Life is like a camera

[Berndt]

Found that on Facebook today - life is like a camera

FOCUS on what's important,
CAPTURE the good times,
DEVELOP from the negatives,
and if things don't work out,
TAKE ANOTHER SHOT.

[hansz]

Berndt, how long are you living in the East:-)
But nice to read.

Hans

[ellacoya1]

That does pretty much sum it up, doesn't it

[Randy]

Great thoughts.

[Stephen]

Hiawatha's Photographing, a Poem on Photography......Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

From his shoulder Hiawatha
Took the camera of rosewood,
Made of sliding, folding rosewood;
Neatly put it all together.
In its case it lay compactly,
Folded into nearly nothing;

But he opened out the hinges,
Pushed and pulled the joints and hinges,
Till it looked all squares and oblongs,
Like a complicated figure
In the Second Book of Euclid.

This he perched upon a tripod -
Crouched beneath its dusky cover -
Stretched his hand, enforcing silence -
Said, "Be motionless, I beg you!"
Mystic, awful was the process.

All the family in order
Sat before him for their pictures:
Each in turn, as he was taken,
Volunteered his own suggestions,
His ingenious suggestions.

First the Governor, the Father:
He suggested velvet curtains
Looped about a massy pillar;
And the corner of a table,
Of a rosewood dining-table.
He would hold a scroll of something,
Hold it firmly in his left-hand;
He would keep his right-hand buried
(Like Napoleon) in his waistcoat;
He would contemplate the distance
With a look of pensive meaning,
As of ducks that die ill tempests.

Grand, heroic was the notion:
Yet the picture failed entirely:
Failed, because he moved a little,
Moved, because he couldn't help it.

Next, his better half took courage;
SHE would have her picture taken.
She came dressed beyond description,
Dressed in jewels and in satin
Far too gorgeous for an empress.
Gracefully she sat down sideways,
With a simper scarcely human,
Holding in her hand a bouquet
Rather larger than a cabbage.
All the while that she was sitting,
Still the lady chattered, chattered,
Like a monkey in the forest.
"Am I sitting still?" she asked him.
"Is my face enough in profile?
Shall I hold the bouquet higher?
Will it came into the picture?"
And the picture failed completely.

Next the Son, the Stunning-Cantab:
He suggested curves of beauty,
Curves pervading all his figure,
Which the eye might follow onward,
Till they centered in the breast-pin,
Centered in the golden breast-pin.
He had learnt it all from Ruskin
(Author of 'The Stones of Venice,'
'Seven Lamps of Architecture,'
'Modern Painters,' and some others);
And perhaps he had not fully
Understood his author's meaning;
But, whatever was the reason,
All was fruitless, as the picture
Ended in an utter failure.

Next to him the eldest daughter:
She suggested very little,
Only asked if he would take her
With her look of 'passive beauty.'

Her idea of passive beauty
Was a squinting of the left-eye,
Was a drooping of the right-eye,
Was a smile that went up sideways
To the corner of the nostrils.

Hiawatha, when she asked him,
Took no notice of the question,
Looked as if he hadn't heard it;
But, when pointedly appealed to,
Smiled in his peculiar manner,
Coughed and said it 'didn't matter,'
Bit his lip and changed the subject.

Nor in this was he mistaken,
As the picture failed completely.

So in turn the other sisters.

Last, the youngest son was taken:
Very rough and thick his hair was,
Very round and red his face was,
Very dusty was his jacket,
Very fidgety his manner.
And his overbearing sisters
Called him names he disapproved of:
Called him Johnny, 'Daddy's Darling,'
Called him Jacky, 'Scrubby School-boy.'
And, so awful was the picture,
In comparison the others
Seemed, to one's bewildered fancy,
To have partially succeeded.

Finally my Hiawatha
Tumbled all the tribe together,
('Grouped' is not the right expression),
And, as happy chance would have it
Did at last obtain a picture
Where the faces all succeeded:
Each came out a perfect likeness.

