Sunset near the Arkansas-Missouri border
Greetings photography enthusiasts. It’s Friday, and time for a new monthly foto flog.
Please note that this is a reboot of a series that went to seed a few years ago. I know that there are some photo hobbyists like me who post here already. Hoping to incite a bit more “community behavior” in our community blog. AndiF and BobX used to curate the old foto flog. Others contributed quite regularly. Folks like Hurria, JimF, KNUCKLEHEAD, dada, olivia, ask, tampopo, Man Eegee, and a whole host of others posted photos at one time or another. I am sure I have missed someone in that list.
I don’t use anything especially fancy. Right now my Samsung Galaxy 6 keeps humming along, and it continues to serve me well for most general photography purposes. Unless that phone goes bad, I plan on keeping it for at least the next year or two. I may switch over to the Google Pixel, depending on how one of my younger relatives likes his.
Some of our regulars have actual professional equipment, and before Photobucket turned into such a drag, we were graced by some absolutely stunning landscape shots, close-ups of flowers and insects, and some abstract photography. I’ve often marveled at the creativity of the folks who have meandered in and out of this community over the years. I use flickr to host my photos for the time being. I have tried out imgur as well. So far, so good.
Consider this series as a homage to its predecessor, and dedicated to the spirit of its ancestors. Enjoy.
And perhaps a few thoughts as well.
The experience of curating this current series of foto flogs has been quite edifying. There is something deeply personal, not only in the whole process of taking photographs, but in choosing what to share with an audience. Doing so is time-consuming, but then so too is practically any endeavor worth doing. One of my favorite parts of this whole process is to communicate with others who share this particular hobby.
When the original series was on-going, I took it for granted. I’d drop in, occasionally post something (even if nothing more than encouraging comment), uprate some posts, and generally be in awe of the cool stuff folks were posting. As a few of you know, I tend to drop out for months at a time. This last couple years of regular sustained posting is very much an anomaly. After this election cycle is over, I am long due for another extended walkabout. Truth is, I am simply tired (for reasons I will not delve into at this moment). At some point during my last extended walkabout, some of what made BT a community blog ceased to exist. That’s left me wondering what happens to a series that may develop a following once those who’ve taken it upon themselves to host that series are no longer able to do so, for whatever reason. Do those series get passed on to someone else? Do they just fall by the wayside? How many notice the absence once it occurs? I don’t want to go off on some existentialist set of musings, but I do want to leave some food for thought. In the meantime, I think this series will somehow keep going fairly regularly until sometime in November.
Memorial for the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence – located in City Park, not far away from Hősök tere (Heroes’ Square):
Here’s another view. I apparently stumbled upon a photo shoot in progress:
I first saw footage of this monument on a YouTube video that an Aphex Twin fan from Budapest had put up. I knew that I would have to visit it if I ever had an excuse to travel to Budapest. Well worth the visit.
Outside of Bimhuis in Amsterdam.
One of the nice things about the cameras on today’s smartphones is just how good they are. I undoubtedly could get better shots with my old 35 mm, but I’d have to lug that thing around everywhere. It’s one thing to do that on a road trip, but quite another when traveling by plane (whether internationally or not). I’ve generally been pretty happy with the image quality on my current Samsung Galaxy S6. My main challenges come with night-time photography. I do spend a good deal of time playing with the settings until I get photos I am okay with, and some long-distance photography (and forget trying to get a good shot of the moon).
I am curious: has anyone switched over to the Google Pixel? I’ve been wondering about its camera. Once I do replace my current phone, the camera is going to be the deal-maker or deal-breaker for me. I use very few apps, so some other considerations are of less importance to me. As long as I can text, check email, and Skype, I have more or less what I need. Photography, on the other hand, I will not skimp on. So yeah, at some point in about a year, I will be wondering if I should upgrade to whatever Samsung has at that point in time or try out the Pixel. Any advice is always appreciated.
Subway musicians (violinists) in Budapest. My failure to video some of their performance is my one regret. They were exquisite.
I found this guest outside my hotel room window one early morning during one of my visits to Amsterdam. I do hope she found a better place to spin a web than an airport hotel.
Jefferson County Courthouse in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. This was taken during a late Saturday afternoon. There was almost no traffic, which for a city of probably 45,000 people (at least as of three years ago) was a bit surprising.