“Gospel’s Power Of Prayer”

United States
Ohio
Cleveland
House of Blues
Gospel Brunch
Through Harold’s Lens:
Sony A7s, Zeiss 35mm
1/250 Sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000

“Magic Of The Double Bass”

United States
New York City
Greenwich Village
Peter Turnley “Street Photography” Workshop
Through Harold’s Lens

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“Weather Report”

United States
Martha’s Vineyard
Through Harold’s Lens:

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6:03am
My old cracked weather radio
Squawked again with static.

“Winds 14
North by Northwest
Sky cloudy
Temperature dropping
42 by 10am.

Incoming tide
Cold day fishermen
Frenzies going on
Blues & Stripers biting
Tight lines”.

Rusty, my old Jeep
Rumbled through curves
Past Vineyard Haven Harbor
Lonely boats and masts
Rocking to the rhythm of the water.

Blue smoke
Trailing Rusty’s rear pipe
Oil again.
The hell with it.

Tackle box . Rattling
Stinky cooler live slimy eels. Secure
Rod . Snug in dirty rags
Reel . Oiled skin smooth
Line. New 20 lb test.

Another cold morning
With my best buddy Jim
On the water
In his rigged fishing boat.

Bloddy Marys at 9
Jokes, puns, laughs.

Cries echo over water
“Fish on”.

From Harold’s Photographic Series on Martha’s Vineyard: “Intimacy of Island Life”

“Jazzin”

Mexico
San Miguel de Allende
Through Harold’s Lens:
Nikon D800E, 55mm
1/15, f/16, ISO 200
Sculpture by Rita Green

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Martha’s Vineyard. “Lost In The Rhythm Of The Sea”

United States
Martha’s Vineyard
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Cozy & bundled
Nestled in arms
In loved-worn sweaters
Over tattered college sweats.

She with Chardonnay
Me with Merlot.

Rhythm of the sea

Buns nestled
In warm mounds of sand.

Heads nestled
In suntanned shoulders.

Toes nestled
In loose grains of gold.

Rhythm of the sea

We had danced
To pounding surf.

We had kissed
To splashing waves.

We had loved
To glows of orange and red.

Rhythm of the sea

Warm love between us
Deep love growing
Memories of a tender island summer
Moments of a chilly early fall.

Rhythm of the sea

All is quiet now
Only sounds of surf
Only stars in skies
Only moon beams crossing waves.

Rhythm of the sea

She off to Wellesley
Me off to Stanford
2500 miles of dirt
Hearts sagging
Tears rolling.

Rhythm of the sea

Grapes gone
Sunset black
Sleep.

Rhythm of the sea

From Harold’s Photographic Series on Martha’s Vineyard: “Intimacy of Island Life”

“Old Rugged Cross”

Mexico
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Shuffle
Shuffle
Shuffle.

Shuttle
Shuffle
Shuffle.

Shuffle
Shuffle
Shuffle.

Rusty nails
Crippling pain
Holy tears.

The Father
The Son
The Holy Spirit.

 

“Help From On High”

Mexico
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Ave Maria. Schubert Opera:

Atop
Touching our Lord
Draped in cascading folds of gold
The Immaculate Conception.

Nestled below
Silently in prayer
Whispers of peace
Whispers of help
Whispers for our poor.

Draped in flowing folds of white
Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

Wrinkled old man
Rags of threads
Rags of holes
Shuffles slowly
Cobblestones.

Soft knock
Rugged mesquite door
Rusted hinge creaks
Angelic face
Peers
From within.

Humbled old man
Twisted
Gnarled hands
Paints cross on chest
Head bows.

Aging hands of love
Quietly pass nourishment.

Whispers
Of love
Of comfort

Old old
Our sick
Our poor
Our lonely.

Amen

Chile. “Where Spirits Soar”

Chile
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Bottom of our world
Where ice mountains drift
Where winds of ice blow
Where giant condors soar.

The melodic beauty
The haunting sounds
The lone pan flute
Flowed.

Across the Andes Mountain Range
Around thick, wood forest
Around dark, bark trees
Around green, pine needles.

Drawing me
Luring me
Sucking me in
Capturing me.

My first view

Long black flowing hair
Strong fighting face
Distant stare
Spiritual leader?

What was happening here?

