The Online Photographer

Visitors from the East

Chief Mook and Kathy

I enjoyed a nice visit yesterday with friends I've met before—Dennis Mook and his wife Kathy, who are on one of their biannual two-to-three-week jaunts around the country in their SUV. They had gotten as close as Ithaca, so they made the trip over to Keuka Lake to spend the afternoon with me.

There are several titles that, once earned, you get to keep for life—a ship captain can forever after be addressed as Captain, a head coach can always be called Coach, and Jimmy Carter or George Bush will always properly be addressed in formal situations as President Carter and President Bush. "Chief" is another. Dennis retired as Chief of the 650-member Newport News, Virginia, Police Department. (He also worked for NCIS—but says he never watched the television show of the same name.)

He also had an unusual opportunity that more of us should be lucky enough to have—he got to reprise his first job as his last job. He had come up through the ranks in the Portsmouth Police Department, which became the first department he presided over as Chief. (Both Newport News and Portsmouth are part of Hampton Roads, the epicenter of military activity in the Eastern U.S., in the Tidewater region.) Then, at the end of his career, he was asked to come out of retirement for three months to run the Portsmouth force again as a chief pro-tem while they picked a successor for the previous guy. On the 250-member force there were 17 active officers remaining whom he had hired the first time he was chief there—and many of the policies he had initiated years earlier were still in place. Dennis ended up staying for eight months, and he told me it was a fascinating experience. With no future career on the line and with much more experience under his belt, he found the Portsmouth job much easier the second time around.

Dennis is a creative thinker and an endlessly interesting guy. Some big publication should write a serious profile of Dennis—he's a model of just what you want a policeman to be, as well as a font of information about proper officer training and effective community relations. (He tells great stories, too.) Guys like Dennis are a natural corrective to the kind of problems that have been roiling the nation recently. We need more like him.

He's also been a passionate amateur photographer for 46 years or so (like me, he also writes a photo blog), and estimates that he's carried a camera with him almost every day since the 1970s. He shoots for stock and for personal reasons. I was interested to learn that he's jettisoned the D800E he was enthusiastic about the last time I saw him, and his Fuji X-T2 is the first one I've seen.

He says the X-T2 is "200% better" than the X-T1 it replaced (and that I still shoot with). You can read more about that on his blog.

Thanks to Dennis and Kathy for coming to visit!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Kent Phelan: "Wow, as a fellow member of 'Photographers of a certain age,' i.e., continually shooting since the 1970s, my recent equipment path mirrors Chief Mook's exactly. In the past month I have jettisoned my beloved Nikon D800E (as well as Dƒ) in favor of a Fuji X-T2 system. So far so good, and thanks for the blog link. I think I will travel along with the Chief for a bit."

Mike replies: Yeah, Kent, but when you and I met we were young. I think friends remain the same age they were when they first met. (Does that make sense? No? Well, maybe I'm getting senile.) Anyway, knowing you both, would bet you and Dennis would get along well.

Stephen Scharf: "I've been following Dennis Mook via his postings on the various Fuji X forums. I enjoy his photography and insights very much. Nice to learn more of Dennis's background."

Visitors

Bruce

Bruce Krobusek and his wife Susan stopped by TOP Rural Headquarters and treated me to lunch today. Bruce, who is of Scottish descent on his mother's side, sported a "cargo" kilt with lots of pockets. I don't know what it's like in Scotland, but we see very few people in kilts around here. We had a tasty lunch and of course a nice conversation at Silverbird Woodfired in Penn Yan, before heading back to my place so Butters could jump all over Bruce and Susan.

Susan

They were driving Bruce's unrestored 1972 Triumph TR6 (Susan has a Triumph Stag), and Bruce let me drive it, which was a treat. They were headed to a car club gathering at the South end of Keuka Lake, in Hammondsport. First time I've ever driven any sort of Triumph (although I've been reading about them since high school) adding meaningfully to my lifetime experience of roadsters. I wasn't quite too big for it, but almost. Bruce has had it for 21 years.

Always great to meet TOP readers in real life! Thanks to Bruce and Susan for stopping by.

Mike

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Kenneth Tanaka: "Ah, The Avengers team is lookin' good!! Hi Emma!"

Scott: "One sees Utilikilts in Seattle. Very nice and practical menswear. About your visitors' license plate: I guess that 'Mrs. Peel' may refer to the character named Emma Peel in the UK TV show from way back called 'The Avengers.' I heard that in those days TV show producers always wanted a female character that would appeal to men. The role was called a 'man appeal' character, often abbreviated as 'm-appeal,' as in 'This show needs m-appeal.' M-appeal, of course, is pronounced the same as Emma Peel. They named her after the commercial role she filled.

"That's what I've heard anyway. I hope it's true."

Richard Newman: "Ah, yes. The original 'Avengers' show and Emma Peel both appealed greatly to me.Unlike the current U.S. avengers show which has no appeal whatsoever. (Noah Peel?)"

Mike Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

You have to be careful with corrections. Once you post one, other errors show up. It's like one raindrop being followed by many others.

Anyway, I am wrong as rain about the Sony SLTs. They are not traditional pellicle-mirror cameras like the Canon Pellix or EOS RT, that use reflected light for an OVF...they are mirrorless cameras with a mirror added to divert some of the image-forming light for focusing purposes. The light hitting the sensor is used for an EVF. Yikes! How did I not know that? I have never held or used a Sony SLT camera, but that's no excuse. Thanks to Jack for setting me straight on that one. (And, why does Sony need to do this at all any more, given the existence of integrated phase-detection sensors?)

And Hektor was not Oskar Barnack's dog, Hektor was Max Berek's dog...which makes much more sense, since Max Berek designed the early Leica lenses including the Hektor. David Babsky set me straight on that.

Today is Friday, right? And my name is really "Mike"? Sorry for the errors. Fire the fact-checker!!

