It is Saturday morning; so time to scan all the “Week in Pictures” for fun and beautiful images. I found two that I really like this week. The big news in the United States is, of course, Pope Francis’ visit, and there is this clever image by Tony Gentile for Reuters showing a clever juxtaposition of heads or hats.Pope Francis is being greeted by Cuba’s President Raul Castro as he arrived to lead a Mass in the city of Holguin, Cuba.

The second is from the other side of the world by Alex Ogle of AFP Getty Images and show a boy in India running with youthful enthusiasm, not to mention stamina, up the steps of the Chand Baori stepwell in Abhaneri village in Rajasthan on Sept. 24, 2015. For just a few hours on one day each year local residents are permitted to descend into the 100-foot-deep, 1,200-year-old stepwell. The action of the boy contrasts beautifully against the sheer geometry of the stepwell, creating a marvelous photograph. An interesting aspect, for me, is the dark area of shadows in the lower right. Some might argue that this should have been cropped out. But in my view it adds an air of enigma to the photograph. The image is reminiscent of Willy Ronis‘  classic Le Petit Parisien, 1952.

A reader has brought to my attention some intriguing photographs by Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig of Soviet era bus stops. I know that it sounds esoteric, but these structures often in the “middle of nowhere” offered architects that rare moment of “out of the box” self-expression in an otherwise state-controlled artistic environment. Some are stark and imposing, some appeal to a sense of science fiction,  and others are whimsical. In all cases you try to imagine people standing their waiting endlessly for buses. Many of these structures are crumbling and fading away and they would otherwise fade into distant memory and ultimate oblivion were it not for Herwig and his efforts. He has been photographing these structures for twelve years and amazingly has amassed images of approximately one thousand structures and a book of his work entitled “Soviet Bus Stops,” has recently been published.

My wife and I were out driving around this afternoon and she commented on just how gorgeous the light was – September light. The weather in New England is perfect, crisp mornings with dry warm but not hot afternoons. Photographically, I tried unsuccessfully to get some good photographs at the new Boston Market – but a hoped for image of a hake lying on a bed of ice did not meet my standards, which was probably just as well. I feel for the fish, who yesterday morning was swimming in George’s Bank only to find himself lying on a bed of ice in the market and soon to be someone’s dinner.

I was looking for something photographically beautiful and fun this morning. To the point, in Germany it is the time of the Oktoberfest, and I found this smashing image by Sven Hoppe for the AP of the scene in one of the beer tents on the opening day of the 182nd Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, on Sept. 19, 2015. What could be better and nothing could be wurst. Sorry!

The winners of this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced, and as always the results do not disappoint.  I have been looking at one fantastic photograph after another. Photographing wildlife is a complex process with a lot of waiting. It is not just a matter of luck of the shot. Rather in the short instance when the photograph comes together the photographer has to be ready to apply all of his/her knowledge and skill to get the image just right.

I have a few favorites among this year’s winners. The overall winner of this year’s contest was this spectacular and inspiring photograph of gannets along a cliff-side in the Shetland Islands taken by Barrie Williams. The flying birds look magically like stars and perspective vanishes. The photograph looks down from the cliff towards the sea, not up towards the sky. Second, is the Chaitanya Deshpande’s brilliantly dreamy mythic allusion, “A flutter in the woods” taken in London and winner of the “A Wild Woodland Category.” Third, is Tomo Brangwyn’s ” A gang of Starlings,” winner of the “Urban Wildlife Category.” I love the angle and distorting perspective. I keep expecting the birds to break into song and dance with “The Jets are in gear. Our cylinders are clickin'” Who’s callin who – a chicken! And finally, there is something truly wonderful about Alex Hyde’s macrophotograph of a “Dew covered crane fly” winner of the “Hidden Britain” category. The background is out of focus but every pearl of water acts like a micro lens revealing what lies behind.

As I’m writing this blog, I obviously am marveling at these photographs again. The real problem is choosing favorites. There are so many eye and imagination catching images among the winners – probably;y all of them. And they teach us the important lesson – look, the world is beautiful.

“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

Albert Einstein.

We have spoken before about the effect of terrible images on world opinion, and I have to confess that I generally don’t post about these.  These pictures speak for themselves, and really there is nothing left to say that doesn’t seem pale and trite by comparison. On Wednesday, we saw this image of a Turkish police officer cradling the body of drowned migrant child Aylan Kurdi near the Turkish resort of Bodrum. The family was trying to cross to Greece on Tuesday when their boat capsized and the mother and two of her children — Aylan and Ghalib — had perished. The father, Abdullah, survived at least physically.

The news media has repeatedly announced that this single photograph represents a came changer in the refugee tragedy now unfolding in Europe. I really hope so, and I suspect that the photograph will win all sorts of awards. But sadly I doubt that the effect will be long lasting.. In the United States we focus on the idea of building a wall along the Mexican border. The real wall is always in people’s hearts.

