The Online Photographer

Followup

I think I found the place I mentioned Mark Brautigam before, the photographer who did the series "On Wisconsin" that I linked to the other day. It was in 2011, in a post called "A Few Examples of Naturalism in Photography." Some of the links in that post are broken now.

Do you actually read old posts on TOP? I often wonder how many people do.

Hope you're having a good Saturday.

Mike

Product of Interest this week:

As Porsche does with the 911, Fujifilm just keeps refining its perfect pocket camera and making it better and better. Also available from Amazon.

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Leicas Are Forever? (The Bohemians)

Followup from Scott Kirkpatrick: "I had some spare time yesterday and downloaded the Kindle edition of The Bohemians [the book I mentioned on Saturday —Ed.]

"Imogen and Ansel put in much more than cameo appearances. And I learned more backstory about Consuelo Kanaga than I had seen before. The story-telling is engaging and straightforward. It might be hard to disentangle actual history from plausible filling-in of the gaps.

"Of course, one technical failing helps to keep me from believing it all—'Dorrie' has put her Graflex in hock to survive, but is able to produce some portraits for the Camera Club, where she meets Imogen, Ansel, some wealthy future clients, and a business partner, by taking pictures with 'an old Leica,' in what seems to be about 1918. (The Leica I hit the market in 1925, but I guess Leicas are forever.)

"The book seems to be stimulated by the incongruous vision of the Transamerica Pyramid sitting on the site of the old Monkey Block, where numerous SF literary and arts figures once figured (e.g. Kenneth Rexroth, whose stuff I used to read in the '60s). And recent anti-immigrant incitement rooted back into the West Coast anti-Chinese hostility which became law in the 1920s. Senator Pharrel and his son, with a slight name change to satisfy the lawyers, are probably where the plot construction started. Finally, the mysterious Ah Yi, Lange's Chinese assistant, about whom almost nothing seems to be known, provides the link to what I agree are pretty much 'cameo' appearances. Kanaga provides a stock tough activist PJ character; Imogen Cunningham and Ansel Adams don't do much, although I'm surprised that the affinities that eventually led to Lange and Cunningham having an essentially merged family didn't show up during the time of this story. And I hadn't known how badly Adams suffered during the Spanish Flu pandemic. The book works hard to set up and tie up all of its plot wrinkles, but I found it affecting, except for the coda in Paris.

"If you care about Group f/64 and all that, and if you are as disgusted by current political themes as I am, it is worth reading. But not to learn about photography—more to imagine that these known photographers absorbed and lived through all that. It formed them. What are today's equivalents doing to us?"

Scott

Product of Interest this week:

As Porsche does with the 911, Fujifilm just keeps refining its perfect pocket camera and making it better and better. Also available from Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Joel F Bartlett: "I was not impressed by The Bohemians. Its description of her on her arrival to San Francisco, I would describe as 'ditzy.' She was not. She did not arrive in San Francisco by herself, nor was she robbed on the Ferry and saved by society ladies. She arrived with her friend Fronsie, they were robbed, but they quickly got back on their feet by their own wits. If you want a novel that is much truer to the historical record, may I suggest Learning to See by Elise Hooper. And even better, the biography Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, by Linda Gordon. She was a fascinating woman and I hope your introduction to her is not The Bohemians."

Mark Sampson: "I'm currently reading Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, written by Linda Gordon...a highly-praised biography published in 2009. It's well-researched, thorough, and quite readable. So I can't imagine being interested in any author's fantasia about what it was like back then...sorry. Lange, Adams, Cunningham, et al. were clear-eyed realists, dealing directly with the subjects in front of their lenses, and they (and their contributions) deserve the same respect that they showed their subjects. There's a quote from someone to the effect of 'The contemplation of things as they are is a far nobler pursuit than a whole harvest of invention.' I've butchered that quote but I think the meaning comes through...."

[Ed. note: The quote appears to be from the English philosopher Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, 1561–1626, a leading figure in early scientific methodology: "The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion, without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention." (Source: NYT)

Links to books mentioned in the above comments: Learning to See by Elise Hooper (fiction); Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon (biography).

A weakness of the web is that there isn't an authoritative database of quotations that have been sourced and fact-checked. We are at the mercy of what amounts to casual hearsay, wherein a quotation and its source might be repeated uncritically until it's difficult to untangle good sources from bad. Snopes does verify some common quotation memes, such as this one, but only in their course of its regular work, which is fact-checking rumors and widespread claims.] [UPDATE: Quote Investigator is a good  and useful site as well. Thanks to Mike S. for the reminder.]

Fujifilm GFX System Post UPDATE

As an update to the previous post:

Some readers didn't like my off-the-cuff "max format" term in the previous post, as a term for sensor sizes above full-frame. I didn't really like it so much either. I was really just saying "something like that," not necessarily that.

One reader even accused me of being a poor wordsmith, and, oww! I proud wordsmithery.

So how about: "Super-FF"?

Super is the Latin preposition for "above," and super- as a prefix means above, more than normal, exceeding, beyond. Plus, it's extremely familiar to English speakers in that usage, and its meaning is immediately apparent to anyone familiar with the term "FF." Super-FF could simply be defined as "above and beyond full-frame." (Did someone even suggest this very thing?)

And remember that I'm talking about a marketing term, not a technical one. It'd be a parry to counter the thrust of FF in the fencing match of public perception.

And all it would have to mean is that it's bigger than full-frame, so you'd sidestep all the objections about how much bigger, and biggest, and all that.

In fact this is so obvious I'll bet some of the larger-than-FF camera manufacturers are already using the term, hmm?

They should put me in charge of all terminology. I'd have everything even more confused than it already is in no time.

Mike, who said he's not posting today

 

darlene: "After 30+ years of shooting professionally, people ask me what I currently shoot with, so I started slowly working on a page that will show the gear. The categories go like this: Large Format (Sinar, Linhof, Cambo) Medium Format (ALPA, Hasselblad, Mamiya) Small Format (Fujifilm, Nikon, Minolta) Most pro shooters I know refer to camera sizes as Large, Medium and Small. The lenses covering the formats make us distinguish things even further when need be. Currently I have three digital backs in-house; (2) 44x33 sensors and (1) 49x37 sensor and they are for my Medium format and Large format cameras. If I had a Fujifilm 50R (want one), it would fit into the medium format category. Why? Because of its real estate. I like the KISS principle!"

Kirk Tuck: "Why words? Why not numbers? Start with 35mm (full frame) as 1X and then everything bigger is whatever the size difference might be. Such as a 1.25X, 1.50X, 2X etc. And, in the other direction an APS-C would be a .5 and smaller sensors a .25 etc. I'm sure camera makers will eventually make an array of image sensors bigger than the current Fuji ones and it's a quick and easy way for people to understand the difference in sizes."

Luke: Here's another vote for the most simple and absolute and meaningful terminology: the diagonal measurement. No marketing BS at all, just the facts. Maybe add a 'D', like 55D for a 33x44. But BTY ["bigger than yours" —Ed.] is pretty sweet, too."

psu: "The obsession with format and sensor size, and the 35mm frame size in particular, in the context of digital cameras has always been puzzling to me. While sensor size matters in some ways with digital pictures the relationship between the size of the sensor and the 'image quality' of large prints (say) is by no means the direct and obvious sort of linear scale that we had with film because you are not optically enlarging anything to make the prints. Once you have a file with data in it the print quality is pre-determined by the quality of the data. In any case, I suggest 'small' and 'larger' as the nomenclature that matters. Or to be more direct, 'phone' and 'larger than you are likely to want to carry around most of the time.'  🙂 "

The Wrecking Crew (OT) (Music Notes)

I spent yesterday feasting on music and movies and articles about music, following up on all your suggestions and comments from the recent post about guitarists. The big discovery for me is Sylvain Luc, who was suggested by a reader signing himself Williiam.

