Knuckledragger

More, from various sources:

Via redderp:

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Absolute party animal that I am, I spent the day shopping for high profile items like "an ozone generator" and "a new SSD." Also I've got my eyes on a Kenko fisheye adapter so I can do something idiotic.... Waitaminnit, this isn't Jacob's! I suppose it is now. 🐵

I still use last.fm, as I have for nearly 20 years at this point. I greatly dislike the "year in review" crap that every platform shits out these days. The Photos app on my fricken iPhone (as well as the one on my Macintop) wanted to show me what images I'd taken with my phone with horrid music playing. Ugh. Steam wanted to tell me a bunch of things I already knew. With all of this said, I did look at my last.fm yearly roundup. Most of it is a silly flash animation. They make some album cover mosaics that are too low resolution to be useful. This is my top 25 of 2023: Nice postage stamp collection. This is a bit more useful I guess? The largest part of my music listening comes from SomaFM's Synphaera Radio station, which is based on the excellent record label of the same name. Synphaera is one of the best ambient labels I've ever encountered, they're constantly putting out new material, and they're based in Los Angeles. Their sublabels (Exosphere in particular) are also top notch. I often espouse that most good ambient music came out of Europe in the mid 1990s and the Synphaera collective prove that there is in fact plenty of great ambient coming out right now. The facet of my musical listening is decidedly different in tone. I used the last.fm rolling 365 day chart to see what my top 50 albums of 2023 were: 1 Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick Florida Man makes legendary death metal, 1991. 2 Iniquity - Iniquity Bloody Iniquity Relatively obscure Danish technical death metal. Iniquity were virtually unknown until a "growl karaoke" flash animation went viral in 2001. The singer and guitarist of the band commented on the video and said that this single animation did more for their career than everything else combined. 3 Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme A French guy combines shoegaze and black metal to spectacular results. "Blackgaze" is a bonafide genre at this point. 4 Death - Individual Thought Patterns One of the lesser albums by The definitive article Florida death metal band. It's still better than nearly everything else out there. 5 Massacre - From Beyond A one-off from 1991 made up of ex members from Death, above. 6 The Beatles - Abbey Road No explanation needed. I prefer it to the sprawling mess that is the white album, even if the latter actually has better music on it. 7 Alcest - Écailles de lune More cheese eating surrender gaze. 8 Burzum - Det Som Engang Var The definitive black metal blueprint made by the #1 church burning, bandmate murdering, blatantly racist assclown Varg Vikernes ...who also happens to be a musical savant. He's both the goat and GOAT of the genre. 9 W.A.S.P. - Inside The Electric Circus "Restless Gypsy" is one of the best hard rock songs from the 1980s or any decade, I swear. 10 A-Kara - Back To Samsara Really good psy-chill for when my head isn't in the mood for metal. 11 Dynatron - The Legacy Collection, Vol II Balls-to-the-wall synthwave. A re-imagining of the 1980s as something far cooler than it actually was. 12 ZOMBIE HYPERDRIVE - Hyperion As above. 13 The Beatles - The Beatles Possibly the greatest rock n roll album of all time, or at least it would be if it were two separate albums assembled in some sane order. The Beatles are the Canon 85mm F/1.2L/Tapatio/Ardbeg Uigeadail/Citizen Kane of rock n roll. 14 Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss That damn Norwegian is back. This album was recorded before he went to jail (for murdering his bandmate) but released after. It's still in the running for the best thing he ever did. Tomhet, the closer, is Varg's first go at dungeon synth (black metal ambient). It's brilliant. 15 Napalm Death - Scum The blueprint for grindcore. You suffer, but why? 16 Occams Laser - Ascension More badass synthwave. 17 Burzum - Belus 2010. Varg is now out of jail and decides to do more black metal. "Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning" is so spookily good, one has to wonder how he comes up with this stuff. 18 Morbid Angel - Covenant Considered by the death metal cognoscenti to be the band's greatest work. I suspect they're right. 19 Cradle of Filth - The Principle of Evil Made Flesh Black metal, goth metal, "post death" metal. CoF are popular to mock these days, but their 1993 debut is timeless. 20 Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness I'm biased toward this one because I bought it the week it came out in 1989. I re-bought it on CD when I got my first CDP a year later. 21 Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde Please, no more French jokes. 22 Eat Static - Dead Planet A spawling 4 hour epic from Merv Pepler operating as a one piece. My favorite Eat Static is from 1993 or so when they had 3 blokes in the studio, but Merv on his own is no slouch. 23 Fourth Dimension - Voyager Deep ambient from Synphaera. 24 Motörhead - No Remorse No explanation needed. 25 Kyuss - Sky Valley "Stoner rock" is the dumbest name for a genre ever. Kyuss more or less invented it whole cloth and never used the term. Josh Homme is and always has been an absolute jackass. His guitar tone on this album is legendary. 26 Napalm Death - From Enslavement to Obliteration More grindcore. 27 Vinnie Paz - Burn Everything That Bears Your Name Bless his heart, Vinnie Paz is a character. I dislike nearly everything he's done. 28 Blue Planet Corporation - A Blueprint For Survival Gorgeous, lush, melodic French psytrance. 29 Björk - Debut I have no idea how this got on to the list. 30 L.S.G. - Double Vision Oliver Lieb is my favorite electronic music producer of all time. This double album precisely exemplifies why. 31 Vinnie Paz - As Above So Below Occasionally hits on something amazing. The Gone Away World was the best hip hop track I heard in 2020. 32 W.A.S.P. - The Last Command 33 W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. They were the best hard rock/glam rock/call it what you will band for a short period of time in the first half of the 1980s. 34 Žagar - My Night Your Day Hungary is a cultural mecca of oddball electronic music and few acts exemplify that better than Zagar. 35 Burzum - In the Arms of Darkness A somewhat sprawling collection of Varg's greatest hits. 36 Edge of Motion - Ad Hoc A rather obscure IDM album from 1996 made by a pair of Netherlanders. It's has aged spectacularly well. 37 Trisomie 21 - Chapter IV & Wait And Dance Remixed The French have invaded again. This time it's mid 80s goth rock. 38 Martin Stürtzer - Far Beyond the Stars One German fella, a small army of synths (and one very well behaved synthcat!) making spacey ambient music. Martin is the best. 39 Julian Maier-Hauff - Forest for Rest Progressive minimal dancefloor music that I actually like. Lightning in a bottle. 40 The Knife - The Best of The Knife Not a real release, but a compilation I made in 2006 when I was obsessed with The Knife. 41 Burzum - Hliðskjálf Varg goes full on dungeon synth. It's a mixed album, but so much better than the wretched Dauði Baldrs that it wins by default. 42 E-Mantra - Arcana Goa/psy-chill that's never annoying. 43 Iniquity - Serenadium More Danish tech-death. 44 Cradle of Filth - Cruelty and the Beast You know, the first three CoF albums are all quite good. 45 Keep Shelly In Athens - At Home My favorite chillwave. 46 Ascendant - Meridian [EX] More Synphaera ambient. 47 Astronaut Ape - Deep Russian psychill producer does an ambient album and lives up to the stereotype of his peers (it's great.) 48 Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun The only flaw with this album is that it will always exist in the shadow of what followed it. If Sky Valley didn't exist, Blues would be legendary. 49 Shpongle - Live In Concert At The Roundhouse London 2008 50 Shpongle - Live in London Simon Potsford et al do a couple live gigs. They're a lot of fun.

