WATERLOO – Kitchener-Waterloo residents and policymakers will see homelessness through a new lens at an upcoming photography exhibit called Falling Through the Cracks: Voices of Displacement in Waterloo Region. With the support of Wilfrid Laurier University researchers, people with lived experiences of homelessness captured their perspectives through imagery. They will display their work at the Kitchener Public Library on Aug. 16 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Falling Through the Cracks is part of an ongoing research collaboration between Laurier students and faculty members and the Lived Expertise Working Group (LEWG), an advisory panel providing input on the City of Kitchener’s housing strategy. LEWG members conceptualized and led the project as part of Laurier’s Applied Community Research course, which partners students with local organizations to address an identified practical need. The exhibit features photos taken around Waterloo Region to highlight the impacts of homelessness and opportunities to address housing insecurity.

“This project allowed members of our working group to experience research from the perspective of researchers rather than subjects being researched,” said David Alton, LEWG facilitator at the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region. “The exhibit has been a powerful tool to help working group members talk to city staff about displacement and the many layers of subjective experience attached to places and spaces.”

“These photos, with their accompanying descriptions, really highlight how a space can hold drastically different meanings or importance depending on who is interacting,” said Sarah Ranco, a PhD student in Laurier’s Community Psychology program who co-facilitated the research alongside Professor Manuel Riemer and three undergraduate students: Oluwatosin (Praise) Oluwayemi, Eden Phelan and Shequera Powell.

“There are lots of hidden stories in alleyways and places that we just walk past,” says Oluwayemi, who recently graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

One of the images, titled “The Picnic Table” by C, features an empty, unremarkable picnic table in a local park. The caption reveals a deeper story, describing the table as “a very powerful place.”

“A few people live at this table,” the description says. “They’ve been here for years. This week alone, we lost four of them.” A footnote adds that since then, seven more have died. “This table provides a sense of belonging. One picnic table has changed so many lives.”

The combination of imagery and personal narrative is a community-based research method called Photovoice, meant to spotlight the perspectives of lived experience. Phelan said the use of Photovoice was a deliberate choice given the subject matter.

“We agreed that photographs were the most effective way we could share this research, as it gave our participants a firsthand way to showcase their stories, environments and objects that are important to them,” said Phelan (BA ’23). “Photographs evoke more emotion than written words or numbers on a page. We hope they strike people in a way that leads to positive change in our community.” 

Powell was drawn to the project because of her own experiences with housing instability. She was grateful to funnel her passion into research with the potential for tangible impact.

“Lack of affordable housing is the foundation of many social problems that Canadians face, including health care, education and economic disparities,” said Powell, a Bachelor of Arts graduate who is now pursuing her Master of Arts in Health Policy and Equity at York University. “Through our sessions with the working group, we identified clear disconnects and gaps in the housing system and barriers that current policies place on vulnerable communities. I appreciated participants’ willingness to share. There is no greater value than learning directly from people with lived experiences.”

Falling Through the Cracks, which will feature presentations by LEWG members at 6 p.m. on Aug. 16, is raising funds to send the working group to the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Halifax in November.

“Attending the conference will allow working group members to be treated like the experts they are and give them the opportunity to connect with peers across the country,” said Alton.

The exhibit will be displayed at the Kitchener Public Library’s 85 Queen St. location. It is open to all.

Falling Through the Cracks Preview

“A Better Tent City 2” by K

Artist description: Unhoused people are being pushed outside of the inner-city core. Capitalism creates an environment of scarcity among abundance which fosters violence and conflict. Funding increases for living spaces could prevent this. Better Tent City was created for people to have a place to call home. Outsiders may see this place as messy, but there isn’t enough space. Even so, this space provides people a chance to live with dignity.

“Safe Injection Site” by J

Artist description: The community originally set up their own safe injection site, but people would terrorize the associated areas, burning tents, calling the police, and using drones. At this site, there are nurses that will give you oxygen instead of naloxone (but naloxone is still available). This is a positive community action, and we need more. The problem is there aren’t enough throughout the city, they’re only in the downtown core. 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – People were invited to view the works of local students at a photography exhibit on Thursday.

