I am not a landscape photographer but I suppose I could play one on YouTube. I was reading the newspaper yesterday and came across an article about last week's dramatic increase of earthquakes in the Southern region of that county, not too far from Reykjavik which is where something like 90% of the country's population resides.
Reading the article triggered a few memories from my trip there in 2018 and I went back into the galleries to see if there were any images I hadn't previously posted. I guess I just wanted to remember what it looked like then, better.
I was happy with many of the images I made while there. I took only Panasonic G9 cameras and shot mostly with the Olympus 12-100mm f4.0 Pro lens. It was a nearly perfect travel combo. I'm not sure, in retrospect, that I would pack anything else.
As if a global pandemic wasn't bad enough now we have a possible, gigantic, volcanic eruption to worry about. The last one took down a lot of air traffic in the Northern hemisphere and caused a lot of health and safety issues. I hope this one is colorful, dramatic but non-destructive.
I guess it's time for me to buy an RV, outfit it with a bunch of computer crap and photography gear, and drive around taking landscapes.... Oh, who am I kidding? I'd rather watch grass grow. I guess it's a pursuit (landscape photography) you either love right off the bat or spend your life trying to understand why other people enjoy it so much.
I'm resolutely in the second camp.
off topic: I've been following TheOnlinePhotographer for years and was reading about addiction, food and lifestyle stuff there this morning. Yes, it's bad to be addicted to stuff that negatively affects your life. So, I finished reading the blog (and the comments) and moved on to reading the Guardian.
This is the article that caught my attention: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/03/covid-deaths-high-in-countries-with-more-overweight-people-says-report
A quick summary is this: In countries where the majority of adults are overweight or obese the death rate is 10 TIMES!!!!!!!!!!! that of countries where the majority of adults are NOT overweight. This follows similar data from the World Health Organization from last April. TEN TIMES MORE LIKELY to DIE!!!!
I knew that obesity was a contributing factor or co-morbidity but TEN TIMES?!!!!! And that's the result even though countries like the U.S. and Italy have much better health care systems than almost any country the population of which hasn't succumbed to being......fat.
I thought about this while I swam my 3200 yards early this morning. I thought about this when I ate my Greek yogurt, muesli, blueberries and walnuts at breakfast after my swim. I thought about this as I checked the battery life in the camera I'm bringing along for my noon walk through town. I thought about the article long and hard. Have we, as a culture, come to the point where we're willing to engage in so much bad eating and absolute disinterest in exercise that we're okay with setting ourselves up for a much earlier death? And a much less rewarding and more painful old age? Even when we know better?
None of the information about diet and exercise is new (although it seems like people re-discover it over and over again!) or ground breaking. It's just an application of good dietary ideas mixed with discipline; the same as it has always been. Swim, run, walk and don't eat like someone from Mississipi. Sorry to anyone from Mississippi but I'm going by national statistics....
I looked at the Texas qualifications for being in one of the first groups to be eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine (after first responders, doctors and nurses) and in addition to qualifying if one is obese, has diabetes, heart disease, etc. you can also skip the line (metaphorically) if you are a smoker. That's right, a new fringe benefit of smoking cigarettes is now a preferred spot in the vaccine queue. I almost gave up hope altogether when I read that.
The more bad habits you willingly embrace, it seems, the more preferential treatment you receive. What the hell kind of message is that?
Rant over. Gone outside to do something (anything) other than sit in a chair all day while eating stuff I don't need. Hope the same for you.
12 comments:
Too many people (in my opinion) just want some pharmaceutical company to invent a pill which will enable them to loose as much weight as necessary while eating junk food and sitting watching tractor pulls on tv. Another pill which would automatically simulate an hour of exercise every day. Over fed, under exercised - too many ignorant Americans.
And Brits, and Belgians, and Italians, and ........
"guess it's time for me to buy an RV, outfit it with a bunch of computer crap and photography gear, and drive around taking landscapes"
I'm making plans for exactly that right now. Light on the computer crap and photo gear though. Just what's essential (broad term I know).
"Oh, who am I kidding? I'd rather watch grass grow"
Everyone's dreams are different :)
I must not be up on the news. There's a volcano in Iceland getting ready to blow?
