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A brief-yet-ongoing journal of all things Carmi. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll reach for your mouse to click back to Google. But you'll be intrigued. And you'll feel compelled to return following your next bowl of oatmeal. With brown sugar. And milk.
About this photo: Thematic Photographic, our weekly photo sharing activity, is exploring sepia-toned images through Thursday. If you've got one (or two, or...) that you'd like to share, click here and have at it.I date myself when I say I remember going to the library and starting every research effort with a trip through the card catalog. You never quite knew where these endless drawers of time-worn, dog-eared cards would send you, and that, I think, was half the fun. The other half was simply drinking in the experience. I can still smell the wood and feel the drawers open and close. You took your time moving from one to the other as you tried to build up the best possible shortlist of finds.
About this photo: We're sharing sepia-toned pictures as part of this week's Thematic. Go here to share yours, or here to learn how the whole thing works. Or just read on if you're in the mood to be amused.You don't see public lockers too often these days. Security concerns - thanks, Osama - have prompted places like airports and shopping malls to pull them out. Which means we're rapidly running out of places to store the burgeoning piles of stuff we inevitably accumulate when we're out and about.
Sepia: A brown pigment obtained from the inklike secretion of various cuttlefish and used with brush or pen in drawing. Photography: A print or photograph made in this color. Source: Dictionary.comI'm fascinated by sepia for the same reasons that I'm fascinated by monochrome photography in general, because it strips away the patina of color and leaves you with composition and light to tell the story. It's a little simpler, a little more spare. Sepia adds an additional dimension to basic monochrome that seems to pull the entire scene back in time. Just a little. Just enough to let the viewer wonder what it must have been like before...
Sepia: The theme for this week's Thematic Photographic. To participate, please post a similarly themed pic on your blog, then leave a comment here. Click here for the details on how TP works. Or just dive in and see what develops. Source: Me.
Quick note: This photo supports Thematic Photographic's candid theme. Please click here to participate. It won't hurt.We never really know how our kids will turn out. We do our best as parents, of course, by learning from our mistakes and from the mistakes of others. Sometimes, it seems like a never-ending, open-ended lab experiment, one that leaves you wondering if all you've done is enough.
About this photo: Thematic Photographic is celebrating candid this week. If you've got a candid shot you'd like to share - or if you just want to see what all the fuss is about - click here.On a good day, shooting in public is a bit of a highwire act. In this post-9/11 era of paranoia, pulling out a big lens in a wide-open space may not be the smartest thing to do.
Please note: This photo winds down our black & white* week. Click here if you've got any last-minute sharing to do. We launch our new Thematic theme, candid, tonight at 7:00 Eastern. Check back then!The roads in and around Montreal, Quebec, Canada are subject to some very serious environmental challenges, which largely explains why you need springs under your car seat to survive pothole season. I grew up there, and when we moved away to a warmer place on the planet, my kidneys thanked me.
About this photo: It's black & white week all week long. We call it Thematic Photographic, and if you want in, just follow your mouse here.Before our dryer dried its last load last summer*, I didn't appreciate the virtues of the neighborhood laundromat. Silly me, because these places have a feel that almost begs to be experienced.
About this photo: Thematic Photographic celebrates black and white week. You can, too, simply by heading here.Rules and photography don't exactly mix, at least as far as I'm concerned. There's a certain conventional wisdom among the point-and-shoot set that dictates the kinds of pictures that are and are not generally taken. Conventional wisdom subsequently results in conventional outcomes: Groups of folks staring at and smiling at the camera, head-on perspectives of famous buildings, the kind of things that ensure Cousin Sid's slide show will have us asleep within four minutes.
Your turn: How will you remember? Why does it matter to you?
About this photo: It's not too late to get in on the electric theme. Click here to see what everyone's talking about. Okay, maybe not everyone. Maybe just my kids and the three soon-to-be-ex-friends I've been harassing all week. Either way, you'll like the experience. New Thematic theme launches tomorrow. I think I'm leaning toward black and white.Sunset makes me think of the day that's about to end and that we'll never get back. As I stare at the deepening oranges and reds that paint the sky in a brilliant yet ephemeral display, I ask myself if I made the most of the day, if I made it count. Indeed, it's what I encourage the kids to do whenever I send them off to school, and it's what I ask them when they're done: Did they make it count?
Please note: This photo supports the Thematic Photographic electric week. What's a Thematic and how can you get involved? Glad you asked. Click here and all will be explained.There are a few laws of photography and optics that dictate the futility of shooting out the window of a speeding train. I've never been one for laws or rules, anyway, so perhaps it's just as well that I ignored the scowls of the dude sitting across the aisle as I pointed my camera toward the speeding terrain. Maybe he wanted me to take pictures of him, instead.
If you're impatient, start here: Thematic Photographic launches its next week of fun with a new theme. electricity. If you're already well-versed on the insanity that is TP, post your pic, leave a comment here and have fun with it. If you're new to our weekly photo sharing activity, click here.If you want the backstory, read this: Lately, electricity's been in the news fairly regularly here in Ontario. Government mismanagement (there, I said it) has resulted in skyrocketing baseline rates, coupled with a botched implementation of smart meters and a hair-brained layering of the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on top of it all. Stories of bills doubling and tripling are not uncommon. Citizens are ready to torch Queens Park, the Ontario legislature building.