And I've been learning all about The Wrecking Crew, a shifting group of 15 to 35 freewheeling first-call session musicians in L.A. in the 1960s and early '70s who played on literally hundreds of hits from the era. Just a few: The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man"; Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were"; the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville"; the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"; Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"; Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On" (for which Wrecking Crew stalwart Carol Kaye provided the famous bass line); and Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" ("the worst f------ song I've ever heard," Sinatra said when he first heard it, but it went straight to number one and stayed there for a whopping fifteen weeks). They played on records by Nat King Cole, the Carpenters, John Denver, Neil Diamond, and Ike and Tina Turner and dozens if not hundreds of others. Frothy now-forgotten number-one hits like The Association's "Windy," and "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe? That was them. They played on dozens of TV themes, too, from "Hawaii Five-O" to "Bonanza" to "Batman," and created innumerable commercial jingles.

Their names never appeared on the records because the recording industry didn't want the public to know that the bands weren't playing on their own records—and that so many of the same musicians were playing on all the records. The facade began to crack when one of the Monkees—I think it was Peter Tork—arrived at the studio with his guitar and was shocked to learn that the songs were already all finished except for the vocals, which was the only part the band members were expected to provide. The word started to get out—I actually remember where I was when I heard the rumor about the Monkees not even playing on their own records (on the school bus passing my friend Larry Dubin's house)—and the practice of having session aces replace band members on recordings started to decline.

One of the biggest reasons for the arrangement in the first place was efficiency. Wrecking Crew players could lay down a finished track in one to four hours whereas it might take the real band a similar number of days of studio time to accomplish the same task. Ironically, the huge and growing sales of records in the '60s made it more feasible to let bands play on their own records; paying for exorbitant amounts of studio time became feasible for big acts in the later years of the '60s and in fact became a bit of a status symbol. (The vinyl box of the recent deluxe 50th Anniversary release of Crosby Stills & Nash's Déjà Vu contains three disks of demos, outtakes and alternates from the sessions.) The Beatles famously allowed themselves unlimited amounts of studio time after they stopped touring.

The group got its moniker from the 1990 memoir of drummer Hal Blaine, who said that in the early days, the more straightlaced and formal studio musicians of an earlier time thought that the new young guys (and Carol!) who were willing to play rock 'n' roll, as well as improvise from charts instead of having everything written out, were going to "wreck" music.

If you're interested in pop music and you remember that era, the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew is fascinating. I found it on Amazon but it's available elsewhere too.

Mike

Lens of Interest this week:

If you should happen to be looking for an all-purpose zoom for the Sony APS-C cameras I've been discussing lately, here it is. The Sony E 16–55mm ƒ/2.8 G is a high-quality, constant aperture APS-C zoom of manageable weight and appropriate size that covers the true wide-angle to short telephoto range. Its built-in stabilization makes it a perfect match for the unstabilized A6xxx models, but it's good enough to be matched with Sony's best.

The link above is a portal to Amazon. Also available from:

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AirDrop Problem?

No sooner do I venture a post about Apple's AirDrop than there's a spate of new articles on the web implying possible security breaches with the feature, such as this one from Mashable. I don't have the expertise to evaluate the competing claims, but I felt I should pass it along.

Mike

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BjörnH: "Nothing to really worry about. What can happen is that when you open the share menu on your phone, it will emit an encrypted (or close enough) version of your email address and phone number over Bluetooth. This is so the receiver can determine if you are a known contact. Problem is that it is almost trivial to guess the original data. This boils down to that your phone will leak this information to anyone close by, if the listener is inclined to reverse the 'encryption.'"

Coda: On 'Approach'

One thing to take away from the Simone Bossi article is that it's valuable to be sensitive to your own personal or idiosyncratic approach to the work of photographing. Even if you don't agree with Bossi's own approach—and why would you, necessarily? You're not him—it's a worthwhile thing both to think about and to work out for yourself. Which is why I added a few comments about my own experiments in approaching some of these problems.

Gradually or quickly, most photographers work out the specifics of their approach, and most won't be successful unless they take into account their own skills, talents, aptitudes, desires and intentions as they do so. What works for one person might not work for another. What's interesting about the Bossi interview is that it shows him taking an unconventional approach to the problem of photographing architecture, one that goes against some of the more common shared assumptions of the present moment. I was interested, for instance, that he analogizes knowing a building to knowing a person, and that he's noticed that he spends the most time deciding on the first shot, because in his mind and feelings he organizes his first acquaintance with an unfamiliar building similarly to the process of acquainting with a stranger.

I might point out that the 20 or 30 shots he says he takes on an assignment isn't necessarily that little; Walker Evans, while working for the Farm Security Administration, could spend a full day's work exposing six sheets of film. When I worked for Jim Sherwood, he told me that one of his first employers, who was a crusty old guy when Jim was young, would leave the studio to cover a news event and take with him, again, only six sheets of film.

When I young, I did some deliberate work exploring that aspect of approach. I did one exercise where I went photographing taking only one sheet of film with me. It was quite interesting having to decide against "spending" my one shot on various possibilities or opportunities—the demonstrations quickly became one of, how do I personally go about knowing when I'm faced with something I really don't want to miss? (That experiment ended early because it was just too much of a pain.) On another occasion I forced myself to shoot six rolls of 35mm film (for me that was 210 exposures, a lot for me at the time) in one two-hour period. I didn't enjoy the process and I didn't get much out of it. At the time I had a friend who was studying with John Gossage at Maryland, and John, who shot heavily, made process requirements of his students, requiring that they, too, shoot heavily. I was maybe a little too attached to contrarianism at the time, but I ended up reacting against that a little.

I do remember that I always quit photographing when I had at least half a roll of film left. I never wanted to be stuck at the end of the day not being able to take a picture. Just in case I happened across something really good. (This was referred to back in my day as "in case you see Elvis riding a unicorn getting out of a flying saucer" or something along those lines. Elvis had died by that time, but "Elvis sightings" were still a staple meme of tabloid culture. Which struck me as hilarious because, at the peak of the "Elvis sightings," there were 200 professional Elvis impersonators in the U.S.A. But, humans being humans, no one ever put two and two together.)

For me the pace of shooting and the balance between visually exploring and understanding on the one hand and shooting on the other was eventually also wrapped up in the pace of the process I used. I shot 35mm B&W film and developed it myself (rolled it into the cassettes myself too), and in one developing session—I always developed film standing at the kitchen counter next to the sink—I could easily handle three rolls, which for me was one tank's worth. I developed film at the frequency of anything from once a day to once a week, with perhaps once every two or three days as an average. So that was a determinant in the pace of my shooting as well. I didn't want to shoot so much that it overwhelmed my ability to comfortably keep up with the processing.

Digital photographers don't have this built-in brake against overshooting, although that might depend on their own process. For instance, if you're disciplined about your Lightroom procedure as you begin your editing and evaluation, it might interact with and affect your shooting frequency to some degree.

Sadly, I never became nearly as disciplined or as intentional with digital as I was with film. For one thing, I was older, and more jaded and less ambitious, by the time digital came along. For another, I had a hard time taking digital seriously for a long time. (Too long.) The legacy of that attitude, I'm afraid, continues to afflict me, even if the attitude itself is gone.

Also, I became a teacher and writer rather than a photographer. Of course I still photograph, as I have always done, since I was a child, but shifts in one's career focus also probably can't help but affect our working methods. The shift was not entirely up to me, by the way: I got attention and reward for my writing, but I didn't get attention and reward for my photography. Career choices are definitely a mix of our own goals and ambitions with what works for us in the world and what puts bread on our plates and in our pockets. If people had made a fuss over my photographs and paid me for prints, but ignored my writing and never paid me for that, then I'm sure my career "choices" would have veered in a different direction.

But to get back to the subject, in short, I'll say this: I don't think you have to agree with the working methodologies to get insights out of hearing about other photographers' working methodologies.

That's it. That's enough to say.

Mike

Product o' the Week:

A fantastically comfortable ergonomic mouse for PC users. Should be considered incompatible with Mac unless you want to use only default settings. Available in regular and small sizes, right and left hand, and wired and wireless. WARNING to Mac users: Do NOT download USBOverdrive! It broke my computer. But really, for you PC users, you won't believe how easy on your hand this mouse is.

