First sales from my Mexico trip

[Rebecca Ore]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Same here. The house we were renting had a very large tropical garden. The lawn used to go brown during the dry season and turn bright green again during the monsoon. It was hard to believe it wasn't dead. 

 

Depends on the species of grass, I suspect.  Zorzia in the US South always went brrown during the winter but greened up for summer.   Most plants here goes dormant during the dry season and green up when it starts to rain (tropical weather pattern).   If you've got a temperate year round rain species, probably would have to water it.   

 

Some people would paint zorzia (spelling?) during the winter to have a green lawn all year round.

[geogphotos]

Just now, Betty LaRue said:

Yes that worked with the Burmuda grass lawn we had in Oklahoma City. Very resilient. This lawn, already established when I bought the house, is fescue. If it dies, it is permanently dead. You either have to sod the whole lawn or plant seed only in autumn & apply water several times a day for it to germinate. All the homes in this neighborhood are fescue.

It uses less water to keep it alive than replanting or sodding that requires a lot of watering for it to take.  We’ve been lucky the past month & have gotten intermittent rain enough to keep it alive.

 

 

'Sod the lawn' I'm sure that phrase has passed my lips a few times 😀

[Betty LaRue]

Just now, geogphotos said:

 

'Sod the lawn' I'm sure that phrase has passed my lips a few times 😀

😂 I never have understood the use of “sod” & what it means, but have an idea it’s like “dam* the whatever.

[geogphotos]

33 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

😂 I never have understood the use of “sod” & what it means, but have an idea it’s like “dam* the whatever.

 

Yeah, that sort of thing Betty....but it really isn't offensive

 

sod something a swear word that many people find offensive, used when somebody is annoyed about something or to show that they do not care about something

• Sod this car! It's always breaking down.
• Oh, sod it! I'm not doing any more.
• We’re going on holiday and sod the expense.

Edited July 19, 2023 by geogphotos

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

On 17/07/2023 at 10:18, Rebecca Ore said:

not typical tourist photos.

some stock shooters are generalists,

consider themselves "subject shooters"

on a never-ending scavenger hunt...

travel is something they do to find

new subjects...

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

😂 I never have understood the use of “sod” & what it means, but have an idea it’s like “dam* the whatever.

Sod is a piece of grass with it's matted roots. We have it as zode now, but it used to be sode in Middle Dutch the language of The Netherlands in the Middle Ages. And you got it from us. Etymologically speaking.

We have onder de groene zoden (= under green sods) as a saying for dead and buried. It's a common metaphor: gras erover! = (put) grass over it! means the subject should not be an issue anymore; it should be and remain buried.

So my guess for sod it! is that it's bury it! And from there it gets used as a lesser swear word.

 

wim

[Rebecca Ore]

8 minutes ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

some stock shooters are generalists,

consider themselves "subject shooters"

on a never-ending scavenger hunt...

travel is something they do to find

new subjects...

 

I was in a Facebook group that was mostly Nicaraguan pro and semi-pro photographers.  They can get depth in their photos, especially portraits, that almost no foreign photographer gets.   I've read that most foreign writers in Mexico either write immediately on moving there, or don't write until they've lived there for ten years or so.  The first impressions are of the exotic, the different, what attracts tourists.  The Nicaraguan impressions of their country are just more complex.   I had some in the group like two of my photos -- one was of an out-of-focus horse and rider galloping down a street by parked cars.   The other was of a Russian glass teapot (two photos of that in my Alamy portfolio).   I have never licensed the exterior travel stuff, but have licensed two food shots, fish, plants.   I have licensed the deaf kids more than once.   I think I'm better off with things and fish and sod the location.

 

The typical expat novel is about other expats, with the colorful country as a backdrop and specimens of colorful natives dotted about.  It's taken me twelve years to think maybe I can write a novel set here with Nicaraguan characters.   And I simply might be too old.

 

When I photograph fish, cats, plants, or stuff, it rarely matters what country they're in.    But today, when I went for breakfast, I was called "chele," which is the term for "white/fair skinned person regardless of nationality.  A Nicaraguan can also be a chele.  We're in trouble when we're called Yankees, but gringo is pretty neutral except to fussy right-wing gringos.

 

US to Nicaragua is like Windows to Linux.  Basic human biology is the same, but the cultural operating system are different.  Windows doesn't fork, and doesn't encourage getting under the hood. 

 

There is obviously a market for pictures for tourism advertisement.   Maybe what tourists look for are Walmarts in these strange locations.   The mercados can be intimidating.  I send Luis to do my shopping there.

