Jeff Likes to Tell Stories

Welcome to my blog. I haven’t kept up with it in a while. But I hope to get back to writing the types of stories you’ll find here. If my life was a sitcom, these might be considered scripts for the show. I write about my life, my interactions with my family and those strangers I encounter on a daily basis. My more serious writing can be found in various places. But I often post them on Medium.

Artistic Tendencies, Idiosyncratic Celebrations / 14.02.2009

Portrait of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln in Cupcakes Click image for larger view. Fridays are supposed to be light days with anticipation of the upcoming weekend filling workers heads worldwide. Yesterday, was anything but as our anticipation was redirected to the cupcake portraits being constructed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, my home-away-from-home every weekday. Zilly Rosen and her group had prepared 5900 vanilla cupcakes and were carefully placing them in just the right places to reveal a duo portrait of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln --a combo St. Valentine's Day and Presidents Day homage (that's the word we use...

Artistic Tendencies, Idiosyncratic Celebrations, Professional Auteurism / 08.02.2009

Portraits taken at Obama's Inauguration

Details from some of my Inaugural portraits

As I began to look at the photographs I shot during the Inauguration I realized how many portraits of people I had taken that day: from soldiers and police who were doing traffic control (and other more subtle national security tasks) to the many different citizens who came to celebrate and sell their souvenirs. As I said initially, this was a very different Inauguration than the last two I attended. Few protesters, it was more celebratory than either of the last two Bush events.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time thinking about the best camera to take on these urban photo safaris. In 2001 I dusted off my Pentax 6x7 to shoot medium format "real" film at Bush's first Inaugural. This had been my go-to camera during the 1990s. Medium format gave me great detail for large prints and I loved the quality. But that January 20th I realized this would be the last time I would ever used this camera --too few shots per roll and, weighing in at almost four pounds, it was heavy as hell. This was not well-suited for the type of urban documentary photography I was interested in and my back was no longer willing to carry it around. It became a burden to take pictures. I needed to make an adjustment just as digital cameras were coming into their own.

In 2005 I brought my first digicam, the tiny Pentax Optio S5. Oooh, it was light and its featherweight brought the fun back for me. But the measly optical zoom (3X) didn't allow me to get close to some of the action at Bush's second Inauguration. So I began looking for something closer to my dream combo: a lightweight camera with a massive zoom. The winner was the Panasonic TZ3 (and now its successor the TZ5). It was a bit heavier than my S5 but not by much and it had a 10X optical zoom (the longest zoom on the lightest camera around). It didn't have processional settings like the Nikon P5000 or the Canon G9 so I wouldn't have the most control over the images I took but I figured I could do what I needed in post-production using Photoshop.

So this year it was me and my TZ3 welcoming our new President on the National Mall. When you're taking impromptu street portraits you don't have a lot of time to contemplate your camera settings. You point and you shoot. I asked people if I could take their photograph. Sometimes I'd just be able to get one shot off before my subject moved on. That's street photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment. I was in a maelstrom of people moving in all directions. Getting someone to stand still for a minute wasn't easy.

As I looked at my images on the computer later that evening I started to form opinions about what I had taken. Going in without a strict notion of what I wanted to take (how could I, not knowing what to expect), I relied on my internal photographic senses on the street. However, now I had the time to make decisions about the final images. And I realized that some would require a shallow depth-of-field to separate the subjects of my photos from their background. Unlike my formative photographic years when I could do that by as I was taking the photography using a wide aperture, I was going to have to recreate this via Photoshop. And to do it right was going to entail a multi-stepped process.

Commuting with Nature, Fairly Odd Parents-Present / 25.01.2009

Caffeine, you were my friend. I started my day with you and recently began seeing you on an ongoing basis in the late afternoon. When I realized you had no effect on my regular bedtime I relied on you to give me that extra push from my day job to my evening job as a dad and husband. Suddenly I had energy to do the dishes without being asked and to cheerfully help my girls with their homework. But no more. From now on I will do my evening work without your help. I've learned my lesson. Last Wednesday, as...

Idiosyncratic Celebrations, News Outta My Control / 22.01.2009

A "postcard" view of the Inauguration taken from the top of the Washington Monument. The circle marks our spot on the Mall. Click image for larger view. (The original can be found here.) My twelve year old daughter and I got up early to catch the Metro downtown to Barack Obama's Inauguration. We didn't know quite what to expect. No one did. There were numerous unknowns: how many millions would crowd the Mall that day, would the Metro be able to handle the heavy traffic, and where would the best vantage point be to witness the festivites. But I had to...

News Outta My Control / 19.01.2009

Bush's Last Day

I've been wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with this date and slogan for over two years. And I can't believe January 20, 2009 is finally upon us. I feel like a veil is being lifted and like victims of oppression who suddenly become free of their oppressors, I am both filled with hope and anxiety when I consider the future ahead for us. Things will not change right away and some things will be hard for Barack Obama to right. These eight years will not go away that easily.

