Pierre & Marie, Ansel & Bill

Getting my foot x-rayed. SOOC.

Following Giacomo's sage advice.
(Findings: "Appearance unremarkable." Gee, I thought I had remarkable feet!)

Another opportunity to confound and amaze the medical profession.
"I got a million of 'em, a million of 'em," as Jimmy Durante liked to say about his jokes. He also said, "If I'd known how old I was going to be I'd have taken better care of myself."

Great chance for a challenge blip - what could be hotter than an x-ray?
I begin stalking my prey as soon as I enter the room, snapping away.
At the third shot (this one) the busy technician realizes what I'm doing and says,
"Please don't take any more. They're not allowed."

I offer to delete my pics but he says it's not necessary.
"Just don't take more."
Curious, I ask the reason for the prohibition.

"Suppose your foot falls off, they don't want you to have any ammunition to sue them with."

Turns out he's a photographer also, and we have a nice chat about that.
But if my foot falls off, here's the evidence.

HOT: DDW August challenge

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PHOTOGRAPHY NOTE

I have been enjoying films about two very different photographers, available on DVD from my local library and perhaps yours. Probably on Netflix as well.

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK by Richard Press.

Bill is in his eighties, still working, appearing in the New York Times - the only one on their staff still shooting film. He's thought of as a fashion photographer but considers himself a street photographer. Often found at the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. Works in the spirit of Cartier-Bresson, ready to seize every opportunity for a good capture. Besides being an introduction to a thoroughly charming person, this film contains many shots of Bill at work on the street. He also does a weekly video of his work on nytimes.com called On the Street. All very instructive, entertaining, and inspiring.


ANSEL ADAMS by Ric Burns, part of The American Experience series on PBS.

This documentary has many virtues, including the revelation of how important Ansel's photos and books were to the preservation of the American wilderness. It shows the ups and downs in the life of an artist, the struggle to earn a living by one's art, and the necessity to persevere. It is a biography that follows Ansel from early childhood to the end of his life.

It offers the supreme pleasure of many gorgeous black-and-white Ansel Adams photographs slowly panned to reveal the detail he captured and the vast expanses of sky and land he loaded into a single shot that you could look at for hours. It portrays how he developed his unique style. It discusses his technique, compares his work to that of other photographers and photographic styles, and describes how one of his most famous pictures, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, was shot and developed in the darkroom.

What spoke to me especially in this riveting film were the discussions of Ansel's photographic and spiritual quests, which, it turns out, were inextricably bound. His church was Yosemite and the High Sierra. Photography was his prayer. Well worth an hour and a half of your time.