The Great Spirit?
Deep religious rite?
Communication with ancestors, Gods?
Fireballs, comets, shooting stars?

Cultural worship?
Harmonious earthly elements?
Wind, rain, mountains, springs
Animals, birds, trees, plants
Full moon.

Ritual love affair?
Language of the land?
Traditional. Native
Beauty, love
Honor, virtue.

Slowly
Silently
I nestled in
Soft pine needles.

Listening
Swaying
Emotionally bathing.

The beauty of our world.

“Horrific”

Cambodia
Through Harold’s Lens:
1975-79

WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT!

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Pol Pot Regime
Khmer Rouge
Terror
Killing fields
3,000,000 people slaughtered!

Society
Confiscated: private property
Burned: homes to the ground
Banned: family relationships
Separated: children from parents
Relocated: different parts of Cambodia
Relocated: collective farms, forced labor
Banned: personal utensils
Eliminated: privacy, sexual relations
Death: family members communicating
Banned: religion, Buddhist temples destroyed
Murdered: 60,000 monks
Abolished: freedom to travel
Abolished: postal service, telephone service
Closed: hospitals, factories
Closed: schools, books burned
Closed: banks, money burned
Destroyed: bank records, claims to funds
Isolated: Cambodia from foreign countries.

Family
Grandmother, Grandfather
Mother, Father
Daughter, Son
Infant.

Long marches: days through countryside
Died: children, elderly, sick
Work: 12 hours non-stop, no rest, no food,
no medicine, no medical services
Death: disease, illness
Death: exhaustion, overwork
Death: starvation
Murdered: offenders
Murdered: intellectuals, city-dwellers
Murdered: teachers, minorities
Murdered: merchants, suspected traitors
Murdered: practicing religion
Raped: females
Torture: children taught methods with animals
Torture: children carried out torture, executions.

Torture
Mass graves: 20,000, 1,386,734 victims
Torture centre: 16,000 sent to death
Secret prison: S-21.14,000 prisoners, 12 survived
Small cells: shackled to walls & concrete floor
Large cells: collectively shackled to long iron bars
Food: human feces
Water: human urine
Torture: sliced with knives
Torture: electric shocks, searing hot metal
Torture: suffocation in plastic bags
Torture: fingernails pulled out, alcohol poured on wounds
Torture: alive, bled to death
Torture: alive, sliced open, organs removed, no anesthetic
Torture: alive, skinned
Torture: heads held under water
Execution: pickaxes, spades, sharpened bamboo sticks, machetes
Execution: heads of children, infants bashed against trees.

30 years later
Widows: tens of thousands
Orphans: tens of thousands
Living: severe traumatization

Pol Pot Regime
Khmer Rouge
Terror
Killing fields
3,000,000 people slaughtered!

May our world never forget this horrific event.

Documentation Center of Cambodia

Talented Photographer Olivia Visits Through Harold’s Lens.

Mexico
Olivia Nye Robbins

December 2013, 11-year old Olivia travelled, with her mother Courtney, to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a week of exploring.
The images Olivia captured, of the life and flavor of this UNESCO World Heritage site, are simply amazing for someone so young.
Camera: SLR Nikon D300s
Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 50mm 1:1.4 G lens.
Tripod: No.

Shooting: Manual.RAW mode
With her eye looking through the Nikon viewfinder, without looking at the dials, Olivia adjusted her camera’s shutter speed, f-stop, ISO and depth-of-field.

Post Processing: Adobe Lightroom 5, MacBook Air computer
Music: Macklemore, her favorite celebrity/musical artist

I hope you enjoy Olivia’s photography as much as I do!

“Dear Daddy.” Alcoholic: The Dark Side.

Your Town
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Daddy
Is it cold down there?

Are you asleep?
Can you breath?

It’s very quiet here.

A man just threw dirt
On top of your box.

Mommy says
It’s a coffin.

A man in a black suit
With a white collar
Has a black book
Open

He’s reading strange words
In an creepy language.

Mommy says
It’s Latin.

A man with a weird horn
Is squeezing a big bag
He’s playing music.

Mommy says
It’s Amazing Grace.

Everybody is
Crying
Hugging
Holding hands
Leaning on each other.

Other Mommies
Are whispering.

They are saying
You
Drank yourself death.

Other Daddies
Are talking.

They are saying
You were
A drunk.

