The Online Photographer

Important Question for You (Blog Note)

I have an important question for regular readers. Say a guest author wrote a post on TOP a number of years ago, and you left a comment. Now, he wants to republish the same post on his own website. He feels your comment is valuable and also wants to include that. He's leaving it in the same context in which it was written and the original source will be noted, and let's stipulate that the new location will be a courteous and decent public website, nothing fringey or dark. Assuming he cannot ask your permission directly, would you have any objection to him exporting your comment and republishing it? Would you feel your rights had been trampled, that you had been taken advantage of, or even that his actions were merely somewhat impolite to you? Would you feel uncomfortable about it in any way?

Please do speak up even if your objections are minor, as I'm trying to take the temperature of the readership as a whole. 

Thanks!

Mike

P.S. Comments to this post will not be published until this evening or tomorrow, as I don't want the responses of others to influence anyone who is responding.

Blog Note: Hiatus

Just an advance warning that I'll be away for a few days next week due to a family emergency. Family tragedy is more accurate. I'll leave links to some gems from the past to keep you occupied while I'm away, and I humbly ask your forbearance.

One of the problems of blogs is that they can't stop. When this type of website was more popular—they went from cutting edge to old fashioned in 20 years—I could be away for a week and it wouldn't affect traffic even during the time I was gone. Now, if I went silent for a week it would be at my great peril; my numbers would take a permanent hit. In AA they call that "life on life's terms" (i.e., that's the way it is), and the proper stance toward it "acceptance" (it is what it is).

Mike

The Missing Featured Comments for the 'Menu Problem' Post

Ed. note: These are so late I figured I'd give them their own post. Sorry for the delay! The links and suggestions kept sending me down rabbit holes.

Here's the original post: How To REALLY Fix the Menu Problem, from this past Thursday.

JOHN B GILLOOLY: "I think that sounds great. It would also really familiarize the new owner with all of the capabilities of the camera. Most people, myself included, usually only scratch the surface of some of the tech innovations within the camera."

Bruce Bordner: "I've done things like this, and it starts out simple. The camera companies could easily do a setting-setting app or interactive website. However, I think what you really want/need is Thom Hogan in an app, with a few others to answer 'why would I need that?' Demos of effects would be great...now we're talking some real money with AI and gotta have blockchain, bro! It's still worth a start, but I think it has to start with the camera designers. They have to compete and cooperate with cell phones anyway. Why not add some image processing in your phone.... Now you got me going dang it!"

Malcolm Myers: "I've basically had similar thoughts for years: set your camera up on your computer. Want a faux-Leica? Turn everything off and shoot! Want your own menus? Great, set them up! Want different profiles for different situations? No problem! Two bodies? Make them the same! I'm amazed no-one's done it."

Speed: "There is a very large camera company which also manufactures printers. These printers are set up and controlled by users' personal computers. My experiences with printer setup has been...not good. The last thing I want in this world is having this or any other camera company writing more software to 'help' set up my camera or anything else. Their user manuals are bad enough. Eventually some camera manufacturer will do it. It will be painful and costly. In time it will become the norm but I'll wait for version three.

"As a software developer friend (I don't hold it against him) often reminds me, 'Software is hard.'"

Keith: "This is actually a well thought out concept, and could be carried over to many other items as well. How many off us still struggle with programming the VCR to record 'Sanford and Son'? Yes I'm being a bit sarcastic there, but I recall VCR's as being one of the first consumer items that was widely regarded as a bit of a user interface vs. user manual nightmare. Working in the field of industrial automation, I see this with many of the newer electronic components. From photo-eye sensors that have multiple pages of programming options, to basic control modules that require a full Ethernet setup for that device plus anything connected to it. I recently installed a small temperature controller (about the size of a four-pack of 120 roll film) that had nearly a 400-page manual. Companies that recognize this and implement a program to bridge the gap between their products and end users' understandings will have an edge on their competitors."

Robert: "A great idea Mike. Sign me up. There are examples of this in other technologies. For example, Logitech has a 'lead you through it' app for setting up their all-in-one remotes. You then download the setup to the device. It's not the world's best software, but it's better than the alternative."

Peter Wright: "This is such an obvious idea that I keep wondering why it has not been done. It would be I believe a major selling feature for a large part of the buying public. It could even have kept me using the Olympus EM-1 Mark II."

Kirk Tuck: "Or you could just buy into a system with a very well-designed menu system. The Leica SL2 is a joy to configure. It reinforces the idea that Olympus and Sony menus are first translated from Martian and then to Plutonian and only, finally to a human language. The one flaw with your idea is the need to have a computer just to be able to initially access your camera. We should be going the other direction and try to figure out more and more how not to go to the computer first. Leica; three buttons and a joy stick. That's it. Check it out if you are looking for simplicity in an interface. And a very logical menu."

JH: "I suggested this to several camera company reps in 2003 when I bought a Nikon D100 and again after buying an Olympus Micro 4/3 camera in 2010. The Oly U.S. rep I corresponded with told me they never passed suggestions along to the factory because they had been told that they did not want to get sued by somebody who claimed their idea was stolen. Actually I suspected the real reason was the NIH syndrome—not invented here."

Mike replies: Years ago I made some detailed suggestions to a hi-fi manufacturer. The VP (there were only a few principals at the company) entered into an involved discussion with me as to why they would never take my suggestions, with several rounds of long back-and-forth emails as I tried to persuade him that my ideas were good ones. He reported back to me about the reactions of others in the company, including engineers.

A year later, the company implemented all of my suggestions exactly as I had outlined them. When I contacted my 'friend' the VP to express my pleasure, to my astonishment he insisted he had never heard of me before, that our correspondence had never taken place, and that their actions were independent, were developed completely in-house, and could not possibly have had anything to do with me. I felt like I was being gaslighted! When I mentioned this odd development to friends in business, it was explained to me that they were probably afraid I would want to be paid if they acknowledged me. I had never asked for pay and I never had any expectation of payment, but it must be a problem for companies.

Anyway I don't do that any more.

David Dyer-Bennet: "I would never consider buying a camera that depended on an external website for configuration! The site might not last as long as the camera. Maybe, as a local app, taking advantage of the greater power and space on a computer compared to the camera; that could work. Also doesn't freeze out people working far away from Internet access."

Adam Lanigan: "I think there would also be a ton of value in your approach to the camera company as well, as this approach would really allow them to understand the features their customers actually use, how they set up their cameras, level of experience, how often they change that setup later on, etc., etc."

