Photography

Photo Friday – Cameras in the Hands of Yazidi Women

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From the Yazidi people who fled the approach of ISIS, some got the chance to take a UNICEF workshop, apparently connected with a school there, on photography, and proceeded to make pictures of their lives as they are now, with family and friends, with their suffering and hope. One girl said:

And I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned to communicate with people. But most importantly how to communicate with people – what is the right approach.
Until this, there have been no services where I feel like I’m part of something bigger, part of society. So with this program it feels like a breath of fresh air – to be a part of something again.

See the rest, with a lot of photos by the workshop participants and of them, at the Guardian.

A Fine Series of (Analog) Portraits

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Richmond Times-Dispatch photographer Dean Hoffmeyer has done a fine series of portraits of World War II veterans, and he has used WWII-era equipment:

All of these portraits were made on a 4×5 Speed Graphic film camera from the period, fronted with a 1943 Kodak lens designed for use in military aircraft. The camera is old and sturdy, like the men standing in front of it.

By all means go see the images and read the article that goes with it . (The details of the equipment are in a box on the left side of the article).  Fine faces, well-captured, and you can’t beat the gorgeous range of tones in that film and paper. Let us thank these men for serving.

Tweeting with God, Book Review

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Welcome, Patheos Readers! Please check out my review over at Patheos of a very good book, Tweeting With God. See the other reviews and discussion, and read an excerpt.

Recent posts here you may like:

Back here, The moon, and Venus. Just because, pretty photography; and, this is the 46th anniversary (!) of man landing on the moon. The photo below was taken just before the 20th anniversary, in 1989, in Huntsville, Alabama. These are Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins, being raised in some sort of lift, above a large crowd that had come to see them. Music was blaring and there was a laser show. The crowd was full of actual rocket scientists. We were standing behind a rope at the edge of an artificial moon crater that had been used for training during Apollo days. When the astronauts were lifted up like this a wave of something nearly like worship roared out of the crowd, rolled across the crater, and made me draw back. The yearning was understandable, but it was too close to worship.

Moon, and Venus

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So wonderful to learn new things about Pluto. Then again, our own moon never fails to amaze. Tonight it put on a show with Venus. (Supposedly Jupiter was nearby but either I was too late out or something was in the way of it).

Laudato si, mi Signore, per sora Luna e le stelle:
in celu l’ài formate clarite et pretiose et belle.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful.

From the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi.


Handheld but leaning against a building for steadiness, necessary at 200mm.