Sharing and Forgetting

December 10, 2011 | Category: Site News | Comments Off

Someone pointed out to me that I haven’t published anything on this blog in several years… and I thought “there’s no way this can be true”… but the date of the last post can’t be argued with. It definitely says 2009 and this is most certainly 2011.

I can’t possibly use amnesia as an excuse since such selective forgetting is unlikely… and I haven’t had an improbably comical blow to the head in ages, which, as television sitcoms have taught us, is required for that sort of thing. I believe my lack of posts has more to do with internet exhaustion cause by sharing fatigue.

I’m still taking photos and trying to improve my technique and skills… but there’s been less of a desire to put everything on the internet for various reasons but mostly because most social networks feel creepy and intrusive to me… and (as I’ve said in prior posts) they’re exploiting you by selling your thoughts and memories to advertisers in exchange for a free place to (essentially) blog and email your friends… things that you can easily do without having Facebook compile a Stasi style dossier on your life.

But, as the people in my life continue to tell me… the old ways are over and done with. Being an artist in the 21st century means cultivating a fan base… so in 2012… which sounds too futuristic to be real… it will be back to breaking rocks on the social network chain-gang with the rest of you poor wretches… and keeping an up-to-date blog.

Probably not on this site though. Like abandoned houses, old blogs should sometimes be condemned.

Comments Off | Permalink

The Old Feeds On The New

September 19, 2009 | Category: Digital Slavery | Comments Off

37signals has an excellent piece on the purchase of Mint by Intuit.

As more great new companies are absorbed into big old companies, a whole new generation of change is lost. They can issue press releases saying how excited they are to be able to bring their product to a whole new world of customers, and how their new suitor will bring enormous resources to bear, but we know that’s usually not really what happens. Development slows, products stall, the staff that built the great stuff leaves, and mediocrity creeps in. Not always, but usually.

This could just as easily describe the purchase of Flickr by Yahoo. It’s remarkable how little the site has changed in the past few years.

Comments Off | Permalink

Yes, there IS a camera attached to that lens…

September 6, 2009 | Category: Photography Tools | Comments Off

Engadget has an amusing story (more photos and video at the site) about the new Olympus E-P1 micro four thirds camera with a big honking lens attached to it. You can see the camera if you look closely.

I kind of want one… but the massive lens attached to it seems to defeat the purpose of a MICRO camera.

Comments Off | Permalink

The Dawn of Kodachrome

September 5, 2009 | Category: History of Photography | Comments Off

Time Magazine has a great (but too short) photographic essay on FSA photographers who used Kodak color film to record scenes from the Great Depression. When you’re so used to seeing that time period in black and white… color can be quite startling.