The “Through Their Lens” Youth Photo Exhibit features the works of middle and high school students from the Monroe Park Neighborhood.

Students were asked to photograph what they appreciate about their neighborhood. They then selected images for photo collages.

The purpose of the project was to highlight the assets of their neighborhood.

“Today is the opening reception of a photo exhibit, photos that were produced by young adults and middle and high school students in South Bend,” Gail McGuire, a doctor at IUSB. “That represents their experience on different issues. For the young adults, it is about gun violence, and for the middle and high school students who live in Monroe Park, it is about sharing their perspectives on what they think are the assets of their neighborhood.”

The exhibit runs through August 31.

Copyright 2023 WNDU. All rights reserved.

GREENFIELD – The thrill of a rocket launch never gets old for two local brothers.

Noah and Luke Prail recently returned from a trip to Virginia, where they were credentialed to take photographs and videos of a supply mission to the International Space Station Aug. 1.

They set up multiple cameras before the launch, then stood more than three miles away to watch as the cameras shot remotely.

They’ve both been to multiple rocket launches in recent years, and they say the experience is awe-inspiring and a great way to bond with family and friends.

“You can feel it in your chest, it’s just that loud a very low rumble and it takes a couple of seconds to show up,” Noah said. “It’s like loud fireworks but just continuous, and better.”

“And it’s bright,” Luke added. “It hurts to look at. It’s like looking at the sun; the engines are very powerful.”

The brothers both enjoy photography and videography as a hobby. Noah, 22, is a software engineer and Luke, 19, is in document management.

The interest in rocket launches was a family affair to begin with.

“I went to a launch first with my grandparents kind of as a graduation gift,” Noah said. “That was kind of an impromptu trip where we dragged others along to Florida. The two of us really got interested and it’s very contagious we sort of spread the space obsession to the family.”

The last three years they’ve been taking trips to Florida and Virginia to see space launches live. Sometimes they’ll bring their two older brothers Ben and Caleb along; mom Ingrid Prail is also a regular attendee, and came along for this recent trip to Virginia.

They said this launch in particular was great to watch because the Antares 230 will be replaced by a new rocket. Also, the mission was the last to use Russian and Ukrainian components due to the conflict; US-built components will be used on new missions.

Last week’s spacecraft was filled with supplies to support more than 250 science and research investigations. The Prail brothers set up their cameras about 12 hours before the launch, getting between 400-500 feet away from the rocket.

When the evening launch happened, they were three miles away and relying on technology they set up to take the images and video.

“Basically, once the sound-level passes a set threshold, it starts triggering the camera,” Noah said in an email afterward. “The video cameras were triggered based on time.”

They were surrounded by dozens of other space fans that evening. This was the sixth launch they’ve been to in the last three years; sometimes they’ll watch in a large group, other times from water. Most of the launches are in the evening.

“Once you go to a launch it’s hard to not want to go more,” Noah said. “It’s the energy there, especially with the crowds; it’s very fun.”

To see the video of the launch, visit https://youtu.be/7PApBEMSkqQ

Thierry Maindrault’s Monthly Chronicle :

Let’s not mix every thing please. There is no single user of photographic techniques; but a multitude, as for many, of the technologies invented by Man through the ages. There are many people who can claim the title of painter, from Johannes Vermeer to painters of buildings or road signs. It is the same for Photography, from the gifted creator to the anthropometric photographer, passing through scientific photographers. There is nothing honorific or demeaning about the type and mode of use, provided they are used competently and, if possible, with passion. For photographers and for the record, until recently, the list of various specializations looked more like a directory.

How can one explain the disparition of three quarters of these competent photographic operators, over the last twenty years. While at the same time, the number of individuals claiming the title of photographers has multiplied by ten or twenty, if not more. A recent survey reveals that a large proportion of young people say that for them the profession of photographer is the best profession. What a paradox! What happened ?