John Krumm: "Still sounds complicated! I would like my menus to look like Hasselblad's do now."

Alex Mercado: "'We are sorry, but the page you are looking for cannot be found. Click here to browse our latest selection of cameras.' I can't help but think one would vehemently regret such a solution, the very moment your camera's menus-on-a-website returns a 404 error."

Ed Hawco: "Mike, you might recall that I suggested essentially this on this very blog in a comment in October 2011. Specifically: 'Self-configurable menus. Not by jerking around with the buttons on the camera back, but by uploading a configuration file to your computer where a nice user-friendly GUI lets you drag & drop menu items around until you have menus that make sense to you. You can bury (or even remove) all the silly functions you don't care about and arrange the frequently used ones at the top where you can find them easily. Re-download to your camera and bingo, customized menus.'"

Mike replies: I wouldn't be surprised if that's where I got the idea! Could have happened. After moderating ~250,000 comments, I've learned a huge amount from others here. And by the way, many of your comments over the years have been great ones.

Scott Abbey: "This sort of user interface has been in use for many years in other fields. For instance, I use a multi-effects pedal board which allows me to have different guitar effects—reverb, equalization, compression, and many others. While the one I now use (a Line 6 Helix) has a pretty robust on-device UI, it also has a PC app which makes it even easier to configure, and it also lets you store sets of configurations which you can load as needed—your settings for a wedding gig, and another set for that thrash metal band you also play in. Why camera manufacturers have never done this is beyond me. It ain’t rocket science."

Mike replies: Speaking of which, the other day a reader called ghmcs recommended Gary Friedman's series of guides to Sony cameras—for instance this one about the A6100 and A6600 (search "Friedman Archives" on Amazon for others). Anyway, Gary Friedman literally used to be a rocket scientist!  :-)

Sroyon: "What a great idea. Could go even further (though I don't know if it's feasible in terms of computing power) and six months later, let you run an analysis of the metadata in your Lightroom gallery or whatever other archive, coming up with suggestions like 'You haven't used X in six months, do you still wish to keep it in your menu options?' or 'You appear to use Y frequently, do you want to assign it to a custom button?'"

Ed. note: The following two comments came in one right after the other, just as you see here, no foolin':

Joseph Reid: "Fantastic idea! You could store the settings on a card or just tether the camera for the setup routine. I wonder what Thom Hogan would say about how likely it is that camera makers would do this."

Thom Hogan: "I've been advocating something different for years (decades?). That something different is 'named settings files' that can be saved/loaded. You could supplement that with a computer/tablet/phone application that creates/manages such files, but it's not necessary. Why isn't it necessary? Because there's a huge ecosystem out there that would develop and distribute such files. I'm finishing up a book (!) on setting up a Sony A1. I could easily provide some named settings files if only Sony allowed it.  ;~)  "

Peter: "This is the best post / idea that you have had in the many years that I have been reading your blog. Well Done."

Harry B Houchins: "Brilliant idea, but sadly impractical...."

Thanks to you if you left any comment, 'Featured' or not! (I'm going to dispense with the end matter on this post, as it's not really a separate post. I'm sure there will be comments on this; should I then do Featured Comments on these Featured Comments? Talk about rabbit holes....)

—Mike the Ed.

Blog Notes

Two brief notes: When Bill T., TOP's unofficial and occasional but still highly valued proofreader (thanks Bill!), alerted me to some formatting errors in the "Official Check" post, I opened it to find all sorts of wayward gobbledegook in the HTML. The assistant editor does not know how that got there. It should be set right now; but I was away from the computer for quite a while yesterday and I wanted to apologize for leaving the undies out on the clothesline while I was gone. I'll get on the assistant editor's case about it. He's a distractable scalawag.

Second, I'm due for a series of medical appointments in the week upcoming. Here in the sparsely-peopled interior of Western New York State we're obliged to drive all over L and gone for such things, so the Chief Writer and Bottlewasher's (not to mention the assistant editor's) hands could seem a little too light on the controls in the upcoming week. Apologies in advance if you get the feeling here and there that there isn't anyone manning the barricades.

Mike

If you don't mind I'll close the comments to this post since these are just announcements.

Blog Note: Damn'd Mice!

I have mice. I've trapped two of the little buggers upstairs, but they leave telltale feces when they eat anything so you can tell if they've been there. It's a minor problem but I know they're there. I'm going to wait till the weather is warm to trap the little buggers and drive them out to the country. I know I'm being sentimental, but I have to be humane with anything that cute.

The computer kind
Oddly, I'm having another persistent mouse problem...with my computer mouses. (The plural of a flesh-and-bone mouse is mice, but I think if you have three computer mouses in the houses—er, house—it's just an object called a mouse and more than one is mouses. No?) 

My bluetooth mouses stopped working with my Mac Mini—that is, stopped being Magic (the name is the "Magic Mouse II," for those of you outside the Appleverse)—so I switched back to the old Mighty Mouses with the scroll wheels, buying them used off eBay. But I'm on my second one and the scroll wheel has gone all intermittent on me. It works, but it's surly and sullen.

Wasn't this a solved problem at some point? For, like, decades? Didn't computer mouses work reliably for years and years? Also, Lord, why me?

I'm really tired of trying to work while not being able to responsively move the cursor around the computer screen. It's like trying to work with (searches decaying brain for analogy) someone gently tapping you on the head with a twig. It's not annoying once, or twenty times, but all day every day and it'll drive you insane. Same principle as what used to be called the Chinese Water Torture. Drip, drip, drip.

Anyway, too much preamble. Can anyone confidently recommend a good, high-quality, reliable third-party left-handed wired mouse?

Equipment!
Meanwhile, Microsoft has discontinued the funky split keyboard I've been using for years and years and years and years. You can still buy the odd new one here and there, but for inflated prices. This might not seem like a crisis to you, but I have a very idiosyncratic way of typing and I don't get along well with normal keyboards. Even if I were able to find another Microsoft 4000, it wouldn't matter, because they don't last—I've been through more than a dozen of them over the years. The failure point: the letters wear off the keys. That's either a flagrant design failure or transparent planned obsolescence, and either way it's exasperating.

Yikes. Equipment!

