limited access

RI-MA shore. When David Geffen pulls this maneuver in California it's news. Here on the shore of Buzzard's Bay it seems to be the accepted practice. The public is directed to state owned sites. The rest of the ocean front is the private playground of the power elite.

Maybe it isn't private? At any rate, within miles of the ocean no parking and no trespassing signs predominate.

snow creek

The Virginia Highlands festival photography juror liked the image above. Receiving words of encouragement is a rare and wonderful thing.

reunion

dreaming of winter

all my machines are melting

Sophie makes friends everywhere

Reggie

awe

In response to a question you can give the simple answer.
"Where does corn come from?" "Where does lightning come from."
Comes from a seed, comes from a cloud.
A scientist could issue an informed response.

I picked up my candidate today.
Where did this personality come from? Her cool, grit, and will?
The short answer isn't sufficient, the long answer isn't found in an academic discipline.

report

NPQ, fx

hepatic insult

EYE:FLUSH IMMEDIATELY W/LARGE AMOUNTS WATE15MINUTES.EYELIDS SHOULD BE HELD AWAY F/EYEBALL-ENSURE THOROUGH RINSING.GET MEDICAL ADVICE IF PAIN/REDNESS CONTINUES.SKIN:WASH EXPOSED AREA THOROGHLY W/SOAP&W ATER.REMOVE CONTAMINATED CLOTHING PROMPTLY&LAUNDER BEFOR REUSE.CONTAMINATED LEATHER GOODS SHOULD BE DISCARDED.IF IRRITATION PERSISTS/SYMPTOMS DEVELOP,GET MEDICAL ATTENTION.HIGH PRESSURE SKIN INJECTION S ARE SERIOUS MEDICAL EMERGENCIES.GET IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION.INHALATION:REMOVE-FRESH AIR.IF BREATHING IS DIFFICULT,ENSURE CLEAR AIRWAY&ADMINISTER OXYGEN.***

Had an industrial accident yesterday, prolonged skin exposure to an organic solvent. I can't multitask. By the time I got around to it, washing the exposed area, removing contaminated clothes, skin was burning.

Didn't call the poison control center, in the same way people with a chunk of NY strip lodged in their airway don't ask for help, embarrassed.

Liver working overtime. Brain sluggish. Slept the rest of the day.

9/15/06 Update, heard from the Kafka fan club in Seattle, she said the quote is:

You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still,
and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
== Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

Dandelion and Ciara

Service Dogs of Virginia
(Dandelion was raised by Linda Farina and family.)

cumulonimbus

MCV MVG THRU CWFA ATTM. HEATING SUFFICIENT FOR TSRA TO DVLP IN NRN SHEN VLY. TOT HE E...INSOLATION HAS BEEN MUCH BTTR...BUT DEEP MSTR LESS. STILL...THINK FORCING/INSTBLTY SUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN PCPN ACRS CWFA...IN A SCT-BKN LINE. POPS HV BEEN RAISED IN LINE W/ RADAR TRENDS.

Wish I understood weather-speak (typed by NWS employees on keyboards that only produce capital letters).

inflatable chicken

Traffic tripled on my website the other day.

I wondered who was looking, dug through the log file and found 689 requests between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M. for a photo of an inflatable chicken.

Discovered by Chicken Fetishists? Dug a little further and found a URL.



There are thousands of communities in Internet land, my bandwidth and image were being used not by Chicken Fetishists but by a Gamecock Fan, alias gatorhater
(Name of USC's rooster mascot, "Cocky").

Is there a requirement that mascots be insipid? UVA's mascot, the CavMan, would seem to bear that out...

good snake bad snake

Been working with the visual take from my weekend trip. The digital images (90) were completed on the days they were taken. The film images (40) are still in process.

Black cabinet tomorrow.

Work product is affected by tools. What is the digital effect? What is the film effect?

tired

That's J.R. above, vocalist. We were at the same place at the same time Saturday night. I asked and he gave me photo permission.

I have piles of pictures, compulsive habit, can't stop now. Being pushed out of my house by prints, negatives, photo paraphernalia. Can't stop now.

I want to stop. Right now I want to stop.

Wake up tomorrow and begin again.

report

All is well.

pretty girl

I had one prospective wedding to photograph this year. Sweet couple, she was from Italy, he from the US. In the end I talked them out of hiring me.

People spend real money on weddings, 90% of their lifetime photography budget gone in a day or two.

It is hard to believe that I have been the fortunate recipient of this knot-tying largess. Who would have the courage to hire me? The final paragraph in my contract reads:

Bill Emory is on record as not being a wedding photographer. While these photographs will be made during the course of a wedding and allied events it is to be expected that the photographs' content and composition will be idiosyncratic and will not necessarily conform to any bridal-industry standard.

I attended a wedding today.

The photographers were working in "photo-journalistic style."

That is the bride above.

tax on stupid people

The State of Virginia has a lottery. You have a better chance being struck by lightning than winning the Virginia Lottery.