All the technologies related to photographic technique have evolved, are we told! Particularly grotesque reflection for all those who have a minimum photographic culture ( yes, there are still some). Since the beginnings of photography, many technological developments have followed one another, permanently, at a more than sustained pace. From the presumed start with the bitumen of Judea and its pinhole to the multilayer electronic sensor and its laser beam, the photographic corporation  has seen many evolutions and inventions. The real users of photography were and remain characters with great adaptability, effective ingenuity and an almost unhealthy curiosity. In summary, let’s not so easily blame the origin of the crisis on our equipment. Even if they become very, if not too much, sophisticated and more oriented towards a source of profit for their manufacturer than a really useful tool for their users.

The transfer of knowledge has strayed into educational business paths in which the comfort of the teacher and financial profitability are priorities. Times are changing and we have to live with the changes. Certainly, but the intellectual processes do not change, otherwise it would have been known a long time ago. Training in the mastery of know-how is done through real learning. I observe, I understand, I try, I correct, I adapt, I master, all under the watchful and pedagogical eye of a master. The works have nothing to do with the smoky theories spread out on a blackboard or emerging from a videographic screen without explanation for the errors in the realisation. Whatever the supposed prestige of the great professor and the exorbitant amount of financial participation (which, by the way, should only be symbolic if the professor is that famous!), At the end, the result might fail to be there. The only reassuring compensation is to be able to put the name of the prestigious professor(s) on one’s curriculum vitae, as the only guarantee of competence.

The users and buyers of photography are no longer the same, whether they are professionals or consumers. The functioning of our societies (due to globalization) changed the behavior of each one. It is obvious that form has swallowed up substance. Studio photography, perennial on paper, of a baby, a teenager, a graduate, practically does not exist anymore. This image is replaced by a few thousand images taken with a telephone, which are immediately ejected on social networks to disappear from the personal environment. The ephemeral videographic screen has replaced the sideboard in the dining room and the wall in the living room. Industrial photography of our factories disappeared with deindustrialization. But, essentially because a secretary with her smartphone will directly send her shot for the printing of the latest catalogue. The said catalog often limited to a pdf file, also ephemeral, on the web. If a press photographer rushes to an unexpected event, he will discover, when he arrives on site, the images already published on his smartphone. A clever witness will have filmed his dying neighbor and sent a filthy image (in every sense of the word) to the newspaper. The service editor will have made an immediate “A” to flood all possible and unimaginable networks. This type of example is unfortunately valid for all sectors that use images. No one has any more respect for the photographer while everyone dreams of doing his job and whom some even anticipate in the field, without a minimum of intellect and without scruples.

Through their frenzied individualism and their natural insouciance, photographers let their environment do its thing without any salutary reaction. It seems obvious that the – justified – proclamation of certain old photographs as works of art has softened the brains of certain view takers (all sectors combined) who already saw themselves at the top of the bill. Many are the clever ones who have also taken the opportunity to embellish the story and siphon off the income from their work and their creativity. Photographers no longer earn anything; but, it is not lost on everyone. This phenomenon is amplified by a crowd of people, totally ignorant of photography (both technically and creatively) who call themselves photographers to invite themselves on this same illusory path to glory.

All this is pathetic and particularly destructive for a technique that has been trying to gain respectability for a while. However, dear colleagues, let’s look at ourselves honestly, we are responsible of the proliferation of all these fatal excesses. We accepted anything and everything in the name of evolution and progress. Our certainty that the perfect mastery of our tools ensured the permanent continuity of our activities. Our repeated renunciations for lack of courage and anticipation lead us to the bottom of the hole. The uberization of our professions, the loss of our fundamental rights, the tolerance of devastating technologies, lead us to the hells of the new globalized economies.

“It’s the best job we would like to do” young people tell us. Obviously, they do not really understand the situation!