Nercoing the absolute shit out of this thread because not everything has to go Jacob's Jacobless Jacobing. It's my birthday. Tomorrow. I'm treating myself to a nice Canon 600mm lens some of the finer selections from my Discogs wantlist: First up is an obscure and normally difficult to acquire Norwegian ambient album from the mid 90s (I swear I don't have a type ...I totally have a type.) NNC - Fosen. It's professionally produced, but privately release and seldom comes up for sale. Check out the review a Discogger nearly as old as I am wrote in '08: IPG - D*****land EP. A CD version of an early 90s EP on the short-lived but storied t:me label. t:me was the predecessor to the storied em:t label. em:t was a terribly run business (they failed not once but twice) but were home to legendary releases like Woob's 1194 and 4495, not to mention Gas - 0095. I also threw in Alexandroid - False Starts which I don't know too much about because it was cheap. Alexandroid is one of those insanely prolific Russian electronic musicians I used to rant about on my radio show. The last one is a sealed copy of Lol and Rey Silva - Ambient Or Ambient, which is a peculiar release from Spain in the early 2000s. Spain actually has long history with downtempo, primarily because of the island of Ibiza. With that in mind, the mainland of the country also has a very small scene that tends to get overshadowed. I've noticed that Spanish releases often have miserable distribution and can be a nightmare to get. It's only been in the last few years that I've seen this one for sale on Discogs or anywhere else.

