VSL Lowers the Lights

I got on a call with Kirk Tuck this afternoon and before I knew it we had talked for two hours and 15 minutes...that was a surprise. Felt like 35 minutes.

Kirk is stepping away from his blog again. He's done it in the past, but unfortunately it looks like he means it this time. I understand. Although I won't be joining him.

You can read more from the horse's mouth (so to speak). It was nice of him to mention me in his "see you around."

Check out the bokeh in that second image! I love it.

And one more
Thanks for all the mentions of photo-writers from the past who we miss. Another one I miss, by the way, is Ctein. Just because he didn't have his own site doesn't mean he wasn't adding a lot to the discussion online. I think he wrote almost 350 columns for this site.

I'm happy to say I won't miss Kirk—but I can say that only because I'm pretty sure we'll keep in touch. I suspect he's just starting down a new road, and, given his amazing chops and incredible energy, I can't wait to see where it leads. Kirk Tuck is one seriously accomplished guy. He deserves all the success he has enjoyed.

Mike

P.S. If only he'd see his way clear to get that sports car he wants, so I could enjoy it vicariously!

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Featured Comments from:

Rick_D: "Kirk can't not blog. This is demonstrable. And we can't have Kirk not blogging, so the weird forces comprising the internet will intervene and he'll be back, as it was written. I do not understand how anybody endures a Texas summer so understand why, come September, any Texan wants to hang it up and go do...anything else anywhere else. (I write this eyeballing a weather forecast threatening us with 111 tomorrow.) My best wishes to all involved."

Comments

[Jared S.]

Speaking of photographers we've loved and lost, Andrew Kim of Minimally Minimal was my introduction to the craft. He wrote about photography, cameras, and design from 2008 to 2015, before moving on to be a designer for Microsoft, Tesla, and now Apple.

He had such a unique voice, and I still think his writing illustrates a lot of themes of the late 00's-early 10's minimalist movement, especially in photography. And I feel like contextualizing photography within a broader worldview made a lot of sense, but I've never found another blog that approaches what we do in the same way.

It always hurts to see the people we follow for so long step away from their work, huh? I guess nobody really likes it when things end.

[B Cormack]

I still have a photo blog that is still going, but one with no comments or hardly any visitors. I pretty much keep it going because it's been around for 15 years, and it's turned more into a journal that maybe my kids can look at later on.

That said, what are some good blogs that are still going that you all might recommend? I like to sit down and look at blogs still (I guess that makes me officially old). I hope I'm not the only one.

[Mike Ferron]

Living in the same metro area I never did bump into Kirk while photographing on the streets of Austin but I did attend a one day portrait class he held some years ago. Good guy and I wish him well.

[s.wolters]

Sad, but in a way also a relief. Just like Ming Thein, Kirk produces more text that God can read. And you don't want to miss it.

[Steve C]

Maybe as a pick-me-up you could ask the commentariat what great writing they're still reading?

In the non-photography circles I read I'm starting to hear more people talking about returning to basic blogging, where thoughts can follow a coherent, linear progression and readers can take their time without being at the mercy of "the algorithm".

Film. Blogging. It's all coming back around again. Hang in their Mike, you're about to be the next hot new thing.

[Richard Parkin]

+1 for Ctein.

[Steve Biro]

I'll miss Kirk's musings on VSL. But the good part is that even he says he is likely to be back when he has something to say.

[Tex ANdrews]

I was interested to see this, not especially surprised. Of all the bloggers/site owners I've had interactions with , the one I once had with him was the only unpleasant one---he could be very arrogant, especially if you pointed out a hole in his argument. His images never did anything for me, either.

I did still listen to what he had to say about gear---I thought he could be even-handed, and now will go back for video info. That is of new interest to me for work, as it became for him.

Picking through this "last" post of his, I thought I'd give the most weight to the idea that we don't need blogs like his so much anymore. The differences between cameras now in terms of output have much more nuanced, which is ultimately a good thing. Now camera choices can become what they should be: careful assessment of one's own use-case(s)and then matching the camera to that, and then personal ergonomic preferences that make you comfortable with the camera.

I disagreed very much with his smartphone comments. They only apply to a slice of photography, even if they apply well to that slice.

But, because TOP is about more than mere gear, its purpose remains as long as the writer feels like writing.

[Bugz]

if it takes him longer than 2 months to be back blogging I'll be surprised and 3 months shocked. same thing everytime. he's compulsive, can't help himself

[Dennis]

Say what? Ctein has a newsletter in which he mentions you all the time. He hasn't vanished!

[Fred Haynes]

I started reading blogs with the purchase of a Olympus E-500. First it was TOP, then you had links to Gordon Lewis and Kirk Tuck. I like them both, but Gordon would post weekly, and I would have liked to have read more from him. Kirk wrote a lot! I found him likable but maybe a tad too wordy. Maybe too much into the technical?
Then Gordon packed it in, and a health crisis pulled me away from reading online until two years ago, and i gravitated back to you Mike.
I guess someday you’ll say “I’ve had it”, I just hope that doesn’t happen for a while. I’d really miss you.
Fred

[Kodachromeguy]

I enjoyed reading Mr. Tuck's blog occasionally. But he sure was one of the last of the equipment churners. Maybe his readers just got bored now that most digital photographers already have a perfectly good digital camera that will do almost anything that they want. It is ironic, but he often posted photographs from his archives that demonstrated how his older digital equipment made perfectly fine images. And his film archives were even better. Well, time moves on, and I hope he returns to blogging some day.