Thierry Maindrault. August 11, 2023

[email protected]

Publisher Flyhigh Works [148 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/flyhigh-works”>Flyhigh Works and Banchou Tactics [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/banchou-tactics”>Banchou Tactics developer Secret Character [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/secret-character”>Secret Character have announced Neko Odyssey” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/neko-odyssey”>Neko Odyssey, a cat photography Adventure [1,020 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure game coming to PC [18,143 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC via Steam in 2024.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

Neko Odyssey is a game for cat lovers you can’t miss!

Here’s a slightly unusual casual adventure game where the main gameplay centers around taking pictures of cats. The pixel art graphics in a 3D setting create a charming atmosphere reminiscent of Japanese animation.

In the game, you’ll have to search for cats in various locations throughout the town and take pictures to upload to social media (in game). Each photo you upload will earn likes from netizens. As you receive more likes, you’ll become better known, and your followers may offer tips on finding new and different cat poses.

During the cat photography sessions, some cats may require you to establish a connection with them before allowing you to photograph them. You’ll also encounter certain events that will lead you to discover new photo opportunities.

Apart from taking cat photos and sharing them on social media, the game features a main storyline where you’ll unravel the mysteries of the town based on the information you capture in your cat photos. You’ll experience excitement, cuteness, and inspiration along with the adventure in this game.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

Screenshots

A years-long conflict has been brewing on the picturesque San Juan Island in northwestern Washington, and photographers are taking unwarranted and unreasonable heat for their alleged role in the tension.

Core to the story are the island’s photogenic red foxes. However, they are not the whole story. The fluffy and charismatic canids seem much more like the poster child for a campaign against change, a desire for seclusion, and a battle for ownership over a place and protecting what that place represents for the people who live there.

Glenn Nelson has spent the past two years visiting San Juan Island and San Juan Island National Historical Park, getting to the bottom of what he calls “the fox war.” In his brilliant special report for The Seattle Times, Nelson details the island’s fascinating history, rich ecosystem, and how some people’s animosity toward photographers outpaces any semblance of reason.

Nelson is a former Seattle Times reporter, founder of The Trail Posse, community director at Birds Connect Seattle — the first Audubon in the United States to discard its slave-owning namesake — and an avid photojournalist.

Viral Fox Photo Sets Off a Chain Reaction

Before discussing the uncomfortable reality of San Juan Island today, it is worth taking a detour to five years ago because, as Nelson writes, “Nature photographer Kevin Ebi of Lynnwood arguably but unwittingly touched off this ongoing drama.”

“While photographing the non-native foxes in San Juan Island National Historical Park on San Juan Island in Washington state, Ebi spotted a young red fox carrying a rabbit it had caught across a meadow. As he panned his camera to follow that fox, a bald eagle suddenly swooped in from behind Ebi and grabbed the rabbit while it was in the fox’s mouth,” Michael Zhang wrote on PetaPixel in 2018.

The photo went viral, and the ears of nature and wildlife photographers worldwide perked up: Incredible wildlife in a beautiful location. What more could any photographer want? Predictably, droves of photographers soon flocked to San Juan Island, much to the dismay of its residents.

A Changing Island Falls into Conflict

PetaPixel chatted with Nelson about his story and the situation on San Juan Island. From everything he describes, the foxes seem like the cute face of a local campaign against change and development.

“What seems actually in jeopardy, for the island’s residents as well as its national park, is a quiet existence that their relative isolation once seemed to guarantee. And so the sensitive habitat that off-island photographers actually might be encroaching — at least, symbolically — is that belonging to people, not foxes,” writes Nelson.

It is worth mentioning that the red foxes on San Juan Island are not native. They were introduced sometime in the 20th century — reportedly sometime between 1930 and 1960 — to control a massive rabbit population, which itself is a non-native inhabitant of San Juan Island. It is believed that domestic rabbits were released in the late 19th century to create a food source for lighthouse keepers.

