Continuing on yesterday’s topic, here’s why I find a 35 mm lens so fitting for my photography.
I currently mostly shoot documentary style and street photography. And I want my photos to convey a feeling of “having been there”. That’s why my lens should approximate the field of view I have as a human being. I find anything from 30 mm to 45 mm works1. But since the most common focal length for prime lenses that fit this range is 35 mm, that’s what I use.
I find 28 mm lenses a little too wide and 50 mm too long. But I’d prefer the former, if forced to choose. ↩︎
Over time, I’ve more and more reduced the number of lenses and focal lengths I use.
When I bought my first “serious” camera – a Nikon D40 in 2008 – I thought I needed more lenses to cover all the focal lengths. And so I bought more lenses. I had lenses to cover everything from 10mm (we’re talking APS-C here) all the way up to 200mm. Plus a fast 50mm-equivalent prime for low light.
But as the years went on, I stopped using most of these lenses and their camera systems. I simply increasingly came to know what I value about a camera system, what kind of photos I like to take, and what focal lengths suit me best.
So at the moment, I’m mainly using a Leica M with a 35mm lens. That’s all I need.
The new apartment got renovated prior to our tenancy. That means it’s completely empty. No blinds or curtains. No lamps. No bathroom mirror. And most crucially: no kitchen.
When we moved into a new place in the past, we’ve always been happy taking over most of these basic items from the previous tenant1. And we would have been fine with that option again. But this time, we need to plan and buy all those things ourselves.
We’re starting with the kitchen. And that’s actually kind of fun: arranging virtual furniture and appliances in a 3D model.
The first draft of our future kitchen
Not so much looking forward to making all those micro-decisions of materials, covers, knobs etc. or spending this money, but looking forward to having a kitchen.
Unpacking the film. Loading it into the camera. Winding to the first frame. Shoot ⟲ Wind. Spooling the roll back into the canister. Taking it out. Labelling it.
Transfering the roll into the developing tank. Preparing the developer solution. Developing. Stop bath. Fixing. Opening the tank. Washing. Final rinse. Taking it out. Holding the whole strip against the light, checking the results. Hanging it to dry.
Cutting the roll up into individual strips. Inserting them into the negative sleeves. Labelling those.
This workflow with all it’s little steps and rituals, is what I enjoy about film. Not always, and not all parts equally, but most of them most times. It’s nice to be working with my hands, creating a unique, tangible object.
For the most part, this object will still be turned into digital files; and edited, processed, published and printed from there. But for me, it’s still very worthwhile going through these manual steps first. Plus, it gives me the option for making a print in the darkroom. Which is a topic for another post in this series.
Many analogue. Such tangible.
Der Prüfer beim TÜV meinte, die Domlager müssten mal getauscht werden. Und wenn man dabei wäre, auch gleich die Anschlagpuffer. Denn wenn man schon die gesamte vordere Radmontur auseinander nimmt, solle man doch gleich beides zusammen erledigen.
Und die Hupe funktioniere auch nicht.
Aber immerhin hat das WoMo schonmal die AU und die Gasprüfung bestanden.
At the start of the year, I picked up swimming again. For the most part I managed to go once per week. It’s the one simple and accessible endurance sport that works for me.
I really enjoy being in the water, listening to the sound it makes as I move through it, and gazing down the blue pool. It’s a good full-body workout, but also very relaxing. I can easily let my mind wander. Which, in contrast, was never true for me when running (which I also occasionally tried in the past), and a big reason that didn’t work for me.
I currently swim a distance of 1500 meters – which means sixty 25-meter lanes – in around 35 minutes. Half breaststroke, half freestyle. That’s a very comfortable pace for me.
Since we’ll be moving soon, I’ll probably won’t go as often during the next month. But I hope I’ll start going regularly again once that’s done.
Last week – unexpectedly – we signed a contract for our new flat.
Our current apartment was meant as a temporary solution right from the start, because it’s too small (even for us, who are used to motorhome-small). So, we’ve been looking for a new place to rent for a couple of months now.
And we were really surprised we received an offer this time, because the competition for apartments in Düsseldorf is currently substantial – with often well over fifty parties interested. There’s a lot of demand, especially for the more affordable and desirable ones. And that was the case with this one, too. After the viewing, we were mentally preparing for another rejection.
But we were lucky this time. Maybe because we offered we could move in in March already. Who knows. It doesn’t really matter. We’re very happy to have found something and can enrol Zoe to Kindergarten now.
The apartment is in Flehe, which was our favourite suburb. It’s directly on the Rhine, not very densely populated (we can easily park our camper, for example!), yet pretty close to more urban Düsseldorf.
And so everything will go pretty quickly now. We plan to move in by the end of March.
Today I drove into Düsseldorf to do some street photography again. Finally. I haven’t done any since we were in Paris in October.
The most promising scene was a Dalmatian on a passenger seat. Took a few frames. It’s kind of a cliché, but who cares?
Now having a little break before heading over to the Schumacher brewery for some beer with Bernd.
When creating HTML links, I try to minimise creating ones that open in a new browser window or tab (using target="_blank"). Because it’s considered bad practice to overwrite default browser behaviour – where links are normally opened in the same window. And I agree with that.
The other page can access your window object with the window.opener property. This exposes an attack surface because the other page can potentially redirect your page to a malicious URL. See About rel=noopener.
Adding the rel="noopener" attribute and value to the <a> tag fixes this problem. And so I’ve started adding those everywhere I create links with target="_blank".
The ear cushions for my Sennheiser HD 380 Pro headphones have been falling apart for a while. So, I was checking, whether they could be replaced and ordered separately. They could. And I used the Amazon website to both learn about it and find the correct replacement part.
But then I thought: why not check on the Sennheiser website directly. Often enough, doing this is much more inconvenient, though, because you don’t know what to expect. The actual company might not even offer the part on their site, and/or the site might be cumbersome to use. Plus you have to enter all your address and payment details.
But this time, it was worth it. Not only did they offer the ear cushions, finding them was super-easy, the buying experience was very pleasant, and they were cheaper than on Amazon, and included free (and fast) shipping on this ~€20 product.
Sometimes it pays off to look for an alternative to the big monopoly. I’ll remember that the next time I’m going to buy stuff.
My Voigländer Bessa 6x9 folding camera has two red windows1 on the back for looking up at what frame number you are and to know how far to advance the film for the next frame. I was wondering which one to use and found a photo.net thread on this topic. Here’s what I think is a correct answer:
> The second red window was for the 645 mask. You may use either red window so long as, on a given roll of film, you use the same red window consistently.
For my first roll, I chose the one on the left, which is the window further away from the take-up spool. Everything went well, with all exposures captured completely.
The orange window on the left indicates what frame I’m at.
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. ↩︎
