Ever have one of those posts that you work on, and work on, and almost never finish it? My last one 'Wednesday Walk - Real Bodies' was one of those, and lemme tell ya, I'm glad to see the backside of that one!
Warm But Wonderful
Those pictures were taken last summer when we got tickets from our school to attend the exhibit. It was hot as hell outside, and even more so inside with the mass of people in attendance. Of course I was masked up (on the advice of the staff there), because with my luck, I didn't want to be the LAST person to croak from the pandemic, as we STILL have people getting infected here.
Living in a very progressive enclave with Bernie Bros everywhere, with suburbs surrounded by the beginnings of Trump country, not wearing a mask can make a political statement of its own. You could almost tell someones politics because of that.
And if you think Trump can't win next year, think again. His support is deep once you get into the exurbs. Indictment or not, his followers don't care, and they're not going ANYWHERE.
So it was super hot in that place, and in one of the photos you can even see a large bank of fans that they had to both cool the exhibit and dissipate any potential particles in the air due to the crisis.
So here I am sweating like a pig with my crappy moto G Power phone, trying to take pictures. It sucks when you don't have a good camera, but we do the best with what we have on hand, right?
Those Pictures...
Ugh! Those pictures were the biggest problems to getting that post done. It was hard to get a clear, nicely-detailed shot, and I had to spend hours in post trying to optimize each photo to make them somewhat acceptable.
I envy those of you with iPhones (they have the best camera and take the absolute finest stabilized video) where you can just SNAP! and come out with a great photo.
The exhibit center doesn't allow flash photography, and the moto G Power doesn't have a very good low-light camera. So what looked fantastic to the naked eye, came out soft, dark, and grainy when I transferred them to my laptop.
My initial plans were to publish something like 50 pictures (out of the hundreds I took). But each one required so much tweaking, that after several days, I only had a few pics done that looked acceptable, so I shelved the entire project.
Every once in awhile, I'd pop back in and do a little work. I had planned to write a biography of each person whose body was used in the exhibit, but had to scale the project way back once I began my new writing project as there just wasn't as much free time available.
As the months wore on, I knew I had to do something with it, and decided to cut the number of photos down to around 15. Not only did I have to tweak the way they looked, I also had to optimize them for their file size as large photos don't display well on Hive.
So I had to drastically shrink them down, losing some of the quailty and optimizations along the way. I also had to trim the ambitious biographies I'd planned, and just wrote it as a simple walk-about which worked well as a #WednesdayWalk.
Published With RESPECT
Hitting that "Publish" button was a relief, as it was finally out and I didn't have to pore over it anymore. This must be what a woman feels like giving birth. She's happy to have that new baby, but glad that thing is finally out! lol! That's how I felt as well.
There was a very controversial section in the exhibit where I also took pictures but didn't dare publish them. If you ever see this on tour in your area, you'll understand why. I really think I made the right call there, as I had to crop several of the pictures that I took just in the name of common decency and respect for the individual.
And that's the lasting memory I'll take with me from seeing Real Bodies, RESPECT. Attendees spoke in whispers and even the kids were quiet. Everyone treated these people with the respect and reverence that they deserved.
They were fathers and wives, sisters and mothers, each with a beating heart full of hopes and dreams. I was very affected by seeing them and it made me reflect on my own life as well. If you get a chance, I encourage you to see them for yourself.
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Image Credit: [1] @EverNoticeThat Created using Canva.