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Tuesday, 31 December 2019

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OK, I'll take the plunge. Zorki 4/Jupiter 3. You'll remember to ask how it went this time next year, right?

The best way - that I personally practise - to rejuvenate photographing is to actually go out and shoot with a camera. Even better, use a real camera and not the hand phone.

Subjects are plentiful even if you are half looking. It can be any subject but it's important to press the shutter. I look for subjects with additional value like a dog on the leash and then you talk with the owner. Or order a cappucino and chat with the barista and ask for permission to take a picture.

I like coffee and I like dogs. Shooting them is like second nature.

Bonne Annee pour 2020.

That's the big mistake we make. So you're in your sixties (I am not, quite), and 'one year isn't all that long anyway'. Yes, it is that long: one year might be a tenth of all the time you have. If you (if we) have something you want to do, especially if doing it takes a year, do it now, because you are running out of time faster than you know.

With the Happy New Year eye chart and all, I'll pass along something an ophthalmologist told me that has nothing to to with OCOLOY (which is pronounced, I assume, Ock-A-Loy?) That is, most people who wear spectacles see better than almost all people who don't. Very few people have a perfect 20-20, but many are very close, so close they don't really need expensive correction. So they go through life with good vision, but not as sharp and crisp as people who wear glasses, because an ophthalmologist can prescribe glasses that correct most people to essentially perfect vision. And, he said, when eyesight begins to fail in old age, and glasses can't quite get you back to perfect, more eyeglass wearers get upset by that, because more non-wearers have been accustomed to a (very) slight blurriness all their lives. YMMV.

About that OCOLOY: I would suggest that, as a person who is an advocate of the 40mm focal length, that if you do an OCOLOY, you do something like an 85mm. You've often said you don't really see long; an OCOLOY should make you do something unfamiliar and difficult, if you've already done one at your preferred length.

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR replete with health, happiness and GREAT VISION to you, Mike, and all TOP readers!

MJ OCOLOY = X-H1 + 35 1.4

Happy 2020!

After reading all these recent blogs, I'm tempted on a D40 + 35mm 1.8 DX version...or maybe half-way tempted.

I hadn't realized it till I saw this posting but with the new-to-me Nikon D3200 in hand, I'm in a perfect spot to do an OCOLOY kind of thing. Should I hair shirt it and only put on the 35/1.8? Or cheat and put on the 18-55 kit zoom? Hmm. Something to ponder as I welcome the change of calendar at work tonight.

Have a happy new year, sir, and may it be one full of beautiful light.

Do it. Happy New Year!

I ignored the OCOLOY when you first suggested it but I have enjoyed using My Nikon D7500 with just my Sigma Art 30mm 1.4 over the holiday period. So I'm launched in this new year. My other choices were my Fujifilm x70 or my Sigma Merrill DP 2. The latter is just too limiting for family events but it was a tight decision between the Fuji and the Nikon. I've removed the batteries from the other two.

A very happy new year 2020 to you, Sir!

Fuji x100 would be my choice if I was going to do it. 35mm (equiv) suits me. Good image quality. Ultra portable. And you can't cheat.

My favorite eye chart, made by a neighborhood graphic artist for my local Optometry School.

http://goines.net/Poster_art3/poster_81.html

They use this on their exam reminder postcards, which always makes me smile.

I can't help thinking that doing this with any kind of zoom lens is not quite 'getting' the idea - as the prime alternative to this would be taking, say, a bag with a 20, a 24, a 28, a 35, a 50, an 85 etc it has immediately turned into 'one year, multiple lenses' - ie no different to any other year...

Regarding OCOLOY: I spent most of my photographic life with one OCOL combination or another, and by way of counter-balance I now enjoy having built up a large set of primes from which I can choose. But the "limit yourself" ethos of OCOL is still lingering underneath.

Last summer I went on a 2-week railway trip with my daughters, an important event for all of us. Most of my lenses stayed at home. I had with me one XPro2 with the 27mm f/2.8 attached and one XH1 with the 16mm f/1.4 attached, nothing else. Each day I took out one or the other, never both. Beautiful.

