What’s in that Bag?
This photo was taken just after Christmas on Gonzales Hill not far from the observatory – it was an exceptionally grey and gloomy day – who knows why I even bothered to haul the camera along on this walk because I don’t. Even so, I ended up being left with the question, what the heck has someone left hanging on the door knob in that bag?
This is not what I had planned for today – but I managed to freeze my computer mid-edit of the planned image and lost all the edits. Being totally pooped after the second full day of a “continuous change” session whereby we are supposed to be reworking our work flow in my office, I am resorting to this image. I like it for a number of reasons (though not nearly so much now that WP has made invisible all the subtle areas in the foreground right and left). However, I recognise it is kind of boring and I might never have subjected you to it had it not been ‘in the can’ and easy to find.
Don’t ask me my opinion on Kaizen (Japanese for continuous change in this context) as I am supposed to forget all the past reorganisation efforts (utter failures every last one), park my crusty rind of cynicism at the door and put on a rainbow cloak of youthful positive sparkly naïveté. However, I will say that the ‘best’ line was a retort when one of us said they valued the necessity of getting up to fetch things from the printer for the leg-stretch and small break – “you aren’t paid to walk in the office, you’re paid to work in the office”. As if we are making @#$%ing widgets and when we (inevitably) get sick from the factory-like working conditions and fall off the perch they can just replace us from the labour pool (us being highly experienced and trained professionals, in very short supply at this time). Not to mention that many of the proponents of this approach in Asia actually have instituted scheduled, paid exercise breaks.
Would I rather do scheduled communal callisthenics with all my colleagues in nice neat rows that mirror our cube farm geography rather than stretch a bit during random trips to the printers? Don’t ask that either.
Off to bed. Please, tell me what you think of the photo, honest opinions welcome if you can type and yawn at the same time. But do realise that if I am feeling snippy following the third day in a row of work flow charts and being sparkly that it might be reflected in the tone of my responses!
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Canon 5Dii, Canon EF 50mm f1.4 lens, ISO400, f1.4, 1/640th
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burnt embers 
Oof, it sounds like things are no fun at work right now. I am so sorry to hear this, I wish I could do more to help, my friend. On the note of this photograph, I really like it. I love architecture, and this house is lovely. But the real draw here is that door. I LOVE that light that hangs above the door warmly lit, and the quaint style of the 3 panels themselves is just terrific. I think you’ve done a great job here with the composition and I find that the natural light is really quite sympathetic to the whole setting and time. Love it.
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Thank you Toad. Things at work turned out better than cynics could have guessed, so far. Ask me in a year or so and we will see if there has been substantive change.
I am glad you like this picture. I was worried it did not quite cut the mustard, but I did quite like though why I could not exactly say. You have named some good reasons!
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Sounds like works a bit stressful… : (
I would hope there would tea and chocolate in that bag…
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Work is improved a bit already, and there are signs it could improve quite a lot more over the course of a few months. Fingers crossed.
I think it must be something like that in the bag. I should have looked, then there would be no mystery at all.
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I can’t hazard a guess as to what’s in the bag but a little mystery makes the photo more interesting. I like the tones and the light on the house gives it a bit of color. I like muted tones anyway.
I endured all kinds of corporate-speak reorganizations and after a while you get numb to them. Everything changes except management – the real problem most of the time. You have my sympathy. I haven’t heard of Kaizen, so I guess I better start reading Dilbert again.
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Hi Ken – I am glad that you can find some things to like in this photograph!
Dilbert sounds about right. Though, in this instance management has been largely excluded from the process and the very highest levels have given prior approval to whatever we come up with, with the usual caveats about legality and costs. There is some hope that the changes many of us have been wanting for years can be piggy backed onto this process. A small spark of hope there anyway. Time will tell….
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I think the bag is just for whatever people want to leave by the front door and so papers and things don’t get strewn around. I like the front door – the entrance being on the left (see door mat) and yet the centre door is hinged so the whole thing must open up. I also think it’s interesting that the windows are so small and so high that this must be the back of the house with a “front door”. I don”t know this area, so I can only assume that the view from the front of the house is v. nice. Sorry about how horrible your work situation seems to be. Hopefully once “they” have finished studying the “new ways” they will go away and leave you to yourself and write an incomprehensible report with vague changes that never get implemented.
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Hi Anna – thanks so much for coming by and commenting! That is an interesting observation about the entrance. I think that must have been built as a garage that has been renovated for another purpose. Possibly a suite downstairs and another in the original upstairs of the house. This is on top of a ridge with fabulous views from most locations, so I expect that at least the main floor of the house has great views.
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“Park my crusty rind of cynicism at the door and put on a rainbow cloak of youthful positive sparkly naïveté” is sort of poetic, though I suspect that rainbow cloak was not a very comfortable fit.
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I find little poetic in the process. And that cloak makes my whole body itch and my eyes stream, as if it were woven from coarse goat wool, or camel.
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Your work sounds horrible, Kafkaesque or maybe just slapstick. But why have they left the light on? Because they are out and will be back when it’s dark. That might be a clue to the contents of the bag. I am convinced that the bag contains a box of After Eights left by a friend — surplus Christmas stock. It is plain as the nose on your face.
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The light is on either anticipating a pickup, or delivery. The photo was taken at 4:30 which at this time of the year is quite dark already, the exposure does not show how dim the sky really is. It could be left over chocolates or other Christmas stock. Maybe it is a more substantial present for the gardener.
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Of the top of my head I place the building date of this house in the 1930s, Perhaps a little later? The simple square box design of this house, cheapest way of building, was used regularly right into the seventies after which this style was mostly abandoned for more elaborate and more expensive houses. The interiors show plaster until drywall took over and, especially in the pre WWII houses, a fair amount of woodwork would finish and frame the plaster on walls and ceilings. The image shows a very common west coast ‘plain jane’ building style that photographers looking for this city’s history tend to walk past. I like the composition, understatement of the colors and the lamplight… and obviously like the photo enough to get carried away writing all this stuff.
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Thank you Joseph. These houses while an inexpensive build, are usually very well made and durable. Some a very nicely finished inside and this might be on of them as it is in a pretty special location with terrific views from the front. I too like the light.
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