The weather’s been pretty mild lately. And sunny, too. It’s a welcome change.
Unless this is because of the ever warming climate. In which case this is worrying.
But anyhow, we’re are enjoying some warm sun rays and are spending more time outside again. Zoe likes it, too: she gets to ride on bikes with us and is playing much more outside on various playgrounds – which feature many more other kids again now, too.
But I have to wonder: will all those kids get to enjoy days like these with their own kids, too?
I’m using an early 2011 15 inch MacBook Pro. Still! It’s now almost eight years old. And it’s plagued by that issue with its discrete graphics card. After Apple replaced the logic board twice – for free – I got it repaired late last year again (by a third party), and then a couple of days ago another time (under warranty). Before going with the repair, I thought about getting a newer model. It remained being just a thought.
Apart from being a waste of otherwise still very capable hardware, there are three main reasons for this:
The new unreliable keyboard.
Apple’s ridiculous high prices for SSD storage.
The Touch Bar.
I’ve heard and read about too many instances where keys on the new keyboards would stop working properly – even on their latest iteration – that I’m very hesitant to buy one with those in them.
Then there is the price for SSD storage. I want a 1TB configuration, so I can comfortably fit everything I need internally. I don’t want to deal with external drives and all the complexity that comes with that. Annoyingly, upgrading a current MacBook Pro configuration to feature a 1TB SSD instead of the 512GB version costs an additional €500. Which I feel is a rip-off!
And I’m sceptical of the Touch Bar, too. I use the Esc key a lot, and think I would miss having a hardware key for its functionality. So, I’d much prefer a row of function keys.
And that’s why I’ll keep using my trusty old 2011 model. It still performs well with its quad-core CPU, all-SDD storage and a renewed battery. I’m still hoping Apple will get its act together again soon.
Analogue cameras – especially (purely) mechanical ones – became a big part of the appeal of shooting film for me. They feel great in your hand and are often very solidly built1. Their controls offer everything you need, and nothing you don’t. There’s nothing to configure via menus or an assortment of buttons or screens. You choose a shutter speed, you choose an aperture, and you’re ready for the next frame. Simple2!
With the mechanical variety, you can feel it doing its work every step of the way. It’s a more immediate and satisfying experience for me. And more relaxing, too, compared to handling yet another computer. Plus, it’s a nice feeling to know you’re able to operate an all manual camera.
I also love the little ritual of manually advancing the film to the next frame. I love rewinding the film when it’s full and inserting a new one. I love the simplicity of the rangefinder construction3, where the lens’ aperture blades immediately move when you change its setting, where there are no mirrors involved, and instead you look through a separate little window to frame the scene.
And just like old cars, they’re often great to look at, too.
They’re often heavier than digital ones, though, too, which I’m not crazy about. ↩︎
Of course, that’s possible, because the film is a fixed recording medium, whereas a digital camera and its sensor need to be and should be configurable. But that’s exactly the point: film allows the cameras to stay simple. ↩︎
I’m sure the construction is indeed not so simple. But the idea and the interface are, and that’s what counts as a user. ↩︎
Back on the road. We made a trip to Normandy and other parts of the French Atlantic coast.
Here are 56 photos from last September.
It’s Friday night. I’m now done editing photos for the next journal entry. Now writing its text. Update coming very soon!
Went to the cinema yesterday and watched “The Favourite”. It was extremely entertaining. There is much to love about this movie: the absurd story, the location, the music, the typography, the filming, the portrayed characters and how well they were acted, and all the well-written – and super funny – dialogues. Basically everything. I laughed a lot.
There’s currently – and again – a discussion going on in Germany about whether to enforce a general speed limit (“Tempolimit”) on the German Autobahn. I’m not going to argue for or against that general limit here – I’m all for it, though – but wanted to share a personal anecdote where I experienced that no speed limit was dangerous.
The setting is a pretty empty two-lane Autobahn as it might be the case on a weekend morning. Now, I drive a camper van1 and usually drive at a speed around 100 to 110 kph. Occasionally there’s a truck or otherwise slow vehicle to overtake, even for me. On a two-lane highway, I always get nervous. I take great care not to overtake after a hill or a corner, but if someone’s approaching at 200+ kph I still might not notice him2 until it’s too late. Because even when I make sure it’s all clear before I start the overtaking manoeuvre it might take a while at 120 to 130 kph. I can remember two occasions where vehicles came very close at high speed. And the drivers were furious – middle finger and all. I’m not quite sure if the situation was indeed dangerous, or whether that person simply wanted to teach me a lesson. But from my point of view, I couldn’t anticipate his car.