The link above is a portal to Amazon, through which most anything you purchase will be credited to TOP. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

And here is a portal to...

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Michael Cytrynowicz: "Your Process comments resonate with me, and so do Bossi's. I nearly stopped using digital cameras, except for my iPhone, which I use for taking references (of place, etc.). I have been shooting B&W 35mm film for about a year, now (after a protracted study) focusing on Ilford FP4+ developed in XTOL, trying to go out one or twice a week, shooting a roll each time, and trying to keep a balanced pace between shooting, developing, scanning, ingesting into Lightroom, editing in Photoshop, and printing to matte papers with my Epson P800. I've never been happier, and I definitely don't miss the days of taking hundreds of digital shots. Emphasis on taking shots versus making images. I now use a spotmeter, stop and try to see as much as I can, take my time. And, I've been—Horror!—focusing on a very small range of subjects—trees and bushes. Yeah, Curly's 'One Thing.' In part after reading, years ago, an article you wrote on the German couple's water tower photography. And yes, I try to use good, but not expensive lenses, and my Konica FT-1 and Olympus OM-4 cameras. I feel a burden has lifted, and I don't watch YouTube videos about the latest, heaviest, most megapixelled, anymore. But yeah, process is setting me free."

Colin: "One possible brake against over-shooting? Hard drive space! I have one computer, a 2017 MacBook Pro with 1TB of storage. I had to split my Lightroom catalogue in two a few years ago and I still hate the separation. This limit forces me to at least be pretty severe in editing and deleting and I think does make me think a bit more thoughtful when out photographing."

 

Sunday Support Group: Yflcbi! (OT)

I'm typing this on my new keyboard in Dvorak (I love typing the word "keyboard" in Dvorak), so this is probably going to be short. Only touch-typing could make a MOFW* out of me!

On Tuesday it will be one month, and I have to admit it's not going well. Despite a lot of practice, I'm only typing at about 20 WPM with 95% accuracy when I'm copying and about half that speed, with more errors, when I'm composing, probably because I don't practice the latter as much. Continually switching keyboards and layouts ("Yflcbi" is "Typing" when typed in Dvorak on a U.S. keyboard, by the way) is probably not helping.

I've converted the keycaps of my Kinesis to Dvorak
layout markings. This is the left-hand keywell.

But I made a commitment, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.

I truly feel that most of my difficulty is really "just me" as they say. I'm uncoördinated both mentally and in terms of manual dexterity. In short I suspect I have an unusually low aptitude for this. Not debilitatingly low, but below the average or normal range.

However, I believe that typing, like reading, falls into the class of skills that "most anyone can master" if they work at it hard enough and long enough. Some people just have to work harder and longer is all. And might never reach an exceptional level. I'll doubtless never be a speed demon or a champion typist. But competence doesn't require talent in this case, is my guess...just work, and perseverance.

By the way, if anyone out there is contemplating learning Dvorak (now there's a small subset of TOP readers!), I recommend starting with learn.dvorak.nl and not typingclub.com. I believe the latter created some problems for me. I would explain, but it would take too long to type!

I'll report on this experiment again at the two-month mark. For now, I'm not giving up. As Tom Duffy said, "Much of success in life comes from endurance and not much more. As important as thinking is, I'd make the case that after defining a goal, it's often more productive to simply endure." Maybe I'll go type that ten times!

Anyway, I've modified my ambitions: rather than give this experiment two months, I'm going to give it three. At this point my guess is that it might take all of that.

Mike

P.S. This is interesting...key frequency heatmaps for the most common keyboard layouts. The biggest mistake in Dvorak is the "L" position if you ask me.

*All right, all right, I'll type it out: man of few words.

Book o' the Week:

ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal (Penguin, 2020. Adapted from the popular podcast.)

The link above is a portal to Amazon, through which most anything you purchase will be credited to TOP. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Original contents copyright 2021 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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Michael J. Perini: "I would think that switching between the two types of keyboards has got to add a considerable degree of difficulty—but whatever happens the process is probably building a few brain cells and that has to be good."

Joseph Reid: "If this is something you really want to learn, maybe give it more than three months. I took two semesters of typing in high school, and it was the single most useful course I took in those four years. But think of that—an hour a day, September through December and January through May. It takes some real time, not a few weeks."

JimH: "Personally, I think you are making a mistake, Mike. Trying to do the same thing two very different ways is only going to confuse the connections you already have in your brain. After you started this thread, I decided to try an ergonomic keyboard. It took only a few minutes trying to use it to see how it confused me—slowed me down—and less than 30 minutes to see my typing was getting worse. Back in the box and off to return to you-know-who.

"My philosophy is don't waste time trying to do something you are not good at. I never could throw or catch a football, dribble or hit a basket, so I didn't. But I could heel-and-toe and drift a car intuitively, and I did a nice snap-roll in airplanes. And, as I demonstrate right now, I type fast enough to put thoughts down as I compose, so I'm not wasting time trying to do it differently. To add a camera analogy, after years of using Oly Micro 4/3 cameras up to the Pen F, which I found so trying to use I didn't use it much at all, I bought an old OM-D EM-10 and found it and my brain clicked. Wish I had done that years ago...."

Moose: "'I am feeling a bit like Don Quixote.' —Mike Johnston, Tuesday, 24 September 2013. 'But I made a commitment, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.'

"I can imagine various less-than-ideal outcomes from this experiment. Assuming the goal is to become more productive in creating content, not becoming proficient at two different typing systems as a goal in itself, I can't imagine an outcome that is superior to simply learning to touch-type on QWERTY. I also find it difficult to understand how reassessment of commitment to a course of action that has no impact on anyone else, in light of what is learned along the way, is somehow bad. In fact, it strikes me as rather sensible."

Mike replies: Dvorak was a solution, not a complication. My sense after some experimentation was that on QWERTY, my old and new ways of typing would become hopelessly confused and I'd get mired in the confusion. But that's just me; others would doubtless have a very different experience.

By the way, I slowly but successfully moderated all these comments and put up the Edwin Land post using the new keyboard!

Kye Wood: "If you make your living typing code (as an example) or as a writer (I'm looking at you Mike)—then the extra productivity that you eventually get from Dvorak makes it one of the best investments you can make in yourself. To quote my daughter when she was 16, 'suck it up, princess.' Aren't teenagers a joy?

"For me (former code monkey), I couldn't go Dvorak—because Thinkpads keys were uniquely shaped, so you couldn't rearrange them. Dang and dang again. Cursed be my Thinkpad propensities says I."

Susan Eilenberg: "The Kinesis Advantage keyboard has been my steady love since some time in the 1990s. I've been using the Dvorak layout on it for nearly as long. I had no particular need to learn Dvorak—the fabulous Kinesis had already eliminated all my wrist pain—but I imagined one idle summer day that the layout would be fun to learn and a defensible way to put off beginning an essay that had me intimidated; and I believed I would be back to my old typing speeds within a month of beginning to learn it. That did not happen. I was slow and clumsy for nearly a year, and frantic, too, because learning Dvorak pushed QWERTY out of my memory. I don't now regret knowing it, but that year was painful."

Mike replies: I'm glad to read your thoughts about it. I feel very strangely about the whole enterprise—I'm nowhere near mastery but somehow I think I know just how it's going to be once I get there. My slow progress has not dimmed my desire to reach the goal.

Dave: "Mike, Something to look at during your 'off-time'—whenever that may be. Basic Typing Lessons from 1944—Part 1 (4:45 to the end.) (Typewriter pr0n from 3:40 to 4:30.) This old typing training film from WWII is still applicable to today's typing. Good posture in a good chair, hitting the keys correctly (not the very tips of the fingers), etc. Notice how she pushes the keys down, rather than hitting them from above. Less wasted effort and you keep your fingers on 'home row.' Notice also the L.C. Smith typewriter, before it became Smith-Corona. If she can type that fast without jamming the keys, you can get up to your old 'hunt and peck' speed on an electronic keyboard.

