Stepping Out

For several years, I tracked the total number of steps taken on each and every photo walk. And I did this because… well… I don’t actually know why. Maybe I needed to confirm my compliance with that whole 10,000 step ‘health’ thing, even though I knew every walk would easily exceed that amount. Also, I was tracking only the photo-related steps, as if any other type of step was somehow void of benefit. So this year, bored with counting steps (but still monitoring only photo walks), I decided to instead track miles, which seemed a more relatable metric (imperial?) in real-world terms. I surpassed 1,000 miles well over a month ago, and should easily exceed 1,250 miles in 2023. That’s 2,000 km of aimless meandering, expressly for the purpose of taking photos.

That’s like walking from San Diego to Seattle — the entire length of the west coast of the USA; or from Stockholm Sweden to Milan Italy for my European friends; or from Brisbane to Adelaide for the down-under crew.

This probably has a lot to do with why shoes are my #3 photography related expense. These are no grassy meadows I’m traversing — just cold, hard, unforgiving cement. The shoes I bought just 3 months ago are now tenuous at best, while those I bought 5 months ago are ready for the trash. I wonder how many other people are on a first name basis with the staff in their neighbourhood specialty shoe store?

Unlike cameras — where a cheap and dodgy no-name special is just as likely to produce a good photograph as a premium model — shoe quality is essential. Skimping with cheap shoes is false economy, since any perceived savings correlate directly with a significant increase in bandage costs.

By the way, for those wondering what my top-two photography-related expenses are, the answer is 1) insurance and 2) web/domain hosting. Magazine publishing costs are also way up there. Film, chemistry and cameras are actually the cheapest part of this whole endeavour — which would be a great way to rationalize their purchase to a spouse, should you be one of those people who has one.

I wasn’t always such a walk-a-holic. In my early 20’s, I prided myself on driving a half-mile to the grocery store, under some mistaken assumption that I was doing myself good by saving 5 minutes of precious time.

My walking didn’t see a tremendous uptick during the 13 years I lived in downtown San Francisco — where I simply replaced the car with a monthly bus pass. Also, my penchant for wearing leather-soled Beatle boots and black, skin tight Levi 501 jeans was a bit hostile to walks in excess of a mile or two.

Things changed somewhat when I moved to Vancouver. I traded the tight, heavy denim (which was made far tighter and heavier by the rain) for loose, quick drying nylon. And to gain more traction on wet, slippery surfaces, I traded my beloved Beatle boots for rubber soles (not to be confused with the Beatle’s Rubber Soul).

But even then, I didn’t walk a tremendous amount — just enough to shoot the photos I needed to populate the next article. Granted, I walked far more than most people, but nothing like the Bangkok-to-Hong Kong treks I do now. All additional exercise was relegated to the gym, which burned far more calories in far less time than walking (mirroring the same primitive logic I employed in my early 20’s).

COVID changed that tactic entirely. The gyms closed. I tried working out in my condo, but didn’t wish to pollute my clean minimalist environment with some bulky, ugly exercise gear. So I tried going with a floor mat and a bunch of iPad exercises, but that simply wasn’t any fun — not that exercising ever was. Instead, I just started walking more. A lot more. Unfortunately, no amount of walking will ever get my heart pumping away at 160 bpm, but at least it gets me out of the condo and into the fresh air, where I’m free to engage with the world (even if that world extends only in a 5km radius from my home). But most importantly, all that extra walking lets me take substantially more photos.

By the time all the gyms finally re-opened, I was well and truly hooked on walking — and well and truly out of the gym habit. Unlike bad habits, which are notoriously easy to adopt and wickedly difficult to kick, good habits (like going to the gym) are the opposite: wickedly difficult to adopt and notoriously easy to kick. Intellectually, I know I should probably add some cardio back into my daily routine, but for now I’ve simply convinced myself that every time I see a good photo opportunity, my heart rate accelerates. Granted, I haven’t actually confirmed this with a heart rate monitor because, frankly, I don’t want to disprove it.

So I guess I won’t be ponying up any dough for a 500 series Hasselblad system, or that 3-lens Mamiya 6 system, or even a 30mm lens for my Xpan. Instead, I need to once again traipse over to the damn shoe store, and tap the credit card for a pair of winter-ready waterproof Hokas. At least it’s cheaper and more exciting than buying insurance.

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© 2023 grEGORy simpson

ABOUT THE PHOTOS:

I considered populating this article with various footwear photos, but a quick scan of my Lightroom catalog revealed that I apparently don’t possess even the slightest tendency toward foot fetishism. So I had to pivot, and instead populated the article with several disturbing visions of a dystopian future. Given the state of the world, it seemed rather appropriate — even if the photos have nothing at all to do with the text.

For the nerds out there:

Dystopia 1: World without Netflix was photographed with a Leica M6TTL and a Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 Nokton lens, using FP4+ pushed to ISO 400 and developed in Blazinal 1:24.

Dystopia 2: World Without Mobiles utilized a Leitz/Minolta CL with an M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 lens and FP4+, which was shot at ISO 200 and developed in Blazinal 1:50.

Dystopia 3: Deep Fried Oreos was shot with an Olympus OM-2n and a G. Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens, rendered on Fomapan 100 and developed in Black, White & Green at 1+49.

Dystopia 4: Orthodoxy used a Konica Recorder half-frame camera, a roll of Fomapan 100 and a tank of Blazinal 1:50.

Dystopia 5: Generative A.I. was photographed with an Olympus OM-3Ti and an F. Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens, loaded with HP5+, shot at ISO 400 and developed in Blazinal 1:50. It was then made thoroughly moronic with a bit of assistance from Adobe’s generative fill tool.

Dystopia 6: Aliens – This, like Dystopia 3, was shot with an Olympus OM-2n and a G. Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens, rendered on Fomapan 100 and developed in Black, White & Green at 1+49.

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