Everyone should read this.

In addition to being hilarious, it brought up what I thought was an interesting point. That all this ‘security’ has created its own security risk: all the people standing in line.

This past Wednesday, I showed up at Baltimore-Washington International for a flight to Providence, R.I. I had a choice of two TSA screening checkpoints. I picked mine based on the number of people waiting in line, not because I am impatient, but because the coiled, closely packed lines at TSA screening sites are the most dangerous places in airports, completely unprotected from a terrorist attack — a terrorist attack that would serve the same purpose (shutting down air travel) as an attack on board an aircraft.

Jenna and I went down to Mt. Rainier last weekend for what I hope isn’t (but suspect was) the last awesome weekend of the fall, weather wise. I wasn’t feeling like bringing my SLR on the hike, for some reason, which proved to be fairly silly. It was spectacular weather – a beautifully clear, crisp fall day. So now you can see what kind of pictures a new iPhone takes:

Some of these were originally shot in HDR mode, but I noticed some ghosting (presumably from when it automatically stitches together the over- and under-exposed images) and ended up just using the normal pictures (both get saved on the phone). These seemed to look better anyway, so I doubt I’ll do too much more with that setting unless shooting with a tripod. Seems like they take longer to save, too.

Nick and Gus had been hiking around the wonderland trail for 10 days before we met them (“Sometime between 10 and 11 am at the White River campground”), but were happy to do another 8ish mile hike that day. They were almost out of food, but had been supplementing their dinners with the copious amounts of mushrooms on the trail.

I can’t remember whom I was talking about this with, but perhaps they read my blog…

I’ve come across some of these photographs before, and I always find them fascinating to look at. There are a handful of other early color photographs that I’ve found, and every time I look at them I’m mesmerized. Seeing the subjects in color makes these scenes seem directly connected to present.

Some other things that stand out: lack of paved roads, lack of power lines (except in a couple of images – perhaps these are telegraph lines?) and general lack of people (except for a handful of portraits). Also no litter, surprisingly sturdy/well-maintained buildings (tin roofs?), and some nice shutter-speed blur effects.

Looking at these pictures reminds me a bit of the feeling I get when I cross the border into Canada – everything looks similar enough to the states (road widgets, cars, houses) but there are hundreds of subtle differences, and one slowly identifies them. These pictures look so much more like the present than we’re used to seeing in typical historical photographs, so finding differences takes some effort.