All this actually does relate to photography quite well. Over the years I've heard many stories of people who depended on certain products reaching this same sort of crisis point when their materials were discontinued. It's not just that we get used to a certain way of working. It's that we acquire mastery that suddenly becomes useless. We invest time and work in our expertise with the materials. It's often easy to adapt to new equipment and materials, and sometimes we even do it on purpose as a way of revitalizing our engagement; but in other cases it's a loss. Even Ansel Adams, the great technician, was unhappy with the photo papers he was able to get at the end of his life. They didn't respond like the ones he was used to. The extreme example was Frederick Evans, who quit photography altogether when he could no longer get the Pt/Pd papers his work depended on.

Constant progress and improvement in cameras, software, and printers these days is usually accepted as being a good thing, and it mostly is, but what some artist-craftspeople need is just to settle in with what they're used to and be able to depend on that. The deep expertise that accumulates with time and practice can be difficult to sustain when the ground is always shifting. I suppose some of you have enough talent with tech that this never comes up, but if so then I'm slower than you.

I'll be spending time today researching keyboards. Yeesh.

Mike

Book o' This Week:

André Kertész, On Reading, the lovingly crafted reprint of the lyrical 1971 classic by an early master of the small camera. (Would make an excellent Valentine, for a person who reads.) The above link will take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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.

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

Mike: "I worked for Apple for years doing support and found continual issues with bluetooth mice was often caused by other bluetooth mice in the house, including one where the customer remembered an old one stored in the basement. He went and tracked it down, removed the battery or turned it off, issue resolved. The issues can show up as continual or intermittent as the Mac connects back and forth to the different mice. Bluetooth range can be farther than you might expect.

"Not saying this is for sure your issue, but Apple products tend to be more robust than the string of failures you seem to be experiencing."

Mike replies: Hmm, that sounds like a real possibility. I got an iMac for upstairs and I don't think I had the problems before that. Plus, the problem sometimes happened upstairs as well, which mystified me but which your idea explains. I wonder if I was turning off the computers upstairs and down but leaving the mouses (mice) turned on, causing each computer to get confused.

I'll experiment with that. Thanks.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. I've been checking out a lot of them throughout the day. Also, it appears that I was more or less wrong about the keyboard: Microsoft has discontinued the old 4000, but is making a new redesigned version called the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard.

Blog Note

Stephen Scharf wrote: "No mention of the new GFX100S? No. 1 Best Seller at B&H at present...."

There's a very old joke from way back in the days of the Model T Ford. I'm sure you've heard it before. Man takes his car to the mechanic. Describes his trouble. Mechanic looks under the hood, takes a hammer, and give the engine a whack. Starts the car, and it purrs like a kitten.

"That'll be fifty cents," he says.

"What! Fifty cents? All you did was give it one blow with your hammer. That seems an awful lot of money for such a simple thing!"

"Oh, the hammerin' was free," answers the mechanic. "It was knowin' where to hit it what cost the fifty cents."

Anyway...it's easy to write. The hard part is knowing what to say.

I'm a-workin' on it!

Mike

Book o' This Week:

Eyes Over the World: The Most Spectacular Drone Photography, by Dirk Dallas. The above link will take you to Amazon.

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:

Help?

I need some help. I've been putting links to relevant books at the end of posts recently. This week I meant to feature a book about drone or aerial photography, but I didn't noticed in time that the one I had picked is out of print and expensive now. Trying to research a replacement I get a little stuck. I've found good books of aerial photography done from helicopters and of course airplanes, and a few of satellite photos. But I'd rather pick up the theme of drones we've been visiting lately. Does anyone know of a good solid book about drone photography or of drone photographs? A book you've actually seen or that you own, rather than just something you've found online?

I can just pick a different book but I figured I'd give this a try first. TIA,

Mike

Book o' Last Week (new one coming up):

Peter Lindbergh On Fashion Photography, with text in English, French, and German. Original coffee table version or small 40th Anniversary version, take your pick. Both are hardcovers. The links above will whisk you away to Amazon.

Playin' Hooky (Blog Note)

TOP is on hiatus this week.

If you're looking for something to keep you occupied till our slacker Editor gets back, check out the completely and almost unprecedentedly awesome New York Times "2020 in Photos: A Year Like No Other."

This is no rote "as-usual" end-of-year feature, no casual feel-good eye-candy. It contains a much larger number of photographs than usual, arranged by month, with excellent captions, often calling out and describing the work of specific photographers for their accomplishment and risk-taking. This is a photojournalistic and editorial accomplishment in and of itself, on its own.

I've been there three times already and I'm only up to May.

This one will reward your attention. Highly recommended.

The view from the red chair, just now

See you soon!

—Slacker Editor, enjoying his break

P.S. See the update in the pool table post...

Book of interest this week:

The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St Clair
(clicking on the links above takes you to Amazon)

From The Book Depository (free shipping worldwide)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Viggo Johansen, Joyful Christmas, 1891

Many of us will be more isolated than usual this year, and some who aren't might be taking greater risks than they would like. For me it will be a quiet Christmas spent alone, wishing I could be with family and friends. I hope to have a peaceful and contemplative day that includes prayer and meditation. I have a nice meal planned.

I sympathize with others who are alone but hey, it's not the worst thing in the world. This too shall pass. We can get through it.

This year has been a trying and tragic one. Still, we just passed the Winter Solstice, and from now on the light lasts longer. My prayer is that 2021 will be a brighter year, for my country and its people and for all people around the world. We all hope we will make headway against this capricious and erratic virus and that it will begin to die out. In the meantime, we each do our part.

I thought Viggo Johansen's picture might remind us that Christmas can be a celebration of light in the darkness of Winter. Fight back! Stand in the light, whether actual or metaphorical.

A Christmas Carol, which I'm re-reading now, is at root the story of a spiritual awakening. Groundhog Day, which I'll re-watch on my break, suggests that accommodating to the knottiness of existence is a repetitive task. Both are light entertainments, but their positivity is a little more than empty treacle and cheer. I think I'll also try to find a bluegrass Christmas album, on account of you can't be in a bad mood while listening to bluegrass.

I'll be taking a week off. I'm not planning to do anything. I'm just going to rest and take it easy for a few days, and get lots of sleep.

Meanwhile, I wish you a Merry Christmas and good health. May you walk through these days with a light heart and an easy step.

Back real soon,

—Mike, Head Writer and kitchen help of T.O.P.

Blog Note: Books of Interest

About the book link at the bottom of the post: I thought in 2021 I would resurrect my onetime practice of putting a link to a relevant, recommended, or intriguing book at the end of every post—perhaps one mentioned in a recent post, perhaps not; perhaps one I've seen, perhaps one I've only heard of. If the feature provides a convenient jump to Amazon for TOP readers, so much the better.

