POV
March 1, 201615 CommentsMusings7.4 billion people. 7.4 billion competing points of view. Sometimes it's therapeutic to have a blog.
jaPANorama
February 1, 201616 CommentsMusingsPhoto GearvBookWho in their right mind would drag an old Widelux F7 panoramic film camera to Tokyo some 15+ years past the dawn of the 21st Century? Precisely.
Camera Season: The Leica SL
January 1, 201613 CommentsPhoto GearThe Leica SL is a big camera... with a big list of pro features... and a really really big native lens. To review it properly would require an equally big article. Which is exactly why this isn't a proper review. Instead, this article looks only at one particular aspect of the Leica SL — its ability to work with adapted M-mount rangefinder lenses.
Extending Myers-Briggs
December 7, 201521 CommentsMusingsThanks to yours truly, the oft-maligned corporate tool known as Myers-Briggs has a new extension that applies directly to photographers. Whether or not this is a good thing is totally up to you.
A Minor Delay
November 30, 20159 CommentsULTRA newsWhat does one do when one vows to publish at least one article per calendar-month, yet arrives back home — jet lagged and fully booked — on the final day of a month spent mostly in Tokyo? One writes a short article to explain why there's no article that month — thus honoring (though somewhat deceptively) one's vow.
On Myth and Minitars
September 17, 201521 CommentsPhoto GearRecently, the mad scientists at Lomography surgically removed the Minitar lens from their cult-classic LC-A camera, tarted it up by grafting on a Leica M-mount bayonet, and sent it into the night to tempt us weak and sinful lens addicts. I'm only human. I succumbed. And here, for the benefit of other weaklings, is my report from the stone-cold morning after.
Is Relevance Relevant?
August 19, 201512 CommentsMusingsA relatively relevant reflection on irrelevance.
Human 2.0
July 20, 20153 CommentsMusingsI haven't seen any mention via online rumour sites, but I think it would be rather ignorant to assume that someone somewhere isn't hard at work on the Human 2.0 project. What new features can we look forward to? What bugs will finally be fixed? And is there anything that can be done to actually make me a better photographer?
Copy Proof
June 22, 201512 CommentsMusingsIn this article, I tackle the trendy subject of copyright infringement, and reveal my secret method for discouraging would-be image thieves.
Sentences and Sensibility: Leica’s M (246) Pt. 2
May 14, 201549 CommentsPhoto GearThis is ULTRAsomething's second installment in the "Sensibility Series." It features thousands of words, grouped into hundreds of sentences — a handful of which are actually about the topic it purports to discuss: the Leica M Monochrom (Type 246). I should also mention that it's populated with over a dozen actual photos — and not a one of them falls into the category of "pretty marketing shot" or "test shot." Undeterred? Then read on.
Sensors and Sensibility : The Leica M (246) Monochrom
April 30, 201543 CommentsPhoto GearWhat if Jane Austin had the opportunity to test and compare Leica's new Type 246 M Monochrom camera against both the existing Monochrom and the M Type 240? Would her first published work have been a tale of romantic fiction? Or would it have been something closer to this?
Yin Every Yang (Part 2)
April 19, 20155 CommentsMusingsPhoto GearTraveling to Iceland in the dead of winter? No problem. Traveling to Iceland carrying a backpack and a zoom lens? Now that's culture shock.
Yin Every Yang (Part 1)
April 1, 201521 CommentsMusingsPhoto TechniquesIn this world, there are things that motivate and things that demotivate. Curiously, what motivates one person might be exactly the same thing that demotivates someone else. Case in point: exotic vacations to scenic locales. For many people, such trips stimulate an outpouring of photographic activity. But for me, the only thing they stimulate is a bout with photographic apathy. Which is why, on a recent late-winter trip to Iceland, I decided to counter my expected languor by doing the opposite of what I would usually do. I would yin every yang.
Appropriating Cortini
March 1, 20158 CommentsMusingsDoes a song need an evolving melody in order to be called a song? Or can something else evolve in its place? Composer and sound designer, Alessandro Cortini claims the latter. And it's a claim I've just appropriated to help describe my latest photographic tendencies.
Up Goes The Ante: Fuji’s X100T
February 18, 201518 CommentsPhoto GearFuji and innovation go hand-in-hand. My Hasselblad Xpan? A creation of Fuji's. My pocketable, point-and-shoot Medium Format camera? Also Fuji. My next digital camera? Well, Fuji's new X100T has certainly warranted a meticulous examination — nearly 5,000 words worth of meticulousness! So is that lump in my pocket a new Fuji X100T? Or is it the big wad of cash I saved by deciding not to purchase one? Read the article to find out.
Whenevergram
January 29, 201511 CommentsMusingsvBookThis article is for anyone whose obsessive need to update their social media outlets has forced them to post ill-considered crap. It introduces a conceptual new product called “Whenevergram,” which will force people to post carefully-considered crap instead.
Applied Relativity: The Leica M-A
January 8, 201554 CommentsPhoto GearSomewhere in this meandering tale of chance encounters and philosophical philosophizing, there’s a review of the new Leica M-A camera — a camera that just might be the closest any manufacturer has yet come to that elusive quality known as “perfection.”
A Measly Million
December 15, 20146 CommentsMusingsThe Fibonacci sequence might get all the glory, but it won't help anyone predict which photo will be the first to surpass the $7 million mark at auction. For that, you'll need the “Egor sequence.”
