and taking pictures seems reasonable thing to do. Fresh air, some exercise. Good for the head.
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I'm doing working with some of my pharma retiree friends and tracking COVID-19 drug and vaccine trials. We already have a spread sheet of 28 different drugs and vaccines. Some of these are used at multiple sites and in various combinations.
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Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up. Seems you can grill it?
Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream. So high fat content cheese is hard to do. More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking.
I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere. If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum.
We can get goat milk but it’s expensive, also sheep milk. Halloumi can be made with cow milk, an extra culture helps with the flavor when doing that.
It is possible for us to source whole raw milk from farmers not far from the city.
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Both my wife and I own (separate) companies that support or otherwise interact with large scale corporate and entertainment events, so.... we're just hanging out. :D
The plan is to update her company website with some revisions we've been planning for a year or so, then I might actually get my long-planned photography website online.
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It's already getting really cheesy here! ;)
Cholesterol will get you before the virus can.
It almost killed me, that cheese, cream, beautifully-made quiches, Christmas puddings, Christmas pies; succulent roasts, cauliflower with cheese... the list would go on to represent everything that today I cannot touch. I won't even mention the Spanish champagnes, Riojas and the likes. Our trips through France meant the cheeseboard almost every night; oh, I can't eat at night anymore.
;-)
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Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up. Seems you can grill it?
Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream. So high fat content cheese is hard to do. More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking.
I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere. If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum.
This time, the French would kill you rather than aid your battles against the Brits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d%27origine_contr%C3%B4l%C3%A9e
;-)
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This time, the French would kill you rather than aid your battles against the Brits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d%27origine_contr%C3%B4l%C3%A9e
;-)
Yes, you're right. Same reason my wife, who is very Italian, does not let me make Parmesan Reggiano. It just cant be made outside of Italy.
Thankfully my wife is not french; I can go without Parm, but Rochefort is a must have.
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I work as a staff photographer at a university. We've been sent home, no one knows for how long. I am lucky enough to have my personal photo office in our finished basement, so it wasn't difficult to bring home my work computer setup and have it all working well with plenty of space. The main downside is that I'm in the basement :) the upside is that I can play loud music and not bother my colleagues. (My wife is also working from home now, but her office is upstairs so I'm not bothering her, either.)
As for what to do, well, that's the question. I've been wandering campus looking for photos as we transition to online classes. Not finding much. I have several projects to keep me busy for a few weeks. One semi-bright spot is that I may finally have time to shoot the sort of spring landscape photos that we use a lot, and I rarely have time to make. (And that don't require people in them -- think "chapel bell tower framed by cherry blossoms.")
At home, we've been cooking and eating well. We both like to cook, and stocked up pretty well last week. Trying to get out every day for a long walk. We've had to cancel all our music events, which hurts a lot -- I love playing tunes with our friends. We have more time to play and practice ourselves, I guess. Trying very hard to maintain contact with friends via FaceTime, text messaging, etc. Hoping this doesn't last too long, but starting to understand that it might.
Hope you all hang in there and stay safe and healthy.
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This summer, I'll let my hair grow, skip the dental cleanings and avoid any waiting rooms with other sufferers.
Instead, I'll attempt to make my drone pilot licence.
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This summer, I'll let my hair grow, skip the dental cleanings and avoid any waiting rooms with other sufferers.
Instead, I'll attempt to make my drone pilot licence.
I just finished and passed my FAA part 107 test and I’m now also a licensed drone pilot. The weather has been pretty crappy for flight and I’m pretty bored flying around my neighborhood. So I guess more interesting locations will have to wait awhile.
My wife and I work together, work from home and the work is seasonal,so time like this is not unusual other that dinners out
I have a bunch of parts I have been purchasing for my hobby car and I’ll spend some time twisting wrenches.
We stocked up on grilling and smoker nests so I’ll fire up the smoker and try a few new rib recipes.
Finally I think I’ll clean and oil the firearms in my arsenal.😎😎😎😎
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What to do during the year of the modern plague?
If I were an American, I suppose I'd be tempted to buy another comfort gun.
As I am not, and can't buy one anyway, I expect to do much the same as I have during all the years since my wife died, but instead of eating lunch out every day, eat my own rubbish instead. In place of walking through the marina after lunch and envying the Riva and Sunseeker owners, I shall make the most of the permitted, essential purposes walks to buy food or visit banks and chemists, and do the rest of the required walking on my fortunately quite large terrace.
I can also relax all thought and tensions of selling up because nobody in their right mind will be buying - nor can they get here if not Spaniards - and even if I could sell, no way can I presently leave the country and drive back up through France and get a ferry across to Britain; so where would I live post-sale? So yeah, that's a sort of peaceful by-product of isolation.
Photography: I kinda gave up on that a couple of months ago; anything I really, really want to do I can't do any longer, and what I can do doesn't interest me much anymore. I'd like to buy a few more monographs, but have no space left for new without forcing me to relegate one favourite or another to the other rooms where nobody goes, not even my family, since they can no longer get here. That said, the Sarah Moons and, in particular, the Deborah Turbeville one I want are all too steep for my pension - especially as it tumbles in translation to the Euro. Books over 300 bucks are out, way out of my junior league, so Debbie will have to linger until the Euromillones lottery starts up again and my number floats in. At least, no lottery running means I save five euros a week; almost three coffees! Oh, and I can't sit at the pavement tables and buy the coffees anyway. All closed.
Perhaps one might buy shares in Netflix? They must rocket, with so many people unable to go outdoors at night. Not many new shows will get filmed, though.
I am thinking that a year may be an optimistic expectation. As with climate change, so many people in deep, deep denial may make this an existential situation for mankind.
Rob
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Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html
Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."
It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.
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I work as a staff photographer at a university. We've been sent home, no one knows for how long. I am lucky enough to have my personal photo office in our finished basement, so it wasn't difficult to bring home my work computer setup and have it all working well with plenty of space. The main downside is that I'm in the basement :) the upside is that I can play loud music and not bother my colleagues. (My wife is also working from home now, but her office is upstairs so I'm not bothering her, either.)
As for what to do, well, that's the question. I've been wandering campus looking for photos as we transition to online classes. Not finding much. I have several projects to keep me busy for a few weeks. One semi-bright spot is that I may finally have time to shoot the sort of spring landscape photos that we use a lot, and I rarely have time to make. (And that don't require people in them -- think "chapel bell tower framed by cherry blossoms.")
At home, we've been cooking and eating well. We both like to cook, and stocked up pretty well last week. Trying to get out every day for a long walk. We've had to cancel all our music events, which hurts a lot -- I love playing tunes with our friends. We have more time to play and practice ourselves, I guess. Trying very hard to maintain contact with friends via FaceTime, text messaging, etc. Hoping this doesn't last too long, but starting to understand that it might.
Hope you all hang in there and stay safe and healthy.
She loves you and is just being nice: bass reverberates through entire hotels!
Show her you love her too, and get Bluetooth and some good 'phones.
My wife used to smile as she closed the office door on me at such moments of musical excess.
;-)
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Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html
Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."
It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.
Quite agree, but this is hijacking the thread.
;-)
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Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html
Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."
It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.
Whats your point?
Ordering things directly is much faster that going through a middle man. Not to mention the Federal government really is not a shipping clerk. They do not have the knowledge of say UPS or FedEx to move items across the country quickly and efficiently, and ordering direct allowing those companies to deliver would be much more efficient.
More fake news out for a gotchu moment then actually looking at the reasonings why.
But as Rob said, maybe you should have some self control and not hijack the thread.
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Now that I'll have plenty of time on my hands I'll be looking for excuses to get out of spring-cleaning and decorating the house.
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I bit the bullet and ordered stuff for my new computer, which is shinier and more handsome than the old one, to help me cull and revisit my out of control photo library. And spring cleaning/gardening around the house. Keeping young kids with something to do is the more challenging part of all though.
That is when I don't work and if I won't get sick.
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Back on topic...
I also work from home but my hours (and pay) have been cut to 80% so I have a lot of three day weekends coming.
Much of my photography is landscape so between work and my main photo genre, not a whole lot changes.
Of course I also do photography for bike races, concerts, and town events, all of which are going to be on hold for the foreseeable future.
Real Estate photography could still be done if there is any market but I expect that will be cooling for a while now too.
So my plan is to sling code 32 hours a week and then use my extra time to backcountry ski the spring until it's bike season and then ride a lot. Probably some solo backpacking excursions too. Landscape photography can be worked into all those activities much of the time as well.
We used to eat out once or twice a week and that's on indefinite hold now too. I generally prefer how home cooked food treats me anyway so that won't be too bad.
I'm fortunate there are things to do here that you can do with lots of space between you and others. It would be a lot harder for me to get that recreation in on a stationary bike or treadmill.
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So my plan is to sling code 32 hours a week and then use my extra time to backcountry ski the spring until it's bike season and then ride a lot.
I'm not slinging any code but I'm out every morning either x-country skiing or walking my dog on snow shoe trails and starting tomorrow will be starting some road biking in the afternoon when things warm up a bit.
Photography wise I'm catching up on creating some coffee table books from the last few years of travel.
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I have decided to do a fine art photography book. 176 pages, hard cover, offset printing UV LED, 80 plates or more. It has been on my to do list for some time. I am just getting quotes from printers. I have designer we use for the layout, work on a forward, find someone to write an article on my work, image selection. My goal is to do this project high end, with the word elegant as the driving thought for the project. I am excited about the project. It will keep me busy.
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I have already been working on getting new work published but it is amazing how knowing you can’t go out changes everything. The work I could easily concentrate on a couple of weeks ago now seems like an immense burden. It feels claustrophobic in my studio.
I started a personal project today to try a different direction. Hopefully that will help. I’m sure it will get easier but right now my nerves are jangly.
Sharon
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I have already been working on getting new work published but it is amazing how knowing you can’t go out changes everything. The work I could easily concentrate on a couple of weeks ago now seems like an immense burden. It feels claustrophobic in my studio.
I started a personal project today to try a different direction. Hopefully that will help. I’m sure it will get easier but right now my nerves are jangly.
Sharon
I have about 50 image I need to post for a client, shot recently. I struggled for the firsts to days, not able to get in the swing.Finally, on Weds. I sat myself down in front of the computer and forced myself to work. I still got sidetracked ( and I suppose I will continue) trying to keep up with the news and venting here. Hopefully today I can put in a good eight or nine hours and make a dent. I need to deliver these by Monday, even if things close. The customer was still open this week, I dont know about next. We are scheduied to be back there to shoot again on Mar. 30-31 and April 2-3. If things are still open I'll have to decline at this point. Im not one to leave money on the table but in this case its different.
But back to topic, music helped me while doing post. It kept my mind from wandering. Trying to stay away from the news might help too, but I'm a sucker for news. Its finally not raining here today so I'll get out withthe dogs for a walk and maybe wander the yard a bit.
Its going to take a different mindset to move forward now, at least until this thing lifts. I have no idea when that happens. We got the first two cases in out county today, so its real for us now.
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I have decided to do a fine art photography book. 176 pages, hard cover, offset printing UV LED, 80 plates or more. It has been on my to do list for some time. I am just getting quotes from printers. I have designer we use for the layout, work on a forward, find someone to write an article on my work, image selection. My goal is to do this project high end, with the word elegant as the driving thought for the project. I am excited about the project. It will keep me busy.
You have wonderful images. It should be a great book.
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I have about 50 image I need to post for a client, shot recently. I struggled for the firsts to days, not able to get in the swing.Finally, on Weds. I sat myself down in front of the computer and forced myself to work. I still got sidetracked ( and I suppose I will continue) trying to keep up with the news and venting here. Hopefully today I can put in a good eight or nine hours and make a dent. I need to deliver these by Monday, even if things close. The customer was still open this week, I dont know about next. We are scheduied to be back there to shoot again on Mar. 30-31 and April 2-3. If things are still open I'll have to decline at this point. Im not one to leave money on the table but in this case its different.
But back to topic, music helped me while doing post. It kept my mind from wandering. Trying to stay away from the news might help too, but I'm a sucker for news. Its finally not raining here today so I'll get out withthe dogs for a walk and maybe wander the yard a bit.
Its going to take a different mindset to move forward now, at least until this thing lifts. I have no idea when that happens. We got the first two cases in out county today, so its real for us now.
Good luck, Craig - I know it's hard. I've got client work stacked up as well, and I just can't get my mind to lock in on it.
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I have decided to do a fine art photography book. 176 pages, hard cover, offset printing UV LED, 80 plates or more. It has been on my to do list for some time. I am just getting quotes from printers. I have designer we use for the layout, work on a forward, find someone to write an article on my work, image selection. My goal is to do this project high end, with the word elegant as the driving thought for the project. I am excited about the project. It will keep me busy.
You do beautiful work. The book will be gorgeous.
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Good luck, Craig - I know it's hard. I've got client work stacked up as well, and I just can't get my mind to lock in on it.
