Tag Archives: words

Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Quantity. Symbol. Written

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Quantity. Symbol. Written
A sign on a preschool wall.

Quantity. Symbol. Written. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sign on a preschool wall.

This photograph comes from some weeks ago, when a group of us were engaged in a little project to photograph orange things — a task related to the colors of the autumn season, but which I took to allow inclusion of distinctly non-seasonal subjects. I photographed it will on one of my pandemic-era local walks, on which I step out the front door carrying a camera and, if the spirit moves me, may photograph right in the neighborhood.

It is tempting to say no more about the subject and just let the viewer owner. However, I found this little bit of graphic and text content on the exterior of a pre-school. Taken out of that context — and that’s how I initially viewed it — the temptation was to try to find my own meaning in the odd mixture of letters, numbers and symbols.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Ideas, Morning Musings, Not Photography

I’m Amazingly Humbled! Not. (Morning Musing 9/17/14)

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OK, this “morning musing” post is a) not really being posted in the “morning” (though I was musing about it then), and b) about as totally unrelated to photography as possible. Hey, its my (humble) blog!

Recently recipients of high honors or acclamations have been responding to these honors by saying, “I’m humbled.”

Probably not.

I just grabbed one definition of the word “humbled” off the web — from the Free Dictionary:

tr.v. hum·bled, hum·bling, hum·bles

  1. To curtail or destroy the pride of; humiliate.
  2. To cause to be meek or modest in spirit.
  3. To give a lower condition or station to; abase. See Synonyms at degrade.

Imagine that the recipient of high honors and acclaim stood in front of those conferring the honor or award and announced:

“Your award humiliates me and destroys my pride. You have reduced me to a lower condition and station, and I am abased. You have degraded me. You make me meek. Your award demotes and dishonors me and devalues me.”

Actually, you don’t have to imagine. That is essentially what it means when a person claims to be “humbled” by an honor!

If you want to have even more fun with this, see some of the synonyms and related words listed in one  of the comments following this post. Using them, our recipient might add:

Thank you for demeaning and discrediting me, humiliating me, and bringing me shame. It is wonderful to be taken down and dishonored by a group such as yours. I am embarrassed and grateful that you have castigated and diminished me in this way. I thank you for your ridicule and bad-mouthing disparagement and for presenting me with such a slanderous public affront.

I think that the people misusing the word “humbled” in this context actually mean well. They are trying to express gratitude and to not seem fat-headed or egotistical — and those are good things. However, there are better words to convey what they likely want to say. How about: “I’m grateful. Thank you. You have honored me. I never thought that this would happen. I deeply appreciate this. I want to thank all of the people who have supported me. I hope I can live up to your expectations. This means a lot to me.”

And thus ends my humble rant. ;-)

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blow Horn and Pipes

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San Francisco - Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.
Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.

Blow Horn and Pipes. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hand painted sign and various pipes and valves on a concrete wall in San Francisco, California.

This is one of those odd little photographic vignettes you can find if you poke your nose into the right (or wrong) little alleys while wandering around in a city. I have passed this general area many times before, and had often notice fenced-off or gated small alleys extending along the sides of some of the buildings. I had even attempted to photograph through the fences, but without much success. However, for some reason – or else a fortunate coincidence – on this morning most or even all of the gates were open and I could wander down along the sides of these old buildings with their interesting and weathered textures and subjects.

This collection of “stuff” was next to a door that looked like it might have been used as a loading area, so I imagine that the old “BLOW HORN” sign, hand-painted directly on the concrete wall, must have once supplied instructions to those coming to make pick-ups or deliveries. I still wonder though about the fact that the sign was squeezed in behind this has of pipes, given that there were large areas of clear wall just a foot or two away from this assemblage of pipes and valves.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.