April Photo Challenge. Discussion.

[Alex The G and T]

This morning's (west coast US time) spate of entries livens up the field a bit.

As I mentioned, upthread, I surfed the previous years' themes to get a sense of what's been done, and how it worked. One of the conclusions drawn was that unexplained themes drew the widest interpretations.

A dearth of entries, over the last week, has led me to wonder whether I should goad the field a bit. Perhaps explain my thinking a bit more?

We see the term "fool" as a noun well represented.. The jester, joker, harlequin, mountebank. (Talysia, Tiffany, Mouse)

David broadens the noun a bit towards "fool" as a person displaying behavior which clearly, somehow doesn't quite Get the Point. Alchemist lookin' good in a similar aspect.

I'm not seeing much in "fool" as a verb. Maybe Hope's "Fool for Love," or the concept of giving elaborate gifts for her own birthday.

Talysia, Mouse, alchemist and Stormfeather have breached the "Anavid Barrier." Anavid has stated that he prefers to photograph Beauty in Nature. Stormfeather, especially, blew the dichotomy of foolishness and beauty wide open, with style and grace. Natural beauty and tomfoolery are not mutually exclusive.

The Jaundiced Eye is looking for the tongue in Mother Nature's cheek. Talysia's "Fools Gold" points in this other direction, which I had in mind. Beautiful, yet deceptive. Which other natural displays might require a second look?

Anavid also commented that he is not comfortable with the english language. Well, Anavid, I haven't noticed that there is anything wrong with your english. As a woefully monolingual American; I applaud anyone with any multilingual facility. A browse of my pocket French-English translation dictionary shows a sad dearth of breadth in difining the term fool. Yet, I reckon that not all of the English-as-a-first-language crew has fully grasped the extent of the nuances of the term "fool."

**
Some broader hints to the convoluted contortion of Alex' mind are hereabove exposed. I have more ideas.

My primary, best pursuit has proven so elusive that I wouldn't mind sharing it, in hopes that someone might capture a better shot than mine own frustrated attempts.

How say ye? Would further delvings into Alex' twisted thinking constitute a fair hint; or a spoiler?

 

[hopewrites]

hint or spoiler as long as your 'enlightening' is entertaining i'm up for it.

what i have noticed is that when it comes time for voting people (and by people i mean Me and anyone else who is willing to throw in with the statement that follows that word) tend to look for the pict(s) that best depicts their interpretation of what we were challenged to find and capture.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Heh heh. A quick response in favor of wondering what the bloody hell Alex was thinking.

Short answer: look at the second and third entries for the term in the dictionary. As a verb it's a jest, a jape, a prank.

I have a story so terrible that I can't reveal it until the voting is over; lest it appear that I'm pandering for sympathy. };-}

Meanwhile.. this theme shouldn't be so tough... if we broaden the connotations of the term a bit.

 

[anivid]

Whou-whou, always interesting to have look inside a man’s thinking cap ;-)
Now we’ve just to find sby thinking like yourself – and you’ll win !!
-oh, you didn’t post a pic yet ?? – would that be an obstacle ??
On a more serious note : Alex, forget the Past – there might have been other participants then, you’ll have to work with the playfull critters you’ve got here & now ;-)

 

[StormFeather]

Talysia, Mouse, alchemist and Stormfeather have breached the "Anavid Barrier." Anavid has stated that he prefers to photograph Beauty in Nature. Stormfeather, especially, blew the dichotomy of foolishness and beauty wide open, with style and grace. Natural beauty and tomfoolery are not mutually exclusive.

*does a little jig of happiness*

Wow - and there was me thinking that I was stretching things a bit too far!

My second entry is of my two kids at their early morning football practice on Friday - both I and the instructor nearly lost them! Needless to say, after taking the picture I sat in the car!

 

[anivid]

Fine pic Alch – Blue Clone on a Sunday Outing ??
There’s something fascinating over it – feeling for telling about it (where, who, why, what etc.) ??
StormFeather captured some good weather phenomenons in her Rainbow and Mist - nice to see ;-)

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I like the way Alex is doing comments for the photos, like Perp, Karn, Hope and Springs do for the story contests.

 

[alchemist]

Fine pic Alch – Blue Clone on a Sunday Outing ??
There’s something fascinating over it – feeling for telling about it (where, who, why, what etc.) ??

I'll spoil the fascination now by telling you it's the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand. Now glaciers may be a Sunday outing for you with your skis, but it's a massive adventure for me.

 

[Alex The G and T]

I like the way Alex is doing comments for the photos, like Perp, Karn, Hope and Springs do for the story contests.

Thanks for the thumbs-up on that. I seek to encourage broadening the focus (so to speak) on this theme.

My own elusive goal has been bent towards the animal trickster archetypes, which appear in myth and folklore globally.

I may have a homefield advantage. I live in a clearing in a forest, much like Baba Yaga; except I didn't build my house on chicken legs.

I double-triple-dog-pinky-swear that I didn't have this in mind, stacking the deck, until days after I posted the theme.

The thing about animal trickster figures is that they have earned their reputation. They are sly and elusive.