Then they joined and all abused it,
Unrestrainedly abused it,
As the worst and ugliest picture
They could possibly have dreamed of.
'Giving one such strange expressions -
Sullen, stupid, pert expressions.
Really any one would take us
(Any one that did not know us)
For the most unpleasant people!'
(Hiawatha seemed to think so,
Seemed to think it not unlikely).
All together rang their voices,
Angry, loud, discordant voices,
As of dogs that howl in concert,
As of cats that wail in chorus.

But my Hiawatha's patience,
His politeness and his patience,
Unaccountably had vanished,
And he left that happy party.
Neither did he leave them slowly,
With the calm deliberation,
The intense deliberation
Of a photographic artist:
But he left them in a hurry,
Left them in a mighty hurry,
Stating that he would not stand it,
Stating in emphatic language
What he'd be before he'd stand it.
Hurriedly he packed his boxes:
Hurriedly the porter trundled
On a barrow all his boxes:
Hurriedly he took his ticket:
Hurriedly the train received him:
Thus departed Hiawatha.

Lewis Carroll

[mickeyobe]

"Hiawatha's Photographing, a Poem on Photography......Charles Lutwidge Dodgson"
Read more: cameracollector.proboards.com/thread/8210/life-camera?page=1&scrollTo=65680#ixzz2d5yGfAGK

Hiawatha should have stayed
With instruments that don't engender
A studio with a rude parade
Of vainglorious male and female gender.

He should have stayed with bow and arrow
And not allowed that crew to harrow
His mild and contemplative essence.
By sending each a well placed arrow.
He could have terminated their presence.

A. Nonny Mouse

[Stephen]

Only people of a certain age will appreciate the Lewis Caroll parody of The Song of Hiawatha, an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and set to music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor as The Wedding Feast of Hiawatha. The Music was a sensational hit, so good it is long forgotten!! It was sung to the same rhythmic beat as the Poem, and of course you need to know that to appreciate the parody, delivered as a steady stream of words.
Charles Dodgson was a very enthusiastic photographer working in early processes.

Stephen.

[SidW]

We sang Hiawatha's Wedding in the school choir in the 1950s.

[mickeyobe]

"Charles Dodgson was a very enthusiastic photographer working in early processes."
Read more: cameracollector.proboards.com/thread/8210/life-camera?page=1&scrollTo=65703#ixzz2ds6uCgUk

And more than a little weird and gullible about the hereafter.

Mickey

[Deleted]

A rhyme. A rhyme
My kingdom for a rhyme

Most people don't know the story of the famous Native American warrior Falling Rock
He fell desperately with Hiawatha's sweetheart, Minniehaha. He tried to capture her interest
but she made it clear that Hiawatha was her one and only love. She told Falling Rock to never darken her wigwam entrance again.
The suitor was devastated and pledged to live the remainder of his life as a hermit. His love for Minniehaha was so strong that he is still alive today wandering aimlessly through the forest. Anyone who has driven the mountain roads of America has seen the yellow signs warning drivers to "Beware of Falling Rock,"

The end

[olroy2044]

"Beware of Falling Rock,"

BOO---HISSS!   LOL

Wayne, I didn't think it was possible, but you're as bad as Mickey!

HeeHeeHee!

Roy

[Stephen]

With road signs, as a very young child, being driven through Germany on the way to Austria, I was surprised to see all the road signs to a town I had never heard of, it was very big, perhaps a big city, there were signs for it 50 miles into Germany on the Autobahn, and the first ones were at the border at Aachen.....the place was called Ausfahrt.......exit in German!!

Stephen.

[mickeyobe]

Sept 4, 2013 0:12:55 GMT -5 olroy2044 said:

"Beware of Falling Rock,"

BOO---HISSS!   LOL

Wayne, I didn't think it was possible, but you're as bad as Mickey!

HeeHeeHee!

Roy

Roy,

Be kind to Wayne. His tale is the historical truth.
Minniehahahahaha was a fickle girl and an inveterate traveller as well.
She left broken hearts wherever she went.
The road signs prove that.
Beware of Moose, Beware of Geese, Beware of Deer, Beware of Pedestrian, Beware of Pothole, Beware of XX and so on.
There is a long list of her conquests and discarded beaux.

And that's the troof and nothing but the troof.
If you are sceptical I can show you some pictures of the signs of her discards.


Mickey