After Christmas, I spent a bunch of time getting used to my new setup and building a lot of little bits to get my lighting where I want it to be. I also took a step back and decided I didn't like where my whiteground photos were going at that point; I wanted to do something else...

We tend to assume that our file formats will be with us forever, often times because many of the commonly seen file formats have been able to stick around for a while. You can still download GIF images that people used to advertise their dial-up BBS systems in the eighties and nineties before everybody was on the Internet.

Two recent high-end Canon P&S cameras that seem to be popular with the buying audience have hotshoes. The G series of Canons have always had a hotshoe, but the S series hasn't until now.

Some months prior, they had redecorated Citizen Cupcake and no longer have room for hanging art. Apparently the woman who was booking artists didn't keep sufficient records for them to be able to actually contact all of the booked artists... and was no longer with the company.

So, my Canon A95, which was part of the Wirehead family between December 6, 2004 and June 10, 2007, with 11,800 pictures taken, was officially not repairable...

So, there I was, knee-deep in the bay, with water soaking into my camera gear. I returned to that point in time repeatedly over the next day or two. I could go back, without wanting to, and relive the experience, complete with the smell.

I've been noticing some people finding my page on Google searching for more detailed information about the 383 Super. Since the 383 Super is a reasonably priced manually-controllable flash, suitable for both on and off camera use, it's experienced a little bit of a resurgence in recent times. Vivitar has responded as well by putting the 285 back on the market.

If all of the film cameras stopped working tomorrow, there's plenty of decent digital cameras to switch to. I don't have 10 years worth of film in my freezer and powdered developer stocked in my closet, at best I've got a few months worth, I don't want to have tons of nasty old expired film. I want to have room in my freezer for some frozen goodies.

I'm going to write out a proper entry about my exploration of IR film as part of my series black and white and how I explore it. But I'm in the midst of information to share, so I'm going to share my thoughts and news now and worry about writing out a proper chronology of exploration later.

I've noticed that I suddenly have a lot of AA battery powered photo gear. There's the A95 which serves as my light/flash meter and photographic sketchpad that takes 4 AA batteries. There's 2 Sunpak 383 Supers and a 1 Sunpak 144PC, and each one takes 4 AA batteries. There's the kinda cruddy Sunpak Digital Flash that is now just used to trigger slaves off of my RB67 that takes 2 AA batteries. Finally, there's the Quantaray QS-1 that takes 2 AAA batteries

The Quantaray MS-1, backgrounds, umbrellas, and models

I've been in a bit of a funk since Sunday morning when folks noticed Silverprint's post about HIE (High speed IR) and EIR (Ektachrome IR) being discontinued. At least this time, somebody gave us warning about it. Naturally, it wasn't Kodak. Folks called Kodak. The first to call got positive news that it wasn't discontinued.... but everybody else was told that the last cut is next month.

One concept I hold very dear is the concept of being a guardian of our culture. Most of the time, this is a thankless, underpaid, and generally difficult task. Many excellent artists fill this role, but most of them don't make a good living... or even a living at all.. doing it.

I feel that every guy has this misapprehension that asking a girl to pose nude is like coaxing a girlfriend out of her clothing. Or that there must be a sexual connection between model and photographer. Really, the whole public perception of this sort of photography is very skewed.

My first look at Efke IR820c