ALL POSTS INDEX
A hyperlinked index of every ULTRAsomething post in descending chronological order
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Flame Frenzy
So much for professionalism. Rather than keeping a cool, detached “street shooter’s” eye, I joined the swarms of snappers and chased the Olympic flame around downtown Vancouver for 24 hours prior to the opening ceremonies. Sometimes you just need to be a tourist in your own town.
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This is Going to be Fun
Its inevitability has, for a decade now, been forced into my consciousness and my subconsciousness. It’s become a part of my Id, my Ego, and my Super-Ego. Its costs, benefits, politics and promise have permeated local news outlets since I first moved to Vancouver at the dawn of the 21st…
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DagNAMMit
This is an article about photographing the culture, chaos and cacophony that surrounds the NAMM music products show in Anaheim California. It includes several photos from the show, plus a link to a multimedia presentation about NAMM. The article also discusses the current state of photojournalism, and the difficulties facing…
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The Megapixel Thief (Part 2)
Out there on the mean streets of photography, it’s a digital world. So what possible good can come from shooting with a 50 year old Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera? How about 50 megapixel scans, square negatives, and a classic “analog” look? Dive into this article to discover…
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The Megapixel Thief (Part 1)
Common wisdom tells us that “the bigger the sensor, the better the image.” Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras, though 3 times the price, have a sensor 9 times larger than a point-and-shoot. Great value! The sensor on a full-frame “35 mm” digital camera is 4 times larger than MFT and,…
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Year One
This photo-laden article displays several previously unpublished photos from 2009 and invites the readers to tell me what they do with their own orphaned, unpublished images. It discusses the philosophy behind the ULTRAsomething photography blog, and why I try to achieve a balance between equipment reviews and articles designed to…
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The Self Portrait
Most people would define “self portrait” as a photograph in which the photographer, himself, is the subject. This article discusses how, over the last couple of years, I’ve come to define “self portraits” in an entirely different way. To me, a “self portrait” is a photograph that reveals something about…
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‘Tween the ‘Weens
Those of us who photograph the human experience spend 364 days a year trying to be ‘the invisible man.’ But for one glorious day each calendar year, we street photographers can drop our disguise, emerge from the shadows, and proudly hold our cameras aloft. All Hallows Eve is our night.…
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The ‘Match Technical’ Advantage
Last year, the Leica rangefinder replaced the SLR as my ‘go to’ camera for reportage, street, documentary, candid, travel, and just plain ‘fun’ photography. It changed the way I approach these subjects, and made me a better photographer for it. I took to the Leica instantly — coming to grips…
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What Color is Happy?
“We humans are quick to embrace new technologies, aesthetics, techniques and trends. We are equally adept at discarding the old ones. And, while few of us would choose to live in the past, its wanton abandonment comes with a heavy price — ignorance.” This article discusses why Black & White…
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The Mythical Invisible Shield
Cameras have an odd psychological effect on me. They have a way of heightening one form of reality, while diminishing others. With my camera in hand, I’m singularly focused on creating the perfect image — one with the potential to entertain, enlighten, inform, or influence those who view it. When…
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Alaskan Cruise Photo Gear Guide
Have you ever hunted through a photography forum for answers to such questions as, “What lens should I take on my Alaskan cruise?” or, “Should I bring a tripod on my Alaskan cruise?” If those forums left you with more questions than answers, I suggest you grab a cup of…
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Listen to Your Leica
A simple little story about heat stroke, and the way it makes you do crazy things. Like, say, photograph fireworks in black and white on a dark beach in the middle of the night — hand-holding a Leica M8 while using ridiculously long exposures without benefit of a tripod.
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Geeking Out with a 50 ‘Cron
There are geeks and then there are photo geeks. In the old days, geeks worked in carnivals and were oddly entertaining folks who swallowed swords, hammered spikes into their nostrils, and decapitated chickens and snakes without benefit of a cleaver. The photo geek, by contrast, is not nearly so riveting.…
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Torment of the Innocuous Query
“What do you photograph?” Inevitably, when someone discovers that I’m a photographer, this is their Pavlovian response. It’s a question framed in an expression of utmost earnestness — as if they were asking a medical doctor to state his specialty, or an actor to enumerate the roles they had played.…
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Communicating Discourse
What would you do if an event coordinator asked for “action” shots at an event, and that event is about “people sitting around exchanging ideas?” It’s just another “Day in the Life” story for the fearless ULTRAsomething photographer.
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The M8ing Ritual (Part 3)
In this third and final entry into my “working” review of the Leica M8, I discuss image fidelity. Specifically, I discuss the obvious visual benefits of shooting a camera without an anti-aliasing filter. I take Leica to task for recording 12-bits of data, but downsampling the RAW files to 8-bit.…
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The M8ing Ritual (Part 2)
In Part Two of my report on the Leica M8, I discuss such things as the camera’s ergonomics, its shutter noise, and whether or not it succeeds in making me “invisible” on the streets. Granted, they’re not the normal topics one discusses when reviewing a camera. But there’s nothing “normal”…
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The M8ing Ritual (Part 1)
With my street photography proclivities showing no sign of waning, this article finds me continuing my quest for the “perfect” camera. Earlier this year, I opted for a hybrid approach — mounting rangefinder lenses on a Panasonic DMC-G1 MFT body. The experience was reasonably successful. In fact, it was so…
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Of Glass Cacophonies
Every now and then, we all need a little extra inspiration. Many photographers fall into the habit of looking for photos in all the usual places. But by actively looking for photographs in non-standard places, photographers can find photo opportunities that might otherwise bypass them. This article discusses that “art”…