Possibly the worst Christmas song ever: A great takedown thereof: I'm with Todd in that I think this is one of the BEST Christmas songs ever (it doesn't embed because of YT BS.)

I dunno if I ever adequately conveyed this fact, but I am in fact a clumsy oaf. Yesterday evening my (sainted, octogenarian) mother asked me to fetch two potted plants (grape ivy) that have been on my record shelves for months. (Seen at the top of the frame here.) Being both the Rhodes Scholar and cat burglar that I am, I clambered up a stepladder to fetch them ...while wearing flip flops. In a remarkably short period of time (that felt like an eternity as it happened), I got one of my flip flops stuck on the ladder, and went flying ass-over-tea-kettle backwards off it. I fell on to the speaker on the right of this photo, knocking it to the floor. Miraculously, I escaped uninjured. With that said, NS-1000s weigh 70 lbs. Having one fall from any height makes for a house shaking crash. It scared the crap out of my (sainted, octogenarian) mother as well as myself. As best I can make out, nothing is seriously damaged. Yamaha saw fit to put really heavy metal grilles on each of the NS-1000's drivers. They may be a bit more dented than they were previously, but the truth is they were a bit out of shape even when I got them in 1999. Today I played Sandoz - Beam (by the late, great Richard H. Kirk) off my vinyl copy of One A.D. (Volume One Ambient Dub) (one of the most glorious pieces of wax I own.) It sounded amazing. The only real casualty was the frame of the speaker's cloth grille. As the speaker fell, it slipped off and landed first. Then the speaker landed on the grille, bending all 4 of the pegs that hold it in place as well as the frame itself. I spent some time today trying to straighten it out, but it's clear I'm going to have to dedicate some real time to fixing it. TBH, I'm quite lucky. I didn't break or sprain anything on me. I didn't injure my mother. I didn't damage any of the antiques, including the 250 year old tiger maple chest visible behind the audio equipment. I didn't even hurt the damn house plant that started off the whole proceedings. I'm an utter dumbass, but a lucky one. Life lessons: Richard H. Kirk was a genius. Don't wear flip flops on a ladder.

I was out ambling around the neighborhood when Jernegan pond played host to a great blue heron and a rather large otter. A visit from either would be an event, but both at the same time was something special indeed. Of course, I utterly failed to capture the moment. The only frame where I managed to capture both critters. The light was not good and I was using a very not good lens (75-300mm). I spent considerable time processing the image in Luminar 4 and Photoshop. I ended up with "yep, that's a bird" and "it appears to be an otter" so I'll mark it as a win. The otter, breaking the surface. He appeared to be doing quite well. He had a fish in his mouth about every other time he surfaced. The speed at which he consumed them was impressive. The otter spent most of his time in the middle of the pond while the heron stayed near the edge. The sun was low enough that capturing the bird at all was not exactly easy. Also 300mm on full frame is about the beginning of the useful focal length for bird photography. I fared a bit better when the heron elected to land on the other side of the pond, which was still getting some indirect sunlight. Catching a bird in flight, even a giant one, is nontrivial with a slow economy lens like the 75-300mm. The heron buzzed over me on his way out. I got a couple frames where he was in-focus. I've got a bunch more photos, but these are an absolute PITA to edit due to the light and lens. It'll be a minute.

