RenigadeCineTrax

Thursday, March 11, 2010

DSC02577

DSC02577, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken at the Ellen Trout Park in Lufkin Texas using the Minolta 70-210 f/4 Beercan.

Exposure:0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture:f/10.0
Focal Length:180 mm
ISO Speed:200

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Train

The Train, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken at the Ellen Trout Park in Lufkin Texas using the Minolta 70-210 f/4 Beercan.

Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 200

DSC02516

DSC02516, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken with the Tamron 28-200 F/3.8-5.6 Zoom. Crepuscular rays in the sunset...

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Mack: Rush Limbaugh's Bedroom and Other Meditations

Thanks to Mack Hall for letting me publish this on my site.

Rush Limbaugh's Bedroom and Other Meditations

With the arrival of spring, or as springy as this part of the world ever uncoils, folks go outside and do outside stuff – fertilize the lawn with that bag of crumbly stuff leftover from an autumn sale, talk to the apple blossoms, comment on the bits of green poking up tentatively through November's sere leaves, and sometimes simply sit on the steps and marvel at another new year. At such times one's mind, unleashed from the 'net and the radio and the telly, begins to, well, think:

Evolution is Really Real in Canada

Canada's current national anthem, which Americans got to hear over and over during the Olympics, may soon suffer another change. Once upon a time it was "God Save the Queen / King / Labour Electorate Along the London-Birmingham Axis," and then multiple versions of "O Canada." The original was written by a woman and afterwards modified several times by men. Just now there is a line about Thy Sons or something, which someone says should be Thy Persons or something, and folks in Canada are arguing about it. Perhaps Canadians won't mind a Yank weighing on some word changes:

"O Canada, What Are the Words to Our National Anthem This year? Eh."

"O Canada, We're Not the USA. Eh."

"O Canada, Built on Hockey and Tim Horton's. Eh."

"O Canada, We've Got More Olympic Gold Medals Than the USA and Russia Put Together So There. Eh."

Ooooh – I hope I'm not beaten to death with made-in-China Anne of Green Gables dolls the next time I visit Prince Edward Island.

The Death Penalty

These two headlines were one above the other in a recent web news site: "Mother Dumped Newborn in Trash, Went to Party" and "Judge Declares Death Penalty Unconstitutional."

Swinging Singapore

Tom Taschinger of the Beaumont Enterprise, upon which The Times of London models itself, reports that Singapore still bans chewing gum. Tom finds this harsh, but, hey, it's not as bad as some geriatric hippie in a hula shirt playing a guitar in church because, like, 1968 was so, like, y'know, happenin'."

Spring Break – Saints Gone Wild

An Irish tourist board recently promoted ten ways to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day without going to a pub. Not one of the ten suggestions included attending Mass that day. The English tried for hundreds of years to suppress Ireland's ancient faith; left alone the Irish destroyed it themselves.

Kiss me – I'm not Irish.

Spring Break – Body Scanners Gone Wild

Jeremy Clarkson of The Times of London writes: "We now think it's normal to take off our clothes at an airport."

Spring Break – Amish Girls Gone Mild

How did Amish caps become an almost requisite accessory on the covers of romance novels? Lucinda no longer swoons passionately in the arms of the Byronic pirate / Indian / outlaw; she sits demurely on a wagon seat next to some fellow named Aminadab while sporting a white beanie with strings hanging down.

One can anticipate a Hallmark movie: Amish Spring Break – Girls Scrub Floors While Fully Dressed.

Lock-and-Load Voting

Iraq voted for parliamentary seats last week, and the Religion of Peace wasn't having it. Through bombings and shootings they murdered more people than show up to vote in some county elections in the USA. Alas that more Americans complain about the governance of the country than actually do something about it.

Where's a Sky Marshal When You Need One?

Last week an air-traffic controller at JFK, nee' Idyllwild, allowed his young son to radio instructions to pilots.

This is probably not permitted in advanced nations.

Rush Limbaugh's Bedroom

Rush Limbaugh is apparently selling his New York penthouse. A purported photograph of his bedroom shows a foo-foo space possibly modeled on Cleopatra's boudoir in the Elizabeth Taylor film, but subtly influenced by Elvis Presley's jungle room and the poetry section of the Austin Barnes and Nobles. And the low-prole ceiling paintings and Florida beach motel murals are to die. Not to die for. To die.

It just doesn't look very, um, Republican.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.2

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.2, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken with the Minolta 70-210mm f/4 Beercan. This lens has amazing color and clarity.

Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 210 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Key to the City of Jasper

I recieved this tonight as i donated the photo to the Jasper City Counsel.
?RMS¿

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.1

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.1, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken with the Minolta 70-210mm f/4 Beercan. This lens has amazing color and clarity.

Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 210 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.0

Minolta 70-210mm f4 1.0, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

All photos taken with the Minolta 70-210mm f/4 Beercan. This lens has amazing color and clarity.

Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 210 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Through The Door Frame...

DSC02464, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Early 1900s Richardson Hospital in Jasper Texas. It was used till 1960s then moved to a location out of town by County Tax Collector Robert Pace where it sits today. I obtained permission to go on property by the owners. The photos were taken with the Sony Alpha 200 DSLR using the Tamron 28-200mm lens. All photos © RMStringer Photography 2010.

The Desk...

DSC02449, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

DSC02460

DSC02460, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Watching Tonight!

Jasper Twin Cinema
?RMS¿

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Minolta 28-100mm Macro f/3.5-5.6

Minolta 28-100mm Macro f/3.5-5.6, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Testing the Minolta 28-100mm Macro Lens. I used the built-in flash.

Minolta 28-100mm Macro f/3.5-5.6

Minolta 28-100mm Macro f/3.5-5.6, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Testing the Minolta 28-100mm Macro Lens. I used the built-in flash.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Mack: Fish Sticks, Hockey Sticks, Canadian Chicks

Thanks to Mack Hall for letting me publish this.

Fish Sticks, Hockey Sticks, Canadian Chicks

Last week a pet whale killed its third human at about the same time the Canadian women's hockey team won a hockey match, which hockey teams have been known to do. This hockey match, though, was for the Olympic championship.

Curiously, the girl-eating whale enjoys a better chance at praise, honor, and a picture on a cereal box. The Canadian girls (I can call them girls; I'm old) are in BIG trouble for excessive merriment, which must not be tolerated.

No, not everyone was happy to see those young Canadian women sing their national anthem with tears in their eyes. American hockey fans, for instance. And a number of Canadians in the audience didn't even bother to take off their obligatory baseball caps during "O Canada," while Prime Minister Harper looked as if he had lost a looney in a wager with his driver.

Things got worse for the plucky pucksters when, later in the evening, after the fans and almost everyone else had gone home, they returned to the ice to celebrate with champagne and cigars. The photographs of this innocent jollification outraged the oh-so-easily outraged. The public relations would have been worse only if Canada's gold medalists had killed and eaten a baby harp seal in front of a kindergarten class.

According to the BBC, the International Olympic Committee, that unimpeachable role model to the world in matters of probity, is "looking into the incident."

Incident? The Canadian equivalent of an end-zone dance is an "incident?" Horrors.

An organization styling itself Hockey Canada apologizes for the offense given by Team Canada to a frail and delicate world heretofore innocent of the lurid knowledge of champagne and cigars. Perhaps Team Canada will be required to dress in white pinafores and stand meekly before some rubbishy EuroCourt and sing "I Am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen" as penance.

In contrast to the shabby treatment given Canada's merry hockey players, the orca ("orca" sounds so much more, like, y'know, environmental and, like, stuff than "large stupid fish") who kills folks will enjoy a continued career in show business with Sea World, whose corporate heart is colder than Viking DNA mouldering beneath the frost at L'Anse au Meadows. Hey, so what if a loyal employee is drowned and partially eaten by a critter? Such must not interfere with profits, though the Dinner with Shamu concept may need re-working.

Some have asked what made the critter (the whale, not the IOC) snap? Snap? What are they going to do, give the varmint therapy? A gold medal for killing the most humans?

Others blame the victim, suggesting that her ponytail provoked the animal. Ah, yes, the ponytail defense. And maybe her clothes were too tight, the hussy.

Perhaps even now Sea World lawyers are investigating the victim's past to determine if she once smoked a cigar or drank a glass of champagne, or was taking secret orders from Ottawa.

How curious it is that women's honor and even their lives are less important than profits from a freaky fish show for tourists in knee-pants.

God bless Canada's women's hockey team. They know who they are and how good they are, and so do we, and so do their truest fans: this week in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and all over Canada little girls are slipping Bambi-like on the ice with their half-litre-size hockey sticks, dreaming of Olympic gold, not of being eaten for profit and amusement. To paraphrase Mr. T, I pity the poor fish that gets in their way.

As for the stupid whale, let it be rendered into fish sticks, and soon.

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