My stuff seems so pointless to me right now. I can't image my imges will have much impact selling high end mothorhomes in the short term. Now I'm sure the client thinks otherwise, but I fear this industry isin for a hard time this season.
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Thank you Alan.
You do beautiful work. The book will be gorgeous.
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My stuff seems so pointless to me right now. I can't image my imges will have much impact selling high end mothorhomes in the short term. Now I'm sure the client thinks otherwise, but I fear this industry isin for a hard time this season.
Craig, You have to do better work than ever and sell it to the manufacturers that it will help them sell their products in lean times. Show families living together in their RV's to save money, cooking and playing Monopoly, with kids doing their homework. Come up with ideas with your clients that shows more than picture taking, as good as your work is. Sell them something more than others can sell. Help them find an angle. Maybe they'll hire you as a consultant. When you stuck with lemons, make lemonade.
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Friday night, time to chill out over all this!
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Craig, You have to do better work than ever and sell it to the manufacturers that it will help them sell their products in lean times. Show families living together in their RV's to save money, cooking and playing Monopoly, with kids doing their homework. Come up with ideas with your clients that shows more than picture taking, as good as your work is. Sell them something more than others can sell. Help them find an angle. Maybe they'll hire you as a consultant. When you stuck with lemons, make lemonade.
Last time the rv market tanked they did just the opposite and quit buying photography and advertising. If the buyers are cash poor , nothing moves them to buy something they don’t really need. It’s not like some of these guys are marketing wizzes. The cut advertising when things are bad because they don’t want to spend. They cut advertising when things are good because they are selling everything they can build. They grudgingly spend in the middle because of competition. It drives my agency buddies bonkers.
Even the high end stuff drops to nothing when there is a market crash. When a unit costs 750,000 or more, a bad portfolio balance is a deal breaker.
The rv industry is a great indicator. One of the first to fall as things turn down and one of the first to rise as things get better.
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Photography wise I'm catching up on creating some coffee table books from the last few years of travel.
Good on ya. I did three in the last year. Very satisfying.
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I'm curious about outdoor full moon urban photography, except I keep missing the full moons, or it's cloudy, or really really cold, or I am glued to a book.
The other night, I stepped outside with my phone and shot this hand-held. Google Pixel 3XL
It was cold, but I was grateful I didn't have to set up my Nikon and tripod. I was done in less than a minute.
Yes, it's a bit noisy. But I did get the shot.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iunGACMBaE3dYN_BH-TsuryB_KDzD7bfg0GCGYltg771cv-POWIPCiPqWyHRsuzD2HYLKwA2CPKde0hg0f9N52MJbyHcdV6kmeYBK4cqNZrrLMjV4DyR9UYk6tj7jczw711LaGEtEQ=w2400)
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Last time the rv market tanked they did just the opposite and quit buying photography and advertising. If the buyers are cash poor , nothing moves them to buy something they don’t really need. It’s not like some of these guys are marketing wizzes. The cut advertising when things are bad because they don’t want to spend. They cut advertising when things are good because they are selling everything they can build. They grudgingly spend in the middle because of competition. It drives my agency buddies bonkers.
Even the high end stuff drops to nothing when there is a market crash. When a unit costs 750,000 or more, a bad portfolio balance is a deal breaker.
The rv industry is a great indicator. One of the first to fall as things turn down and one of the first to rise as things get better.
Well, your pictures make the RC's very desirable and comfortable. I love the outdoor scenes out the windows. They're like a travelogue.
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I decided to write more serious articles:
https://luminous-landscape.com/reduce-load-and-travel-lighter/
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I decided to write more serious articles:
https://luminous-landscape.com/reduce-load-and-travel-lighter/
Well, I for one am glad I read it. I've been trying to lose weight and found I already lost three pounds since reading your article. Thanks for the tips.
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I’ll be making noise with my modular synthesizer and drum machine. I can make hours fly when I’m on that thing.
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Working from home.
Exercising at home.
Spending more time with the family.
Jogging early in the morning, of course away from anybody.
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Funny thing: I recall writing that in spiritually dry moments, one could shoot things around the house.
While no longer really driven to shooting anything, once more I've found myself excited by tv serial title sequences. It happened with Sopranos, with Braquo and again, now, with Justified. Some minutes ago I found myself in the garden shooting stuff that might be suitable for adaptation from extreme mundanity to perhaps looking a little more dynamic. The pleasure/frustration will be experience on the monitor.
It must be cabin fever. Now there's a more difficult theme!
Rob
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The other night, I stepped outside with my phone and shot this hand-held. Google Pixel 3XL
It was cold, but I was grateful I didn't have to set up my Nikon and tripod. I was done in less than a minute.
Yes, it's a bit noisy. But I did get the shot.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iunGACMBaE3dYN_BH-TsuryB_KDzD7bfg0GCGYltg771cv-POWIPCiPqWyHRsuzD2HYLKwA2CPKde0hg0f9N52MJbyHcdV6kmeYBK4cqNZrrLMjV4DyR9UYk6tj7jczw711LaGEtEQ=w2400)
Thanks very much for the inspiration. Did I mention that I was a morning person and get lazy in the evening. And pretty much at other times too.
A few weeks ago after a snowfall we went out for a walk in our deserted suburban streets. I have an Oly 5 m2 and the 17 mm/f2.8 and managed to shoot a handheld photo at 1 sec shutter speed that looked ok, streetlight only in cloudy skies. Noisy in the shadows, sure, but so what. I managed to shoot some others at 1/4 and 1/8 but also flubbed several at the same speeds. None of them were worth keeping, they had little photographic value but it's hard to believe what can be done. I was playing with hyperfocal shooting; result: the distance and DOF scale on the lens aren't reliable. It's warming up around here so I soon won't have the temperature excuse anymore, there will only be laziness left.
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A friend is teaching himself portrait lighting using his daughters' dolls as patient subjects.
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Doing more baking. Practicing cello more. Reading. Rewatching old favorite movies, and some new ones. Listening to music.
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When I started this thread, I was talking about finding "structure" for your time in isolation. I've got a lot of things that I more-or-less "do" other than work -- photography, guitar, and I paint. Since I'm old, I really want to stay away from this virus, and so my wife and I are social distancing, which means I should have lots of time for these things. But I've been strangely paralyzed. Instead of doing them, I've been stuck watching corona virus reports on TV and reading the net, and whenever I pick up a guitar, I play for a couple of minutes then put it down again. Can't really seem to practice. I keep thinking I really need to get on it, but I can't seem to focus. I could go out and photograph, but I haven't. Maybe as you get increasingly bored, you may get on it...but I dunno. Now I think I'm hooked on a Netflix series called "Stranger Things," and I don't even watch much TV during ordinary times.
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Don;t be so hard on yourself. I'm kinda stuck too. Same age. I'm worried. Well, we're creatures of habit. And now nothing is the same. It takes awhile to find our way. This isn't a normal situation. We're all in God's hands.
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When I started this thread, I was talking about finding "structure" for your time in isolation. I've got a lot of things that I more-or-less "do" other than work -- photography, guitar, and I paint. Since I'm old, I really want to stay away from this virus, and so my wife and I are social distancing, which means I should have lots of time for these things. But I've been strangely paralyzed. Instead of doing them, I've been stuck watching corona virus reports on TV and reading the net, and whenever I pick up a guitar, I play for a couple of minutes then put it down again. Can't really seem to practice. I keep thinking I really need to get on it, but I can't seem to focus. I could go out and photograph, but I haven't. Maybe as you get increasingly bored, you may get on it...but I dunno. Now I think I'm hooked on a Netflix series called "Stranger Things," and I don't even watch much TV during ordinary times.
Must be what happens with all shocks to the system. The period after 9/11 was like this, glued to the TV in those days, not so much social media. Some time needs to pass to acclimatize to the new normal. We can't shut off our brains or shift our thoughts as easily as we think. Part of the attraction of seeking out virus info must arise out the human need to find company. People congregated in town squares to find out what was going on, we do this. It's not a cute cliché that we are social animals, it's for real.
I wonder if this need to seek out others itself causes anxiety in some people, especially males. A lot of popular culture venerates the lone man on the hill with a gun who protects his family against all comers. I'm painting a lame cliché here, please understand it's hyperbole, I can't find a better way to phrase it right now. As males we are "trained" not to seek out help and understanding from others and this probably creates conflict for us. It's an evolutionary conflict too, it is in our nature to form in packs, which we now refer to as society. Maybe the realization that real life is not a Die Hard movie is itself a shock that needs to be absorbed. Maybe in our culture we learn too many life lessons from the Hollywood fantasy, not easy to unlearn it.
Obviously, I'm speculating. What do I know.
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Must be what happens with all shocks to the system. The period after 9/11 was like this, glued to the TV in those days, not so much social media. Some time needs to pass to acclimatize to the new normal. We can't shut off our brains or shift our thoughts as easily as we think. Part of the attraction of seeking out virus info must arise out the human need to find company. People congregated in town squares to find out what was going on, we do this. It's not a cute cliché that we are social animals, it's for real.
I wonder if this need to seek out others itself causes anxiety in some people, especially males. A lot of popular culture venerates the lone man on the hill with a gun who protects his family against all comers. I'm painting a lame cliché here, please understand it's hyperbole, I can't find a better way to phrase it right now. As males we are "trained" not to seek out help and understanding from others and this probably creates conflict for us. It's an evolutionary conflict too, it is in our nature to form in packs, which we now refer to as society. Maybe the realization that real life is not a Die Hard movie is itself a shock that needs to be absorbed. Maybe in our culture we learn too many life lessons from the Hollywood fantasy, not easy to unlearn it.
Obviously, I'm speculating. What do I know.
I believe you're right: most of us Brits who lived through WW2, where cinemas were the only relief, believed that all Americans lived Hollywood lives, which was why so many became GI brides: the desire for escape. Only much later did people begin to understand that the American Dream was just that: a dream. Same everywhere; some rise to the top, and they are at the top because the rest are far below, which is simple enough to understand, once you think about it. So Hollywood, Bollywood or some studio in the south of England - the fantasy machines keep churning - or they did until this week when productions got suspended.
It's my suspicion that this crisis will continue for quite a while, and that if it lasts long enough to pass some critical turning point, we will mostly have changed our ways for ever. I think a lot of businesses will vanish and not reopen, either as demand may have gone or the owners come to different conclusions about what they think will make them happy and give them a good life.
If anything, the demise of all that petrol-driven locomotion - perhaps only temporary - should make a significant change to levels of pollution.
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First and foremost I refuse to call and accept this time as the new NORMAL. It's not normal and I will fight to keep my life and work on tract.
Peter
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First and foremost I refuse to call and accept this time as the new NORMAL. It's not normal and I will fight to keep my life and work on tract.
Peter
Quite right. I used the term "new normal" above and that was a bad choice of words, a dumb cliché.
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Quite right. I used the term "new normal" above and that was a bad choice of words, a dumb cliché.
Robert in no way was I responding to your use of normal. The NEWS in all it's forms is guilty..."WE" all should just surrender! NO I will not accept a diluted life. I can still be me and not compromise a single sole.
Sitting in one's home watching the news 24/7 is a DEATH sentence. I won't accept....I will not put my head in the noose, if the noose finds me so be it.
Peter
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I believe you're right: most of us Brits who lived through WW2, where cinemas were the only relief, believed that all Americans lived Hollywood lives, which was why so many became GI brides: the desire for escape. Only much later did people begin to understand that the American Dream was just that: a dream. Same everywhere; some rise to the top, and they are at the top because the rest are far below, which is simple enough to understand, once you think about it. So Hollywood, Bollywood or some studio in the south of England - the fantasy machines keep churning - or they did until this week when productions got suspended.
It's my suspicion that this crisis will continue for quite a while, and that if it lasts long enough to pass some critical turning point, we will mostly have changed our ways for ever. I think a lot of businesses will vanish and not reopen, either as demand may have gone or the owners come to different conclusions about what they think will make them happy and give them a good life.
If anything, the demise of all that petrol-driven locomotion - perhaps only temporary - should make a significant change to levels of pollution.
It's true that most Americans aren't millionaires. But you missed the point. The rest aren't at the bottom or poor. America has a huge middle class who live better than 90% of the rest of the world. Also, you didn't mention freedom. Many came here and still come here not for wealth but just for freedom, to escape political, religious and other personal oppression. Not everything's about money.
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Nick Heath, a suddenly-unemployed rugby commentator in London, seems to have figured out how to use his idle time (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LiveCommentary?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw).
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Quite right. I used the term "new normal" above and that was a bad choice of words, a dumb cliché.
That depends on how quickly something becomes normal.
Before the digital age it took time for news to spread further than via the tv or radio; the rest was a case of local mouth-to-mouth conversation. That meant that folks could be up to date with what was broadcast, but that also meant the rôle of propaganda could be far more powerful in all sorts of ways. So, consequently, new information leading to change took time, and that directly governed and governs what the speed of reaching different versions of normality can mean.
