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Much as photography is just part of my activities, I enjoy the off topic forays, as I usually learn something, as I do from even the more esoteric photo posts. I'm thrilled with my Mercer chefs knife; it has added a lot of pleasure to the several nights I'm head chef. Ahh, but there is a catch, sharpening. For the kitchen, I keep a medium diamond hone, and a 10" steel; if I need more, I can take them out to the studio and run them through the tiered Japanese waterstones. That, and learning to hold with the fingers bent out of the way. 8-)
Carry on and Blog free!
You Cannot Please....
Two recent comments: Steven Palmer: "Hey, Mike, can we have more photography related articles, please? I don't mind some off topic stuff, and actually like most of it, but lately real photography related posts have been a bit thin on the ground. I don't consider putting up a photograph and link ...
Highly recommended: the Lido II, from Orphan Expresso, a very well thought out hand grinder, from literally, a Mom and Pop outfit from Idaho. The Faq's on their site gives some lucid thoughts behind their design decisions.
Our houshold has gone from RO water filtration, back to filtering the hard water with a carbon/charcoal type filter. The RO water was bland and neutral as to being distasteful; guess we like some minerals.
Open Mike: Improving Your Morning Cup of Coffee
Introduction: I get asked several times a week week for advice on a few of my non-photographic interests, from people who are frustrated and want to "up their game." I've been meaning for some time to run through some specifics so I don't have to answer people individually—which I certainly woul...
From another crafsperson, and to make John Camp's advice even briefer, JUST DO IT!
There is no magic bullet in anothers methods, nor at all the workshops, books, and psycho-babble; JUST DO IT!
Annie Dillard Sure Can Write (OT)
Children ten years old wake up and find themselves here, discover themselves to have been here all along; is this sad? They wake like sleepwalkers, in full stride; they wake like people brought back from cardiac arrest or from drowning; in medias res, surrounded by familiar people and objects, e...
Forgot to mention, Amazon has a large discount on PS Elements 13 for Prime members, and yes Mike, I just bought it and some other doo-wahs through your linxz
Best Bargain Digital Camera
I mentioned yesterday how impressed I am that you can get a Sony A6000, successor to the NEX-7, for only $448 from B&H Photo or from Amazon.com. Really, this might be the biggest bargain out there in a new digital camera right at this minute. And although finding the right lenses for Sony camer...
I'm enjoying my new a6000; not much bigger than the ancient Canon G9 it's replacing. (I'm slow on the upgrade) The kit lens has issues, though software corrects many of them,JPG mainly, and in the learning phase I'm in it's size is a blessing. Two other issues; the LCD seems "delicate", and the manual is comically concise, to be gentle. There is a pretty good guide book by Gary Friedman and Ross Warner, however. Oh, and dealing with lens caps again; 6 years since I've owned ans SLR type camera. I can never remember where I put them. 8-). Just waiting for the 35 1.8 to go on sale.
Best Bargain Digital Camera
I mentioned yesterday how impressed I am that you can get a Sony A6000, successor to the NEX-7, for only $448 from B&H Photo or from Amazon.com. Really, this might be the biggest bargain out there in a new digital camera right at this minute. And although finding the right lenses for Sony camer...
And to you and yours, blessings and thanks!
Happy Thanksgiving
Separatists (pilgrims) signing the Mayflower Compact, 1620 Just a brief word of thanks to you. I appreciate you coming by my little corner of the Web from time to time. I'm grateful for your interest in our shared pastime and passion. To everyone who is celebrating the holiday today, happy Than...
Lo, much time has passed since the threat to divulge the identity of the new "Topmobile". My interest in cars and cameras is unabated, and this "aside", this brief hint of some "uber Honda" with a MT. Well, Sir, do tell! Speculation runs rampant. 8-)
Progress of the Progress*
This morning I'm leaving Barrington Rhode Island, a satellite of Providence, where my brother and sister-in-law and niece live. Barrington is a lovely little Eastern community threaded around inlets of the sea. My brother is a psychologist and his wife a scientist, and my niece a fifth grader. ...
Have a nice trip! Check out I Pass or Ez Pass for paying tolls; very convenient and the tolls are usually discounted. Illinois and Indiana sell them at Toll plazas or CVS has them. Photogene is an excellant editor for the iPad.
9/25/2014 The Morning Coffee: Negligence
Good morning to you – I think I might've mentioned before that I'm an easygoing kind of guy. If you remember that fashion for calling high-power personalities "Type A," then I'm probably a Type E for easy or maybe a Type S for slow. I've been busy enough in the last couple of weeks that I have a...