On a three-lane highway I’m not nervous, because you can pretty much rely on that everyone that’s super-fast is on the left lane and everyone else is on the other lanes – the lanes that I stick to – at a maximum speed at around 140 kph I’d say. That makes overtaking easy to predict and stress free for me in my slow (for German standards) motorhome. But I dread that almost empty two-lane no-speedlimit stretch.
I know, one of the typical enemies of people who like to drive fast. Fuckin’ hippies and old folks (who can’t fuckin’ drive in the first place)! ↩︎
Today started with a shocker: Our camper was gone from the spot I had parked it a couple of days ago. My heart started racing as I thought it was stolen. I sent Nicole into shock, too, before I realised, I might have parked too close to a fire brigade access – although I took care I wasn’t when parking it1. Sure enough that was the problem and the camper only got towed. Phew! Still, this wasn’t and isn’t a cheap mishap: a big invoice for the towing plus more fines to come, when I interpret the note on the windshield correctly. I guess that’s fair enough. But man, I didn’t have a good day today.
To my defense, suitable parking spots for campers are hard to come by in the city. ↩︎
I often struggle finalizing a monthly edit for my photo journal. I’m never quite sure what frames to pick and which to kick.
The first and second round of culling is quickly done, but really narrowing it down takes me quite a while. And it’s one reason I’m so far behind with posting there1.
The journal is not meant be a portfolio, and so I don’t really see the need nor do I want to only select the very best shots. But I’d like to select a somewhat tight selection that still communicates what that month was like.
And that’s really the bit I’m fighting with. While the target audience is primarily myself, I still want to display the photos in a way other people find it interesting, too. If only to make sure that I find the selection still interesting in a few years time. I don’t want to go through two hundred photos per month, but I don’t want to leave out things that I might miss later, either.
So, each month’s selection will probably always contain – and be allowed to contain – images that are nothing special, but where I feel they need to be in there to better tell the story. But it’s not easy for me to let go of certain photos. And I often procrastinate on the editing process, because I dread deciding which additional frames to remove from what I consider an already tight edit – which I know or feel it is actually not.
Maybe I should constraint myself to speed things up: simply stick to a fixed number of images – say a maximum of thirty photos per month – and work within that limit. But, what if I shot a lot of street and otherwise documentary photography and simply want to share more? Maybe put them somewhere else? Here? I really don’t know. Maybe “simply” get better at editing. But how?
Negative strips hanging to dry in our shower.
Right after the reason, that I accumulated a lot of unprocessed rolls during last year’s travels, which I had to catch up developing and scanning. ↩︎
Having no instant feedback shooting film, also means I sort of get to re-experience a moment one more time. Simply because I can only look at a photo much later. And when I finally get to see the negatives and/or the scans, I get taken back to that moment.
I also get to enjoy the suspense and the surprise: “Did I get the shot how I imagined it?“ “Oh, that’s a detail I didn’t see when taking the shot!” Or – when I develop the film much later – “nice, I forgot about that frame”.
It’s always exciting taking the film off the reel after developing it, holding it up to the light and looking at this long strip of negatives. There’s always a surprise waiting.
Of course, I also get to experience the disappointment when something didn’t turn out. But that’s part of the game, and what makes it exciting in the first place.
Couldn’t have guessed how this would turn out.A very spontaneous hipshot after turning around.
Journaling again. That’s how it goes when you don’t have anything pre-written. Because so far into this project, I’ve been writing day-to-day, which sometimes means my writing turns out really short or meta. Or it’s a journal entry like this one. So, here we go.
Yesterday night was pretty unusual: Nicole and I went out together, which hasn’t really happened much since we had Zoe. We went to see Mastodon and Kvelertak in Oberhausen. Felt exciting sitting in the car all by ourselves, with a Wegbier, driving into the night. ;-)
And we had a great time. Kvelertak put on their sweeping performance and had the best sound of the night. And Mastodon played an amazing 100+ minute set. We just wished they’d thrown in a couple more of our favourite songs.
Usually I take my camera everywhere, but this time I thought, “nah, let’s just enjoy the gig and do not carry the camera around”! And I regretted that decision. What was I thinking?
Then today I got the other left wisdom tooth removed. This time it was from the upper jaw; maybe that’s why afterwards it’s not hurting as much. Definitely feeling better than last time.
I recreated the initial beat of Meshuggah’s “Bleed” on Heydon’s great online drum machine.
Zoe und ich hatten viel Spaß zusammen heute Abend, weil der Monchhichi nach dem Milch trinken plötzlich so viel rülpsen musste.
I’m in progressive mood right now when it comes to music. One album on heavy rotation right now is the latest – now almost 13 years old – Tool: “10000 days”. 75 minutes pure awesomeness!
