GMSU*

My converted Sigma fp is finished and on its way home! By the bye, Daniel, who does the conversions, prefers that the converted camera be known as the Sigma fp(m)**. So that's how I'll refer to it from now on.

I'm still behind on getting new images up on the Flickr page, but I'll get to that soon.

By the way, it was interesting hearing peoples' opinions about what prints to offer. As always, I learned something—multiple people liked "Corn at the Harvest," which is not one of my favorites, and my own favorite picture, "Sun After Rain," only got two mentions. The sample was small, but I'm rethinking whether to include "Sun After Rain." Thanks for your help.

Mike

*Great Monochrome Safari Update

**Actually he wrote "FP(m)" but Sigma styles the model name with lowercase letters, and site style is to follow the official manufacturer names for products. So I'll let Sigma dictate how to write the "fp," and let Daniel dictate how to write the "(m)."

Book o' the Week

Leica M: Advanced Photo School by Günter Osterloh, second edition. My favorite of all the Leica gear books. And they are legion. You will actually learn practical stuff from this one. Used, but this is the latest edition from 2011.

The book link above is a portal to any purchase at Amazon. You're very kind use our links, as they help support the site.

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David Stubbs: "Along the lines of which of your photos drew the most mentions compared to your favorites, I can share an experience. I was for ten years a staff photographer with a big, regional magazine. At the end of every year, our Art Director would pin up that year’s twelve covers and all the editorial staff were invited to rank them from high to low in newsstand sales. As a group, we were never more than 50% accurate. You never can tell."

Comments

[Jeff1000]

Destacado Señor Don Quixote!

🤠👍

[John Krill]

I’m interested in doing a conversion to BW. Does Daniel have a web site?

[Yes, just Google Monochrome Imaging Services. --Mike]

[Dave]

Mike,

Maybe "Sun After Rain" is too expansive, compared to most of the other photos on display. Perhaps "Rain Across the Valley" would be a more popular choice, with its lack of a large negative space. From my computer display, it looks like there's enough delineation for the distant rain to show up well in a print.

"Corn at the Harvest" is quite a small subset of the grand landscapes contained in many of the other photos. I won't hazard a guess at what makes that a favorite for some of the readers.

[Alberto Bengoa]

It's funny about selecting. I consider myself as having that an ok eye, shooting technique and post processing hand in the computer (I have been featured in this very fine site at keast once, so that settles the matter!), selecting the keepers is a very tricky and very different skill from the ones above.

I was editing some photos one day and my wife went past me and immediately stopped saying "oh wow how come you haven't showed me that photo before? It's fantastic!" What I had discarded previously turned out to be one of the Keepers (capital K) and I wouldn't have found it without her.

I also ran an experiment; I took 250ish of my shots, a mix of what I considered my best, what I thought people would consider the best, some deliberately planted mediocre shots that I out there as controls, and some in betweeners. The results did shock me, as the internet clickbait adage goes, and there was a very clear preference for some shots that I would have ignored otherwise, and a very painful disinterest for some that I held dearly. But the exercise was very enlightening and helped strengthen the final selection (which of course I have yet to put online because where is the time to do anything these days?).

In short, I think I need an editor :-)

[Moose]

I have had a few photo books printed, and watched people go through them. Some interact with me, others not, but I can notice which photos get attention and how much.

Some appeal to everyone, some only to a few, others to a different few, etc. I believed I had one clunker; everyone just flipped past it with hardly a glance. Then one friend was so moved that she broke out crying the moment she saw it.

Taste is mysterious.