Because not everyone can see the image links on my site, I'll include both an image and a text link, plus a link the to book at The Book Depository, which offers free international shipping worldwide. I'll keep each link up for about a week.

Give this a few weeks then I'll ask you what you think of it.

I'll venture a guess Elements, due soon on January 5th, might sell out quickly. Voyeuristic voyaging to the corners of the earth for those stuck isolating.

Mike

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.

Book of interest this week:

Elements: In Pursuit of the Wild, Rucksack magazine
(clicking on the links above takes you to Amazon)

Elements from The Book Depository (free shipping worldwide)

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

No featured comments yet: please check back soon!

Blog Notes: Blog Birthday

Item: Dang, I missed our birthday! The Online Photographer turned 15 a few weeks ago, on November 22nd. When I started this in 2005, my ambition was to try to keep it going for ONE WHOLE YEAR. That goal seemed unlikely. And here we are, 15 years (and a few days) later, still spluttering along. Pretty amazing. It's like starting an OC/OL/OY with dubious prospects, entirely unsure if you can make it, and then finding yourself still shooting with that same camera and lens fifteen years later.

Item: We had a lovely snowfall last night. Nine inches where I am, a medium powder.

Item: I'm going to be taking Christmas week off this year (I normally take three days). I'll be gone starting Mon. Dec. 22 and return on Sunday Dec. 27th. Hopefully before I go I'll post some links to some gems from the archives for those who want to go exploring.

Item: Two days from now, on Saturday, it will be the one-year anniversary of my latest diet experiment, and I'll post an update. During the past year I've been practicing time-restricted eating, plus I've been following a mainly plant-based diet. I'm trying to keep the size of the post down to something less than book-length! It's been an interesting experiment.

Item: I believe the recent "What Do You Shoot With These Days?" post received the second-highest number of comments in TOP's now 15-year history: 293 as of this morning. The all-time record is 701 comments, and it was to a question very similar to this one back in 2014—I asked about "Your Favorite Digital Camera." The Nikon D700 won the contest at that time.

Item: We didn't have any Print Sales this year, turns out. An idea for the next one is a-stirring in my brain. I have something a little different in mind. Because the last few sales have sold between 50 and 100 prints, I thought I'd collect a limited number of prints from each of several photographers, get them all boxed up and ready to go in advance, then offer them to you, first come first served. There are reasons for such a plan, one of which is that it sounds like fun to me.

As ever, I shall keep you posted.

Mike

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:

Jay Salisbury: "I’ve been here for all those years though I never comment. Have enjoyed your blog even though I’m not even real serious about photography anymore. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks!"

Mike replies: Well, I'm glad you finally spoke up! And you are welcome.

Roger Bradbury: "Happy birthday, TOP man! I think I started here about fourteen years ago, and have been chipping in with comments ever since. Since I enjoyed the blog so much, early on I went back right to the beginning and went through all your old posts; first on the old site, then here. It's a nice place to be, which is why I keep coming back."

Caleb Courteau: "I forget how I found you Mike. I think it may have been through the Sunday Morning Photographer at the Luminous Landscape. I was in my early twenties then and am now thirty-five years old. At this point reading your writing has been a part of my weekly routine for a large fraction of my life. Jobs, girlfriends, and cameras have come and gone while reading your blog. I bought my first house, got married, and started a new career, but The Online Photographer has been a steady companion throughout."

Mike replies: That's humbling, Caleb, thank you. I'm honored!

Dachshund! (OT)

I'm driving to Buffalo today to pick up that pool table light. I'm starting to think I'm just deliberately making this project more difficult than it has to be. It's starting to feel like there will never be a pool table in this shed. It's not like it has to be difficult; but the pool table I want costs $5,000 and another $2,000 for delivery and installation once all is said and done. It's as decisively and emphatically out of reach as that medium-format Fuji. I'm trying to do everything on a budget which greatly complicates the project.

My mother had a dachshund once whose name was Wolfgang. Wolfgang was not an ordinary dog—he was a miniature long-hair silver-dapple dachshund (meaning his coat was black and brown and silvery gray) who had one brown eye and one blue eye. He thought he was Napoleon—he would get in the faces of Great Danes and German Shepherds and bark furiously until the big dogs backed down. To paraphrase Thea Berg, other dogs had bigger sticks but Wolfie swung his harder. Anyway Wolfgang would drive us crazy by barking whenever his ball got stuck under the radiator. He'd whine and whimper and "dig" furiously trying to get the ball out. Finally it occurred to me to wonder why his ball always seemed to get stuck under the same spot, so I followed him around one day. He went here and there, nosed the ball away from him and chased it, settled down to gnaw on it for a while—and then he trotted over to the radiator, set the ball down, and deliberately rolled it with his nose to where he couldn't get it. Then he promptly began worrying it, barking, scratching, and whining. Funny!

Maybe that's me. Who drives four hours in the car to get a pool table light? I'm not even going to save any money on it when all is said and done. Anyway, here's the Wolfgang aspect of today's mission: we're setting out for a two-hour-plus drive West without knowing whether the light is going to fit inside the car. Why do I do stuff like this to myself?

Happy about a heater
Here's the latest on the shed: The drywall is all done and looks fantastic. The walls are going to be the spiffiest feature of the room, as befits their status as the basis for the photography exhibit. The electrical got finished up yesterday too—all the outlets got dug out of the plaster, spacers installed for depth, and the new covers on (I don't know what the damned things are called and maybe there isn't even a name for them—the plates that surround switches and outlets on the wall). The eight-foot baseboard heating unit was installed—with two coats of paint behind and underneath it—and the thermostat went in. You've never seen a guy happier about a heater. I love it.

So—progress. Hopefully, the next thing you'll see is a photograph of the undamaged pool table light, hung on a fan box and emanating photons. Baby steps. Wish me luck.

Mike

UPDATE later that same day.... The mission went splendidly and without a hitch. My friend Eric consented to use his truck (thanks Eric), a humongous vehicle with a 5-liter V8 that can accommodate a large riding mower, and anyway the pool table light would have fit in my car. It took us only four hours, plus a few minutes for stops, and it was great to have company along the way. The pool table light exceeds my expectations—it's really very nice and the quality is excellent. The seller said it cost $540 new, and I paid her asking price of $150. Next step will be to get it installed. Then I'll suck it up and motivate myself to begin the painting.