Might I reccomend "Blogsy" for the iPad. Straight forward and easy to use mobile blog software.
9/23/14 The Morning Coffee: Travel Plans
Obligatory Butters shot—in the same place as the last shot, but through the window from outside. Good morning to you— Later this week I'll be traveling: starting with a destination of Corning, New York, moving on to Providence, Rhode Island, then a stop in Cambridge (near Boston), Massachussett...
Well, Congratulations! Looks to be a lovely house, soon a home! Though personally I'd rather have a stove top in lieu of one of the ovens ... 8-)
Finally, I Get To Say THANK YOU
The new TOP World HQ is in an entirely different part of town—the west or rural side of town, where suburb gives way to farmland. In fact, there's a farm field abutting my new back yard. There are some particularly lovely rural views close by, which I'll photograph and share in due course. I've...
Since it is a walking city, it is also a great city to sit and watch. The Pariseans have conveniently placed cafe's with outdoor seating for that purpose. La Chappelle is a wonderment. Oh, and learn a few "politenesses", I was amazed how far courtesy would take me, and I have a terrible accent. I also found smaller, working parish churches to be more interesting than tourist draws; just walk in. Relax, you can't see it all in a city that has a restaurant devoted to L'Escargot. Enjoy what you do see.
Ctein in Paris
[Note: TOP's Technical Editor, Ctein, has not fallen off the face of the earth. He's just been very, very busy administering print sales for TOP, finishing up the novel he's jointly writing with John Camp, and dealing with the ongoing remodeling of the former darkroom and garage space. (He says ...
Looking forward to Zander's story.
"Organizational Aptitude". My youngest has none, but is stubbornly independant, and contrary to a fault. Go figure.
Why not use Pages on your Mac, then copy and paste?
Open Mike: What I Did on My Day Off (OT)
...I started another blog. Very different from this one, though. I have a past, you see, and I've been carrying around this great story for a lot of years now—the story of how my son Xander came into the world and how I somehow ended up with him. I don't tell the story very often any more, but w...
A superb explanation of lens quality, with illustrations that, do illustrate. I love that it is also an illusive quality, and that "measuring" with the eye is how one discerns it.
A Little Lens Tale
The Spyglass Man, Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, 2008. Shot with the seldom-praised Canon 28mm ƒ/1.8 at ƒ/5 on an APS-C body. Trying to demonstrate lens character with a web-size JPEG is an exercise in futility, but in prints I like how this lens smoothly yet distinctly renders the background layers...
"Someday I will tackle an essay as to why art appreciation is not just "a matter of opinion." It should make for an entertaining rant even if you don't end up agreeing with it. But it will have to wait until the puppy grows up. At the moment, I'm exhausted. --Mike]"
Looking forward to it!
Bron
Sunday Open Mike: Those Piquant Microcritiques
The other day I mentioned a comment by friend Kim Kirkpatrick made years and years ago that was so right that it has stuck with me ever since. The comment was "he edits out all his best ones!" That whole issue—the danger of not seeing your best "hits" and mistaking them for "misses"—has been in ...
Song Sparrow (I looked again). Song Sparrow, with 24 valid sub-species, is a "cryptic" species; hard to sort out who is who. 8-)
The Besotted Bird: Love Is in the Air!
By Jim Hughes From my office window which overlooks our driveway, I have been observing one pretty little bird's odd behavior for the past three weeks. From first light to dusk, it seems, he (I'm assuming the creature is a male, for reasons that will soon become obvious) can be seen darting betw...
It looks to be a female House Finch, protecting the territory around it's nest.
The Besotted Bird: Love Is in the Air!
By Jim Hughes From my office window which overlooks our driveway, I have been observing one pretty little bird's odd behavior for the past three weeks. From first light to dusk, it seems, he (I'm assuming the creature is a male, for reasons that will soon become obvious) can be seen darting betw...
"Egregious canard". Is there a universally accepted "standard", or is it opinion? Must have missed that class. Sure hope there is an iPhone app for that, an easily applied standard of good vs bad art, that doesn't require education, thinking, and then having an opinion?
Having an external editor, or critic, changes a personal vision to a collaborative vision; guess I'd rather muddle along with my bad personal vision.
[Hi Bron,
Nobody here said you had bad personal vision.
Someday I will tackle an essay as to why art appreciation is not just "a matter of opinion." It should make for an entertaining rant even if you don't end up agreeing with it. But it will have to wait until the puppy grows up. At the moment, I'm exhausted. --Mike]
Sunday Open Mike: Those Piquant Microcritiques
The other day I mentioned a comment by friend Kim Kirkpatrick made years and years ago that was so right that it has stuck with me ever since. The comment was "he edits out all his best ones!" That whole issue—the danger of not seeing your best "hits" and mistaking them for "misses"—has been in ...
