How to Photograph Ruins

Your goal is to capture the romance and nostalgic feeling that is often associated with these former structures and not so much on their tourist appeal since most major tourist ruins have been photographed to death.

Photograph your subjects from various angles, perspectives and by day and by night. Using flash will be required at night and a diffuser will probably be handy during the day. It is always better to photograph when you have a diffused ambient light condition such as when the sky is overcast.

If you take a photograph of a rock structure upon which there are some reliefs during the midday sun and when the sun is about to fade or even at dawn you will see much more detail and the reliefs will be easier to admire during dawn,dusk or when overcast.

Midday sun light creates a "washed out" effect and most details will be hard to distinguish not to mention a noticeable lack of visible texture. This is why photographing while the light is diffused makes sense to most photographers.

Also, don’t just focus of capturing images of the subject’s exteriors include aspects of the interiors whenever possible and safe to do. Take long shots, wide angles, close ups and include elements of the surrounding scenery to put into perspectives the location where your subject is located.

A lot of photographers like to include the human element in their ruins photography, I do not since if I wanted to take photos of people I would do it under another theme. I just want to concentrate on the ruins themselves and allow my viewers to immerse themselves in the images before their eyes. This will often lead them to imagine the history of the place without the interference of modern details.

A good staring point to ask yourself is "what photograph can I take that will let others feel as I felt ". Seek more than ordinary pictures. Instead capture photographs that invoke a feeling instead of photographs that just look pretty.

via How to Photograph Ruins.

Manhood | The Economist

It is inevitable that more men will earn less than their female partners in years to come. To pull their weight, they will have to do more at home. There are few signs that women want househusbands; but though they don’t want a man who does all the housework they often want one who does more of it. And doing more chores could ultimately make blue-collar men happier, because it would help them forge happy relationships. As the experience of white-collar men shows, more equal unions can be just as rewarding for men as the old-fashioned sort.When men live with women on more equal terms, they may grow closer to their children. Fathers may find they like being attentive, and it would certainly be good for their kids, especially the boys. As one man whose dad abandoned him lamented on Fathers’ Day in 2008:“[Fathers] are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it. But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing—missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

Source: Manhood | The Economist

Your Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather – Bloomberg Business

Leather has always been a byproduct of the meat industry, and as Americans’ beef consumption grew over the 20th century, the leather industry grew with it. The past three decades, though, have seen a decline of about 28 percent in Americans’ appetite for beef, and the supply of hides has dwindled accordingly. At the same time, drought in the Midwest has pushed up feed prices. The result is that America has fewer and more expensive cows. Meanwhile, the world’s consumers still want leather goods.

Source: Your Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather – Bloomberg Business

Self-Driving Trucks Could Soon Follow Route 83 from Canada, to the US, to Mexico – CraveOnline

Plans to introduce autonomous trucks that will carry cargo along Route 83 are underway, with vehicles such as the self-driving Inspiration Truck being included in a blueprint that will see vehicle corridors specifically designed for the autonomous fleet being introduced on the long stretch of road.

Source: Self-Driving Trucks Could Soon Follow Route 83 from Canada, to the US, to Mexico – CraveOnline

What If Everybody Didn’t Have to Work to Get Paid? – The Atlantic

Santens is 37 years old, and he’s a leader in the basic income movement—a worldwide network of thousands of advocates (26,000 on Reddit alone) who believe that governments should provide every citizen with a monthly stipend big enough to cover life’s basic necessities. The idea of a basic income has been around for decades, and it once drew support from leaders as different as Martin Luther King Jr. and Richard Nixon. But rather than waiting for governments to act, Santens has started crowdfunding his own basic income of $1,000 per month. He’s nearly halfway to his his goal.Santens, for his part, believes that job growth is no longer keeping pace with automation, and he sees a government-provided income as a viable remedy. “It’s not just a matter of needing basic income in the future; we need it now,” says Santens, who lives in New Orleans. “People don’t see it, but we are already seeing the effects all around us, in the jobs and pay we take, the hours we accept, the extremes inequality is reaching, and in the loss of consumer spending power.”

Source: What If Everybody Didn’t Have to Work to Get Paid? – The Atlantic