In late November I found a Tamron Auto 135mm F/2.8 "Adapt-A-Matic" from the 1970s at the local second hand shop. It had a *mumble* mount on the end of it. In spite of the fact that I own more manual focus 135mm primes than I can count (it's nearing 10), I of course bought it. As seen here photographed with my 85mm F/1.8 (I do use autofocus lenses upon occasion.) I spent some time searching for an M42 Adapt-A-Matic on eBay and found precious few. One guy had a 200mm lens that did not work with an m42 mount, but his price plus shipping was laughable. Eventually I found a seller of an Adapt-A-Matic Nikon F mount (no lens) for ...several times what I paid for my 135mm. It arrived earlier this week. I was then tasked with wrestling with my Nikon F to Canon EF adapter, which I genuinely hate. It's one of the least forgiving adapters I've used in my life. The object d'art in question is a wood carving of a hand giving the middle finger. Fun fact: This little statuette used to sit on the shelf above my grandmother's kitchen sink in the 1980s. One day I asked her for it. She said "Sure. That means some nasty thing or other." I told a childhood friend (I use the term very loosely) about it, and he flat out did not believe me. In fact he loudly mocked me to his parents for making such a claim. When, some weeks later, he saw the statue sitting on my desk at home he sheepishly asked if "that was the statue." I'd like to dedicate these photos to him. A green bottle that will be familiar to anyone who has seen my previous work. It's a handy subject when I want to test out a lens. All of these shots were taken at F/8 or F/11. The Tamron displays remarkably good bokeh and decent color transmission. It's not the most contrasty thing in the word (few 70s lenses are) but that is easily corrected with some quick work in Photoshop. What is not evident in this photos is the really odd feel of the focus ring. It's oil damped, but very uncommunicative. I'm well versed in operating manual lenses. I can adapt muscle memory to how a lens focuses pretty quickly. This Tamron is speaking Japanese ot me. I never felt like my hand movements were translating to the change in focus I wanted. It's just downright weird. All of this said, I had some fun with the lens. Tamron is an "also ran" Japanese lens maker, but they're still a Japanese lens maker. The lighting conditions in the afternoon on MV in December are quite something. It's a fairly fleeting window, but in that time everything has a magic glow to it.

Decent economy rig, I guess.

YMMV hugely on this, but I'd not necessarily take having no reaction to vaccines (particularly covid boosters) as a good thing. My (sainted, octogenarian) mother hasn't had any symptoms from any of her shots. A doctor told her that might be an indicator that her immune system is not strong. Both of us still wear masks whenever we go out into enclosed public spaces. Again, YMMV. I am the farthest thing from a medical professional.

I've had some (mis)adventures this week. On Monday I got dual jabs, covid booster in one arm and flu vaccine the other. I was deathly ill on Tuesday and both my arms hurt. That made sleeping a challenge. I also met a contractor who has done work for my mother for years. She's spoken well of him and we ...did not hit it off. There was nothing specific I could put my finger on, but it was clear he took an immediate and strong dislike for me. I have that effect one some people. Today I've mostly recovered from the vaccine hangover. I spent this afternoon helping out some old people. Not the zoomer/millennial idea of "old," the Head-Case idea of "old." There's a couple on the Vineyard my mother knows well. She's American, born 1940. He's German, born 1936. He had to flee Germany and the holocaust when he was a small child. They live in a nice part of Edgartown. Their house has approximately 596 wall and ceiling fixtures in it, and they have a weird mix of incandescent, CFL and LED bulbs. I am a lighting nerd. I ran a one man nightclub lighting business for 15+ years. I am very sensitive to color temperature and very fussy about the type and location of lighting around me. My (sainted, octogenarian) mother maintains that my second word after "mama" was "wire." I spent considerable time going through the stash of spare bulbs the old couple had in their house and then using 3 different ladders (at least one of which didn't scare the shit out of me) to replace a bunch of burned out and mismatched bulbs. I also told them that in the future we could go over the fixtures I didn't get to (why do high falutin' wall sconces have THREE CANDELABRA BULBS in them when one larger one would do?!? I swear, interior decorators need to be dragged outside and... [KNUCKLES! Not another rant, PLEASE.]) and see about replacing the legion of incandescents they have with LEDs. The other task I performed for them was dragging their giant fake Christmas tree up from the basement to their living room. It's a very high end model, and splits into 3 pieces. Unfortunately, the lower two sections don't want to separate and combined are quite heavy and bulky. I did succeed in moving the goddamn thing up and in to position without damaging it, the house or (mostly) myself. Bonus fun fact: Peter, the husband, is a photographer. He uses a 4x5" view camera that is older than I am. He's got his own dark room and I replaced the non-photo bulbs in it with LEDs. He makes 11x14" prints from his negatives. I don't think he scans them, but I'd love to see some of them appear online. Also I'm really tired and sore.