Mike
(Thanks to Jack and David)

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Kevin Purcell (partial comment): "Re: 'And, why does Sony need to do this at all any more, given the existence of integrated phase-detection sensors?' In fact the A99 Mark II does use both 'traditional PDAF' and 'on-sensor PDAF' for focusing. The large pixels used in 'traditional PDAF' sensing, as used in conventional DSLRs, are more sensitive, are monochromatic, and can be sensitive to near-IR light. All of these features help determine the level of in-focus/out-focus and direction of focus, accurately and rapidly. In the A99 Mark II, Sony are claiming they can AF at light levels down to EV –4. That's focusing on a subject illuminated by the moonlight from a gibbous moon. As lines or crosses of pixels in the PDAF sensor are larger than on-sensor PDAF sensor, they can deliver more accurate distance information. In rangefinder terms they have a ,longer baseline.' There is a good explanation at this link, so I don't have to type it."

180,000 Comments

Peter Croft penned our 180,000th comment last night just before I turned in. (He's in Oz so it wasn't night where he was—it was a bit past noon.) Note the counter.

...All moderated, by the way. When friends ask me what I do for a living, I sometimes say "I moderate comments." It's what I do most of the day, most days. I used to do a better job at it, but then I got a life, and I no longer wanted to spend quite as much time doing it. I hope I've reached a good balance, although sometimes I mess up.

Which raises an interesting issue...up until a few years ago, I was convinced that TOP had to keep growing. But then I thought, wait a minute, we get about the right number of comments  already. Not too few—but not too many, either. If I got three times as many comments as we do now, I would be swamped. Therefore it stands to reason that we must have about the right number of readers right now.

I do want TOP to stay healthy and keep going strong, but I'm happy enough where we sit. It might amuse you to learn that there are ways to manipulate both the amount of traffic the site receives and also, to some extent, the kinds of people who visit and read. If I were solely interested in driving traffic up, I could do a much better job of that than I do. I like the readers I get.

Commenters are the core of the readership. By very rough estimate, I would say only between 5% and 10% of readers ever comment. Many more people read but never comment.

If you're a regular reader, you probably get pleasure from what I write. For me, of course, that's work, and I already know what I think, because I thought it before I wrote it. The entertainment value of the enterprise for me is centered on the comments. I always learn things and find out about things (my entire house is full of stuff I've been turned on to by readers, from movies to socks), and you keep me entertained. It might amuse you to learn that I have my own favorite commenters...people whose thoughts I always looking forward to reading. There are two or three dozen on that list. I would probably read a blog by any of them, if any of them had time to write a blog (one is a retired financier, one a novelist, one a lawyer, one a country doctor. None are likely to become full-time writers about photographs).

But, ironically, sometimes it's the people who almost never comment who write the very best ones. Why? Because they are readers who are not motivated to respond unless we happen to light upon a topic that exactly fits their expertise or their direct experience. Then they chime in. Example: I once wrote a post about Irving Penn's platinum prints, and we got a comment from the platinum printer who assisted Penn in making those very prints, who described for us what it was like working alongside Penn in his darkroom. Priceless. I admit I'm always thinking about ways to figure out new topics, thinking that we might hear from new people if I do.

You don't have to comment to be welcome here. I'm well aware that I never hear from most readers...including some of my most loyal readers. Non-commenters are important too.

But thanks to Peter Croft and, by extension, all of you who have had, and will have, thoughtful and interesting things to contribute. It's an integral and important part of the lifeblood of The Online Photographer.

Mike

ADDENDUM: The following comment just came in from Hugh Crawford (one of those commenters I always enjoy) in response to the "Eggsactly" post:

My mother has some pet chickens that are about 16 years old. They used to run free dining on snails in the garden but then the hawks and owls started killing them. Now the two surviving hens mostly stay in a big covered pen about 20 feet square, unless a human is around and then they will come out but stick close to people.

Chickens are very social animals and get lonely. A few months ago a couple of chickens just wandered in* and without much fuss joined the flock. The two old hens and the two new hens really seem to enjoy each other's company. One of the hens even likes being held. Backyard eggs are to store eggs what backyard tomatoes are to store tomatoes. And the nasty short lives of most commercial hens is just awful.

*Not particularly unusual. For years we had a flock of peacocks that just moved in. Not as fun as you might imagine. They sound exactly like a screaming woman. They like to sleep in trees but when they are asleep they tend to fall out of the tree. On the roof of the house. They weigh about as much as a large turkey so in the middle of the night you wake up to the sound of what seems to be a screaming woman tumbling across the roof. Eventually you get used to it but it leads to interesting conversations with overnight guests at two in the morning. Oh and peacock poop, pretty much like goose poop, except that geese don't like to stand on things.

See what I mean about finding new topics? The part about the screaming woman tumbling across the roof made me laugh out loud...and who has a flock of peacocks "just move in"? Hugh leads an interesting and usual life.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Tim: "I've probably visited TOP every day once a day for the last 10 years and commented less than 10 times. Good to know I'm appreciated."

David Dyer-Bennet: "With novels, I often find a special kind of goodness in first novels (not always, of course). I think maybe it's that that particular story grabbed them so hard that they had to sit down and write it out. I can see how there could be a similar effect with people who don't often comment (also not 100.00% perfect). Something that you care enough about to break your usual barriers."

Wolfgang Lonien: "What a nice story. Yours is one of the very few sites where I actually read all these comments...."

Steve Belanger: "I've been a daily reader of TOP for a number of years. I'm always impressed with the quality of the writing, both from you, Mike, and the people who comment. I've learned much from TOP over the years and I really appreciate your efforts."

Mike replies: You're very welcome, and thanks for reading.

Peter Croft: "Wow, my 15 minutes of fame. Thanks."

First Color!

This is the very first hint of Fall color I've seen this year—a fallen maple leaf from my neighbors Pete and Sandy's yard, found by Sandy.