Today, with the speed with which we adapt to events worldwide, with so much information available about deaths, infections and the rest of it, driven by graphically powerful images of streets empty of anyone but police and/or military, the sense of déjà-vu cuts in and allows us to think it's been like this for months with all of us because, in a sense, it has, the crisis creeping from country to country but still seen in our own homes as it were happening on our own streets from day one of the pandemic.
So yeah, the new normal does seem to have been a legitimate phrase to use. And I do believe it's going to be the norm for a helluva long time to come, if the authorities have the sense to keep the isolation measures in place long enough to be certain that the thing is dead and not just lingering in the wings. I fear that they will not wait, and decide to sound the all clear far too soon and throw us right back in where we are today.
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So I'm getting board of making Gouda and Gruyere, and just realized I have the cultures for Emmentaler.
Think I'll start that today, plus it is getting warm enough in my garage for hole development. :D
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So I'm getting board of making Gouda and Gruyere, and just realized I have the cultures for Emmentaler.
Think I'll start that today, plus it is getting warm enough in my garage for hole development. :D
Make it too big and the garage will fall in.
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So I'm getting board of making Gouda and Gruyere, and just realized I have the cultures for Emmentaler.
Think I'll start that today, plus it is getting warm enough in my garage for hole development. :D
Stop it, I'm hungry.
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Stop it, I'm hungry.
They're starting to ration milk and I only have enough rennet for two more batches, so ...
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After this is all over, there's going to be a big push to bring a lot of manufacturing back to the US, or at least certain stuff that seems important. I wouldn't be surprised to see Biden making the pitch first to distinguish himself from Trump. As people die and more get sick, it's going to get more political.
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After this is all over, there's going to be a big push to bring a lot of manufacturing back to the US, or at least certain stuff that seems important. I wouldn't be surprised to see Biden making the pitch first to distinguish himself from Trump. As people die and more get sick, it's going to get more political.
Thump ran last time on bringing business home from China and has continued to push business to do so.
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Make it too big and the garage will fall in.
Took me longer then it should have to get this Rob.
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After this is all over, there's going to be a big push to bring a lot of manufacturing back to the US, or at least certain stuff that seems important. I wouldn't be surprised to see Biden making the pitch first to distinguish himself from Trump. As people die and more get sick, it's going to get more political.
According to Wikipedia, the US remains a major manufacturing country (second largest in the world), it's just that American factories are more automated than Chinese ones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States)).
Requiring alternate sourcing on strategically important products should be standard operating procedure for everyone. Why this isn't the case now is a good question to ask people running for office. It's the oldest advice in the book, diversify.
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They're starting to ration milk and I only have enough rennet for two more batches, so ...
what's the yield on your cheese production? How many pounds of cheese from 2 gallons of milk?
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According to Wikipedia, the US remains a major manufacturing country (second largest in the world), it's just that American factories are more automated than Chinese ones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States)).
Requiring alternate sourcing on strategically important products should be standard operating procedure for everyone. Why this isn't the case now is a good question to ask people running for office. It's the oldest advice in the book, diversify.
Much of American manufacturing is really assembly of parts purchased from somewhere else.
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According to Wikipedia, the US remains a major manufacturing country (second largest in the world), it's just that American factories are more automated than Chinese ones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States)).
Requiring alternate sourcing on strategically important products should be standard operating procedure for everyone. Why this isn't the case now is a good question to ask people running for office. It's the oldest advice in the book, diversify.
Most lessons are learned the hard way.
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What to do during the year of the modern plague?
If I were an American, I suppose I'd be tempted to buy another comfort gun.
As I am not, and can't buy one anyway, I expect to do much the same as I have during all the years since my wife died, but instead of eating lunch out every day, eat my own rubbish instead. In place of walking through the marina after lunch and envying the Riva and Sunseeker owners, I shall make the most of the permitted, essential purposes walks to buy food or visit banks and chemists, and do the rest of the required walking on my fortunately quite large terrace.
I can also relax all thought and tensions of selling up because nobody in their right mind will be buying - nor can they get here if not Spaniards - and even if I could sell, no way can I presently leave the country and drive back up through France and get a ferry across to Britain; so where would I live post-sale? So yeah, that's a sort of peaceful by-product of isolation.
Photography: I kinda gave up on that a couple of months ago; anything I really, really want to do I can't do any longer, and what I can do doesn't interest me much anymore. I'd like to buy a few more monographs, but have no space left for new without forcing me to relegate one favourite or another to the other rooms where nobody goes, not even my family, since they can no longer get here. That said, the Sarah Moons and, in particular, the Deborah Turbeville one I want are all too steep for my pension - especially as it tumbles in translation to the Euro. Books over 300 bucks are out, way out of my junior league, so Debbie will have to linger until the Euromillones lottery starts up again and my number floats in. At least, no lottery running means I save five euros a week; almost three coffees! Oh, and I can't sit at the pavement tables and buy the coffees anyway. All closed.
Perhaps one might buy shares in Netflix? They must rocket, with so many people unable to go outdoors at night. Not many new shows will get filmed, though.
I am thinking that a year may be an optimistic expectation. As with climate change, so many people in deep, deep denial may make this an existential situation for mankind.
Rob
Hey Rob - I didn't realise you were thinking of moving back to the UK. If you do come back, get in touch and we can go for a walk and chat - we're between the New Forest and the seafront.
Jim
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Business as usual, but with some changes. First, all my jazz performances and group rehearsals have been cancelled, so we're meeting virtually, and practicing individually more than before. Second, I decided to relearn math from linear algebra through integral calculus. (That shouldn't take too long, right? lol.) Third, get out in nature with my camera and take many more photos. Forth, stay healthy and do everything I can to ensure others remain healthy as well.
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Business as usual, but with some changes. First, all my jazz performances and group rehearsals have been cancelled, so we're meeting virtually, and practicing individually more than before. Second, I decided to relearn math from linear algebra through integral calculus. (That shouldn't take too long, right? lol.) Third, get out in nature with my camera and take many more photos. Forth, stay healthy and do everything I can to ensure others remain healthy as well.
A lot of people are going to be badly hurt in this situation, but you've reminded me that perhaps no group will be hurt more than professional musicians -- if crowds aren't allowed, bands won't be hired, and they were already some of the lowest paid professionals around. Music lessons are also collapsing, with people trying to keep things going on Skyp and Face Time, but that really doesn't work very well. Music lessons also tend to be one of the first things to get dropped when money gets tight. I have a lot of musical friends here, and what's going to happen to them, I don't know.
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After this is all over, there's going to be a big push to bring a lot of manufacturing back to the US, or at least certain stuff that seems important. I wouldn't be surprised to see Biden making the pitch first to distinguish himself from Trump. As people die and more get sick, it's going to get more political.
As long as the public is willing to pay for the made in the USA merchandise. There was a reason why it moved off shore in the first place.
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Business as usual, but with some changes. First, all my jazz performances and group rehearsals have been cancelled, so we're meeting virtually, and practicing individually more than before. Second, I decided to relearn math from linear algebra through integral calculus. (That shouldn't take too long, right? lol.) Third, get out in nature with my camera and take many more photos. Forth, stay healthy and do everything I can to ensure others remain healthy as well.
That sounds like a great plan. YOu take wonderful photos already so adding to them would be terrific. Good luck and stay healthy. Alan.
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As long as the public is willing to pay for the made in the USA merchandise. There was a reason why it moved off shore in the first place.
With millions unemployed, the cost of American labor is going to drop. Minimum wage laws will become a hardship. Additionally, with the Fed printing so much, inflation will kick in. The currency is going to be devalued making imports from China and other countries more expensive. The combination will give many opportunities for manufacturing at home. Prices for home made stuff will be more costly for the rest of us. The nation's wealth and standard of living are going to take a big hit.
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Hey Rob - I didn't realise you were thinking of moving back to the UK. If you do come back, get in touch and we can go for a walk and chat - we're between the New Forest and the seafront.
Jim
Hi Jim,
I'll be going up to Glasgow - if I can eventually sell - so walking down from there may take more than my compulsory hour (orders of my various cardiologists)! The planned route would be to ferry from Zeebrugge to Hull; we once took the ferry from Rosyth to Z. and it was its second or third run: beautiful new ship. It didn't last as a service: not enough punters. Which was a pity, because it would have saved all the horrors of having to drive up through England.
That said, it all turned out to have been academic anyhow: I had my first heart attack a couple of months after that delightful trip from Rosyth, and my wife refused to let us drive back again - she said it would be too much stress, which wasn't the case - I loved those drives: the problem was cholestesrol. That said, I did have another attack, so it would have been curtains probably if we'd found ourselves en route at the time.
During our first few trips, we could leave from just outside Perth, Scotland, at about 07:30 hrs, take a Dover ferry and be in a hotel in France by 20:00 hrs or thereabouts. On later trips back south, we usually never got further than Hemel Hempstead (of Kodak fame!) or, if memory serves, once as far as Ashford. How traffic grew!
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With millions unemployed, the cost of American labor is going to drop. Minimum wage laws will become a hardship. Additionally, with the Fed printing so much, inflation will kick in. The currency is going to be devalued making imports from China and other countries more expensive. The combination will give many opportunities for manufacturing at home. Prices for home made stuff will be more costly for the rest of us. The nation's wealth and standard of living are going to take a big hit.
Only for the survivors.
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Only for the survivors.
Yes, when you get up in the morning, thank GOd for giving you another day to breathe.
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Welp, it is raining and my fig tree, two blueberry plants, and five raspberry plants arrived with a plant ASAP.
Guess I'll be gardening in the rain.
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About a year ago, maybe two, there was a spate of podcasts, interviews, books releases, etc., about a few billionaires who were buying up desert compounds and building underground bunkers with long-term life support systems, getting ready for the end times.
Anybody hear about any silicone valley VCs dropping out of sight and paddling up the access doors?
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About a year ago, maybe two, there was a spate of podcasts, interviews, books releases, etc., about a few billionaires who were buying up desert compounds and building underground bunkers with long-term life support systems, getting ready for the end times.
Anybody hear about any silicone valley VCs dropping out of sight and paddling up the access doors?
I'd rather end when the end of time comes than emerge from my bunker all by myself in this world that would once again be run by the bugs like cockroaches which have evolved to survive anything.
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I'd rather end when the end of time comes than emerge from my bunker all by myself in this world that would once again be run by the bugs like cockroaches which have evolved to survive anything.
No argument from me. I just wondered what event would prompt them to take such an action. Will this one do? Be interesting to see some press photos of them as they descend the ladder and lock up. Maybe a web cam pointed at the doors so we could monitor the way we do with eagle nests now. While we still could, I mean. :)
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About a year ago, maybe two, there was a spate of podcasts, interviews, books releases, etc., about a few billionaires who were buying up desert compounds and building underground bunkers with long-term life support systems, getting ready for the end times.
Anybody hear about any silicone valley VCs dropping out of sight and paddling up the access doors?
Because someone is “clever” at inventing social media shit and marketing crap doesn’t mean they will be good in a real survival situation. I would rather go live with a bunch of subsistence farmers on the Tanzanian coast. They know how to get along without all sorts of stuff and they are actually nice people. I would rather bite the veins out of my own neck than be stuck in a bunker with Bezos and Zuckerberg.
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Because someone is “clever” at inventing social media shit and marketing crap doesn’t mean they will be good in a real survival situation. I would rather go live with a bunch of subsistence farmers on the Tanzanian coast. They know how to get along without all sorts of stuff and they are actually nice people. I would rather bite the veins out of my own neck than be stuck in a bunker with Bezos and Zuckerberg.
I would completely agree with this. Farming is not as easy as Bloomberg would like us to believe. Many pilgrims died throughout the ages because they did not bring someone with them who knew how to farm. This was the case at Plymouth and, as I found out last month, the case in Sydney.
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I did a fair amount of gardening today, with some odd stuff tomorrow. It is suppose to rain though, so back inside.
I have enough rennet for one more 6 gallon batch, and, assuming I can get the milk, I may whip up a wheel of Stilton. I love blue cheese and have a wheel and half of Rochefort (about 15 lbs worth) in the fridge, but it just turns way too fast. Stilton can be aged for quite a few months, so I think Stilton it is. :D
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I did a fair amount of gardening today, with some odd stuff tomorrow. It is suppose to rain though, so back inside.
I have enough rennet for one more 6 gallon batch, and, assuming I can get the milk, I may whip up a wheel of Stilton. I love blue cheese and have a wheel and half of Rochefort (about 15 lbs worth) in the fridge, but it just turns way too fast. Stilton can be aged for quite a few months, so I think Stilton it is. :D
You are not going to survive on cheese.
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You are not going to survive on cheese.
Well actually ...
The leading theory on why people of Europe and a small part of NW Africa developed lactose tolerance, whereas everyone else is lactose intolerant, was due to using dairy products as a way to combat against famine. Of course this means a lot of people died from eating dairy who could not in those areas, leaving only those who could to pass along that gene.