Why Daddy?
Please help me Daddy
I love you Daddy!

Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Hello
Alcoholics Anonymous.
May I help you?”

“May name is Jason.
I’m an alcoholic.”

Sweden. “Shaken! Not Stirred”

Sweden
Through Harold’s Lens:

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She marched into my face
Beautiful
Glamorous
Sophisticated
Assertive.

Was I Bond?
James Bond!
007!
Vulnerable?
A tryst?

Scared the hell out of Mr. SLR Nikon
Bond bold
Secure
Sexy.

Bond sex partner?
Bond ally?
Bond enemy?
Bond eye candy?

A strategy!
Q. A new gadget!
Where’s my Aston Martin D85?
I’m Sean, Roger, Timothy, Pierce,
and Daniel.

I’m in A View to a Kill
For Your Eyes Only
A true GoldenEye
A Diamond Forever
Live and Let Die
Nobody Does It Better.

“OK Harold”, says Rita
“Back to reality.”

Fun!
You Only Live Twice.

 

“Life Destroyed”

Poland
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Inside a chamber of horrors
The little girl shrieked
“Mommmmmmmmmmmmy?”
“Daddddddddddddy?”
Where are you?

Wave after wave
Luftwaffe bombers
Rains of bombs
Blasts!!! Blasts!!! Blasts!!!
Tons of concrete crashed on tons of concrete
Explosions, fires
Historic buildings destroyed.

Screams!
“Grandpa?”
“Grandma?”
“Help me! I’m all alone”
Fear had dug talons deep.

Tanks crushed fresh bodies
Men, women children
Deboning corpses
Bits of bone everywhere.

Thirty degrees
Hair frozen
Covered in blood
Severe pain
Shredded pink dress
Horrific.

The day the world went to war
Hitler, Nazi claw
Storm troopers, SS, Secret police
Terror, tears executions
Concentration camps
The planet was never the same.

Cookies, Christmas
Hugs love, friends
Mommies, Daddies, little children
All gone.

Gdansk
September 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland
World War II begins
Five years
Five million humans dead.

A woman’s memory
Could never be a little girl again
Life ripped from her soul
Macabre memories.

“Mommmmmmmmmmmmy?”

“Her Prince”

Russia
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Below the frigid, icy Arctic
Six hundred miles.

Warm golden summer evening unfolding

Prancing hooves
Weaving through one thousand acres
Manicured gardens
Flowers in full bloom
Colorful, gay.

Stallions pulling proudly
Glimmering black Royal Coach
Top hat driver snapping leather reins.

Grand entrance

Royal Palace
One thousand feet long
Lavish
Flamboyant
Russian Baroque

Catherine Palace
Empress Catherine II
Catherine the Great.

Handsome Prince
Pink-laced Princess.

Hooves halt
Kissing her soft, snow-white hand
Escorting Swan off Royal Coach.

Moving musical score
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet.

Prince lifts Princess
Into deep blue sky

Grace
Precision
Classical Russian Ballet evolving
Expressive
Flowing
Body patterns revealing deep romance.

Pure of heart
Love pledged
White Knight.

“Five Senses”

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France
Through Harold lens:

Early dawn
Soft fog kissing Left Bank
Strolling narrow winding lane
Door to coffee roaster shop
Open.

Sense one kicks in

Rich coffee aroma waffs calm air
Light dew rests on tiny round table
My friend SLR Nikon takes chair two
“Bonjour!”. “Café?”, the white aproned waiter says
“Oui, s’il vous plaît. Dark French Roast
”
More caffeine than shot of expresso.

Sense two kicks in


Grrrrrrr. Grrrrrrr. Grrrrrrr.
Bouncing coffee beans
Coarse.

Sense three kicks in

Deep, brown, grounds steep in hot water
French press.
Atop silver tray
Atop raised L-shaped arm
“Merci”, I smile.

Sense four kicks in

Mesh plunger plunges
Steam & hot coffee pour
Paisley cup.

Sense five kicks in

Tongue twitches
Heavy full body flows across lips
Intense. Distinct. Bold. Smoky. Smooth.
Romantically rich, full feeling lingers on my palate.

First morning cup
Dear friend.

Delectable!

“Maiden Mild”

Poland
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Chill went up my spine
Spiritual uplifting notes
Muffled Mephistos stilled
Eyes teared
Inspiring notes.

