fourpointedstar

Recently I was reading about the Romanov family in Russia; the absolute lack of compassion on the commoners compared with their murder. Both seem equally horrifying to my modern understanding: treating others as serfs or slaves and executing someone, especially children.

Sarah and I visited Boston; we wanted to get away from work (both job & home), and since it is an important anniversary for the United States, we chose a town that was instrumental in the Revolution.

I’ve struggled with being proud of the United States since well before 2016, but that was a year that horrified me – not due to a presidential candidate, but because of the public embrace of treating others as inferior and the justification of inflicting pain upon another person, especially children.

It is still impossible to justify owning slaves, it is still impossible to justify class, race, gender, or religious constraints; but visiting Boston helped me regain a little bit of my pride in the United States.

No one is perfect, in fact everyone is tragically flawed – our biases, willful ignorance, and stubbornness can be easily picked apart. But to see the beginnings of something that could lead to a nation that millions would flock to and hold up as “freedom” was a small breath of fresh air.

Twice recently, I talked with a friend who had given up hope, and I realized hope is what we have, what drives positive change, and what can lead to a better future. We’re surrounded by bad news – social, environmental, financial – but there are people who have hope that they can make an impact.

Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Hamilton – they were ALL flawed even for their time; the same way we are now. But their hope 250 years ago allows me to live in a country where we can have hope for change and impact.

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The entire neighborhood around Bunker Hill was decorated with bunting and other red, white, and blue decorations; and it made the walk up the hill from the USS Constitution to the Bunker Hill Memorial beautiful.

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This statue is outside of King’s Chapel – the “Memorial to Enslaved Persons” (notice the open cage and free birds) in recognition of all the slaves owned by members and ministers of the Kings Chapel congregation.

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My original thought was that tonight’s photo – the last of the week of flags – would be of a flag with the sunset from the drone, but a huge cloudbank rolled in and ruined that plan. So, I improvised. 🙂

A good Independence Day Parade is full of red, white, and blue – clothing, bunting, streamers, balloons, and so many American flags large and small. So in keeping with this week’s theme, here are a few flags from my hometown’s Fourth of July parade.

I’ve captured this style of image of an American flag multiple times; a single long exposure of a flag as it waves in a breeze. The trick is the breeze can’t be too strong or you don’t get variations in the waving, but … that means that you might encounter a night like last night, where you stand outside for an hour because the wind just isn’t blowing most of the time.

Let’s call this image a work-in-progress, ok? As photographers if we’re honest with ourselves, none of our images turn out EXACTLY how we want them to, especially when we’re trying something new. However, I am very happy with this composite. I wanted to do another multiple exposure this week, but this time with a lot more images – 50 is a lot, right?

I captured the same flag at roughly 1 second intervals for 2 minutes for this creation, and each flagpole is rotated exactly 1/50th of the circle. While the blending/opacity did not turn out with the effect that I wanted, I am exceedingly happy with the happy accidental bushes around the edge!

p.s. I’ll let you guys figure out why I chose 50 images. 😉

Doesn’t everyone lay down in the lawn of a random business’s lawn because their flag is waving in the correct direction for the image that you’d like to create? This is 5 exposures merged so that each images partly shows through, and I quite like it; if you look closely, you can see where the stars bleed through in some spots too.

Since we’re celebrating the July 4th holiday this week, I chose our flag as my subject for this week’s photos. While normally my photos are taken in the past and then I choose 7 images for the week from an event or along a theme, I’ve decided that this week’s photos should be taken daily and be relatively unique compositions.

…thank you Adrian for your thoughtful help,
but more than that, Thank You for your sacrifice for our nation…