The Unreasonable Man

Click for larger. The rebirth of spring and blossom have moved people for tens of thousands of years.

The Globe today printed an editorial praising the government’s stance on new immigrants and the need for them to learn Canadian Values,Which Are Rooted in our History, not just “how to recycle”. I just sent off the following letter to the editor:

Dear Editor,

So we need to all take on Canadian values when we become Canadian. Fine, and presumably no-one would disagree with that in principle.

But in that case please define Canadian Values. My liberal atheist values, or Mr Harper’s conservative Christian values? In many ways, these are as far apart as could be. Or Native Canadian values versus English-Canadian values? Quebec values, Ontario values or BC values? Union car worker values or mega-entrepreneur values? 80-year old WW2 veteran values or 18-year old Vegan values?

Because you emphasise history, I suppose “Muslim values” is out of the question - they have to be values defined before Confederation, do they? Or before World War two? Or just those defined by white people?

I think it is senseless to talk about nations as collections of people who share the same (sometimes ossified) values. As Canadians we have some shared behaviours, sure. Adherence to the law, definitely. Even some identity aspects, no problem. Education, also. But values? Before I sign up, please tell me whose values.

Or do you mean the values we all share? Maybe then we are back to recycling.

Michael Willems

We’ll see if they print. I left it late, so I doubt it. But at least you have now read. what I think.

Surely you have to think that of the Taliban. Bearded God-idiots who kill pretty young people like Karine Blais, the 21-year old soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb the other day in godforsaken Kandahar. I was on eth 401 highway today as her body was being repatriated.

Yes, these bearded Taliban morons are monsters. Years ago when the Taliban were forcing women to die in the desert rather than see a doctor (which was forbidden), I was already saying “nuke ‘em”. I am all for cultural relativism, but for years I have thought that these people do not deserve to be included. There is no relativism here. Nazis bad, Spanish inquisition bad, Pol Pot bad, Mao Tse Tung bad, Homeopathy bad, UK Nannytoritarian Government bad, Taliban bad.

(Do you like my little UK snide there?)

Anyway - we should all stand up and say “anyone who says that he knows God and that God has told him to do cruel things and that he is the only one who knows what God wants” is a moron who does not deserve a second thought. Unfortunately, that includes most religious people, by the very definition of religion.

So when a girl was run into by a car virtually in front of me the other day in Toronto I took a few snaps - you never know whether there is something special. Just a few shots to show the scene:

One woman tried to stop me. “Are you taking photos? Stop!” she said. “I don’t think so”, I answered.

It is amazing how people will try to stop you from photographing what anyone can see anyway. It is not unethical to shoot accidents. In fact if people thought about it a little, they would see that photography can help. Of course this particular crash would not have been “interesting” enough for the newspapers, but as said, you never know. And showing accidents could remind people of the importance of road safety. Anyway - it happens. Don’t shoot the messenger.

…all the time….

And it is not just me, having issues with my 1Ds MkIII and 1D MkIII bodies:

Peter Gregg’s post

That soft face is totally recognisable - I get this all the time. Will Canon help by redesigning/fixing the 1D bodies? I hope so.. having invested $25,000 into Canon equipment I think it would be nice.

Reminder: here is a sample of mine. Shot with one focus point, lock mode, aiming at a contrasty area, at fast shutted speeds - but wide open at f/1.4. Some shots good, some soft.

Just FYI, a quick update:

• My photography site here: www.michaelwillems.ca
• My photography business site here: www.mvwphoto.com
• My upcoming “IV” exhibit: www.mvw.net/IV.html

I hope that helps!

..and I do not mean “batch”. Printing is terribly idiotic. As I said earlier, it is like TCP/IP in 1993 or email in 1988. When you want to print quality, you are faced with things like this:

• You need a degree to know how to do it. An arts degree.
• Print from Lightroom and you get to tell the system your print settings and  paper type at least twice.
• People bandy about clichés like “you need a spider” without knowing what they mean (if your camera is set right and you print a correct file from camera through PC to printer, the PC’s colours have no effect unless you change your photo).
• You cannot print on Epson paper using a  Canon printer since there is no profile and Epson and Canon will not provide one.
• But you cannot find Canon paper anywhere.
• Print people do not understand that the size of your image has nothing to do with its DPI. The size is in pixels. If my image in 3000×2000 pixels wide, that determines its quality and the size I can print it at. Whether I save it as a 30DPI image or 3 million DPI image has zero effect on that.
• Even when you have a spider, use th3 right paper, and the right ICC profiles, you get crappy colour. I have images here that were shot right and that look right on eth Mac, but where faces look blue when I print them, using a Canon printer, Canon paper, and the Canon ICC profile for that paper, and yes I have bloody well calibrated my screen, yes with a spider, not that it matters.
• Printer manufacturers do not understand anything beyond the basics.

$5,000 and 3 months later I can still not consistently print an image. In fact I had it right until Canon told me to delete the print profiles - then, even after reinstalling them, never again a good print. And all the advice one gets is useless. Use a spire. Install the ICC profiles. Use Relative Colorimetric, even though no-one knows what that means.

Grrr! How difficult is it to not print a face blue?

So Wednesday marks the start of passover. Seven or eight days of eating unleavened bread, etc. For most people this goes unnoticed; for me, less so. I have lots of Jewish friends and customers, and even if I did not, I know a bit about the world. Just like you are supposed to know the words to La Marseillaise even if you are not French.

And because I know a bit of history, I also look with some amount of unease at the increasing power of the surveillance society. England looks, at least superficially, almost entirely fascist to me. No, that is not too strong a word. Look at all the UK’s police campaigns against ‘possible terrorists’: there are reminiscent of nothing if not East Germany.

And that brings me to Germany. What would you have been able to do if you were disgusted by fascists in 1933, as I am disgusted by their modern-day (if so far less harmful) equivalents? My new European passport requires me to be fingerprinted. Years ago I swore that, absent criminal convictions, I would refuse to ever be fingerprinted. So what do I do now? Give up all my passports and never travel again? What did the few Germans in 1933 who did not share in the adulation of The Führer do?

Slippery slope. But we have to take a stand somehow. Maybe I will give up my passports. But at least I will go on writing what I think - like it or not. Fingerprinting your population, or storing their DNA like the Brits do, is evil. Yes, you may be able to force me to comply. But that does not make it less evil. Murder is evil. Rape is evil. And the modern Bush/Blair inspired (and Obama perpetuated) surveillance society is evil.

Jews know a thing or two about being the target of evil. That is why I am happy to share their feeling that passover should be celebrated, even if it means entirely irrational prohibitions against grain. At least this is not evil; but rather, a reminder of it, and of survival against the odds.

Newbies of the world, please note that it will no longer be allowed to have websites that start with an “Enter” page. If we are on your web site, we obviously want to enter it. Don’t make us click again. Or we may not.