Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Yesterday I spent a couple hours at a local store, mostly sitting in the deli area, just taking pictures of what went on. This can be quite interesting on a number of levels, as it also leads to a good deal of social activity. Sometimes that helps with photography, sometimes it hinders. This time was really interesting and I'll probably post more about that later.

But first, here are a couple shots plus another related shot from years ago, and a link to more related photography.

The first two attached images are of Aaka (Grandma) and Aapa (Grandpa) treating a well dressed youngster. I think the other lady with a hat on is probably the child's mother, but I'm not sure. I do know Aapa (Carl Kippi) well enough to stop and talk with him on occasion. Carl is one heck of a provider.

I decided to also attach another shot of Carl, taken in 2010, as he helped process a Bowhead whale that the crew he was on had harvested. If you are interested in the gory details of how a Bowhead is processed, with Street Photography like nothing shot on 5th Ave in NYC, here's a link (just be aware that not everyone wants to see this),

http://apaflo.com/whales2010-10-11/index.html

(Edited on March 3, 2016 to correct the above link.)

Aapa Carl helps with a treat

(Download)

Checking out in the Fast Lane

(Download)

Food Production for the entire Community

(Download)

LarryN Loc: Portland OR & Carbondale, CO

Just noticed the shots you posted. very nice. The store is well stocked and the little girl is carrying a bag with what appears to be a Barbie doll & horse. Seems like a somewhat unusual toy to me. Shouldn't it be a fur wrapped Barbie & a musk ox? In the second shot I would have straighten the shot and cropped out the two guys on the right. I'll check out the link to whale harvesting. :thumbup: :-D

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Really interesting points. The bag of course is stock stuff, made in Mexico or whatever and sold everywhere. The kids watch TV so they want what they see on TV.

Before TV (pre-1970's) such things were real problems. It was sometimes like pulling teeth to get schools to use culturally relevant materials that kids here understood. One example was a teacher showed me an "IQ Test" she administered to my children in the early 70's, where it asked grade 1-4 kids what direction the sun comes. It gave only 4 answers, North East, South, and West. The teacher graded any of them as correct. We laughed, but it made the test less useful. We did have movies back then, and I remember having to explain to my very much Yup'ik Eskimo son, at age 5 or 6, that "Indians" were not what he saw in the movies, and that his little friend that he played with every day was very much an "Ingalik Indian" that is more properly called Deg Hit'an (from Greyling Alaska on the Yukon River).

Other odd things that I know of are that tests such as the LSAT that every pre-Law student takes, and in many schools is very significant as an entry determinant, has no meaning for most Native Amercans. For example, in the 1990's I knew the first Yup'ik man and the first Yup'ik woman to graduate from Law School. They are cousins. I'm not positive about the details for the fellow, but the young woman, who was about 30 at the time, scored well below the 20th percentile (I think it was the 14th percentile). She was admitted to the University of New Mexico School of Indian Law, which was the highest rated School of Indian Law in the US, based on her performance at their summer Law Institute. She graduated 3 years later as the top Indian Law student. Cultural relevance does make a huge difference!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Some photographers would do exactly that. Some would not. Obviously I'm in the second group!

For many people the "rules of composition" are cast in concrete and have to be followed. I fit into a group that doesn't pay the rules much attention. I look at the image, and do what looks right! Garry Winogrand was quite famously the same way. So was Henri Cartier-Bresson, though less obviously so.

In this case the crop would almost ruin what I wanted to show. And the tilt fits into the category of "quite wonderful expression". (Keep in mind that I selected this image out of maybe 10 shot of this particular scene, so there was significant room for choice.)

The crop would remove my intention to show the child literally surrounded by adults. Grandmother, Mother, Grandfather and a random stranger too. She is part of this group, a community, and is wrapped in attention and with protection. Some of the odd choices that were made to pick this shot as the one to show, were such things as how much of Grandfather is actually showing, whether Grandmother had her head turned so that her face was visible or not, and the expression on the Mother's face. This one had the right combination, and all of those things need to be there to show what the scene is on the abstract level of a Street Photography shot.

The tilt is more interesting. It initially took about 0.123 seconds to realize it would stay. It is there because through the viewfinder that is what my eye liked. It stayed because on a monitor it was what I still like. I can't explain exactly what the effect is, and I do think it probably varies from one person to another in a way that some will find very objectionable. (The difference between eating broccoli or not. I love spinach, and won't eat broccoli.) I like images aligned according to content rather than to the horizon. Simple as that!

In some people's world the sun comes up in the East and goes down in the West, and the horizon is level. In my world the sun is in one place and the horizon is mobile, at different angles to the sun. Just a matter of perspective...

Nightski

The third one looks like it has possibitlites if we had more context. I'm not really sure what is going on there. The other two are carelessly taken snapshots in a grocery store. Nothing in them would make me want to take a second look. My opinion for what it's worth.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Poor! They were very carefully selected. Of course all Street is "snapshot".

Knowing which is the right snap is what makes good Street.

On the third one, follow the reference provided for more context...

GregWCIL Loc: Illinois

Floyd, I can't get the link to work.

It is amazing to me how thick a whale's skin is. I know that very little goes to waste, but what do you use the skin for?

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Opps... that's a link that only works on my home network! Sorry about that.

Be aware that not everyone wants to see how animals are processed for food. This will show the real (and really) gory details:

http://apaflo.com/whales2010-10-11/index.html

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The skin is the dark part. It is about 1 inch thick, or a little less. The pink stuff is whale blubber, which is not like fat, but similar. "Muktuk" is the skin and blubber together, usually eaten raw or frozen, but it is also boiled slightly too.

I think the skin itself tastes much like a very rare beef rib steak. The blubber is crunchy. Some people say they are reminded of eating chestnuts. Muktuk is a delicacy served as a snack. It is served on site while the whale is processed...

That layer of blubber is about a foot thick, and of course serves as insulation. Some years ago one of the science projects wanted to have a recording thermometer inserted immediately into each harvested whale. The idea, a good one, was to measure the internal temperature over the period of hours that it takes to tow a whale to shore. That could be correlated to metabolism etc etc. The biologists first task with any such experiment is approval of the Whaling Captain's Association. In this case they gave the okay, but with a modification. The biologists had a thermometer in mind that would record something like a 15-20 degree range, and the captains said that was too much. They didn't expect to see a 2 degree variation. Turned out they were right too. After 4 to 6 hours floating in 32-34F water, the internal temperature changed about 1 degree.