September and October are the best months of the year here in the wonderful Finger Lakes. I'm just in love with this whole area—I see pictures when I'm not photographing, and when I go out photographing I don't even care if I actually find anything. Just driving around and looking at things, or taking short walks away from the car, improves my mood and my sense of inner relaxation and peace. (Well, at least at this time of year! September and October are our grateful compensation for January and February, which are, shall we say, not as enriching.)

Have a great weekend in your home in the world. We have some wild, wacky, and weird cameras to palaver over next week, including Canon's first high-end mirrorless and Leica's first Instax(?!). As usual, I'll have a thing or two to say.

Mike
(Thanks to Sandy)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Breakfast with Mike

Emily Levingston, Laurel, and the woodwork

I mentioned that Dave Levingston stopped by. Dave is a lifelong photographer (you might remember his "Turkey Man"), a longtime pro who had concurrent jobs in media relations, most notably as a civilian civil servant working for the Air Force. Now that he's retired he photographs as much as ever, now specializing in "nudes on rocks."

The best time of the year here in the Finger Lakes is off to a wonderful start—like clockwork, September 1 brought a glorious high-pressure weather system, with cool temperatures, clean air, and vivid sunlight. If you're passing through or vacationing here, you're welcome to stop by TOP Rural HQ and we can go to lunch or dinner.

If you're staying overnight, you can get a generous discount on a night's stay (or several) at my friends Laurel and Llewellyn's La Belle Vie Bed and Breakfast in Penn Yan. Their old Italianate Victorian mansion on Main Street is wonderful—I tried to show a little of the elaborate woodwork in the picture above. Hopefully Dave will chime in with his and Emily's impressions, but two things to note—first, they'll give you a tidy, worthwhile discount if you identify yourself as a friend of TOP when you make your reservation, and second, they might invite me to have breakfast with you the next morning! If you like.

You definitely shouldn't discount the "breakfast" part of "bed and breakfast." Laurel is an expert cook and La Belle Vie's breakfasts are a treat—the home-made scones were astonishingly good and what you is see is what comes after scones and coffee and the fruit-and-exotic-yogurt courses. Yummy. Even the bacon (which Laurel describes as "its own food group") is cooked to perfection.

Llewellyn is a longtime photographer himself and Laurel has an IQ of about 240, so the conversation is always animated and interesting. Especially yesterday, since Dave has so many great stories of his life in photography. (Some of them really made me laugh.) "Breakfast" lasted till after lunch, which is part of the reason I got no work done yesterday. But it was a lot of fun.

Although you are likely to see Amish horse-drawn buggies or buckboards pass by on the street out front, Laurel and Llewellyn are an official Tesla charging station, if you happen to be in your Tesla.

It was fun to meet Dave and Emily. Another face to go with a familiar name from the Comments Section, always nice.

Mike

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Changing the Subject (Apropos Yesterday)

A big thanks to the TOPcloud—er, -crowd—for yesterday. Based on a comment from Ben, last night I downloaded American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. Just the Introduction is worth the price of admission. Lots about the United States can be explained by separating the idea of "State" and "nation" and understanding the U.S.A. in terms of competing cultural and regional "nations" (see the map from the book, above. Note the extent of "Greater Appalachia"—that's the culture J.D. Vance characterizes as "hillbilly" in Hillbilly Elegy). Fascinating stuff.

Following right along with the "hillbilly" idea, thanks also to Tom Passin for the link to a long review, on the blog Slate Star Codex, of the book Albion's Seed, about the different types of English cultures that were transplanted to America. I enjoyed the summary of the lurid, fractious "Borderers," because the Johnstons were a border clan. The "Borderers" idea also lines right up with the culture of "Greater Appalachia."

I do wonder how many white, ethnically English Americans combine some portion of different types, however—I know I am descended from Borderers, Quakers, and Puritans, although in what proportions I have no idea. I try my best not to start 972-page books in any case, so a good review is valuable.

Great stuff. I know some people don't like it when I stray from photographic topics, but what you have to understand (and, I hope, sympathize with) is that whenever I do, I get rewarded—almost without fail, someone in the readership "gifts" me with something that expands my horizons and enlarges my knowledge. It's tough not to stray off-topic from time to time when the rewards for Yr. Hmbl. Blggr. are so great.

If anything, I wish I could think of more inventive ways to change the subject!

Mike
(Thanks to Ben, Tom, and many other commenters)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Miserere: "I've no problem when you stray; it's not like we're married.  :-D  I liked what one of your commenters said once: TOP is a blog about a guy who runs a photography blog. I still chuckle every time I remember this...which is every time you stray and someone complains. Maybe you should add this byline to the TOP banner."

Blog Note

TOP gets underway for the Fall season tomorrow, Wednesday, August 24th. (I had earlier said today, but you know—day late, dollar short....)

—Mike, TOP chargé d'affaires

Gone Fishin' (And Print Sale Plans) (And Albany)

Albany, New York

It appears it's that time again.

Most years at this time I go on a short family vacation, and as I had a family situation arise last Thursday that's going to keep me busy for a while, I think it's best if I put the Gone Fishin' shingle on the door and close the TOP shop for a week or so.

Despite the lack of forewarning, for which I apologize.

The caveat is, I'm still going to have a lot of time and I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to write a post or three. So even though I'm "away" on "staycation" and on a limited schedule, I'll most likely still do some writing. So please don't be a stranger.

Coming up
We are planning a print sale for September that will feature two of Carl Weese's 7x17-inch in-camera view camera panoramic platinum/palladium prints. Like many pros Carl likes being a jack of all formats and media, but I secretly think 7x17" Pt/Pd is what he's best at. (Don't tell him I said that.) We haven't yet chosen the images (well, Carl has his candidates nailed down but I haven't rendered my 2¢ yet), and we don't have a for-certain start date yet. Carl is completing experiments on a beautiful new paper he's very psyched about.

