“This week, share with us a layered image of your own. The topic is wide open, as long as you focus on the interplay of depth, density, and texture (or just choose one of these elements if you’d like).”
A tangle of metal plant hangers and broken flower pots. A lizard. A mirror. Layers. Where do the objects end and the reflections begin?
Weekly Photo Challenge – Layered
When I sit on my roof in the mornings, I share space with many birds. Last year I thought about documenting all those I see in our garden, but haven’t really done much about it since. And maybe I will never do anything in a remotely organised fashion, not being a remotely organised person. But today, here are photos of two types of birds I frequently see in the garden.
This is a Jamaican Baldpate, aka White-crowned Pigeon, aka Columba leucocephala. It paid no attention to me, as it perched and fed while I drank my cup of tea.
And perched on the edge of the roof is a Jamaican Nightingale, aka Northern Mockingbird, aka Mimus polyglottos. These are such brave and feisty little birds, which I’ve seen taking on hawks to drive them away from their nesting areas.
Just two of the birds I saw from my roof this morning…
“For this challenge, show us what waiting looks like to you. “
I asked him if I could take his photo while he sat waiting under a tree in the park. He said yes.
“We move so briskly through our daily lives, we don’t typically notice the details of the world around us…This week, share with us the structure of something typically overlooked.”
When I am walking along, I don’t often look down, except for a quick glance to avoid tripping on an uneven surface. Dappled light on the ground beneath the trees…
I pause and take a closer look…at the textured web of tree roots, dried leaves, bits of broken twig…the ground beneath my feet…
“What kinds of images and emotions do corners evoke in you? In this week’s challenge, share a photo that plays on any of the word’s many meanings.”
Friday night. Matilda’s Corner in Liguanea, at the intersection of Hope Road and Old Hope Road. “Who was Matilda and why is this her corner?” you ask. I don’t think anyone really knows.
Saturday morning. The corner of King Street and South Parade, just across from St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston. St William Grant, OD (1894 -1977), important labour leader and activist.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Corner
I just wasn’t feeling the excitement about the solar eclipse, which is unusual for me, as I really do enjoy these scientific, nerdy things. So I didn’t do any preparation for it. This morning, however, I heard some discussion on the radio and I thought, okay, let me take a look. I checked online for times…
Then, having been reminded of the dangers of looking directly at the sun during the eclipse, I thought about the various methods of viewing without damaging my eyes. When I was a child, they used to say you could look through a photo negative, but in these days of digital photography, that was not an easy option. I took a pan of water out into the front yard and tried to look at the sun’s shadow in it, but that wasn’t successful.
Then I used two index cards, one with a pinhole in it. Success! My daughter Kimberley was kind enough to come and hold the cards for me, while I took photos:
And there on the lower card was the shadow of the partially covered sun:
Since we had only a partial eclipse, we didn’t have complete darkness, but it did get noticeably less bright. My dogs did act strangely, but that was because they didn’t know why I was lugging a pan of water around the yard and not letting them drink from it.
I prefer lunar eclipses. You don’t have to worry about searing your retinas by looking up at the eclipse. You don’t have to do any special preparation or acquire or construct any special equipment. You just go out at the right time and stare up at the night sky. And you can easily take photos of the moon. Simplicity.
Quite rightly, there are increasing questions about the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) response to the recommendations made by the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry, which examined the 2010 security operation, in which 69 or more people were killed. This comes in the wake of the release of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Administrative Review Report, which has been met with much criticism and calls for its withdrawal.
I hadn’t been able to find online the JDF’s press release sent out in June 2016 after the Commission of Enquiry report was made public. So, two weeks ago I called the JDF and asked for a copy. Within less than half an hour, I received an email with the press release attached.
The JDF’s release is much shorter and less specific than the similar release by the JCF at the time.
The list of recommendations in Chapter 15 of the Commission’s report included a number of recommendations regarding the JDF. An official public update on the status of the implementation of those recommendations would be in order. Will the JDF give such an update? Will the Government require that the JDF gives such an update? These questions highlight, once again, the need for a post-Enquiry requirement for a structured timetable of official, public updates regarding the implementation of recommendations. These matters are too important to be left to speculation or ad hoc reporting.
JCF Administrative Review Committee Clears JCF…Of Pretty Much Everything
Nearly A Year Later: Time for Western Kingston Commission of Enquiry Recommendations Update
