Still No Kings

Despite the continual presence of small groups of protestors all over the country, declaring a nationwide event can motivate a movement and make the news. There were two No Kings gatherings in Oshkosh.

In the morning, Winnebago Indivisible organized things in Rainbow Park.

That was supposed to be the table for Shirts and Destroy, a local print shop that I have to give a shout out to for giving away T-Shirts and well-designed signs.

Big signs for the big issues from the organizers.

The representation of inflated costumes was a little lower than in the past, but they were still around. Or somebody has installed Pokémon Go on my pinhole camera.

This sign held the text of the First Amendment, which is practically a dare to get out and disagree with loathsome behavior.

This activist was happy to pose with her No Kings crown, which is a pair of sunglasses that would have been difficult to wear with her warm chapeau. It was below freezing in the Fox River wind.

There were several dogs in attendance. Two others would only show their south sides when facing north, but Cody turned and held this three-quarter profile.

One theme was that an election is not license to have everything decided by one madman and a reminder to his wimpy enablers how the process works.

I waited a while for the light to change. Just as it turned red, this hood-scooped pickup with a loud exhaust sped toward the intersection and braked hard to stop, drawing an audible gasp from the protesters. I only heard about one MAGAt rolling down the window and spewing invectives at us.

A miniaturized Portland Frog.

A colorful assessment of who ICE is recruiting.

Utilizing a Wisconsin resource to get your message a little altitude.

My friend Kathy Donnelly handing out voting information cards.

 

After noon, the scene shifted to Opera Square with Peaceful Patriots. The more confined space made the crowd seem larger. That's Shirts and Destroy there again in the lower right corner.

Crowns and markers for your own slogan. I can't carry a sign and a tripod and decided earlier not to cut out a crown with my Cricut cutter because it's a No Kings rally, but if everybody's a king, that's different.

This drummer has been refusing his permission for me to photograph him, which I honored until I saw him very clearly depicted in a YouTube video. I don't think I've invaded his privacy. In a public demonstration, that First Amendment gives me as much a right to report his presence as I would have if I noticed the President was mentioned more in the Epstein Files than anyone else.

It doesn't take much of a hint of spring to bring out this sort of outfit. This is one of my favorite photographic mergers recently. Doesn't it look like he's holding a tiny sign? It's actually a rather big one, several meters behind him, which just happened to line up with his hand.

Several groups performed atop the sundial. The Singing Resistance Fox Cities "rise up together and connect in song!" although there's a little more bite to their signs and lyrics than their folky music might indicate.

An objective of the national organizers was to include an activist fair where people could connect with the groups who are struggling with the issues we're protesting against and make the movement a little more continuously active. The ACLU was giving away ICE-alert whistles. I had to look up the association of the BANanas.

Other than being a prime number, it took me a second to remember the significance of 8647. Then I noticed the Cheetos. I showed them my Handmaiden photograph from last summer. They didn't know who it was. Kind of weird interacting with them through the veils that just barely revealed their shadowed faces, only illuminated by that dim red light.

A theatrical group. I suspect the purple door has some metaphoric allusion to a less polarized future. The shark's character was identified as ICE.

Uncle Sam blasting with a matching red stadium horn.

Another drummer with a kit was fine with being photographed. He's actually sitting still in the photograph, just gesturing with his hands while talking to the camera-shy drummer, who's just out of the frame.

There were a lot of people who were also at the morning event. The woman with the Peace Symbol was on the snow pile earlier, now joined by this union promoter, both of whom really validate my choice of color film.

Confiteor

It may seem I'm an altruistic documentarian, but I happen to be film testing several cameras that I have been obsessively making for the Pinhole Day activities at Photo Opp. One camera for the morning and a different one in the afternoon. I got the on-axis pinhole a little in the wrong place on the second camera, and every frame had about a 15% blockage at the bottom of the frame. All of them have been cropped quite a bit. Did you notice?

Both cameras are Compact 30's with two .25mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kodak Gold 200 developed in a Cinestill Powder C-41 kit.

Once again, in order to resist the evil empire, I relied on The Force to determine all the exposure times.

Citizens on Saturdays in Opera Square

Every Saturday, people continue to peaceably assemble in Opera Square in downtown Oshkosh.

The grievances quickly shifted from armed occupation of American cities and murder of our citizens, to proudly proclaimed, billions-of-dollars assassinations of the leaders of another country and the murder of their citizens.

Very nostalgic for me to see the Peace Symbol in use. Hope it doesn't go on as long as the times I most associate it with.

Unrestrained capitalism underlies a lot of this. A sign promoting a very optimistic legislative agenda.

