The Power of Selection

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Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks on the front of the stage while the back seats remain empty at an event sponsored by the Greater Charleston Business Alliance and the South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C., Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

You often read about the dishonest manipulation of photographs using Photoshop and other such tools. However, it’s quite easy to change the meaning of the photograph just by your choice of framing. Without altering the photograph at all you completely change the impression created. Witness the two photographs in this post.

The one above seems to show Donald Trump speaking to a half empty room while the one below, more tightly framed, seems to show a packed house. They’re both taken by the same photographer at the same event, but the feeling conveyed is quite different. Mr. Trump was angry about what he considered to be a dishonest depiction saying in the Daily Mail:

‘The photographer is a f***ing thief,’ an exasperated Trump boomed in a telephone interview, referring to the Associated Press photojournalist who shot the initial picture.
‘Tell them they’re a fraud, whoever took it. I just got killed on that thing, and it was just really unfair. It’s godd**n unfair.’

‘The point is that everybody from the back rushed to the front. And the people who put out the pictures knew it.,’ Trump charged.

‘And they said, “Oh, look! The back 25 per cent [is empty]”.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3248214/It-s-godd-n-unfair-Trump-says-photos-half-South-Carolina-ballroom-look-like-schmuck-audience-crowded-podium-near-him.html#ixzz3mrx9K2u1

When I first read Mr. Trump’s comments I thought it was just “The Donald” trying to put a positive spin on a negative situation. However, even though I’m not a HUGE fan of Mr. Trump I think he may have a point here. In the second picture you clearly see a large number of people between those seated and the podium. They must have come from somewhere. Are there enough of them to fill all those empty seats – I don’t know? I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks at an event sponsored by the Greater Charleston Business Alliance and the South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C., Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Mic Smith).

Papal Visit – Part 1

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This is the first of two posts on the Pope Francis’s visit to New York City in September, 2015. Part 2 can be found here.

As soon as my wife heard that NY City was offering tickets by lottery to see Pope Francis in Central Park she put her name in. She wasn’t expecting much so it was a pleasant surprise for her when she received a email informing her that she was to receive two tickets. Not being all that religious at first I wasn’t going to go, but then I eventually decided that I couldn’t let her go alone – and I thought “who knows? It might be interesting”. So we took the train down to Grand Central, the Shuttle across to Times Square and the Broadway Local to Columbus Circle. All told this part of the journey took us about two hours.

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When we came out of the subway at Columbus Circle we we directed North to 62nd street and then east. Things started to slow down as we reached Central Park West. The line went down to 60th, then turned up to 66th and then turned back down to 60th where we reached security. A solid mass of people spanning about fourteen blocks. This part of the journey took about four hours.

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Our tickets said that if we weren’t at security by 3:30pm we weren’t going to get in. We reached that point about two and a quarter hours into our four hour wait. At that point I was wondering if this was the only Pope we were going to see. Thankfully the 3:30pm deadline seems to have been meaningless because we didn’t actually get there until around 5:00pm and there were still lots of people behind us.

NY Air Show – US Military Academy, West Point Black Knights

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The US Military Academy, West Point Black Knights opened the show with a display of parachute jumping. The Air Show Website describes them as follows:

The West Point Parachute Team, The Black Knights, is the United States Military Academy’s Freefall demonstration and competition team. The Black Knights showcase the unique skills and opportunities available to the cadets by providing precision freefall demonstrations in support of Army Athletics, Cadet Reviews, and much more.

The all-cadet team also provides the chance for cadets to train their more junior Teammates as they progress from students to fully-licensed jumpers while operating in an in extremis context – the closest cadets will come to simulating the stress of combat at West Point. The Black Knights also compete in annual National Collegiate Parachuting Championships, representing West Point as they take on teams from the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Naval Academy, and many others.

The mission of the West Point Parachute Team is to educate, train, and inspire cadets to develop leadership skills and build self-confidence in an in extremis context. We will accomplish this by providing cadets the opportunity to work towards three specific and challenging goals: train freefall students, conduct precision freefall demonstrations, and compete and win at the national level.

The West Point Parachute Team will kick off the New York Air Show each day jumping in the American Flag for the National Anthem. For more the latest updates on the team’s participation in the New York Air Show follow our Facebook page.

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