"Good luck. We're all counting on you.  :>)  (I don't know how you can keep Dvorak and standard keyboard layouts separate in your mind.)"

Mike replies: Thanks, that was actually very helpful. Especially her recommendation to hit every key like you will when you are trained but to take a pause between keystrokes, then increase speed by shortening the pauses. That instantly changed the way I practice, and it actually increased my speed right away, too! Our Navy was all business in 1944.

No Cold Water

I'll just point out, following yesterday's discussion, that it has been my observation, over many years, that any time you start talking about aperture, in any context, the discussion eventually devolves into squabbling about the science and the math. It virtually never fails. But one thing I will toss out there is not to forget about the degree of precision in the device, which is a wild card we don't know. Yes, ƒ/1.2 might not be exactly one-third or exactly one-half of a stop different than ƒ/1.4, which itself might not be exactly ƒ/1.4. But your particular camera might not be setting ƒ/1.2 as the maker intended when it's set to ƒ/1.2, either.

It doesn't really matter—the general points still stand.

Here is the accepted f-stop scale for camera lenses, in third stops, with whole stops in bold red:

0.7, 0.8., 0.9, 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 29, 32, 36, 40, 45, 51, 57, 64, 72, 80, 90

You'll notice it's only an approximate geometric sequence. And f-number is a dimensionless number that already takes into account the size of the entrance pupil. Each whole stop represents an approximate doubling or a halving of the amount of light.

Anyway, photography is just not that precise such that the picayune differences are worth arguing about. First of all, exposure is a judgement call—ask ten people to adjust overall exposure in any picture with sliders and you'll get seven different renderings, perhaps with two or three quite far off from each other. Secondly, the differences we're talking about represent relatively minor corrections in software. They also represented relatively minor corrections in the darkroom. Whether you are in the Third-Stop camp or on Team Half-Stop with regard to ƒ/1.2 lenses, the differences are slight and easy to compensate for.

Michael Fewster wrote: "Once upon a time in film days, superfast lenses had a point. High ISO speeds meant ISO 800. Even more relevant was the need for fast lenses to nail accurate manual focus. As cameras with internal light meters closed down apertures, manual focus became difficult. I think it was Minolta that first came up with focus at full aperture and then auto stop down to the required aperture when exposing. The brighter the viewfinder, the easier it was to manually fast focus. There was real street cred in having a fast lens on the front of your SLR. I don't see the point of such lenses on DSLRs."

An utterly unnecessary lens might be useful to calibrate your sense of optical perfection

I would defend fast-lens fans more than that—if people like their fast lenses, far be it from me to splash any cold water on their happiness. (I have plenty of my own enthusiasms and tastes.) I sympathized with what Zed said, that he bought his ƒ/1.2 lens "in part for the prestige of owning just one such utterly unnecessary lens." You go, bro—I get that. And of course maximum aperture is only one feature of any lens. It's the whole lens one has to look at. I'd say, if you like fast lenses, go for it, and if you don't, don't worry about it. All I'll add is that personally, just for my own self, I'd prefer it if the Fuji 56mm had the specs of the Viltrox 56mm, and the Viltrox had the specs of the Fuji. Moderation in all things.

Back at the ranch, ever the empiricist, I got out the Fuji 56mm ƒ/1.2 yesterday, and set the camera to square, and went out photographing. I even discovered that my X-H1 has eye-recognition focus, just like a Sony! I did not know that.

(I also did not know that I could set my Mac to Dvorak with the simple click of a toolbar button. But that's a different subject. Off to typing practice now. Enjoy your Saturday! All best from the beautiful Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, where it will be 55°F today and I will be walking on the hill come evening).

Mike

Book o' the Week:

ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal (Penguin, 2020. Adapted from the popular podcast.)

The link above is a portal to Amazon, through which most anything you purchase will be credited to TOP. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Original contents copyright 2021 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:

James Bullard: "The f-numbers are a ratio of the diameter of the opening relative to the focal length of the lens. An ƒ/2 opening is ½ the focal length, ƒ/4 is ¼ the focal length, etc. The actual amount of light varies because the focal length is measured from the optical center of the lens, the point where the light crosses and inverts the image landing on the focal plane, and that point moves outward as the lens is focused on anything closer than infinity. So yes, it is approximate.

"FWIW, the optical part of photography is entirely based on math. It is not something to squabble about; math is math. You understand it or you don't. Since the advent of TTL metering it is less necessary to understand that math of optics/light but IMO still helpful.

"The perspective of an old guy who learned on all-manual cameras when you had to understand how it worked.  :-)  "

Steve Renwick: "Re 'But one thing I will toss out there is not to forget about the degree of precision in the device, which is a wild card we don't know.' Well sure. I have here two identical camera bodies with two identical lenses which when set to the same identical apertures and shutter speeds yield exposures that differ by about 2/3 of a stop. Or maybe it's 5/6 of a stop. So, y'know, stuff happens."

Andrew J.: "Anybody interested in a thorough explanation of relative apertures should read the excellent article 'f-number' by Wikipedia. Is ƒ/1.2 half a stop or a third of a stop faster than ƒ/1.4 is purely academic for me as I don't own such a lens and thus can't comment on the true subject of this post."

Bruce Alan Greene: "Motion picture lenses are marked in T stops, for the light actually transmitted rather than the mathematical stop. Even then...they are generally only accurate to ± 1/3 stop, except...at the widest aperture."

[Bruce is a cinematographer. —Ed.]

Road Trip!

Road trip today...I'm off to Rochester to retrieve my computer. It was fixed by Apple under warranty. I'm also dropping off two of my old computers at Mac Ave to get them reconditioned for resale. It's going to be a long day.

But I've got a little amusement to pass along. Thanks to brian in a comment to the "Quixotic" post, I learned about a site called TypeLit.io that allows you to retype a famous novel as typing practice. So I put in my first hour and a half this morning. 

Guess what novel I've started to retype?

Don Quixote, of course. As the Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson says, made myself laugh and that's half the battle.

Mike

Gear o' The Week:

If I could shoot with any 50mm focal-length-equivalent lens, it would not be unobtanium: it would be the relatively modest, relatively older HD Pentax 35mm ƒ/2.8 DA Macro Limited on APS-C (it has recently been revised with new coatings). I don't know how it measures and couldn't care less. If you care first and foremost about pictures, especially prints, it is one beautiful lens. Luverly. As a normal too. This link is a portal to Amazon, through which most anything you purchase will be credited to TOP. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

B&H Photo also has the Magic Macro, naturally.

Original contents copyright 2021 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:

Jeff: "You might listen to a bit of Dvořák in the background." 

Mike replies: Great comment! And a good thing I wasn't drinking tea when I first read it.

mictter: "'En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme....' because you are typing it from the Spanish original, aren't you?

Mike replies: Ha, no, the John Ormsby translation from the 1880s.

Patrick Perez: "Hunter S. Thompson claimed he used to type out The Great Gatsby every year so he could know what it was like to write a perfect novel (or classic, or whatever term he ascribed to it)."

The Mother... Logic Board

After spending nearly three hours in the car getting to the Apple store yesterday, I had to leave my computer with them. I don't get it back until Thursday. So I'm doing what I can on my upstairs computer (the one I bought in 2018 to use to write books—alas, my steely determination to write a book in 2018 was a failure). There's nothing on this computer, and I mean nothing. No passwords, no links, no bookmarks, no mail archive, and so on. 

The lure of new cameras
While at the Apple Store I played with an iPhone 12. I actually wrote to Apple's PR department when the iPhone 12 came out asking for a phone to review, but my request was either lost or ignored. So yesterday I took some sample pictures with the iPhone 12 Pro Max (Max Pro?) and emailed the pictures to myself. On arriving home, there was nuthin'. Shoulda figured they'd have some sort of filter in place to prevent people like me from sending content from store demo units to the outside world.

Sigh. 