I'm not the only photographer regularly in attendance. Two full-frame SLRs with a range of zooms from very wide to telescopic. Each of these cameras weighs almost two kilograms. And people wonder how I manage with my one-kilogram tripod, which only has a 90-gram camera on it  - and one super-wide angle of view.

They try to center around a theme each week. George Orwell's work presaged some of the characteristics of the current administration. Both Animal Farm and 1984 were read aloud in the square.

The signs along the street reflected the connection.

It was an almost spring-like day. I rode down on my bicycle, and this protester came on her roller blades. The signs around her illustrate the insanity of spelling in English, and probably most other human languages. If we're saying we need peace, why are we also speaking about freedom of speech?

Wouldn't you know these liberal elites would also celebrate a math holiday like Pi Day? No issue with the ice cream melting in March in Wisconsin. Two hours later, it snowed for two days.

There was supposed to be some musical activity. I arrived after it was done, but these two gave me a Walls-of-Jericho blast.

Last Saturday was a collaboration with the Free Stores movement, with free toys, featuring another Vietnam War slogan.

Antifascist Tula very patiently watched me while I adjusted the camera and made the exposure.

Most of the people in attendance are regulars. This guy, with the same wordy double sign, a Shakespeare reference painted on his shoulders, and a memento mori graphic sewn on his back, appears in three of these photographs.

I suppose I'm also one of the regulars, but it still surprises me how ordinary everyone regards me. They all recognize I'm taking a photograph because of the tripod, but it's rare that anyone mentions that it's just a cardboard box.

The EyePA 30 has two hand-drilled .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Kodak Gold 200, developed in a brand-new Cinestill Powder C-41 kit.

Incoming ice and more small business

I was very pleased with the Badgersette camera and impressed by the outdated ultra-fine-grained Ilford Pan F+. The film transport was very smooth, but I again took advantage of the Cricut Cutter to make winder knobs out of eight matboard circles, laminated together with Mod Podge using the same file as the winder collars. Coated with acrylic Liquitex, they're very grippable and give better control winding the film, although that was already smooth on this camera. It's a very easy, reliable and repeatable process compared to punching holes through corks.

 I had also had a stupidity problem. When already out, loaded with film, when opening the upper pinhole, something was catching it. Extra effort would get it open, and it would catch again when closing it. After a few frames, I noticed the bead above the pinhole had come loose and was sticking out a bit. When I saw the negatives, there was an irregular pattern of blockage on one side of the image, which I attributed to whatever had been catching on the shutter, keeping it from fully opening. It was moving smoothly now, and I triple checked the position of the pinholes and the film plane for other obstructions. I reloaded with the second roll of Pan F+. I didn't want that bead above the pinhole falling out, so I superglued it in really well.

It took only one image with the upper pinhole to realize that the map tack under the bead was long enough to just engage the little tab that keeps the shutter from coming out. Somehow, I finished the roll forgetfully using the compromised shutter several times without destroying it. It took some careful Xacto knife work to get that tack back out and a pair of wire cutters to shorten it, but it's repaired now.

Some of the collection nicely lit by the front windows upstairs. The sun was only shining intermittently, a challenge for interiors with such slow film. That doesn't matter if you leave it for an hour and have brunch. 

I presented my talk, "What Pinhole? Why Pinhole? What Me Pinhole?," to the Memory Cafe group in the room in which the Fox Valley Photography Group used to meet at the Kaukauna Public Library. Good crowd. I saw several books about Pinhole Photography that they had checked out. Surprised there were several in the collection. The exposure was the entire length of the presentation. When I revealed what I had done, they asked if they'd get paid if the photograph became famous.

A few days later, it was sunny and warm enough for a bike ride. 

Having a mansion on your own little island won't protect you from ice in Oshkosh.

The water was almost completely ice-free. There was a pretty big shove up against Monkey Island.

The southern part of Millers Bay is always the last place with any significant cover.

Most of the lake is clear. Some of it has been pushed up into the park.

I've also photographed these branches with their tips in the water in its liquid phase.

Close up to a big chunk with a tiny leaf frozen inside, but there's nothing to give any scale to it. Not sure I captured the sparkliness of the ice.

Occasionally, great sheets will stick out into these jagged vertical fins. There is a constant flow of people climbing atop this thing.

Some small businesses on the way home. The Oshkosh Rhythm Institute shares a building with the Oshkosh Tai Chi Center.

I'm a sucker for a business with a pun in its name.

A new shop on Main Street. It's not holiday decorating, it's a lifestyle. If ya know, ya know.

The Badgersette has two .25mm pinholes on the axis and 13mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm film plane. The Pan F+ was semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.