I first heard about The Curious Society is a nonprofit organization created to support and promote photojournalism and documentary photography. To this end, they publish a large, rather lavish quarterly magazine, provide education and training opportunities, and offer a small grant to college students, among other things. I first heard about the Society maybe a year ago. I was intrigued by their mission and purpose, but was in debt reduction mode and balked at the membership price. Despite following them on Instagram, I forgot all about the group until a couple of weeks ago and, feeling flush for a brief moment, I went ahead and joined.
Continue reading “The Curious Society No. 1”Tim Carpenter & Nathan Pearce – ‘South of Chicago’
‘South of Chicago is a new zine from Tim Carpenter & Nathan Pearce, with design and publishing help from Matthew David Crowther and distant zine. As a long time Pearce fan, I had to pick up a copy.
Continue reading “Tim Carpenter & Nathan Pearce – ‘South of Chicago’”Wide Angle Battle – The Final Round
To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to shoot the Wai Wai. I loaded it up and had it sitting when the trip to Mom’s came up, and spur-of-the-moment decided to see if it could be bested by any of the other wide angle cameras in my stable. I was biased, and strongly so. I love the Wai Wai.
And then I started scanning…
Continue reading “Wide Angle Battle – The Final Round”Wide Angle Battle – the Consolation round
Really, it was close… sorta. I knew headed in that the plastic cameras would win over the LC-W, and the inclusion of the super-fancy FM3a/17-35mm f/2.8 was so spur-of-the-moment that I didn’t even really consider it. But here we are.
After those few days at Mom’s and a week of round-robins, the LC-W and FM3a did objectively better, in every way, than the all plastic Konica Wai Wai and Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim… every way, that is, than producing photographs that I wanted to look at.
So which did better at making “bad” pictures?
Continue reading “Wide Angle Battle – the Consolation round”Wide Angle Battle, Round 4: Driving and the River
The mid-summer 2021 trip to Mom’s was short, and after only 3 days, I headed back home. The drive home from Mom’s taught me a good lesson over the years: I’m one who almost always eats my spinach before I have my dessert. That is, I save the best for last. It’s an ok policy, though it means I eat loads of spinach and sometimes—sometimes too often—have no dessert at all. When driving from the lovely Ozark mountains down to the Metroplex, one can’t really save the best for last… The twisty mountain roads too-quickly give way to flat, straight superhighway.
These days, I often stop at the public boat launch on the White River that I pass on my way out of the mountains. For Round 4 of the Wide Angle Battle, let’s see how three 17mms—the LC-W, FM3a & 17-35D, and the WaiWai—handle things.
Continue reading “Wide Angle Battle, Round 4: Driving and the River”Wide Angle Battle, Round 3: Down the Crik
The roads around Mom’s house vary between narrow state highway, freshly-paved blacktop, rutted and pitted country lane, and dirt or gravel track. I like to travel a little figure-8 loop from her house, up the highway to the charity shop, down the roller-coaster road I’ve shared previously, past a hippy-decorated house hidden behind a very high bamboo hedge, back past Mom’s, and then down around to where the road turns to dirt, through the creek, past the cattle ranch, and back up to Mom’s.
I regularly stop a the creek and photograph some, and I wish I’d get down there when the light was decent… Alas. It seems I only make it there in the middle of the day. For Round 3 of the Wide Angle Battle, let’s see how the Nikon FM3a and Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D fare against the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and the Konica WaiWai.
Continue reading “Wide Angle Battle, Round 3: Down the Crik”Wide Angle Battle, Round 2: Interiors
Mom’s mountain home is beautiful and pleasant and a relaxing place to visit, and I always enjoy my time there, even if the seafoam green carpet and tile aren’t much to my liking. During a visit to her place in late July, 2021, four cameras battled: Lomography’s LC-Wide, a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, a Konica WaiWai, and the Nikon FM3a with the 17-35mm f/2.8D.
In Round 2, we see how well the LC-Wide, Vivitar UWS, and Konica WaiWai perform indoors.
Continue reading “Wide Angle Battle, Round 2: Interiors”