More news when I have it.

A photographer's town
Recently I got to visit Albany, New York (capital of the Empire State) for a short time. The weather when I was there was gorgeous and I was blown away by Albany—I guess I didn't know what to expect, so it took me by surprise how beautiful and interesting a place it is. I cured my itch for a Touit by latching the XF 14mm on to the camera and getting out for three hours or so for some intensive photography. Fun. Saw pictures everywhere, most of which I didn't even take—one of those days. I'm currently in the familiar "Wow, look what I did!" stage with the pics, but it's possible a few of them might in fact survive the "Maybe that isn't so great after all" stage which comes later. If I still like any of them after a week or two I'll post more of 'em. Above is my version of a standard "this means Albany" shot, of the famous (forget it, I'm not writing "iconic" any more) statue of Philip Schuyler, the Revolutionary War general and early Senator.

I want to return to Albany (and the nearby towns of Schenectady and Troy), perhaps with a local tourguide, for some more exploring and some more photography. I met some nice people there and really enjoyed wandering the streets and public spaces, and had to leave much too soon.

Mike

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Board on the Floor (Blog Notes for the Week)

Sorry for the absence of a "Blog Notes for the Week" yesterday. I fell sick! Had a meal that didn't agree with me and it wrung me out all afternoon. And the backup staff here is just negligent, is all. It sort of goes without saying—when you have a one man band and the kazoo player gets sick, the guy who plays the cymbal with his foot is also out.

Where's our food?

This past week went by quickly here in the Finger Lakes. It's been hot but not excessively so, and our mini-drought seems to have more or less broken—it has rained three times in the past two and a half weeks. The grass that didn't die is coming out of dormancy and greening up again. I did lose some, though. The soil is permeable and although the trees seem to be able to get some water—whether from deep roots or out of the naturally humid air, I don't know—the grass doesn't do well without rain.

The Week in Review
So here was our week: on Monday we gave Nikon maven (and friend o' TOP, and occasional commenter) Thom Hogan a sendoff for his Summer break, and talked about Nikon the company for a while. That was a popular topic.

I followed that with a Don Quixote tilting-at-windmills suggestion for how Nikon could create a "mini-system" for APS-C without having to actually invest in manufacturing a whole system. Nikon was not at home, so I pinned the note to the front door. Maybe the butler will find it.

That and the followup post, call "The System Concept," drew the most comments of the week. A few shrewd commenters noted that the very concept of a "camera system" is itself changing under the new world order, which is doubtless true, though Fuji is doing a fine job and finding good success with the older system model. Finally on Tuesday we all got a little envious of Jarob Ortiz, who landed that "dream job" that went viral last Winter.

I'm going to try to establish Wednesday as the day for "Open Mike," which has been without a home (in the schedule, I mean) since I started working on book projects on Sundays. This week was the first tryout. I wrote about an in-person visit from longtime TOP reader and RoadRunner magazine writer John M. Flores, who came on his cool electric motorcycle. Very interesting guy. (All TOP readers are much more interesting that average.) I'm hoping we can stay acquainted.

On Thursday we updated the situation with larger-than-life photographer Jay Maisel's larger-than-life New York City house, certainly one of the most interesting photographer domiciles in history. Jay is a fine teacher, too.

Finally, on Friday, I wrote about a very cool feature—well, very cool for portrait photographers, anyway—on the Sony A6300: eye recognition with continuous tracking. I should have mentioned my onetime solution to this problem—in my old studio loft in Chicago, I put a wide board on the floor, and asked portrait subjects and models to stand on it. That kept them from moving up or back and more or less in the same plane, and made it easier for me to keep focus. It worked fine. For grade-school-aged kids especially, who did a good job of staying on the board but who otherwise might be all over the place.

Turns out the eye focus feature is not unique to the A6300...but then, I knew we'd learn about that. Readers educate me as much as I educate you. Lenya schooled me about what katuschka (катушка) really means, which was an unexpected bonus. I'd been saying it for years, a meme absorbed from a high school teacher I liked. And in all those years, never knew what I was talking about! Fun to find out.

See you on Monday, when you will enjoy the very first new feature paid for by the new Patreon campaign! The Patreon campaign will pay for things like books and equipment to review, new content, and various other work-related expenses. It still needs to get a bit healthier to be really useful, though, so if you haven't contributed, I hope you'll consider it.

Some schtuff:

• Beach bum hat
• Beaches
• Curved LED monitor
• World's Best 50mm lens?
• The Sea
• Lensbaby Composer Pro II Sweet 50
• High-tech water balloons
• Adventures in record collecting
• Nikkor 105mm ƒ/1.4E
• Fuji Instax film
• Jay Maisel rocks

See you next week—hope you have a relaxing and restorative weekend.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Floccinaucinihilipilification (Blog Notes for the Week)

This week I gave myself tennis elbow flinging the tennis ball for Butters. No kidding.

But I had a better week this week. We had two great guest posts, both of which "came in over the transom"—old-timey newsroom-speak meaning, roughly, "they just showed up." The first was a converted comment by Chris May about start-up speed and wake-up speed in cameras (my computer is very hard to get out of bed, too). That one hit a chord with y'all. Many of you, we learned, share Chris's vestigial tic of nervously half-pressing the shutter button to keep the camera awake.

The other guest post, by JG (he doesn't like to use his full name on the Internet), converted from an email he sent me, was quirkier, about cobbling together a Sony A7R and a Toyo view camera to make a digital view camera ("Frankencamera!," from Wednesday). For most people I suspect that's a "why bother" project, but it does point out one very important factor about photography—namely, that fun is where you find it. JG possesses a certain mechanical genius—he's also done strange and wonderful things to Porsches—and it's something he really wanted to do. Whatever has "energy" for you is a great project, in my book.

