Haiti, 1995-ish




I've posted th is before, and like I said before, at this day and age, I would not have done the picture again. I asked a little Haitian boy if he'd take a dollar for posing in the picture like this. It was meant to be a showdown of the corporal (I forget his name) carrying an M16 and this little boy carrying a squirt gun.

It never occurred to me that it would represent anything more than a weird picture to take, and implied any moral statements. Of course, later on, I realized it probably would disturb a lot of people.


It's still an interesting picture to me though strictly from the standpoint of me reflecting on my past and situations that I've been in. The day this picture was taken, I saw a burn mark on a road where the local Haitians had cut up and set a female "witch" on fire, saw a little girl butchering a pig's head, saw cesspools in the street, and road down the streets of Port-o-Prince with my head sticking out of a Hum-v carrying an unloaded M16 . I don't have busy days like that much anymore.

I only say it's interesting because of the extreme idiocy that prompts something like this...it was posted on a convenience store window, it's good to know that the Diet Coke & bag of ice that I bought wasn't gonna fund dirty bombs an' shit....

roodboi said:

hmmm.

Is this sort of an indirect way of being racist towards Indian shop owners?

You know they're EVERYwhere in the South now. It reeks of racism to me



It's funny how racism and homophobia are often cloaked in a thin veneer of patriotism....

Imago said:

exactly...

Patriotism in general is absurd, imho.

ultrablue said:

Oh sure. But we save yall unpatriotic island folks back in the war.

I think this looks pretty cool.



Pics during the night of the coup were probably more interesting but I seem to have deleted them.

Imago said:

It's definitely interesting, as is reading your words about your time there. Like a whole other world.

Imago said:

Not just us, the world, including the Germans and Japanese too!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

ultrablue said:

Beautiful

Mach said:

Thanks!

I managed to catch this beautiful sunset at Sydneys Opera house, Was amazing!

Took this in front of my house last winter... I felt it was just so beautiful.


[Edited 10/27/09 15:17pm]

I took this one yesterday, I'm in love with the colours

ZombieKitten said:

That's cool. Did you use a little x-pro on that?

ultrablue said:

what's x-pro?

I used a half strength urban acid filter

ZombieKitten said:

Ah, looks like a similar effect, from the green 'edge' that it's got.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...processing

There's a good Nik plug-in for Photoshop that has a bunch of fully adjustable x-pro filters. Very addictive!

Mach said:

Truly.

ultrablue said:

oh you mean cross processing I'm not up with all that lingo

YES the answer is yes

ZombieKitten said:

Ok.

I like the way you've used the treatment.

Also, re the lingo, somebody I know on Redbubble was giving me some tips on photography and mentioned how I should look through my photography books again or go through my magazines to try to get some inspiration (to give my images more punch, which they tend to lack). I suddenly realised I have never once in my life read a book or magazine on photography. It probably shows!

.
[Edited 10/27/09 20:37pm]

ultrablue said:

punch? that's so subjective


whatever might that mean?

"Cleanliness Is Next To Mechanisms"


"Brain Scan"

ZombieKitten said:

No, I get it though. My landscapes tend to suck ass, with no focal point to them. You know the way it is, same ol' same ol' sunset pics you've seen a million times. I was always better at things like graphics and design instead of art at school and it shows. I tend to 'flatten' my images into pleasantness by nullifying extremes. They don't pop or really suggest any kind of movement or action, except for a few candid portraits which I seem to do ok at. I do love photography and I want to continue doing it and improving, but is it terrible that I have absolutely no interest or motivation to read books, magazines or online tutorials to find out more in order to get better? I don't want to get on to a treadmill of upgrading my camera, striving for perfection, buying more and more equipment and coming up short of my hopes and expectations. I always do this with these things (music, art, photography, whatever) I lower my expectations, to taking my camera along on holiday and being a happy snapper who can post-process pics into better results than your average and I seem to find comfort in that.

Not really interesting or spectacular , but this was around 10 AM in the morning at South Beach around 2005-ish.

It captures how calm and quiet the place is before noon on account everyone is still recuperating from the night before.

captured a dead wild pig while kayaking down the Little Manatee River.

Imago said:

You used that to do art for me.

Some friends of mine taken from my kayak on the same boating trip as above.

The Greatest Bromance that's ever been sold





I like this cause it's the first time Jerseykrs has ever been in a gay bar.