Figure 1 – Tracking three hurricanes over the Hawaiian Islands on August 31, 2015. From US NOAA and in the public domain because it was produced by an agency of the US government.

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posted this spectacular photograph to it webpage.  That’s abbreviated NOAA for obvious biblical reasons. It is a rare meteorological event. Three major hurricanes are being tracked over the Hawaiian islands. It’s those robotic eyes again for lovers of images of the Great Blue Marble from space. The cobalt blue of the ocean is wonderful.

According to my calendar Labor Day is rapidly approaching. Indeed, in most years this would be Labor Day weekend, and this coming Tuesday marks the end of meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere. So soon? Boston is a city of colleges and universities and the population is about to expand. With that boom will come a vibrancy of mood, but for now it all remains pretty quiet. We await the September light and the crisp chromatic days of October.

This past week has been grotesque, if you spent much time watching the news. The word sadly is “inured.” We are becoming hardened to images and videos of violence. And that is compounded by political groups that seek to manipulate us in one direction or another with these images – showing them over and over again in an attempt to control us. It just accelerates the hardening.  I am already sick of the 2016 presidential election in the United States. We cannot seem to rise above the least common denominator, which is I guess analogous to water’s always seeking the lowest point it can.

So this morning I was determined to find a photograph of the week that was visually appealing and perhaps upbeat. And my search was rewarded with a marvelous image by Jorge Duenes for Reuters to showing hikers in Tijuana, Mexico silhouetted against  super-moon. It is striking how super-moons have come to affect us. It is as if we are looking for some ancient magic mysticism to take away the insane pain of modern times. There is no ultimate solace (or is it “lunlace?”) to be found there. We have to take responsibility.

But in tesrms of art and emotions, this image functions at so many different levels. It is simply delightful but at the same time brings with it something primordial. And, of course, to the waning boomer generation it is a remembrance of things past. The world forever waxes and wanes.

Figure 1 – The chains of human bondage. Kennebunkport, Maine. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I went this morning to post my blog.  Indeed, I was anxious to get it out since it had been a few days since my last post.  So I turned on my computer and guess what, Windows had forty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty updates to the operating system to install and perform. This is cyber-tyranny. Was I given any choice?  Was there any thought given to the fact that I might have something better to do with my time then wait for my computer to reboot. How many hours, both business and personal, are stolen in this way.

Well, stolen might be a strong word because I am pretty sure that when you install your operating system and are asked whether you accept the terms and conditions that buried somewhere in there is a statement where you relinquish all rights to ultimate control of your own cyber-life.  But I do reserve the right to object and moan about it.  Isn’t there a better and more gentle way. On day one your computer asks you to perform the update. On days two, three, and four it nags you, sounding increasingly like your mother. On day five it begs you to do the right thing, stressing the importance of the update, the impending danger if your don’t, and the compelling social correctness of the act. And finally on day six, again like a good mother, it finally guilts you into submission. You and your father are going to C-drive me to an early grave if you don’t install the updates.

You see there are better ways. I know that someone is going to suggest that I spend significantly more $ for a gray case with and apple on it. The significantly more money part is the tyranny of branding. This, in the end, is an entirely different story with shades of Orwellian mind control.

I am frustrated, but back on line now. I try to find contentment in the fact that the cyber world is a lot better than it was say ten years ago, when it was insanely difficult to do anything, especially to connect your computer with the internet, and when the blue screen of cyber death was oh so much more prevalent.  But, friends, I want to emphasize that 41,750 is a very large number. How did we get into this tyrannical mess in the first place. How did my computer, which I nurture daily, become so outdated that it needs so much updating. Protest! Computer users of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Figure 1 – “Megalodon shark jaws museum of natural history 068” by Original uploader was Spotty11222 at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:FunkMonk using CommonsHelper.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia.

Increasingly summers on the East Coast of the United States have become shark fests. There are an impressive number of great whites this year off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.  These have followed the harbor seals and the warm waters to our beaches. At the same time the news media has fairly regularly taken a break from following the antics of showman and bully-in-chief Donald Trump and his run for the White House with shark stories. But this morning I just could not resist passing one on. The video was filmed last year during the shooting of a Discovery Channel documentary. It shows an encounter with “Deep Blue” one of the largest great whites ever recorded. While these fish average about 15 feet in length, Deep Blue approaches twenty-two feet. In the startling video the shark approaches a shark cage off Guadalupe Island, which is off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Researcher Mauricio Hoyos Padilla can be seen exiting the cage and pushing the shark away.

Anyone who has seen the movie Deep Blue Sea will be sobered by the sight of Deep Blue. However, this is nothing compared to Carcharocles megalodon which was 14 to 20 meters in length and ruled the Earth’s seas 15.9 to 2.6 Myrs ago. As a child I spent many happy hours at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City with my father and sister. One of my favorite specimens there is shown in Figure 1, a fossilized jaw of C. Megalodon and big enough for a man to sit in. Stay out of the water, people!