You might be amused to learn that he has made extensive modifications in Frankencamera since the post was published, including replacing the front standard from one from a 2x3" camera.

Apart from that, we linked to a Flickr video series about finding objects that resemble "faces" out in the world; were astonished by Getty Images' gall and greed; and nattered over the Nikon D500 ("Any Love for the D500?") and 105mm ƒ/1.4 ("Two Pounds of Prime")...mainly because I got my head turned (again) by the idea of having a do-everything Nikon, which is a regular, once-every-few-years occurrence in my life. (Some people get bouts of Leica lust, or are just afflicted by grass-is-greener-over-in-that-other-brand syndrome.) And then there was the "Big Words" post, in which Yr. Hmbl. Host went so far off the topic of the post (Gail Buckland's Who Shot Sports and the show it illustrates) that ya kinda had to wonder what the connection was. (I was critiquing a review of the show, ostensibly. Or the writing in the review. Let's just say I sometimes try a little too hard to shoehorn disparate subjects into photo-oriented posts and leave it at that, shall we?) At least we got to see the first sports photograph, which I personally thought was cool to know about. I have to add that I spent a lot of time in my youth trying to like Hill and Adamson's work and never quit got there, but that's just me.

We wrapped up with a few thoughts about click-bait (which I really need to do more of), incorporating some thoughts about Nikon DX lenses. Maybe this could be dubbed "Nikon Week" at TOP.

Oh, and no "Open Mike" this week. I wrote one, but the Editor (also me) rejected it. Hey, it happens.

Which reminds me: "floccinaucinihilipilification" means to esteem something as valueless...like the valueless word floccinaucinihilipilification, which is virtually never used except as an example of a big word.

The Patreon page looks pretty purposeful, but it was
the only picture I had that fit.

I also started a Patreon campaign, at the suggestion of several readers, and it's going great so far. (Thanks to everyone, by the way.)

Maybe it will pay for a picture or two, because the site was too gray this week (another old publishing term, meaning too much text [gray matter], not enough pictures. Ever wondered why there are cartoons in the New Yorker? To break up the gray matter).

Finally, there were three posts I meant to write but didn't. (Oh, wait—four.) Maybe I can get to them next week. And I need to find a new home for "Open Mike." Maybe "hump day" (Wednesday)?

See you on Monday. Hope you have a pleasant, calm, unruffled, tranquil, unbusy, well-composed weekend—that's what I have planned.

Mike
(Thanks to Jim Vine)

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Patreon (Blog Notes)

It took me all day yesterday to deal with the "Site SNAFU" I mentioned. But check out what I did: TOP's brand-new Patreon page! The URL is

https://www.patreon.com/theonlinephotographer

If you're a regular reader you can sign up to be a patron. Or, just take a look and see what you think.

Patreon is like Kickstarter, only for people who provide regular content.

Let me know what you think and please alert me if you see anything amiss. If you do become a supporter through Patreon (lots of people are supporters in lots of ways), let me know if you get the "thank you" message, and send me an email via the feedback link (so we can see if it works).

This doesn't affect existing PayPal subscriptions (for which thank you, thank you), although I'm going to take those links down.

More anon about the business of blogging and the future of TOP.

Mike
(Thanks to Matt, Andrew, Ed G., and Richard Parkin for suggesting Patreon)

UPDATE: Woo-hoo! Just got our very first Patreon supporter, Richard Parkin, who's kicking in $3/mo. And the campaign kicks off!

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Site SNAFU

A number of people have contacted me to report that when they've tried to do various things here, like click on the Comments section or just come to the site in the first place, have been redirected to a donation page.

I can't reproduce this glitch from here. If it has happened to you, it's not something I've done or am doing on purpose—it's an unknown bug of some sort within the site software. (It's also a particular glitch I've never seen before, and I thought I'd seen 'em all.)

I've opened a "Help Ticket" with TypePad and we'll try to chase the problem down. In the meantime, sorry for any inconvenience.

'Subscribe' cancellations
This might be a good time to mention that if you've ever signed up to make a small recurring donation—in the "Subscribe" panel in the right-hand sidebar—and then later had your subscription cancelled, that's not me. I would have no reason to cut off anyone who is contributing to the site! It's something PayPal does on its own, spontaneously and apparently randomly, for no reason that anyone can perceive. I've tried several times to chase the problem down with PayPal, and have never gotten anywhere. They're doing it but they can't explain why. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it, except maybe try to find an alternate method for accepting donations.

So if that ever happened to you and you're mystified about it, well, me too. Thanks for trying anyway!

Mike

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Honor, Ethics, Character, and Cameras (Blog Notes for the Week)

(Political content warning. You have been warned! Not too bad though.)

Open Mike I: Ctein and TOP

[WARNING: Dirty laundry! This isn't entirely pleasant to read. If you've had enough upsetting news for one week, you might want to skip this.

Executive summary: Ctein has bailed and bolted.

Sorry if this adds to anyone's Maalox requirement. —Mike the Ed. (Thanks to Walter and ShadZee for suggesting this warning.)]

I'm sorry to report that Ctein has informed me that he is "not participating in, nor reading, TOP any more." He got extremely* angry at me over the "Photoart" post of June 22nd, which he felt marginalized him.

His reaction came as a complete surprise to me. It wasn’t my fight, and it isn't my issue. That post (which actually fell into the category of "idle thoughts" more than anything, as you can tell from its tone) wasn't about him, didn’t mention him, and wasn't directed at him. For the record, nobody ever needs to agree with me, and I never expect that everyone will. I don't speak for anyone but myself. Ctein himself disagreed with me many, many times over the years, as you might know—he wasn't shy about saying so. And of course Ctein can Photoshop his pictures to his heart's content if he likes, and he can call himself anything he wants to—he can call himself the Prince of The Photo Frogs if that's what he wants**. I never imagined for a moment that he would need or want my permission or approval to do anything. He never has before. As you might know, he himself frequently refers to his work as "my art," anyway, and to himself as an artist. Photographer, photoartist, artist—I fail to see how it's up to me.

