Aim High !!

Update April-2026:

Dear Grand-daughter,

Today, 20-Aug-2013, just two months before your second birthday, NASA announced their most recent “class” of Astronauts.  There are upcoming missions of exploration, to near-by asteroids, and to Mars, and they wanted to recruit a new cadre of candidates for the program.  They received over 6,000 applications which they narrowed down to eight as the final group.  From 6,000, to 8…a pretty exclusive club !

The thing I found most remarkable about it was, four of the new astronauts are women, “the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a single class.” 

They are:

·    Christina M. Hammock, presently a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief - Christina (Koch) Hammock flew around the Moon on Artemis II, April-2026 !!

·    Nicole Aunapu Mann, Major, U.S. Marine Corps, a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School and an F/A 18 Fighter Pilot - Major Mann was the First American Indian woman in space, Oct-2022 !!

·    Anne C. McClain, Major, U.S. Army, a Graduate of West Point and a Helicopter Pilot - Major McClain spent more than 6 months on the International Space Station including 3 Space Walks !!

·    Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School - On the ISS, Jessica Meir participated in the first All-Female Space Walk, Oct-2019

So, my point is this, as you grow up, I want you to always feel that girls can go, and do, and achieve anything they want to achieve.  You can be a stay-at-home mom, or an engineer, or a school teacher, or a fighter pilot, a secretary, or a physicist.  We can already tell you are a smart kid.  All you will have to do, is try.

Go Girls, Go !!

You go girl !

                                                                          Love,
                                                                           - Your extremely proud Grandfather

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

 

 

 

 

Immigration... (a memory from 2015)

As I walked around Frankfurt the other day...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...I encountered about 1000 little green guys...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...installed in the square in the historic district...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...by artist Ottmar Hörl.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

About 14 inches (350 mm) tall, the vast majority of them were a bright emerald green.  They are installed on a temporary wooden grid that fills the central part of the plaza.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Visitors can walk out among them, as many do, talking photos, posing, stooping down (as I did) to get close-ups of the little guys.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

I mention that the vast majority of the guys were bright green, but a small handful, maybe a half-dozen, were bright red, with another half-dozen bright yellow, and a half-dozen black ones.  The artist is apparently speaking out for inclusiveness... 

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Now, in no way were my observations scientific.  I did not stake out the area, and count the photo-takers over time, and make notes about race...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

But it seemed to me that the folks most "celebrating" the display, by taking photos of friends and spouses out in the midst of the display...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...were the "minority folk" in the crowd.  Of course, I am only showing photos here where the faces are mostly obscured, privacy of course being very important, so you can't count here for yourself, what I'm showing here is not a complete set of the photos I took...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

And to be fair, there were of course "lighter skinned" faces, taking photos, out in the display.  

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

It just seemed to me that the display about inclusiveness was most appreciated by the people in the crowd most interested in inclusiveness.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

It remains to be seen how Europe will handle the huge numbers of mostly Middle Eastern peoples presently clamoring to get away from their home countries, and into a safer, and more prosperous place like Europe. 

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

So let's see...

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

...there are many, many non-Europeans already living in Europe,.  And a number of "native-Europeans" are already concerned about their numbers, their motives, the friction created by religious and economic differences... 

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Let's see how the current emergency influx of thousands of new emigrants, new refugees, will place strains on the system, and how the current residents will react.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

And I wonder, what this little guy will think, as he grows up, and he begins to speak his mind, and to vote.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Let's see...



Y'all take care,
- Mark W. Laughlin

It's all about the light... (a memory from 2012)

 

Light.  Photography, is all about the light. 

Unfortunately for me, I don’t usually have time to wait for the light to change,

or the possibility to use artificial light. So, I usually have to take what I get.   

 

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

In the case of this mirrored building in Houston, I got lucky.  Some people would have to wait for the clouds to be just right, I only had a second, literally as I crossed the street.  So, looking up and snapping with my cell phone, I got lucky and got one of my favorite photos.  Lucky.