But right now ah'm tarred, as they say in the South. 

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:

Robert Roaldi: "I've driven farther for good cheese and cappuccino. What you're doing make total sense. Are we going to get a post about the different kinds of billiard balls they make? I assume that as with everything else, there are all kinds of choices."

Mike replies: Your wish is my command. I'll put it on the list.

Patrick Dodds: "Re 'Anyway, here's the Wolfgang aspect of today's mission: we're setting out for a two-hour-plus drive West without knowing whether the light is going to fit inside the car. Why do I do stuff like this to myself?' This made me laugh harder than anything I've ever read here before. Thank you. Worthy of James Thurber himself."

Kefyn Moss: "The cover around a light switch is called an escutcheon plate."
Tom Burke: "In the UK the front of an electrical socket is known as the face plate."
Ben Rosengart: "They're called switch plates."
Malcolm Leader (partial comment): "They're simply called coverplates."

Mike replies: You see the problem!

Steve Rosenblum: "Jeez, I go for long drives just to get out of the house during the pandemic and I have no other goal in mind!"

Mike replies: ...In your new Tesla! I might go on long drives too...

My favorite story about aimless drives comes from a book in a series called "Witness" by Lee Friedlander about his and Maria's friend the sculptor Raoul Hague, who made giant abstract wooden sculptures out of sections of large trees. Seems Raoul would head off on a journey but get distracted by curiosity and aesthetic promise at every turn and crossroad, and he would simply follow whatever path looked more promising in terms of things to see. In so doing he would get hopelessly lost and couldn't find his way back home. In his later years this problem was solved by his friends who made a rule that whenever Raoul went driving someone else had to go along. It was this second person's responsibility to navigate and keep track of where in the heck they were, so they stood a chance of finding their way back. All in the era long before GPS, of course.

Update, Friday 7:30 a.m.

The insulators are here. This is going to be interesting—I don't know much about polyurethane spray foam insulation and have never used it before. All the trades in this area seem to have a high opinion of it, and I keep hearing good things about the outfit doing the application. Everyone tells me it will make the shed "very tight" (I must have heard those words eight times from various people) and a number of people have told me it will improve the structural integrity of the shed. One guy even said I won't have any trouble with insects if I use spray foam. I asked the guy who's doing the application, Tyler, what he thought about the baseboard heating idea, and he said "you'll be able to heat this space with a match" and "you'll be playing pool in your bare feet."

Okay, bring it on. 

Other fun facts? It takes half an hour to 45 minutes to heat the foam material and prep the line for spraying, but once he gets going Tyler estimates it will take him only an hour to an hour and half to spray the whole interior of the shed. And the foam sets so fast you can touch it within ten seconds and paint it after only 15 minutes.

The retailer's friend
An administrative note: Black Friday on TOP is not starting until—this is quirky, I know—the day after Thanksgiving. Although I have put a link to B&H at the bottom of recent posts. On the actual Black Friday I'd like to post a few gift ideas based on cool things I've bought on the recommendation of readers over the years and really like.

I'd like to solicit ideas for that...is there anything you've bought on Amazon or B&H that you particularly like and would recommend highly to your fellow readers? Only if you've used it yourself and genuinely like it. It can be anything, doesn't have to be photo-related.

On Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) I hope to post a few notes about the uses of gratitude. It's a biggie in the practical "spiritual toolkit" and very useful in increasing contentment with life.

I still haven't decided whether to have turkey on Thanksgiving!

Bck outside with the trusty X-H1 to see how they've masked off everything in the shed interior. I'm using the 14mm and ISO 1600 but will use the 35mm to take a few shots of Tyler doing the actual spraying.

It's fun but also a little harrowing to have stuff built. The pool shed, I imagine, is probably 10%—maybe only 5%—of the stress and worry of building a house, something I've never done, but I imagine it gives me at least a taste of what being the client in a home build must be like. Fun and exciting, and certainly interesting, but also a little stressful. As with most such things, I'll probably know exactly how I should have gone about this by the time it's all done!

Mike

UPDATE 11:30 a.m. All done! I'm going to save the pictures for when I do the wrap-up on the shed, but I'm pleased with the work. The insulation is very tough and very airtight. I think I made the right decision here, even though it's more expensive.

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.

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Four Distractions for You

Well, it looks like I'm taking a small unscheduled break, without, at first, intending it.

On Wednesday, purely as an indulgence and as a way of distracting myself from what has become The Great Wait (for the incompetent States, I want to add, but don't be snarky, Mike, don't be snarky), I started writing a post called "How to Buy a Pool Table." That would have been for "Open Mike," the "often-off-topic Editorial page of TOP," which I try to post on Wednesdays.

At the same time, the weather turned nice. We have had almost nothing but rain here for three weeks, although there was one sunny warm day and one snowfall, our first wintry day of this year. (The light was wonderful that day.) Tuesday was another warm sunny day, so I also distracted myself by working a lot. I have a balcony porch in the back of the house that was actively decaying and sorely needed attention, and I used the nice weather to finish all the repairs on that and to get two coats of stain on it. Then I mulched leaves till dark. Mulching leaves is a good enough way to clean them up—I have a riding mower and a push-mower, and the push-mower is the one that has the mulching blade on it—but I need dry weather to do it! Can't mow leaves in the rain.

And the good weather, like the Great Wait, has continued. Despite two days of working on it (in between bouts with the paintbrush and the lawnmower), I have not been able to finish the pool table post—in fact, I'm not even half done with it, such that I could post it as a "Part I." Today the weather report is for 68°F (20°C) and sun all day, so I'm going to get ambitious—I'm going to try to get a coat of stain or two on my back deck. Which is pretty extensive, as it includes the wooden walkway to the barn and pool shed (I need a name for the pool shed. Maybe I can mull over that as I work).

In case you're looking to me for your distraction, I'll pass along these links sent to me by various readers:

Chris Killip 1946–2020. Photo by Kent Rodzwicz.

—Chris Killip, the British documentary photographer best known for his work among the lower classes in the north and later a Harvard professor, died of lung cancer on October 13th. Here's an obituary from Harvard that includes examples of his work.

