A Surreal Hourglass

Here's a most appropriate image for the passing of one year, the beginning of the next. And a new timepiece to contemplate - an hourglass.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourglass

I'm sure if you go shopping online, you can find endless variety,

people buy it for the design,

same as they buy watches,

it's about enjoying the design, & showing off one's taste and style.

And it's use continues even in digital land.

Various computer graphical interfaces may change the cursor to an hourglass during a period when the program is in the middle of a task, and may not accept user input.

Another example of how digital borrows from the past - the ca-chink sound a camera makes when you take a picture, and the shutter opens and closes. My Canon sure shot does this, and so does the 'Capture' program on my Mac when it captures a window or screen.

In conclusion, a bit of shameless self promotion.

After many years of making darkroom photomontage (since the late 80's), and not being able to get arrested for it except for a few appearances in competitive group shows, and some assignment illustrations in various magazines ....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify' - two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

This includes an image i have recently posted, titled 'Desert Time'.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

Sand dial #2

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Seeking The Vibe: http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Beach grass out of the frame serves as the gnomon, casting the shadows on the sundial's face, a digital concoction, only four hour numbers necessary, this is not a finely tuned instrument, minutes don't matter, perhaps even the hour is debatable. In times and places where most people didn't have watches or any time piece, time was spoken of in varying terms.  In spanish, the word 'manjana'  + 'mañana' in my Mac's translator, is a soft and uncertain term - "we'll get there, when we get there".

The study of time is called horology - hora is the latin root for the word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_time

Many ancient societies were obsessed w/ time, measuring it, marking it, using it to guide anything from spiritual celebrations to planting crops. From Meso-America, to Chaco Canyon, to Stonehenge and well beyond, to Asia - their work was infinitely more difficult than ours. 

Somehow they they figured out how to erect carefully built structures w/ small openings that let the sunlight fall on an opposite wall,  to tell them the exact moment of the a solstice, for instance. They weren't a whole lot more advanced than hunter/gatherers, but they figured this out? I guess they were a lot more interested in these things than they were in other more mundane things.

We can buy an almost infinite number of watches in a heartbeat on the internet. When i click on the 'dashboard' on my Mac, i get a clock, second hand ticking away.

Carpe diem, dear reader. 2016 will soon be history, the big ball will drop in Times Square, you celebrate in whatever way you wish. To quote a great songwriter, Warren Zevon:

"Time marches on, time stands still, time on my hands, time to kill. We contemplate eternity under the vast indifference of heaven"

Don't let 'the vast indifference of heaven' slow you down much. Warren sure didn't.