ALL POSTS INDEX
A hyperlinked index of every ULTRAsomething post in descending chronological order
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National Biplane Lady Day
Which of these two is more ridiculous: “Film Photography Day” or “National Biplane Lady Day?” In this article I present the arguments. You make the decision.
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Sigma vs. Nerd (Part 1: Sensor School)
Many people love cameras because they love gizmos, gadgets and technology. My love for cameras is more of an adjunct to my true love — photography. But that doesn’t preclude me from occasionally going full-on camera nerd — particularly when it comes to something like Sigma’s Foveon sensor, which has the…
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A Treatise on X and Z
I’ve often said that photography’s closest art form is not painting, but poetry. So perhaps it’s not surprising that I’ve uncovered yet another link between photography and language.
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The Fallacy of Saw
What I see when I see what I saw is not the same fiction as most others divulge.
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Fractured
I can no longer deny my propensity for “fractured photography.” Now I just need to figure out what, exactly, that means.
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Cats and Dogs
It’s not often I give my impressions of modern digital cameras because, frankly, it’s not often that modern digital cameras impress me. So hold onto your socks, because this article contains impressions of not one, but two modern digital cameras — the Olympus OM-D EM-1 and the Ricoh GR.
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How Many Wrongs Make a Right?
If two wrongs don’t make a right, then how many wrongs does it take? At last, the answer is revealed!
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One
One. Summed.
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The Ponce Factor
Unsurprisingly (and like most photographers), my Holiday wish list is once again filled with all manner of photo-related paraphernalia. The surprising part lies in my definition of what constitutes “photo-related paraphernalia.”
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The 8% Solution
How can photographers measure their success? Through simple mathematics, of course.
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Littlefields
My readers are well-aware of how stubbornly I hold onto certain photographic convictions — particularly my belief that photos are best-enjoyed printed. In a time when many photographers have never seen even a single one of their photos in print (much less a collection of prints), it’s a delight to…
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Multitasking
What’s a busy fellow to do? Faced with a backlog of photo-related correspondences to write plus another blog article to develop, I had but one choice: Multitask!
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The Other Half Frame
There’s more than one way to fill a negative. So when another attack of flat-back panoramic camera lust flared up recently, I chose to extinguish it not with a big bad Hasselblad Xpan, but with a diminutive little half-frame faux-panoramic camera, called the “Minolta Freedom Vista.”
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Pen Pal
Lately, it seems everyone I know is buying an Olympus PEN. Not wanting to be left out, I too jumped into the waters — only instead of getting one of those new-fangled digital PENs, I opted for a classic mid-1960’s PEN FT film camera.
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Roadkill
There are two types of street photographers — those who choose the label, and those whom the label chooses. Which are you? Which am I? And why?
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ULTRA U: History of the Film Camera
Welcome to “ULTRA U,” my new online university dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of photographic knowledge, as best I can manipulate it. Here, in Lesson 1, I’ll discuss the real history of film formats for still photographers. Give it a read — you’ll likely find it’s not nearly as…
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Reject Intent
What makes one photograph better than another? Miraculously, I think I found the answer. And, as anyone who frequents this site might suspect, the answer has absolutely nothing to do with what we’ve previously read, learned or intuited. Read the article to see how I applied this new definition of…
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Masquerade
“Masquerade” is my second vBook of photographic stills produced under the “Necessarily Narcissistic” film production label. In contrast to the purely accidental creation of my previous vBook (“47 Photos of Rain”), this one’s creation is quite purposely accidental.
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Making Contact
One man’s toy is another man’s tool — at least that seems to be the case with my adaptation of the toy-like, budget-friendly Lomography Smartphone Scanner, which I’ve found to be the quickest way yet to create digital contact sheets from my 35mm negatives. What’s that? You say you don’t…
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Get Y’ur Lurnin’
The inevitable has occurred — ULTRAsomething is now hosting workshops. OK, it’s only ONE workshop, and its being co-hosted with Quinton Gordon from Luz Studios, but it’s still a workshop. And it’s every bit as unique as its title: “Ferreting Mantras.”