After many years I have decided to dust the camera off and start taking photos I can be proud of. Not that the years of photos I have stored on hard-drives taken with phones similar devices are something to be ashamed of but I want to return to the art. Photography to me is a grand hobby and by snapping away with my phone I lowered its status to that of mundane daily task. I am thankful for the resourcefulness and convenience of always having a smart camera phone by my side for impromptu photographic opportunities but now I want to return to the arena of deliberate photo creations. You may understand it differently and debate the values of camera phone photos. But the emotions I experience whilst holding my camera cannot be replicated.

~I_am_Shem 

Homecoming Parade 2010

Homecoming Parade photos are here. It's difficult narrowing down over 400 photos to find the best 30 or so photos. But I finally managed it. Here is the link the album.

Since Berlin . . .

I have been working on creating a Web site. www.staphotography.com The hardest part of having a Web site work as your portfolio is choosing the proper photos to represent you. I am currently trying to link this blog, the site and a photo-sharing site like Picasa, for larger albums covering events. So check out the Web site and the Mudfest album.

Here is a Preview:

Berlin's Street Art

Street art can be cumbersome. The excessive tagging overlapping each other on almost every wall can drive a person insane. But between all that unnecessary spray painted text you find a small gem. These are only a few.

One for the kiddies. Located inside a playground.

aI have not the slightest clue who Tobi is, but this was the sixth one in the Kreuzberg neighborhood. And after kneeling on the wet sidewalk to get this shot, I agree that he should be freed.

This is actually about five stories high. In Berlin you can actually learn, as in go to school, to become a professional.

And last the East Side Gallery. A section of the wall dedicated as a memorial. Commissioned artist from around the world created works of art expressing their feelings about the wall.

Gedenkstatte, Museen. The Day My Heart Cried.

I have seen the movies, read the stories, saw the pictures and studied the history, still I did feel.

 Saturday, May 22, 2010 I visited you.

I walked where you walked, sat where you sat and stood where you stood.

I saw where you died.

I could not begin to understand, the anguish you felt, the suffering you withstood.  .  .

.  .  .the horror you accepted as a way of life.

I promised with a heavy heart to remember.

My throat aflame, I stared with blurred vision at your testimonies.

 

I left in anger. The faces of your tormentors burned forever in my mind. It was you who was burned, who was beaten, who was gassed.

But I assure you it will be I who will carry all I saw, all I felt, until forever.