The feature of my blog that you told me most often that you missed is this one, my weekly roundup of blog posts I liked. That tickles me no end. I love a good blog post, and I love sharing them — and I love seeing you in the comments of blogs I introduced to you.
And now, this week’s blog posts:
Pentax K10D, 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 SMC Pentax-DA AL
Playing moneyball might get you more wins. But as Ken Levine laments his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers’ loss in the World Series, he believes it sucks the humanity out of the game and the fan experience. Read Open letter from a Dodger fan
Kodak still makes a lot of kinds of film, and Josh Solomon over at (the terrific) Casual Photophile gives a mini-review of each one. Read A Quick Guide to Kodak Film and When to Shoot Each One
I’m a sucker for old cemeteries, so when Heide shared photos of a lush, sprawling old one in Paris it was a foregone conclusion I’d share it with you. Read Paris’ most famous cemetery
I’ve decided to stop sharing camera reviews here. As old cameras and film photography have become so much more popular in the last couple years, the number of people writing reviews has mushroomed. I can’t keep up! So I’m going to stop trying.
But I’m adding a new feature to this roundup. When I find an especially stellar article in a mainstream publication, I’ll share it here. It won’t happen every week; the bar is pretty high to be included here. But one article cleared that bar this week:
Writing for The New York Times, Orhan Pamuk shares the wonderful photographs Ara Guler made in Istanbul in the 1950s. These black-and-white images of Istanbul’s back streets and everyday people tell a good story of life in that city at that time. Read I Like Your Photographs Because They Are Beautiful
I’ve toyed with similar round up posts on my blog but ultimately aside from the odd post recommending a specific blog or two I’ve avoided it. The reason being, I want to be a creator not a curator.
That said, I have discovered some interesting articles and blogs via your Saturday round ups Jim!
I think it’s a wise decision about camera reviews. To be brutally honest, I agree that there are so many, and so few that a) feature interesting and original writing and don’t just regurgitate the camera’s manual and b) feature photographs that are great in their own right regardless of the camera used, rather than mundane “test shots” that just prove the camera can take a picture.
The latter was a driving factor in me stopping keep buying cameras too, I want to grow as a photographer not just be another camera tester with a different camera every time I go out.
Yes, the ones that are just a mini camera manual don’t light my fire, either. I really like an experience report with photographs, kind of like what I write.
Yes, an experience report is a much better name for it, and a better approach, in my view. Much more useful to hear how a camera feels in use than just the tech spec and history.
Heide’s piece was glorious. Paris is a place I’ve always sort of assumed I’d get around to eventually, because it’s Paris, right? But this is the first thing that has really made that feel urgent. Excellent roundup today.
Heide’s photos always make you want to hop a plane right now and go there!
Coming from you, that’s a heckuva compliment, Jim! Thank you.
I am sad that you won’t be featuring good camera reviews you’ve found. You always seemed to find the most interesting ones and a nice mix of common cameras and exotic. It was always great Saturday morning coffee reading.
I’m sorry to disappoint you! I liked sharing the reviews but with ~10 every week now it was kind of a grind to keep up with them.
I’m going to miss your camera reviews
I’m sorry to disappoint you. Aggregating all those reviews had become a chore and this is supposed to be fun for me, so I need to let it go.
Hang on, Jim you’re only going to stop curating and sharing other people’s camera reviews, right, you’ll still be writing and sharing your own?
I’ll still review new-to-me old cameras. I’m just not going to round up reviews from elsewhere on the Net anymore.
This Roadie is once again cheering your return. Although not a big baseball fan, I read Ken Levine’s piece with great interest because it gets to the heart of what is wrong with so many things in American culture right now: winning (and extracting the maximum possible profit) instead of doing an activity for its own sake — in this case, playing a game. No wonder so many people feel a little bit empty; we’ve forgotten how to enjoy the ride! I worry that our collective obsession with the “zings” — maximizing, optimizing, prioritizing — is robbing us of those little lessons and victories we should be savoring along the way. Josh Solomon’s piece was a revelation too, for the sheer number of Kodak film types (still!) available. I haven’t shot film in maybe 15 years, Jim, but you have me itching now to get out there and try them all. Perhaps if I get a bonus at work. :) As for Orhan Pamuk’s piece … well, gosh. What a beautiful tribute, and what stunning images to illustrate it. Thank you for coming back, and for continuing to make your readers’ worlds bigger and more interesting places.
If you want a nice film camera, I’m sure I can arrange for one to simply appear at whatever address you like…
Ha! That’s so kind of you, Jim! Let’s see if I get a bonus first — because I’m going to need it to develop all of that film. ;)
Hi Jim:
I totally get where you’re coming from on the reviews–and I think Dan (the first commenter) hit the nail on the head. However, if you do encounter a review that you think was well done and you’d like to share with your readers, I hope you will. In the same way you don’t compile all blogs–you just pass along the ones you encountered and felt were worth sharing–you don’t have to with the reviews either. It’s a pretty rare camera evaluation that tells me something interesting (or at least something I hadn’t read 100 times before) and is authoritative and well written. But if you do happen to spot one in the course of your usual perusing of the web, I hope you will share it.
But if the only reviews that get highlighted here are the ones you personally write, I can live with that–yours are well written, insightful, and authoritative.
Thanks,
Gary
I will share really good reviews from here on out, just in the regular section with all the other good blog posts. And of course I’ll keep reviewing cameras!
I like this idea … I am thinking of doing something similar for mental health. Thanks for the inspiration. Cheers, Alexis.
Steal this idea liberally then!