I don't want to be a turd in the punchbowl, but the square cropping on the album cover absolutely ruins the brilliant framing of the original. EE hit the rule of thirds just right and made brilliant use of selective DoF in California Kiss. The album cover might as well be an Instagram filter.

Also, meta post here. Imgur finally made good on their threat to delete old images, and not in the way they said they would. In the spring of this year they said they were deleting all old images not associated with an imgur account. I've had an account since the site launched in 2010. I had uploaded something like 44,000 photos in that time. At least 20K are magically gone. This is what the first post in this thread now looks like: 🪦

I'm pretty sure top left is not a printer cable. It looks like one end of late 90s UW SCSI to me. AI generated image of "average Corvette owner."

Fair warning: This is gonna be a long walk and it's going to make increasingly less sense as it goes along. This is the original Canon EF 50mm F/1.8: It is was only made for a short time between 1987 and 1990. It is, in my estimation, still the best 50mm for the EF system. The Mark II is the same optically, but it's got toylike build quality and a plastic mount. The EF 50mm F/1.4 (a lens I have used extensively since 2006) is ...fine. It's not as sharp, has more distortion, and a bigger PITA about focusing. The exotic EF 50mm F/1.0L is a collector's bauble that is astronomically expensive on the used market. It might as well be a Ferrari. The current EF 50mm F/1.2L is better than the 1.0, but still entirely too expensive, large and heavy. In case I'm not being clear, the 1.4, 1.2 and 1.0 fifties are optically inferior to the humble 1.8. I was fortunate to get my Mk I 50/1.8 from a friend who had just broken his EOS camera and gone back to film. I've jealously guarded it since '08 or so. I will be buried with it. The problem is, I don't have a lens hood for it. Now that I'm shooting full frame full time, I need a hood. Canon lens hoods are a dark science. After much searching, I'm more or less positive I need an ES-65 hood, in either Mk I, II, III iteration. The problem is that there's the new mirrorless 50mm F/1.8 STM that users an ES-65B hood. That damn thing (and Chinesium knock-offs) are everywhere. Finding a real McCoy ES-65 in decent shape and at an okay price has been a PITA. I found a couple reputable sellers on the 'Bay and I'm going to pick one up this weekend. This is a Janpol 55mm F/5.6 enlarger lens I got over the summer. It uses the M42 mount. The problem is that it doesn't focus, so I need an M42 helicoid adapter. Guessing what mm range I need is a shot in the dark. I actually DGAF if I can't hit infinity focus on the Janpol, but I'd prefer to have a workable focus range. This is Tamron "Adapt-a-matic" manual focus 135mm F/2.8 from the 1970s, photographed here with my 85mm F/1.8 (I was feeling lazy and used a modern lens for once.) This Tameron is part of their line of lenses that predated the their Adaptall series. The mount adapter is removable and different ones could be swapped in. The problem is that I have a ...Konika or something mount and I need Nikon F or M42. These adapters unimaginably rare these days. What I've read is the trick is to find an old lens with an adapter you want. I've seen a few on the 'Bay in various focal lengths (28mm and 200mm seem popular) and pick one up soonish. No, I have no idea how many 135mm primes I own at this point. They just fall in my lap. This is the Canon EF 600mm F/4L USM: It has been the industry standard wildlife photographer lens since 1988. There are a number of versions. The fist lacked image stabilization. The IS version arrived in '99. The IS Mk II came out in 2011, and the still-in-production III came out in 2018. It'll set you back a cool $13,000. Like most such super-teles, the Can 600mm is a fancy telescope to which one attaches a camera: If the 600 F/4 is not sufficiently insane, there's also the EF 800mm F/5.6L: (Bald guy not included.) It's a stop slower, but is the same bargain price of 13 grand. I have only recently begun to think of 800mm as anything other than silly, but it's really