—Darin Boville, a TOP reader, has written an extensive two-part review of Rebecca Senf's Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams (here's the book on Amazon—I only provide a purchase link to it because Darin doesn't. By the way after an abrupt break I am apparently an affiliate again, to my great relief). Darin is a new blogger and could use some eyes. Becky Senf is Chief Curator at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, one of the premier institutions in the U.S. in the field of photography. CCP holds Ansel's extensive archives.

—I still haven't gotten around to watching "Bokeh is overrated," a video on YouTube, though several readers thought I should. You're on your own with this one. I suspect I might agree with some of what the makers have to say. I will try to get around to watching this someday.

—New Lumix S 85mm—I suspect I'm like a Pavlov's dog with regard to 35mm and 85mm lenses. They just trigger the endorphins. A recent article I read about going to chef school said that some real chefs have only one large and one small kitchen knife (plus perhaps a bread knife), and if that's true then the 35mm and 85mm focal lengths (or equivalents) are my large and small knives. I've been shooting with those two forever. (All of the post about Andrew S. the spice-rack maker was shot with those two lenses, to name just one very typical fer-instance.) Anyway Panasonic has announced a new 85mm prime which, at only 12.5 ounces / 355 grams, seems to go against the recent trend toward larger, heavier lenses.

Now off to work! Miles to go before the sun sets. Hope you find some comfort in distraction yourself, too.

Mike

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.

Thanks to all our Patreon contributors!

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

scott kirkpatrick: "On Killip. I have always liked his photos but knew little of his course in life. Reading up, it turns out that after a few years in the 'big show' in London, he discovered that photography could be pursued for its own sake, and spent the next 10–20 years working out of his caravan with a field camera in dicey places around England. When he concluded that his approach had become dated (in the light of Martin Parr's and Lee Friedlander's hand cameras with attached flash), he accepted a lectureship at Harvard. He stayed for the next 10–20 years, becoming Harvard's Carpenter Center's equivalent to Richard Benson, a craftsman/artist administering a visual arts program. How's that for a high degree of self-awareness and a soft landing?"

Nigel Voak: "I was sad to see the passing of Chris Killip. Killip was on of that great crop of UK 'documentary' photographers that came out of the UK in the eighties and who now seem to have been forgotten as photographic fashion has shifted to 'conceptual' photography."

Dan Jansenson: "Regarding Chris Killip, a very nice article, with several links, was published in the Guardian."

Older Readers (Blog Note)

People in the USA are...tense right now. Let's just put it that way.

I don't see much of it, but I've noticed that the frequency of various accusations flung across my bows has ratcheted up. I don't think I'm doing anything differently than I ever have, but tense people are maybe a little...short, as in short-tempered? Is that a mild enough thing to say to indicate what I mean?

Anyway, one of the occasional accusations leveled at TOP is that it's a site for older readers.

Usually stated like that's a bad thing.

I don't look at it that way. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to write for young people in virtual hordes—I'd write for teenagers if I could!—and photographers of any age or description are more than welcome. But, if anything, I target older readers. Who wouldn't? They're experienced, they're wise, they're interesting. They have stories to tell. Their culture includes a broader swath of recent history. They get my references. (When T.S. Eliot died, Ezra Pound said, "now who will get my jokes?") They tend to not get all hot and bothered about angels dancing on the heads of pins. They put things in perspective. There's a reason they're called "mature."

Herman (hover your mouse over image)

I like the company of people who know more than I do. About something, possibly including photography, even.

Speaking of which, unless I am mistaken, our Official Oldest Reader (as well as Punster-in-Chief, but don't provoke him), Herman Krieger, turned 94 yesterday. Ninety-four...that's a good start. (I think I know more about his life than I know about my own.)

Happy Birthday Herman! Are you still riding your bike Friday?

So to the next person who says TOP is for gray heads, not gearheads, my response is: I hope. None better.

Mike

Reply from Herman: "Yes, I'm still riding my Bike Friday recumbent. I'm now waiting for a Swytch electric pedal assist kit to install on the bike. Now if only they made a shutter assist kit to make it easier to take photos."

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.

 Patreon

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

Mike Hurd: "I was just going to say—well I'm young and I've been enjoying your blog for years but then I realised that I'm 43 and I need to start remembering that I'm not actually young any more...."

Mike J. replies: I remember sitting in Phil Davis's workshop studio—he developed Beyond the Zone System and was the de facto technical editor of Photo Techniques—complaining about how old I was. He immediately admonished me (he did a lot of that), telling me that I was still very young and I should realize it. I believe I was 42 then.

CR: "Twenty-two-year-old here enjoying your blog nonetheless. I like the literary references, and the fact you know so much more about photography (and other things) than me is probably exactly why I keep reading."

Mike replies: Welcome CR, good to know you're here.

Aaron Hines: "From where I sit, I do not think you target any audience other than those interested in photography in its many forms. The 'old' part seems to come from the fact that younger generations do not have as much interest in dedicated cameras at the moment, while those of us that have been photographing for a while don't see smartphones (and social media) as having entirely usurped all other cameras or completely devalued photographic history. At 38, I am sure that many here do not consider me old...though, that's always a matter of perspective, isn't it? My 11-year-olds think I'm ancient."

JG: "One point you didn't make, but probably could (should?) have, is that older readers are much more likely to be...well, readers, not watchers. A couple of years ago, I stumbled into a mentor role wherein I've been casually teaching two high-school age kids (children and grandchildren of friends) about the basics of photography. (They are particularly interested in using film, which I find amusing, as I was equally happy to be rid of it.) While they claim to be interested in learning, if I forward to them a link to anything text-based, they won't read it. No way, no how! However, they will happily watch videos, even poorly made ones that are chock full of errors and inaccuracies and are intended to be consumed as entertainment, not education. Not surprisingly, the primary outlet for their photography is Instagram via an iPhone and they love using filters when post-processing their photos. While they would no doubt benefit a lot from regularly reading your blog, there's zero chance they will ever do so, because it's simply not the way they have been primed to acquire knowledge or entertainment. I've repeatedly tried to gently nudge them into being more open-minded about this, but no such luck so far! Anyway, based on this small sample set, at least, I suspect if you ever do try to cater your blog more toward younger readers, your business model will fail spectacularly!"

Mike Plews: "I suspect a convention of TOP readers would be a gloriously fascinating event but would also be over by 8 p.m.

"I am into my third month of retirement and hit 71 in November which should establish my geezer bona fides. Most of my friends are about the same age and some have shared nuggets of wisdom about this time of life, a few worth sharing:

• You know you are really old when you ask your date 'are those your teeth?' and you aren't asking if they are dentures, you are asking if they are paid for.
• You know you are really old when you are less concerned about running our of Viagra than stool softeners.
• And finally, you know you are really old when you can remember when 4x5 was considered medium format.

