End of week and the long Memorial Day weekend lies in front of us.  I have been culling the various websites for photo enjoyable – something light ahead of the coming minivacation.  I found two photographs that I really like on the “NBC best of the week series.”

The first is a photo by Vadim Ghirda  for the AP showing an elderly woman, in cliché elderly woman garb, walking in front of a fashion billboard in the shopping district of Bucharest, Roumania.  The contrast is obvious, itself a cliché.  But it is always a thought provoking one.  What is in the woman’s thoughts?  She appears to be on a cell phone, but isn’t. What is? What was was? What might have been?

The second is an image of a busy rush hour street in Tokyo by Kimimas Mayama for the EPA.  Again this scene of motion where only the center figures approach being in focus is something that we have seen many times before.  Here it is masterfully executed and creates a true sense of both intense motion and the isolation in a crowd that defines modern urban centers.

Figure 1 – Baby window cage of the 1930’s.

When I was young part of a boy’s childhood was reading “Ripley’s Believe it of Not.” I suspect that early exposure to that sort of imagery, as well as whatever primal instincts of curiosity for the bizarre it arises from, is manifest today in all of these websites that promise us x number of images of truly weird events.  I didn’t escape it this afternoon, when promised 116 photographs of our human history that would amaze me.  Some of them did, although many even most were more like examples of inhumanity than humanity.

But I found myself looking for the most bizarre of all 116 and finally settled on Figure 1 from around 1937 showing a baby in a baby window cage, a solution to the problem of how to make sure that baby gets fresh air and sunshine while living in densely-packed  tenements or apartments.  Seemed pretty bizarre to me.  But it followed pretty closely on my watching on the “Today Show” this morning a story from Kentucky about a family whose children have been taken away from them because of their minimalist lifestyle.

Now I’m not going to comment about that case.  But the point is that norms change generation to generation.  My mother was a firm believer in the power of sunshine, and would take me out in my pram on a cold January day. It was essential that baby-Davie got his daily dose of vitamin D, that despite the fact that I was fed fortified milk – not to mention “Sugar Pops.”  But baby window cages make the heart stop and I am glad that these never really caught on.

I have been posting a lot of bird photographs and am always never quite satisfied.  It is ultimately the fun of the chase, because as I’ve said before there’s always an issue, always something that is not quite perfect. A great bird photograph is not just about sharpness and composition, but it’s also about capturing the bird doing something interesting, not just interesting but behavior that is representative of species behavior.

Given all of this I’d really like to take my hat off to Jeffrey Arguedas of the EPA for this really wonderful (picture perfect) image of a woodpecker showing his head last month in Limon, Costa Rica. I believe that it is a black-cheeked woodpecker, Melanerpes pucherani. The expression almost of surprise on the woodpeckers face and the stop action flakes of wood flying out of the nesting hole really make this for me.

Annie Leibovitz is certainly a Force in photography, and  she reveals some wonderful images taken on the Pinewood Studios lot during the filming of “The Force Awakens.”  The complete set of images will appear in the June issue of Vanity Fair.  Sorry Star Wars fans you are going to have to wait even for this!  There is so much hype that even the hype gets hype. My personal favorite so far is the montage of “Galactic travelers, smugglers, and other assorted riffraff fill[ing] the main hall of pirate Maz Kanata’s castle.” We’ve got the teaser trailers and we’ve got the exhibit at Madame Tussaud’s, but December 15 is still a very long time away!

It is rare that a photograph can make me sick from vertigo.  But Peter MacDiarmid of Getty images has succeeded where no one has before – yikes!  He accomplishes just that – shades of Alfred Hitchcock.  His dramatic image shows observers watching last week’s 35th running of the London Marathon as the runners crossed the London Bridge, from the glass floor of the observation deck.  I cannot look at this picture without feeling the need to hold onto the security of my seat and feel an overwhelming desire to find a parachute. I think that this raises is a very significant point about photographs.  When we look at a photograph, if it is a good one, our eye can be tricked and our brains forget that it is a two dimensional object before our eyes and instead transform us into a very real three dimensional world.

While such images create a physical uneasiness, they are a welcome respite from the more gruesome news images of week, which typically makes me sick in other ways.

Figure 1 – Photograph released on April 19, 2015 by KCNA reporting to show Kin Jong-Un on the summit of Mount Paektu with the sun rising behind him.

It was reported by the North Korean state news agency KCNA on Monday that North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-Un, had accomplished the amazing feat of climbing North Korea’s tallest mount, Mount Paektu and photographs, such as that of Figure 1, showing Un at the summit were released.  Mount Paektu is snow covered and ~ 9,000 feet tall. This is quite amazing for several reasons: first Un suffers from knee problems and has been seen with a cane lately, and second he did it without wearing any special climbing gear: no hat and just his usual overcoat and leather loafers.It is simply amazing.  It is also surprising, from an optics point of view, to see the crisp white glow of the Supreme Leader’s outline and how his shadow doesn’t match the sunrise behind him.  Hmm!

Last week the trailer  for the new Star Wars movie, “The Force Awakens” was released and the world is once again gripped in Star Warsamania, or some such variation.  Anyway on Sunday night I was looking for something light and appealing in the world of photography to cap off the week, when I discovered that Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London is launching a special exhibit to celebrate star wars.  What could be better. As a preview there is a wonderful set of photographs on the official Madame Tussaud’s site.  So now you may find Jabba the Hut holding Princess Leia captive in chains, and Yoda in the Dagobah Swamp (he be) and all of your favorites. The exhibit is meant to be an “immersive experience.”And there is something really other worldly and incongruous to see modern day people putting the finishing touches on these brilliant waxworks.