Abandoned Buildings and Other Places Time has Forgotten...

"Abandoned 1" - Route 4, Enfield, NH

This is the first in a series of images of various abandoned buildings and structures located in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Time and the original owners seem to have forgotten these places... but I'm sure they all have a story to tell.

If you are a local follower and recognize any of these places please post a comment as to the former use. Eventually I hope to put together an album of these images along with a brief history the building or location.

 Thanks!

"Evening Shadow" - Craft's Hill, Lebanon NH

"Evening Shadow"

Seeing the shadow cast by an unseen fern on the bark of this birch tree reminded me that it is often the “shadow of our actions” that defines who we are and establishes our presence in this world rather than what we do while physically seen.

Signs #1

"Follow Your Heart"  :-)  

"Follow Your Heart"

This is the first in a series of new photographs I am working on... "alternative interpretations" of the signs (both literal and figurative) that we see and experience in our lives each day.

In this case it is about following your heart!

Have a great journey! :-)  

To see this and more visit: https://davemengle.smugmug.com/Inspiration/

Smell All the Flowers...

One of the problems with photographing flowers is that it is so easy to get caught up in their sheer beauty through the viewfinder that it is easy to totally miss or ignore their other great attributes.

And one of these is the multitude of wonderful smells and fragrances you experience while "nose to blossom" when taking closeups like this one.

And it was this realization the other day that led me to re-think the old expression about "Taking time to smell the Roses".

In fact we should take time to smell all the flowers and experiences life presents us with.  Often it is easy to get caught up in one aspect of something and miss a lot of what life is just begging us to experience.

So the next time you start to focus in what you think is that single most important aspect of something take a step back... take a deep breath and enjoy the rest of what life has to offer!  :-)

Black and White...

Detail - Rusted Fence Post, Lebanon  NH

"Rusted Fence Post - Lebanon, NH"

Occasionally I try getting back to my roots in photography by setting the shooting menu on my cameras to "monochrome"... otherwise known as "black and white".  I like challenging myself to try and "see" in shades of grey again.  And I have to say that each time I'm not really happy with the results. Not because of a lack of vision on my part... but I think because of the technology.  It just doesn't seem to "be there".  The images - like this one - are always Ok but seem to lack the richness, depth and tonality you get when shooting with silver based film.
.
When I first developed an interest in photography many years ago, black and white was the medium of choice for many reasons... but mostly because of the lower cost of film and processing.  And also because of the thrill of what passed for "instant gratification" back then.  By shooting black and white it was possible to see the results of a day spent with the camera relatively quickly.  At that time color film had to be shipped out for processing and it took days if not weeks to get back from the lab. But I could process my 35mm Tri-X film and make a few prints in my parent's basement within a matter of hours... which seemed remarkable at the time.

Needless to say photography has come a long way and I'm sure it will continue to evolve. Even as little as ten years ago many of us were still shooting film. And as someone who grew up in the business splashing around in photographic chemistry, I have to say I don't really miss those hours in the darkroom mixing Dektol and Rapid Fixer while listening to bad pop music on the radio.  But I do miss the sense of craftsmanship that was involved in making prints by my own hand and experiencing the magic of seeing an image spring to life from the surface of a blank piece of paper.

Due to it's very nature digital photography just doesn't allow us to experience the same sense of interaction and involvement in the process of creating a photograph.  It is not as hands-on.  And maybe that is why the finished images don't have the same aesthetic appeal and emotional impact on me when I look at them.  It is because they are not a part of me but rather any assembly of pixels interpreted by a computer instead of being the result of light passing through the shape of my own hand. 

70 Years Later...

Hiroshima - August 1945

Even 70 years after the fact, I don’t think there is anything the American government or people can do to apologize adequately for the use of two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in August of 1945.

It would be futile to even try... and I'm not sure the Japanese people could ever forgive us.  I doubt that I could.

These attacks were violent, horrible and controversial - even within the US government at the time- and were designed "to end the war with Japan at the earliest possible moment"... which they did.

But they were also attacks that were carried out with many tragic and unforeseen consequences we are still dealing with today.  The use of these two weapons… code-named Little Boy and Fat Man changed the world forever.  

As a country America will forever bear the scar of being the first and only country to have ever used nuclear weapons. Just as the Japanese people will forever bear the scar of being the first and only victims of such a “rain of ruin from the air”… as then president Harry Truman said in announcing the attacks.

And like all of human history we can not change what has been done… we can only hope to learn from our mistakes. While considered necessary and triumphant by many of those in this country at the time… these attacks also set the stage for the last 70 years worth of fluctuating political tension, dangerous brinksmanship, financial hardship in many countries and a sense of genuine fear around the globe as people learned to “stop worrying and love the bomb”… growing up as members of the “Strangelove generation”.

If there is any “greater good” (which are horribly ironic and maybe even inappropriate words to use) that could have come out of the use of these bombs it is not the often heard justification that they saved American lives… it may be that they have just saved lives. Millions… if not billions of lives around the world.

Because I am hopeful that the world has actually learned a lesson from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki... and that this is why we haven’t seen another such weapon used as an act of war or aggression since. The use of these two bombs over Japan in 1945 has hopefully proved to the world that the indiscriminate destruction and horror unleashed by the use of nuclear weapons is beyond the shear comprehension or ability of even most evil of forces or bitterest of enemies to use against one another.

We can hope.