Photo contests are similar. Smaller money, larger chance of winning, but in essence, a shell game. Send in your images and your cash (the entry fee). Images are returned if you provide for shipping, but that is the last you'll see of your entry money.

I quit entering the contests years ago, I couldn't win. Enter contests if you believe in Santa Claus.

I make one exception, the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon. The VHF is run by fine people with a mission of public service.

Pictured above, a shipping crate I made in 1979, still in use, currently winging its way via UPS ground to Abingdon.

I believe! I believe!

his own man

I think about Mr. G when I drive through the back country.

He didn't have consumer goods. Didn't have a car, an electric range, didn't have anything digital.

He had a house, a wood stove and a broom (Mr. G liked to keep his yard swept).

He knew who his friends were. He knew what he had to do everyday.

He stopped voting after Kennedy got shot.

The Church ladies didn't like Mr. G., he wouldn't live as they thought he ought to, he refused to clean up.

film fireworks

film rules.

eternal self promotion

Inked Magazine's current issue includes a six page spread of my pictures.

The photo biz is tough these days. People have to purchase gasoline before they buy their gelatin silver prints.

seven lean years

parking lot drainage

Vision Statement:

The Rivanna River Roundtable has developed a vision for the future of the basin based on the understanding that a healthy landscape, diverse ecosystem, clean air, clean water, and beautiful scenery add value to the local economy, and sustain the quality of life.

We envision:
? a river treasured as an investment in the future of the region, a resource worthy protection;
? a river occupying a vital place in the continuing history of the region;
? creeks and rivers which define what it means to be part of a special place, reinforcing residents sense of place and community;
? streams and rivers as accessible recreational resources, providing inspiration and educational opportunities for future generations;
? a river closely integrated into the cultural life of the region;
? streambeds providing habitat for river life and containing less silt, more rocks and riffles;
? forests and trees providing habitat and shading the streams and rivers, thus providing a habitat for fish and birds;
? a landscape that allows rainwater to seep slowly through the ground, providing recharge for summer creeks, while limiting flooding;
? swimmable, fishable streams for our future generations;
? clear and clean waters bound by fully vegetated stream banks, with topsoil in place;
? a future created by interested citizens working together and celebrating our need to return to the river as a source of daily pleasure, a place of commerce, and a place of occupation, and as a reminder of our history.

The Rivanna River Roundtable Report was released in May of 1998.

Meanwhile, the Rivanna has been busy transporting its silt and bacteria load downstream.

rivanna river

failed sediment and erosion control

There is a story in today's Daily Progress as well as a news release on the Nature Conservancy website about a million dollar donation from the Nestle Waters Corporation to help figure how to facilitate "ecologically substainable water management" on the river that runs through Charlottesville and Albemarle.

My two cents. City of Charlottesville, County of Albemarle, enforce the soil and erosion control regulations already on the books. Make maintenance of effective erosion control measures part of the building inspections process.

When mud starts oozing into the Rivanna, issue a stop work order. Grab the developers by their pocketbooks.

?As the region?s population continues to grow, inappropriate residential development and excessive water withdrawals pose the most imminent threat in the Rivanna River watershed,? said Ridge Schuyler, director of the Conservancy?s Piedmont Program in Virginia. ?Sediment runoff is suffocating the river system and reducing the capacity for the region?s water supply, while water withdrawals have the potential to suck life out of critical rivers and streams. We believe that with good science-based information, The Nature Conservancy and its partners can help to protect the river as the region?s water demands increase.?

day of rest

for everyone except the corn

backroads

Emma and I biked 46 miles, ditches running with water from tropical storm Cindy. Thinking about running a bed and breakfast. How would the English cycling tourists get here? There is no public transportation to Slabtown.

Memo to self: find a copy writer capable of making vultures snacking on deer entrails sound romantic.

Being money

Being money is fun. People work for you, cherish you, put you in a safe dry place.
Being money is the bomb, when you are big money people respect you, worship you, get nervous around you, by God they are in awe of you.

In the Bible money is mentioned over and over again, hundreds of times.

Everybody loves money. Democrats, Republicans, Chinese Communists, little kids waiting for the tooth fairy...



On the other hand there is the life of corn.

You get shelled, you get made into a pipe. Many of the brethren are processed for corn syrup, consumed by humans and turned into adipose tissue. Then the fat people pump corn ethanol into their cars, drive to Micky D's, eat corn-fed beef

It sucks being corn.

The best part of being corn is living, in the dark, in a field, millions of plants, vast monoculture, north south east and west, corn in all directions.

Large. Green. Alive!

Money can't say that.

(Emma on ladder, priceless.)

Dead photographer

Slabtown.

Teenage corn. I'll probably miss the flowering of these three. Sixteen days later, no longer cute

What is up with all the color? Digital color is quick, digital black and white takes time, at the very least pressing the desaturate button in Photoshop.

B&W from film is a comparatively labor intensive process: load film, unload film, develop film, cut film, scan film. To date, I am happier with the end product from film. In my case that is partially due to having good film tools and a limited digital toolkit.

