How do you excite or motivate yourself to make photos which will uncover your hidden talent?
Podcast
Photo Thoughts
This morning, some thoughts:
- What is your desired end goal with photography?
- How do you motivate yourself to go out and shoot more photos?
- What is the best and ideal camera?
No Ricoh lasts forever
A big problem —
No RICOH GR digital camera is meant to last more than 2-3 years.
For example, my RICOH GR III recently went kaput. Really bad — 90% of the time when I turn it on, it says ‘lens error’ and refuses to focus.
I should send it in to get fixed by Ricoh, but sending it in is such a pain in the ass.
Thus I spent some time thinking and considering —
What new camera should I get?
A quick thought:
Even though the iPhone is great, I think to barbell is better– just get the iPhone for the phone function (minimum viable phone), and get the camera as a specialized niche device (RICOH).
For example, a simple thing:
The RICOH GR is superior 1000x ergonomically to the iPhone.
The iPhone … not as quick in terms of ‘quick draw’ when comparing taking out my RICOH GR and quickly snapping a shot. The RICOH is far better at quickly turning on, and shooting.
Whereas the iPhone, even though there is a camera button on the Home Screen, it is slower. Perhaps a good future iPhone Camera innovation could be:
“Raise to wake” becomes “Raise to photograph”.
I like the idea if there was a function in which you raised your iPhone, it would automatically go into camera mode (you could customize this in the iPhone settings).
Why go on adventures?
The trend nowadays is towards ‘over-landing’, off-roading, adventuring in your car, etc, because of the whole COVID pandemic thing.
But why go on adventures?
My mom said it is a good way to discover and uncover your hidden talents.
Therefore in photography, the question —
What hidden talents do you have which lie nascent within you, and adventure is a way to unlock those photographic hidden skills?
I hate missing the decisive moment
After a day or two of my broken Ricoh, and missing at least 1-2 really important decisive moments for myself (playing with Seneca), it infuriated me. I learned that for me, to capture every single meaningful moment is my goal.
Why? When I see something which brings me extreme joy, I have this need and desire to capture it. If I don’t, it brigs me insane amounts of anger and frustration.
Perhaps this is the hidden motivator for us as photographers?
MACRO PHOTO ASSIGNMENT
A fun assignment for you:
Shoot only macro mode for an entire day.
I found this to be very creatively interesting; even when seeing things from afar, putting my Ricoh GR III into manual focusing mode into macro mode, shooting things which are out of focus (unintentionally) end up becoming artistic.
This is a step beyond the 1 meter challenge; to shoot macros is even MORE interesting and fun.
I suppose this is the fun of the new iPhone– the macro function mode.
To macro something means to make something larger.
Shoot your eye, the eyes of your loved ones and kids, your food, or any textures around the house.
Upload your best macro photos to arsbeta.com
You need more opportunities to shoot
If you desire to uncover your hidden talent and skills in photography, you must expose yourself to more photo opportunities. This is where road trips are good, going to the local mall, going to the downtown, going on trips, travels, weekend excursions, etc is good for photography.
Randomness, chance and unknown and uncertain situations awaken the inner-genius photographer within you.
Thus when in doubt, get out of the house. Try to walk 30,000 steps a day, go on a quick hike, go on a weekend AirBnb trip somewhere, and make photography the modus operandi of your life.
ERIC
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Thoughts on Leica M11
The new Leica M11 is out; and some thoughts:
- Unfortunate how the M11 is visually indistinguishable from the M10. A good idea would have been to make the M11 have a Black Leica Dot in front; to differentiate itself.
- The triple stacked sensor is a great idea; better to have fewer megapixels but better high ISO capability.
- To show ‘Leica M11’ on the back startup is a bad idea — looks dated.
- For the ISO dial on top, the “A” doesn’t need to be in red lettering, just black it out/
- The new battery component on bottom and the USB-C is a fantastic idea.
Is it worth the ‘upgrade’?
I don’t think so. Ever since I learned that the RICOH GR III was 1000x more compact and portable and lended me to shoot more photos, Leica M cameras no longer really interest me.
The higher price is a brilliant idea from Leica — it is truly a luxury item and should be priced this way.
What Leica M is best?
Leica M9 is very good (flash):
I still think getting a used Leica M9 is a great idea for the rangefinder experience. Or the used Leica M9 Monochrom. The M240 is lame, the Leica M10 is fine, the Leica M10-R is unnecessary (more megapixels, more problems), and even a small design thing — I hate the new three-button layout of the new Leica digital cameras. The rounded squares look too ‘cute’, I prefer the harder, Bauhaus design of the Leica M9 with the small, tiny, hard dots.
Perhaps getting a fixed/refurbished Leica M9-P is a good ‘longevity’ camera.
iPhone Pro?
Just get a RICOH GR III instead of the new iPhone Pro. If you want a good phone just get an iPhone Mini.
GR IIIx?
Just ordered a GR IIIx on Amazon to replace my broken GR III. Will test it, and give you some updates later, if I don’t like it I will just return it.
Stay tuned!
ERIC
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