My poem is One Side Sacred The Other Side Profane inspired by Gabriela’s poem Between Sacred and Profane. I based my poem on W. Eugene Smith’s activism against mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan in the 1970s. He published a book titled Minamata: Life Sacred and Profane in 1972 that brought the issue worldwide attention. I first saw the book when I was a photo student at the University of New Mexico in the early 1980s. I wanted to buy a copy of the book back then, but I couldn’t afford it as a student. Now copies sell for hundreds of dollars, so I still don’t have one. W. Eugene Smith was one of the most important American photojournalists of the 20th Century. I don’t think he ever took a bad photo. His County Doctor series is brilliant. Chisso employees attacked and beat Smith in 1972. Smith lost sight in one eye and never really recovered. He died in 1978 at the tender age of 59. His death was a huge loss to the world of photography.
Dawn
We have cloudy skies tonight. The photos below are from last night before I encountered the zombies and sprites.
Christine’s Tree with the moon in the background. Mia’s Tree under Venus. Christine’s Tree with a bicycle in the background.
Jupiter, Crescent Moon, and Venus in a bent line. Saturn’s between Jupiter and the Moon, but it’s not bright enough to show up in the wide-angle photo.
Moon over the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon over cranes in the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon in the Tangle Heart Tree.
Jupiter with moons and stars.
Cranes: What’s the big deal? We could fly up to the moon if we wanted to!
Penultimate moon rises Waning crescent thinly lit Winks one last time before Waking opposite Uranus That makes one distant, impulsive Seeing Mercury sextile Venus Scorpio on the border with Virgo, Libra Procession of equinoxes
My birthday cake. Costco didn’t have any cakes with Happy Birthday!
This is a display along Corrales Road. I’m happy I got it early. The skeleton disappeared after the high winds last week.
All the cats got to try on the bat wings. Loki in photos 12 and 13 was the best batwing model. Glenda (3rd photo) and Gwendolyn (last photo) were pretty good, also. Black cats know they look good in bat wings. Spunk, on the other hand, told me exactly what he thought about wearing bat wings after I took them off him (7th photo).
Venus in focus through blurry tree (Bazooka). Mia’s Tree with Venus (iPhone 13 Pro). Tree in focus with Venus in the background (Bazooka).
Jupiter with three moons shot with the Bazooka. Moon shot with iPhone 13 Pro. Moon blasted by the Bazooka.
I traded in my iPhone 12 Mini for an iPhone 13 Pro. I decided I wanted the camera with the LiDAR scanner†. As you can see from the two moonshots, the iPhone has a long way to go before it can compete with the Bazooka, but I’m really impressed that I was able to control the exposure well enough to get as much detail as I did shooting a bright moon at 15x zoom†† on the iPhone. I had to lock the focus on the moon while I adjusted the exposure because the moon was jumping all over the screen with the slightest movement at 15x zoom.
Here’s the kicker, since I got a decent discount on the iPhone 12 Mini when I bought it, between Apple’s trade in allowance and T-moble’s trade in allowance, I got $75 more in trade-in value than I paid for the iPhone 12 Mini. The iPhone 13 Pro is larger than the iPhone 12 Mini, but I think it will be worth the larger size for the camera upgrade.
†The Wiki article on LiDAR states LiDAR scanners are available on the iPhone 12. That is not true. It’s only available on the iPhone 13 Pro, currently.
††15x Zoom on the iPhone Pro 13 Pro is equivalent to 390 mm. The Bazooka on the Canon 7D Mark II body is equivalent to 640 mm.