If it worked for us in the past, can certainly work for us today.
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Well actually ...
The leading theory on why people of Europe and a small part of NW Africa developed lactose tolerance, whereas everyone else is lactose intolerant, was due to using dairy products as a way to combat against famine. Of course this means a lot of people died from eating dairy who could not in those areas, leaving only those who could to pass along that gene.
If it worked for us in the past, can certainly work for us today.
I enjoyed it too much too; then it bit my ass by trying to kill me with cholesterol - twice. And I had instanly changed my ways as I left hospital the first time.
To expand: after my wife died, I thought about resuming the trans-France drives we had both enjoyed, but couldn't drive away the knowledge that though having her along for the ride was maybe 80% of the buzz, the rest was the French food and the travelling itself. As she was gone and much of the food forever prohibited, where lay the point? I'd just be making myself financially more poor, and almost certainly very unhappy whilst I was travelling alone through once-shared visions of paradise.
What's the point of being lactose tollerant if the cholesterol is gonna take you out?
Rob
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I enjoyed it too much too; then it bit my ass by trying to kill me with cholesterol - twice. And I had instanly changed my ways as I left hospital the first time.
To expand: after my wife died, I thought about resuming the trans-France drives we had both enjoyed, but couldn't drive away the knowledge that though having her along for the ride was maybe 80% of the buzz, the rest was the French food and the travelling itself. As she was gone and much of the food forever prohibited, where lay the point? I'd just be making myself financially more poor, and almost certainly very unhappy whilst I was travelling alone through once-shared visions of paradise.
What's the point of being lactose tollerant if the cholesterol is gonna take you out?
Rob
You should start speaking French then. I think speaking English is what kills you.
Why the French Live Longer (https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2017/french-health-longevity-weight.html)
PS, after actually reading that article, it may not be 100% applicable here.
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You should start speaking French then. I think speaking English is what kills you.
Why the French Live Longer (https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2017/french-health-longevity-weight.html)
Those five cardinal rules (sex sadly no longer an option) have been my way of life for almost forty years. And I have already passed the die-by date suggested in the more optimistic figure.
Eating well does not imply getting fat. Avoiding fizzy stuff does help, and fortunately, although my second-best calendar client was a brewery, I have not had a taste for the product. When shooting in the South of France for that brewery, I walked into the Carlton Hotel in Cannes and asked for their PR officer. My request for permission to utilise the grounds for a couple of shots was instantly turned down, and he had no qualms about telling me that beer was far too downmarket a product with which to allow the hotel to be publicly associate, and had we been shooting for another kind of alcoholic beverage, there would have been no problem at all. I could hardly disagree: he reflected my own view. I hate seeing women drinking beer.
Beer is as fattening as all the sugary soft drinks.
But, regarding the PR guy: I got my revenge:
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My own theory about why French people live longer is because they take long vacations and enjoy them more.
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My own theory about why French people live longer is because they take long vacations and enjoy them more.
They also start lunch earlier than most, and if you are driving and stop at a pretty restaurant after 13:00 hrs you are likely to be turned away. Tourist resorts are different, but would you prefer eating in them?
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My own theory about why French people live longer is because they take long vacations and enjoy them more.
I have read that the French still, for the most part, practice many fopas around food that we have abandoned, such as dont eat in public like when you are shopping. The French also tend to only eat large meals on special occasions or at a dinner party, and dont go over board when eating alone or with just your direct family.
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Well actually ...
The leading theory on why people of Europe and a small part of NW Africa developed lactose tolerance, whereas everyone else is lactose intolerant, was due to using dairy products as a way to combat against famine. Of course this means a lot of people died from eating dairy who could not in those areas, leaving only those who could to pass along that gene.
If it worked for us in the past, can certainly work for us today.
I never heard of lactose intolerance until maybe ten or twenty years ago. Everyone ate milk and cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I was a kid. Who didn't eat ice cream? Also grilled cheese sandwiches. American cheese or Velveeta if not fancy cheeses. Sometimes I think it's one of those diseases that people just think they have because it's going through a "popular" phase. There's another illness regarding food that's going around now like that. I don;t recall the name right now.
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Those five cardinal rules (sex sadly no longer an option) have been my way of life for almost forty years. And I have already passed the die-by date suggested in the more optimistic figure.
Eating well does not imply getting fat. Avoiding fizzy stuff does help, and fortunately, although my second-best calendar client was a brewery, I have not had a taste for the product. When shooting in the South of France for that brewery, I walked into the Carlton Hotel in Cannes and asked for their PR officer. My request for permission to utilise the grounds for a couple of shots was instantly turned down, and he had no qualms about telling me that beer was far too downmarket a product with which to allow the hotel to be publicly associate, and had we been shooting for another kind of alcoholic beverage, there would have been no problem at all. I could hardly disagree: he reflected my own view. I hate seeing women drinking beer.
Beer is as fattening as all the sugary soft drinks.
But, regarding the PR guy: I got my revenge:
Revenge? Was that his girlfriend? :)
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This article addresses my earlier question about the super-rich and their isolation bunkers, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers).
Best of luck to them.
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I never heard of lactose intolerance until maybe ten or twenty years ago. Everyone ate milk and cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I was a kid. Who didn't eat ice cream? Also grilled cheese sandwiches. American cheese or Velveeta if not fancy cheeses. Sometimes I think it's one of those diseases that people just think they have because it's going through a "popular" phase. There's another illness regarding food that's going around now like that. I don;t recall the name right now.
Increases in peanut allergies is a very real thing; it's not made up like the majority of people saying they cant eat gluten. Now we dont fully know why it is increasing, but all evidence is pointing us living cleaner lives that actually does not allow our immune system to fully develop. On top of that, too much bad information with little to no scientific backing was spread around to new parents, such as dont let you child eat peanut butter when young. As it turns out though, feeding babies peanut based products decreases the chances significantly that they will develop a peanut allergy.
Insofar as being lactose intolerant, well about 90% of Europeans are lactose tolerant. Since roughly the majority of the USA are of European descent for a rather long period of, you would expect this to not have been a big deal in generations past. But since 70% of world is lactose intolerant, as that changed, this would become more and more problematic.
FYI, lactose tolerance is not a use it or loose deal either. It is a genetic mutation where your body will continue to produce lactase (the enzyme to break down lactose) past childhood that never goes away.
PS. the so called gallon challenge, where you try to drink a gallon of milk without vomiting, has nothing to do with lactose or dairy. It is due to your stomach not being big enough to store a gallon of any liquid. If you try it with water, unless you are very dehydrated, you would vomit too.
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This article addresses my earlier question about the super-rich and their isolation bunkers, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers).
Best of luck to them.
Plenty of time for being underground and darkness when you're dead and buried.
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Increases in peanut allergies is a very real thing; it's not made up like the majority of people saying they cant eat gluten. Now we dont fully know why it is increasing, but all evidence is pointing us living cleaner lives that actually does not allow our immune system to fully develop. On top of that, too much bad information with little to no scientific backing was spread around to new parents, such as dont let you child eat peanut butter when young. As it turns out though, feeding babies peanut based products decreases the chances significantly that they will develop a peanut allergy.
Insofar as being lactose intolerant, well about 90% of Europeans are lactose tolerant. Since roughly the majority of the USA are of European descent for a rather long period of, you would expect this to not have been a big deal in generations past. But since 70% of world is lactose intolerant, as that changed, this would become more and more problematic.
FYI, lactose tolerance is not a use it or loose deal either. It is a genetic mutation where your body will continue to produce lactase (the enzyme to break down lactose) past childhood that never goes away.
PS. the so called gallon challenge, where you try to drink a gallon of milk without vomiting, has nothing to do with lactose or dairy. It is due to your stomach not being big enough to store a gallon of any liquid. If you try it with water, unless you are very dehydrated, you would vomit too.
Sex ought to be like that.
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Scraped and cut a wheel of Rochefort today. It was getting a little funky and just starting to liquify, so I figured it was time to cut this up and slow down the ripening, aka "controlled rot." Plus the Penicillium Roqueforti mold on the outside had gotten so thick limited amounts of oxygen was getting to the inside, hence the yellowing in spots. Penicillium Roqueforti turns yellow as it dies, but not something to worry about if you have a piece of blue cheese and this starts happening.
Not quite at the intensity level we like yet, but give it another 2 months and it will be amazing.
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Joe, is that bacterium on blue cheese or what? I'm always hesitant to eat that cheese although I sometimes get a blue cheese dressing on iceberg lettuce wedge with bacon bits.
Maybe you shouldn't answer my question. I have a feeling I'm not going to like the answer. :)
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Scraped and cut a wheel of Rochefort today. It was getting a little funky and just starting to liquify, so I figured it was time to cut this up and slow down the ripening, aka "controlled rot." Plus the Penicillium Roqueforti mold on the outside had gotten so thick limited amounts of oxygen was getting to the inside, hence the yellowing in spots. Penicillium Roqueforti turns yellow as it dies, but not something to worry about if you have a piece of blue cheese and this starts happening.
Not quite at the intensity level we like yet, but give it another 2 months and it will be amazing.
Aw man, cut it out. We've run out of our favourite aged gouda and I won't be able to drive out to the factory outlet to get more any time soon.
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Joe, is that bacterium on blue cheese or what? I'm always hesitant to eat that cheese although I sometimes get a blue cheese dressing on iceberg lettuce wedge with bacon bits.
Maybe you shouldn't answer my question. I have a feeling I'm not going to like the answer. :)
Not bacteria, but mold, specifically Penicillium Roqueforti, which is the mold that gives blue cheese its flavor. It is perfectly safe to eat, albeit a little disconcerting the first time you see a wheel of blue before it is scraped.
Essentially all cheese is made with some type of bacteria, aka the cultures, that infects the milk, starts turning lactose into lactic acid and congeals the milk to a degree plus releasing flavor compounds. Left alone, this would turn into a yogurt like substance, but with cheese, we add rennet that causes the cheese to form one giant semi-solid curd. At this point the curd is cut down into smaller pieces, ranging from a 1/8 inch to a full inch cube and agitated for a period of time, which releases the whey. The initial size that the curd is cut down into and then by how much it is agitated dictates how hard or soft the cheese is. Larger curds produce a softer cheese.
With blue cheese, we also add Penicillium Roqueforti in addition to the culture. However, this mold needs oxygen to grow, so we cut large curds, let them dry out a bit before putting them in the cheese mold and let them just knit together under their own weight only. This allows for many fishers between the curds to remain and promotes air flow. After a couple weeks, the mold starts to grow in blue/green splotches and at this point we needle the wheel all over to increase air flow inside. (Notice the very thick veins; that is from the needling.) After about two to three months, the Penicillium Roqueforti mold completely covers the cheese, which is what you see in the first pick. At this point it has gotten so thick, no air flow is getting inside and it starts to yellow, so it is scraped off. I then wrapped it with parchment and foil, which will slow the growth but continue to increase the flavor.
With cheese making, mold is kind of expected and even encouraged. Even with cheeses that don't use mold, mold will eventually grow on the outside. You wipe it off with salt water until the a hard natural rind forms or you can wax or bandage it.
I bandage my wheels of Gouda, which is a process of covering the wheel with hot lard and then tightly wrapping the cheese in a few layers of lard soaked cheese cloth. The lard keeps mold from growing on the cheese directly, but mold does grow on the outer layer of cloth. This however is not enough for the mold to survive on for too long, and eventually the mold dies, hardens and creates a protective layer. Plus is allows for more air flow, increasing overall flavor development then just using wax.
Mold is a way of life.
PS, below is a pic of a few wheels in my "cave." The two on the left are bandaged Gouda I made a few months ago. As you can see, there is quite a lot of mold on the outside, but is only growing on the cheese cloth. Even if it did make it to the cheese, it is mainly Penicillium Roqueforti, which needs oxygen to live and Gouda is too dense for mold to get past the surface. The wheel 2nd from right is Gouda I made last week and bandaged a few days ago. The wheel on the right is Gruyere, which has a natural rind forming. Essentially I allow the exterior to dry out and harden, wiping it down with salt water and eventually it gets too dry for mold to grow on it. As you can see, it has strunk a good deal compared to the Gouda, another advantage of bandaging the wheel.
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Aw man, cut it out. We've run out of our favourite aged gouda and I won't be able to drive out to the factory outlet to get more any time soon.
That sucks. I'd tell you how to make it, but you would be looking at a 6 month process. Stay strong.
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Joe, that's amazing. Almost like developing film. Does the milk you buy and what the cow (or sheep or whatever) eats affect its taste? Do you sell these cheese or are they just for home consumption? At least you won't stave if things get really bad. I mean I could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But not from scratch. :)
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Joe, that's amazing. Almost like developing film. Does the milk you buy and what the cow (or sheep or whatever) eats affect its taste? Do you sell these cheese or are they just for home consumption? At least you won't stave if things get really bad. I mean I could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But not from scratch. :)
What the cow eats certainly has an effect on taste. I have tasted milk from cows that have had the not so standard diet of cows in the USA and there is a definite difference in taste. Granted, my palate is very well developed. All of my hobbies revolve around things in which I taste and have nuances of flavor, such as cooking, cheese making, beer brewing, cigar and wine collecting, etc. All of these have very subtle nuances of flavor that are hard to pick up to the novice, especially with wine and cigars. So how much the average person could detect a difference is up in the air.