The part of the exercise that amused me? The two pictures I took were of Chris, the Genius (that's not sarcasm, it's what Apple calls its in-store technical advisors) at the widest and narrowest of the three focal lengths. The reason it made me chuckle is because this is just the latest in a very long line of a generic type of shot I've been taking all my life: the Camera Store Counter Person Portrait. I go to a store, diddle around with a new camera I can't afford, and snap a few test pictures around the store, usually including one or two of the salesperson who's helping me. I've probably taken fifty such pictures over my lifetime and it could be twice that many.

I don't have some I'd really want, though. One would be old Mr. Baker of Baker's Camera on Tenley Hill in D.C. way back in the early '80s. That was a wonderful place—an old-style hole-in-the-wall photo store crammed with gear and materiel of every description, presided over by an ancient wizened gnome and his friendly wife who seemed to be taking care of him more than she was taking care of the customers. He had stuff for sale that he wouldn't actually sell! He liked his stuff. He was a swell guy, of a type that I always enjoyed. I wish I had pictures of some of the guys at Penn Camera in downtown D.C. too. I should have documented my life better!

It's similar to that other venerable genre, the Photo-Friend-Across-the-Lunch-Table shot. I have many of those slumbering in remote corners of the archives as well. 

"Camera store countermen" would have made a nice idea for a project, actually. Of course I never would have thought of such a thing.

Anyway, sorry I can't show you the pictures. But the portrait of the Genius taken with the latest smartphone camera in the store just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mike

UPDATE: The Apple Store just called to say the "logic board" of my computer is fried and needs to be replaced, and they don't have the part. There will be an unspecified wait. In the meantime, I've retrieved from my hazy memory the fact that this indeed happened once before...with my beloved Powerbook 160. It needed a new "motherboard." (Same thing?) On the good side, it was put completely right and lived a long life thereafter.

In fact I think I still have it somewhere–I kept it because Phil Davis's Plotter/Matcher program would run on it and wouldn't run on newer OS's. That was one heck of an interesting program, but it never got the attention it deserved, and now even fewer people care about matching film+developer and paper characteristic curves the quick and easy way.

Gear o' The Week:

I'm going to get a review unit of the Fuji GFX 50R as soon as the weather gets nice. Believe it or not what really appeals to me about it are the simplified controls. It has all the features I like and not many I don't like.

The above link is a portal to take you from TOP to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Here's a handy portal to B&H Photo, which also sells the GFX 50R:

Original contents copyright 2021 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:

Moose: "The only mother board failure I've experienced had wonderfully propitious timing. I had built up a new desktop machine, installed the OS and was migrating various 'stuff' across, when the old one just stopped working. It was soon obvious that the MB was not working. I didn't try to determine how/why. I just thanked my lucky stars, installed the old boot drive as a data drive on the new machine temporarily, until I had transferred everything. Luck was a lady.... Report from the other side of the Divide."

Olybacker: "I wish I had taken shots of all the photo store fronts in London (UK) during the 1970s and 1980s as well as the people serving inside. They have mostly all gone now."

Donald Zochert: "Not having your computer for a while may be an opportunity."

Kirk Tuck (Safety director for VSL): "Pen and Paper. I have a small notebook that was specially designed to be a password book. It's tabbed. It's small. It's available on Amazon for about nine bucks. I write my passwords in there. Then, when lightning and meteors and volcanos strike I can still log on with any device. Again, pen or pencil, paper. $9. Fault tolerant to the max. Will even survive an EMP attack by a hostile power. But then you might not have much left to log into....

"If you are ultra paranoid and live near a bank you could keep your book in a safe deposit box. If you aren't all of the above just stick it on a random bookshelf. Burglars rarely, if ever, steal books. Just sayin'."

Kenneth Wajda: "Here's a wonderful post by John Dersham with his photos of Camera Shops. And I recently started a Camera Shop hangout on FB."

Small Update (OT)

If you've been following along...

...I love the new-old pool table and the pool shed. The whole project worked out much better than I expected. The space is very comfortable, peaceful and quiet, and fully large enough for the nine-foot table. The table is better than I expected, too—it still has its original Monarch cushions from the mid-'60s (they made them right back then), the slates are superb, and it's eminently playable. The best table I've ever played on, actually. (I had never played on a Gold Crown before I tried this one out at the seller's house. I like it even better than the Diamond I had.) There are no problems anywhere on the table, no spots where it rolls off or dead places on the rails or anything like that.

I've played way too much these past ten days, but we've gotten into a great rhythm—as I shoot, Butters trots around keeping his ball from me, putting it down and then snatching it up if I go for it. Every now and then he'll present it to me, and I put the cue down and fling the ball out the door. He gives urgent chase and comes trotting happily back inside, and we start the whole process over again. He loves it. Inside the house, he's always sitting there looking at me expectantly, wanting to go out.

I'm slowly getting back into stroke. I do drills in the morning and just shoot balls in the afternoon and evening. Usually I'll stay out ten to twenty minutes every couple of hours, then come back inside to work. In the evening I'll spend an hour or two out there. The table is demanding but I like that, because it's a challenge and it gives me a better opportunity to work. Eventually I'll post a video. Can't wait till COVID's over and I can have friends over to play.

It's still pretty lonely. But that's these times. We all just have to get through it. And I have nothing to complain about.

But all is well. It took a lot of work but the result was worth it. I'm glad I did it. Everything worked out great.

Now then, that's enough of that.

Mike

Book o' This Week:

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.

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:

Peter: "I’m delighted for you Mike. Made my day to read this. I can imagine the joy it will bring when you can entertain. Soon."

Alan: "Have you played darts? I think a dart board might go very well with that pool table. Love the whole setup. I wish I had one just like it."

Mike replies: I did play darts for a spell in college. I lived on the top floor of an old dorm. Across the hall from me was one of the largest dorm rooms on campus, with a large living room and a bunk room for four guys. (401 Middle Fayerweather if there are any Dartmouth alums hanging about.) We had a dartboard in the living room there. But it's never been my thing, really, and I'm inclined to keep the pool shed single-purpose as far as activities are concerned. I've scrapped my plan to keep my books there, as I now realize bookcases would crowd the table. I'm still planning photos for the walls, but that's a project that will begin in Summer at the earliest.

Nikhil Ramkarran: "I’m so happy you’ve finally got your game on. Been reading your (OT) pool posts for so many years. Enjoy, Mike." 

Bandbox: "Pool tables, politics, and inequality. Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid, and that's probably why I don't read TOP as often as I used to. But the drone piece was good, so I keep coming back from time to time."

Michael Ryan: "I have zero interest in pool and less interest in building cabins. But for some reason have been eagerly following every update on this wonderful addition you have added to your life. Very much looking forward to your video. Have you thought about doing a Zoom call live pool game with some of your followers? It might also help with the loneliness."

The Actual Best 35mm f/1.4 on the Market

Tamron SP 35mm ƒ/1.4 Di USD
for Canon and Nikon DSLRs

We heard from Roger Cicala of Lensrentals, who I mentioned in the "Having It All" post:

"I have not tested the Sony 35mm GM and it does seem superb; I look forward to doing so. In the meantime, however, I've gone on record: the highest resolving 35mm lens is neither the Canon or Nikon flagship, nor is it the Leica. The humble Tamron 35mm ƒ/1.4 SP is the highest resolving, just a hair better than the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.2 Art. That's what the Sony will have to compete against."

Woo-hoo. Fight! Bring it on.

My ego is still smarting just a bit from not acknowledging that the new Sony is in fact lighter than all its current competitors (including the Tamron, which costs a mere $899). Bad blogger. So maybe I'm just being defensive, but I'll still stand by what I wrote, while acknowledging that I might be being cantankerous.

"Light, compact" 35mm ƒ/1.4 full-frame
mirrorless lens: 524g

"Big, heavy" 35mm ƒ/1.4 full-frame
mirrorless lens: 307g

The funny thing about the lens in this second picture is that the original Aspherical, when it first came out, was considered big and heavy because it was so much more so than the Leica 35mm Summiluxes that had preceded it!

The latest Leica 35mm Summilux is larger still. But, as you see at that second link, quite a bit smaller and more compact than the Sony. (If there's something a little wonky with that link, it's not my fault.)