They have literally had something like 17,000 earthquakes in the last few weeks. Leading experts to believe there may be magma trying to surface which would create a volcano. Sounds pretty wild! Wish I could see it. From a safe distance.... And not in an RV.
But you are correct, everyone's dreams are different and that's probably a very good thing.
So I'm guessing no Twinkies and Frappucinos with your deep dish pizza? Just reading this made me nervous. Let me light up a Marlboro and we can discuss it over a few diet Cokes.
I guess you caught my Guardian link to that in TOP’s comments so I’ll take the liberty to disagree with your referring to the US Health Care System. I read recently in the New York Times (can’t find the report) that there is no coherent system for sharing medical records in the US, particularly as you do not have a ‘unique identifier’ (as we do in U.K.). Perhaps it is different in Texas?
"But you are correct, everyone's dreams are different and that's probably a very good thing"
Yes indeed. If all our dreams were the same they'd also be very expensive as we'd all be clamoring for the same RV, Car, Camera, etc.
Very interesting about the earthquakes. 17,000 is a big number any way you look at it. Hope they're not fracking in Iceland. I've read in some parts of the middle of the US the frequency of minor earthquakes (most unnoticeable to the average person) have increased drastically, supposedly due to fracking.
Not everyone can afford or even has access to healthy food. Many have jobs-sometimes more than one- which wreck their body and leave them without the energy or time for an exercise program. You are lucky.
Everyone IS different. If I were a solo act, I'd buy the smallest RV I could find with an inside shower and hit the road now and then. Unroll the side awning and clip on a background, and I could do a lot of beautiful daylight portraits, too. If I were Kirk Tuck, that is...
Now there’s a completely bonkers idea for your next thriller that nobody would ever possibly believe: a conspiracy between the government, big agro, big pharma, and big petro to keep everybody.... Oh. Wait. Yeah. Never mind. Not a conspiracy, just standard business practice.
Hi Anonymous, just as many people CAN afford, and do have access to, healthy foods but actively and knowingly choose other options. There may be cohorts that choose or need to work multiple jobs which impinge on exercise time but again, there are many, many more people who work traditional 9-5 jobs who do not make time for exercise instead making an active choice to spend up to 5 hours per evening watching television, playing video games or watching television. I am sorry not everyone has the option to participate equally but why would you want to be so quick to dismiss the self-carnage that at least half the population chooses on their own volition?
Exercise need not be expensive or too time consuming. Put on a pair of shoes and walk for an hour every evening. Done.
For most (the majority of Americans) there is ready access to healthy food choices and many of those food choices are less expensive than processed garbage food and soft drinks. One can drink water pretty much anywhere for free but one must pay for high calorie, sugar saturated soft drinks. It really always boils down to making choices.
I am not particularly lucky. I eat in moderation, exercise in moderation and stay informed for my own health's sake. Sad to make excuses for the people who do have access to these things but actively and knowingly refuse to do them. Very sad.
Richard, you are always welcome to disagree with me but for the record I actually read the story in yesterday's edition. While I did drop by MJ's site to read I don't remember seeing you comment or link but I'll go back and look again.
We can quibble about whether or not the U.S. has a "First World" healthcare system or a coherent system at all. But, all the vaccines are flowing from the federal government and all the vaccines were vetted by the FDA.
For those with health insurance there is a network of hospitals, clinics and private practices in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. which offer a high level of care. The unique qualifier in the U.S. is the Social Security number. Health care here is very good for wealthy patients but the gist of the article in the Guardian had less to do with the quality or availability of health care and more to do with the statistics that people from countries that haven't yet embraced eating just because they have continuous access to as much food as they want 24/7 versus people who live in countries that haven't embraced (because of economics?) the "all you can eat whenever you want" lifestyle and still depend on fewer calories per day to maintain their lower BMIs. And, statistically, people with lower BMIs die at 1/10th the number per capita as those in countries whose populations have many more people with much higher BMIs. Less weight = less death from Covid-19. That was the point.
Trash the American healthcare system all you want. But our biggest issue is that people are too heavy. At least in regards to: covid mortality, flu mortality, immflamatory disorders, and, well, pre-mature death. But it's the same for our friends with socialized medicine. I'm looking directly at the numbers for the UK and for Italy.
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