With that said, the milk that I use for my cheese making is the standard "American" flavored milk.
What makes a big difference though is whether or now the milk is raw. Many of the cultures used in cheese making naturally occur in the regions the cheese originally come from. Traditional cheese makers in Europe actually mainly use raw milk and don't add any cultures since they are already present. (They do add the molds though in mold ripened cheese.) So using raw milk will have their own bacterias in them that will effect/enhance the flavor. Also, pasteurizing the changes the calcium bonds, which effects how well the curd will set. With pasteurized milk, you add calcium to help with setting but ultra-pasteurized will not set at all. So there is that.
Of course you run the risk of listeria and other food born illnesses with raw milk, but major cheese makers in Europe often have labs that test each shipment for these. In the USA you have to use pasteurized milk when making cheese. I would not trust any raw milk I get here since most small farmers probably have not had it checked for listeria.
I dont sell any; that would be illegal and too many regulations to deal with to make it so. Plus, if I did something wrong and people got sick, that is something I would not want to risk. Granted, friends and family try my concoctions all of the time, but I am also very careful with everything. On a commercial level though, I just don't have the training or confidence.
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Day one of our government 21 day shut down. Not even allowed to walk our dogs. I will head to the local supermarket next Wednesday. We have enough stuff but I like fresh fruit and vegetables. No alcohol allowed to be sold but I don’t drink so don’t care.
I have a table tennis table we are now using and I bought a dart board. Want to make ice cream tomorrow. Did a yoga class with a group of friends using zoom. Booked a three day shoot for as son as the shut down ends. Did two hours of meditation and will do another thirty minutes before bed.
I’m having a blast to be honest. Feel almost guilty.
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Day one of our government 21 day shut down. Not even allowed to walk our dogs. I will head to the local supermarket next Wednesday. We have enough stuff but I like fresh fruit and vegetables. No alcohol allowed to be sold but I don’t drink so don’t care.
I have a table tennis table we are now using and I bought a dart board. Want to make ice cream tomorrow. Did a yoga class with a group of friends using zoom. Booked a three day shoot for as son as the shut down ends. Did two hours of meditation and will do another thirty minutes before bed.
I’m having a blast to be honest. Feel almost guilty.
Some worrying scenes from S.A. townships on Sky News today, with folks ignoring the two-metres deal. As one person pointed out: six of us live in the same hut. One policeman trying to enforce the rule to no avail, then the military called in and with equal lack of joy. Below a link to Sky News:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sky+news+live&docid=608029044970422374&mid=998F656C88D670DB1E2F998F656C88D670DB1E2F&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
The world ain't ready.
Rob
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The world ain't ready.
We should look on the bright side. Not many are still saying it's just another flu anymore, so we got past that. And with everyone on earth going to bed praying for a vaccine, it's keeping the anti-vaxers quiet and out of the way. :)
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Some worrying scenes from S.A. townships on Sky News today, with folks ignoring the two-metres deal. As one person pointed out: six of us live in the same hut. One policeman trying to enforce the rule to no avail, then the military called in and with equal lack of joy. Below a link to Sky News:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sky+news+live&docid=608029044970422374&mid=998F656C88D670DB1E2F998F656C88D670DB1E2F&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
The world ain't ready.
Rob
Yep. I didn’t even bother to follow the link. I know what’s happening. I knew it was going to happen.
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We should look on the bright side. Not many are still saying it's just another flu anymore, so we got past that. And with everyone on earth going to bed praying for a vaccine, it's keeping the anti-vaxers quiet and out of the way. :)
I've been thinking about long term benefits for humanity that could come of this and things like this are at the top of the list.
Those of us who survive this may find a better informed populace on the other side or at least one more open to scientific thinking and solutions.
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I've been thinking about long term benefits for humanity that could come of this and things like this are at the top of the list.
Those of us who survive this may find a better informed populace on the other side or at least one more open to scientific thinking and solutions.
I hope you're right.
My preference is to be optimistic in outlook, while keeping an eye out for the bad stuff. Some things are sad to see though, like this report on the current online onslaught against Dr. Fauci, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBH1s-yhBw&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBH1s-yhBw&feature=youtu.be). The presenter will rub lots of people the wrong way, and they won't be able to get past that to listen to the content. I think she could have used a re-write. But it is astonishing that there is a move afoot to discredit Dr. Fauci and it's hard to figure out what the purpose is. What is the end-game. That kind of thing can wear down optimism.
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I hope you're right.
My preference is to be optimistic in outlook, while keeping an eye out for the bad stuff. Some things are sad to see though, like this report on the current online onslaught against Dr. Fauci, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBH1s-yhBw&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBH1s-yhBw&feature=youtu.be). The presenter will rub lots of people the wrong way, and they won't be able to get past that to listen to the content. I think she could have used a re-write. But it is astonishing that there is a move afoot to discredit Dr. Fauci and it's hard to figure out what the purpose is. What is the end-game. That kind of thing can wear down optimism.
Fauci, surprisingly, has been generally supportive of Trump and his plans. The left and the Democrats don't like that.
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Fauci, surprisingly, has been generally supportive of Trump and his plans. The left and the Democrats don't like that.
Hmm, you were saying you didn't like Fauci when I recently made a (so far incorrect, thankfully) prediction he was going to be removed.
I suspect you haven't watched the video because it's about Fauci not being liked by those on the right and the crazy conspiracies (like he is part of the deep state working with Hilary to undermine the president).
They don't like him when he contradicts the president. When he contradicts the president it's has been because the president is saying dangerously inaccurate things that are likely to get people killed.
I think Fauci is staying and persevering under these attacks out of his responsibility to help protect people. So this guy (me) on the left likes him.
If you have come around and you like now then maybe there's hope for you yet.
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Fauci, surprisingly, has been generally supportive of Trump and his plans.
Trump, surprisingly, has been generally supportive of Fauci and his plans.
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Hmm, you were saying you didn't like Fauci when I recently made a (so far incorrect, thankfully) prediction he was going to be removed.
I suspect you haven't watched the video because it's about Fauci not being liked by those on the right and the crazy conspiracies (like he is part of the deep state working with Hilary to undermine the president).
They don't like him when he contradicts the president. When he contradicts the president it's has been because the president is saying dangerously inaccurate things that are likely to get people killed.
I think Fauci is staying and persevering under these attacks out of his responsibility to help protect people. So this guy (me) on the left likes him.
If you have come around and you like now then maybe there's hope for you yet.
My feelings about Fauci came from a feeling I had about him from 30 years ago. Something political. But he seems to know how to play the game fairly well which probably accounts why he's been at this job all these decades. He's able to get his point across without seeming contradictory to political leadership. And frankly, as Elliot just said, Trump has listened to Fauci.
The president is not a robot following the opinions of his subordinates. That's not leadership. He's the president of the country and his job also includes being a booster, giving hope to people to help them get through difficult times. His job is to be positive when everything is or looks dire, when people are full of fear. But he's not stupid. He understands when he has to adjust his sails to the changing winds while still presenting a positive outlook.
The only difference between now and situations like that in the past is that the media is anti-Trump. They look for everything to diminish what he does, I'm sure the press didn;t criticize FDR when he said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself after the disaster of Pearl Harbor at the beginning of WWII. Our whole Pacific Fleet took a drubbing. The press got behind him instead of knocking him with comments like he doesn't appreciate how serious the situation is. Of cause Roosevelt knew that he was whistling past the graveyard with his comment. But his job was to encourage the people, to give hope. It would be nice if the press responded similarly.
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Trump, surprisingly, has been generally supportive of Fauci and his plans.
Eventually. When there was no other realistic option. :)
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I'm glad someone with at least some scientific literacy got through to Trump eventually. Time will tell if it sticks. (this is regarding the call to be open for business by Easter)
I agree he doesn't have to listen to "opinions of his subordinates". But this is often what a good leader does because they have the humility to know they are not experts in everything. Another thing a good leader does is surround themselves with knowledgeable people with the authority to disagree when their leader is misinformed.
As for words of encouragement, I agree they are an important part of leadership. But words of encouragement are not the same as discounting a legitimate crisis using misinformation. While that may comfort people right now, they will not feel that comfort when they are sick from following the president's recommendations that were in direct conflict with actual experts.
When given an easy opportunity to say something encouraging he responded this way:
Peter Alexander, White House correspondent at NBC News, asked the US president: “What do you say to Americans, who are watching you right now, who are scared?”
Trump responded with: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”
So I give him credit for not responding with misinformation but I have a feeling frightened Americans were not comforted by this. I know I wasn't.
In his position I would have tried to come up with a "We are all in this together and will get through this." kind of response. But that is not how he rolls.
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I'm glad someone with at least some scientific literacy got through to Trump eventually. Time will tell if it sticks. (this is regarding the call to be open for business by Easter)
I agree he doesn't have to listen to "opinions of his subordinates". But this is often what a good leader does because they have the humility to know they are not experts in everything. Another thing a good leader does is surround themselves with knowledgeable people with the authority to disagree when their leader is misinformed.
As for words of encouragement, I agree they are an important part of leadership. But words of encouragement are not the same as discounting a legitimate crisis using misinformation. While that may comfort people right now, they will not feel that comfort when they are sick from following the president's recommendations that were in direct conflict with actual experts.
When given an easy opportunity to say something encouraging he responded this way:
So I give him credit for not responding with misinformation but I have a feeling frightened Americans were not comforted by this. I know I wasn't.
In his position I would have tried to come up with a "We are all in this together and will get through this." kind of response. But that is not how he rolls.
I agree. He's a terrible and inexperienced politician who never was elected for anything before he became president. He talks and acts like the loudmouth New York real estate salesman from Queens who he is. It's what people love about him and hate about him. But if you actually look at his policy actions over the last four years, they've been pretty much what he said he'd do before the election and mainly positive in their consequences.
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I wonder if it's possible to slide even further off the topic of this thread, the respite from stress and the sweet alternative that it offered...
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I wonder if it's possible to slide even further off the topic of this thread, the respite from stress and the sweet alternative that it offered...
Quite right. I've watched a few youtube videos made by musicians from their home studios, sometimes in concert with other band mates from their own home studios, playing some of their famous (or otherwise) songs to entertain people stuck at home. Sam Roberts, Jim Cuddy, Barenakedladies are a few Canadian examples. It's not a small thing, requires some effort, but a decent thing to do. A few of them are recording the tunes with their own kids as back-up musicians and singers. They are a pleasure to watch, takes the mind off much worse things.
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I wonder if it's possible to slide even further off the topic of this thread, the respite from stress and the sweet alternative that it offered...
Sorry Rob, I forgot which thread I was replying in. I'll leave it alone here now.
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I'm having my golf day damn it!
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This one is making the rounds but in case you haven't seen it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4XxnL4lPk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4XxnL4lPk). That took a fair bit of rehearsal time, I'm guessing.
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Sorry Rob, I forgot which thread I was replying in. I'll leave it alone here now.
Don't, for a moment, think yourself singled out: it's a general malaise that happens - I think - when any thread runs past a critical number. A bit like Chinese whispers, attention spans frequently become easily too stretched, and dedicated thought drifts into other waters. In some cases it can be quite rewarding, but I suppose that this was one thread that might have been thought to offer an opportunity of lifting the spirits away from gloom, doom, numbers, political cant and partisan skirmishes. That said, as so many of the contributions appear to have no purpose but to influence the next US general election, perhaps that's what the writing majority actually finds more interesting than themselves and their personal ways of coping with this crisis. Come to think of it, pushing party propaganda may be all some of them have as an identifiable personality.
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Don't, for a moment, think yourself singled out: it's a general malaise that happens - I think - when any thread runs past a critical number. A bit like Chinese whispers, attention spans frequently become easily too stretched, and dedicated thought drifts into other waters. In some cases it can be quite rewarding, but I suppose that this was one thread that might have been thought to offer an opportunity of lifting the spirits away from gloom, doom, numbers, political cant and partisan skirmishes. That said, as so many of the contributions appear to have no purpose but to influence the next US general election, perhaps that's what the writing majority actually finds more interesting than themselves and their personal ways of coping with this crisis. Come to think of it, pushing party propaganda may be all some of them have as an identifiable personality.
LOL!
No names, no pack drill.