Apropos of #1 in murder, some local statistics found while seeing if any copies of John' s latest are available at my local library. St. Joseph Co. IN. Of the 65 copies, all hardbound I'm sure, the library has, all are out, and 20 patrons are waiting in line for some to be returned. No E-book copies, yet.
After dinner, through your link of course, I will brave the weather of the ether, go to Amazon, and get my very own Kindle copy.
Open Mike: No. 1 in Murder
Speaking to fans, May 9th, 2014 Regular readers will probably recognize the name John Camp. A former reporter, John's now a committed amateur painter who's made himself quite knowledgable about art. He's also built a very successful career as a novelist, writing thrillers (at the gruelling pace...
What John Camp said! The problem with flat to flat is understanding what the camera and lens distorts; photography has been a great boon as a resource for draughtsmen. I do think the photo should be ones own, though. Silly me.
'Going From Flat'
Shania McDonagh, Coleman Photorealism—the art of rendering photographs in oil paint—has been around for a while, of course, with such eminent practitioners as Chuck Close being reasonably well known. Before that, trompe l'oeil, which I've never known how to pronounce, has been around for much l...
Having grown up the son of a landlord, no, focus on what you do best. The pain and suffering of dealing with tenants will never be compensated by the monetary gains, though maybe I was at the wrong end of the equation. (Cleaning up after tenants). I am however, a firm believer in making an offer on property you are interested in. Low ball is good; don't let the broker tell you it's insulting. My wife and I halved the asking price of the house we are in; I knew they could never sell it the way it was, except to somebody like me, and all of the problems were surface. Mike, make an offer based on where you are now, don't take any BS from agent, their job is to present offers, and don't worry, let them counter. It is possible to insult sellers, but again, the agent needs to do something for their commissinon, convince the sellers this is a serious offer based on your position, not an insult!!!
We remodeled, but we are 1 mile from my wife's museum, and 50 feet from my studio, (though there are zombie raccoons and snow drifts), and we like our home. We can fit a lot of kids in here.
It just sounds as if the other house is better; and don't hesitate to let everybody involved know your situation; it might be a factor.
Thanks! (Update)
I'll let you know for sure in a couple of weeks, but we think the Print Sale / Capital Campaign that concluded last night reached, or came close to, Goal #4, which will allow me to move some walls, doors, and windows at the front of my existing house and more than double the size of TOP Global H...
It did make me smile, though it was more at the distinguished linguist acknowledging that a living language trumps him.
Our Changing Language
"An elderly American woman approached a gentleman she didn't know and, holding out a cell phone, asked: 'Would you please take a selfie of my friend and I in front of this window?'" Little did she know the gentleman was a distinguished linguist...but, fortunately, a kindly one. Read the story at...
First "real" camera, Nikon F, 50 F1.4, black, 1968, built like a tank, heavy like a tank, even sounded like a tank .... no wait, .... Canon S110, small, fits in pocket, almost silent, shoots in available darkness, and is usually with me. Like it a lot! 8-)
Your Favorite Digital Camera
Just a quick question—what's your #1 favorite digital camera of all time? Not the best one you've ever used, but the one you liked best. For any reason—familiarity, results, whatever. Or, if you're primarily a film photographer now, what's your favorite film camera? Just name one please—and plea...
Kinda late, but ... Chandler, Stout, Richard Stark, and amongst contemporary crime authors, John Sandford, AKA John Camp.
Open Mike: More Books from the Great List
Five more categories from my magnum opus "225 Books by Genre" reading recommendation list: Pastoral John Steinbeck, The Red Pony [1933] Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine [1957] James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small [1972] Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [1884] Science Bill Bry...
Thanks Ctein, and a John Sandford/Ctein novel; I'm intrigued.
Ch-Ch-Changes
By (in alphabetical order) Ctein and Mike Starting next Wednesday, you will notice a change here at The Online Photographer (TOP). Ctein's weekly Wednesday column is coming to an end. About 325(!) of them have been published so far! (...We think. A slight miscount is possible. But it's somethin...
I've manfully controlled myself, no snark, but sometimes an image just is ... to alter something the painter, Edward Hopper said, "If I could say it, I wouldn't need to photograph it".
Nice discussion, but sometimes words get in the way of what is a visual medium.
The Danger of Revisiting Your Work
Words and picture by Roger Overall Something peculiar happened to me the other week. Something quite revealing. It makes me wonder whether we can always trust what a photographer says about the original intention of their work. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been having a discussion with ...
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