Archive for Musings

The January Effect

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

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 dubbed, “The January Effect.” | Read the article.

Categories : Musings
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Rainy Days and Mondays

Monday, November 28th, 2011

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… | Read the article.

Categories : Gear Talk, Musings
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Bartlett’s Rejects

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

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 disorder, this is the article for you. | Read the article.

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Market Speak

Friday, July 8th, 2011

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. | Read the article.

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Lobotomy, Please!

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

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 be my admirers — they would be the style’s admirers. I’d rather have detractors. When we try to be something we’re not, we’re destined for mediocrity. When we’re true to ourselves, we give ourselves a chance to transcend it. | Read the article.

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Hockey Gods

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

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… | Read the article.

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Fauxtographs

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

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 photographs… and, yes, that used to include me. | Read the article.

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More Poe than Van Gogh

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

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 I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.” Frank knew then what I’ve only just figured out — photography is language. And the language of photography is the language of the poet. | Read the article.

Categories : Musings
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