Daniel Greene

Blog

  • Putting the Pieces Together

    I need to take a break from Flickr and piece together some new creative projects.

    Instead of writing books, scholarly articles, creating and presenting workshops, putting on singing concerts, or any number of other things I might do, I’ve spent the past two years and two months on Flickr. Lately, as you can see, I’ve been weaning myself from the constant level I kept up for two years. I’ve been shooting fewer photos and only posting three photos a day– or fewer. I’ve been working on jigsaw puzzles — like this one — rather than spending so much time on photos and Flickr. Even if I do nothing but puzzles, reading books (which I’ve been doing a lot more of), and watching TV, it would be better than spending so much time on photography and Flickr. Sure, I could spend more time on photography and try to make it pay, but that’s another career I don’t feel like making a go of right now. I’d rather make more of my ASL interpreting career.

    I’ve been interpreting and going to interpreting workshops for the past 18+ years. Babies have been born and raised to adulthood while I’ve been taking workshops from other interpreters. It’s time that I started teaching workshops rather than just attending them. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself, but that’s how I feel about it. I have a lot of experience, knowledge, and insight, and I want to make something of it. I now have a workshop outlined and scheduled for November 22 from 9am-3pm.

    I’m also a performing artist. I’m contracted to sing in (more…)

  • Chain3d



    Chained to the Sea
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene

    Just as a boat is chained to the sea, sometimes I feel chained to Flickr.

    I am now going through the 420 photos I took during the six days of my trip. Four hundred and twenty photos that all came out well. Yes, there are some things that I took multiple shots of in order to get the best one, but still… how do you work your way through all that and post it on Flickr without boring people? I’ve been limiting myself to posting only three or four photos a day so that people will look at them, which seems to be working, except I have to ask myself why I share all these photos with the world. I took this working vacation on my own, and one of the reasons I took these photos was to share them with my husband, Andy, who couldn’t come on the trip with me. That makes sense to me– to want to share with my husband everything I wish I could have shared with him while we were apart. And I suppose it makes sense to want to share photos with family and close friends. But I’m starting to wonder why I care whether people I’ve never met will stop and look at my photos. I hardly make any money giving my photos away. I could write travel articles and get paid for the work I put into taking, geotagging, editing, organizing, naming, describing my photos… but I don’t. Instead, I spend several hours each day on the computer and on Flickr. I post photos and look at other people’s photos. I enjoy this, but often it seems like work.

    I sometimes look at what I do as a creative outlet and a chance to share information with others just for the sake of sharing. I guess there’s a part of me that (more…)

  • Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers

    This giant sculpture at the corner of Central & Thomas in Phoenix, AZ is a tribute to Navajo Code Talkers. I didn’t know that when I took the photo the other day; I just wanted a shot of a landmark I’ve always admired but never known anything about. Yesterday, I braved the 108º heat to take a photo of the plaque. I’m sharing it because I think it’s important to know this bit of WWII history.

    Here is the inscription on the plaque:

    Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers

    This tribute represents the spirit of the Navajo Code Talkers, a group of more than 400 U.S. Marines who bravely served their country during World War II.

    Their mission: to utilize the Navajo language in the creation of an unbreakable secret code. Between 1942 and 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers used this code, and their skills as radio operators, to provide a secure method of communications vital to America’s victory.

    Among many Native Americans, the flute is a communications tool used to signal the end of confrontation and the coming of peace. This tribute represents the advancement of peace for all future generations.

    This is the first permanent tribute to honor the Navajo Code Talkers.

    "Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers" by Doug Hyde, 1989. Commissioned through the Heard Museum by Best West Properties, Inc. and the Koll Company.

  • My Favorite Shaving Cream – Discontinued!

    Edge ActiveCare Shave Cream has been discontinued. I am sad and frustrated because it was the best shaving cream I’ve used in over a quarter of a century. It is rich and creamy, helps the razor glide across my face and slice through my beard, rinses clean, and leaves my face feeling calm and moisturized! It’s not drying or sticky the way so many other shaving creams are. And now it’s gone! My husband loves it too, and this is our last tube of it. I looked online, and you can’t even get this stuff on EBay anymore. (Someone was selling it for $10 a tube, but they ran out. Someone else was selling it on Amazon for $14 a tube, and only had 5 left as of last night.)

    But there is a sliver of good news. I called S.C. Johnson & Son just now to verify that the product had been discontinued and to request that they start making it again. They told me that the product was, indeed, discontinued in March, but they also told me something great. When they discontinued it, they bought it back from retailers so they could sell it by mail order to customers who loved it enough to call and ask about it. And they’re not selling it for $10 or $14 a tube– they’re selling it for $4 a tube plus shipping and handling. I just bought four cases, six tubes per case! The shelf life is two years, so that should last me and my husband for the next couple of years or so.

    Sure, I could buy a bunch of cases and sell it on EBay for a profit, but I’m going to do loyal Edge ActiveCare customers a favor: just call S.C. Johnson & Son at 800-558-5252, tell them you wish they would put Edge ActiveCare Shave Cream back on the market, and order a case of six for yourself while supplies last. No, I am not employed by S.C. Johnson & Son. I just love this product and want to get it back on the market. Selling it on EBay for a profit is not going to accomplish that. Sharing this information with fellow customers and asking them to call, voice their demand for the product, and order it from the manufacturer at an affordable price just might do the trick! (And it couldn’t hurt my karma, either.)

  • Capturing the Light



    Capturing the Light
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene

    The act of photographing reminds me of the constantly changing world and the preciousness of each moment.

    Andy had set this artichoke on the kitchen windowsill. The artichoke was past its prime, but I liked the way it looked with the sun hitting it this morning, so I ran and grabbed my camera.

    The light had changed in the 30 seconds it took me to get my camera, and even during the taking of several shots, the light kept changing. While seeing how the light kept changing, and how quickly I was losing the light that had originally caught my eye, I was reminded of the constant changes going on in the world around me (and in myself as well, I suppose), and the preciousness of each moment. As a photographer, I am "delineating light" (photos meaning light and -graphy meaning delineation, see etymology of ‘photography’). Since natural light is constantly changing, we as photographers capture fleeting moments of light.

    But, as people, what do we miss that we don’t capture? Are there moments in our lives, in relationships with people, when the moment is right to be silent or speak up, to be still or to make a move, to look or to listen? Photography is a highly technical hobby as well as an art, and I find that I must remember, as a human being, that there is much to capture other than light.