(Photo Credit: Moose, 6/6/09)Why bother trying to photograph the biggest visual cliché in the national image repository? Why waste one more click of the shutter on the most photographed statue in the world? If the clichés don't defeat you, the monumentality will, especially if you are on a rocking boat whose speed and distance from the object you cannot control. And trying to take the picture without spilling a glass of wine or letting a favorite pair of sunglasses slip out of your hands and into the waves.
Why, why, why, oh, why even bother, silly tourist?
Because it was there, and you were there, with a decent camera in your hand, on a splendid summer evening when a full moon was rising and a best friend's girl had orchestrated a magical way to ease the pain of turning fifty. Oh, what the hell, you say to yourself, as the shutter clicks five or six or a dozen more times. On a night like this, even a cliché has a touch of the magnificent about it.
(H/T: Kate, who takes better pictures than we do and always has something thoughtful to say about them. And with gratitude to KB, an old dog's best new pal, who made sure I held up my end of the bargain so the moms could get to the party.)
And there I was, looking at this picture, and thinking WOW...if only I'd taken that...
ReplyDeleteFondest strokes to Ms R.!
Flattery will get you everywhere!
ReplyDeleteWe hope YOU will feel flattered when we say that we tried to model your heroic self-discipline in choosing ONE image and one image only on a day when my typist fancied she was Annie Liebovitz on assignment for VF or something. Perhaps she'll put some of the others up on FB, but thanks for providing such a fine example of restraint and judicious editing.
Excellent photo! Now, only if President Obama will open more than just the STATUE of liberty and ensure actual liberty and justice for all. So far, I'm not encouraged with his penchant for "state secrets" arguments and joining the Pentagon brief in the gays-in-the-military case turned away by the Supreme Court yesterday.
ReplyDeleteYou got that right, Historiann -- Statues, symbols, rhetoric are all doing well in the age of Obama; substantive actions on behalf of liberty and justice, well, not so much so far. Sigh.
ReplyDelete