When to Save While Traveling and When Not

An insightful article by the NY Times Frugal Traveler on how to travel frugally without going overboard.  I remember, many years back now, taking the bus from Washington DC where I was a Congressional Intern, to Williamsburg, Virginia. Upon arrival at Colonial Williamsburg, I was shocked by the cost for a day pass to the site and, instead, opted for a pay-as-you-go scheme, not realizing how costly that would run.  Ended up only going into a couple of the buildings there, running up a tab almost as high as the full-day admission would have been, and catching the bus back to DC that evening, a couple of bucks richer but infinitely poorer in terms of experience.  I still remember that experience to this day and try not to short-change the experiences of travel to save a few bucks here and there.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/the-argument-against-pound-foolish-travel/?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20121201

MacArthur Winner: Uta Barth

Yes, photographers sometimes hit the big time.  Uta Barth, a professor emeritus at U.C. Riverside, just became one of the 2012 recipients of a MacArthur Grant - for $500,000.  Popularly called "genius" grants, the award has no strings attached and allow the recipients to do whatever they please - hopefully furthering their artistic or scholarly endeavors.  Now, I only mention this because I've never heard of Uta before today. But in checking out her work, I'm very excited!  Her focus is on seeing the differences in how our eyes see versus what the camera sees and "how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves." Definitely not cookie-cutter or traditional photographs, her work definitely explores light and shapes and the qualities that emanate from the very instrument used to record images - the camera.  A cross-section of her work can be found at: http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Uta%20Barth.

And you think YOU make mistakes

I attended a workshop two years ago in Cusco, Peru, with Daniel Milnor as one of the leaders. His blog, smogranch, is always of interest.  But his latest entry, on mistakes made, is one of his best. And unless you've made your share of photographic mistakes (let's not even get started on mistakes in life!), you're not trying hard enough!

http://www.smogranch.com/2012/11/19/failure-as-friend/

Insight

Richard Lacayo, in a Time Magazine essay on a photography exhibit on War, made a particularly insightful point: "...even in a world that contains too many pictures, pictures of war, the best ones, still have the power to stir your emotions." With cameras everywhere and photographs being taken incessantly, there is still a power in an iconic image. It has never been the quantity of photographs that count, but the quality.  Ever more so now.  There is constant change in our lives and in our surrounding universe and always the opportunity to create a powerful image.    

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/11/19/this-means-war-a-look-at-conflict-photography/#1