nice for moon photos and especially small critters. Also I went on a bender looking at photos taken with the old FD 800 and saw a lot of cool stuff. Lest one thing we've hit the limit for irrationality, there is also the Canon 1200mm. No, I don't mean the exotic 1200mm F/5.6. There's like 20 of those in total, and it's such a big deal when one comes up for sale the normie press covers it. Also they cost as much as a house. Even if I could magically afford one, I have an aversion to lenses that need to be manned by a crew like a mortar emplacement. No, what I'm talking about is the comparatively diminutive 1200mm F/8L: It's only available in the mirrorless RF mount, and costs a paltry $20,000 (roughly the rental cost of a weekend with the EF 1200mm I imagine.) I will admit, even for me the RF 1200 seems too much. Any critter that far away is no longer of interest to me. There's also the issue that the 1200, along with the 600 and 800 (not to mention the 400 and 500) are completely out of my budget and always will be. So why am I dedicating so much time and space to these things? Well... I now live full time right next to a pond. Since 2005 I've been photographing it: Taken with a PowerShot S60, 2005. Taken with an EOS 30D and EF-S 17-85mm, 2006. Taken with a dollar store camera and Kodak Gold 200, 2007. Taken with an EOS Rebel G, 35mm F/2, and Kodak Gold 200, 2007. Taken with Kodak BW400CN and a 17-40 in 2008. Taken with Velvia 50 and a 17-40L, 2008. I sometimes wonder, did I peak in '08? Taken with an IR-modified PowerShot G2 in 2009. Taken with an IR modified 5D classic and a 17-40L, 2013. Taken with a fricken iPhone, this past January. Taken with my 5D IV, which I've taken to calling "the 5D4" and one of my many silly manual lenses. In this case it was the Asahi Super Takumar 50/1.4. I don't actually like this photo too much, but it's been weirdly popular on Flickr. The point of all this is I live next to a mini nature preserve. I see ducks of the common mallard persuasion, as well as more exotic ones like hooded mergansers. I see black skimmers, who are the Blue Angels of the water bird world. They are so graceful as they fly over the pond it's amazing. I see "common" green herons, who are amazing birds only outclassed because they have to share space with a couple larger iterations. Chief among those is a solitary great blue heron who shows up every once in a while. He's such an animal I could probably write several paragraphs about him. I've also seen two white egrets, who are stunning for entirely different reasons (BRIGHT WHITE. HUGE.) So far, with the rarest exception, I have failed to photograph any of the above avians, as well as any of the ground based fauna. There's a host of reasons for this. I don't put in enough effort. I'm not attentive enough in watching the pond. I'm old, slow and clumsy by the standards of humans (and we we are a clumsy species as far as wildlife is concerned). Also I am completely lacking the right glass for the job. I do own two manual focus 300mms and a crappy 75-300mm autofocus lens. They are NOT up to the task of dealing with birds. As I mentioned paragraphs ago, I cannot afford any of the exotic Can L super-teles, now or ever. So where TF is this going? Full Retard, where else. This is the Canon RF600mm F/11 STM. It's $800. This the Canon RF 800mm F/11 STM, it's under $1000. These are not "normal" lenses at all. First off F/11 is comically slow, or was until we entered the high ISO mirrorless era. Also they lack apertures. At all. You cannot stop them down further than F/11. They are, as the kids say, weird AF. They're also the most economical way to get to the field of view necessary to capture small and easily spooked animals. Also they're all within my long term reach in a way that big stonking L glass never will be. I'm not saying I'm planning out a Canon R5 purchase next year with a 600 and 800mm side order, but I'm sure thinking about it. I'm thinking about it a lot.

I don't know where else to put this, so Self-described gay furry hackers breach one of the biggest nuclear labs in the US, and demand it begin researching 'IRL catgirls'

Special Slow Post, 50% off act now!

