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If I knew how to take a good picture, I’d do it all the time Robert Doisneau

I enjoy both film and digital photography, but the pendulum has been swinging toward film recently, and I’ve been having a ball. I’ve finally dialed in a film processing, scanning, and editing workflow that works and that I don’t hate. What’s more, I’ve been studying my recent film photos and I really like them. I like that they’re not so perfect that zooming in to 100% is useful. I like the defects and unpredictability. I like the process. But most of all, I like the cameras. Specifically, I like Leica rangefinders. ...

These are all taken with the Leica M3 on HP5+ and were processed in HC-110 Dilution B. I’m pretty sure I used the Elmarit-M 90mm f2.8 for the entire roll.

A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide inside the smallest event. This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rambling past. It makes reality come true. Don Delillo, Underworld

Leica M6, HP5+. HC-110 (dilution B). Scanned on V750 with Silverfast. Processed with Negative Lab Pro

My dad (right) stands in front of bar while in the Navy. (France 1963)

I’m trying to stick with the Adobe suite for processing, editing, and managing photos. I prefer Capture One’s editing process, but Lightroom Classic has everything else going for it, (ecosystem, tooling, ubiquity, etc.) so that’s where I’ve settled for now. But I’d love to take advantage of Lightroom CC on mobile and my laptop. CC and Classic will sync, but if not handled properly the whole enterprise can quickly turn into a mess. What I was doing is to import into Classic, edit, export, then add the “keepers” to a synced catalog (or “all synched photographs”) so that those photos would be available everywhere. The problem is that this takes diligence and consistency. It takes work. I’m not good at consistency, and I end up frustrated and bailing on the whole thing. ...

Yeah, I’d definitely get the black-paint version. The only problem is that kit is around $17,000 as pictured. Still, just look at it.

He’s a good one.

As an antidote for my usual spiral of sitting at a giant screen full of a dozen windows, staring, clicking, staring, clicking, etc. I thought I’d try living on my iPad for a while. I’m not an iPad person, even though I’ve used one since the day they were released. I just don’t understand how anyone thinks they can be anywhere near as productive on an iPad as on a “real” computer. Stockholm Syndrome or something, I always figured, but smarter people than I are doing it, so who’m I to judge? ...

I purchased the Leica Q2 Monochrom (new) from Camera West in February 2021. It’s in like new condition and has fewer than 600 shutter actuations. Price is $5,100 net to me. That’s a savings of $1,000 off the price of a new one. I adore my Leica Q2 Monochrom, so why am I selling it? The Q2M is for sale because I miss the M10-P and can’t have both. I bough the Q because sometimes I just want autofocus, close-focus, macro, and the convenience of an EVF. I found that the SL2-S ticks all those boxes, so the Q2M is really just an extravagant extra. As wonderful as it is, I don’t need it. My loss is your gain. ...

Riccardo Mori has a few comments on the beta of Safari 15 showed up. Here’s one: In other words, what a browser needs is horizontal breathing room, instead we have Apple doing things backwards, sacrificing horizontal space to give us what, 28 more vertical pixels? @morrick http://morrick.me/archives/9368 I can’t begin to describe how deeply I dislike the new tab handling in Safari 15. ...

Yesterday I was asked something about a project I’d worked on two years ago. At that time I’d used Curio to help manage the project. I opened the Curio project and within thirty seconds of just looking at the workspace I had a handle on the project and easily found an answer to the questions I’d been asked. Whenever I revisit something that I’d created in TheBrain or a mind map or Curio or Tinderbox, I find the spatial layout of the information to be instantly useful. ...

Unless I’m doing some crazy non-standard layout, I’m not a fan of using WordPress’ Gutenberg editor. Mostly I just want to type some simple text and add a link or two. Last year I bought a license for Iceberg which is a lightweight Gutenberg replacement that feels more “normal”. I stopped using it because there was a kind of uncanny valley effect, but after several frustrating days wrestling Gutenberg, I’m trying Iceberg again. Here’s what this post looks like in Iceberg ...

