Au Cochonnet Marin

I am sick of bad news… Every morning after leaving Morpheus’ arms, I turned on the boob tube to watch the news. It has been part of my regular routine for a long time, and I do this almost without thinking.

But instead of paving the way for a pleasant day, the news makes me unhappy and cranky. Almost invariably, every broadcast is overflowing with Bad News. I would not mind hearing about it occasionally, but a daily diet of this toxic fare is quite upsetting. It feels like the disgusting cod liver oil that we were fed regularly while in elementary school.

Before the day even begins, we are reminded of all the countries engulfed in violence: Ukraine, Haiti, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela, most of Central Africa… and many other obscure spots that we know very little about.

OK, OK, are you going to say, but this violence Thank God, is not happening in America. Well, I am not so sure… Recurrent mass shootings, robberies, muggings, unruly flight passengers, the specter of bank failures, strikes, unending migrant crossings, drought, floods, tornadoes, pollution, cost of living…

“Bad news travels fast. Good news takes the scenic route.” — Doug Larson

And I almost forgot France. I don’t get a better fare when I tune in to TV5 Monde (the French broadcasting channel). Egged on by powerful unions, the country has been rioting non-stop for months… it has been conditioned to believe that they have the God-given right to stop working at 62… and be well compensated for it until they croak. Let’s be realistic, folks… France is not Saudi Arabia.

Protest is nothing new in the land of crêpes and croissants. You might not know this, but every Frenchman (and Frenchwoman) is born with an obscure but powerful gene. It lays dormant for a few years, but as soon as the individual enters college (or gets his/her driving license), the gene wakes up and pressures the individual to protest. Protest everything and anything.

Protest is meaningful when it happens occasionally and for a noble cause, like the cessation of the uncalled-for (and unjust) war in Ukraine. But it loses much of its impact when it happens almost routinely.

To sum it up, I wish to keep my sanity and would like TV stations to give us a more balanced share of good and bad news. Is it too much to ask for?

Alain

Where do I start? I just finished processing over 500 pictures, and I am a little bit drowsy, but this is what I witnessed yesterday in Sonoma.

As you probably already know, there were 50 teams (100 players) participating in the 2023 Wine Country Open. I understand that some participants came from far away to compete for the title but ultimately the big prize remained on our own turf in California.

The event started on Saturday and ended Sunday evening after an excellent final game.

I am not going to talk about everything that transpired that day, but basically, there were 4 categories: Concours A, Concours B, Consolante A, and Consolante B.

Sunday, starting around 11:00 am, I took pictures of everything in sight without really knowing what was taking place. The only thing I know for sure (and witnessed from beginning to end), was Concours A finals.

It was a game opposing Paul Moua and By Wang to PJ Malette and Christophe Sarafian. It proved to be a great finish for this 2-day event, and a lot of people stayed late to watch that game. The 2 teams were evenly matched, with good pointers and good shooters on both sides.

Both teams played very well and took the lead back and forth until 6:24 pm when both squads reached a score of 10-10. At this point, any team could have won, but By Wang’s awesome shooting (despite a desperate attempt by PJ to drown the jack) made the difference. On the last “mène” he scored 3 points and closed the deal.

Paul Moua and By Wang won the event with a final score of 13/10.

This is all I will say. I will let the pictures do the rest.

Alain

PS: the pictures are shown in 2 albums Part One and Part Two (featuring Concours A finals). Enjoy.

Just received from Joe LaTorre:

Concours A
1st.       Paul Moua / By Vang
        2nd       PJ Mallette / Christophe Sarafian
        3rd        Jean-Michel Poulnot / Pascal Tisseur
        4th        Kham Chounlamany / Tim Peppel

Concours B
1st          Will Poire / Lizzie Poire
        2nd        Dave Lanter / Chan Xiong
        3rd        Peter Mathis / Carlos Pez
        4th        Lisa Skerl / Barbara Hall

Consolante A
1st           Adair Hastings / Ashlee Dencklau
        2nd        Maggie Lane / Ernesto Santos
        3rd/4th     Ed Porto / Antoine Lofaro, Philippe Arnaud / Paulo Custred (prizes split)

Consolante B
1st          Hendrik Idzerda / Peter Taylor
        2nd        Phillipe Guerit / Serge Hanne
        3rd         Joe Danielson / Sara Danielson

 

No matter how much you scratch…

I think that I really got into photography when I first did my stint in the French Army. I was sent overseas, and I found it difficult to describe what my fellow grunts and I went through during that time. Fortunately, I had the foresight to purchase a small camera before my departure, and the few snapshots I managed to take while in North Africa, better described how we pulled through during that year.

It was a small, unsophisticated point-and-click camera, but it was just perfect for its purpose. Most of the time I would not have the luxury to make any adjustments (and there were none) before taking a picture. I quickly grabbed the camera from under my fatigues, snapped a rapid shot, put the camera back under my jacket, and kept going.

The bug that I caught during that period changed my life forever.
Today, six decades after this period, I am still madly photographing everything everywhere. With a better camera of course, but still driven by that uncurable bug.

I am not a professional photographer and I know very little about the technical aspect of that art.

“Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.” – Martin Parr

It is for that reason that recently, I bought a compact, extremely sophisticated camera. The Lumix DC-ZS200D is a little marvel that can do almost anything… providing that you set it properly. But again, when I take “candid” shots I don’t have the time (or the knowledge) to instruct my camera on what to do. It is for that reason that I mainly shoot in “Intelligent” mode. When taking a shot, I let the camera decide what’s best and I am pretty sure that most of the time it knows exactly what to do.

This does not mean that I did not bother at all with the instruction manual. I went through its 307 pages, probably without understanding half of them. My philosophy is “learn as you go”. I will go back to the manual each time I have a question.

“It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

 Exactly, thank you, Henri. Eye, heart, and head. A good shot has an extremely brief lifetime. It lasts a fraction of a second, and you must be ready and quick to pull the trigger if you want to capture it. The camera is important, but above all, you are the boss. It is your eyes and your quick reaction that makes a good picture. Let technology do the rest.

Alain