5/26/13. Buffs.
Wedding couple by wall of Emperor Anastas (c500AD), Durres, Albania
Aurora Borealis in the moonlight over Talbot Lake, Jasper National Park

This shot was about 10 minutes after the similar shot I posted a couple of days ago.  It was getting progressively darker, so now the warmer light of the moon gave everything a different look, and the aurora was more visible.

Posted 2013-05-25
Day 150 - The Plane Graveyard
Was going through some old photos from about a year or so ago and came across this one.  It was a favorite of mine at the time, but looking back on it now it was way over done on the post processing and the surroundings weren't cleaned up as much as I would have liked.  So today, it went back to the raw file and reprocessed it.  This version is now a new favorite.  Amazing what a year's worth of additional knowledge will do for a photo.
Planes of Fame Museum - Chino, CA
Original edit here: http://lisaspeakmanphotography.smugmug.com/DailyPhotos/Daily-Photos-2012/i-W6sN5wp/0/L/PlanesOfFame-384-Edit-L.jpg
This photograph brings back warm memories from an autumn walk the week my mother died, October 2011.  Cleveland Metroparks Bedford Reservation.
May 26th 2013 -Hmm this is tasty.. I saw this dude (at the Dingle food market) .. I was hungry all day thinking about him.. Then I went to Murphy's Pub for dinner and yes they had Hake on the menu.. it was delicious
05/26/2013 - Painted on Bridge Support under the Bridge.

Better than the usual Graffiti.

  Link to Photo Without Frame
Portrait of a girl-6, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG

The Trobrianders practice many magic spells, and the spells for beauty are  are chanted into coconut oil, and then a person rubs it onto their skin, or into flowers and herbs that decorate their armbands and hair, as you can see here.  (This apparently works even for 'ugly' people).

In the early 1900s, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski lived for several years with the Trobriand Islands and he wrote a series of groundbreaking books that still make entertaining reading today. A short summary of Malinowski’s observations can be read here: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex.

In Malinowski book ‘The Sexual Life of Savages’ he describes the fascinating sexual customs of the islanders where girls as young as 6-8 start freely having sex, and boys as young at 10-12 years old.  As in this photo, the girls went topless, although this is now starting to change due to the influence of the missionaries.

Malinowski describes how, despite having sex from an early age, the girls rarely get pregnant, and the people don’t believe that sex is the cause of pregnancy.  They believe that when people die their spirit takes a canoe to the island of Tuma, and when their spirit get old it shrugs off its skin and turns into an embryo, which a spirit takes back to the island of the living and inserts into a woman and makes her pregnant.  Apparently this belief in the lack of  connection between sex and pregnancy can still be found today. Since they don’t believe that sex causes pregnancy, there is no concept of fatherhood and the society is matrilineal since you can always be sure who your mother is, even if there is no ‘father’.  However the mother’s husband shows great care and concern for the children.
  
Malinowski’s work influenced the young Margaret Mead, whose famous book “Coming of Age in Samoa” influenced the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  Her description of matrilineal societies such as the Trobriand Islands (‘Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies’) was the cornerstone of the feminist movement.

Some other portraits of Trobriand girls can be seen here: http://goo.gl/92JRv

125 mm, 1/125 sec, f11, ISO 280, flash fill
Light Writer, Houston TX

This little cutie was doing her best to send off the bride and groom with a spark!  I am so grateful to the amazing Sarah Williams for letting me assist her on this and all the weddings we’ve shot together this year!  Sarah is awesome!

This photo is straight from the camera, using the same speedlite and slow shutter technique I’ve been posting about the last two days.  The speedlite freezes the action while the slow shutter captures the movement of bright lights, such as the sparkler.  Sarah and I love experimenting with these kinds of shots every chance we get.

Critiques are always welcome.

Daily photo: May 26, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
5/26/13. Buffs.
5/26/13. Buffs.
5/26/13. Buffs.
See photo in original gallery.

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