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  Fujifilm TX-1 | Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 | Kodak Portra 400 | Pacific Image PrimeFilm 120 Pro  "To the coast" is another fairly atypical photo for me.  I'm really not a landscape person-- they just leave me cold most of the time-- but I have a handful of pictures from specific excursions that I still like.  This is one of them, taken on the west coast of the United States (near Portland, Oregon). (I also don't shoot Portra very often; I have a preference for Kodak's cheaper stocks given a stop of overexposure.  Still, it is a very nice film and has a reputation for a reason!)     This one is exceedingly simple from a compositional standpoint.  You have the subjects (the two people and their dogs) generally clustered along the left-bottom third of the image, arranged along the bottom-left-to-top-right diagonal and in the foreground.  The walkers' sweaters are distinctly colored against the backdrop of dune grasses, causing them to jump out imm...

  All photos in this article were taken by me, and were exported as JPEGs 2000px on the long axis.   The concept of doing more with less is nothing new; in many ways, it’s a fundamental principle of good design. That fact is readily apparent when it comes to the tools we use in our daily lives, be they physical or digital. When it comes to cameras, the consequences of getting this wrong– of doing less with more– range from simply inconvenient to downright counterproductive. Every choice that a manufacturer makes has the potential to fundamentally make or break the user experience. It’s with this idea in mind that I’m writing about the Minolta P’s (also known as the Freedom Vista and Riva Panorama), a point and shoot camera that’s unusual in both name and purpose. Despite its unassuming looks, there’s a real sense of ambition here– one that distinguishes the P’s in a way that isn’t just different , but meaningful. If you love the idea of seeing and shooting a world written w...

  Fujifilm TX-1 / Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 / Ultrafine Xtreme 400 / Epson V550 "Hudson moment" describes, well, a moment featuring someone spending time by the eponymous river.  I've used this image as an example of heavily "weighted" compositions leveraging the panoramic format on a few occasions, as well as in a small series on moments of solitude amidst the big and bustling city. The image is dominated by three important lines.  The top of the safety rail (which lines up with the horizon) rides the boundary of the lower third, while the lampposts establish a strong frame-within-a-frame between them.  With a largely-symmetrical composition, the difference in visual "weight" on the right side (between both distribution of the New Jersey skyline and the subject) pulls the viewer in that direction.  Starting with the sitting person, the railing guides attention over to the other lamppost (particularly if the viewer is checking for lateral symmetry), at wh...

Fujifilm TX-1 / Super-EBC Fujinon 45/4 / Kodak Gold 400 / Epson V550  This one's very simple.  A bicyclist is quite literally riding the line (well, visually; if you look closely I think they're an inch or a few to the left of it) between the bike lane and the general street.  As far as early shots with the Fujifilm TX-1 go, I think this one still acquits itself quite well; tricky format or no, there are many panoramic opportunities in a city. I could look into the specifics, but this was probably taken within the first week or two of ownership-- on the fourth roll I put through the camera, from the looks of it.  As with the "Child & Guardian x 2", I was still digitizing images at this point with my V550, so there's a bit of fuzziness to be had here. As far as how this image presents, I think it's pretty clear that the bicyclist is the first thing to jump out.  Viewers might initially lock onto the bright orange of the traffic barriers, but the foreground/...

  Leica R8 / Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8 / Unknown / Epson V550 "Child & Guardian x 2" is a very old photo, taken in mid-2016 on a 400-speed black and white film that I apparently never tagged in Lightroom.  Regardless, I was playing around with the Leica R8, an odd (if lovely) 35mm SLR and the Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8.  The lens itself is outrageously sharp (as shown by the example image of my cat below, taken on the 10MP Leica DMR digital back).  Any lack of detail in the shot above is due to the combination of scanner and my lack of experience at the time (and I really ought to re-digitize this one). Leica R8 / Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 60/2.8 60mm is a bit of an odd focal length for a walkabout lens, but it was what I had at the time.  I was working in the finance sector on the east side of Manhattan, and there was a little plaza near my office that I'd often go to during lunch. Fortuitously, I spotted this picture-perfect arrangement of two older folks and k...