ZachIsHere

For most of my time spent in Springfield I banked with Great Southern. Nice people, seemed to do a really good job. Unfortunately it seems as though they are hurting. Arkansas National Bank (ANB Financial) was shut down by the FDIC. Great Southern had $35 million in loans made to ANB that were secured by ANB stock. They took a total loss on the stock! Great Southern lost $35 million in a matter of hours and in 2007 they only made $27 million.

A poster from a message board I frequent had this experience to tell…

I spoke to a builder friend from there that had all his construction loans there at ANB. He had to get an appointment to get into the bank yesterday to see if funds would be available to keep his projects going. People are only allowed in the bank if they have a scheduled appointment. They are escorted through the building and then back out of the building by armed guard. All builder’s accounts are frozen, meaning the five homes he has coming out of the ground are effectively stopped until further notice, bc no funds available. Was told that loans may not be purchased by another bank for up to six months. This means those houses will deteriorate and will be worth a lot less by the time funds are made available to him. This means more people (his crews) now out of work.

He also told me while in the bank, he saw a grown man with his head in his hands crying, bc he had lost $1 million dollars.

Hopefully Great Southern can keep the ship righted. I would think they could sustain this blow just based on the overdraft fees I gave them during my time in Springtown. However if the example below is a happening that occurs regularly at some point you have to wonder who the ringmaster of that circus is.

How I Made 21 Million Dollars (Via ZachIsHere.com Archives March ‘06)

The other night I was driving late and I stopped into an ATM to double check my balance. The little receipt printed out of the machine and what I saw on the small paper shocked me. My listed available balance was 21 million dollars. Go ahead, put these drinks on my tab.

Great Southern has been good to me as a bank. I got a kick out of this though.

I stumbled into photography accidentally. Took a class that provided me with a cheapo digital camera and let me run free with it. I must have canvassed the whole town; nothing was safe from that lens. Walking down the streets in a very deliberate fashion looking for the angle, the reflection, the interesting person, or the narrative jump out at me. Standing in the middle of a sidewalk just gazing into an empty alley trying to ignore the people around me that were justifiably confused as to what was going on or what I was doing. I remember being out in the middle of the night taking pictures in downtown Springfield. Nobody was around…even the bar crowd had cleared out. The whole place is usually so lively but it was empty right now and the feeling was eerie. Moving into the middle of the street and getting close to the road I took a few shots.

I remember being floored by this photo. Being absolutely in love with it. These days? I might not give this a second look. The whole thing is too yellow for my liking and the closeup road thing is cool but you see too much asphalt…being able to see more beyond the road is more interesting.

But who is right? The person now or then? I am not sure. These days I am blessed with a really nice rig. A camera setup that lets me do everything I could dream of but there are times I feel like I was a better shooter with that $75 camera. You had to work harder for it. The technical limitations of the camera forced you to go about things in creative ways to get shots.

I wouldn’t trade what I have now of course. I am able to do a lot of interesting work in almost any setting. But sometimes I wonder if the L series lens and the fast shutter speed have made my eye for the “real” shot lazy.