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500px, Photography, Research

Selma to Montgomery March Marker

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Photograph Selma to Montgomery March Marker by Matthew Cook on 500px

Selma to Montgomery March Marker by Matthew Cook on 500px

I’m a little late in posting this picture in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. This marker sits outside the state capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama.
I took this photo while conducting fieldwork for my dissertation research, which looks at, among other things, the memorial marker landscape commemorating Slavery, Emancipation, and the Civil Rights Movement in the “Deep South.”

For those with screen readers or who otherwise cannot read the text of the marker, the text reads:
“The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March
Led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ended at the foot of the capitol steps
On March 25, 1965
Here Dr. King addressed 25,000 people

‘I believe this march will go down as one of the greatest struggles for freedom and dignity in the nation’s history.’
—Martin Luther King, Jr.”

500px, Photography, Travel

Friday Photo: Matt-fjords-crazy and a story of filenames

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Matt-fjords-crazy

I named the file for this photo Matt-fjords-crazy.jpg. There’s quite a logic to it, despite what you may think. First, I keep a separate collection of photos with me in them on my computer under the Pictures folder. I started doing this after I realized how annoying it was to have to search through all of my photos (which are organized chronologically by year in folders, then sub-folders for each day that I took photos with my Nikon D90 and imported them into Adobe Lightroom…it’s a great system, just occasionally over organized!) anytime I needed to quicklyfind a photo for an online bio, profile pic, or avatar.

All the photos are named “Matt-whatever-whatever” so I can quickly remember where the photo was taken and whether or not the photo is professional quality or not. Compare the above (Matt-fjords-crazy) with below (Matt-Staten-Island-Ferry), which, although my face is partly covered by a camera is nonetheless a more serious photograph.

Matt-Staten-Island-Ferry
A photo of Matt on the Staten Island Ferry as he photographs the Statue of Liberty. Photo by Karen Cook. How many more times can I squeeze the word photo into this caption?

Anyway, the “crazy” part of the file should be self explanatory. The “fjords” part comes from the location where this was shot: on a hike from Myrdal down to Flåm (Norway) or a part of the 2012 Norway fieldwork that I collectively remember as “the fjords trip.” How catchy. Anyway, I taught on Norway and the Nordic countries today in Geography 101, so in honor of that, I give you Matt-fjords-crazy.

Speaking of photos, I’ve been doing a better job lately of regularly uploading a photo (on average, one a day — OMGOSH!) to my preferred photography sharing site, 500px. If you are interested in seeing some that you may have missed, head on over to 500px.com/matrcook.