Of course you might cry out that this is not a fair comparison because the Sony is an AF lens! The Sony is an AF lens! Well, I don't have a lot of lenses here to compare so beggars can't be choosers. I'll counter by pointing out that the Leica lens is not made of polycarbonate; the only plastic bit on it is the focusing tab.

Am I being argumentative about this? Well then I am. In any event, trust me: if lensmakers were really competing to see who could make the smallest and lightest lenses, the new Sony, nice as it is, wouldn't be in the hunt.

And what's wrong with large, heavy lenses? Nothing, if you prefer them; nothing, if you don't mind them; nothing, if you need to put up with them to get the results you want.

For me I guess the consideration comes down to this: If I'm going to carry a prime that's as bulky and weighty as a zoom, then I might as well carry the zoom. 

Know it and love it
Roger's "highest resolving" is not how I'd pick a lens, no offense to the Tamron King o' the Hill. Don't care much for that. Christer Almqvist wrote in the Comments:

"Well OK, size and weight are important fact-sheet figures. And most modern pro and semi-pro lenses are so sharp you need a tripod to reap the full benefits. So for me the decisive question is: How does the lens balance with the camera and how does it fit my hands?"

That's a good criterion to use. I can get behind that.

Overall image quality is a good criterion too. But of course you're still left with the formidable task of determining what that means for you. There are lots of aspects of image quality; resolution is only one.

Being an avowed lens nut (something that is definitely not required in order to be a photographer), my criterion would go something like this: how well do you know it, and, do you love it?

Because all lenses yield their gifts. No matter how "good" or "bad" the lens, the pictures can be found that are tailor-made to the lens's properties. Photograph with any lens you love for long enough, and those gifts will be along. It's the way it seems to be.

Mike

Book o' This Week:

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 spirit you away 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:

Kirk Tuck: "I bought the hardback version of the Peter Lindbergh book and I'm really enjoying it. Seven pounds of photography for only $50 delivered. What a deal. The printing in the hardback is on very nice, especially thick paper and it's a delight. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

"35mm focal length? Meh."

Roger Cicala: "You know the best thing about TOP? It's possible to come here, stir the pot a bit, and not hear what a horrid photographer I am.  :-)  (Full disclosure, even I say I'm a mediocre photographer, so it doesn't hurt my feelings.) I totally agree with everything said above, but I did want to toss those third-party lenses into the discussion because I find them shockingly good for the price. I don't think they're actually better lenses than the new Sony or Leicas, but they're worth consideration. To be clear, I haven't tested the Sony or Leicas yet (not enough copies). Plus, because I have the attention span of a squirrel I've been all into field curvature the last couple of months and not doing MTF testing at all. But I will probably bake myself a crow pie when I get around to it. Sony's done some amazing lenses lately and Leica, they always do amazing lenses."

Jack: "Regarding size of lenses. I still recall my reaction when I moved from an Olympus Zuiko manual focus lens to the Canon EOS autofocus lenses. Geez they were huge in comparison and still are. Now, an APS-C lens solution is the compromise allowing smaller lenses that still have AF. The size tax on full frame lenses is significant. Sure the body can be compact, but not the lenses. And the latest sensors have allowed APS-C to achieve professional quality. You mentioned wanting lens-body balance. I want a great viewfinder. The real key now is high quality EVF in mirrorless APS-C versus crappy optical finders in DSLR APS-C cameras. Your friends at Fuji have figured it out."

John Camp: "The bottom line for us non-avowed lens nuts is that you're better off with an ƒ/1.8, almost whatever your brand. (I equivocate there because I'm not going to do the research to prove it, but I believe it to be true.) The ƒ/1.8s will be shorter, lighter and cheaper, and the differences between lenses of equivalent quality will be so subtle that you could only see it in test shots. If you're walking around with a camera, the differences would be on how well you can handle a camera, not on how fast the lens is. This is particularly true in this age of high-ISO sensors combined with auto-ISO programming. I didn't bother to research the other brands on prices, either, but would note that the excellent Nikkor Z 35mm ƒ/1.8S can be had new from B&H for $850. It is 3.4 inches long and weighs 13 ounces. The ƒ/1.4 Sony you're writing about is .8 inches longer and weighs five and a half ounces more, and—the big number—costs $550 more. For what? For undetectable differences in bokeh? For 2/3 of a stop in speed?

"I do understand the attraction of highest precision, most-capable machinery, but do think that it really has to be understood as part of a system. Heavier, more awkward machinery of ultimate quality is not necessarily better than lighter, more easily handleable machinery of almost undetectably lesser quality."

Michael: "My top criterion in selecting a lens is do I like the resultant prints. Come to think of it, that’s my second and third criteria as well."

Quote o' the Day: John Schmidt (OT)(Update)

"People ask me if I have groupies. Oh, I've got 'em. They're all sixty-year-old men with chili stains on their shirts, but I've got 'em."

—Pool player John Schmidt, the Roger Maris of pool, who in 2019 broke Willie Mosconi's longstanding record from 1954 for the highest run of all time in straight pool

Thought that was funny. That's pool for you.

Speaking of pool, the carpet/rug is in:

It's a remnant of commercial carpet but it has variegated greens and browns and is quite handsome. And according to Billy the carpet guy "wears like iron."

And this doesn't look like much, but we (the seller and I) successfully dismantled half the pool table yesterday and got it moved here!

To me it's a sight for sore eyes.

What a Christmas!

Mike

UPDATE the day after Christmas:

The rest of the table successfully moved! All thanks to clan Gordon, from whom I was lucky enough to buy this.

That's the frame leaning up against the wall, and the lined slates stacked behind Butters. Now I wait for the mechanic to arrive to set it all up.

P.S. If you're not a pool fan but you're feeling deprived of sports and would like to watch something new over the holidays, here's a choice pool match, newly uploaded. It's a fun one. Between Ko Pin-Yi of Taiwan (ROC) and Jayson Shaw of Scotland. Avoid reading any comments before you watch it.

...And by the way, my pool teacher is sitting behind the McDermott sign in this video—the older gentleman with the jacket and bright pool-themed tie.

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:

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)

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

Malcolm Leader: "Since I live fairly remotely and my wife has no interest in pool, I practice a lot by myself. I put in a nice sound system and I find playing and listening make for a very relaxing experience. Talk to the installer about things like re-leveling. It really isn't that hard and you really only need to do it about a month after setting that table on the carpet and then about once a year. If you notice straight shots going awry, time to re-level. I keep a pristine four-foot level nearby. Have fun!"

Mike replies: It's the same for me. I suspect it's like what some people do when they "vegg out" in front of the TV or get lost in video games—"contented distraction," we might call it. It's a way to turn my mind off and relax.

And the experience is just as good when it's shared—when I play with friends.

Eating for Health: 1-Year Progress Report

[Bloviation alert: This is a long one; 4,000 words and then some. You have been advised. —Mike the Author/Ed.]

-

'Kay, today's the day. It's been exactly one year since I began my diet experiment, so here's yer helpful friendly one-year progress report. I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist; this is just an account of my own experience, my own journey.

To briefly review, last December 19th, one year ago today, I started time-restricted eating (TRE) and a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet. TRE means you only eat during a defined "window" of time every day. WFPB means you aim to get at least 80% of your calories from unprocessed or minimally processed plants. Actually I slowly transitioned to a Dr. Greger / nutritionfacts.org diet, which might more accurately be called a "FAM" diet, meaning "food as medicine."

Two Comments

I got a bit inundated with comments to the previous post (275 so far*, including the Featured ones) and a lot of them are not all that quick for me to parse because they mention more than two cameras. But enough with my griping already!

Anyway, as I sometimes do, I fell down on the job and got behind on the comments to a few of the posts prior to that. Everything's posted now, but here's the problem—visitors don't look at older posts. After a post has been up for 3–5 days, it's only getting a small fraction of the views it got when it was fresh. And people who've already read it often don't go back later to read it again. What this means is that if a great comment comes in six days after the post is published, there's little point in adding to the post as a Featured Comment because no one will see it.

