Blog Archives - Bobbi Rubinstein Photography ... culture through her lens

Silvester - New Year's Eve

12/31/2012

New Year's Eve near Freiburg, Germany

I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system.

Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover.

I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.

~ Helen Fielding, ‘Bridget Jones's Diary’

Rough Beauty

12/27/2012

Heidelberg, Germany

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.
~ David Bailey

The Christmas Song

12/25/2012

Alsace, France

The Christmas Song
(Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos
Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight

They know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh
And every mother's child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly

So I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you

So I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to you
~ Mel Tormé and Robert Wells

Looking Up

12/21/2012

The Getty, Los Angeles, California

The brain is wider than the sky.

~ Emily Dickinson

The Corner

12/19/2012

Hammer Museum Exterior, Westwood, California

To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage.
~ Georgia O'Keefe

I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles

12/17/2012

Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice, California

Paris is always a good idea.
~ Audrey Hepburn
"Sabrina"

Horror and Shame

12/14/2012

Los Angeles, California

I was going to officially launch my site today, sending emails to family, friends and colleagues, asking them to scroll through my photo and quote pairings.

When I heard about the elementary school shooting in Connecticut, where the school death toll is 20 children and 6 adults, I didn't see how I could even post. I’m sick at heart and no cleverly captured animals or women’s basketball players matter in the face of such grief.

But I reconsidered. Perhaps this is the day to talk about gun control. If you've clicked on the site to see what I've been up to, squirreled away in my office, let’s ask the questions:

When will this stop? Why do we need military weapons in civilian use? When will our legislators grow a pair big enough to take on the NRA?

The shooter went into a kindergarten class. Should the teacher have been carrying a gun to protect her/his class as some pro-gun advocates have offered? I heard a statistic today that the number of people killed by guns every year in the US is like one jumbo jet going down each week.

All day I thought about my daughters, now in their 20's, and the mornings I dropped them off at the elementary school up the street. The principal stood outside at the flagpole, greeting each student as they jumped out of cars and SUV's, carrying their backpacks. I just can't imagine how a parent whose five year old was slaughtered can go on.

So I've described the horror. The shame is what I hope all those who say 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' feel when they look into the face of their own children tonight at the dinner table.

December 12th, 2012

12/12/2012

Lion Country Safari, Florida

After the Wizard of Oz
I was typecast as a lion, and there aren't all that many parts for lions.
~ Bert Lahr

A Moment

12/10/2012

The Getty, Los Angeles, California

The past is always tense,
the future perfect.
~ Zadie Smith

The Chat

12/7/2012

Santa Ynez Valley, California

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

~ CS Lewis