The joyful exuberance of ULTRAsomething’s childlike naïveté is over. Rebellion rages within — exacerbated by mood swings, sassiness, and a vexatious surliness. They grow up so fast, these cherubic little websites. As the calendar flips to Sagittarius, ULTRAsomething clocks another birthday — its thirteenth. A teenager!
While turning 13 is statistically quite common for humans, it’s a rather rare event for blogs… or whatever it is this website actually is.
In fact, many of the classic teen characteristics — such as recalcitrant independence, social awkwardness, and runaway identity crises — have been part-and-parcel of the ULTRAexperience since it was just an infant.
Which suggests, perhaps, that I’m wrong to frame this site’s 13th birthday in human terms. Maybe websites age more like dogs? In which case I’m happy to report that ULTRAsomething has just turned 91! It would certainly explain why I’m feeling far more introspective on this particular occasion than would be possible for any 13 year-old.
Then again, 91 implies the website’s demise is close at hand. If that’s the case, shouldn’t ULTRAsomething have more to show for a cradle-to-grave existence than a slovenly 234 articles, 1,500 published photographs, and roughly half-a-million words? That’s an output more worthy of a sloth than a dog.
Which, now that I think about it, is perhaps a more apt yardstick. In sloth years, ULTRAsomething has just turned 39. That’s an appropriate age equivalency for a site still developing new directional ideas, and that still believes it can one day succeed in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
So perhaps I’ll celebrate this, ULTRAsomething’s 39th birthday, in the most sloth-like manner possible — sloughing off all those extra words I was planning to write, and taking a nice leisurely nap.
©2021 grEGORy simpson
ABOUT THE PHOTOS: “Felicitous” and “Sun Spot” were both photographed with a Ricoh GRIII — the proper one with the 28mm lens, and not that newfangled 40mm job. Speaking of 40mm lenses, “Introvert” was shot with a 40mm f/2 Rokkor lens, mounted to a Japanese market Leitz Minolta CL stuffed with HP5+, shot at ISO 400, and developed in Rodinal 1:50. “Apropos of Most Everything” was snapped with a Konica C35 at ISO 100 on Acros-100II and developed in Rodinal 1:50. “Vancouver 12, Egor 1” was shot with an iPhone 12 Pro… yes, you read that right. And no, it’s still not a suitable substitute for a ‘real’ camera, but it is better than a Leica at checking email on the go.
REMINDER: If you’ve managed to extract a modicum of enjoyment from the plethora of material contained on this site, please consider making a DONATION to its continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site. Serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls — even the silly stuff.
Happy 13/39! Age is but a number. A number of ailments and perpetual soreness, but a number nonetheless.
Also nice to see some film shots. And, that 40mm GR3 is pretty awesome, at least for old guys like me.
Thanks, Hank… am I correct in assuming you’re now experiencing some 40mm Ricoh awesomeness, first hand? I SO wanted them to make a 21mm version (like they did in the days of film yore), so I was disappointed they went the other direction. Though it’s likely a far better marketing decision on their part.
It’s really nice (I have the 28 too). A 21 would be logical, but maybe the lens would end up too big for the current body ?
Would any 21mm aficionado care?
I like the phone image the best. Sorry.
It’s funny. I’ve been carrying an iPhone for as long as this website has existed — and I STILL forget it has a camera in it…
I often forget my iPhone has a camera in it too. In fact, the other day I saw a scene while I was cycling past and I thought, “Now that’s nice, wish I had a camera with me today…” and the iPhone was right there in front of me clipped in its mount on the handlebars. Such it is.
Excellent photos, regardless of camera. And a happy anniversary? birthday? on the website. It’s one of the few I always look forward to receiving a “new stuff to see” notification from.
🙂
G
In another couple years, we’ll probably be forgetting that our augmented reality glasses have an 80 mpix camera built in. Fortunately, when that happens, everyone who was raised to take pictures on their phones will be in the same boat as us.
The technology to have a camera attached/inserted anywhere imaginable may not be that far away…
https://petapixel.com/2021/11/30/researchers-shrink-high-res-camera-down-to-the-size-of-a-grain-of-salt/
I was all set to buy one, ’til I saw it was full colour. That’s a deal killer… well, that and figuring out which cavity to install the wifi router into, so I can transmit the images to my Mac.
Happy BDay to ULTRAsomething Igor,
Introvert is truly a well observed photo, made me smile and should be on a greetings card !
Perhaps you can start planning to release a 14th birthday book of your excellent photography,
if no publishers have the foresight to do it maybe you self publish on Blurb and keep all the money yourself.
I’ll start saving …
Cheers Gary
Thanks Gary. I’ve decided to wait until Steidl shows some interest. Hasn’t happened yet… 😉
Happy 39, EGOR! Found your site some 39 sloth months ago and glad I finally did. Looking forward to the coming years, what ever path and direction you’ll chose.
I prefer to believe that it’s the path that chooses me — if only because such logic absolves me of all responsibility.