Sad Times
Posted in 52 Weeks by dub| Tags: 52 Weeks, cybersyncs, d700, dubtastic, nikon, project 52, ring flash, self-portrait
“Sad Times” | 52.7
Despite our President’s claims that the “economy is back from the brink“, it most certainly isn’t. Businesses are closing on what seems like a daily basis. This week, a local newspaper, The Henry County Times, announced it would be closing up shop, after serving the community for years.Who cares, right? Just another paper. Just another form of dated media biting the dust. Print is dead. Blah, blah, blah.
It hits home with me more than it would have a year ago. As of right now, I am also a small business owner, and operate in the same community that this paper served. So it is sad to see them make the decision they have made. While I understand times are tough, it doesn’t make it any easier. A fellow citizen, Beau Kelley, has put it better than I:
You might ask: Why do you care so much about this? Don’t you have more important things to worry about? Yes, I do have other things to worry about. But being a good citizen means more than worrying only about yourself. I care because I am tired of seeing our community disintegrate. I’m not comfortable losing the things I love that make our community special. I’ve lived in Henry County all my life. This is my home. And I am willing to fight for my home. I am not willing to sit back and watch Henry become just another place to live and work. It’s time we start supporting each other. It’s time we become a better community. This is a wake-up call.
That same citizen has taken it upon himself to setup a website, www.savethehctimes.com, in order to help keep the paper alive. I applaud his efforts. Since opening our photography studio, local business is vital. Our family does the very best it can to spend our dollars locally. It feels like we spend our money wiser that way. It feels good supporting other local merchants and to keep other businesses going.
Equally sad to me is the fact that The Times was a community supporter. Mickie is a great person and I am thankful to have met her. She also supported the arts. While president of a non-profit art organization, I knew she would run press releases about the group, and she did. In fact, she always supported the arts and anything that made the community better.
On to some positive stuff, below is the setup:
I took this in my garage while my girls took a nap. The setup shot makes the garage look horrible and messy. I almost didn’t post it. Regardless, with the camera on a tripod/timer, I used the ABR800 as the main light and a Calumet Genesis 400 with shoot through umbrella as a fill light. I had another Calumet Genesis setup as rim/hair light, high camera left. I put a little card on the ground to remember where to stand once I get the settings the way that I wanted them. Camera settings were: f/22, ISO 200, and shutter of 1/250th. Lights triggered via CyberSyncs.
Also, this was not what I had planned for this week at all. I had something Halloween related in mind, props purchased, etc. But the loss of another local business was just on my mind.
Last, but not least, gotta give moiht a shout for the inspiration. Prints can be purchased as well.
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murphmatic says:
Dub,
Thanks for the musings. I am taking a Digital Photography II class at Clayton State and the teacher wants us to take postcard shots of our community (in my case the Panhandle section of Clayton County, Lovejoy area) for homework. I drove around Lovejoy (short drive) and down Panhandle Road yesterday.
While there is some fall foilage in the deeper undeveloped parts of the Panhandle, Lovejoy proved to bee more of a challenge. You see, Lovejoy, while having been around for a while, is a dumpy little town with nothing interesting to look at. The town literially constist of a Walmart, two schools and the county dump and jail. Oh yeah, and the squatiest little town center evar.
It is just a place to live and drive through. No culture to speak of and just a past-through on the way to that cosmopolitan civic center of Griffin. It is what happens when a sense of community is lost.
I fear more of this happening on the southside. It seems that our city squares are being replaced by Walmarts and strip malls. Nobody seems to give a damn. They’ll just move in search of the next Peachtree City.
/rant off.
graphicartist2k5 says:
The bottom line is that we ALL need God. I’m not some “right-wing Christian nutjob” whose here to make anyone else believe in God. I’m simply stating the truth that as businesses fail, which they will, we HAVE to recognize and realize that if we don’t have God in our lives every day, then we’re not going to make it. You can say whatever you want to say about this. You could claim that your job is SO secure and you’re never going to lose it, but how do you know you’re not going to? What makes ANY of us think that the jobs we have are going to last forever? What if it so happens that the jobs we prize so much end up being taken from us, and we have to work in “menial jobs that don’t pay that much”? Who is REALLY your source? Is it REALLY your job, or is it God Who gave you the job? You can say all you want to that “I went to x amount of years at whatever university and I worked my BUTT off to get where I am today, so I DESERVE to have this job!” But who is it REALLY that you’re glorifying in that attitude, and who is it REALLY that gave you the talent, skill, finances and roof over your head to be able to go to school to begin with? Don’t say “It is because my dad/mom were so talented. That’s where I get my talents from, and it’s because they saved money for me so I could go to college, which subsequently lead me to having this job so I could put a roof over my head”, because those are ALL things in the natural realm that you can see, taste, touch, smell and hear. In other words, it’s REALLY about what your five senses can perceive, but I’m telling you that if it were not for God Almighty, you wouldn’t have ANY of those things to begin with. You wouldn’t even have life.
K.P. says:
i just think its cool that you took this in your garage. lol!