Happy birthday, Mike! No matter which direction your photography turns (film, etc...) please keep writing these types of OT posts. Excellent advice and a great read regardless of the specific of our hobby.

I'm going to presume that your writing is best when your own photo mojo is in "the zone", and if that's film for you then that's where you should be! I think the blog will be the better for it. I've always appreciated that this blog is about photography, and not cameras, lenses, or any specific equipment per se. So you do you! By the way, how's that "In the Museum" baker's dozen coming along? :)

Funny, I just read through the previous article "No One Gets Out of It Alive" and thought pfffft.....doesn't apply to me. I had the original X00 for years, and just upgraded last year to the X100F, so I'm golden for quite awhile. And then I read this article. Uh Oh.

Glad to hear you're OK and back home—there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed after time away, ESPECIALLY if that time away is in the hospital. Relax, take care of yourself, and we readers will be here no matter how much time you need.

The photo would make a lovely Christmas card! Merry Christmas and thank you for all of your efforts through the year, from a loyal reader and (very) infrequent commenter.

Cory Booker seems like the best hope! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently exhibiting "Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath", now through Feb 2016. (Link here: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/829.html). I am lucky enough to live near the museum, and saw the exhibit last weekend. It is fabulous, and I plan to return several more times before it ends. To anyone living near Philly: Don't miss this!

Mike, I strongly admire your Taoist-like attitude toward life and I wish you safe travels! If your East coast side jaunt takes you in or near Philly, I would be honored to share some good coffee and good conversation.

Why do I do it? I'm an observer, I love to walk, and I love cities. I think street photography was invented to provide the perfect creative outlet for me!

A few numbers for Bryan Willman's sake: Kodak's peak annual revenue came in 1996, with $16B. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $24B in today's dollars. Today, Apple announced they they made 16.8B in revenue in China alone—and that's just this quarter! Apple's financials are truly staggering and unprecedented. I work for one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies--you know, that industry that is always getting disparaged for being too profitable. Well, Apple makes more in PROFIT than my company does in REVENUE, and Apple makes more revenue than the top 4 global pharmaceutical companies combined. They are a juggernaut.

I clicked the link, and, after reading the description, I glanced at the address bar hoping—praying—to see "www.theonion.com/leica", but to my sadness, it was, in fact, the legitimate Leica site. And it's not even April first.

"Note that you do not need to know all of these and you don't need to master everything. Rather, as you go through, you'll decide which functions you'll use and which ones you're going to ignore." Couldn't agree more. I've had my trusty X100 for years, and I always know the aperture setting by feel and can adjust it if needed without looking at the camera, and I know exactly what will be in frame and out of frame before I even lift it to my eye. However, it occurred to me the other day that I have absolutely no idea how to take a video with it. Simply a function I've never used and never needed to use. That's what my iPhone is for. :)

It's very possible that you can recover some, most, or even all of the files from the card. First, you need to STOP using it - don't write more files to it, format it, or use it in any way. Assuming you were using the Sandisk card, you can download a copy of their Rescue Pro software (http://www.lc-tech.com/pc/sandisk-rescuepro-and-rescuepro-deluxe/) and let it work it's magic. Good luck!

Q: How do you make a small fortune in photography? A: Start with a large one.

Great timing! I got home Saturday night from a days worth of shooting and realized I left my 3 stop ND filter on the entire day, so many of my shots were taken around 1/20 and ISO 3200. Getting ready to embrace the blur during my upcoming editing sessions!

My favorite line: "When did real cameras come out where you didn't have to do all this??" A wonderful commentary on how the definition of "normal" changes, and changes quickly!

I think it is an good experiment and I'd be interested to hear the final accounting of what % of sales each size received. However, as an artist, I feel that it is my job to determine the optimum print size for a specific photograph. We all know that some subject matter works much better as smaller, more intimate prints, while other subjects work best as giant prints (grand landscapes). Asking the customer to make what amounts to a creative decision is akin to asking for their input on cropping, saturation, etc—things that I feel are best kept under the artist's control.

Have you considered scanning all those important and sentimental scraps of paper? That way you wouldn't have to feel bad about trashing them, and they no longer take up any physical space—just an entry in Evernote or file on your hard drive.

Hmmm...I'm sensing that this post is really our first introduction to the future TOP World HQ. Hopefully the price is reasonable and it won't take too many more print sales to close the sale. Bonus: The house comes with unpaid interns to help around the office!

Yup, it's a good deal. That's the current model MacBook Air for about $120 less than buying direct from Apple. The MacBook Air is currently mid-product cycle, so I wouldn't expect any product updates for a few months at least. The question is though, is it enough of a computer for you? Two things stick out that you may want to consider: 128GB of storage is pretty small and certainly not enough for a library of digital photos, music, etc, so you'll have to have an external drive attached. Secondly, 4GB RAM is, in my opinion, just not enough to run the current OS along with [insert your photo editor of choice]. Nowadays, I'd consider 8GB RAM to be the minimum. I'm pretty sure that the RAM in the MacBook Air is NOT user upgradable (it's soldered to the motherboard), so seriously consider buying up front with 8GB installed.

"...you can simulate an anti-aliasing filter with the flip of a switch. The camera doesn't actually have an AA filter, but it will helpfully simulate it for you by jiggling the sensor to blur the picture..." Oh my god, you were serious about that?! I was sure it was just a off-handed joke in keeping with your style, but then I actually clicked on the dpreview link. Sheesh.

Interesting analysis and one that I've thought about before, especially about how it relates to my own photography. Being a strong introvert, I believe, meshes quite well with and benefits my street photography. I feel comfortable being a "detached observer" with no need to interact with my subject, and that allows me to simply wander, see, and photograph without having to--god forbid--talk to people! :) On some level, it seems counterintuitive that an introvert would enjoy street photography, since there is always some level of interaction (even if just visual glances), and of course the potential for even greater interaction (positive or negative) when spotted, but it works for me. I wonder if the historically successful flâneur photographers (Bresson, Doisneau, Levitt, etc. ) were introverts or extroverts?

I'm generally not a pixel peeper, but I would love to read a thorough comparison of this lens attached to a D800e vs the Leica 70mm f/2.5 attached to a Leica S.

Ouch. Heartbreaking, although I have to ask--if the government knew that anything that failed to sell would be discarded, why on earth would there be assigned minimum prices? Isn't $1, or in this case, $260, better than $0? I guess, as you said, the ways of the Federal Government are mysterious.

Keeping my fingers crossed that one of them will be from the "Space Travel" series!