purisubzi

Category: Micro

  • Photography is Tactile

    I recently came across this refreshingly simple and different ‘review’ of Leica’s newly released M11 rangefinder camera. Leigh doesn’t talk about specs or performance or the thousand other things that almost all reviewers talk about these days. Instead, she gets to the soul of why anyone wants to take a photograph, and how this particular Leica allows her to get to grips with her motivations.

    Towards the end of the video, she mentions how tactile the camera feels and how that is so important when taking a photograph. Now, I am fairly certain I’ll never own a modern Leica anytime soon and therefore unlikely to experience the same emotions as her. But years of shooting my Fuji X-T20 a certain way means I think I come close.

    The camera is almost always attached to a 7-Artisans 35mm f/1.2. This is a fully manual lens, with zero electronic assists. It has an aperture ring. The Fuji also has separate shutter and exposure compensation dials and main mode dial is set to “M”.

    So each time I pick up the camera, it is a deliberate thing to size up the frame in my head, look through the viewfinder, turn the aperture ring, step turn my way through the shutter dial and lock in everything before pressing the shutter. Sometimes this is a fast process, but most times it is not. I miss many shots because it takes too long. I curse myself often because of it. But in the end, this slowness allows for a tactileness that makes for wonderful memories later on.

  • Work Afternoon

    It’s been a somewhat busy start to the new year. Wrapping up a bunch of side projects and smaller consulting gigs before attempting to get back to full time employment.

    One of the things I did less of last year was photography. I had some opportunities to travel and take photos, but the heart and mind were never present fully in those moments. I desperately want to change that this year.

    Anyway, the light this afternoon by the window where I am working is fabulous. And in keeping to my promises, I got the camera and shot off a few frames.

    All taken on the Fuji X-T20 with the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.2.

  • First Attempts at ASMR Videos

    I had an elaborate piece about why making videos for me is an extremely intimidating process, why I avoid it, and my attempts at breaking that mental logjam. One day I’ll post that, but today is not that day.

    Instead, in the spirit of the types of videos these are, I present them to you simply.

    There are two of them, one from an empty train coach and the other from a shack on the beach. They work best with a good TV and sound system combination, but a pair of good headphones will also do. I find myself mostly putting them on the TV and going about my work and daily chores.

    Both really do calm me.

  • A Kinetic Rothko

    Sometimes when you are working deeply, you turn around to reflect about a certain thing and you notice a thing that should have been obvious for as long as you occupied that space, but didn’t until then.

    I turned around and saw the curtains swaying in the wind. Layered behind it were the trees. I grabbed the phone, turned on the camera and held my breath for close to 30 seconds.

    A Rorschachian trance contained in a Rothko canvas.

  • A Morning Walk

    After weeks of being stuck at home, I went out for a walk in the neighbourhood I grew up. It’s a bit of a drive from where I live now, but I felt I needed to do this. To clear my head, to recalibrate, to celebrate the living and to honour those who are leaving us soon or have left already.

  • Capture One Marketing

    I am not usually the complaining type, but I’ve been really annoyed of late with Capture One’s marketing and support tactics.

    It all started with vague messages to pre-order the latest version that was due for release. I understand the need to build up interest and some hype, but not saying almost anything about what those new features will be and how they might benefit me was not something I expected from a company that is so well regarded. It would have been OK with one or two messages, but an incessant campaign of email after email for weeks is just a bit too much.

    They’ve also been less than forthcoming with support for version 13 on the new Apple M1 based machines. This document says that support for version 14 is coming, but stays silent for 13. As someone who paid for a perpetual license for this version, I am disappointed about this incomplete messaging. If I get a new M1 based laptop, does that mean I have to upgrade to version 14? If so, that just feels wrong, especially as Apple announced the transition when version 13 was the one that Capture One was selling and presumably the company had access to the developer test kits that Apple sent out.

  • Diwali Lights

    It has a been a very difficult month, as you, dear reader will notice from the lack of posts here. But things took a good turn just before Diwali, so we celebrated a bit by lighting lamps and eating lots of kaju kathli. I hope you too had a beautiful Diwali.

  • Showing Up

    A few weeks ago in the middle of a major writing slump, I decided to start showing up. I’d forgotten how to do it. I’d wake up early, brew myself a cup of coffee and sit down to write. At 5am, an indigo dawn would be just faintly visible from where I sat.

    I didn’t get (and haven’t gotten) any decent piece of writing done, but in the act of showing up and sitting down to create, I started to notice my old photographs and how they could do with a reimagining.

    So these past weeks, I’ve been editing away, thinking about the moments I took those photographs, how I felt. Those moments of clarity, confusion, defeat and elation. All those emotions pored into the edit. The contrast, the brightness, the colour, the shadows and the highlights.

    Writing gives me a high and for a long time, I felt that that particular high was only possible when I put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper. No longer. The photographs I create are beginning to give me that same feeling.

    I am glad I started showing up.

  • Speaking to Flowers

    So stoked about getting this out into the world soon. Been working hard on re-editing, re-designing and re-typesetting it. I am literally in awe of the kids who wrote this.

  • Run the Line

    I watched this lovely little documentary thrice yesterday and it got better each time. It combines two of my favourite things in life – running and trains – into a beautiful story.

    “Runners are rhythm people, so are train drivers”