Then when I'm responsible for burying comments in this way, I feel ashamed. Bad Mike!

Long story short, here are two comments I thought you'd like to see. I should have added them as Featured Comments to the respective posts, but too late now.

The first is from Chap Achen, who responded to the post "Electric Trains and the Electric Flash Lamp" with a picture. I wrote that "the center of the train-loving generation in America is males who were 10 in 1950, when electric trains were the number-one Christmas wish for boys."

Chap replied, "I am one of the boys you talked about (76 years old) and I looked forward to every Christmas morning when new items were added to the layout. I still have boxes of train items and accessories that my wife asks me to dispense with but alas not to be. Here is a photograph of my Grandfather and me on Christmas morning 1948."

This is the perfect illustration for my little aside about the toy train generation (which I learned about when I worked for Kalmbach Publishing), right? But it doesn't do much good to add new items to yesterday's newspaper. I didn't want Chap's lovely old family picture of himself and his grandfather to get lost. (As an aside, don't forget to take and print pictures like this. It might sound superficial to say, but the documentation of our lives and the lives of those we love is one of the great joys of photography. I can imagine what the above picture means to Chap now.)

Tributes
The other comment I neglected to post soon enough came from our friend Ken Tanaka in response to the post "Random Excellence: John and Yoko by Lilo Raymond." Ken is a patron of the arts (although he never blows his own horn in that respect), has been a loyal reader of TOP for many years, has written posts for us, recently self-published a book of his fine city scenes that I've perused and enjoyed several times now, and has been the featured artist in a TOP Print Offer (the print hangs at the top of my stairs). He was responding to Marcelo Guarini's picture in Marcelo's own Featured Comment. Here's the picture again, his homage to John Lennon:

Marcelo Guarini, We Miss You John

"Lilo Raymond's apparently casual moment image of John and Yoko is really lovely," Ken writes. "But Marcelo Guarini's 'We Miss You John' is magnificently clever and potentially iconic. Wow. Love it. (Can I buy a print?)

"Since most of your readers are fellow boomers who have their own Beatles/Lennon stories I'll keep mine short. I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia to teach a three-day class on December 8, 1980. The weather was raw and I really didn't want to be there. I was looking forward to the coming weekend when my first wife and I were buying our first good stereo system. As I was slobbering over the gear lit in my hotel room that evening, the news bulletin struck me like a bolt of lightning. I was distraught. I was angry. I still am. Fast-forward to the evening of December 8, 2009. I was in New York on museum business and was attending a cocktail party at an apartment across the street from Central Park. I was admiring our host's art collection when I glanced out the window and noticed a candlelight gathering across the street in the park. Another bolt of lightning struck as I realized I was seeing a Lennon memorial in Strawberry Field. I couldn't help tearing-up for a moment. I wanted to join them...but couldn't. I am not really a big pop-music fan. But the Beatles were the most important musical group of my life. And they still are.

"Thanks for posting the photos."

Mike
(Thanks to Chap and Ken and all our commenters)

*The record for the most comments for one post is 701.

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Progress

The walls are primed and painted and the light got installed.

Can't say it's going fast, but it's progress.

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!

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D Glos: "The open trusswork ceiling with gray paint looks great. It opens up the space vertically, and fools the eye into believing it is larger. Crown moulding at the top of the drywall would finish the wall space nicely, and could be paired with picture rail moulding for your gallery aspirations. Nice to hang artwork without poking holes in the freshly finished walls. Makes moving things around, or up and down, easy too."

Mike replies: It will get crown molding but plain white 1x4, not picture rail. And the windows will be trimmed (door too of course) if/when I can find someone with a table saw. I really don't want to buy a table saw just to rip nine pieces of wood!

Andrew: "I haven't kept track of your plans for the ceiling or the advice consensus. But the white walls with the grey joists, etc. look fantastic. Don't change them!"

Mike replies: Thanks. The walls are a Sherwin-Williams color called "Creamy," really just a warmish off-white. During this project, I discovered I like painting over primer. The walls soaked up a lot of primer, but the color went on so smoothly and covered so nicely that I was able to paint the whole room in one go. I used two gallons of primer but, of the color, only one gallon and just a splash from a second gallon. Anybody need one and 9/10ths gallons of "Creamy"?

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. 

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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.

'Heat It With Matchsticks'

Back to the Gallery build...

The painter did the ceiling yesterday. Took about an hour to spray it a flat gray called "Software" (must be a sweet job, "paint color namer.")

But there was a problem. Three hours later, the paint was still wet.

The reason? Shed's too tight. You put two gallons' worth of moisture into the air and after it loads the air with humidity it's got nowhere to go. The insides of the windows were wet with condensation.

And it was too cold in there, too. By then it was 38°F (3.3°C) outside and inside.

So I drove up to Tractor Supply and bought two ceramic space heaters (because one just seemed like it would be too weak). It was dark by that time. Put them inside the shed and turned both up to high, and went inside for an online meeting.

It was two hours before I got back outside, and guess what the temperature was inside the shed by then?

EIGHTY. 80°F! That's 26.7°C. After only two hours with two space heaters on! Man, Tyler the insulation guy was hardly joking when he said I'd be able to heat with matchsticks. Oh, and the air was much less humid by then and the paint was drying nicely. 

Drywall is next
To leave it overnight, I turned one of the space heaters off entirely. Here's a snap of the little $13 space heater that remained on, so you can see what we're talking about:

More to the point, here are the settings I left it on overnight:

And in the morning, with an outside temperature of 36°F and after a whole night in the 30's, with only that one little space heater for heat, the temperature in the shed was a comfortable 65°F (18.3°C).

Pretty dramatic, don't you think? At this point, I'm thinking the eight-foot baseboard unit we have planned might be overkill.

By the way, when they build whole houses this airtight and well insulated, they have to install air-exchange ventilating systems. Here's a link to a long video explaining one such unit (a Zehnder) in detail, in case you happen to be curious. With a single-room shed, air exchange will happen naturally with opening and closing of the single door to the outside, perhaps with a little help from the fan in the air conditioner. I'm going to have to keep an eye on it, though. This little building is as airtight as a bottle with a cork in it.

Anyway, the drywallers are in there now, my pool-team friend Charlie and his brother and their father. I'm inside staying out of their way.

I put the wires for the stereo in the wall right before they got here, so they can get covered up by the drywall.

That's the update for today, but check out the nifty pool table light I scored on Craigslist (seller's photo):

Handsome, eh? My friend Eric (the ceiling painter) and I have to drive to Buffalo to get it next week (it's a little too big for my back seat). I was going to build my own pool light, but when I saw this one I decided to go for it. It wasn't expensive. The owners just moved, and don't need it any more.

Mike

UPDATE Wednesday evening:

This picture shows you three significant things—the drywall up and taped; the two wire "tails" coming out of the wall where the stereo speakers will be; and, out the window, my other shed...which is what gives me that darned nickname...(see below...).

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Paul Martini, Bluff, Utah:

Christer Almqvist: "Be careful. The humidity is still in there. What was on the walls and on the on the inside of the windows when the indoors temperature was low is still inside the shed, only it is in the air and not on the walls when the air temperature is higher. Warm air can hold much more humidity than cold air. You can get the humidity out by letting (dry) cold air in and warm (wet) air out just by opening the door. Still better is two openings on opposite walls. (Called durchlüfteten in German, and is one of the methods to keep COVID out of the house). Do not keep door/window open longer than it takes to change the air. Do not let the walls get cold. And read up on absolute and relative humidity. Get a hygrometer. Avoid condensating humidity at all cost; the long term negative effect is not to be taken lightly. Healthwise, and financially."

Rob Spring: "Unless you ventilate the moisture will not leave. Warm air holds much more water vapor than cold so all you did by heating up the room was to drive the water from liquid to vapor. Be sure to crack some windows and try to induce a way for the moist air to exit the building. If you don't move that moisture out you will be in a situation where the vapor pressure in the building is significantly higher than outside. The moisture will find every crack and gap in your insulation system and believe me there are some. I have inspected many foam insulation installations like yours with an infrared camera and I have never found one that did not require quite a bit of touch up. There is no free lunch with energy. Super insulate with no air flow and moisture levels will rise. A dehumidifier may be your best option."

