Evening party, Sun and Bass (and a sunrise)

Yeah, we’re still working our way through these. Evening party. Leaning into the blur, trying to get a feeling more than a precise record. And then somehow it was sunrise? Good times.

Posted on 2022-12-29T08:10:30Z GMT

in yosemite valley, end of june

Trying to avoid the cliches here. There are so. many. But also, it’s an incredibly beautiful place. These were all with the rented rig, a GFX 50sii. Incredible dynamic range. 8 or ten stops into the shadows still has details. Anyway. enough camera faffing. Photos!

The bridge on the right of the frame was in deep shadow, but I was able to dodge it out and balance the frame; it was black in the original frame.

No idea what these people were looking at. just wandering in the meadow next to el cap.

tunnel view (lol)

Posted on 2022-12-26T23:13:49Z GMT

It's been a year

So, I have a problem. Last year, I posted on this here blog 25 times. At the same time, I basically stopped posting elsewhere; my instagram feed hasn’t had a new post (as opposed to a story that dissappears in 24 hours) in 9 months. Twitter is dead to me, and has been since the space grifter tendered his offer. My last post is a meme that says “JUST WALK OUT” and “REAL WINNERS QUIT”. Other people’s servers seem like a dead end. But the problem is I really want to share more pictures with the world.

It’s like this: I take a lot of photos. Almost every day, certainly every time I leave the house, I take a camera with me, and photos happen. Sometimes there are people in them, sometimes not. I do this because I am compelled to, not for any other reason. I’ve done it for so long now that I’m a bit lost when I forget and leave my camera at home. Some of the people in the photos are people I care about, sometimes they’re just people I come across, but either way, I think there’s some responsibility built into the act of making a photograph, at least for me. Gotta share that shit. At least the good ones.

AND. And, I have a huge backlog, more than 18 months at this point. I’ve posted on this here blog 25 times this year, and the pile keeps growing growing and growing. I don’t think I can manage to post every day, but I think that’s OK because I don’t do something worth sharing every day. Rusty does his newsletter four times a week, and it’s his full time job. I’m not comparing my work to his (see the preview image and old friend li’s practice guide), but I feel like setting expectations at less than a full time job seems reasonable.

So: next year, two posts a week. Monday? Thursday? Who knows? will there be long essays? Just photos? photos with captions? I haven’t decided! Will it count if I just put up a picture of a crab? No! but almost everything else would. I might even do single image posts. A picture, a caption, BOOM, that’s half the week. Maybe I’ll get really spicy and add comments. Remember blog comments? Sometimes they were great! They never were on my blog, but maybe this time.

All of the photos in this post are from a trip we took to Yosemite last June that was supposed to be over the 4th, but ended up not making it that long; half our group got covid just prior to the trip, so it was just me and Sophie. I rented a GFX 50sii, which was amazing and I’ll probably do another post later with photos from in the park. Unbelievable amounts of shadow detail and clarity. Really liked working with it.

Posted on 2022-12-22T11:03:26Z GMT

sun and base day party

It took me a while to ‘find a way in’ visually, during the festival. I wasn’t there trying super hard the whole time, but it took 3 or 4 days to get to a place where I felt like I was capturing some of the real frenetic energy of the music and the dancing with my photos. I was stuck on the idea that I could somehow do it just with composition and subject, but of course there’s also light and time and timing.

Even after the workshop in July, that was mostly about blur (and I need to post some of those photos and talk about it, there were some real revelations there), it still took me a while to relax and just do the thing that was in front of me. Letting go of what I think the picture should be in a technical sense (well exposed, focused, sharp), and making pictures with some emotional content. After noodling about it for the last four months, I’m no longer sure the only emotion in a picture is in the blurry parts, as the workshop had it, but it’s a very powerful tool.

These have been sitting here as a draft for two weeks, and I’m not sure I have that much more to say about them. Just going to push publish and move on to the next set.

Posted on 2022-12-02T07:58:42Z GMT

Reviewing the Ricoh GR3x (Arrival in Sardinia)

So, first off, my use case isn’t the typical GR3 user. There are lots of people out there reviewing it as a street photography camera, a discrete shooter, and things of this nature, and I feel like the subject has been beaten to death. While I do some work that could sort of be called ‘street’, it’s more in the genre of walks with a camera, and I live where that happens in the street. I’ve discovered lately that I have no interest in not being seen.

My perspective on the camera, then, is how well it works as a camera to take with me when I don’t want to drag the whole bag along. I’ve tried a number of these cameras in the past (most recently the Sony RX100 IV) and usually I end up between somewhat and very disappointed in them. I keep coming back though, because those pro bodies I like, the Leicas and Nikons, are fucking heavy. Also, a secondary use of the camera is to take into environments where $10k of kit probably shouldn’t, like the beach, and places it can’t, like clubs that don’t allow interchangeable lens cameras.

Things I was excited about getting the camera: The 40mm (equivalent) focal length is probably my favorite? It can look like what you need it to, basically, although if what you need is a 200mm tele, you’re out of luck. I never have anything longer than 120 on me unless I know I’m going after birds (which is rare, because I hate schlepping an extra 5kg of lens). Also, it’s the same focal length as two other compacts I love: the Rollei 35 T and the Minolta CLE (the CLE can use any M lens, but I only ever use it with a 40mm).

Other than that? I was hopeful that it would ‘click’, but there are a couple areas I was worried about:

• Focus: I needn’t have worried about this one. It has several modes, and in decent to fair light (down to a comfortably lit interior, let’s say) it’s plenty snappy. There was a bit of a learning curve, and I feel like learning the different modes is a good use of your time with this camera.
• Depth: At f/2.8, I didn’t know if I would be able to have a narrow enough plane of focus for my taste. I think it works, but I’d be happier with f/2. Pretty please, Ricoh?
• Startup time: This is often a pain with small cameras. Not so with the Ricoh. It’s faster to go from off to taking a picture than my M10-P. (Slower than the champ, my Nikon D750).
• Shutter lag: it’s as near to instant as I can tell with my various Mark 1 senses. I didn’t use it for any super fast action (no race cars, no sportsing), but I think it’d be fine for that, if you can get close enough.
• Battery life: people online will tell you 200 shots on a battery as if that’s small. For this kind of camera, it’s perfect, and a spare battery will fit in any pocket. Also, I feel like I got more than that from a battery, but they are brand new still.

It does the thing; I could tell within about half an hour of shooting with it that it was going to work for me. Along the way I hit a couple bumps, though. I didn’t know how to engage manual focus when I was shooting the Aurora from our transatlantic flight, so all those pictures are blurry. It took me a little bit to figure out how to adjust shutter and aperture in manual mode. Other than that? It’s a good little camera. I was reminded, working with it, of the sensation of shooting with my F5 when it was new. Just a clean, well thought out instrument that does the job it’s made for. No excuses, no compromises for size (except not having a viewfinder).

One last note, on pocketability: It does fit into a pants pocket. HOWEVER, it’s pretty noticeable. Is that a camera in your pocket or do you need to see a doctor? Goes better in a small bag or jacket pocket; I carried mine, for most of the trip, in a small sling, along with my kindle, a couple spare batteries, sunglasses, money, phone, maybe some bug spray? And kept my pockets empty, so I didn’t have to remember to take stuff out when I was going in the ocean. Beaches, man.

All photos taken with the Ricoh on Sardinia, way back in September. Various settings, who cares? A range of ISOs, mostly shooting with the lens at maximum aperture because that’s how I feel like doing it right now. More pictures with the same camera for the next couple posts, as it’s the only one I used the whole time on the island.

Posted on 2022-11-07T09:16:50Z GMT