;-)
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Don't, for a moment, think yourself singled out: it's a general malaise that happens - I think - when any thread runs past a critical number. A bit like Chinese whispers, attention spans frequently become easily too stretched, and dedicated thought drifts into other waters. In some cases it can be quite rewarding, but I suppose that this was one thread that might have been thought to offer an opportunity of lifting the spirits away from gloom, doom, numbers, political cant and partisan skirmishes. That said, as so many of the contributions appear to have no purpose but to influence the next US general election, perhaps that's what the writing majority actually finds more interesting than themselves and their personal ways of coping with this crisis. Come to think of it, pushing party propaganda may be all some of them have as an identifiable personality.
I am under the impression that for some the entertainment during the lockdown is the attempted launch the 2nd American Civil War.
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I am under the impression that for some the entertainment during the lockdown is the attempted launch the 2nd American Civil War.
That's going to prove to be a logistical problem. Hollywood won't be operating because of the virus, and will thus be unable to record, edit and show the improved version of the show.
Anyway, who's gonna play John Wayne? Trump?
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Okay, the lead hero's not in place yet, but the anthem is:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2iZdVXJmE
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Okay, the lead hero's not in place yet, but the anthem is:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nh2iZdVXJmE
There has got to be room for this one, maybe during ending credits? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c).
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Working on my driver currently.
Up next will be the 3 Iron.
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A sampling of fresh work, shot just before the shutdown. They went live today...
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A sampling of fresh work, shot just before the shutdown. They went live today...
A good friend of mine has been jonesing for one of those high-end RVs for years but just can't bring himself to spend the money. Meanwhile, time passes.
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A sampling of fresh work, shot just before the shutdown. They went live today...
Craig, you really make those RV's sing.
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A good friend of mine has been jonesing for one of those high-end RVs for years but just can't bring himself to spend the money. Meanwhile, time passes.
As much as I like cashing the checks for shooting them, they are way beyond my means.
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Craig, you really make those RV's sing.
Thanks Alan. I have 9 more to shoot on this project, just not sure when that is going to happen.
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Thanks Alan. I have 9 more to shoot on this project, just not sure when that is going to happen.
Maybe I could borrow one of them for a few weeks to test out. Of course, I'm not sure if there's any place to run to escape the virus.
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There has got to be room for this one, maybe during ending credits? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c).
A fine ambtiion - even at my age!
I would love to have some shooting time in that location. No with any of the three wearing ball-crusher pants, but with a model of choice. Or even just with the locations.
Rob
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A good friend of mine has been jonesing for one of those high-end RVs for years but just can't bring himself to spend the money. Meanwhile, time passes.
I'd rather have a boat. My wife and I were offered a week in her parent's large caravan. We lasted a night. Not our thing. However, nights on yachts ended far too soon.
The lesson of the yachts was that it's nice to able to kiss the hosts adieu and know you don't have to keep paying the crew, the various marinas, stumping up for the diesel etc. If ever there was a true saying about boats it's this: if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it.
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I'd rather have a boat.
The lesson of the yachts was that it's nice to able to kiss the hosts adieu and know you don't have to keep paying the crew, the various marinas, stumping up for the diesel etc. If ever there was a true saying about boats it's this: if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it.
All That...............and they BOB!
Peter
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I'd rather have a boat. My wife and I were offered a week in her parent's large caravan. We lasted a night. Not our thing. However, nights on yachts ended far too soon.
The lesson of the yachts was that it's nice to able to kiss the hosts adieu and know you don't have to keep paying the crew, the various marinas, stumping up for the diesel etc. If ever there was a true saying about boats it's this: if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it.
How big of a boat? I used to photograph lots of cruisers, up to 40 feet. I always thought having one would be great, moored on Lake Michigan, just an hour from the city where we had the studio. Then we thought about it. Only 4 months of weather good enough to make being on it pleasant, dock fees, storage fees, fuel costs if you actually took it out, maintaining it....well you know the picture.
Then the 08 crash ended the marine business and I was no longer tempted whenever a nice big cruiser came into the studio. Luck me😂
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How big of a boat? I used to photograph lots of cruisers, up to 40 feet. I always thought having one would be great, moored on Lake Michigan, just an hour from the city where we had the studio. Then we thought about it. Only 4 months of weather good enough to make being on it pleasant, dock fees, storage fees, fuel costs if you actually took it out, maintaining it....well you know the picture.
Then the 08 crash ended the marine business and I was no longer tempted whenever a nice big cruiser came into the studio. Luck me😂
Many years ago, I amused myself one summer by travelling to and photographing every lock on the Trent-Severn river system, which is a major recreational boatway from Trenton, Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay. At one of the locks I met a couple in a fairly large sailboat from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They had spent the summer travelling by boat, not sure of their departure point, but they made their up Lake Michigan, across Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, down the Trent-Severn to Trenton, then across Lake Ontario to the Rideau River system locks all the way to Ottawa and were on their way back home via the same route. Wouldn't 2020 be a perfect summer for that kind of voyage, gas is cheap, probably less congestion at the locks, etc.
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I was once told a boat is nothing but a hole in the water you throw money into.
After knowing a couple people who had one, I cant say I disagree with it.
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Many years ago, I amused myself one summer by travelling to and photographing every lock on the Trent-Severn river system, which is a major recreational boatway from Trenton, Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay. At one of the locks I met a couple in a fairly large sailboat from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They had spent the summer travelling by boat, not sure of their departure point, but they made their up Lake Michigan, across Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, down the Trent-Severn to Trenton, then across Lake Ontario to the Rideau River system locks all the way to Ottawa and were on their way back home via the same route. Wouldn't 2020 be a perfect summer for that kind of voyage, gas is cheap, probably less congestion at the locks, etc.
Yes it would be a great time to do this if you had the boat, time and money.
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I was once told a boat is nothing but a hole in the water you throw money into.
After knowing a couple people who had one, I cant say I disagree with it.
If I had a place in the Keys ( I love Islamorada) or something similar a boat would be a great thing to have. Lots of places to go and a long boating season. One of my favorite boating dreams would be a trip from Key West to the Dry Tortugas, staying on the boat or camping on the island. But alas its but a pipe dream. No boats in my future, but maybe a trip to the Dry Toutugas.
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Okay, brownie points to anyone who can tell me the brand and model!
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FYI, if you ever shoot golf clubs, shoot them before you use them. You're spend much less time in Photoshop.
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FYI, if you ever shoot golf clubs, shoot them before you use that. You're spend much less time in Photoshop.
Pretty much the case with everything. Even out of the box stuff can look pretty bad. Never mind dust.
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How big of a boat? I used to photograph lots of cruisers, up to 40 feet. I always thought having one would be great, moored on Lake Michigan, just an hour from the city where we had the studio. Then we thought about it. Only 4 months of weather good enough to make being on it pleasant, dock fees, storage fees, fuel costs if you actually took it out, maintaining it....well you know the picture.
Then the 08 crash ended the marine business and I was no longer tempted whenever a nice big cruiser came into the studio. Luck me😂
Most of our cruising in the Med was on a 25m (82ft.) Italian boat - Wild B - built at Cantieri Navali in Fregene, the coastal town near Rome, which also featured as location for the final villa party in La Dolce Vita.
When our friends sold that one, they bought an even larger one - a ninety-something feet motor sailer which was going to go to South America and up the Amazon a ways. Cancer ended that ambition for him, and a couple of years she was gone too. That sailing one was called Giriz 2.
Rob
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Most of our cruising in the Med was on a 25m (82ft.) Italian boat - Wild B - built at Cantieri Navali in Fregene, the coastal town near Rome, which also featured as location for the final villa party in La Dolce Vita.
When our friends sold that one, they bought an even larger one - a ninety-something feet motor sailer which was going to go to South America and up the Amazon a ways. Cancer ended that ambition for him, and a couple of years she was gone too. That sailing one was called Giriz 2.
Rob
Those are some wonderful boats Rob. I’m sure there are some fond memories, despite’s the demise of your friends. You lived quite a life😎
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With too much time on my hands I got convinced by my wife to give the dog a haircut (first time ever). Let's say I will have another pass tomorrow.
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With too much time on my hands I got convinced by my wife to give the dog a haircut (first time ever). Let's say I will have another pass tomorrow.
I used to shave my Bouviers every spring and fall right to the skin, leaving the hair just on their heads, so for a few weeks they looked like lions.
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Well, work has been very busy, mostly from home.
Then, since I have a child in school away from school, a lot of time is spent with her also.
Having just redone my home studio I spend a bit of time here trying out a couple of things I hadn't had time to do, such as testing the Depth of Field stacking capability of the GFX-100, planning better camera profiling, complaining about the sub-par performance of the new Mac Pro with C1 Pro,... ;)
Cheers,
Bernard
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Those are some wonderful boats Rob. I’m sure there are some fond memories, despite’s the demise of your friends. You lived quite a life😎
Indeed, there were some very happy years of paid photographic travel (I think we went to every place we wanted to go and a couple we would rather have avoided), lotus-eating and thinking life would never change. Worse, it all became taken for granted, along with everything else. I achieved my life dreams of getting into Vogue and into calendars; before any of that happened I got the buzz of photographing BB who had been my fantasy. My wife and I had each other, we were in love since schooldays, and we always managed to have enough money to live decent lives, have a car or two and pay the bills with a few pennies in the bank for our old-age. Little did we suspect that one day the banks would decide to stop paying visible interest, that in retirement, stock Kodachromes would become worthless, and relationships with the banks become a matter of withdrawls and redundant pay-in booklets. Then worst of all, she found cancer and in four years was no more.
As a result, my life since then has been one of believing that I am still here for a purpose, but feeling absolutely unable to understand what the hell that purpose might be. Maybe in the end, it's just to create a natural balance of good times and not so good times.
As I might have mentioned before, photography without purpose doesn't quite seem to fit the bill, unless it's just to be the bunny whose battery lasts longest.
;-)
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This week was a Double Creme Brie week.
I made two wheels, weighing about 7 lb. total. By fair the messiest cheese with the greatest chance to go awry. I almost lost the first wheel down the drain; thankfully I saved 2/3s of the curds.
Should be ready in two to three months.
Currently have roughly 18 lb of Gouda, 12 lb of Gruyere, 6 lb of Emmentaler, 16 lb Rochefort, 9 lb of English Stilton, and, now, 7 lb of Brie. We should be good if shit goes south.
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Interesting hobby. How long did it take to master it?
So far I only made yogurt, long time time, while in the dorms.
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Interesting hobby. How long did it take to master it?
So far I only made yogurt, long time time, while in the dorms.
I make kiefer on a schedule where I have enough every day to make a drink with greens, seeds, fruit and almond milk. My wife swears the drink helps her Parkinson's symptoms.
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I made Purell equivalent hand sanitizer. 1/3 Aloe to 2/3 91% isopropyl alcohol and 6 drops of lemon. Stir around in a bowl and pour into a pump dispenser. That and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. By the way Joe, can you eat that much cheese only? Wouldn't it do something to your digestive system?
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Interesting hobby. How long did it take to master it?
So far I only made yogurt, long time time, while in the dorms.
Master? I would never claim to be a master of anything but my specific profession, and even then there is always room for improvement.
But anyway, I am very much of the mind set that things are fast or tedious, not difficult or easy. So not to long to learn how to make the cheeses I like, namely the ones I listed. With that said, there are many different cheeses out there all requiring different processes and cultures/molds, and the list is very long insofar as cultures and molds available to use. Some are of no interest to me, like English Cheddar, and some are way to involved for such a little pay off, like fresh mozzarella.
Plus I have always been into cooking and anything that involves flavors, and I don't get grossed out easily. It can be a little off putting to long term age food at temperatures significantly above refrigeration while watching molds and bacterias grow all over them. So being able to handle that mentally I think is important.
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I make kiefer on a schedule where I have enough every day to make a drink with greens, seeds, fruit and almond milk. My wife swears the drink helps her Parkinson's symptoms.
What is kiefer? (Sorry to hear about your wife's condition.)
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By master I meant comfortable enough with the process that you get close to what you want.
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I made Purell equivalent hand sanitizer. 1/3 Aloe to 2/3 91% isopropyl alcohol and 6 drops of lemon. Stir around in a bowl and pour into a pump dispenser. That and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. By the way Joe, can you eat that much cheese only? Wouldn't it do something to your digestive system?
Can I eat that much cheese only? I would guess not, but cheese will stay good for pretty long so long as you have the right storage space. The optimal storage for cheese is 52F and 84% RH, for most cheeses, and 98% RH for any mold ripened cheeses BTW. Now how long is really dependent on the cheese and how it is processed.
Very dense cheeses, like Parm and Gruyere, will stay good for like 10 years. Semi-hard cheeses will stay good for up to 4 years. Plus, you can split the wheel and age half of it with the proper conditioning. You will loose part of that half wheel due to a new rind developing, but it will still be good to age.
Now mold ripened cheeses like Blue and Brie only last for 3 to 9 months. Adding a mold to the cheese and processing it to be soft greatly accelerates oxygen flow and rot, so those cheeses will liquify pretty quickly. Think of a pungent Camembert that oozes out at room temp; it is very close to being completely rotted. By the time it reached your home, it probably had only two or three more weeks before it turns to just liquid. Brie turns pretty fast. My blues we will cut into around 10 weeks and then portion them, wrapped them in plastic (slowing aging a bit by reducing oxygen flow) and slowly eating them over a few months. They will continually get sharper and sharper.
