super-structure

I’m not an old man, by really anyone’s account. Even Timothy Leary, were he still alive, could technically trust me as I’m not yet over thirty. However, the one thing that makes me feel my age perhaps more than any thing else is to see photos of soldiers serving at war. They go to join the armed services for any number of reasons. We ask of them many things, some terrible and most amazingly heroic. As with most heroic jobs, the vast majority of their service is mundane life spent in a uniform occasionally punctuated with moments of insanity.

The Israel Defense Force, or IDF, is no different than our own military save one modern difference: Most every able-bodied Jewish Israeli citizen, man or woman, is conscripted into service at the age of eighteen. Women serve for two years while men serve for three. Of course, these are really just girls and boys. The former being young enough that I would feel guilty glancing at twice were I to pass them on the street and the latter being young enough I’d feel any conversation with them would be more like advice than a discussion (well, that last bit goes for both, really).

Rachel Papo¹ has a wonderful photo series of some young women who serve in the IDF. There is nothing graphic nor racy here; but rather simply photos of women serving in the life of a soldier. There is nothing here that will attempt to lead you to any conclusion about wrongness or rightness of war, the conflict that surrounds Israel, nor the service of women. The only struggle is the fact that hey are both remarkably young looking at yet have the maturity their country demands of their service. In this country, we no longer demand this of every person at eighteen, but it is an option that is encouraged. We do not allow them to drink and the will serve under leaders they were too young to have voted into office, and yet we entrust the defense (and offense) of this country to many persons that age. Should you not know anyone just out of high school that has served in the military, this wonderful photo set will make you feel as though you do.

1. Papo served in the Israeli Air Force from the age of eighteen to the age of twenty, which inspired this photo set. These photos were take as part of her master’s thesis at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.↵

Angela wanted me to get something nice for my birthday and after having hung out with Kevin O’Mara a couple of weekend’s previous, in addition to looking at his photographs over the past few months, she decided a digital SLR camera would make a great gift. She would leave it up to me to pick which one, since Kevin’s Canon XT was really the only one she was familiar with.

The Saturday after my birthday, I went over to the Ritz Camera just down the street (seriously, it’s like five blocks from here) to see what they had and talk to a photographer about cameras¹. I had been in the same shop a couple of years ago and thought the guy was kind of a prick for just brushing me off as someone who had no business owning a dSLR. Of course, he was more-or-less right, but it still kind of bothered me. Well, I suppose maybe I’d learned a thing or two since, because he seemed to think that I was at the perfect level to consider getting into more advanced equipment.

My first question was that I was equally impressed with the entry level Canons and Nikons and wanted to know what benefits each had. My take on his response: they are both really impressive cameras for the money and will produce great shots in the hands of someone who is willing to learn how to use them. However, the Nikon is much easier to learn for beginners, plus it is a couple of Benjamins less than the Canon. Okay, so if the D50 is the way to go, why does it take better photos than a high-end point & shoot? Well, it’s not so simple as that, but any dSLR is going to have much more versatility than any P&S… all right, you’re getting bored and this went on for over an hour. The short of it is; I got a Nikon D50 kit and every since have been trying to figure out how to use it.

Right out of the box and on full-auto mode, it takes some really impressive pictures (at least compared to many of my other just-messing-around-the-house photos). I’ve started to get more comfortable with using the viewfinder for every photo (I used it a lot anyway) as well as rotating the lens barrel for zooming. I’ve also begun to make use of the sort-of semi-manual modes, which allow for user controlled shutter speed or aperture, but the camera controls most of the rest of the variables.

I’m a long way from really being able to create anything impressive with this camera, but I’ve got a 2GB SD card for it (which was on sale for $30 at Amazon) and one month to figure it out. Angela and I are going to Alaska in the middle of October and we want to be able to really get some great photographs of Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali, and everything in between. I’m not making any promises, but I won’t be using the camera as my excuse for sure.

1. …as opposed to a person in a blue or red polo at a big box store, who may or may not even own a digital camera, let alone a dSLR. If you’ve got questions, it’s a really good idea to talk to someone who actually knows how to use the product you’re interested in and worth the small premium in price you might have to pay (in this case, about 5%).↵