I’m almost certainly using Zotero wrong. Instead of for citations and research, I’m using Zotero as a bookmarking tool and read-later service, and it’s working really well. Is no one else doing this? I’ve used many tools meant for saving links for later, from del.icio.us to Pinboard to Instapaper to Pocket to Raindrop. All of them are fine. Some focus on social bookmarking, some on archiving, some are meant as “read later” services. And all of them are prettier than Zotero. And yet… ...

I bought my first Olympus Stylus Epic in 2004 and fell in love. I’ve owned one ever since. That original copy was replaced in 2012 for $10, in the box, from a guy on Craigslist. Those days are gone. These little fellas have grown quite a following and fetch upwards of $300 on eBay. I’m not going to be paying that much once this one dies. Mine has been collecting dust in a drawer for a year or two, which is a shame, so took it out today and loaded it with a roll of HP5+. No sense trying to preserve it, right? ...

It’s been a while since I bought a new fountain pen. This is about the Pilot Custom 823. Literally every review I’ve read says the same things: “It’s not a looker, but what a great writer!” I can only resist that kind of consensus for so long, so I bought one. I have the “smoke” color with a fine nib. I ordered it from JetPens for $270. I’d say this puts it well into significant purchase territory, so I was very excited when it arrived. I’ve been journaling quite a lot recently and was looking forward to spending time with what reviewers call one of the best every day writers. ...

The more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired when disordered Thomas Paine I would be wise to keep this in mind.

It’s good being able to celebrate again. I brought the Q2 Monochrom with me to the party. Shot about 20 images. This is the only one I kept.

I see office vs remote is very much on the menu (thanks media for using your platform to ruin our day ????) <p> The key should be *choice* </p> <p> Some people prefer to work at home<br />Some people prefer to work at an office </p> <p> It's up to managers to put on their adult pants and facilitate both. </p> <p> &mdash; Andy Bell (@piccalilli_) <a href="https://twitter.com/piccalilli_/status/1402971819431370753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2021</a> </p> <p> My feelings about remote work are evolving, and I&#8217;m working through them, but social media makes it difficult because social media almost forces us to pick a side and run hard with it. Nuance is left at the curb, along with rational discussions. </p> <p> The above tweet demonstrates the kind of thing I see from people who&#8217;ve never had an employee who <em>wanted</em> to work remotely, but was incapable of being productive that way. That is a situation that exists. What should be done? My first reaction is termination. Problem solved!. How&#8217;s that for adult pants? But seriously, I don&#8217;t have a good answer. I don&#8217;t think the answer is automatically, &#8220;just give every employee the choice.&#8221; </p> <p> I could have chosen any number of tweets along these lines as example, but Bell is someone I enjoy following and this tweet in particular triggered me with the &#8220;adult pants&#8221; phrase. Managers, even good ones, sometimes struggle making difficult decisions (which I assume he means by &#8220;putting on adult pants&#8221;). So? Who doesn&#8217;t? </p> <p> I&#8217;ve been managing a handful of people for 25 years. In most cases, I&#8217;m entirely OK with them working remotely. Basically, I&#8217;m a fan of remote work, and prefer it for all the reasons made by its proponents. </p> <p> However, I don&#8217;t agree that remote work is automatically the best option for every person and for every company. Maybe you work for one of those companies. You might even be one of those people for whom remote work is counterproductive (and you probably don&#8217;t even know it.) </p> <p> So at least maybe don&#8217;t assume that every example of &#8220;I&#8217;d like you in the office&#8221; is a case of a bad manager just wanting to watch over the shoulder of a &#8220;body in a seat.&#8221; It <em>could</em> be that, but it also might not be. </p> <p> Nuance, is all I&#8217;m saying. </p> <p> <!--kg-card-end: html--> </p>