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More Bartlett’s Rejects
Linguistic economy is most definitely not the hallmark of a typical ULTRAsomething article. But every once in a while, I do manage to articulate my thoughts in a pithier than normal manner. I did this a couple years ago with an article called “Bartlett’s Rejects,” which simply listed 14 of my own personal quotes about…
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A Fetishist’s Guide to the Monochrom (Part 3)
In this, the third and final installment in my three part discussion of the Leica M Monochrom, I wrap up my review of the camera’s imaging characteristics, then dive deeply into the psychological aspects of the camera.
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A Fetishist’s Guide to the Monochrom (Part 2)
In this, the second of my three part discussion of the Leica M Monochrom, I take a good long look at the camera’s various imaging characteristics, including tonality and “filmishness” — whatever that means.
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A Fetishist’s Guide to the Monochrom (Part 1)
3 installments! 4 dozen images! 10,000 words! And enough photographic fetishes to qualify as camera porn! In this, part one of my three part discussion of the Leica M Monochrom, I discuss the kinkier mechanical aspects of the camera.
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Terrible Parables
In this article, I explore the idea of a “photographer’s parable,” and soon realize why there are so few of them out there.
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Term Limits
We need to fit the term “photographer” with a pair of concrete shoes, and drop it in the nearest lake. Photography is no longer a unique ability — but the numerous tasks we can accomplish with photography ARE still unique. And this uniqueness is how each of us, moving forward, must define ourselves.
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A Derelict Memory Lane
“Memory Lane,” as I define it, is “a long strip of acetate with a silver halide coating.” I consider my film cameras to be miniature time capsules — my past self records a person, scene or event that it thinks my future self will find interesting. This article discusses one such trip down Memory Lane,…
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Shooting Through the Wormhole
For the last several years, various mid-20th century sources have exerted a profound influence on my own photography: golden age photojournalists of the 1930s and 1940s; post-war photo essays from the 1950s; and John Szarkowski’s New Documentarian leanings of the 1960s. I wasn’t always this anachronistic. Rather, I used to be even more so, and once drew…
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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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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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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.
