John Profumo: A study in redemption

I came across this article a few days ago in Jewish World Review. In it, Paul Greenberg muses about the meaning of honor, and how our concept of it has become changed and distorted over the years. To make his point, he discusses at some length the story of John Profumo, a member of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's cabinet who, in 1963, was the focal point of a sex scandal which eventually brought down Macmillan's government. I have known about the Profumo scandal for many years -- and parenthetically, it came as no surprise to me to learn a few years ago that President John F. Kennedy was fascinated by it; but until I read Greenberg's column, I didn't know what happened to Mr. Profumo himself after the scandal faded away and became a historical footnote of the Cold War era. Here, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story. I believe there is a valuable lesson here for all of us.

Hellcat at dusk

Hellcat at dusk
Originally uploaded by gwilmore.

I took this picture yesterday at an air show in Goodyear, Arizona. The plane is a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, which was used extensively in the Pacific. I was walking past it when the effect of the fading sunlight on the plane's cockpit caught my eye, so I hung around for perhaps 20 minutes and took several pictures of it. This image combines three of my big interests: sunsets, aviation, and history -- all of them intersecting here with photography, of course.

Saguaro Lake sunset

Saguaro Lake sunset
Originally uploaded by gwilmore.

About a week ago I visited Saguaro Lake, accompanied by Vanessa and one of her friends. On the way home I stopped for about 20 minutes to capture this sunset, which I consider one of my all-time best, and which has drawn a good deal of attention on Flickr. I'm putting it here so visitors to my blog can enjoy it, too.

Happy birthday, Jenny!

Happy birthday, Jenny!
Originally uploaded by gwilmore.

My photo of tonight's sunset, which I dedicated to my niece Jenny because it happens to have been taken on her 28th birthday. I literally had about a 30-second window of opportunity to capture this image, the result of which effectively made my whole day. And I hope her seeing it helps to make Jenny's as well.

New permanent link

For the first time in a good while, I have today added a new permanent link to this blog. The new link is to the online edition of Arizona Highways magazine, which is always such a feast for the eye as well as the spirit. I enjoy Arizona enough to want to share it with the people who are important to me, and there is no better way to do so than through this magazine -- unless, of course, you come to pay me a visit, in which case I will try to help you see some of this beautiful state in person.

Harvest moon

Harvest moon 2
Originally uploaded by gwilmore.

This is one of three images of last night's harvest moon, taken by me and later posted on Flickr. All three are the same, identical exposure, for which I used my camera's bracketing feature in order to have three different white-balance settings. Of the three, I liked this one best. Each of the images contains a link to at least one of the others, so check out all of them, if you wish. Comments are invited.

Several weeks ago, by the way, I posted another moon photo, which, while not nearly as good as this one, elicited a good deal of interest. I think people liked the story accompanying the photo more than they did the picture itself. I titled it "Alan Shepard's favorite golf course," and related the famous incident during the 1971 Apollo 14 flight, when Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon, in front of a live television audience, and exclaimed that it went "miles and miles and miles." When my son was about 5 years old, I let him look at the moon through my binoculars and told him that story, whereupon he became quite excited and asked if we could see the golf ball with those binoculars. I said no, but had a good chuckle over his question.

An invitation: Come visit Convivio!

My other blog, Convivio, is only rarely visited, although I believe it is better than this one in many respects. For one thing, since it is all about photographs, it is more pleasing to the eye. In addition, it showcases the work of others, and none of my own photos ever appear on that site. My own comments about the images tend to be very brief, unlike some of the lengthy and introspective musings I post here.

I set up Convivio about 18 months ago, not really knowing what I intended to do with it, and it was only around last Christmas that I decided to devote it to photography -- and more specifically, to images which, in my view, make up the cream of the Flickr crop. I believe now, as I did then, that something this wonderful simply cries out to be shared with others. Come see for yourself, and leave any comments you wish to make. And after you check it out, I hope you will come back again and again.