Very soft cheeses will turn within a week after they are made.
So it depends on the cheese.
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By master I meant comfortable enough with the process that you get close to what you want.
A few months to get the process down. I tend to jump right into things.
I would guess it takes a lifetime to master this though, especially with harder cheeses. They just take so long to age before you can truly access what you did. Makes it kind of hard to self critique accurately, and I am guessing is very important to have a great teacher.
I will say that the first time I made Rochefort though, it was quite interesting. Any blue cheese gets completely covered in the blue mold, and the wheel becomes hairy fuzzy grayish blue. It also starts to ooze very sharp smelling liquid at around 3 months, and becomes quite soft and moist. (Like I said, it is controlling rot.) My wife let me try that first and gave it a full day to make sure I did not get sick before she had some.
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Can I eat that much cheese only? I would guess not, but cheese will stay good for pretty long so long as you have the right storage space. The optimal storage for cheese is 52F and 84% RH, for most cheeses, and 98% RH for any mold ripened cheeses BTW. Now how long is really dependent on the cheese and how it is processed.
Very dense cheeses, like Parm and Gruyere, will stay good for like 10 years. Semi-hard cheeses will stay good for up to 4 years. Plus, you can split the wheel and age half of it with the proper conditioning. You will loose part of that half wheel due to a new rind developing, but it will still be good to age.
Now mold ripened cheeses like Blue and Brie only last for 3 to 9 months. Adding a mold to the cheese and processing it to be soft greatly accelerates oxygen flow and rot, so those cheeses will liquify pretty quickly. Think of a pungent Camembert that oozes out at room temp; it is very close to being completely rotted. By the time it reached your home, it probably had only two or three more weeks before it turns to just liquid. Brie turns pretty fast. My blues we will cut into around 10 weeks and then portion them, wrapped them in plastic (slowing aging a bit by reducing oxygen flow) and slowly eating them over a few months. They will continually get sharper and sharper.
Very soft cheeses will turn within a week after they are made.
So it depends on the cheese.
I had a feeling I was going to regret asking. :)
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A few months to get the process down. I tend to jump right into things.
I would guess it takes a lifetime to master this though, especially with harder cheeses. They just take so long to age before you can truly access what you did. Makes it kind of hard to self critique accurately, and I am guessing is very important to have a great teacher.
I will say that the first time I made Rochefort though, it was quite interesting. Any blue cheese gets completely covered in the blue mold, and the wheel becomes hairy fuzzy grayish blue. It also starts to ooze very sharp smelling liquid at around 3 months, and becomes quite soft and moist. (Like I said, it is controlling rot.) My wife let me try that first and gave it a full day to make sure I did not get sick before she had some.
She should have given you two days. :)
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She should have given you two days. :)
Here's an English Stilton I started two weeks ago that is just starting to turn blue. Stilton and Rochefort are essentially the same cheese, only Rochefort is aged at 98% RH (the ideal humidity for Penicillium Roqueforti growth) with Stilton being aged at 84% RH. At 98% RH that mold will just go out of control and will never really die. Great for blue mold development, but not so great for flavor to develop from the bacteria culture.
At 84% the growth is slowly allowing for longer aging and more flavor development from the bacteria instead. In a month the entire wheel will be blue, at two months hairy and wrinkly, at 4 month the mold on the outside will start to die, and at 6 months the wheel will have turned yellow and start to produce a natural rind. You can then age it for another 6 months after that.
Rochefort will be too far along to even smell without passing out at around 7 months just due to the better conditions for the mold. So a lot depends on the aging conditions.
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Those cheese wheels look delicious, Joe. And how are your cholesterol levels?
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Those cheese wheels look delicious, Joe. And how are your cholesterol levels?
Well, in a recent life insurance physical, my blood test came back excellent.
Like I said in another thread, I am an Anglo-Saxon-Irish-German; all the ethnicities that have been consuming dairy for centuries.
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Here's an English Stilton I started two weeks ago that is just starting to turn blue. Stilton and Rochefort are essentially the same cheese, only Rochefort is aged at 98% RH (the ideal humidity for Penicillium Roqueforti growth) with Stilton being aged at 84% RH. At 98% RH that mold will just go out of control and will never really die. Great for blue mold development, but not so great for flavor to develop from the bacteria culture.
At 84% the growth is slowly allowing for longer aging and more flavor development from the bacteria instead. In a month the entire wheel will be blue, at two months hairy and wrinkly, at 4 month the mold on the outside will start to die, and at 6 months the wheel will have turned yellow and start to produce a natural rind. You can then age it for another 6 months after that.
Rochefort will be too far along to even smell without passing out at around 7 months just due to the better conditions for the mold. So a lot depends on the aging conditions.
Your experience with cheeses got me thinking about coronavirus. While molds are bacteria, not viruses, it's interesting that it's both temperature and humidity that affect the process.
Warmer air can carry more water vapor. The higher the temperature the higher the amount of water vapor in the air. Yet the relative humidity stays the same. That's why they call it relative humidity.
For example, there's ten times the amount of water vapor in the air at 50C degrees than at 10C degrees. Yet the RH relative humidity is the same 50%
So maybe viruses are more affected by humidity or water vapor that changes its viability during certain seasons. Maybe the way to treat sick people is to place them in enclosures where the humidity and temperature can be controlled to kill off the virus or at least present conditions that slow down its effectiveness and spread within the patient. Breathing higher or lower humidified air at higher or lower temperatures ought to be researched to see if patients improve. I think I'll send another email to NIH. Anyone want to pass along ideas before I do, please post here.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Relative_Humidity.png)
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Well, in a recent life insurance physical, my blood test came back excellent.
Like I said in another thread, I am an Anglo-Saxon-Irish-German; all the ethnicities that have been consuming dairy for centuries.
The dairy tolerance and cholesterol levels are two very different things, but the blood test result is the best indicator of the latter. Good for you.
The homemade cheese might be healthier than the factory-produced kinds.
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Well, in a recent life insurance physical, my blood test came back excellent.
Like I said in another thread, I am an Anglo-Saxon-Irish-German; all the ethnicities that have been consuming dairy for centuries.
Personally speaking, I own up to Scottish and Italian bloods. Forget the implied but imaginary safety connections: I always consumed olive oil cooking, lots of butter and cream, cheese and the rest of it without a hiccup. Then when I hit my pension I also hit my first heart attack. The second was a year or two later. The villain? Cholesterol. I bear two stents and daily pills as witness.
Start evasive action before you get the illness. Isolation is more effective than insulation.
;-)
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Got out in the garage for a few hours yesterday and today and started the bimmer hobby car project. I am replacing some cooling lines and hoses, and a complete ccv system which resides under the intake manifold. Nothing is broken or leaking but its old plastic and rubber which just turned 19 so its time to fix it. I've been collecting parts for a few weeks so tis time to get dirty.
Tear down is complete except for draining coolant and removing the hoses and pipes. Then its a good steam clean and time to reassemble. I woud never want to work as a mechanic for a living (my dad and father in law were both career auto mechanics so I have the background) but I still get a lot of satisfaction from doing it for leisure. Its much more fun when its not needed to keep the daily driver on the road. And I'm cheap so I do what I can myself :)
I'll be back at it again for a bit tomorrow.
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Got out in the garage for a few hours yesterday and today and started the bimmer hobby car project.=
That has got to be one of the neatest, and cleanest, garages I've ever seen. I think everyone needs a consuming project in order to keep sane these days.
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That has got to be one of the neatest, and cleanest, garages I've ever seen. I think everyone needs a consuming project in order to keep sane these days.
Thanks, I like being in it. I don’t shoot many photos for fun anymore so I rub on the car instead.
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Thanks, I like being in it. I don’t shoot many photos for fun anymore so I rub on the car instead.
You see? Yet another example of where we think alike! And all this time you thought me some extremely radical leftie dressed in red overalls!
;-)
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What is kiefer? (Sorry to hear about your wife's condition.)
I think it's a mistype for Kefir
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I think it's a mistype for Kefir
I thought Kiefer was a full bodied red wine from Kief Joshua vineyard.
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I thought Kiefer was a full bodied red wine from Kief Joshua vineyard.
I thought he was an actor.
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I thought he was an actor.
No self-respecting actor would drink a Kiefer. Not even a Sutherland.
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No self-respecting actor would drink a Kiefer. Not even a Sutherland.
Don't bank on it: nobody really knows what they get up to up there behind closed Scottish doors.
Rob
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Craig that garage floor looks like one of my neighbors. How do you like it? what does it cost roughly?
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Got out in the garage for a few hours yesterday and today and started the bimmer hobby car project. I am replacing some cooling lines and hoses, and a complete ccv system which resides under the intake manifold. Nothing is broken or leaking but its old plastic and rubber which just turned 19 so its time to fix it. I've been collecting parts for a few weeks so tis time to get dirty.
Tear down is complete except for draining coolant and removing the hoses and pipes. Then its a good steam clean and time to reassemble. I woud never want to work as a mechanic for a living (my dad and father in law were both career auto mechanics so I have the background) but I still get a lot of satisfaction from doing it for leisure. Its much more fun when its not needed to keep the daily driver on the road. And I'm cheap so I do what I can myself :)
I'll be back at it again for a bit tomorrow.
Bottom pic: is it a leaf or one of those old English paper gaskets?
Nice car! Always wanted a 3 Series Coupe before a Mercedes equivalent. Ended up with neither. Oh well, the Fiesta also has four wheels on the road.
:-)
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Craig that garage floor looks like one of my neighbors. How do you like it? what does it cost roughly?
It was in the house when I bought it. It’s getting a bit worn in a few spots and I would like to redo it someday. But it cleans really well, and I spill automotive fluids on it. No stains, but it’s quite slippery when wet. If I redo I’ll use a product with a bit of texture so it’s not as slippery. But it’s a great improvement over concrete.
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It was in the house when I bought it. It’s getting a bit worn in a few spots and I would like to redo it someday. But it cleans really well, and I spill automotive fluids on it. No stains, but it’s quite slippery when wet. If I redo I’ll use a product with a bit of texture so it’s not as slippery. But it’s a great improvement over are concrete.
I think they can include a roughened surface using a surface sealant with sand like finish. When I moved into my place, the previous owner had cheap tile put down. Not bad actually. But I don't do any automotive repairs. Just hose it out a couple of times a year and maybe scrub it with a broom brush. But my wife wants to re-do it with with something similar to my neighbors. Gotta keep up with Jones'.
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One thing that's coming up in many email conversations with friends is that we all kind of really like social distancing. Personally, I always did it anyway, don't trust crowds. Second, the deserted roads are fantastic. We're loving the quiet and the peaceful. In my lifetime in Canada we had Sunday closing of stores. Because it was a bit Christian-centric and people seemed to really wanted to spend more time shopping, or they had to because they were working 6 days to make ends meet and needed the grocery stores open on Sunday, we introduced Sunday shopping. So no more quiet time, the traffic on my suburban roads on Sunday near home is worse than on weekday afternoons. Maybe that's a shitty way to live?
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It focuses attention on the more important things in life.
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One thing that's coming up in many email conversations with friends is that we all kind of really like social distancing. Personally, I always did it anyway, don't trust crowds. Second, the deserted roads are fantastic. We're loving the quiet and the peaceful. In my lifetime in Canada we had Sunday closing of stores. Because it was a bit Christian-centric and people seemed to really wanted to spend more time shopping, or they had to because they were working 6 days to make ends meet and needed the grocery stores open on Sunday, we introduced Sunday shopping. So no more quiet time, the traffic on my suburban roads on Sunday near home is worse than on weekday afternoons. Maybe that's a shitty way to live?
I can see the value of finding oneself, even if through necessity. I had my first lesson in boarding school, which I hated, and the brutal way it forces you into self-reliance and the ability to withdraw into the self in the middle of chaos and animosities and juvenile gang warfare. The second hard lesson was when my wife died back in '08 in the middle of the financial crisis; without the first lesson from my period in that school I would have had an even worse time after that than I have. I learned the art of numb.
If I learned anything else, it's that nothing is for ever; that shit happens; that in the very end you have a mixture of luck and yourself and your own actions to thank or to blame for almost everything in life.
The distancing today I don't feel except for two aspects: I have to cook; I can't go out for a wander through the marina and into a bar for a coffee and a read of mine host's newspapers whenever I get the inclination so to do. I prefer doing that on my own rather than having to listen to constant bitching about women who walked out - which in the circumstances, I fully understand - and I do no like falling into spiritual dept to anyone.
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New wooden shelf for the "cheese cave" built! Only used glue and dow pins too. ;)
The wire framed and plexiglass shelf was starting to flex just a little too much for my liking; this is much stronger. Also, the added wood will help provide a humidity reservoir. Hopefully it wont take too long to get back to 85% RH.
