A few nice vacations for cheap images I found:
Take a break - Take Paris
Image by Byzantine_K
A 'Tory take' on one of the more infamous moments of WWII, updated for the UK's new (or not so new) crop of nasty little fascists, the Conservatives.
Whether it's hounding and persecuting the disabled, the sick, the unemployed, and other poor; causing now thousands of deaths, and increasing poverty in the 100,000's, even millions. Ignoring the law when it suits them, or using it as a weapon. Dictatorial behavior; ignoring the wishes of the public, professional bodies and parliamentarians - even within their own government. Animal cruelty. Obscene levels of greed and self interest, with the pursuit of wealth being put before any other consideration. Elitism to the point of having nothing but contempt for the majority of the population, especially the poor; all viewed essentially as 'stock'. And lately as surplus stock. An end to all of the progress made since the end of World War II which improved the lives of millions; the destruction of the NHS and the welfare state, not to mention the harsh assault on the public sector with swathes of jobs lost, libraries, leisure centre's and other even more vital facilities and services cut. A party riven with misogyny, homophobia and racism; with a deep seated loathing for weakness (though not when it comes to their own 'vices'). Worshipers at the soulless neoliberal altar of hypocrite Ayn Rand.
Parodying the Tories as Nazis in this case may seem a cheap joke, however the cost of thousands of lives destroyed by them is neither cheap, nor funny. The real joke is this vile party pretending to be other than the monster that it is, ever expecting to be elected to government again.
Unless 'somebody' burns down the Reichtag..... sorry, ...Parliament.
My Dad (1915-1988)
Image by Voxphoto
This is a picture of my father that I took when I was 10. We were on a family vacation in San Francisco, and if recall correctly this was in a rotating restaurant on top of a hotel?
I have complex feelings about my dad. He was the one who got me into photography, which I'm forever grateful for. On the other hand, this picture was taken about a year before he went seriously bipolar, which pretty much wrecked our family life.
The frame before this one was shot with flash, and is perfectly sharp. But it's very posed and stiff. For some reason I wanted to try one without flash--even though I'm sure dad was saying, "now son, the light is dim in here, so your shutter speed will be too slow to hand-hold." Somehow the queasy, blurry feeling of this shot is truer to my memory.
Artistically, dad's own photos were usually not that exciting. But I have to say, he had excellent taste in cameras! The entire time I was growing up, I had very unusual, cool hand-me-down cameras to try. Even the Instamatic he got mom (which I used for this shot) was an interesting one: a German-made Kodak 500 with a Schneider lens. It was probably the nicest Instamatic ever sold.
Anyway, this is all kind of a tangential introduction to the Graflex Portraits set. When I was a freshman in college, I stumbled across a complete Graflex kit in the used-camera case of Big George's Home Appliance Mart. I don't think there could have been too many 18-year-olds around who would say to themselves, "sweet--an obsolete 1957 camera with red leather bellows! I gotta have that!" But thanks to dad, I immediately understood that this was my chance to get into medium format, for laughably cheap, something like 150 bucks. It was, and still is, a great camera.
My dad was Whereabouts Unknown at that point. I never got to talk cameras with him again, which I'm sad about. I guess this is my attempt to finally say "thanks."
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Update: I've posted a couple of nice photos by dad, here and here.