"Good lord I miss DuPont papers—that sort of says it all."

Mike replies: I was just thinking I wish Kodak still made Verichrome and Medalist. Or at least Plus-X.

Chris C: "I think in the modern world, 'readers' is enough to imply 'older.' The younger generations are more into watching video as their source of information. My teenage son is a prime example—'why read the book when I can watch the movie?'"

Mike replies: Anecdotal evidence, but my 27-year-old son is the same way. And he's a good reader; he just doesn't enjoy it. On the other hand, I was researching the book marketplace the other day and adolescent fiction is a hot category.

Bob Feugate: "As always, a thoughtful and interesting post. And I was delighted to learn that Herman Krieger is still alive and doing well. He has led an extraordinarily productive life and deserves to be better known. His pages of visual puns 'Essays in Black and White' are endlessly amusing."

Joe Iannazzone: "Mike, I've got a couple of years on you and have been reading your columns since the Luminous Landscape days. To pick up on Mike Plews' anecdotes...'You know you are old when the motivation for dating a younger woman is that she can see to drive at night.' Just to be clear, I am happily married and can see well enough to take photographs in the daytime."

Chan: "Started reading your blog from my late 20s. Its been more than a decade now. By the way, I'm waiting for your post about iPhone 12. LoL."

Mike replies: I requested one from Apple today because of your comment here. I don't even know if they provide review samples, but it never hurts to ask.

Ken W: "I'm in my 30s, and I drop by this site every day (and drop a bit in Mike's Patreon while I'm at it). Mostly lurking, and happy to read and learn from many who have made photographs for longer than I've lived so far."

Items (Blog Notes)

A few procedural notes before I get going today. I've got busy days today and tomorrow (body as well as blog maintenance to address) so things might be a little quiet around here.

Item: First, I did enlist several longtime readers to assist in Comment moderation. Both, I suspect, are more knowledgeable and quite probably much smarter than Yr. Hmbl. Ed. Hopefully once we iron out how we're going to work together, comments you post will appear much more quickly than they have been lately. (Working alone, I had been letting this get more and more out of control, sometimes to a degree that made me feel mildly agitated.) Thanks, too, to those others who volunteered—I accepted the first two people who offered, both of whom are names long familiar to me through their own thoughtful comments on the site.

Item: A few years back I wrote an obituary of the protean working musician Leon Russell called "Blue, Teddy Jack, Tina Rose, Sugaree, Honey, and Coco," which are the names of his children. Well, the other day I got a lovely note from Blue Bridges-Fox, Leon's daughter (Leon's real name was Claude Russell Bridges) thanking me for the article. She didn't say how she had stumbled across it. It's always nice when these reverberations happen.

Item: I should really (really!) personally thank everyone who contributes to TOP, but unfortunately it's like phone calls, which I do not make...a 15-minute phone call seems like nothing, but 32 of them would fill up a whole eight-hour work day. Everything wicks minutes out of the day. Plus, I'm so disorganized. I can't keep track of things. It distorts my whole life, my lack of organizational ability (if you have that ability, count your blessings).

But I digress. Reader Jim A. sent a $50 bill* as a contribution to keep TOP's motor running and the wheels greased, and it came in handy. That very day, Honeybee Dave was coming by in his bee suit to remove a small paper hornets nest under the eaves. He discovered that the bald-faced hornets who built the place had been kicked out and replaced by opportunistic ground wasps—which explains why it was only as big as a cantaloupe melon: hornets build their paper nests as large as watermelons.

His charge? $50. How nice to owe a tradesman and find the payment for him waiting in the mailbox. The nest was uncomfortably close to the back door, and hornets, which is what I thought they were, can be nasty and aggressive. Thank you Jim. And thanks to Alan Z. and John C., who sent checks, and to every other friend o' TOP who has contributed recently. I apologize for not contacting you personally. But at the same time I'm very grateful.

By the way, the wasps were not killed, but relocated; as Honeybee Dave said in his taciturn manner, with a shrug, "wasps are citizens too."

Item: Speaking of nasty and aggressive hornets: Should you happen to be thinking about a new mattress, I have a warning for you. Never, ever open a single YouTube video of a mattress review, the production of which seems to be a minor cottage industry. For if you do, you will for aeons afterward be pelted and pestered by mattress ads of every description and from every direction, any time you innocently log on to the tubes of the Internets. How I wish someone had given me this advice before it was tragically too late!

Item: It's Print Sale season, and I have four possibilities in the way of plans, but have done nothing yet to bring them about. Hopefully I will get as many as two accomplished before Christmas. Several ideas are for multiple-artist sales, which might be touchy to organize. I'm not great at organizing these things, but I'm moving this from the back burner to the front one, metaphorically speaking.

Item: Last but certainly not least, I wanted to offer a word of tremendous sympathy and concern for any TOP reader (and, really, everyone) who has been affected by the heat and fires in the Western United States. This is a disastrous fire season...and in the US, normal fire seasons are pretty appalling. The stories coming out of the affected regions are dreadful. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Back to regular programming,

Mike the Ed.

*In the Learn-Something-New-Every-Day Dept.: I meant to illustrate this item with a picture of the $50 dollar bill Jim sent, with my fingers holding it and Butters in the bokeh in the background, but when I tried to open the iPhone snap of the bill, Photoshop refused to open it! Up popped a window that said "This application does not support the editing of images of currency...", etc. Or words to that effect. I never knew before that that would happen.

I wish the enlargers in the school darkrooms where I taught had had a similar function: "You are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, having attempted to print this negative entirely too many times now. It's never going to work; no amount of labor and hope is going to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Stop working on this and go make another negative, properly exposed this time." It might have saved everybody some time and anguish.

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.

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Phil: " That last paragraph of your footnote had me laughing out loud! In every night-school darkroom class I took, the instructor would at some point politely and exasperatedly say to me 'maybe you should find an easier negative to work on.' If the enlarger would have just refused to print my badly-exposed negative (or in some cases badly-developed negative), I probably would have got further ahead in life.  ;-)  "

Help, Wow, and Thanks

According to Annie Lamott, there are only three kinds of prayers: Help, Wow, and Thanks.