At the same time, I’m going to write whatever I want to write on my own website, and no one gets to dictate my opinions or control what I say, no matter how dire their threats. I've never responded well to attempts at bullying. The more strident the attempt, the more I will dig in my heels and resist. My heels had to be dug in hard this time.

Anyway, it's Ctein's decision. I regret it and I feel betrayed, but maybe it's for the best. It happens to coincide with the news that he will be collaborating with a second (different) established author on another science fiction novel. Perhaps he simply has no more need for me or TOP, and has put us into a pod and ejected us into empty Space. Whatevs.

Do note, however, that he hasn't been banned. He can come back and resume his former position and participation any time he wants to.

Meanwhile, though, no more Ctein. Sorry about that. If you miss him, you can look forward to buying his next novel.

Mike, TOP's Lonely-at-the-TOP Mediator type

*Extremely.

**One of my least favorite among his photographs (he knows this already) is of a sea of day-glo green toy frogs.

UPDATE Monday noon: I should add that Ctein made many great contributions here and his presence was a great asset. I thought he counterbalanced my less technical outlook very well, and his technical knowledge ranged from good to outstanding. He's one of the most experienced photo writers in the country, as well as being a great character, of which there have been many in the history of photography. I always loved his dye transfer prints. My only problem with him is that he attempted to bully me on this occasion, and it was so acute that I really had no option but to resist it. That's all. Otherwise I was not aware that we had any problems or issues prior to this imbroglio. Naturally I wish him very well in all his future endeavors. 

Anyone is invited to explore the "Ctein" category in the right-hand sidebar, which I think you will find provides a wealth of material that is still entertaining to read and a wealth of material that remains very useful. I'm sure I'll write a proper (and longer) appreciation of Ctein here at some point in the future.

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Walter Glover: "Goodness gracious me, I wonder about the good that can possibly come from hanging out the dirty laundry for the world to see. I can sense there is hurt on both sides, but will airing it promote any healing?"

Mike replies: My apologies. Again, not my preference. I had left it with Ctein that I would let it cool for a few weeks before making any mention of it, just in case it might blow over or we might mend fences. But he wrote about it in his personal newsletter (which goes out to a large number of TOP readers) today, and it started being discussed elsewhere (for example, there's a thread on APUG), and I started getting a bunch of inquiries by email. If I don't address it, the questions just keep coming and I would have to deal with them all individually...which is the sort of thing that has the potential to soak up all my time far into the wee hours. So I had no choice but to mention it.

I'm working on another "Open Mike" today with a more positive, "adult" attitude, so maybe that will help make up for this somewhat.

Bahi: "I was very sorry to read about this in Ctein's newsletter. I would love to see Ctein encouraged to publish his counterpoint to your piece here and then for the two of you to agree that your viewpoints are and probably always will be different when it comes to describing photographs. Leaving aside Ctein's contribution to TOP and your contribution to his career, the two of you have had a decades-long friendship and it would be a shame for it to end like this."

Mike replies: Ctein can (or rather could) write a post any time he wanted to on TOP, and we'd settled it long ago that his topics are of his own choosing and I don't interfere. I barely even edit them, except to correct his commas (he's not very good with commas). Had he chosen to, he could simply have written a rebuttal for posting on TOP over his own byline. Instead, he dictated a long recantation that he demanded I publish over my own name, as if I had written it. That, I would not do.

Darlene:

It's been a tough week everywhere.

Beauty In Digital Photography

As I've mentioned, I'm trying to write a book. I've been trying to stay away from the computer on Saturdays to "get fresh," then work on the book on Sundays.

I tried to write a thriller, under the very generous guidance of good friend-o'-TOP John Camp a.k.a. John Sandford, but I don't think I can. The reason is, I don't have thrillers in my bloodstream. I don't read 'em, so I don't know the terrain. In art, even if you're going to turn away from convention and do something entirely iconoclastic (which I wasn't, but as I was saying), you still need to be familiar with the field. Writers start as readers.

(That's why it's a fundamental clue for your photography to get a good handle on what kinds of photography you love to look at. That's your natural terrain, your starting point, wherever you'll go with it.)

Anyway, the book I'm writing is about beauty and meaning in digital photography, and when it's done, if it ever gets done (I'm not good at finishing things, either), it'll be sold as a $x.99 e-book on Amazon, where "x" is probably a 4 but maybe a 5 or a 6.

My only rules for myself are: a) it has to be all new, 100% fresh, nothing patchworked in from old or existing writings, even if I do go over old ground or revisit previously discussed ideas; b) even if I have to back up and restart from various points, it has to be written in one continuous flow, from start to finish, again to avoid that piecemeal, cobbled-together feeling of a collection or compendium (not that there's anything wrong with those); and c) it has to be a friendly, lively, engaging, positive, entertaining read, with the reader's enjoyment uppermost in mind. If it gets turgid, technical, hectoring or argumentative, out that bit goes and over again I begin! (All right, I admit, I've already had to toss one chunk o' text.)

Oh, and it has to be book-length. No e-booklette or book-lite for your bucks.

It's actually a relief to be able to write long for a change—that's been an unscratched itch for a while now.

So that's what I'm doing with my weekends. We'll see how it goes, but it might not actually take all that long; as I always say, I do go on sometimes.

Mike

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Dave Van de Mark: "What a profound little two-sentence paragraph you just wrote—about getting a connection between the photography you love to look at as being a natural start point for your own interpretations. For me, whether it's glancing at a book or my computer, or walking the halls of a gallery, or—best yet—going 'wide screen' with my own eyes outdoors, I'm naturally focused on nature and landscapes. So it is no surprise that my highest interests in photography are exactly the same. I'm not a people, street or man made things photographer—zero interest. I'm always 'framing' with my eyes as I'm walking which is mostly without a camera actually. Then I purposely go out to get my shots I've been musing about."