That the red foxes that roam San Juan Island in huge numbers now are the descendants of non-native species has no bearing on their being worthy of protection, of course. Still, it is not evident that the red fox population there needs any protection.

“Though a national park representative declared on regional television that, ‘The island’s beloved red foxes are in jeopardy,’ there is little to no evidence to support that claim,” Nelson writes.

A ‘Fox Brigade’ Battles Shutterbugs

Advocating on behalf of the island’s foxes, Kyle Kittoe was a member of the Fox Brigade, a volunteer group that aimed to teach park visitors about the red foxes and how to observe them safely. The Fox Brigade has since disbanded, only to be replaced by a new volunteer group, Prairie Ambassadors, that appear to occupy a similar role as the defunct Fox Brigade.

“These critters live on the edge of survival. They need time and space to live their lives. And if you’re intruding on it, it makes it harder for them,” Kittoe says, citing times he has witnessed “20 people” within “20 feet” of fox kits and their mom.

However, Nelson himself has observed a very different reality.

“After that initial vacation [in April 2022], I returned to San Juan Island eight more times for multiple-day visits. I observed residents, social-media influencers, local media, and national park staff and volunteers disrupting (or fanning talk about disrupting) photographers and other perceived off-island transgressors. Island residents were observed, and photographed, feeding hot dogs and chicken wings to foxes, unleashing dogs and firing air horns into dens, then using social media to blame such tactics on photographers trying to get better pictures,” Nelson writes.

He notes that on at least three occasions during just the first two weeks of May 2022, photographers called the police concerning incidents with locals.

Photographers Face the Ire of Residents

The people of San Juan Island must love wildlife. After all, people are harassing photographers, bullying them off the island entirely, claiming that the island’s foxes need protection from dastardly outsiders and their telephoto lenses.

The situation is so much murkier than that.

The park’s superintendent, Elexis J. Fredy, acknowledges that the photographers that come to the park to photograph its beautiful foxes are possibly being cast as the collective boogeyman for the people who live — or just vacation — on San Juan Island and who hate how the island has changed.

As has been the case with many national parks, visitor numbers to San Juan Island National Historical Park have skyrocketed in recent years, buoyed mainly by people wanting to go somewhere relatively remote and safe during the pandemic.

The quiet people sought when moving to San Juan Island, the same peace people want to experience as tourists, has been disrupted.

Whether photographers are more disruptive than any other visitors to San Juan Island, they are by far the easiest to spot and, therefore, the easiest to target.

“Locals have been singling out one user group [fox photographers] that maybe doesn’t deserve it,” Amy Nesler of the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau tells Nelson.

Are Foxes Actually in Danger?

Foxes might actually be in danger, but not from photographers.

Photographer Max Waugh has a Commercial Use Authorization (CUA) to host guided workshops at San Juan National Historical Park and held tours in 2019 and intended to continue to do so last year when the park fully opened following the pandemic.

However, as Waugh writes on his website, anti-photographer regulations and sentiment resulted in him canceling a pair of sold-out tours.

An updated park map was created following a town hall meeting in March 2022. The revised map closed off access to the famous fox-filled prairie at American Camp and restricted visitor access to roads and trails.

“This change has effectively moved photographers back at least 100 yards, on average, from the clearest, most reliable places to photograph kits, and eliminates any ability for people to change viewing or shooting angles,” Waugh explains.

“I felt compelled to cancel my tours, since the new regulations ensured we would lack sufficient viewing and photography opportunities to make my own tour offerings worthwhile for clients (most reports from folks who have been to the island recently to check out the new situation back up this assertion). It’s important to point out, of course, that this was my decision based on my own goals for the experience I desired my clients to have. Some photographers may still deem the new situation to be adequate for their own goals (I’ve heard from a couple), while others are likely to feel this greatly hampers their ability to have or lead a successful trip,” he adds.

2022 came and went, and Waugh did not lead his photo tours on San Juan Island. The park’s regulations, which sought to protect the foxes, did impact the island’s fox population.