 

Managua had a big drag show recently.  A number of gringos were either amazed that this country could be jailing bishops and tolerating drag shows, or were horrified, or started whining about the gay plan to convert all the children.  Windows vs. Linux.   Linus controls the kernel; Ortega controls the police, but not the military quite as much.  I saw a soldier with his machine gun at port arms obviously flexing on the sloppy cops with their own machine guns dangling off their backs, both guarding money transfer from an armored truck.   Forks are possible.   Ortega gets trashed by the local anarchists for encouraging foreign investment.   Drag queens march in local patron saints day parades.  The campo doesn't use the Spanish word for "knee," but speaks a Spanish/Nahuatl creole that's socially a bit like speaking Black English in the US.   Outside, someone just yelled, "Vivo Sandino."  while behind my house, someone is using an electric saw or something in a house rehab.    This is Dia de la Revolucion, July 19th.   Again, "Vivo Sandino" from the street.

 

So, am I still a near blind Yankee, or do I see here in its contradictions and complexities well enough to do things worth the attention of Nicaraguans?   Shrug, sometimes, people just do things.  If your work has heart for you and Geogphoto's work has heart for him, then different but equally valid enough work.   There's a whole range of work I myself wouldn't want to do, but if humans all did the same thing, we'd all be either competing with each other or would be terminally bored. 

 

Now, I have to stop this and work on proofing my collection of short stories written when I was still back in the USA, when I was almost a different person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

5 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

They can get depth in their photos, especially portraits, that almost no foreign photographer gets.

Still, some will try their best...

these are my (431) images from (4) nights Managua, touristic & not;

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/(jgjg-Managua)-or-(jgjg-Granada-Nicaragua).html

brief encounters most cases but slices of life nevertheless;

that was 2009, hope I'm bit better now; my Spanish has doubled from 50 to 100 words;

processing not as good as currently;

managed to include rt day trip public bus Granada;

entering "Roberto? Market, bandido tried to snap $29US Casio calculator watch off me wrist;

Edited July 19, 2023 by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg

[Rebecca Ore]

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/jinotega-nicaragua.html?_gl=1*6ozrtw*_ga*MTc3ODUzMDM1LjE2NzY4MzQ5Mjk.*_ga_M5V9H9N7G8*MTY4OTgxMzI3NC40MDcuMS4xNjg5ODEzMjk3LjAuMC4w&qn=Rebecca Ore&sortBy=relevant

 

I have never gotten Granada.   I have a fair collection of Boaco and Leon photos, some Managua, and some San Raphael del Norte.   I've had a bus helper ask me where I was going in Managua, sort of like to warn me further or just look out for me, but I know enough Spanish to have reassured her that I knew the country some.

 

Some thieves ask for directions in Spanish.  If we answer back in Spanish, we're foreign residents and we will show up to testify at the trial.  Safe to rob tourists who'll flee the country rather than stay for the court date.   Some foreigners have killed or wounded would be burglars.  

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Sod is a piece of grass with it's matted roots. We have it as zode now, but it used to be sode in Middle Dutch the language of The Netherlands in the Middle Ages. And you got it from us. Etymologically speaking.

We have onder de groene zoden (= under green sods) as a saying for dead and buried. It's a common metaphor: gras erover! = (put) grass over it! means the subject should not be an issue anymore; it should be and remain buried.

So my guess for sod it! is that it's bury it! And from there it gets used as a lesser swear word.

 

wim

Good to know. Like you, sod here is dirt with grass on it in the way I used it..sodding lawns. We go to a place & buy sod that is grass cut below the roots rolled up in strips, which can be rolled out on a prepared lawn bed, then watered every day until it roots in. I figured sod it was a swear word of a sort.

[Betty LaRue]

9 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

Yeah, that sort of thing Betty....but it really isn't offensive

 

sod something a swear word that many people find offensive, used when somebody is annoyed about something or to show that they do not care about something

• Sod this car! It's always breaking down.
• Oh, sod it! I'm not doing any more.
• We’re going on holiday and sod the expense.

Very colorful, Ian! I like it!

[geogphotos]

18 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Very colorful, Ian! I like it!

 

18 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Very colorful, Ian! I like it!

 

 

There is also 'sod/f8ck that for a game of soldiers'....( and variants).

[Allan Bell]

On 19/07/2023 at 16:29, geogphotos said:

 

Yeah, that sort of thing Betty....but it really isn't offensive

 

sod something a swear word that many people find offensive, used when somebody is annoyed about something or to show that they do not care about something

• Sod this car! It's always breaking down.
• Oh, sod it! I'm not doing any more.
• We’re going on holiday and sod the expense.

 

Sorry your car is always breaking down.

 

To much image processing CAN get you down at times.

 

Enjoy your holiday.😃

 

Allan

 

[Michael Ventura]

I've heard the phrase that someone is "An old sod"

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

I've heard the phrase that someone is "An old sod"

Yeah, Michael, I’ve read that in novels, like “poor old sod”. Noun.