Busy, Huh, (Good God), What Is It Good For?

I read a recent opinion piece in the NY Times about one father's goal to teach his kid to be lazy. Not only productive. To stop and savor life. To enjoy the small moments. I liked it. I enjoyed his writing about not just being a worker bee, but stopping to enjoy smelling the flower...

What’s So Good About Art? To Create. To Make What Wasn’t There Before.

It's Saturday night and I'm watching people dance to a band at Bootstrap Brewing, the pub where I write my blog posts. I love writing here with a cold Lush Puppy IPA. Tonight, it's so much fun to see folks enjoying themselves dancing up a storm. I even photographed them and may use them in...

A 4×6 Brag Book – It’s a Thing!

My partner MaryLee went to Cincinnati for her niece's wedding and took along a small Olympus XA2 35mm film camera loaded with a single roll of Ilford HP5+ Black and White Film. Good setup if you have decent light--the camera sports a 35mm f3.5 lens. She photographed some of the behind-the-scenes that she had access...

Telling Our Stories in Photo Series

That's essentially what this is. A group of adults trying to figure out how to stop a ceiling fan from always turning. Then finding the missing switch, hitting it and celebrating. Simple little photo story that tells the tale of a single moment in the life of a bunch of friends. What could be a...

New to Photography? A Film Leica is All You Need

Henri Cartier-Bresson carried a Leica M3 and a 50mm f2.0 Summicron. That was all he needed. And it's all you need. You could splurge and add a 90mm Elmarit if you want to have a second focal length, a portrait lens, but that single Leica lens is really all you need. I have a 90mm...

“How Do You Avoid Getting Burned Out on Photography?”

"How do you keep the passion alive, stay interested in being creative?" I often hear these question asked to photographers, to which I want to say to the person asking, "What are you talking about? Obviously, you're not a photographer." It reminds me of the question someone asked Matt Damon on The Actor's Studio on...

Making Photographs Versus Taking Pictures

I was listening to the Camerosity podcast, which I enjoy. It's a production by Mike Eckman, who has quite a few quality camera reviews online and whose site is a fun place to spend a few minutes when you want to read about cameras. There's an episode I highly recommend to folks interested in Nikon...

Slide Film: Creating Slide Shows in 2021

I rarely use color film because I prefer photographing with black and white film and Ilford HP5+ is my black and white film of choice. I do love the look of Kodak Ektar and Portra for color films, but I just don't reach for them much. This week I was reading about work made made...

You Have No Expectation of Privacy While in Public

After discussing street photography at length this week, I've concluded the photographers who are its proponents are a victim of the majority of people not knowing this one right protected by the First Amendment. And that Street Photography is a kind of documentary photojournalism. From the ACLU: "As a form of expression, photography is protected...

Wajdaotype Circa 2015-Present: A Photographic Process

I have simple aspirations. I don't need fame or fortunes. Some income from my work, yes. Comfortable, sure. Financially secure, please. But fortune? I don't need that much. I do want to change the world--the world of future generations who will always have beautiful portraits of their ancestors. I want to foster more photographers to...