blessingx

Stop tempting me! I'd love to give it a try, but already in the equivalent Fujifilm MF camp, besides if I went Hassy I'd probably be pulled to the more hipster version.

So for the new AirPods Pros, you can take a photo of your ears and make a personal Spacial Audio profile?

┏┓━┏┓┏━━┓━┏━━┓┏━━┓┏┓━┏┓ ┃┃━┃┃┗━┓┃━┃┏┓┃┃┏┓┃┃┃━┃┃ ٩(*❛⊰❛)～❤ ┃┗━┛┃┃┗┛┗┓┃┗┛┃┃┗┛┃┃┗━┛┃ 🅑🅘🅡🅣🅗🅓🅐🅨 ┃┏━┓┃┗━━━┛┃┏━┛┃┏━┛┗━┓┏┛★ 🆃🅾 🆈🅾🆄 ★ ┃┃━┃┃━━━━━┃┃━━┃┃━━┏━┛┃ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ┗┛━┗┛━━━━━┗┛━━┗┛━━┗━━┛

Back to Jaws.

This ends my unexpected Labor Day weekend Country immersion. Will come back to the list in the near future, but ending with #33, Emmylou Harris' Pieces Of The Sky. So consistently a thing, it's probably someone else's [Joni Mitchell's] Blue. ex. 'Pieces of the Sky was her proper launch as an artist truly in her own right and stands as one of her defining statements. The careful, note-perfect production may have smoothed over some of the rough edges of the honky-tonk she clearly loved, as heard in her version of Merle Haggard’s “Bottle Let Me Down.” But she more than compensated with fantastic taste in songs (by Dolly Parton, the Louvin Brothers, and Rodney Crowell, among others). And that beautiful but slightly downcast voice — perhaps still mourning the loss of her duet partner Gram Parsons two years earlier — lent the album a mournful elegance. —D.B.'

So as the disclaimer states*, this is pretty much a greatest Nashville list, which is a little strange to call a definitive Country list. Still use it for what it is. Occasionally, you even glimpse in more modern lines. Okay, Steve Earle and Jason Isbell are in. Whiskeytown/Adams and Tupelo/Wilco are out (Not a direct response to Nashville?). Anyway, geographic lines leads to inclusions like the big, beautiful Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe. Ex. What a great A/B 45 release... * "What you won’t find much of is alt-country, country rock, and Americana, as we tried to keep this list focused on music produced by the Nashville system (or in direct response to it) and marketed to the country audience. That means no Uncle Tupelo or Eagles, though Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch make appearances for sterling work that exists comfortably in both worlds. Maybe we’ll get to that country-rock list another time."

Brandy Clark’s 12 Stories ex. ‘Her stories are about women who cheat, who are cheated upon, and who divorce husbands they’ve outgrown, and her songs are full of punchlines that delight and devastate. One working-class narrator makes certain to “pray to Jesus” for help but also makes sure to “play the lotto.” And seemingly “crazy women,” she explains, “are made by crazy men” — it’s the sharpest misogyny explainer since Kitty Wells schooled men on who made honky-tonk angels. Throughout, Clark’s secret weapon is her singing, which comes off easy and game for fun then soars heartbreakingly high and lonesome like a blue-collar Emmylou Harris. —D.C.’

Perhaps if we translated to wood it would jog the memory?

Continuing the list and following Kris above - Sammi Smith's Help Me Make It Through The Night. 'Help Me Make It Through the Night is a masterpiece of country soul that perfectly bridges outlaw sensibility with lush Nashville studio sounds. It has ballads like “There He Goes” and “Lonely Street” that match the intimacy of Dusty in Memphis and wounded delivery of Tammy Wynette, thanks to Smith’s powerful, husky alto. There are even bright flashes of popular music from the era, like the sitar effect in “With Pen in Hand” or the supremely funky drums in “This Room for Rent” and “But You Know I Love You.” But its defining moment will always be Smith’s recording of the Kris Kristofferson-penned title cut, which won Smith a Grammy. Hundreds of cover versions exist now, but no one has ever been able to match the smoldering desire in her performance. —J.F.' Ex.

Running through Rolling Stone’s surprisingly modern-leaning 100 Greatest Country Albums list, so this morning Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music. ‘The irascible Simpson joked to Rolling Stone in 2014 that Metamodern Sounds in Country Music was his “hippie love record.” Maybe so, but it was undeniably a Nashville game changer. After the sonically adventurous album’s release, numerous artists either cited it or tried to duplicate it. They needn’t have tried: Only Simpson, well-read on cosmic theories and tired of outlaw-country comparisons, could have pulled off an album this one-of-a-kind. “Turtles All the Way Down” is a psilocybin-fueled trip through the religions of the world; “It Ain’t All Flowers” is a cacophony of shrieks, howls, and dub; and “Living the Dream” is the ultimate slacker’s lament. “I don’t have to do a goddamn thing ’cept sit around and wait to die,” he sings. Not even Townes Van Zandt sounded as dejected.’ —J.H.

Let’s spice up the Apple Event!

All the greats.

Coincidentally large format… https://petapixel.com/2022/08/26/100-year-old-360-degree-film-camera-that-uses-98-feet-long-film/

Jaimie Branch too. Gone at 39. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/24/jaimie-branch-jazz-composer-and-trumpeter-dies-aged-39

Appreciate your comments Peter and different strokes. That said on a recent trip I packed two bags - one for clothes, one for gear. Clothes took five minutes. Gear was repacked five times over two days as I tried to settle on just three cameras. I have a problem. See choice above. At the very least these old camera eBay listings, which may have gone through multiple translations over the years, have the best reviews in their descriptions. “I think it is a fun camera and having fun. Because I'm looking for love.” “The best machine is the best machine as a single-eye introduction machine.” Edit: Ha, ha. From an hour ago... Are Vintage Digital Cameras the Biggest New Photography Trend?

