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R-E-S-P-E-C-T
I make no money writing these articles for ULTRAsomething. So I moonlight by writing the f/Egor column for Leica Camera — a gig that pays me… umm… actually it pays absolutely nothing. Obviously I haven’t completely grasped the meaning of “moonlighting,” but I do understand the meaning of “respect.” And so should anyone else who…
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Black & White Colors
“Hey, I know! Why don’t I take a nice black and white photo of the colorful fall foliage?” Really, I have thoughts like this. And it’s not like life isn’t already stressful enough without my masochistic need to invent photographic assignments that I can’t possibly hope to satisfy. Why do I do this? Well, surprisingly…
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Rainy Days and Mondays
It’s been over 40 years since The Carpenters scored a #2 hit by complaining about rainy days and Mondays getting them down. Too bad the Pentax K-5 wasn’t around then…
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The Leica 21mm Super-Elmar-M
When Leica lent me their new Super-Elmar-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH lens, I gave a figurative shrug. I already owned an excellent copy of an old 21mm f/2.8 Elmarit pre-ASPH, which I absolutely love. So it would be highly unlikely that Leica’s new 21mm would actually inspire a case of gear lust… but gear lust I…
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Wag the Blog
Once every three months I slip away from all the limelight, tinsel and glamor of the blogging world, and I take a good long look at ULTRAsomething. I ask myself a great number of questions about what this site is and what it should be. It’s a quarterly rite of passage that rarely yields any…
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Riffing in the Key of Ricoh
With the release of the GXR Mount A12 module for M-series rangefinder lenses, the Ricoh GXR camera system has not only come of age, but found its way into my camera bag. This article discusses why the GXR has replaced Micro Four Thirds as the digital backup to my Leica M9, and what Ricoh can…
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The Geometry of Night
The requirements for photographing at night versus day are as different as… well… as night and day. This article proposes that night photography is best approached not as a challenge of light, but as a challenge of subject.
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Going for a Spin
Earlier this year, in an attempt to maximize context in my photos, I purchased a swing lens Widelux F7. Its 120 degree horizontal field of view provides me with far more context than I’ve yet been able to use effectively. Sane people would be perfectly satisfied to stop here. So what would insane people do?…
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Bartlett’s Rejects
Without a doubt, this is my most quotable article to date. Perhaps that’s because it’s nothing more than an assemblage of my own personal photography quotes? Whether you have a term paper to write for photography class; are looking to impress a hot hipster with a lomography fetish; or are simply suffering from attention deficit…
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Market Speak
What is the market value of a photograph? For how long should someone view a photograph? What does the public want from photography? Why do men have nipples? This article, ULTRAsomething’s latest philosophical musing, provides no answers.
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Lobotomy, Please!
Self-doubt is a bottomless quagmire from which escape is difficult. We are who we are. If we’re lucky enough to have a vision and to feel passionately about it, then we owe it to ourselves to persevere. Slavishly adapting my style to match current trends would likely bring me more admirers, but then they wouldn’t…
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Hockey Gods
In its forty years of existence, the Vancouver Canucks hockey team has never won the Stanley Cup. Some of this city’s more pagan residents blame this on vengeful Hockey Gods. There might just be some merit to this belief…
