Police Woman

Police Woman, originally uploaded by afortiorama.

Piccadilly, Manchester. Mounted police were there is force for the EDL rally.

As much as I am in favour of multiculturalism and respect for cultural differences women status is clearly one of the heavy clashing points between the Muslim world and the Western one that bugs me. Our own society has still a long way to go and some subtle barriers to equality are still there, but it cannot be denied that western women are in a far better position than Muslim women and new generations of men and women are showing radical changes in mentality so some of the problems that are still persisting today might not exist in 10 years.

And I love horses.

I DON'T CARE...

I DON'T CARE..., originally uploaded by afortiorama.

Piccadilly, Manchester. An eloquent young speaker at the EDL counter rally. He was very passionate and here he was saying: "I DON'T CARE what holy book you read. Get a grip! We are 6 billions on this planet."

We are indeed almost 7 billions. And despite some people blame it on religious doctrines the problem is not only the doctrines (although I'd kick the pope every time he opens his mouth). The country in Europe with the highest natality is France which is also the most secular. Everybody in the west hypocritically shot China down for their 1 son policy as barbaric but I don't know where we would be if they hadn't done that. And now India is offering a car to everyone who get sterilized but nobody is saying anything about that. Apparently selling one's own fertility in exchange of a car is more acceptable in our capitalistic morals than being told "we are too many and this cannot be sustained".

Overpopulation, together with resources and food wasting, is the root cause of the damaging we are doing to the environment and ultimately to the sustainability of the human population.

Peveril Of The Peak

Peveril Of The Peak, originally uploaded by afortiorama.

Someone started a thread in the Manchester,UK group asking "What have you learnt over the last year that improved your photography the most?". It's a very interesting question. And after going through my stream I think my photography hasn't improved much I took good and bad pictures independently from the gear and although each camera allowed me more space what I really learned to do is to take the same pictures with a different camera. So what is missing or what have I learned?

From the technical point of view I probably learned many things that go from screen calibration to using RAW files instead of JPG to the use of the AV mode of when to use manual vs continuous vs auto focus or the use of a remote for self portraits and so on. So why my photography hasn't improved? Here are some of my excuses

*) I don't shoot enough
*) I don't think long enough before shooting
*) I'm not critical enough of my pictures
*) .....

But I think that most importantly most of the time I'm not having fun with my camera. I'm just spending time with it. I'm not into what I'm doing really. The gear is important yes. There is no denying that some cameras have far better capabilities than others and that lenses are critical both in their quality and type. Changing gear has improved only the fact that the new camera allows me to take pictures in more situations, but my pictures haven't changed that dramatically. I'm not bold enough with the attempting new strategies and I haven't learned to have fun with the small details that make the difference between a great picture and a good one. Or perhaps I'm just lazy and hope others will not notice. I think that now I'm and have been at stage two of the acquiring a competence process and I've been so for a long time.

To conclude last year what I learned was "know your camera" I guess this year is "have fun with it". But there's the sea between saying and doing.

Il country del cavaliere nano

"Fai la cacca in una mano e poi datti una sberla." Quando ho sentito la canzoncina la prima volta ho pianto dal ridere per mezz'ora e alla fine mi facevano male gli addominali. Ho continuato a sghignazzare per il resto del giorno.

C'e' una valanga di benpensanti perbenisti che si sono scandalizzati. Non solo non so veramente perche' ma mi sembra anche ipocrita. Le obiezioni piu' comuni sono:

1) Il linguaggio e' scurrile: i bambini di quell'eta' le parolacce le dicono gia' e le imparano in casa dove i genitori prima gli dicono di non dirle ma poi le usano di fronte a loro. Se anche hanno genitori veramente santi che di parolacce non ne dicono TV, internet e giornali per non parlare di quando sti bambini escono di casa sono pieni di parolacce. Due esempi: Sgarbi e' una cloaca ogni volta che apre la bocca e l'hanno fatto presidente della commissione cultura; Bossi e' arrivato al governo dicendo 'Ce l'abbiamo duro!'. Nessuno dei due ha senso dell'umorismo quindi assumo che i loro supporter apprezzino la seria volgarita' di questi due.

2) Non si mischiano i bambini con la politica: i bambini sentono parlare di politica in casa e alla televisione. Gli stessi genitori magari portano i figli ai vari festival di partito, ai comizi ed in manifestazione. Quella non e' politica? Quelli che portano i bambini a farli baciare dal presidente non fanno politica? E poi da quando la politica e' una cosa sporca? Forse non e' la politica in se', e' che la politica e' stata rimpiazzata da scandali sessuali e giudiziari dell'uomo piu' votato d'Italia da 18-20 anni a questa parte. Anche li che ipocrisia tollerare, se non votare, qualcuno che fa bunga-bunga parties, ha guai giudiziari e calpesta le istituzioni un giorno si e un giorno si e poi scandalizzarsi perche' una decina di bambini cantano faccia di merda.

