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A Day in the Brine

~ Unkempt Mind dribbling in the seethe

A Day in the Brine

Tag Archives: Blur

Amidst All Your Philosophy

18 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by smilingtoad in Photography, Quotations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Nature, Photography, Black and White, Abstract, Twilight, Snow, Literary Quotes, Blur, Cinema Quotes, Urban Debris

“If men lie in this world, what makes you so sure they’ll be honest in the next?”― Rashomon (1950)

“Logic is of course unshakeable, but it cannot hold out against a man who wants to live.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“Immanuel Kant marveled at ‘the starry heavens above’ and the ‘moral law within.’ It’s a lovely sentiment, but one that I cannot wholeheartedly share. We are marvelous in many ways, but the moral laws within us are a mixed blessing. More marvelous, to me, is our ability to question the laws written in our hearts and replace them with something better. The natural world is full of cooperation, from tiny cells to packs of wolves. But all of this teamwork, however impressive, evolved for the amoral purpose of successful competition…

“And yet somehow we, with our overgrown primate brains, can grasp the abstract principles behind nature’s machines and make them our own. On these pastures, something new is growing under the sun: a global tribe that looks out for its members, not to gain advantage over others, but simply because it’s good.”— Joshua D. Greene, Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them

“Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.” ― David Hume

“The Sun the Color of Pressed Grapes…”

20 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by smilingtoad in Photography, Quotations, Sea

≈ 42 Comments

Tags

Abstract, Beach, Black and White, Blur, Drear, Experimental Photography, Nature, Ocean, Pensive, Photography, Quotes, Sand, Sea, Twilight

Prelude to the Monody“He opens his eyes and stares directly into the morning sun which wallows up from the misty sea like some bloated, dying fish. The sky is gray and immobile, a dome of lead. A cloud hangs mute and dark over the western horizon. High up, barely visible, a seagull floats on motionless wings. Its cry is weird and restless.”
– Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal

Chewing Sand“I had forgotten that time wasn’t fixed like concrete but in fact was fluid as sand, or water. I had forgotten that even misery can end. ”
– Joyce Carol Oates, I Am No One You Know

Liquid Binding“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”
– Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“In Nature Nothing Exists Alone” -Rachel Carson

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by smilingtoad in Photography, Quotations

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Abstract, BBC Podcast, Beach, Beauty, Black and White, Blur, Environmentalism, Florida, Life, Nature, Ocean, Pensive, Photography, Podcast, Quotes, Rachel Carson, Rachel Carson's Birthday, Salt, Sand, Science, Sea, Surf, Water

And No Birds Sing:  Rachel Carson and Silent Spring- A BBC Podcast on Rachel Carson
Fractured00
“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.”
― Rachel Carson

DrillingTowardTheSky00

“In every out-thrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”
― Rachel Carson

Edge04“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
― Rachel Carson

SeaTrees01“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
― Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us

TheEndlessSand01“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
― Rachel Carson

Blue Ribbed Sand“In nature nothing exists alone.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Despair04“But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
― Rachel Carson

WithintheBlearyBracketsofTime01“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”
― Rachel Carson

Another Year of These Slide-Show Nightmares…

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by smilingtoad in Experimental, Humour, Photography, Stories

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

2014, Abstract Photography, Black and White, Blur, Commentary, Florida, Fun, Humour, Nature, New Year, Photography, Portrait Photography, Seascape, Silly, Song, Story, Surly, Water

A fortnight into the 2014’s great nascent, and Sir (the somewhat crabby super-model) greets its sunny, smiling visage with…perhaps an ever-so-slightly surly, tongue-protruding, sort of attitude…for reasons…I am rather foggy on, at the moment…

Anyhow, onto more smiling things- some new portraits of Sir and some of his, er, affectionate, comments. Cheers,

Smiling Toad

The Nose

And so another year has dribbled by…and here I am again, startled awake by the monotonous scream of a clicking shutter resounding through my slide-show nightmares…

The EYE

Everywhere I go, that sound, and that dark, evil un-blinking EYE bending my reflection around every corner, as I try so desperately to ESCAPE.

Leave Me Here to Cry in Peace

Another year of this? It’s only getting worse. In this photo, it seems the darn camera-toting toad forgot how to focus and expose properly. Certainly has no mercy. It is obvious, despite her trying to hide it by “blurring”, that I am bawling bullet-sized tears, here.

