Last summer I bought the much hyped and hard to get Fuji X100 camera as a little carry around camera.  After using it I instantly determined that, while the files it produces are very nice, the camera itself is infuriating to use.  As I noted on my trip to New York City, even though the X100 was with me everywhere I went, I used my iPhone instead.

Then recently Fuji announced their latest camera, the X-Pro1.  It looks like a pretty nice upgrade. This camera will have changeable lenses and better manual focusing.  So I thought, “hmm, maybe that would be a good little camera to get.”  The only thing I’m not thrilled about is the smaller-than-35mm APS-C sensor.  But Fuji is doing something with this sensor that other manufacturers haven’t… they’re making the pixel patterns random to give it more film like look.  Film like… sounds good to me.

But then I thought…  What are they going to come out with next?  What am I going to want NEXT year?!?!  So I decided to buy different camera all together.  It comes with a full frame 6×7 sensor with an ACTUAL film look and hasn’t changed much since it was first introduced in 1990′s: The Mamiya 7II.  Ok, it’s far from what you would call a “little” camera… but I know I like this one thanks to Fabien Penso who let me come by and try his out last summer at his office (which has quite the view as you can see above).

I found a really good deal for a used 7II on ebay and it should be here tomorrow.  I have some editorial shoots next week where I’ll put it to use now that I’m shooting  film on editorial assignments.

Here’s some unsharpened detail from an Imacon scan:

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3. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while but I never got around to it.  Then last night fellow Bay Area photog Timothy Archibald announced that he’s planning on dumping blogger and moving to Tumblr.

It’s my personal opinion that Tumbr is ruining the photographer blog.  More and more a lot of the photographers who’s blogs I follow have been moving to Tumblr.  And pretty much across the board they went from an interesting informative blog to nothing more than a stream of photos.  Worse than that,  a stream of Instagram photos of nothing in particular.  I love a good Instagram BTS shot as much as the next guy and I think it’s great to show outtakes and other work that doesn’t make the “main” website, but I don’t really need to see the view from your airplane seat on your way to a shoot (that seams to be a favorite on Tumblr).

Of course, it’s not Tumblr itself that is causing this… Tumblr is just a platform and you can do with it what you want.  Unfortunately it just seems that photographers are using it in this way.  My guess is it’s because Tumblr makes is so damn easy to post a photo with no commentary and move on.  But at that point, Tumblr basically a Flickr substitute… and not even a really good one.

Do you like a bit of discourse with your blog?  Well, unless the Tumblr blogger does some customization to their theme with something like Disqus (which most don’t seem to do) forget about an interesting comments section.  What you get instead is a list of “hearts” and “reblogs”.  I couldn’t imagine a site like A Photo Editor on Tumblr without a comment section, where a lot of the interesting content lies.

I of course am no better than any other photographer with a Tumblr blog.  I do the very same thing with my Tumblr; replete with Instagram photos that I’m sure nobody cares about.  But I’ve always considered my Tumblr blog to be a companion to this blog, not a replacement.*

So go ahead photogs, start your Tumblr blog.  But don’t give up on real blogging.  Either keep your real blog or use Tumblr the same way you used your original blog.  Don’t just post snapshots of your day or outtakes that weren’t chosen for a reason.

*This is in no way implying anything interesting can be found on this blog.

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Today over on A Photo Editor there’s a link to a Rodney Smith blog post about smiling in photos.  Rodney doesn’t think smiling photos have substance.  I don’t know that I agree with that, but I know I tend to like non-smiling photos.  I have a total of seven on my entire website and only one in my portfolio (although it depends on what qualifies as a smile… there are some very slight smiles that I didn’t count).  I tend to take things a bit further though… It seems I don’t even like people looking at the camera.

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So this is what I’ve been working on the last nine months and I’m glad she’s finally here.

I’ll do my best not to make all my posts about Chloë… even though she is pretty damn cute.

Now, I need to go get some sleep.  Ok, here are a couple more:

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I got back Saturday night from my trip to New York.  It was a great trip with a total of 24 meetings showing my new  and updated portfolio.  Jam packed to say the least.  I’m very happy with the response I received to my new portfolio.  Now, let’s hope the work pays off and leads to new jobs and new clients.

One of my rationalizations for buying the recently released and overly hyped Fuji x100 was that it would be a great camera to carry around New York.  However, even though I did have it with me, it was just too damn convenient and quick to pull out my iPhone and snap some Instagram shots (speed is key when your girlfriend is trying to be patient as you stop to take pictures every few blocks).

Here’s a chronological view of my trip:

Welcom To New York, Exiting Penn Station

Cloudy New York Day

New York Port Authority

Wandering Around Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen Building

Making My Pizza @ Capizzi

Cheap Pizza

Doing My Best Not To Buy Anything

Making My Pizza @ Joe's Pizza Greenwich Village

Only Vinyl @ House Of Oldies Greenwich Village

7 World Trade Center

Ground Zero

View From Impossible Project

Waiting Patiently While I Shop @ Impossible Project

Cab On Broadway

Great Burger & Interesting Decor @ The Trailer Park Lounge

The High Line

View Of The Hudson

Sunset Over The Hudson

Creepy Playground Near The High Line

New Yorker

Cloud Over Hell's Kitchen

The Guggenheim

Caught In A Flash Rain Storm With No Umbrella

Brooklyn Bound

Waiting For Train To Brooklyn

Empty Brooklyn Subway Station

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Playground

Great Italian Restaurant In Brooklyn

Photo Shoot In New York

Waiting At The Gate To Get Home

Waiting On The Plane To Get Home

On The Plane Home

Happy To Be Home

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Follow up on my post a couple days ago, last week I photographed Cole Becker and Travis Nuemann of Emily’s Army for Guitar World magazine.  Here is an outtake of the other guitarist Travis Nuemann.

More about the band and the shoot when the issue comes out.

License or custom prints of this image here.

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Last week I photographed Cole Becker and Travis Nuemann of Emily’s Army for Guitar World magazine.  The issue won’t be coming out until September so I can’t show any of the pics yet but here was an outtake I shot for myself because I really liked this giant door at the shoot location.

More about the band and the shoot when the issue comes out.

License or custom prints of this image here.

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She only breaks out the big hair for special occasions.

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Bay To Breakers was yesterday.  It’s kind of a big deal to my girlfriend.

And of course you’re going to need the Bay To Breakers Workout to get ready for the long day of running ahead of you (then again, who really runs?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzOGUlqOr2I

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