3) Li stanno indottrinando: questa e' la mia preferita. Quando si mandano i bambini al catechismo non li si indottrina? Quando li si porta a vedere le partite del Milan non li si indottrina? Anche solo la scelta di telegiornale da seguire o i giornali che circolano in casa indottrinano i figli politicamente. A quelli che crescono con genitori che guardano Fede e Minzolini e leggono Il Giornale verranno trasmesse idee diverse da quelle trasmesse ai figli di chi vede Rai3, Annozero e legge La Repubblica. No?

4) Sono scimmiette ammaestrate: anche questa mi fa ridere. Mah dico e tutte quelle scimmiette che vediamo in TV? Lo zecchino d'oro era l'apoteosi della scimmietta ammaestrata. Quanti filmati ci sono su youtube di figli che vengono fatti cantare ed esibire come scimmiette? Uh guarda che carino! Il bambino che canta Michael Jackson o Lady Gaga sa cosa sta cantando? Questo senza tirare in ballo le publicita'. I bambini delle publicita' sanno cosa stanno facendo? quello non e' sfruttamento? Perche' nessuno protesta contro le scimmiette che fanno la publicita' e l'inerente sfruttamento commerciale da parte dei genitori?

5) Accuse di pedofilia ed abuso: queste sono quelle che mi fanno incazzare e mi preoccupano di piu'. Come si fa a confondere una goliardata con pedofilia e abuso? I bambini in questo video cantano e si divertono non sono violentati, non sono picchiati, non sono emotivamente annichiliti. Non sono neache dimenticati davanti ad un televisore che e' un tipo di violenza passiva. Questi bambini si stanno divertendo. A me sembra grave confondere le due cose. Gente che non riesce a fare questa distinzione non dovrebbe avere diritto di voto.

6) Non si toccano i bambini e la loro purezza: i bambini di oggi, specialmente quelli Italiani, sono circondati da volgarita' cosce, culi, tette, parolacce, innuendos sessuali a gogo'. Le bambine crescono volendo diventare show girls. Che tristezza la principessa della fiaba e' stata sostituita da una volgare velina neanche da una donna capace e di successo. Per preservare la loro purezza, intesa come ignoranza delle cose del mondo, bisognerebbe confinarli in casa senza televisore e senza contatti e farli crescere deficienti per mancanza di.... conoscenza del mondo.

Insomma non si puo non pensare che coloro che hanno gridato all'oltraggio, assumendo che siano veramente indignati e non gridino allo scandalo per secondi fini, dovrebbero fare un solido esercizio di auto-critica e vedere se hanno veramente gli argomenti per dire quello che dicono. Io i miei figli non li lascerei mai nelle cure di questi protettori della purezza dei bambini, non mi sembrano sani...

...son soltanto degli stitici gelosi
(Benigni, L'inno del corpo sciolto)

Mechanical

21/52 Mechanical, originally uploaded by afortiorama.

This is my first watch. My father bought it for me when I was 7. That birthday also my mum bought me a watch, it was made of red plastic and it was digital, more appropriate for a 7 or 8 year old perhaps but definitely not as nice as this one. My parents had separated one or two year erlier. In the separation/divorce struggle my mum was the weakest being a woman who dropped everything when she got married and being left with nothing and two children. As a kid my loyalty went to her and my dad was the devil. I was torn apart when they both got me a watch and I preferred my father's one. I think that was one of the defining moments of my life.

The other defining moment I will always have stuck in my brain was when my grandpa bought me a beautiful big box of staedtler colored pens and at school I was forced to share it. Of course the pens were broken within two days. It was devastating. To add insult to injury I was told by my sister or my aunt that it was my fault I had brought the box to school. But if you have something you are proud of you want to show it off, is it not? Especially if you are 8 years old. Normally teachers know when it is the case to ask someone to share and when it is not. Mine didn't.

Berlusconi lost the elections in Milan and most other cities yesterday. It feels like another dead weight has fallen off my shoulders. I'm not in Italy and could only celebrate online, but I'm soooo proud of Milan right now.

The Great Pacer

The Great Pacer, originally uploaded by afortiorama.

I'm in my house silence. Right now the only sound is that of the wind in the trees and the birds coming through the open back door. What am I doing? I'm pacing aimlessly up and down like a caged animal. If you want to get out of prison you don't need to know the prison inch by inch you just need to get out.

Vanity, Greed and Envy

20/52 Vanity, Greed and Envy, originally uploaded by afortiorama.

Or yellow and color spaces..... I converted everything to sRGB now, well the camera and my computer screen. I noticed that many pictures that had great colours on my screen were awfully saturated on others. I thought it might be the bad quality of screens of the screen I've seen around, but eventually red and yellows were soooooooooo intensily saturated that I had to give up. It wasn't the screens it was the mismatched color space I was using. AdobeRGB mutes a lot of colors and sRGB which is more restricted converts those muted colours in more saturated tones. But now tah dah!! I can correct the problem because I'm in sRGB and when the saturation is a bit too much I can take it down a notch without seeing a lifeless colour on my screen. Of course although sRGB is the most common colour space used not all the screens are set to use it and someone will always see the wrong saturation and the wrong temperature.