I don't know what to say. (Me, at a loss for words?) I've been feeling massively grateful over the past two days, to be the recipient of so many kudos. As many of us are, I guess I've been under more stress than I quite realized lately. Demoralized. So Sunday's post and the ensuing affirmation and support was an occasion I'll value and treasure. I don't want it to end. I so much appreciated the outpouring of kind and supportive comments (and am surprised how positive they are), all the new and increased pledges. A great feeling.

I've printed many comments and put them in a folder, to use as a resource and a comfort for those inevitable future occasions when I'll be feeling down in the dumps.

It was more than I deserve, but at the same time just what I needed. Thank you, truly.

Mike

Sunday Support Group: Photo Bloggers Calling It Quits....

"Dance with who brung ya."

—Old American rural country saying

What with Ming Thein moving on, and Kirk Tuck going on hiatus again, and me suffering a bad bout of burnout these past two weeks, I've had to do some soul-searching.

As both of those guys pointed out, the world has indeed changed. Kodak is a shell of its former self; film and the darkroom are quaintly antiquarian; Bronica, Contax, Konica-Minolta (all brands I owned and used) and even Samsung are out of the camera business altogether; Olympus, after hanging in heroically, is headed that way. Digital cameras, among the world's hottest-selling commodities not even a decade ago, are in freefall, blasted by smartphones and the used market as well as by their own sufficiency. Very unfortunately, I can't sell iPhones on my site—that nice arrangement whereby I get a little spiff if one of you buys something through my links still works, but it's not as lucrative as it once was. Prices are way up and unit sales are way down. Canon is talking about market shrinkage of 50% since the peak.

So many paragons of the online photography are gone. Uwe Steinmuller, Michael Reichmann and Roger Hicks had the temerity to up and die; Rob Galbraith, Colin Jago and now Ming have moved on to greener pastures; Ctein departed from here, and Shutterfinger and Imaging-Resource have, well, shuttered. That's just the tip of a bigger 'berg.

And photography is no longer nearly as cool in the culture as it once was. Digital SLRs started out as unobtanium and gradually descended into the realm of the attainable, and everyone wanted one, even people who had never taken pictures on film. Every new development was revolutionary and exciting. Hordes of people were hanging on the news torrent, curious, interested, and ready to get involved. Early on, film-camera veterans, steeped in a mature culture, were admired and respected (sometimes resented, too) by people attracted to the science and convenience of digital. I wrote back then about neomania, the seductiveness of the new. It was a brave new frontier. Invigorating.

All done now.

In 1983 I took a beautiful picture by moonlight. It was a virtuoso trick; I had mastered darkroom craft and I knew my materials well. Walter Elisha, the Chairman of Springs Industries, at the time one of the staunchest supporters of the Museum of Modern Art's Photography Department, requested a print for his personal collection. (It was Walter who provided me with an introduction to the primus inter pares museum curator John Szarkowski.) Last year, my friend Kenny got a new iPhone 11. To demonstrate "Night Mode," he held his phone up and casually took a picture of a moonlit street scene. The tiny cameras (built into a device that will do a thousand other things besides) took a number of exposures and merged them into a single clear, appropriately exposed, noiseless image that was better than I can do with a single exposure with my large-sensor digital camera, much less with Plus-X and D-76.

And how's this now? After years of no problems, recently all of my Affiliate program checks from Amazons in Europe have been bouncing. Or not bouncing, exactly, but they're suddenly worthless. Apparently the issuing banks—the banks the checks are drawn on—are demanding fees to cash the checks in excess of the total value of the checks, or so my bank tells me, so my bank is declining to cash them. Instead, they send them back to me and charge me $35 per check for their inconvenience(!). Amazon in the U.S. tells me to call the Amazons overseas to straighten it out. But I can't call the Affiliate Program of Amazon Germany because I don't speak German. They do speak English in the U.K., but I don't have an international calling plan—on the plan I have it would cost me $125 to make one single call to Europe.

I don't know—I might be reading too much into this—but it seems a lot like Amazon Europe is suddenly saying, "Go away. We don't need you."

Some readers might be saying the same. At least if traffic is any indication. At its peak (which for the record was 2013), TOP was sailing along on 24,000 page views a day. Now, 10,000 is a good day.

And blogging itself is as uncool now as it once was cool. In 2004 it was the happening thing. On a World Wide Web that only a few years earlier had featured single, static pages that never changed, a website that was continually updated with new material was pretty enticing; in the beginning, I got a lot of attention just by existing. That was when internet was spelled with a capital "I," before ads were common, before videos were really possible. Good photo content and information on the web was scarce and valued. And back then, there was a lot of camaraderie between websites—we all supported each other, and sent our readers to interesting things on other sites, which benefited us all.

Now, blog have become...well, not quite antiquated, but old-fashioned. They're very 2010. Competition has proliferated wildly, way outpacing demand. Nothing ever "goes viral" any more—not just because there's too much out there to see and read, but because everybody makes money from affiliate spiffs and few want to lose a reader to another site even momentarily. And all the camera reviews have migrated to YouTube, where independent actors of their own volition act for all the world like PR people for corporate marketers.

Think it can't get worse? Well, it's not just that blogs have gotten outdated. It's that text has. Millennials and whatever the younger-than-Millennial generations call themselves prefer to get their information fed to them through videos. Who reads now? Even the President of the United States never reads anything—not even urgent briefings, apparently. His speech patterns, his very thought patterns, according to experts, are those of a functional illiterate. So he's the leader for our times, then, because the written word is passé. (Tossing French words into written text is double passé.)

So is the handwriting on the wall, my friends? A time of reckoning seems to be upon me. I've thought about it, wrestled with it, agonized over it, and made a fateful decision...

(Blog Note III)

After working for two hours this morning I've caught up with the comments on the last four or five posts. I apologize for having gotten behind on moderation again. I know this happens regularly now and I do realize it's far from ideal because it effectively "interrupts" the conversation. Anyway, I hope if you were interested in one of last week's posts you'll go back and look for newly added comments.

Mike the Ed.

(Blog Note II)

Sorry about the recent downtime and the radio silence...I'm fine, not sick, but I must take a few end-of-August days off to concentrate on some life-planning, financial, and life-transition issues. This weekend* and most probably Monday too.

Back Tuesday (September 1st!) with tasty new topics.

Have a great weekend and see you soon!

—Mike the Ed.

*Strange concept. Who does such a thing?

...And who would want to? Sometimes I think it's harder not doing TOP than it is doing it.  :-)