Hey Peter, thanks for the response. I suspect we come at this from different perspectives though I want to stress I very much have enjoyed your work over the years and appreciate the thoughts here and prior. The above wasn't a SOOC jpg. I don't believe I've ever posted a SOOC jpg from any camera, but those were tweaked, slightly, from the raw (mostly crop and contrast). I'll attach the SOOC jpg and tweaked raw (not corrected for mobile as above though). This is a Kodak designed CCD sensor camera, yes, Bayer, like a few other CCD models such as the M8 & M9, before everything went Live MOS/NMOS/CMOS (and eventually nearly all CMOS, stay strong Foveon!). They were certainly going for a look (even differences between CCD models modeling) and coupled with the technical limitations of the time, capture light and color differently than contemporary models. They were also selling to a mostly film audience. While there is a trend for CCD and early CMOS sensor cameras recently, and of course every trend should be looked at with critical eyes, a segment of those moving away from the mainstream in photography (both look and technology) has always been in play, no? I always think of the Japanese are-bure-boke (rough, blurred and out-of-focus) movement. In the age of HDRish smartphones, shallow depth of field and ultra high resolutions became a path forward. And in the age of both trends, maybe an interest in lower resolution, lower dynamic range, inflated colors, and cheaper finds, starts to grow? A counter-aesthetic develops, or something similar. Can you make an A7rIV, R5, or Nikon Z7II look like an E-1 or E-300? If not yes, at least close, but exactly zero people do that. Hell, no one even makes their M11 shots look like M8s, though there are possibilities. And I probably come from the Garry Winogrand school of thought - "I photograph to see what things look like photographed" and "Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed." Coupled with the old Poe quote "There is no exquisite beauty, without some strangeness in the proportion." I'm not sure if any editorial choices are pure (lens choice to soften skin, composition, thinking in monochrome, adjusting light even in wait), but I certainly understand the choice to keep the most options for post... though again some things never seen to happen there and it does take out happy accidents of the process. I do a ton of post on Foveon shots, but have to admit I like when I have to do less. I'm sure the commonly quoted "cameras are just a tool" and pleasure of shooting versus output, come into play here too. Maybe even the genres of our photography. And we live in the world of PureRAW, Super Resolution, and the Topaz products which lessens some restrictions. We can do a lot with a little for the first time. Especially if we go back to little... Instagram. Besides I'm not sure anyone is looking at these old digicams as a sole camera. Spend $200 on a body that used to cost $5000, $75-100 on a lens with character. Bingo. It's just one more tool in the toolbox. And most traits aren't as problematic from a contemporary or realistic perspective as most film stocks. I don't see the alarm here. And as long as I'm disagreeing, I'll throw out there - I think Fuji has the best colors as they have the most options for jpg and starting point raw development. I would never import at Adobe Standard, but bring in the image into PS or C1 as Provia, Pro Neg High, Acros or try one of the hundred in camera or RAW Studio recipes, then tweak. "Filmic" yes, but not really, just think pleasing. Anyway, thanks again for your comments. I suspect we agree a bunch, just coming from different angles with likely different goals. Big tent and all that. SOOC jpg RAW tweaked (but not for mobile). You an see I upped the shadows a little and removed a piece of paper.

These are all throw away test shots from today, but if anyone is curious what a 19 year old 5MP Kodak designed CCD camera’s COLORS are like (tweaked, but less than most of my images)…

Hope it’s a great one!

Ah, my Covid breakup (with humanity) album. Hope both bands were really good and you all had a great time. Most of the crowd blew it. "Like a young Linda Ronstadt at her country-folk finest, Courtney Marie Andrews writes songs that seem lived-in and familiar in the best way. "Guilty" is a time machine straight back to early 1970s Laurel Canyon: beautiful piano, easy drums, and vocals so warm and evocative you feel the heart and the hunger even if you don't know the words. (There are echoes of that other canyon queen, Joni Mitchell, as well, especially in the hiccupping chorus of the gently bubbling "If I Told.") But the words are pretty powerful. Written and recorded at the end of a nine-year relationship—meaning it lasted nearly one-third of her life—Old Flowers finds the singer-songwriter poking at the tender bruise of heartbreak. "This album is about loving and caring for the person you know you can't be with."

Tex Williams | Smoke Smoke Smoke Ex.

Can we start looping old posts and timelines like Westworld? Al, it’s taken eight years, but this is why people obsess about keyboards. How else would you ever get to… https://drop.com/featured/lotr

Ouch. You were supposed to do it under the sea.

Those last two episodes were really great. Perfect landing. As much as the series writing generally and main character were wonderful and the acting all around so good (Carol Burnett!), I want to say thanks for writing in more Mike Ehrmantraut (like the MCU, there should be a MTU where Jonathan Banks shows up on all shows when the plot gets ridiculous so Banks can reground them) and Kimberly "fuckin'" Wexler, who at least as much as Jimmy/Saul drew the moral line for us. Why doesn't Rhea Seehorn already have a newer entry on IMDB?

Happy birthdayish. 20,000 means you're the mightiest of them all!