The actual attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon seem far in the past (although their effects do not). The Iraqi and Afgani Wars, Osama and Al Qaeda --it's hard to believe George W. Bush has been in power during this whole period. It seems like forever (it has been forever). I am less naïve and see our success as a people much more tied to the rest of the world. George W., you showed me that over the years. Your actions spoke volumes. And I learned the hard way by your mistakes and missteps.

Early on I felt isolated from many Americans, those who saw your policies in very different ways. I'm gratified after eight years I am no longer in the minority. It took awhile but those missteps became onerous to most. But many paid a high price and sacrificed their lives because of your decisions. I don't take terrorism lightly but I'm hoping there are other ways to fight it. I am looking forward towards a more humble period in our history.

I started Life Outtacontext in February 2001, just as your first term began. But it wasn't until 9/11 that I began to write about the "News Outta My Control." As a reaction to September 11 I created Dichotomy: It Was a Matter of Time and Place as a way for others to tell their stories, pairing missives from those who were affected directly by these attacks with those who experienced them via the media. I just received my most recent contribution just last week.

During the last few days I've been taking stock of the last eight years through my writings here. Below is a list with links to my thoughts these last two Bush terms. Some of these stories remind me that some of us have an incredible ability to analyze our situation accurately (unlike the Bush Administration's WMD assertion), like Seymour Hersh. In a 2003 post he tells us that it's Pakistan, not Iraqi, that should concern us the most. Or like Steve Mehallo's 2003 poster for peace that says "Make Jobs Not War. We're starting to see the light now.

Others remind me that I can be outspoken in quite an idiosyncratic sort of way: here, here, and here. (Oh, and don't forget here, here and especially here.) Some pieces I am even proud of. Freedom fries be damned!

While just a regular "Joe" citizen, living in Washington has over the years given me access to the centers of power. Like the time I ran into John Ashcroft on the street, or when my wife and I were invited to Vice President Cheney's house. And sometimes politics got personal. It's been a hard, but interesting eight years. September 11, the Iraqi War, the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections, Katrina, and the economic dive-bomb. It's all here.

The list below seems so nice and tidy. But life for all of us has been far from it. To better times!

Idiosyncratic Celebrations, News Outta My Control / 16.01.2009

Porta-Potties Stand Ready and Waiting for Inaugural Hordes. Am I ready? Well, to be honest, I am a bit nervous. Will I be standing in a sea of four million out-of-towners or two million --many natives have decided to go skiing. (Follow the rules people and we'll get along just fine.) Will the Metro actually get me where I'm going? The Metro's General Manager isn't so sure. He is sure "something will happen on the 20th." That's what I like: confidence. Am I prepared for the cold and the hours I'll be standing on the National Mall? I'm working at...

Commuting with Nature / 11.01.2009

Rush Hour on the DC Metro. Photo by andrew.deci via Flickr. When you commute five days a week on public transportation you start to see the same people standing in the same places everyday. I've always marveled at how our clocks are in sync. Do each of these people get up at 5:30 a.m. like I do, eat breakfast while reading the paper, then go shower and dress for work, all at the same moment? So it wasn't surprising when I saw that tall man, in his late 50s, wearing his wide-brimmed leather hat and trench coat on the subway platform....

Fairly Odd Parents-Past, Medicinal Properties / 14.12.2008

Still from the Diving Bell and the Butterfly

From his vantage point: sewing Jean-Dominique Bauby's eye shut after his stroke. Still from the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Today is my mother's birthday: more accurately, the 87th anniversary of her birth. She died in 1971 just days before her fiftieth birthday. Eleven years before she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor: acoustic neuroma, Clinically speaking, this tumor is "a non-cancerous growth that arises from the 8th or vestibulo-cochlear nerve." But the effects of her illness and treatment were as toxic as any chemotherapy would have been. At 11 I was too young to be included in the discussions of her disease, prognosis, and treatment. Invasive and targeted, today my memories of her illness are still as imbedded in my brain as her tumor was in hers.

Yesterday, while the rest of the family was out on holiday errands I decided to force myself to watch the Netflix movie that had been sitting next to the TV for months. Next in our queue was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. While I couldn't remember the film's exact synopsis I knew it had something to do with a man locked in his body, unable to respond to the world around him. This certainly wasn't on my list of comedic films I'd gravitated to recently, hence its longevity on our TV shelf. And as the plot unfolded I was totally unprepared for the striking similarities to my mother's illness the film would convey. I was shocked at how raw my feelings and emotions were 48 years after the fact. And I was glad I was alone.

News Outta My Control, Professional Auteurism / 06.12.2008

Beauty has always been a product of the social attitudes of the time. During the Renaissance voluptuous Rafaelesque women were the standard aspiration while in the 1960s, and certainly today, thin --even an emaciated look-- is often what people admire. While waiting for the subway after work yesterday I found a new back-lighted dental ad at my usual standing spot. Quick! Who does this man look like? Is it a coincidence this model reminds me of Barack Obama? His election was more than the total electoral votes he garnered --some even calling it a post-racial social revolution. Oh, our propensity to...