Sunday, February 17, 2013

Three Beautiful Things 02/16/13: Knowing the Asian Celebration, Bar at Billy Mac's, Guys! Score the Jumper!

1.  For our photo stroll today, Russell and I went to the Asian Celebration.  When I take pictures, I like to feel like I've learned about or become a part of the things I photograph.  It's why I keep going back to Delta Ponds.  I learn more.  It's why I'll often wait a while when I'm in a certain setting before I begin to take pictures.  It's why, I think, my pictures got steadily better as I spent more time in D.C. and NYC.  If I don't start to feel some connection or some familiarity with what I take pictures of, my pictures feel too much like a tourist's pictures (not that there's anything wrong with that) and I'd like to take pictures that rise out of my growing familiarity.  All this is to say that I was out of my element at the Asian Celebration.  I saw beautiful dances and other performers, but I didn't know how to see pictures.  Not yet. Maybe I would after a handful of Asian Celebrations.  But, I did see people, people holding hands, learning, expressing joy, admiring what they were experiencing, rolling a cigarette, and that's what I focused on in the few pictures I snapped.  Here's the guy rolling a cigarette out in front of the Events Center:


2.  The Deke and I find it very relaxing to go sit at the bar at Billy Mac's and have a drink or two (or three), shoot the breeze with John and Derrick and Cathy, and watch t.v. and listen to KZEL-FM.  So we did that tonight.

3.  We also watched the Ducks men's basketball team eke out an OT win against the Cougars.  I kept thinking, but I might be wrong, that both teams would have benefited from having someone who could hit the 12-15 footer off a screen.  I'm partial to the 12-15 footer along the baseline.  It was my favorite shot.  But, why not the banker from 12-15 like Sid Wickes, Larry Bird, and Bill Walton all used to hit? Didn't Bernard King used to hit this shot?   Is the mid-range jumper just too bland, not flashy enough, not worthy of highlight film to bother with? 

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