 
 



Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

I like this one too.  Out of the window of a plane, just after sunrise.  In this case, I wasn’t on the sunny side of the plane, but that's good, because the light just highlights the dirt on the windows. I tilted the camera, and got the darker blue at upper left…

...looks like “space” to me.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Like at the Mutianyu Wall above, sometimes it’s foggy.  So, you just have to make do with the lighting you have.  We were only at this place for a half-hour or so, so there wasn’t time to wait for the fog to lift.  But, got a pretty cool effect.  (Monterrey Bay, California)

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

These two are both in Central Texas, just North of Weimer, taken just as the sun came up, about 15 minutes apart.  Just have to keep looking, and clicking,

and hope the effect turns out.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

This shot in Finland was on a COLD, heavily overcast day.  The same sunless light lasted for several hours.  But in Dubai, just 2 weeks later, it wasn’t cold at all (though not as hot as it looks in this photo).  The lighting lasted only a few minutes,

as the sun rose and cut through the haze.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

 

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Back to the Baltic Sea, really, really cold, with the sea freezing on the surface as we cut through it.  This light lasted a long time because in the high latitudes, the sun doesn’t go down quickly.  It’s not on a path perpendicular to the horizon the way it is down here in the Temperate Zone.  The sun kind of rolls down, almost parallel to the horizon,

so you have quite a long time to get a good sunset.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

I love taking photos.  This was on the California Coast, Highway 1,

near Big Sur, 2006.  The sky was a totally clear blue, with a sea fog slowly rolling in. 

Cool.

So, keep your eyes open, and keep clicking !

-          Mark W. Laughlin


 

Finland...in February (a memory from a few years ago...)

I love Finland. 

It's a great place to visit, winter or summer.

Been going there since 1984 and I always enjoy it.

Nobody sitting in the park today...

 The sun hangs low, and peeks at you through the trees.

 I love the red bark on this tree.

 The sun goes down slowly, providing lots of twilight.

Sun...but not much warmth.

 This just looks COLD to me !!

 ...this too !

A wonderful place to visit...           

                         ...but dress warmly !!

(I got back to Houston to find it 90 degrees F warmer than in Hyvinkaa !!)

- Mark W. Laughlin

Baltic Spring ... (Memory from 2011)




Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Spring, but still chilly out on the Gulf of Finland - 14-Apr-2011





Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Spring may have arrived in Tokyo, and in my backyard in Houston, but not so last week in Finland and Estonia.







Ice on the Gulf of Finland, between Helsinki and Tallinn, 14-Apr-2011






Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

 

The countryside, south of Tallinn.



Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

The Outer Wall surrounding the Old City of Tallinn

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

A chilly view for harbor-area apartments

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Time to head back to Helsinki.

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

Photo by Mark W. Laughlin

- Mark W. Laughlin

All photos by MWL.

People / People... (memory from July 2015)

Photos need people in them.
For perspective, for scale,
to show how a place is popular,
and the kind of people who visit there.

(These are all from Toledo, Spain on a very hot 12-July-2015)

But unfortunately for me, I am often taking photos alone.  Or if family are with me, they stay well behind and out of the way of my lens.  So, I have to "borrow" other people.

Occasionally, you luck out and catch a tourist cooling her feet in a fountain (I prefer folks who's faces are not recognizable, so they don't object if I post them...)

What would this street scene look like without the couple walking...
...or this one without the girls ? 
                ...Would just be empty streets.

 

Ok, ok, I admit it...sometimes, it's "just about the girl"...

        (Hey, I'm a guy...whatayagonnado ?)

These are examples of one of my favorite subjects...

..."taking photos of people taking photos"...

This one has a "selfie-stick" to hold her cell phone while she gets a photo of herself and the very high church tower behind her.  She struck the same pose and took several photos, likely trying to get the tower fully in frame.

This young lady had an entirely different approach.  She lay down directly on the cobblestone plaza to get a sharp upward angle on the tower (fortunately, the square wasn't crowded, so nobody tripped over her).

As I look at the two shots I got, in quick succession before she got up off the (very) hot pavement, I see that the first looks better to me.  I was actually trying in the second to catch her without the person on the left being in the frame.  But looking now, this photo of a person looks better to me with the perspective of the (parts) of the other people in the photo.

 

Another try at framing the high tower.  This time, trying to get her little brother in the frame.  Nice set up, but I was certain he'd fall off that ball at any moment. 

So, is it: 
(A) a photo of "people taking photos"...or
(B) "a photo of a girl", or
(C) "an attempt by me to catch a photo of a kid breaking his ankle". 
Answer: All 3 !

And then, as I was taking reflection photos of the same high tower, a young lady decided to go wading in the reflection pool.  The ripples she stirred up disrupted my reflection shot of the tower, but I like the one I got of her.

Here, in a totally different form of "selfie", is me...
... (in my "Indiana Jones" keep-the-sun-off-me hat).
(Entrance to the Jewish Quarter, Toledo)

This is the high church tower we were all trying to shoot.
(Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada de Toledo, Spain)


More Toledo later,
-Mark W. Laughlin