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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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Glam Cams
In this article, I struggle with the idea that my rugged, he-man camera of choice isn’t peddled in a depot, market or shop — but in a boutique! And I attend the opening of the first Leica Boutique in Canada in an effort to get to the bottom of it all.
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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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Gear Guano Canal
There is no such thing as technical perfection. There is no perfect camera. There is no perfect lens, flash, film or Photoshop plugin. There is only the perfect image — and people have been taking them for well over a hundred years with some amazingly imperfect gear. So why do we, as photographers, spend so…
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The January Effect
In this article, I struggle to find the perfect New Year’s resolution — you know, something fairly trite and not too onerous. Along the journey, I discuss the often negative effect other people’s resolutions have on me, and wax nostalgic over the one and only shining example of positive effect — a phenomena I once…
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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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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…
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Fauxtographs
Every so often I see a trend develop that sort of rubs me the wrong way. That’s when I invoke my “Blogger’s Right to Curmudgeonly Commentary” and type out a post like this one. What bee is in my proverbial bonnet this time? Photographers who choose web publication as the ultimate display format for their…
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More Poe than Van Gogh
The classification of photography as an “art” has done it a great disservice. Art demands that the viewer appreciate the technique behind it. It calls attention to its technical merits. A good photograph should never do this. Rather, it should just be. In 1951, Robert Frank told Life Magazine “When people look at my pictures…