Bahi: "'Friendly, lively, engaging, positive, entertaining read, with the reader's enjoyment uppermost in mind'—well, that all sounds familiar from your writing here so I'd say the odds are in your favour. Good luck, Mike, and enjoy the writing."

Update

Gordon Lewis has posted an update to his post "Does It Really Have to Be This Hard?" addressing some of your comments and questions.

Mike

P.S. And the answer to the extra-credit quiz last Friday is, of course, 8.

(Well, really it's 7, but the official answer to the question "was it Photoshopped?" is always, "Yes, three men in a rickshaw were removed.")

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The Battle of Otumba (Blog Notes for the Week)

Thus endeth a very short week on TOP, truncated by the Fourth of July on Monday. Here in Western New York, a few stragglers were still blowing off fireworks last night—perhaps to celebrate July 7th, 1520, when Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeated a numerically superior Aztec force at the Battle of Otumba, Mexico. The Battle of Otumba must be important to some Americans, I guess. Must be some reason for those firecrackers yesterday. Maybe that wasn't it.

Tories
If I were rich, I know where I'd go over the Fourth of July weekend: England! Might be just the place to get away. Surely they're more reticent and quiet on that date over there.

It would make a certain amount of sense: like roughly a fifth of the white American population during the American Revolution (as well as many blacks, not all of whom, contrary to common belief, were slaves), at least some of my ancestors were Tories, a.k.a. Loyalists. Is that safe to admit now, or is it too soon? Although the ones I know about didn't go back to England or to other parts of the British Empire during the war or afterwards, as many "King's Men" did. One, the owner of vast tracts of land in Maryland, did get stripped of most of his holdings after the war, however. When we moved to the Maryland side of D.C. years ago I tried to figure out if our house sat on land once owned by my ancestor. That would have been cool. My research was inconclusive; where are the History Detectives when you need 'em?

This week we started out talking about sensors, and my fears on that score were realized—people who own medium-format digital cameras, like Tex and Darlene, did have glowing things to say about them. Apart from a few snaps with Jack's S2 (...a portrait, of course, which had way too much resolution), I've never tried one. It's a gap in my education. Not a single such camera is remotely close to affordable for me, however, so I think I'd probably better go on sleeping in my darkness.

After that we talked about the Olympus E-M1, which readers couldn't make up their minds about; where the dust settled and the numbers ended up with our book sale; TOP's style sheet and how to properly write "Micro 4/3"; Alex Ross's article about violent music and music as violence; "Vemödalen," which means that, as the Preacher said, there is nothing new under the sun—although of course there is; why high resolution sucks in portraits, even when you don't take them with an S2; and, THE most expensive photobook you can buy new...even though we had no idea what it costs (now we do: $25,000 and up).

A short week, then, but we got some stuff in. One last post to go before I knock off tonight for what the French call le weekend. (Seriously, that's what they call it. Despite possessing a wonderfully expressive language, they don't have their own word for "weekend." By the way, the US would never have won the Revolution without the help of the French, so if you're an American and your ancestors were Patriots, I hope you kissed an attractive Frenchperson on both cheeks four days ago. It's as good an excuse as any.)

Ding, Junhui & friend
...So if I did go to England maybe I could see a snooker match in person. Although I never write about pool or snooker, I will mention that I just finished watching the finals of the 2016 World Championship between Ding Junhui, of China, and Mark Selby, who apparently either comes from Lester or knows a guy named Lester, who might or might not be a soccer player and who apparently just won something too. I didn't follow the connection—British sports is like a giant Masonic secret society, which to outsiders looks like a smooth impenetrable stone wall in the corridor of a dungeon unless you know which wall torch to pull. Ding had a case of nerves out of the gate and lost the first six frames, which was great for Selby, because over the remainder of the contest Selby got outplayed 14–12. But of course won anyway, on account of those first six frames. It was a Titanic match that had everything except O'Sullivanesque speed and fluency. Most notable were the grueling tactical frames with some otherworldly safety play. I cannot even imagine how those guys do what they do. One of the frames lasted more than an hour—and the match was best 18 frames out of 35. I watched the entire thing, every shot, and I'm proud of that—the entire contest took 13 hours, two minutes and 28 seconds all told! Kudos to Mark, but if Junhui ever comes out confident and stays that way, he could be the one to walk away with the big cup.

Anyway, I never write about that sort of thing.

...As you know.

See you on Monday, when we'll feature a Guest Post by Gordon Lewis. That gives me enough of an excuse to once again post my portrait of Gordon which I like so much. (Disclosure: it's Photoshopped.)

I hope you have a very nice weekend, and that wherever you are, your lenses are blessed with with the best of light.

All best,
Mike

P.S. For extra credit, guess how the picture of Gordon was Photoshopped:

1. Photo actually taken by Gordon in a giant mirror, reversed in post.
2. Original subject was the late Muhammad Ali, but was Photoshopped to look like Gordon.
3. Gordon isn't actually that handsome.
4. Gordon isn't actually that trim.
5. "American flag" was originally a huge banner ad for tampons.
6. Photo taken in backyard in suburban Philly; New York background taken by B unit comped in later.
7. There was a bit of a newspaper box and a lamppost showing at the far left edge. Begone!
   
8. Three men in rickshaw on sidewalk removed.

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A C Eckert: "I would guess #7 if I didn't instantly recall your Sunday Morning Photographer article, 'This Bothers Me,' from back in 2002. That article profoundly affected my approach to photography while I was starting out with my first serious camera around 2008-ish. It gave me an appreciation for imperfection and a respect honesty in photography, and was just the right antidote to the nitpicky, light on substance, photography advice that I was reading other places. So my vote is for #1!"