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Another of the pleasant things about not having much to do externally is the opportunity - more than opportunity, the necessity - of reconsidering things slowly just to see if first impressions were right nor not.
That's led to a fresh look at some of my few monographs - and I mean looking as distinct from reading. What I discovered was that some of the more flamboyant photographers don't always age well. For example, my, to me, expensive Sumo doesn't hold up well: literally, off its perspex table-top lectern, it simply weighs too much and is too uncomfortable to hold on a cushion on my knees, the ergonomics turning it into a definite turn-off resulting in no casual couch viewing. In fact, into hardly any repeat viewing at all: who wants to stand up motionless at a table for the time it takes to consider as massive a sequence of photographs? As for the photographs themselves, on the times that I do summon up the spirit and gird the loins to do battle with the thing, my instinct makes me feel more and more that I am looking at the clever works of an accomplished con artist: I do not any longer feel that I am reading into the work of somebody with an irresistble drive to do what he had to do, but at somebody who had turned popularity/notoriety into a production line of more of the same. In other words, the extension and execution of a considered work-in-progress rather than the outpourings of an artist.
In direct contrast, I spent much of last night looking again at the simply-titled Jeanlopup Sieff from Taschen, a large book, but not beyond the comfort zone, and passing the cushion-on-the-knees test with flying colours. However, in order to preserve its beauty intact, I realised I had better slip off the dust jacket to prevent creasing it against the cushion. For the first time I saw the book without it. As with some people, it looks far better wearing its cover. And also confirms the practical reasons I do not buy in soft back books I want to keep. I rather think books that are meant to be cherished should only be produced in hard covers, another financial problem facing vanity publishing. Anyway, this book has often been read and not just looked at, thought last night I avoided reading. My copy comes in three languages: Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. In the past, I have made my way through it by jumping from Italian to Spanish depending on where I find the stumbing blocks of incomprehension: I discovered early that translation from the original can be a little too loose, changing sentiment within a sentence if not general drift. I wonder how accurate my impressions of Sieff can be, derived from two sources, none of them the original. In fact four, as most of what I have read about him has been written in English and only a little in French... Come to think of it, I believe he was of Polish descent but brought up speaking French. Being a bit of a mongrel myself, I kinda get how different languages colour expression of emotion: there are some things you just can't make come over the same in two different languages. Could be I just don't speak one as well as the other, but the impression seems too widely experienced for it to depend on an example of one. The thing about this Sieff book is that I can either sit and read it, which takes time as there is much to be read and digested, or leave the words alone and enjoy the images. I don't think I have ever managed to do all of both at a sitting.
(Another thing: since my cataract ops in August, my vision has changed completely around, and whereas before I could read anything without using specs, but found distance difficult, I now need specs for reading but happily not for driving. As a result, I see my books from much closer, and notice two things: it has become more necessary to look at the enlarged picture from a central position to avoid getting a distorted impression of it; the fact that looking at that Sieff book last night confirms just how crisp those Leica lenses were with film. He used Nikons, Rolleiflex TLRs and Hasselblads too, but his book makes a point of his love for the M4 and one of the 21mm lenses for it. And the crispness shows, even in book form.)
And what marks the huge difference between that book and Newton's Sumo and even the eponymous Hans Feurer from Damiani is that Sieff has just got so much to express: it's as much about the man as the work, and when I find both equally riveting, a double pleasure.
I await the energy to run the massive A Different Vision on Fashion Photography - Peter Lindbergh's tome - through the cushion-on-knees test. It fares quite well on Newton's lectern, thought it has to be admitted that a relentless flood of Teutonic darkness can become a bit heavy on both the heart and the eye.
That's how I pass the evenings if not immersed in some tv series or another on the iPad, which device has turned itself into one of my most valued possessions. It's the perfect piece of equipment with which to inspect one's navel: now in lockdown and unable to do my normal postprandial walks down by the sea both for the heart as for my digestion, I do the hour or more of what became chore on the terrace, but that holds the heat too well, so I wait for the evening for the exercise, and can spend part of the afternoon looking at my own website. The longer I linger on some snaps the more I can find in them that surprises me. And also the more commonality within them all. Perhaps it's true: we image people have one basic image inside us that we keep on remaking, over and over again. Or at least, that's what we do when we have finally discovered ourselves and our purpose.
Rob
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Rob - did you consider making a book yourself?
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Rob - did you consider making a book yourself?
Yes, a couple of times in the past during periods when I had walked away from LuLa; sadly, I was the only person interested.
;-)
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Yes, a couple of times in the past during periods when I had walked away from LuLa; sadly, I was the only person interested.
;-)
Well, rabanito showed some-interest some-where some-time ago. Don't be modest ;)
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Perhaps it's true: we image people have one basic image inside us that we keep on remaking, over and over again. Or at least, that's what we do when we have finally discovered ourselves and our purpose.
I like that.
These days of solitude are a perfect opportunity to explore that singular image.
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I was thinking that if I peg out on the end of a ventilator my family might feel obliged to have a look at my photos, and I might make it easier for them by making a book, rather than leave them to trawl through disk drives and software catalogues.
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If I should go first my wife will continue to keep my website up and running so I can carry on boring everyone after my passing.
In the meantime I'm making a series of images titled Dark Times.
Seemed appropriate.
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If I should go first my wife will continue to keep my website up and running so I can carry on boring everyone after my passing.
In the meantime I'm making a series of images titled Dark Times.
Seemed appropriate.
Appropriate, and you already have several good, timeless options for the title shot: skulls and distressed dolls!
My website gets paid for two years at a pop; it gives me pleasure of itself and for myself, and that's my primary interest because I have no business anymore. Posterity? I think it only matters if you were already on a publisher's must-have-him list of authors. In a way, that's a pretty useful measure: what deserves to get published sometimes does.
:-)
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Well, rabanito showed some-interest some-where some-time ago. Don't be modest ;)
But unfortunately, I don't think rabanito is a publishing house...
:-)
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I was thinking that if I peg out on the end of a ventilator my family might feel obliged to have a look at my photos, and I might make it easier for them by making a book, rather than leave them to trawl through disk drives and software catalogues.
You have just explained why I have a website: trawling through folders looking for stuff that I can't find drives me nuts! I had imagined that a simply click on an image in my website would come up with the file number and I could easily reopen the master any time I wanted to do that. Not so; and Weebly couldn't discover a way for that to be enabled either. How far we have travelled yet how difficult some "simple" things remain! The only route they or I could think of was putting the file number on the image itself, which is ugly and I didn't want to do.
Rob
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New wooden shelf for the "cheese cave" built! Only used glue and dow pins too. ;)
The wire framed and plexiglass shelf was starting to flex just a little too much for my liking; this is much stronger. Also, the added wood will help provide a humidity reservoir. Hopefully it wont take too long to get back to 85% RH.
On france24.com (a news channel) they showed some of the results of lockdown on French farming: zillions of gallons of milk poured down drains because of no hospitality business buying any, and also the slow death on the shelf of thousands of euros-worth of cheeses that were not going to be sold for the very same reason. They also touched on the Dutch daffodil industry, with row upon colourful row of plants left unpicked; however, some growers are turning their eyes towards the bulb industry rather than cut flowers for weddings etc.
Across the board, from consumer products to teaching, it looks as if this has killed the old ways much as did digital do for film: new, less travel-dependent ways emerge and with that, doom for the vast riches of the petrochemical business. I wonder if this will see an increase in the purchase of motor yachts as against that of sailing yachts now that the cost of diesel will be bound to come down?
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You have just explained why I have a website: trawling through folders looking for stuff that I can't find drives me nuts! I had imagined that a simply click on an image in my website would come up with the file number and I could easily reopen the master any time I wanted to do that. Not so; and Weebly couldn't discover a way for that to be enabled either. How far we have travelled yet how difficult some "simple" things remain! The only route they or I could think of was putting the file number on the image itself, which is ugly and I didn't want to do.
Rob
I believe that's because Weebly renames your files on upload. The beauty of a bespoke site is that you can name files as you see fit.
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On france24.com (a news channel) they showed some of the results of lockdown on French farming: zillions of gallons of milk poured down drains because of no hospitality business buying any, and also the slow death on the shelf of thousands of euros-worth of cheeses that were not going to be sold for the very same reason. They also touched on the Dutch daffodil industry, with row upon colourful row of plants left unpicked; however, some growers are turning their eyes towards the bulb industry rather than cut flowers for weddings etc.
Across the board, from consumer products to teaching, it looks as if this has killed the old ways much as did digital do for film: new, less travel-dependent ways emerge and with that, doom for the vast riches of the petrochemical business. I wonder if this will see an increase in the purchase of motor yachts as against that of sailing yachts now that the cost of diesel will be bound to come down?
That's the problem with so many French cheeses, although good, they have a short shelf life.
They should have started making denser cheeses that could age for a few years. Just think of the revenue it would have brought in, eventually.
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Appropriate, and you already have several good, timeless options for the title shot: skulls and distressed dolls!
My website gets paid for two years at a pop; it gives me pleasure of itself and for myself, and that's my primary interest because I have no business anymore. Posterity? I think it only matters if you were already on a publisher's must-have-him list of authors. In a way, that's a pretty useful measure: what deserves to get published sometimes does.
:-)
Rob, I'm in two minds here, but I think I'll restrict the series to new work shot during my lockdown rather than add older work that is already on the website.
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Santa Fe is heavily dependent on tourism, and on a Sunday, the plaza is usually packed with people and food vendors, being only a block from the Santa Fe Cathedral. Drove by today on the way to a supermarket and there were three people on the plaza, and two of them were street people. There's a whole block outside an old building where Native Americans sell their hand crafts; not a single person there. The Native Americans are really getting hit hard by the virus -- they have the worst contamination and the most deaths in New Mexico, even more than the larger cities like Albuquerque.
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Rob, I'm in two minds here, but I think I'll restrict the series to new work shot during my lockdown rather than add older work that is already on the website.
I think restricting your choices like that could be a good thing: make you try out new ideas which, in lockdown, must make it a helluva lot more difficult... my new idea is to switch on the electric blanket right now and go do the lunch dishes: it's exactly 10pm on the computer clock. I managed an unbroken two-hour walk round and round the terrace this afternoon listening on the wifi to Radio Caroline Flashback on the Internet. Worrying experience, though: I did recognize most of the songs, but memory was defeated by the names of many of the singers and groups! Knew the names when I heard them announced of course, but I did spot the Beatles without trouble.
;-)
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It’s too nice not to be on the links!
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Vote straight Republican in November!
Regards,
Bud James
Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.
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Vote straight Republican in November!
Regards,
Bud James
Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.
Is such a vote possible these days?
Did you see the clip of selfless Pence visiting a hospital room? He was the only guy not wearing a mask. Selfish, self-centred, camera-seeking catch-my-best-side bastard. Even the patient wore a mask. He should have screamed at Pence to get the hell out of there. Pence has the beady, expressionless eyes of a snake. And there, in that hospital room, we saw the personality exposed to the world.
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Vote straight Republican in November!
Regards,
Bud James
Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.
Don't post promotional links to your pics within your text.
Annoying when someone tells you what to do, innit?
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Did you see the clip of selfless Pence visiting a hospital room? He was the only guy not wearing a mask!
I did and it bugged the hell out of me! Also I would like to know how the politicos and news anchors have such nicely neat trimmed hair?
Peter
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I did and it bugged the hell out of me! Also I would like to know how the politicos and news anchors have such nicely neat trimmed hair?
Peter
Happy to see you posting, Peter, I though you'd gone a bit quiet.
Neat hair? Wigs. Or hairdresser mistresses.
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Happy to see you posting, Peter, I though you'd gone a bit quiet.
Neat hair? Wigs. Or hairdresser mistresses.
Suck cut perhaps?
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Happy to see you posting, Peter, I though you'd gone a bit quiet.
Neat hair? Wigs. Or hairdresser mistresses.
Hi Rob,
The politics here has become untenable for a pleasant discourse for my world of photography....
Be well,
Peter
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Time for breakfast!
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Flakey croissant anyone?
Only took two days to make.
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Vote straight Republican in November!
Regards,
Bud James
Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.
You mean there are gay republicans. Is that allowed?
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Is such a vote possible these days?
Did you see the clip of selfless Pence visiting a hospital room? He was the only guy not wearing a mask. Selfish, self-centred, camera-seeking catch-my-best-side bastard. Even the patient wore a mask. He should have screamed at Pence to get the hell out of there. Pence has the beady, expressionless eyes of a snake. And there, in that hospital room, we saw the personality exposed to the world.
Yeh, that hospital should have had a big bouncer at the door stopping the idiot in his tracks. His wife said something about Pence not knowing the rules. Well duh...look around and everyone there is wearing a mask...maybe you should put one on?
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Pointing! Although I would like to continue my forearms are out voting me. Spent clay lime mortar is a royal pain to remove. Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.