We were just having our morning coffee along Route 66 and in walks Buck. As if on cue. This shot with iphone the second I saw him. Buck is an ex cop, champ with a bull whip, and serious fast draw expert. After breakfast Buck tested my skills at fast draw. I hit the target with a 2 second draw and fire. I woulda been dead in a gunfight Buck said, yet I felt exhilerated by even hitting the target at all. I guess no surprise I got right into it. Seemed a bit like taking pictures actually. Piercing eye concentration and sort of capturing a moment kind of feeling. Pretty sure Panos will post the video. Killer on the road.
Another one of life’s amazing little coincidences.
I had just set down in Abby’s Home Cooking restaurant this morning and Emily had just poured my coffee when a cowboy walked through the door and I grabbed my camera and shot instantly. Admittedly, my cowboy isn’t carrying a gun, David’s picture is more interesting, but I don’t think my picture is too bad, either:
http://bit.ly/Q7XHZR
Some might think my “quick draw” reference is a copycat of David’s above, but no, if any such skeptics were to search back through enough of my blog entries, they would find a number of quick draw references when it comes to shooting photos on the spot.
Here in Texas, those of us packing probably aren’t wearing cowboy outfits! :)
My conceal carry weapons of choice: Pany LX3 and Charter .44 Bulldog pup.
http://www.tcbhost.net/bangbang.jpg
In “Zen Bow, Zen Arrow” a philosophy is put forward that when the archer releases his bowstring, he becomes the target. This has really cool implications in the field of photography and goes to the notion that “we shoot ourselves”.
Photographers who follow that approach may be wise not to carry firearms!
I will never understand the American fascination with guns. And the law of course.
Marcin, it’s a cultural thing here in the south. My dad gave me my first rifle, and taught me to safely shoot it, when I was seven years old. Took me hunting all through the woods of East Texas for years. Not unusual at all down here.
MARCIN
i am not a gun guy…and i vote for tough gun legislation…i vote for the party that is anti gun…however, please do not consider it an American “fascination” as if somehow we just love guns more than anyone else as some kind of twisted mentality ….guns are a piece of our history of independence and many,most likely like Jim Powers, consider it part of the basic rights of freedom of the country…for me the War of Independence was a long time ago…i don’t see the British as the enemy…and yet i support the rights of those who disagree with me…ironically those rights gained by an armed citizenry…so it is complicated…and an interpretation of the Constitution….not my interpretation, yet half the country believes it..and most of them either believe in self defense, a protection against a potentially theoretically tyrannical government, and well mostly just to hunt deer..i see it differently, agree with you, yet it is helpful to look at the reasons why and how it is like it is..
It we could absolutely trust the government to always have the best interests of its citizens at heart, then I might agree with you about that, David. But historically the first thing oppressive governments do is disarm their populace.
Realistically, of course, the government still has far more firepower than the citizens, and would easily win any direct conflict with them. But there is a principle there that is important to many.
JIM, DAVID,
I know and understand how and why and of course I don’t generalizes and judge yet, many “cultural things” looks different from distance, from outside. It is like female circumcision in Africa, Islamic law against adultery, ect. It have nothing to do with respect to other attitudes and life style. Just critical observation.
I hope that me and my lifestyle is also seen as critical.
Marcin, historically it stems from Americans not wanting to have endless wars like our European forefathers. The thought was that it was better for people to have guns (albeit through militias) than governments, hence no standing army. That, plus hunting was a necessity in a frontier society. It worked not well, but relatively okay through World War II, but now, alas, we have become our parents. .
