Papal Visit – Part 2

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This is the second of two posts on the Pope Francis’s visit to New York City in September, 2015. Part 1 can be found here.

So after four hours on line we finally got to security. I thought it would be something like airport security, but it was a bit simpler (e.g. didn’t have to remove shoes or belts) and didn’t take as long. After security we waited a further 15-20 minutes. And then there he was: the man himself in his Popemobile. He approached…and then he’d gone. I think we saw him for about a minute, just about long enough to grab a few pictures. After that we fought our way through the crowds, walked a bit to a somewhat more distant subway station and caught a train to Grand Central. Our train back home was leaving in less that 10 minutes and we were home by about 8:00pm. A round trip of around eight hours to see the Pope for one minute. Was it worth it? Well my wife certainly thought so and if I’m being honest so did I. He seems to be quite a remarkable human being and I’m glad I got to see him in person. And I like his smile.

Photographically I wished I’d taken a longer lens. The problem with a longer lens though was that it would also have meant a bigger and heavier camera and lens and I’m not sure that I would have wanted to carry that weight while waiting on line for four hours. So maybe I don’t wish I’d taken a longer lens. I like the depth in the first picture with the arm in the foreground, the Pope in the middle, and the woman in the tree in the background. I like his expression in the second one and in the third one he almost seems to be looking directly at me. Maybe not great pictures but nice souvenirs to share with friends and family.

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NY Air Show – UH-72A Lakota

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This was the aircraft from which the US Military Academy West Point Black Knights parachute team jumped. According to Wikipedia:

The Eurocopter UH-72 Lakota is a twin-engine helicopter with a single, four-bladed main rotor. The UH-72 is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145 and was built by American Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters, Inc.), a division of Airbus Group, Inc. Initially marketed as the UH-145, the helicopter was selected as the winner of the United States Army’s Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program on 30 June 2006. In October 2006, American Eurocopter was awarded a production contract for 345 aircraft to replace aging UH-1H/V and OH-58A/C helicopters in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard fleets.

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Still Life

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We were recently invited over to some friends for drinks and appetizers. Their house has a nice outdoor area with a fishpond overlooking one of the coves on our lake. I was sitting there talking to some people when I noticed this vase of flowers sitting on a ledge. Something about it caught my eye. Maybe it was the pastel colors of the flowers combined with the grey of the ledge and the rose colored stucco behind? Maybe it was the way the vase and the flowers contrasted with the rough stucco behind? I know that I liked it and couldn’t wait for the conversation to end so that I could get a picture.

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).