“Two things immediately occurred as folks arrived at the area now closed to public access. First, the Bald Eagles came in and hunted the fox kits in the prairie. As was the case in 2020 (when the area was devoid of tourists due to COVID), the raptors were emboldened by the lack of people in the field. Some photographers were lucky to be on hand to document eagles flying away with kits, but soon there were no kits left,” Waugh writes.

The second problem is that people found a den site unaffected by the park’s regulatory changes. Many people crowded the den because it was the only chance to see foxes. This is where the hot dogs and chicken legs that Nelson mentions were doled out — again, not by photographers.

“Photographers referred to by locals as the ‘Foxerazzi’ are arriving on the island in large groups of around 20. The groups encircle fox dens at the height of kitting season in the hopes of snagging the perfect shot, but that pursuit has a price…At the start of this past spring, there were six fox kits living at Cattle Point Nature Preserve. By the end of the season, all six were dead,” writes KIRO 7, implying that photographers are to blame. The article does not discuss the dead kits that eagles nabbed.

“Red foxes can do quite well from being in close proximity to us,” David Drake, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells Nelson. “When they move into an urban environment, they are well aware that there’s a density of people and that activity patterns of people are different than for nonurban areas. There’s more light pollution, more noise, more human activity — and they adapt. The red fox can benefit from being near people because there might be refuge from predators, and they are likely getting some type of food resource that is both natural and might be even provided. There’s also a lot of different types of shelter availability,” Drake explains.

Some claim that a fed fox is a dead fox. It seems that a distanced fox may be a dead fox, too.

The bald eagles that feast on foxes are a protected species. San Juan Island is home to a second protected species, the island marble butterfly. As Nelson tells PetaPixel, not only is San Juan Island the only place in the world where this exceptional butterfly lives, but it seems that the people who purport to care so deeply for the red foxes seem to very rarely, if ever, mention the butterflies.

Contradictory Motivations on San Juan Island

The story of San Juan Island and the so-called “fox war” is fascinating for many reasons. There is the intriguing photography angle, of course, but the situation there also reflects society at large. Whenever an area experiences change, it affects different groups of people in highly varied ways.

Some of the island’s residents live there because they want to be somewhere remote and alone, able to enjoy their beautiful backyards in peace. Others rely on tourism to survive and make more money when people visit the island in greater numbers.

As for the park, the staff is caught in between feuding parties. On the one hand, any good park ranger wants to be able to safely share everything the park has to offer with as many visitors as possible. But for Fredy, maintaining a strong relationship with neighbors matters too.

When it comes to photographers specifically, there is no question that some of them do behave poorly. Despite the National Park Service’s very clear and reasonable advice concerning ethical wildlife viewing, including the rule that visitors must always stay at least 75 feet away from animals, some people still behave recklessly and stress out wildlife.

However, it is difficult to believe that irresponsible visitors are anything but few and far between, and they are not exclusively photographers.

Wildlife photography is an incredible way for people to enjoy nature, learn about animals, and share their passion for conservation with others. Great photos inspire and educate. A beautiful wildlife image should always be the result of care and respect. Anything else is wrong and should be discouraged and punished.

But blaming photographers for everything is preposterous and detached from reality.

While people scream at photographers, a bald eagle swoops and grabs a newborn fox. As park staff erect new entry barriers, another kit is dragged to its death. When one local blames photographers for hand-feeding foxes and laying bait, another local drops a hot dog from their pocket, ready to point at the nearest person with a big lens, “See, look, we told you!”

Where there are people, there will be bad apples. It is an unfortunate and unavoidable reality of living in any society. However, the trees from which these bad apples fall may be much closer to home than people want to admit.

Image credits: Featured image © Glenn Nelson. Many more of Nelson’s red fox photos are available on The Trail Posse’s website.