As for these times, I think it’s more to do with an ultra-right wing sociopathic arms industry spending massive amounts of money to scare people for profit and power. I, too, grew up hunting. My grandfather was an avid hunter, gun collector and NRA member. Of course that was back when the NRA was an organization for hunters, before it went all out fascist. I still go shooting on occasion. Last year I gave my son my old .22 and took him out to the country and taught him to shoot cans. It’s a worthy tradition and hunting is mostly a good thing as anyone in a deer infested land can tell you. But the killer cowboy wannabees and semi-retarded cowards who probably make up 99 percent of those who actually get permits and carry pistols are a different matter altogether. One can protect one’s home just fine with a shotgun or rifle. And even for home protection, for the great majority of those not involved in crime, owning guns is much more dangerous than not and carrying one is simply ridiculous. The odds of some stranger shooting an unarmed person is minimal outside a few small neighborhoods in our larger cities. It’s far, far more likely the gun owner or his kid will use it to shoot himself.
So as to what the American founders intended – non-intervention abroad and freedom to hunt at home – the arms industries have turned it into a lose-lose situation.
Cowboy… reminds me of my fav TV series when I was a kid, The Texan…
“But there is a principle there that is important to many.”
Not so much “principle” as it is deep insecurities and irrational fears.
i vote for the party that is anti gun…
You vote Green? Glad to hear somebody does.
This photo of Buck shows me that David out drew him. Buck didn’t even get the gun out of the holster.
DAH weapon of choice… the camera.
Name change to QDH… Quick Draw Harvey rides again.
Seems to me, them gun-totin’ fellers and gals haven’t figured out that the here and now confronts us with problems much less tangible and way more serious than a herd of deer or the feds attacking your land. To name just a few:
1. Emissions and global climate change
2. Nuclear threat(s) and pollution
3. Political deception and money influencing
4. Religious extremism
5. Racism and tribalism
Show me how toting guns can contribute to solving these MAJOR issues, and I will consider it.
“You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Orson Welles, The Third Man.
And why is that? Because the Swiss are armed to the teeth. You can get away with warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed when you know that no one without their own army is going to stop you. On the other hand, if the people you want to terrify will respond to your attempts at terrifying them by putting a bullet in your gizzard then you will have to step more carefully in dealing with them, won’t you? There’s nothing like a sucking chest wound to remind a would-be oppressor that maybe they should have chosen another line of work.
AKAKY,
I love the inspiring image of you walking tall, sauntering down the sidewalk in your quiet little Hudson Valley town, and nonchalantly blowing away the smoke from your right hand index finger as the pavement stretching out behind you is littered with the bodies of ‘would-be oppressors’– your section supervisor, your brother-in-law, Democratic voters, and anybody who just might happen to support Big Government or FEMA– all collapsed in death-throe agony with sucking chest wounds. Bring up the volume on the “Marlboro Man” theme… That’ll teach ’em!
Sidney, it’s a beautiful thing to contemplate.
So, you’re saying this portrait ISN’T Jim
I was so sure :)
Should piss off many :)
http://kennethjarecke.typepad.com/mostly_true/2012/10/instagram-the-devil-and-you.html
In so many parts of my state, people literally live by their guns. Hunting is not a sport, it is a way of life, done throughout the year and the source of as much as 80 percent of the protein put on the table – especially among the indigenous population.
Akaky, thank you for making my point better than I could.
Frostfrog,
Hunting seems a legitimate and separate matter, to me, at least.
Metaphorically Jim’s captured what others have failed http://www.tcbhost.net/bangbang.jpg
Gerhard,
On face value, I agree 100 percent – but when you get into legislating gun control laws, especially on the national level, then the boundaries are not always so clear cut. Nobody needs the kind of guns that have been used in the recent mass murders to go hunting and it seems like the law ought to be able to differentiate, but in practice I think it can be pretty tricky.
MARK TOMALTY
laughed out loud at your comment
MARCIN
oh i understand you 100%….yet after traveling the world most of my life, and steeping in a wide variety of cultures i cannot help but not draw a hard line on many cultural differences….there are always good reasons why people believe what they do…well, at least reasons…most folks pick up a philosophy about something when they are children…rarely change after that on most cultural phenomena…some do, most don’t….not making excuses for gun toting Americans with whom i disagree, but just know that i am unlikely to change their minds…or yours.
hey i am just a hard core anti war hippie without hair….
peace, power to the people, david