Cello of passion
Whispering
Riveting.
Intense
Timeless aria.

Turned
Across lonely road
Shade
Large leafy oak.

Brazilwood bow
Brushed slowly
Across strings.

Snow-white feather fingers
Glided slowly
Along neck.

Eyes caressed her cheeks
Her heart
Her soul
Dreaming
Calm
Peaceful
Lithe body swaying.

My tears flowed
Nikon rose to eye
Fog through rivulets.

Push. Click. Push. Click. Push Click.

Greatest hymn ever written

Comfort
Silence
Her eyes glided open.

I whispered “thank you”
English.
She whispered “thank you”
Polish.

May you find an expression of love, calm and spiritual dimension
listening to the music from my morning.

“I Had To Change”

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Argentina
Through Harold’s Lens:

As Eva says, “It won’t be easy”.

Our dance through this Latin culture has come to an end.

But, discovery of more of our vast, rich world continues.

I hope you have enjoyed our jaunt into the fun, quirky, magical South American city of Buenos Aires.

Dancing shoes… high heel sneakers… splashes of color… deep passion… cold beer… dancing the tango.

We met many characters in a play called “Life”.

You experienced and met up close and personal:

Wild artists.… Sexy scents of women.… Hot Latin men with hip-hugging tango passions… Lush women who embrace.… Walls that talk.… Mad wives. … Slinky models molded with curves.… Hustling salesmen.… Freezing old Gauchos.… Wives that give permission.… Testosterone laden polo players.… Beautiful strolling women.… Nudes wrapped in the woods.… Personal notes to men. … Rowdy raucous football fans.… Terrors in the night.… Stunning women who go incognito.… Dramatic deaths on the big stage.… A talking Nikon camera.… Love and passion on the tango dance floor.

Did you join Through Harold’s Lens’ caravan in mid journey?

See what you missed. Fun. A bit lusty. Perky. Wild. Weird.

Through Harold’s Lens is packing his gear bag.

Time for another country. Another culture.

Thank you for all of your “Likes”, your “Comments”, our tete-a-tete and your enjoyment of what I am trying to do.

“I love you, and hope you love me”

“Lovers”

Argentina
Through Harold’s Lens:

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Opera La Boheme. Act 4. Finale.

Rodolfo-
Oh Mimi will you never return
Oh, beautiful days, tiny hands
the fragrance of your tresses…
…your snow white neck!

Mimi-(With great passion)
Rodolfo!

Rodolfo-(Carefully, helping Mimi onto a bed)
Hush now, rest.

Mimi-(Holding Rodolfo in her arms)
Oh, my Rodolfo!
May I stay here with you?

Rodolfo-
Ah! my dearest Mimi,
always, always!
(Gently Rodolfo persuades Mimi to lie down on the bed and covers her with a blanket Then with great care slips a pillow under Mimi’s head)

Rodolfo-
Heavenly lips,
still you speak to me!

Mimi-
It’s just a little cough!
I’m used to it.

Rodolfo-
Rest now.

Mimi-
You won’t leave me?

Rodolfo-
No! No!

Mimi-
(Mimi open her eyes, stretches her hand out towards Rodolfo, then kisses him lovingly. Mimi puts her arms around Rodolfo’s neck)
Your are my entire life, you are my love.

Rodolfo-
Ah, Mimi,
my beautiful Mimi!

Mimi-
(She lets herself fall into his arms)
Do you still find me beautiful?

Rodolfo-
As lovely as the dawn.

Mimi-
(Mimi has a sudden spasm of coughing, she falls back with exhaustion)

Rodolfo-
(Alarmed, Rodolfo gently supports Mimi)
Oh God! Mimi!
(Rodolfo carefully lays Mimi down on the pillow)

Mimi-
I’m here… my love… always with you!
My hands… in the warm… and… to sleep
Silence…………….

Rodolfo-
(Rodolfo dashes to Mimi’s bedside, scoops her up in his arms crying out in extreme desperation)
(weeping)
Mimì!… Mimì!..

THE END

Puccini’s Italian opera La Boheme is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world.

As I quietly strolled La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, I was reminded of the sad, passionate finale of the two lovers Rodolfo and Mimi. And, my tear-filled evening at the New York City Opera watching my Tenor Nephew Barton Green play the lead role of Rodolfo.