Eyeball Central: Photos and Jibber Jabber

Monday, March 19, 2007

distorted

How much of our “messed-upedness” comes from our own native talent for being messed up, and how much of it comes from external sources, such as from rotten parenting no matter how well intended? Such as, for example, posing one’s child in front of a magnifying glass, taking a picture of her, and then putting the distorted image on the internet for the world to see?

Just curious.

Positive ions and the trampoline

Saturday, March 17, 2007

fingers under the door

come together

finger spider

american bridge

goat man and jesus

There is something absurd, or at least incongruous, about “goat mans” utilitarian messages displayed next to the Gospel’s most celebrated message in John 3:16. And yet if God does not love Goat Man, then He’s not much of a loving god. Scripture reveals time and again that God prefers to hang out with the Goat Men of our world instead of with its sophisticated elites like, say, media types, academics, and artists. The humor of it for me is neither that God loves Goat Man nor that the spiritual is mixed here with the mundane. At the end of the day, we all had better hope that God loves the least among us. And if God created the whole world, it stands to reason that God directs or at least is invested in the whole ball of wax--including brake service and oil-n-lube jobs. For me the humor from of the picture follows from the placing of John 3:16 along side the advertisements, suggesting that brake service and salvation are of equal importance. Which, I confess, may feel to be the case when one hits the brakes hard on the interstate and discovers that, alas, they are not responding.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

shimmering sign

A crew had demolished several buildings nearby, leaving huge mounds of rubble. In the middle of the pits and small mountains of what remained of those buildings, I saw a colorful sign with a kind of electronic-glossy shine to it that reflected rainbows in all directions--sort of like the bottom of a CD. All that color in the midst of so much brown and tired brick red attracted my eye.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Rainburst

More than virtually any other picture I've taken, this one leaves the greatest gap between the visual beauty of seeing the scene in person and seeing it in a photo. I was camping on the A.P. with a couple of buddies, and we had just completed our leg of the hike. On top of one the highest "peaks," there was a fire platform, which we climbed. The wind was gusting and we could hear the thunder rolling over the hills. Along the next ridge there was the source of the rumbling, an afternoon cloudburst. The air felt moist and electric, and it felt like an enormous storm was brewing. As it turned out, we were visited by a gentle rain that lasted off-and-on throughout the night. I took this picture from the fire tower, and the photo simply doesn't do the scene, which carried with it scents and sounds not captured here, any justice. I have enhanced it just a bit on the computer because the "original" shot came out all washed out. The "enhanced" picture actually better captures the reality of the scene with greater fidelity than the untouched shot.