… a look back on a beautiful Spring morning on the Colorado Plateau at 8272 feet MSL, located just west of SR 89A a mile or so above the switchbacks and looking NNE. The lakes in the meadows in the foreground are from snowmelt … normally this entire area is a dry meadow. Above this you can just make out Rogers Lake and slightly above that and a little to the right is A-1 Crater looming up in front of the San Francisco Peaks which dominate the skyline. Earth’s surface directly below me is about 6800 feet MSL. The peaks from left to right are Humphreys Peak in the clouds and topping out at 12, 637 feet MSL, then Agassiz a few hundred feet lower … continuing we have Doyle, Fremont and finally Shultz Peak. Currently I am combing through old photos of Shultz Peak to find the remnants of a structure that Lowell Observatory built on it. Rich kind of sees it in one of my photos, but I know I have better as I used to dive into the Inner Basin flying between Fremont and Shultz Peaks whilst taking pictures 🙂

Below we have a Black Hawk that was heading into Bubbling Ponds Hatchery for an early dinner … they are so amazing to see in flight!

Spent a fair amount of time with support staff of a software company I use … trying to make a legacy program work on this computer that worked on my old one … honestly it looks like it will not work, so I may have to uninstall it and it is one that I used a lot … oh well, back to my manual way of working on backgrounds I want to alter a bit.

Into the weekend for me, so enjoy your days and keep living and enjoying what each day brings you … be kind and smile … and keep breathing!

Cheers,

Ted

Love some one—in God’s name love some one—
for this is the bread of the inner life, without which
a part of you will starve and die; and though you feel
you must be stern, even hard, in your life of affairs,
make for yourself at least a little corner, somewhere
in the great world, where you may unbosom and be kind.

Love Some One by Max Ehrmann

###

The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com

In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.

Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses.  By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.

More about Ted Grussing …

Backyard astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has always wanted to get a shot of the entire Milky Way Galaxy, but living in Arizona makes it impossible.

The light pollution coupled with the Arizonian latitudinal position prevents McCarty from getting the shot he wanted. To rectify this, the intrepid photographer caught multiple international flights to arrive on a small island in the Maldives — an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

From this position near the equator, McCarthy finally got the incredible image he had been looking for — an unobstructed, detailed view of the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

“Unfortunately living in a suburban neighborhood prevents high-quality photos of the Milky Way, which you need dark skies for,” explains McCarthy.

“At my latitude here in the United States, the bulge of Earth’s curvature blocks much of the Milky Way. There is an entire southern portion that can’t be seen. Capturing that was a large part of my goal with this image.”

To get to his desired location, McCarthy took multiple airplanes, including a seaplane and a small boat, to reach his destination.

“I packed a compact version of my big equipment at home to do this. I wanted to take a photo that was uncompromising on detail, so I brought specially designed astrophotography cameras, lenses, and trackers that would allow me to shoot it in much more detail than otherwise possible,” he explains.

Once at the location, McCarthy spent two weeks under the stars capturing thousands of photos of the Milky Way.

“The camera lens I used only covered a small part of the Milky Way, so I had to capture the photo in many ‘panels’ to create the final image,” he says.

“This was necessary to produce the detail I wanted and to avoid the distortion that usually comes from using wide-angle lenses.”

McCarthy was tested during the fortnight with bad weather and clouds hampering his effort. But the photographer says the final image has exceeded all expectations.

“Throughout human history, humans have been able to look up into our home galaxy. From contemplating the stars we developed religion, navigation, and arts,” McCarthy reflects.

“Much of where we are today can be attributed to the minds of ancient thinkers pondering our place under the starry sky.

“While civilization has improved our lives in immeasurable ways, we lost our perspective. Light pollution has taken that perspective from 60% of Europeans and 80% of Americans, depriving us of any insights we could have had from peering into the infinite swirls of starlight.

“My goal is for my images to inspire people the way it inspired our ancestors, so we can recover some of what we’ve lost.”

McCarthy has named his creation em> Backbone of Night and it is avaiable as a limited print on his website.

More of McCarthy’s work can be found on his Instagram, X, Facebook, and website.

Image credits: All photos by Andrew McCarthy.