Micro 4/3

Just a FYI. Here at TOP, the proper way to write "Micro Four-Thirds" is "Micro 4/3."

Every publication, especially in print but even online, has institutional style guidelines: that is, how it handles the myriad usage, grammatical, graphic design, and typographical choices that come up every day. In many cases there's no right way to write something, but it's important to be consistent, so some decision has to be made and stuck to. Certain very famous publications have famous quirks from the style-sheet: for instance, the New York Times clings to honorifics (Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc.), which creates just as many problems as it solves—for instance, a notorious racist being referred to as "Mr. Duke"—and the New Yorker puts quotation marks around titles instead of italicizing them like every other publication written in English. (I find the latter particularly irritating. It was quirky back when the New Yorker itself was quirky, but that's been a while. Remnick even did away with the NYer's charming old typeface—which I hope the next editor restores; you'd think the least he could do is jettison Ross's old typesetting mistake with titles as well.)

At TOP, I'm faced with "style-sheet" decisions all the time. One such issue surfaced when I tried to decide how to write "raw." Convention was heading in the direction of all caps, i.e., "RAW," but it's not an acronym or initialism. For a while I settled on the unhappy compromise (you'll note that a compromise, while widely praised as a good thing, is often worse than either alternative) of "Raw." I'm back to writing it "raw" now, which is less widespread but more proper. Another such decision that faced me recently is how to abbreviate "depth-of-field" (classically, and properly, hyphenated, as here). I'll be writing "D-o-F" from now on.

Some people even abbreviate "The Online Photographer" (TOP) as "the OLP." I run into that probably once every other month. It makes a certain amount of sense "musically," that is, related to how it rolls off the tongue, but I always wonder what the heck those people think I'm talking about on the frequent occasions when I write "TOP."

Nothing in the whole sprawling universe of photography, I don't think, has more different abbreviations than "Micro Four-Thirds." I just ran into "µ4.3," which is yet another new one on me. Where the heck did that period (a.k.a. "dot") come from? Mu, the lower-case "u" with the little tail, is the twelfth letter in the Greek alphabet and a unit prefix from the decimal system meaning "one millionth" but pronounced "micro." It makes zero sense as an abbreviation for Micro Four-Thirds, which is not a millionth of anything. Except that it's kinda cool in that it a) shows you know what mu means in the decimal system and b) shows you know how to do the keystroke. Then there's µ4/3, m43, m4/3, u4/3, MFT, uFT, and on and on—I've never catalogued all of them, but there must be a dozen. Unlike most such abbreviations, no consensus is developing spontaneously. Not a bad thing, necessarily, since many such mass decisions end up being stupid. It's a jumble—you'll encounter the various abbreviations randomly. I'd swear I've seen the same writer use two different abbreviations in the same paragraph.

So as I say, for the record, here at The Online Photographer a.k.a. "the OLP"/TOP, Micro Four-Thirds is written "Micro 4/3." That's not the "correct" way to do it, and it's not "better" than whatever dumb way other people do it. It's just the way it's done here. "House style."

You are of course not required to go along. But if you wouldn't mind....

Mike the Ed.

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Q: "Since you're a publication with a writing staff of one, you're lucky that you can assure pretty much complete adherence to your style sheet. As a technical writer in what was once fairly large department, I helped create my (now former) department's writing guide, which includes a style sheet (ever-evolving as new terms come up). Although almost all decisions are made by consensus, or at least super-majority vote, writers still consider some of the less-commonly-applied rules to be optional. We often hear, 'That's stupid; I'm not going to do it that way,' or, '...but my writing teacher told me...' or, 'The engineer didn't write it that way,' or any of a long list of other reasons for doing it 'my way' instead of the way everyone else does it. An editor helps a lot here.

"On the other hand, if someone catches you not following your own style sheet, it's a little more difficult to say, 'What? No, I didn't write that....'"

Happy 4th (Blog Notes)

First: don't forget the book sale ends tomorrow! Thanks.

In keeping with the latest schedule modification, TOP will be off for the entire weekend.

Which still feels crazy-indulgent to me. (Two days off? In a row?) Plus, Monday's a holiday here in these United States. If I can keep my hands off the site for that long, I'll be taking the holiday off as well. Three days away. As if two weren't bad enough. (It stresses me out not to have a new post up on TOP continuously; it makes me feel like the whole precarious edifice will implode spontaneously and I'll have to go get a job selling household supplies door-to-door. Micro-entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.)

Anyway, see you on Tuesday morning! I'll be trying to relax.

We had a good week, I think. The most popular topic was sensor size, but we talked about Apple's massive social media ad campaign and pro Chris Floyd, who had his "Frecklehead" photo chosen for it; Photoart; Gallitypes; Brexit and Britain and Boris; the new Hasselblad medium-format mirrorless camera (which brought up the aforementioned issue of sensor size and also where the lenses are made); flower photography and butterfly identification; cautionary tales about assumptions of what photographs mean; firecrackers, and dogs, which is always a good subject to sneak in; simplicity in camera design; eye doctors and Chinese sunglasses; dreams; and three wonderful octogenarians the photo world lost...among other things.

Slowish week for TOP, in other words. Just kidding.  :-)

Good news to end the week, in any event. Just arrived chez TOP is the biannual contribution of our friend JK. John K. writes only two posts for TOP every year, but his contributions arrive like clockwork and are always unique and worth waiting for. I'll post the newest one, about USP (nope, not related to the Post Office or extra-sensory perception) before I knock off work for the weekend tonight. Look forward to it, or check back this weekend sometime to read it.

Don't forget the book sale. Final hours now.

And have a very nice weekend. If you're a USAan, Happy 4th to you, and your family, friends, and furry friends, or any/all applicable. Be safe and well. See you Tuesday morn.

—Mike, TOP majordomo and M.C.

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