Mike replies: I'm all over it. This was in the barn, left over from my days in Waukesha, where the basement flooded two or three times a year.

Dan S: "So here’s a little secret about electric heaters: They are all the same. Regardless of the shape or size, their BTU output is limited by your home electrical system. There are numerous YouTube videos that explain this, but suffice it to say, it’s not the size that matters."

Mike replies: Well I'll be darned. I had actually noticed that, that every space heater in the store seemed to be 1,500 watts. (Link above in Dan's comment added by me.)

Zack S: "Did you include air conditioning in the build? Did not see that mentioned in your posts about your saga."

Mike replies: Yes, it'll get a small window air conditioner next Spring. There's a separate 20-amp circuit from the breaker panel.

Akhil Lal (via email): "Read with much interest your ongoing story re your new shed.

"Just curious, did you gave any thought to the possible outgassing of organic vapour from the closed cell foam insulation and its  long term health effects?"

Mike replies: It's difficult to research. Almost all the available data on safety is centered around application and the dangers during and immediately after application; SDS's (Safety Data Sheets) on some (not all) the constituent chemicals (and little on the two components after they're mixed); and cases of improper installation (which can be a nightmare—imagine having large swaths of your home slathered in glue and then finding out it's toxic and needs to be removed. There are cases where improper or inept application essentially ruins existing homes). 

Data about the safety of properly applied, good-quality spray foam insulation after it's in place is not easy to find. I've reached out to the EPA and to a green building specialist company for further links. We'll see what comes from that. 

The green building specialist claims on its website that over 85,000 materials and chemicals are using in building, overall, and that only 5–10% of them have been adequately studied for occupant safety after they're installed. 

...And If You Want to See State-of-the-Art...

Speaking of insulation, air seal is an important aspect of insulation (how can a house be efficient if air leaks in and out?), but if the house is really tight then it needs managed ventilation like an air-exchange system.

If you want to see something really cool, check out the following video. And get a load of his ventilation room! Awesome. This Baczek-designed passive house provides all its own power and enough electricity for the electric car. No energy costs, and net negative energy consumption.

Very interesting. Incidentally, that's my kind of luxury: If I had enough money to have my way, I'd rather have that house than a big sprawling show-off house that's inefficient and squanders lots of energy. (Not criticizing anyone for their choices, just talking about what appeals to me.)

Mike

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Closed-Cell Polyurethane Spray Foam (OT)

This is so off-topic. Sorry.

But it's quite interesting. After watching the insulation go into my shed on Friday I read up on closed-cell spray foam insulation and watched a few videos. It's pretty fascinating stuff—at the high end of insulation materials for performance, but also for cost.

To begin with, it's very good insulation, coming in at at R7 or R8 per inch. It also expands to fit the cavity it's sprayed into such that it becomes a very good air seal. It's good at keeping out insects and rodents. It's fire-resistant, although not as good in that respect as Rockwool (formerly known as Roxul); it won't fuel a fire, but it will burn in a fire. Although it will age—the trapped gases near the surface will gradually be replaced with air and the R-value will drift downward slightly—after a couple of years it stabilizes and the R-value won't change further.

Its most interesting property is that it's remarkably tough, and grabs on to whatever it's sprayed on like glue. Actually, it essentially is glue—it's somewhat similar in composition to polyurethane glues such as Gorilla Glue. So it can increase the shear strength of a structure like my shed by up to 300%. In fact they use it in the American South to help hurricane-proof houses, and one builder online recommends spraying it on the underside of staircases just to keep the staircase build nice and tight. I asked the electrician what they do when there's a wire failure in a wire embedded in the foam. He said it's not something they see.

Lighting
We put a quad outlet on every wall, plus there's a GFI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet next to the breaker panel per code, plus there's a double outlet on a separate circuit for the future window air conditioner. So there are 20 outlets in the room. That's got to be more than enough.

I wanted to say a little more about the plan of simply painting the unfinished ceiling dark gray. You might think this would be ugly and intrusive, but I'm not sure it will be. Think of what kind of lighting the room is getting—there is no general lighting except for the windows during daylight hours. There are two light circuits. The pool table light (I'm going to build my own) hangs at about eye level and brightly illuminates the table surface below it. So when it's the only light being used, especially at night, the table will be brightly lit and nothing else will be. The ceiling will more or less disappear, as it does in many pool halls. (See for example Ernie Barnes' painting "Pool Hall.") The other lighting circuit will be for the track lighting, which will also be directional, aimed at the photographs and artifacts on the walls. I don't know how it will work out—I'll have to see it—but it's quite probable that when I'm using one lighting circuit I won't be using the other—depending on who's visiting, we'll either be playing pool or looking at photographs, not both at once. As with the pool table light, the track lights will direct your attention to the finished walls and the dark ceiling will not be in your field of view or much in your consciousness. You also see this in many galleries, where all the focus is on the walls and pipes and ducts on a ceiling will be painted black or dark gray and will recede for most people.

Here's the color scheme for the interior (approximate, given the vagaries of color reproduction over the Internet):

Ceiling, floor, walls

Seating
There are going to be five bookcases, two 4.5-footers and three 6.5-footers, each with two shelves, for a total of 57 running feet of shelving. That won't hold all my books, but it will improve the situation from the severely limited shelving available in the house. I could fit a bit more if everything were made custom, but it's easier for Andrew to build multiples of a standard design, and smaller units will be more easily repurposed to different spaces in the future. Whether for me or for someone else.

As far as seating goes, I'm planning on having four seats, one in each corner (the geometry of a cue to a rectangular table in a rectangular room means there's more room available in the corners). At the door end there will be two bar stools without backs, and at the other end will be two nicer bar chairs with backs. That's because there will mostly be only one or two people playing. Now, when there are two people playing pool, you'd think you only need one chair, because at all times one person will be playing and the other will be watching. While that's true, most players like a place to put their stuff—to keep their other cues, set down their drink, put their coat in Wintertime, whatever. So I think it's more hospitable to have two seats, with a couple of extras for when four people are playing.

Is that enough about the shed for a while? I've been designing the bookcases, but you might recall Andrew's "Current Lead Time" clock in the post about the spice rack—I've got to get in line.  :-)

Mike

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Richard Parkin: "How can building a photo gallery be off topic?  :-)  "

MikeR: "I'd say that you're having some fun with this. Enjoy!"

Brian Stewart: "It contains photos, therefore it's on-topic."

robert e: "I have to admit, I rarely even notice ceilings, unless they're remarkably pretty or remarkably ugly. Even if you end up changing your mind, a coat of gray paint will have been a very low-cost detour. This project is going quickly!"

Mike replies: There's been a lot of waiting in between bouts of activity, but it's going quickly (and well) in recent days, yeah. I feel grateful.

marty knapp: "Very nice choice of colors and thinking about the dark ceiling re; the focus on the pool table and or the gallery walls. Personally, I favor dark walls for my gallery as when you turn on the lighting the prints are not glared out by a bright background. We used to call that non-image light in photography and have taken great lengths to shield it from our lenses with lens hoods. That Pewter Green you are using for the floor would be excellent for the walls.... Just my two cents. Best of luck on this great project. (I'm envious!)"

Mike replies: I hear you Marty, and I know Ansel preferred middle-gray (Zone V) for walls; he felt a white mat against as middle-gray background made the tones in the photographs look nicest. But there will be all sorts of things on these walls, not just B&W photos, and it's a multi-purpose room, not a single-purpose gallery. But I do get what you're saying and I don't disagree. I just don't want the whole room to feel small and dark.

John Krumm (partial comment): "I take it they sprayed under the shed as well? Or is that insulated a different way?"

Mike replies: Yes, the underside of the shed got spray foam insulation at the builder's, before delivery.