The Fallen

Even when I fall down after bawling so hard, she just coldly and laconically steps around my corpse, with that lens probing about for the “perfect angle” like a bird’s bill probes for worms. No sympathy. Sometimes, I wish she would say to me, there, sprawled in the soggy ravine, “Poor Sir…what a terrible monster I have been! What a curse this photography rot has been for you, poor man; why I’ve caused you to cry so ardently you’ve fallen and suffered great bodily injury, beyond that of the mental mauling you must have already sustained!“

Sunset Chill

Even better if she continued with,”HANG this camera! I’m throwing it in the murky mire beside you there, brimming with some darling gators, I see; or better-yet, I’m going to pop the lens off it in a tree with a noose. Let the birds nest in it, let the squirrels toss their acorns into it- I don’t care, I’M FINISHED!” Yes…I still can dream…

Squiggly-Armed Reflection

But no such luck…as reality seeps back into sharp focus. And now she seems to be on a “fabulous rock star” kick, adorning me in flickering baubles, frilly neck-gear, leather coats, and shiny eye-wear…One night, I forgot to take off the “props” and went cruising into a little local restaurant. Suddenly, a whole slew of wide-eyed people accumulated behind the counter and sang out to me, “Oh my goodness! Are you a musician?! Did you just come from a gig? We just loooove your hat!” Why me? (wince) I know what’s next…guitars and violins and horns will be draped all over me and then her face will alight with a terrible sprightly pixie smile, as she breaks out the eye-liner and lip gloss…I think I miss the “hit man” shoots, now…

Life is an Endless Photo-Shoot

“Oh YES perfect Sir, a bit of a groovy Bono-esc look here!” she chortles at me delightedly through a fog of clicks in this photo here. Not fooling me. I know what it looks like- some nasty creep out on the prowl. He’s got shiny glasses, hoping to “blend”. Here he’s suddenly turned away from a poor victim in order to glower into a shoppe window as a mustached police officer with a cherry-red face slowly sashays by, rapping his palm with his shiny black cudgel.

Lustrous Hair

This seems to only enhance the ogling-masher-creep-effect. Oh why do I adhere to her silly commands? “Just kneel down there, Sir, yes lovely. The light is perfect now,” she cheeps, guiding me along with the muzzle of her camera. I protest, “But I don’t want to look at these ugly mannequins…” She replies, “Don’t worry about it; this is all for the lighting. Peeeeerfect.” A hundred snaps go off. Hmph. Bono my FOOT!

Pinned to a Cactus

Sometimes, it’s just best to give in and pose…especially if you are pinned to a great sniveling serpentine cactus with razor-sharp quills pressing into one’s shoulder-blades…

Get Me Back to the City

And try to keep the tears at bay…And just hope that something else will EVENTUALLY catch the EYE’s interest…

maybe I should push you in

Like this. Hmm…should I?

Moody Sunset

Or this.

Bleary Daze

Over time, though, you do develop some tricks of your own to combat the ultimate paparazzo protégé with. Ahhh the taste of rebellion! Or…near taste of it, anyway…

Bleary Daze 02

If you are afflicted with this problem of some atrocious imp shoving camera snouts in your face, try scuttling about in circles. Bob your head or twirl your umbrella. Throw a prop-hat into the wind. This works best in low light. Results in horrendous blurring, and hopefully, also in a photo-maker who flails off in defeat with arms flapping in frustration. Of course, do you know what my camera-toting tormentor cheeps at me whenever I do this? “OH BRILLIANT SIR! These photos are absolutely exquisite! So artistic, so abstract, and with such EMOTION!” (Sigh) Yes, that of deep, unfathomable despair…

Shuffling Off into the Drear

Another option- turn around and…RUN!

Consternation

Or try a scathing glare if your pursuer with the light-capturing device protruding forth happens to be a bit faster than you are…Ugh…that scarf! She was setting me up for disaster with that scarf and that bally stupid alpaca hat. Lasses kept bounding up in my face, squeaking how “cute” I looked. Boyfriends looked geared up to bash me so hard the scarf and stupid hat would go flying across the street…

Foggy Winders

Another tip- hide whenever you can, especially if your camera-wielding tormentor is distracted by a crack in the sidewalk or grime on a window or something. Of course…the determined paparazzo protégé will always find you…I know. They seem to have very keen focus. They don’t give up.

“And so, as I listen to a series of clicks reverberating through this foggy window, I leave you with a song that describes just how I feel below. Farewell. (I only dream that these nefarious images never, EVER find their way onto the great world-wide Web).”

Regards,

Sir

“Foggy Windows” by Unknown Hinson


Still Summer Sundered

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by smilingtoad in Photography, Poetry, Sea

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Abstract, Black and White, Blur, Nature, Ocean, Ocean Photography, Photography, Sea, Summer, Sunset, Surfing, Twilight, Water

04-22-13 Surfer Waiting lrg DSC_7179

Still Summer sundered-

Distant storm smolders

04-22-13 Sunset lrg DSC_6932

Sunset swimming

On glazed Surf

Bruised horizon

Vomiting waves

04-22-13 Surfer Abstract LRG DSC_7209

Vanquishing this

Once sickly-placid

Ocean Lake

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