earthly delights

i'd really like that 'yes' picture", said alex. "it's my Very Favourite in the whole exhibition."
i smiled.
"yeah. right." i replied.
alex - in his charming and irrepressible manner - had spent much of the europephotobloggers weekend* sampling the endless pleasures amsterdam had to offer, so i slightly doubted his sincerity, and his sobriety.
but how could i refuse? i, in turn, took home this picture of his, and he has promised to send me this one, which - sincerely, AND soberly - was MY favourite in the whole exhibition.

*a wonderful time: thanks to all for attending!

the benefit of the doubt

a gentleman at one of the "old camera" forums i frequent yesterday referred to my photographs as "syrupy", and my anxious alarm ("syrupy"? moi?)- along with my intuitive reluctance to succumb to despair - sent me searching the thesaurus.

i took another look at some of the images from england-last-week (larger here, here,
here, and here), and read, meanwhile:

"bathetic, befuddled, confused, cornball, drippy, emotional, gushing, insipid, lachrymose, mawkish, mushy, romantic, schmaltzy, sentimental, slush, soap, soapy, soppy, syrupy, tear-jerking, tearful, teary, weak, weepy"

i seriously considered hanging up my nikon forever. but i read, undaunted, further:

"adventurous, amorous, bathetic, charming, chimerical, chivalrous, colorful, corny,
created, daring, dreamy, enchanting, erotic, exciting, exotic, extravagant, fairy-tale,
fanciful, fantastic, fascinating, fond, glamorous, idealistic, idyllic, imaginary, imaginative, impractical, invented, lovey-dovey, loving, maudlin, mushy, mysterious, nostalgic, novel, passionate, picturesque, poetic, quixotic, starry-eyed, syrupy, tear-jerking, tender, unrealistic, utopian, visionary, whimsical, wild"

this - "syrupy" as "sweet" - i can live with.
oh yes: i'm a positive, albeit deluded, soul.

switching channels

it has taken me hours to pack for the short holiday in england that starts tomorrow morning when we drive off the ferry - fifteen minutes for the personal necessities like clothes and shoes and soap and toothpaste, and ten-times-that for the spiritual ones.



i can never decide which cameras and which film to take: each combination records
each scene in its own sublime, specific manner (like these two, taken a half-turn from one another, using the nikon FE and the great wall).
looking later at the images, i am happy to have had choice.
*
have a fine week!

time let go

"direction is more important than speed. we are so busy looking at our speedometers that
we forget the milestones."
- anonymous

the camera is old.
the film is old.
and i am a year older today.
i'm just fine with all three.