Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Monday, March 9, 2009

A digital camera provides a lot of value -- Comment()
I have now taken well over 32,000 photographs with the Panasonic LX3 which I bought last September. The price per image is at about 0.01 euro - one cent per image. That is quite cheap, much cheaper that I thought possible. And the camera works still without major problems, so there may be another 32,000 photographs to be taken with the camera.

Changing to another topic - fellow photography blogger Paul Lester posted a deeply personal and insightful piece about Shadows, about how keeping a personal journal helps to run a "mental health program". I posted a comment at Paul's blog, here are some further thoughts on the topic.

I used to keep a journal, written by hand, but that habit disappeared when I started to use the computer for writing. At some point I was no longer drafting texts first by hand and only then typing them. Something was lost in the change, a feeling a spontaneity. Writing by hand with a fountain pen felt as if there wouldn't have been anything between the thought and the text.

I think writing on a computer is not the same, it is much more impersonal. (Isn't there even a religious sect which says that there is a devil inside each computer?)

I retrospect I feel that there was a lot of benefit in that kind of introspection. A little bit of journal-type writing each day helped to keep things in perspective. But somehow I can't find the stamina to keep on doing it any more. However, if the (metaphorical) demons keep on pressing too much, I may have to pick up the pen once more.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Photography is the thing -- Comment()
I haven't been blogging much here at Universal Rule for some time, but those who are interested in what I'm currently doing, please check out the Light Scrape blog, which is about photography. I'm nowadays mostly using the Panasonic LX3 for taking photos, over 23,000 photos taken so far with the camera. There has been much less time for other topics since I got a major interest in photography, but that can of course change at some point. But currently it seems that photography poses an interesting long-term project, defined in my own terms. So, other topics such as DRM, Macs, and such will have to wait.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

LIFE photo archive brought available by Google -- Comment()
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google: "Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google."

This is an extremely interesting site for anyone interested in history, culture, politics, humanity, photography, ...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Is photography opening eyes, or shutting them? -- Comment()
I'm now at 5967 photos taken with my Panasonic LX3 camera, and I'm every once in a while thinking whether photography is a good hobby after all. Earlier I was quite positive that taking photos is a way of looking at the world, seeing what is there, a way of opening towards the reality of life.

But now I'm not so sure any more. Perhaps photography can be also a kind of escape from reality, a closing of eyes for things at the same time when you are using the camera.

Am I shutting my eye on global problems like pollution, lack of food, and financial crisis? Is photography a way of focusing on one thing while simultaneously shutting out important other things?

Monday, October 6, 2008

Have 4433 photos taught anything? -- Comment()
I have now taken 4433 photos with my Panasonic LX3, in 20 days or so, documenting my learning experience at Light Scrape. What I find interesting is that there seems to be a kind of style arising, although I'm not sure that I actually like the photos I'm producing. But they have some interesting properties which I'm willing to explore, at least for the moment.

I have found that the LX3 is as a camera much above the Canon Ixus 400 which I was using before - the LX3 is a real tool for a photographer, allowing to do much more than just point-and-shoot techniques (with some tricks to fool the automatics).

I'm enjoying photography so much that sometimes I'm afraid that it will consume too much time. But the days are getting shorter here in Finland, so there will be less and less opporturnities for photography in the coming months.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Learning photography with the Panasonic LX3 -- Comment()
Two weeks ago I wrote that I have take 612 photos with my Panasonic LX3 camera. Now I'm at 3476 photos taken, and some of them have been the best I have even managed to take. Not that it means much, but I feel that the camera has taught me a lot already in a couple of weeks.

But will the photography interest sustain itself? And why I'm actually taking photos? Perhaps for myself - to see the world better, to understand it, to be able to actually see what is around? I feel that this reason has become more and more strong during the last months. I have develop a kind of eye for visual information. This skill was more or less dormant previously.

I have also a kind of hunger for taking photos. Each day I have a craving to take photos for later viewing and pondering. A form of nourishment.

On the other hand, photography is also about communication. When I take a photo and show it to someone or publish it on the net, I'm showcasing my view of the world for others to see. I'm not sure how much I actually need this kind of reason for taking photos, but it has given a kind of additional interest to it. The comments at my blog Light Scrape have provided very interesting feedback, as also the information I get from Flickr about photo viewers. I can't deny that this kind of indication of interest provides additional encouragement for photography.

But how this will develop, that I can't know. But I feel that the photography hobby will develop further. Maybe I will at some point even invest in a digital system camera, if they become small enough and novel enough for learning more about photography. For now, the LX3 is my trusted photography tool.

I have come back full circle in my photography hobby. With my first camera, Minolta XG-1, I used manual focusing and the aperture priority mode. I'm now using the same kind of settings with the LX3. But the camera is much more versatile, and thanks to the small sensor, I have less problems with depth of field than I had with the Minolta.

Friday, September 26, 2008

On the buying of expensive cameras -- Comment()
Little Poems of Hate wrote a provocative posting titled So I Bought This Expensive Camera... The writer loathes people who buy expensive cameras and think they are ready to be masters - as if buying a stethoscope would make you into a doctor.

Here is a quote: "I have had an alarming amount of people recently coming up to me during shoots, events or other things I may be covering to ask me how to make money with their camera. Now I personally find this odd because I view photography as an art form and nothing more. Yes, I make a living from doing it but I would also do it even if I made no money at all. I just can[base ']t think of photography in terms of being a means to an end, where you are motivated simply by the fact that making a buck will make your life fulfilling. In my life photography gives me a sense of purpose, it is my voice, my muse and my constant abiding companion."

Is my photography hobby centered around camera gear? Well, perhaps not, as I have bought a new camera every five years of so, taking a lot of photos in between. (Over 2300 photos with the newest one, Panasonic LX3, in ten days. See Light Scrape for more details about my LX3 use.)

But I must admit I haven't always been so keen on taking photos, it hasn't been so important to me as it has now been for the last few months. Although I have always liked to take photos, it has not driven me the same way as - for example - writing has been driving me, sometimes to extreme amounts of text pages per day.

I'm not yet quite sure how the current interest in photography will endure. In any case, I feel that getting a camera like the LX3 was essential for developing the skills, as the Canon Ixus 400 didn't have any manual control at all.