Wal-Mart: A Parallel Universe

Parallel Universe

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Okay, blogger refuses to link the button today or anything ELSE now ... sigh
http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2011/07/thematic-photographic-153-parallel.html

Some of you are aware that I abhor Wal-Mart from my comments at your blogs, but I don't think I've ever talked about it here on mine.  I don't talk much about politics here either.  I can't stand either one, but I do have my fair share (some would say even more than my share) of experience with, and opinions on both.  My attention, in many cases unwillingly,  is often focused in either or both of those directions. 

I see Wal-Mart as the Evil Empire.  The one that gives a face to my Corporate Hate (an honor it shares with Exxon Mobile).  I believe that at the root of all that is wrong with our country, and possibly the world, is just plain and simple GREED.  Corporations are the biggest manifestation of this IMO. 

Apart from that collective feeling, I despise Wal-Mart as an individual entity too.  I don't like the way they do business.  I don't like the way they treat their employees.  I don't like their discriminating policies.  I don't like that they think they are above the law.  I don't like that courts seem to agree with them.  I don't like their cheap ass low quality merchandise.  And I don't like to be among the unwashed masses that shop there. 

And I don't care if that sounds snobby and elitist.  Have you been there?  Then you KNOW what I'm talking about.  I get dragged in there fairly regularly ... with those members of my family and friends who do not share my disregard.  Look around any Wal-Mart for a few minutes and you will know just how we ended up with that idiot cowboy in the White House for two terms.  And yes you CAN tell just by looking.  Ever seen one of those People of Wal-Mart videos?  If not, The Empress posted one recently here that you can view, but fair warning ... what is seen cannot be unseen.  When people do not even know how dress themselves properly what can you expect?

Anyways, Tattoo (the nephew) needed a ride to Wal-Mart today and I was the lucky chauffeur.  I brought my camera with me  remembering that The Empress had dared encouraged me to take some pictures of my own at Wal-Mart.  I hadn't decided yet if I would, but I brought my camera just in case I decided in favor.  I dropped Tattoo off at the door, then went to find a parking space.

Our theme this week is Parallel.  Just before I had talked to Tattoo I had been searching through my archives, looking for something to post, and not finding much I was happy with.  You see, we've done this theme before and I had already posted all of my best work on this subject then.  So this was rattling around inside my brain while I was parking the car.  Turning off the ignition  I was looking toward the entrance, wondering if I should go in or just wait outside when I noticed the shopping carts (top photo)  ... with all of those parallel lines.

Thinking to myself, You know,  there's only been the one time I did a theme "to order".  What if ... ? ... an abstract maybe ... and I found myself removing the lens cap and getting out of the car.  Before I'd gotten all the way out of the door however, the grille on the truck directly in front of me caught my eye, like ... yeah, speaking of parallels ... so of course I snapped it.  I had bent over and gotten very close  to the grille while I was shooting, and hadn't noticed that random weird guy the next row over who was watching and laughing at me. 

When I straightened and saw him he just shook his head, still chuckling.  I grinned and said, "Um, I have an assignment ... parallels ... and the grille, it had lots of them" LOL.  You'd think I'd get used to people looking at me strange over the things I photograph, but no, sometimes I still feel the need to explain ;)  He got in his car and left while I mosied over to shoot the shopping carts, but while I was looking at him I noticed something else.

The Night has a Thousand Eyes

He was parked next to a truck that had one of those cabs made out of what looks kinda like quilted steel.  So after trying a couple of different perspectives on the shopping carts I shot one of that and then wandered over that way for a closer view.

Getting back to my car my eyes swept the parking lot ... everywhere I looked I saw more parallels.  

I didn't even need to look very far.  I looked down and noticed my own headlight.  Can you imagine the fun I would have had if I'd had a camera like this in the 70's?



So Empress, I did get around to taking pictures at  Wal-Mart, but I never got farther than the parking lot ... and I forgot all about the people.  And I think that's probably a good thing LOL.

Decisions, Decisions

Carmi's gone and done it again.  He picked an unusual theme, and my first reaction when I saw the theme was Parallel was "I have one of those" because I like to dabble in abstract occasionally.  Then I clicked on the link to Written Ink and saw the photo he opened with ... mine could be its sister.  So I couldn't just enter that, it wouldn't be cool.

Now granted I could ... it's not like there's a rule about it, but I'm a bit off beat to start with and I kinda like traveling to the beat of a different drum.  But I was thinking, this could be tough, other than a couple obvious things not a lot came to mind ... to start with.  But as my Magic Man always used to tell me "You have to look at it sideways" and the more I thought about it, the more things I came up with ... and I couldn't pick 'just one'.

Thematic Photographic 117 at Written Ink    Click the link to see more examples of Parallel


Bright Eye   St. Augustine, Florida

This is perhaps my most unique take on this theme.  It is inside a lighthouse looking out.  It was quite the heady feeling to be seeing all those parallel perspectives simultaneously.  So this will be my entry, however I have runners up too :)


Golden Ear

Technically this isn't one of my best, but it's fun.  This was one of my very first experiments with selective color when I was learning how to edit photos.  The rows upon rows of kernels argued they best represented the theme.  Mother Nature presents us with different types of parallels also ...


 Umbrella


Canopy

And yes, now that I've shown that I CAN think for myself I'll show you the abstract too ;)


DiagonAlly

Thanks Carmi, I had fun with this.