Happy new year to you, Mike, and to all fellow TOPers.

I like this idea as a project for changingoptics.org

Yesterday I photographed with an OMD5.2 / 17 1.8, all day and into the first minutes of 2020.

When I get out of bed in a few moments I will choose my first camera of the day.

My constant is a MediaPro, Lightroom, Photoshop workflow, all files must fit.

MediaPro was abandoned by PhaseOne a bit ago and does not recognize new to the market RAW camera files.

Can I withstand the purchase of a new camera for one year?

Here's looking at you!

Mike,
I wish you
A Happy New Year!
And a Merry New Photo - and Blog - Year!
- * -

Now, if you'll allow me, totally O.T.,
but important to one and all,
and also - in a way - about looking
(and good to consider at the start of 2020):

( For each day of the summer and winter holidays Swedish Radio invites well-known people to hold a 90 min. talk show mixed with music.)

Today it was Johan Rockström,
Professor in Environmental science
at Stockholm University,
who made a significant talk on the still open possibility to keep climate change within limits.

For once there is also an English version of his talk in ”Vinter i P1” :
Download :
https://sverigesradio.se/topsy/ljudfil/srse/7197803.mp3
Listen online :
https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1425542
- - -

Also several talks of his on YouTube,
especially :
"5 transformational policies for a prosperous and sustainable world"
( TED Talk,
12 min., one year ago )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv-tDrv__mc
and
"Beyond the Anthropocene"
( World Economic Forum,
21 min., two years ago)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ETiSaxyfk
- - -

[ Johan Rockström :
" After 12 years as director of Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), he became 2018 joint director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), based in Germany, together with PIK's current deputy director Professor Ottmar Edenhofer. Rockström and Edenhofer replace PIK director Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. He has recently joined climate change charity Cool Earth as a trustee."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rockstr%C3%B6m

"' Rockström is internationally recognized on global sustainability issues. In 2009, he led the team which developed the Planetary Boundaries framework, a proposed precondition for facilitating human development at a time when the planet is undergoing rapid change."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries
]

I'll validate what John wrote. Very nearsighted since young childhood, I've always given optometrists a workout during refractions, insisting that my corrected vision be at least 20/20, 20/15 when achievable. With film, my preference is shooting the 8x10 format. In digital, where many would complain of "excessive sharpening," my prints are made to reflect the excellent acutance I experience in the real world.

As age and presbyopia entered the equation, I insisted on progressives and the most advanced digitally-surfaced eyeglass lenses to maintain maximum acuity at all distances and viewing angles.

There's a photographic advantage to strong myopia. By peering over my eyeglasses, I can examine view cameras' focus screens from around four inches away. That's optical infinity for my uncorrected, minimally astigmatic, eyes. It's like having a built-in loupe. Very convenient. :-)

Well, I guess my Rollei 35 SE that I mentioned in another post would qualify. Now, do I have the self-discipline to do it?

With best regards,

Stephen

I might be tempted to do two lenses - 21mm and 50mm on APS-C.
Unless the kids are playing soccer... Then the 200mm lens has to come out...

Hi Mike, Happy New Year........
As others have hinted, maybe OCOLOY doesn't need to be an 'exclusive' year. Perhaps some people would avoid taking it on because they know they may need to use a different lens during that year.
For my OCOLOY I purchased a Panny GX7 and 20mm.
During that year, I went on a photo trip (Winter in Yellowstone) using only my big Nikons, which I've used for years. After I returned, I went straight back to the baby Panny GX7 and 20mm. It worked for me.
Incidentally, when I got the GX7, I fitted the 20mm, set the color mode to B + W, the ISO to auto and that was that. The kit lens that came with the GX7 has never been on the body.

I can't imagine even considering cutting back my photography that drastically for a whole year. I think I've been more deeply enmeshed in photography than this allows since, oh, 1968 maybe.

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