Coyote, we at the Alex homestead, hear regularly at night, yet seldom see in daylight. Fox lives in a den under a huge redwood tree stump, out behind the barn. Seldom seen, but in glimpses and flashes, during twilight hours. Raven, the prime miscreant, troublemaker of the avian kingdom are ubiquitous. I have shot dozens of portraits of Raven. Capturing Raven in an act of foolishness has proven to be a challenge to inadequacies in equipment and the photographer's reflexes.

Relentlessly foul weather has confounded my project as much as the slippery nature of my photographic goal.

I have potential entries; but I'm hoping for better.

As a hideous backup plan I have a jape, so horrible, that I will pelted with rotted vegetables and offal if I dare post it. Alternatively, I might be lauded as a master comedian. This jape within a jape makes me laugh hysterically. Not hysterically as in funny; but hysterically, as in losing my mind over extreme cabin-fever resultant of aforementioned terrible weather. Everything which I want and need to be doing requires better weather. I have been sorely housebound.

I intend to wrap up this challenge, in about a week; either down in flames, smothered in glory, or hauled off in a straight-jacket.

 

[hopewrites]

i'll let you borrow mine if you wish.

as an aside I have added some practicalities to my gift box, in the way of nice smelling natural soaps, various scented candles and some aspirin. still not full so i'm still thinking of what else I might add to it.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

May I suggest a frozen butterfly?

 

[Alex The G and T]

i'll let you borrow mine if you wish.

Thanks, Hope, but sharing a camera over a 15 hour road-trip seems rather less than practical. };-}

Since I last posted, I've been culling through another dozen shots of flyin' Ravens and was reminded of another angle I had in mind.

When I said something about the "Tongue in Mother Nature's Cheek," upthread; I was thinking of natural formations which offer the delusion of another image. Cloud formations, weird rock contortions, deformed trees....

 

[anivid]

Hooja Alch – glaciers would be a massive adventure for me too ;-)
Ice, right – not exactly where skis are most useful – they need something where the edges can sink into while meeting resistance - else the skis would be sliding freely with you, probably helping the glacier to get you down in a rut ;-)
The expression : Sunday Outing was used, because they don’t seem to have much equipment – spiked shoes ?? – but no sticks, ropes, axes, etc. ??
New question : why are they dressed alike – or shouldn’t I ask ??
As ice adventure I tried Dripstone Caves – a landscape made totally of ice : stalactites & stalagmites – but subterrenean – not out in the free as your glaciers, which gives another quite delicious colour spectrum.
My eyes like your pic ;-)

 

[alchemist]

New question : why are they dressed alike – or shouldn’t I ask ??

Nothing too exotic. It was an organised trip and everyone got given a blue raincoat, even me! We did have crampons (?) as well. It was mildly scary, knowing I could slide to my death, going "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee...splat!"

 

[anivid]

... going "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee...splat!"

(those quotings are weird - will not always follow my intentions ;-)

Yeah Alch, a fast way to end all earthly sorrows ;-)
We see it every year on the ski slopes – hence my motto: Security before Fastness – which I try to imprint in every young person I see out there.
Not to much use I’m afraid, as they decades ago stuffed their ears with something more rhytmic than adult advices ;-)
We have at least one every year who goes "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee...splat!" – as you so charmingly put it ;-)
Hm, may be we should embed our advices in sound & rhytme for getting access to their ears ??
(tagged : spin-off ;-)

 

[hopewrites]

Thanks, Hope, but sharing a camera over a 15 hour road-trip seems rather less than practical. };-}

oh i meant jacket. My camera is embedded in my phone and i dont let my phone off my person.

 

[Alex The G and T]

They let you take your straight-jacket off of your person?

How I envy you.

 

[hopewrites]

who let who what? No I just said I have one you could borrow, didnt say anyone let me take it off... or keep it...
but i have such long arms that it was the only jacket that came close to covering my wrists while still fitting through the shoulders and waist. though the sleeves are a tiny bit long, nothing a bit of cuffing doesnt cure though.


on a side note, is anyone else having trouble with the pictures only sometimes showing up? I tried viewing on a different browser but my back up browser shows fewer picts than my standard.

 

[Alex The G and T]

on a side note, is anyone else having trouble with the pictures only sometimes showing up? I tried viewing on a different browser but my back up browser shows fewer picts than my standard.

These third-party, "free," ad driven photo web hosts always want to fightcha to embed an image, sans the logo-rich page it's hosted upon.

In order to embed an image within a post, one must isolate the image in a "new window" to get the exact URL of the unencumbered image.

I'd been using Flickr for years. They got so feisty, at one time, that I would have to skim through the html source code, looking for the image call; which had had it's filename changed to incomprehensible gibberish. And they change the format occasioanally when they think they're getting thwarted too often.

Yeah, there was one Photo this month... I forget whether it was the photo challenge or pic of the day.. I actually saw the image oscillate between available and broken link, several times over the course of one day.

I had a bit of an unusual fight with the facebook schemario getting my entry up tonight, also. Someone is tweaking the game somewhere.

The hosts want the linkees to see the ads. I say, It's my image, I own it and I'm damn well gonna link to it how I see fit.


(David takes the easy out and links, rather than embeds, to the appropriate Flickr page)

 

[hopewrites]

fixed it. wasnt my browser, was my tether. Seems it not only blocked me from opening my email when it "blocked" password protected sites, but from some of the images being viewable as well.
all good now though.

*seriously thinks about just getting a wireless card*