I hate making fiber-based silver gelatin prints in the darkroom. But I love having them to hold and to hang. Fiber-based papers have this deep, magical sheen, and the surface is smooth yet has a distinct, subtle texture that is missing from resin-coated (RC) papers. Compared to RC papers, fiber-based paper takes twice as long to process. It requires additional washing and optional toning steps. It eats up fixer and takes more trays than I have comfortable room for. It must be washed for up to an hour. And then there’s the curling, so I have to press the prints under heavy books for a few days before I can do anything with them ...

Derek Sivers suggests, in a much-linked-to post, that all your stuff should be in plain text files, and I (almost) agree with him. Most of my notes are in some form of plain text format, but not for the reasons Sivers lists. My notes are in plain text because I prefer editors that use plain text by default. I suggest you use the tools and formats that are most useful to you now. If that’s plain text, then great. ...

There are things that I dislike about shooting film, but processing isn’t one of them. I actually enjoy it. I shoot a roll or two of film each week and process it in my bathroom darkroom. Developing black and white film is quite simple. I have gotten to a point where the process is muscle memory. I shoot mostly the same type of film (HP5 Plus) and develop it in HC-110. I know the dilutions and I know the time, temperature, and agitation schedule. ...

My dad called me from Florida and said that one of his neighbors had died and left a bunch of camera stuff to be given away or sold. He mentioned there was “some old Kodak” and wondered if I was interested in it. I said “Sure, why not” and he said he’d send me a box with the camera and some other stuff that came in the box. The Retina Way The box arrived yesterday and I was thrilled to find a working Kodak Retina IIIC inside. I didn’t know much about the Retinas except they were around for many years and were very high quality cameras, which isn’t something Kodak is known for. ...

TL;DR: daily.baty.net. You see, I have a nice wiki, and for a couple of years, I have written a new entry in it (nearly) every day. These “daily notes” have been interspersed and interlinked with the rest of the wiki’s content. It works, but I don’t love it. Writing in TiddlyWiki is fine. It’s super easy, but it’s also a little clunky, which quickly becomes friction. And the experience for visitors is weird if you’re not familiar with TiddlyWiki. Also, there’s no RSS feed. I sometimes consider this a feature, because it’s nice writing freely and knowing it’s not “going anywhere”. On the other hand, if I were someone wanting to follow along with me, I’d want a damn RSS feed. ...

One valid criticism of using paper for notes is that searching through notebooks is rather difficult. With my poor handwriting, scanning for certain information in a wash of squiggly lines can be painfully slow. For a couple of months now I’ve been going back through my notes periodically and highlighting key words and phrases. I’ve found that if I emphasize the most relevant bit of each note, I can find most things fairly quickly. It also helps when simply perusing old notes. Usually, I want to skip anything “meta” like which pen I’m using or the regular “Why am I still using paper?” fluff. Zipping over the highlighted phrases makes quick work of it. ...

There’s a shutter speed dial with “A” as an option. There’s a numbered ISO dial (so you can see where it’s set even when the camera’s off). There are apertures on a ring around the lens. You focus the camera and the focus stays where you put it until you change it. All you really need. Mike Johnston This is why I love the Leica M so much. Everything is right there, all the time. I never futz with settings or customizing dials or wondering which sub-genre of focus modes I need and how I get them. ...

All too often someone on a forum or blog will claim that the only reason to even have a Leica is to use Leica’s lenses. Hogwash! While certainly a fine reason, it’s nothing close to the only reason. The idea that one should never use non-Leica lenses on their Leica is nonsense. I have a few very nice Leica M lenses. I love them and they are my favorites. But I also have some non-Leica lenses in both LTM and M mounts. They’re fun and interesting and unique. They offer a different look than the Leica lenses. Mine are old, and nowhere near as technically capable as the stuff Voigtlander has been putting out recently. I don’t want those, anyway. I already have all the sharpness and micro-contrast and “pop” I can handle. I put older lenses on my M because it gives the photos a different feel. It can be nostalgic. Sometimes an image works better when it’s a little softer and has a smidge less contrast. ...

I ran a roll of TMAX-100 through the Olympus OM-2n. As always, I had the lovely 85mm Zuiko attached. This time, I also strapped on the flash. Olympus OM-2n with flash. (Leica Q2 Monochrom) It was not a successful roll. Maybe three images were salvageable. Why did it have to be shots like this? Making dinner. (Olympus OM-2n. Zuiko 85mm f/2. TMAX-100.) Or this one of Charlie, which was typically mis-focused. I may need to try a new focusing screen. ...

