Unsurprisingly (and like most photographers), my Holiday wish list is once again filled with all manner of photo-related paraphernalia. The surprising part lies in my definition of what constitutes "photo-related paraphernalia."
My readers are well-aware of how stubbornly I hold onto certain photographic convictions — particularly my belief that photos are best-enjoyed printed. In a time when many photographers have never seen even a single one of their photos in print (much less a collection of prints), it's a delight to come across a world in which photographers still practice the fine craft of distributing photographs the "old fashioned" way — via small, independent magazines. This article discusses one such magazine, Littlefields, and how it gives me hope that photography's future need not resemble its present.
What's a busy fellow to do? Faced with a backlog of photo-related correspondences to write plus another blog article to develop, I had but one choice: Multitask!
There are two types of street photographers — those who choose the label, and those whom the label chooses. Which are you? Which am I? And why?
Welcome to "ULTRA U," my new online university dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of photographic knowledge, as best I can manipulate it. Here, in Lesson 1, I'll discuss the real history of film formats for still photographers. Give it a read — you'll likely find it's not nearly as dry as you might suspect, and I guarantee you'll learn something you never knew before.
What makes one photograph better than another? Miraculously, I think I found the answer. And, as anyone who frequents this site might suspect, the answer has absolutely nothing to do with what we've previously read, learned or intuited. Read the article to see how I applied this new definition of 'better' to create the "Masquerade" vBook, which premiered on this site a couple weeks ago.
The inevitable has occurred — ULTRAsomething is now hosting workshops. OK, it's only ONE workshop, and its being co-hosted with Quinton Gordon from Luz Studios, but it's still a workshop. And it's every bit as unique as its title: "Ferreting Mantras."
Other than one's spouse, few relationships are as important and influential as the one that exists between teacher and student. Any teacher can shovel knowledge on their pupils, but great teachers unlock their passions.
Why must fasting be limited to food? Why should our stomachs be the only organs to suffer the martyrdom of neglect? Recently I went on a five week fast of a completely different type — a photographic fast.
Linguistic economy is most definitely not the hallmark of a typical ULTRAsomething article. But every once in a while, I do manage to articulate my thoughts in a pithier than normal manner. I did this a couple years ago with an article called "Bartlett's Rejects," which simply listed 14 of my own personal quotes about photography. This article is the sequel — cleverly titled "More Bartlett's Rejects," it contains another 14 photography quotes, ripe for copying and pasting into signatures, tweets and term papers.
Another article filled with psychobabble and theoretical illustrations? Yep. It's almost as if ULTRAsomething believes that learning about oneself is, at the very least, every bit as important to one's photography as learning about the latest hip camera gear.
In this article, I offer the generous gift of a stand-alone ePub version of my 10,000 word Leica M Monochrom review, "A Fetishist's Guide to the Monochrom." In exchange, I ask only that you read my bellyaching about how annoying it is to create such a thing.
