Spending time with a copy of Edward Weston: Life Work has been inspiring. I’m normally not interested in still life photography, but Weston’s photos are so good and the book’s reproductions are so well-done that I’m thinking still life is worth considering. Above is the result of deliberately setting up a “scene,” fixing the Hasselblad atop a tripod, and carefully metering before each exposure. I normally do none of those, so this is new to me.

Edward Weston: Life Work is a beautiful book filled with wonderful photographs. I’m beginning to appreciate the beauty of a well-seen and beautifully executed still life. I have never owned a photography book as nicely made as this one. Lodima Press really put some effort into the production. For example the book is printed using two types of paper, each appropriate to Weston’s style and printing preferences at the time the original photo was made.

I found this under my typewriter while dusting. I don't remember writing it.

I find trying new software, reading manuals, and browsing release notes to be a perfectly fine way of enjoying a Saturday afternoon. It’s fun, but can lead to a certain amount of confusion. Where did I put that file? What should I use to edit this document? Text editors are a good example. It used to be that, on a Mac, BBEdit was about the only decent choice. These days there are so many good editors it can lead to spending more time trying new tools than actually using them to get work (or whatever) done.

Because I am a tortured artist, I have several 35mm film cameras that I like to swap in and out of my bag. One of them looks like a box of apple juice Seriously, if I see one more Moleskine in a “photographers” bag along with his Leica I may have to admit I’m not quite as deep and original as I thought.

You will almost always find an Olympus Stylus Epic on or near my person. The unassuming little Stylus Epic is in my opinion the best compact film camera for carrying everywhere. It easily fits in my pocket, is weather resistant, has a very nice f/2.8 lens, a spot meter, and goes from pocket to photo about 25 times faster than my iPhone. I’ve been carrying an Epic for about 10 years now, and the second one I’ve owned finally stopped working consistently.

It seems fair to conclude from the evidence that I’m the victim of some persistent delusions when it comes to my own photography. For instance, every time I buy a new camera, I truly believe that I’m going to use it for the rest of my life and will never have to re-sell it. This flies in the face of all of a huge body of evidence to the contrary

I’ve always wanted a “Barnack” Leica, if for no reason other than the nostalgia of using a piece of photographic history dating back to the mid-1930s. I’m not a (deliberate) collector, so condition and rarity weren’t important to me. I ended up with a “user” IIIf. The camera is not really a IIIf but rather a IIIc built in 1946 then later converted by Leica into a IIIf. It came with a lovely chrome Canon 50mm 1.

I love medium format film. The big negatives are so much nicer to work with than 35mm. I’ve been shooting with a Hasselblad 500C/M for a couple of years and the images thrill me. I also love rangefinders. Using a Leica M camera is wonderful and focusing with the rangefinder is fast, easy, and accurate. How to combine the look and handling of square 6×6 medium format film with the ease and speed of shooting with a rangefinder?

The Hasselblad 500C/M is a favorite camera of mine. I love the images I get from those gigantic square negatives. It’s great on a tripod with motionless subjects when I can carefully meter at my leisure and don’t mind that it takes 10 seconds to move the focus ring from one extreme to the other. Wandering around using the Hasselblad handheld is another thing entirely. I don’t like using it “in the field” nearly as much.

I struggled with the decision of which camera(s) to bring on my recent trip to Maine. The purist in me wanted to bring the M3, 50mm Summicron, and a bag of Tri-X. That would have been easy, and likely a disaster. This trip called for color photography and some wide angle lenses. Having just bought a Canon 1D MarkIII, I really wanted to take that camera. That would also have been a mistake.

Twitter is obviously dicking around with their way of doing things and all my nerd friends are (rightly) miffed about it. Personally, Twitter is no longer an ally and I'll be jumping ship to App.net shortly. I'm not alone in this. Onward, right? <p> While watching so many people complain and explain why they're disappointed with Twitter, I've noticed something that confuses me. It runs something like, "Twitter is turning its back on those who made it popular and is stealing their ideas.