Dead photographer. Ansel Adams, said something to the effect of
if photography was harder the images produced by photographers would be improved.
His thinking was that if a fair amount of effort was required to make an exposure, the photographer would think more about what was photographed.

What kind of digital camera would Ansel buy?

Fireworks and fireworks

The fireworks moved this year, positioned behind Dominion Virginia Power's transmission line from my vantage point, I didn't mind.



Yesterday, Nature didn't wait until after dark for the fireworks. Thunderstorm in the afternoon, bent trees sideways and those that wouldn't bend broke in two. Was it a tornado? I haven't heard.



More fireworks as the primary, high-voltage lines in Charlottesville came tumbling down, shorted out, 19,000 volts to ground, 34,000 volts between phases. In the Woolen Mills Neighborhood, Franklin Street was closed! We've been praying for this street to close, 1,800+ vehicle trips per day. Quiet now, it is like a residential neighborhood!



Rained cats and dogs and transformers over near UVA.



Made a mess of the UVA lawn.



In my neighborhood people got together and talked, that wonderful coming together that accompanies stressful times.



Near UVA folks came together in a different style.



On Rose Hill Drive families moved out to their front porches, a time to be together.



The icons were unscathed



A North Carolina line crew worked all night, subcontractors for Dominion Virginia Power.



Wednesday morning, the work proceeds.



I lost the top of a silver maple and one leaf from my Kentucky Coffee Bean tree.

Fireworks and fireworks.

hot cold water

Cold water in CHO running at 72 degrees this morning. Have to chill a few gallons to 68 Fahrenheit (20 degrees C) to develop July 4 film.

Yesterday there was the mountaintop experience, the joy of new citizens and the crowd that welcomed them as Americans. Additionally there was the off the mountain experience, the two kids walking pit bulls.

One of the APB's lunged for my Labrador. I'd called ahead, respectfully requesting that they keep a tight grip on the terriers. After the lunge I emphatically requested "control your dog."

When we were about fifty yards apart their farewell comments to me were shouts of "f**king queer."

The ideal and the real.

Independence Day

Ieoh Ming Pei, 88, architect, born in China, spoke at Monticello today, welcoming new Americans.

Also speaking, J. Harvie Wilkinson, newspaperman, law school teacher, potential Supreme Court nominee.



The sisters diverge...

By the big stream

On the road, a brief reunion of my family, 2 daughters, wife, the span of domesticity from two decades ago that brought twins into my life,

The river rolls.

#2 above wanted to be in the Navy but his mother had lost two brothers in a shipwreck, no way her Bill was going near the water.

He spent his life at sea.

The Algonquin name for this place means ?by the big stream.? One of the daughters has a 24 hour liberty, we are visiting. She is hoarse, from sounding off, a tad bruised from running the Obstacle course. Responds to me with Yes Sir.

Who defends the US? Our daughters, our sons.

Semper Fi.

custom suit

Philip-Lorca diCorcia is being sued by an Orthodox Jewish man that he photographed in 2001, as part of his Heads series:

"DiCorcia rigged strobe lights to scaffolding and trained his lens on an "X" he taped to the sidewalk. From 20 feet away, he took shots of Nussenzweig and thousands of other unsuspecting subjects. Later that year, diCorcia exhibited this image under the title "#13" at a Pace Wildenstein gallery show called "Heads" in Chelsea. The photographer said multiple prints of Nussenzweig's picture sold for about $20,000 each. The picture also was published in "Heads," a book that sold several thousand copies, diCorcia said.

Read entire post



Hmmm. Dairy cows don't sue, dogs don't sue. Reminds me of the gun control argument, guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Maybe a creative lawyer could put together a class action suit on behalf of all the mute bovines whose images I've used without permission?

diCorcia's problem is he is sitting on a pile of money while we possess a superabundance of juris doctors in the US itching to get themselves and their clients some of that cash.

If you eat your birthday cake on the ground ants will appear.

Should diCorcia's subjects share the wealth?

Maybe he could pull a Mary Ellen Mark. Take the photo. Present the lucky subject with a Polaroid and an iron-clad release... Hope they sign.

lead dust

Painting a portion of my house, first time in seventeen years.

Breathing lead dust, up before sunrise, weatherman calling for severe thunderstorms and hail later today.

Took Sophie for a walk in the mist by the river. Picked up a copy of Charlottesville's arts and entertainment weekly, The Hook. Publisher Hawes Spencer has been good to me over the years. Starting when I was a repair plumber and continuing through my other Mr. Fix-it Careers (HVAC repairman, auto mechanic, radiology tech) Hawes' newspaper was my creative outlet.

Staying alive.



Course now there is the Internet, but nothing is quite as fine as works on paper. Great happiness to have what newspaper photographers call a "double-truck", two pages of pictures side by side without advertisements.

Editor Spencer gave me four double trucks in a row.

Hawes is the man!