A Long Way From Anywhere

T

oday is a little nostalgic. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m longing for a different time, a past time. A more peaceful time when people didn’t get shot attending a holiday parade or going to school, a time when children didn’t know how to hide from a gunman with some kind of semi-automatic AR-15.

When I was young, a kid, we didn’t shoot each other when we got into a fight. We fought with our fists. Nobody got killed.

We didn’t shoot 30 innocent people and kill another seven from a position on a roof. We didn’t go into a classroom and shoot innocent children.

I’m sure that plenty of us were crazy enough to do it. Oh, I know. Crazy isn’t woke enough. I don’t care. I call them as I see them.

The difference between then and now is simple

Guns. Guns. Guns.

I don’t care what anybody says, we do not need high powered military styled weapons in the home, on the street or on the farm. If we claim that we need them for self defense there are better weapons for that. If we claim, as the stupid senator from Louisiana did, that farmers need them to kill feral pigs I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be allowed to own any weapon. In fact, I’m pretty sure you need treatment.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not someone who says the past was better than it is today. Just some aspects. Guns are one of them.

Ban semi-automatic military weapons or I’ll do my best to vote you out of office.

Trust me on that.

N

ow for something completely different.

I’ve been chatting with my WordPress buddy Tim in my comments section about my belief that you should fill the frame with the subject and don’t crop unless you are cleaning up a little mistake.

He disagrees.

That’s okay. That’s what comments are for, right?

I made a comment that I was magic with an ancient Nikon 400mm f 3.5 lens.

That’ s pretty bold statement. Bragging almost.

So, I thought I’d better back that up with at least one picture.

This picture.

I made this picture during my newspaper days, at the Winston-Salem Journal & Sentinel. In those days they were two separate newspapers with two separate reporting staffs. Not anymore.

I made this picture with Tri-X black and white film that we rated at ISO 320 instead of the recommended speed of ISO 400. I shot this picture with that 400mm lens, hand held.

Magic.