Remember when all I planned to do was to put all of my blogs under one domain and that was it? I’d still have all the same blogs, but they were going to live under a bunch of something.baty.net subdomains. Well, I got carried away. I brought back baty.net as a blog (WordPress) and migrated all of my recent Write.as posts and imported everything from Copingmechanism.com. I am once again living at baty.net. ...

I’ve been feeling a need to simplify things and I’ve decided that one of those things is my domain names. My days of hoarding domain names, just in case, are drawing to a close. I don’t want the hassle of managing a bunch of zones and I don’t need the fees. To that end, I’m working toward moving everything to subdomains of baty.net. I’ve already moved my wiki from rudimentarylathe.wiki to rl.baty.net. I considered wiki.baty.net and may still use that instead. ...

This roll was mostly me plinking around the house trying to get through a roll in the M6 before the MP is back from Leica. I love the 50mm Summilux very much.

Which is right for me, streaming or buying my music? TL;DR: Both Phil’s recent note about streaming vs “owning” caused me to review how I think about it. My attitude about “owning” music continues to evolve. One advantage I may have is that I don’t think of streaming services as music that I “rent” and that can be ripped out from underneath me any time. To me, streaming services are $10/month commercial-free radios that let me play DJ. I never worry that, if they disappear, I would no longer have access to that music. The most I’d lose would be my playlists and an educated AI. That doesn’t concern me at all. I don’t make playlists. I almost always listen to albums, as god intended. ...

I’ve gone through many photographic workflows. Each time, I’m certain that I’ve figured out what works best for me. Finally! Then a few months later I switch back or come up with something new. I wish I would stop doing this, but I probably never will. So, I have a new workflow ???? There is a part of me that really wants to let Adobe deal with everything. Wouldn’t it be great if I didn’t have to organize, store, back up, or otherwise manage tens of thousands of image files? I could just use Lightroom (desktop) and let the cloud take over the rest. Except I can’t. I have proven myself incapable of giving up control over the files. I have decades of images stored in nicely-organized, dated folders. I know where they are. I know how to back them up. It feels safe forever. ...

My home office environment was getting out of hand, clutter-wise. They say that a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind. Maybe so, but I’m more of a tidy desk person. I’ll sometimes notice that I’m easily provoked, frustrated, or otherwise feeling edgy. Then I’ll clean my office and I always feel better. The worst thing for me is to set something on my desk because I don’t yet know where I’m going to put it. Then it just sits there, for weeks, nagging me out of the corner of my eye. Drives me nuts. Or, I’ll knock something over or cords will tangle or I’ll be unable to find something because it’s under something else. Aargh! ...

I’m not sure I’ll ever be capable of sustaining an ongoing “meditation practice”. The idea of regular meditation is compelling, but after many attempts I’m starting to think it may never stick. This is likely because I’ve not practiced long or consistently enough, but my brain just refuses to stay quiet or focused. Instead, I’ve been making daily drawings. Or, more precisely, “doodles”. I find that mindlessly drawing random or repeating patterns soothes me. It’s a relaxing form of perhaps, if not meditation, mental relaxation. And calling them doodles helps me to avoid the feeling that they are “bad” drawings. It doesn’t matter. ...

I’ve used many wonderful film cameras from many different systems: From Nikon F to Hasselblad V to Linhof, Olympus OM, etc. They are all great in their own ways, but none of them comes close to making me feel the way I feel when picking up a Leica M camera. Sure, every film camera is essentially “a box for holding a lens and some film” but calling a Leica M “just another film camera” is to me like calling Jesus Christ “just another homeless dude”. ...

The Leica SL series of cameras are special, but not unique. I had an original SL and then bought the SL2-S when it was released. It’s a capable, well-built, beautiful camera. But, if I’m being honest, it’s just another mirrorless camera system. And it was very expensive. Purchased today, my kit, consisting of the SL2-S and the Leica APO Summicron 35mm and 75mm lenses would run close to $16,000. Um, who do I think I am? ...

Jess and I had lunch at Booyah’s in Muskegon. I had the Q2 Monochrom with me so I made a few snapshots.

I discovered, while rummaging through a drawer, that my Nikon F-100 was loaded with film; Fujifilm Superia, a color film. I’ve pretty much sworn off color, but what the hell, I threw a little Godox flash on the F-100 and burned through the rest of the roll. I still had some C-41 chemistry mixed, but it was well past its prime. As is often the case with color film, it was a bust. For some reason the Flash, while it seemed to be firing, left most frames wildly under-exposed. There’s no getting away with underexposing color film. The results were mostly horrible. Oh well. It was fun to use the Nikon again. ...