To reduce my reliance on an external light meter, most times I guess and set my exposure before taking a meter reading. This makes me assess the available light first and makes think about what the exposure might be. When – or even if – I then take a meter reading, I’ll correct my aperture and shutter speed settings, if need be.
I found this to be a very effective way to get better at guessing exposure. Outdoors, I use the sunny 16 rule as my guidance, of course. For indoors, I mainly rely on experience.
There’s something very rewarding about being able to operate an all-manual film camera and produce useable images with it. You have to get the exposure right, the timing, the focus, the framing; you often need a steady hand in low light; and developing the film needs to be done correctly, too.
I do use a light meter app on my phone to help me with setting the exposure, though, but that’s about it for additional technical help. A meter simply makes me more confident in dialling in my exposure. But – to be honest – more often than not, I guess (or even know) the exposure.
And I could shoot more automatic film cameras to help me out. But I prefer those manual mechanical ones. This might be making it unnecessarily hard for myself, but that’s exactly the challenge I like so much. But just because I’m using these manual tools, doesn’t mean I’m automatically taking better pictures, of course.
And to end this not on a more modest note: once you start shooting film and use manual cameras – while at first indeed challenging – you’ll notice it’s actually not that hard. I got used to this way of shooting and now prefer it over using all sorts of automatics. It makes for a more controlled, quicker, and more enjoyable experience for me. And it’s a more calm way of shooting, without many buttons to push or looking at flashing lights or screens.
But still: it’s a nice feeling having captured an image where I was 100% responsible for all the technical settings and processes.
Hier drei Empfehlungen für schmackhaftes alkoholfreies Bier. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Sorten sind diese eher herb und somit sehr gut zu trinken:
Jever Fun
Fiege Frei
Flensburger Frei
Prost!
When massive sites like Twitter or YouTube break basic browser functionality like the “Back”/“Forward”- and “Reload”-buttons – like is currently the case – I often wonder how and why on earth did this state make it into production.
Too tired and too late to still write something. 😕 🤷♂️
I recently bought a UV filter for my Voigtländer Nokton lens. I’m not really interested in its UV-filtering capabilities; instead, I want it to protect my lens’ glas from damage. I usually carry my camera around my neck or shoulder without a lens cap, so some form of protection makes me feel more comfortable doing so.
I wasn’t too keen to put a piece of glas in front of the actual lens – since this could result in reflections and worse image quality in general – but so far it seems to have been working alright.
Previously, I’ve been using a lens hood for protection. But it’s kind of bulky and I think it occasionally results in black corners on the photo. And that’s why I’m currently trying this new filter instead.
I really dislike drilling. I’m always a little nervous, because I don’t know how the wall will behave and what obstacles I might encounter. And there always seems to be something going wrong each session. Plus I’m never quite sure what equipment to use.
But that’s probably all because I don’t do it very regularly. So, “keep drilling” I guess.
Shooting the Rollei is always fun, though, so I didn’t mind.
Ok, so yesterday I went to see Suffocation (among other bands) at the Turock in Essen. I don’t know how they manage to play their complex Death Metal so tightly. An absolutely amazing band, especially live! And since Bernd builds the instruments for their bass player, we got to meet them, and have some backstage beer, too. I had a great time!
Today, Erik helped me install the fridge and hang more curtains in Zoe’s room. And just now, I hung the remaining cupboard doors in the kitchen. Then I rewarded myself with a beer.
Another more thing I can’t live without any more. I put this little snippet into my ~/.bash_profile, and the command prompt will show me the currently checked out Git branch.
Like Jumpcut, this app hasn’t been updated by the original creator in a long time. But someone else made a little adjustment to make sure it keeps working on newer macOS versions. And I’m very thankful for that! Because every time I tried an alternative in the past, it simply wasn’t as good and I kept coming back to good old MenuMeters.
Setting up a new Mac, I pretty immediately notice what software I can’t live without. One of them is the little clipboard utility Jumpcut. It keeps a history of items I copied into the clipboard, and makes them easily accessible via keyboard shortcut. That way I can paste previously copied text again and again.
Jumpcut hasn’t been updated in ten years now, but it still works. It’s free, simple and does its thing well. What more can you ask for?
[UPDATE: it now has been updated and is supposed to work on newer macOS versions. Has a new homepage, too: https://snark.github.io/jumpcut/.]
Did work a full day today. That means not too much progress at home. But managed to finish the assembly of a cupboard for the living room, hung one set of curtains in Zoe’s room and put up our desk. Plus, Nicole did some work in the kitchen and bathroom, too. Actually that’s some ok progress, now that I think of it.
Been to the dentist this morning. The pain was close to unbearable. And luckily he was able to help me, so that I no longer had to quietly sit down and suffer every half hour. But there’s a root treatment coming up soon. 😕
The moving-in is progressing, but it feels like a never ending story. The kitchen is driving me a little mad. Anyhow, here’s the latest visual update of that room:
This must be our most exhausting move, yet. Taking over a completely empty apartment, plus having a child to take care of, makes everything just take so much longer than we are used to. But don’t really want to complain: we had great helpers and managed to get everything done we wanted to get done yesterday! And while there’s still a lot to do, we’re very happy having finally moved in to our new home in the new neighbourhood.
But then again – speaking of complaining – I started having toothache this weekend, plus the big toe on my right foot is half numb. Thank you very much, but that’s not exactly what I need right now.
