Journal

Now What?

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I am a mixture of both casual and intentional photographer.

Sometimes, the images come to me in a zen-like manner.

I wait, listen and feel for them.

Other times, I shoot deliberation and determination.

I purposefully plan and will them into reality.

I also take images to document as an autobiography of what is going on around me at the moment.

However, as Ansel Adams said:

“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

After nearly thirty years of photography I don’t feel like I have progressed to where I should be and want to be. I’ve almost always shot from the hip, never to be bothered with the technical. My images reflect this. I need to slow down, be more intentional. I need to spend
a hell of a lot of time alone before, during, and after the photography experience.

*Update* I need a project to kickstart this initiative, one that can build a body of work I can be proud of. I do not want to limit myself to one genre though. It is consistent, sure, but boring.

Bored

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After reading about the latest Apple products yesterday I had to ask “What drives American consumerism?” Americans are bored. Or we want the latest and greatest.

This is a new concept to me and I find myself content with what I have for now.

This Week

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It’s been about a solid week since re-using iA Writer exclusively, instead of Ulysses and I’m thrilled to be back. I’ve never stuck with iA Writer except for editing Markdown files but now I am using it exclusively to publish here.

I’m thinking I have too many cameras and one has to go. Eek!

After reading about the latest iPhone, Watch and AirPods I think I will…pass on upgrading this year. I’ve finally arrived to the point where I am content and this is a unique experience for me. That Apple Ultra Watch though…

Must. Resist. The. Temptation.

The idea of using a manual typewriter is a nice one but I almost never use it because it is very loud. Satisfying but loud. (::::::)

I have stacks of notebooks with virgin paper to fill but I’ve been too lazy. This has got to change or they go out the door.

I’ve decided I am going to do one more portrait session with the film cameras and then I’m going all-digital for awhile. Film prices are outrageous right now. Ten years from now when the film market is abandoned, I’ll dust off the 35mm cameras and be a hipster photographer.

Geo Location

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I’ve enjoyed using the DayOne journal app on my Apple devices since 2016 because it includes the current date/time, weather and location of the post in every entry. But I am not a fan of paying for an annual subscription so I am looking at building my own alternatives here and in my pensieve software, Obsidian.

I want to add these features to every blog post here as a way to document, in context. Example: writing a post in December about a topic and the post shows I am holed up at home while a map on the post displays it is snowing outside. The post will ideally show a map, current weather and temps.

The solution must support adding geo coordinates, a location taxonomy, and a textual location description to a post, comment, user, or attachment. Supports adding weather data to a post or to a widget based on location. It must offer a choice of map displays. It supports retrieving location using the HTML5 geolocation API by default. Clicking the location icon or ‘Lookup Location’ will retrieve the location.

A work in progress that will enhance my online journaling experience.

Back To Flickr

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I was a charter member of the photo hosting site, Flickr since it’s inception back in 2005. Since then it has been a shit-show roller coaster and grew stagnant. It’s been sold more than a few times and then again to a more stable photo host called SmugMug. That seems to have been the life-saver for Flickr. However, I canceled my account back in 2019 for various reasons. A quote from the article on my website:

I am on a roll when it comes to de-bullshitting my life lately. I have been a Flickr photo account user since 2005 and have been through the ups, downs, acquisitions and no more. I simply do not see the value in another photo host with little to no social engagement with other photographers.

ChrisDenbow.com

Now that Flickr has been stable these past few years, I am back. With unlimited photo and video hosting on a paid Pro plan, I am in the slow process of uploading images. Migrating years and gigabytes worth of data will be worth it. Flickr organizes galleries and albums anyway I see fit and includes camera/image EXIF data. It will be good to see it all in another back-up location to my Archive Vault on the external hard drive.

I am hoping to reconnect with the amazing talent of other photographers there and rebuild the photo community. I use to draw a lot of inspiration from them as well as contribute my two cents as well.

A Different Path

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Lately I am having issues with my ankles turning while on a dirt trail or geocaching. I think city hiking for a while is a good alternative. Future walks will include paved trails, parks, desire paths and green spaces.

More wandering, more flanuering. These evoke freedom, serendipity, and encounters with city life.

Long walks (nothing like Craig Mod’s expeditions across Japan though)to explore, quantify, document, record and archive my discoveries.

In the future, I will acquire a Garmin watch to help track and quantify these urban excursions. I believe they will do a better job than the Apple Watch currently on my wrist with a third-party app.