I should really learn to read. A friend of mine pointed out to me that the Kodak I bought has the better Kodar 72mm lens that is not fixed focus. It in fact has a focus scale printed on the top of it. This makes it a significantly better camera than what I was describing above. With that said, the Duaflex III is not a true TLR. I was going to take some glamor shots of the lens I bought at the same time as the Kodak, but it's raining sideways here on scenic MV today. The truth is bad weather conditions can make for some amazing photos on MV, but I cannot be arsed to traipse out around in it right now. June of '05, just down the street from me. Taken with my trusty PowerShot S60 and re-edited in 2020. Same spot, same time. Unedited. The following day, at the EDG lighthouse. The day had been totally clear when I started out and the fog rolled in out of nowhere. Vineyard weather is like that. Back to the present day: This was a department store called Fligor's for decades. My grandparents used to buy me overpriced Lego sets here when I was a kid. I have fond memories of the stone wall meaning "Legos soon!" An (AFAIK) no longer used boat launch, with Chappaquiddick in the background. This is me trying to be less strict with the rule of thirds. There's a retired boomer who happily tools around in this Porsche 993. I am (not so) secretly jealous. Air cooled engines make such a neat noise that sounds nothing like other cars. Also I love that he has his surfboard strapped to it. The exact opposite of this vehicle is the veritable army of Posche-Utes with their distinctive but stupid quad LED headlights. I hate every single thing about the Cayenne. They're shitty SUVs. They're shitty Porsches. They're really shitty to have to share the road with on a tiny island with narrow roads. Also I swear the demographic that buys them are among the worst that.... [KNUCKLES. No more ranting!] The On Time ferry, shipping 2 oversized pickups and a dump truck from Chappy back to the "mainland" as they call it. Someone in another forum asked me where I was to get this "airborne" shot of the ferry, so here ya go: I was in Vineyard Haven around dusk (which comes at like 3:45 in the afternoon these days) and climbed up on to the lawn of the Martha's Vineyard museum, which is the best sited building on the entire island. It was originally a military hospital IIRC. The lawn is full of Canadian geese, and therefore a minefield of their droppings. I had to tread carefully to get this shot. I was honked at continuously for my efforts. From the parking lot of the Museum. I wanted to frame the tree, keep the harbor horizon flat, and not fall off the side of the embankment. I succeeded in at least one of these tasks. There's been couple trees in my yard that have stubbornly hung on to their fall colors. This one in particular was being an absolute showoff. Taken with my CZJ Sonnar, which I never fail to describe as the best of my 135mms for actually taking photos. Even if it has a pedestrian 6 blade aperture, it has a brilliant optical design. The color transmission speaks for itself. See how the OOF areas are what I call "painted." It's like a poor man's 85L. Not at all, actually, but it is a mighty fine lens. I like it enough that I make up reasons to use it. Taking photos of trees with a 135mm portrait lens is not something rational people do, but I have fun with it. Speaking of... More of the same, only entirely different. Taken from the edge of my driveway. I converted this shot to B&W with Luminar 4, which I find is better for the process than Photoshop. I did do some further edits in PS to get the levels where I liked them. There might be a tough too much negative space at the top of this photo, but I'm still pretty happy with it. Last light on a day much clearer than today. Taken with my '86 nifty fifty, which is the best walkaround lens I have until I get a new 35mm F/2 with a working AF motor.

I, uh, bought a new camera. ...and by "new" I mean "a Kodak Duaflex III, made between 1954 and 1957. It's a TLR and and by "TLR" I mean "not at all, actually." Real TLRs have a pair of identical lenses that can be focused. They also usually have a proper adjustable aperture. The Duaflex here has none of that. It has a fixed focus 72mm Kodet lens with a 3 position Waterhouse (think 19th century) aperture. The viewing lens is not the same as film lens and is, to use the technical term, a pile of crap. With all of that said, the camera was $10, and I will never put a roll of film through it. I'm going to use it for through the viewfinder shots using digital camera (5D and iPhone probably, but don't put it past me to try out infrared TTV). I'd prefer a proper TLR for TTV photos and over a long enough period of time I'll get one. For a ten spot I'll futz around with damn near any piece of camera gear. The store where I bought it had the original flash that came with the camera when it was new. (Pictured here in far better shape than what they had.) Vintage flashes are of exactly zero interest to me. Also, they're enormous. I can't imagine trying to wrestle one. I also bought another 135mm manual focus prime. No cap as the kids say. More on that later. Also also I've been learning about the 600mm and 800m primes Canon makes for their R series mirrorless bodies. More on those (much) later.

RIP former first lady Rosalynn Carter. She was married to Jimmy since 1946(!)