A robot family in front of the homestead.

The rough draft of my SOFOBOMO book, Our Robot Overlords Revealed, is done. I still need to add some bits of text, touch up a few the photos, and maybe replace a few of the weaker ones, but the basic bones of the book are in place, and I’m happy with the results. I’ve still got a few days left for tweaking, but if I get no further before the deadline slips, I’ll let the rough draft stand. Comments, critiques and suggestions are appreciated.

Technical Notes

I used Open Office Writer to layout the book. Writer combined the virtues of simplicity and availability. It also has a built in PDF generator with a variety of compression settings. A more complex layout would have been possible with tools like Scribus, but Writer is fully capable of realizing my limited design abilities.

Download Our Robot Overlords Revealed in PDF format.

I’m not sure that I can think up a way to use any of these in my SOFOBOMO book, except for that first one, perhaps. Unlike Colin, I have a hard time staying on topic. There’s a bit of self-doubt at play, but mostly it’s a matter of photographic habit. Photography is a way of letting my mind wander, so staying on topic scratches a different, less insistent itch.

It turns out that our Robot Overlords are really hard to find when you go looking for them. For overlords they spend a lot of time hiding. I’ve caught a few out in the open, but at this rate, I’ll be lucky to finish the book in three months let alone three weeks. In light of this, I’ve decided to take drastic measures. Knowing that our Robot Overlords first arrived in the Fifties, I’ve ordered a bunch Adox CHS, working on the theory that 1950’s film might help me catch a few more of them. I’ve also noticed that Robot Overlords are suckers for really wide open apertures - something about seeing all the pretty colors reflected in the glass - so I’ll be shooting the rest of the project at or very near 1.4. I’ve dug up the ND filters, so I should be able to catch them even in daylight.

For an eloquent articulation of why one might choose a fast lens over a technically more competent but slower lens, see Dante Stella’s The Legend of Lux-Do. Goofy, yes. Tongue in cheek, definitely, but then fast lenses are not serious things.

Despite all the folderol about photo-journalists needing them to get that crucial shot, most photo-journalists I’ve known are far more comfortable using a flash. The chances of successfully shooting in low light are far higher with a flash, but fast lenses aren’t about succeeding on the same terms that we normally use to judge photographs. No, fast lenses are about hubris, plain and simple. They are about knowing you can walk into that dingy bar, take the darkest booth in the back, and still be able to get a picture.

Ultimately, fast lenses are fun. Fast lens that also happen to be cheap and small, like my new CV 35 F1.4 SC, are particularly fun, despite their limitations. If you are worried about distortion, light fall off, resolution or pretty much anything other than being able to say, “but this one goes to 1.4,” don’t bother. Nothing to see here. Move along. There are a plenty of well lit bars near the mall.

Things I didn’t do yesterday:

1. Call my sister to wish her happy birthday.
2. Go to work.
3. Start SoFoBoMo.

I blame all these failures on 7:00 AM date with the dentist’s drill. I spent most of the rest of the day drooling from a slightly over zealous application of Novocaine. I guess too much is better than too little.

Things I will do today:

1. Call my sister to wish her a belated a happy birthday.
2. Go to work.
3. Start SoFoBoMo.

Wish me luck.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my SoFoBoMo project, but it hasn’t amounted to much. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• PDF Generation: I’ve played around with Scribus enough to know that I won’t be using it to make my PDF. I suspect I’ll just put something together in Open Office. The production of the PDF is not my primary goal.
• Physical Output: This is the only piece that is settled. I’ll be gluing tiny prints into a Moleskine Japanese Notebook. This is a 3X5, 60 page gate fold book. I’ve been wanting to do a pocket photobook for a while, and this seems like a suitable project.
• Gear: For a brief moment, I thought about buying a Lomo LC-A for this project. One of my Flickr contacts has some gorgeous photos done with one of these, the first photos that have made me want any type of toy camera. My moment of infatuation died when I checked out the price of the LC-A. $250! Thank you, but no, I think I’ll pass. I also briefly toyed with the idea of buying one of those big Fuji 6X9 rangefinders and contact printing the negs on actual photo paper. I like that idea, but I’ll be saving it for later. It’s unlikely that I’ll use anything other than my Hexars and assorted lenses.
• Film: After I discarded the idea of the Lomo, I considered using something goofy like infrared or Delta 3200, and then I realized that any sort of alternative process would just be an attempt to polish a turd. I’ll probably end up using Tri X, since that is what I have on hand at the moment.
• Start Date: Probably April 1. It’s my eldest sister’s birthday, and I have a dentist appointment that day, so why not start SoFoBoMo too?
• Topic: Can you stand another 35 pictures of our Robot Overlords? This isn’t so much a topic as an idea for coherent titling of otherwise random photos. I’m not sure how I’ll do the titles in the physical book.

So, that’s the plan, such as it is. I still reserve the right to order that Lomo or maybe a Speed Graphic or a pinhole camera or some other crutch to creativity. If I start posting photos taken with something other than my normal gear, you will know that I’ve chickened out in some way or another.

Kate and I usually talk while I’m photographing her, often leading to series like this, where her expression covers a wide range. I’m not sure what we were talking about here, but I know we’d just finished a pint or two - the glasses in the previous frame are nearly empty - so the discussion was likely getting animated. Kate’s slightly surprised expression in the last frame probably indicates that I’ve just said something outlandish, something which she finds herself agreeing with despite herself. So, pretty much your standard Sunday afternoon at the bar.

I’ve only been professionally photographed once in my adult life. I remember making some slightly awkward small talk with the photographer as she changed out sheets of film, but I don’t think my face went through anything like this kind of range. Perhaps a pint and a discussion of the Hegelian roots of Marxism should be a part of every portrait session?

Note: the first three images in this series didn’t make the final cut, so I didn’t bother cloning out the light fixture, dust on the negs, scratches, etc.

Kate setting up her mother’s computer to get podcasts

Studio 360 recently ran an interview with David Plowden, one of the few times I’ve heard a photographer interviewed on the radio. It’s worth a listen, particularly if you enjoyed Plowden’s recent book, Vanishing Point. The interview makes it clear that vanishing point perhaps refers as much to the disappearance of his favored subjects as it does to a feature of perspective.

Get the MP3 here.

“I actually like to stay clear of financial dependencies in this project and enjoy it as it is. I already had turned my hobby to profession once, know how it works and what to expect and even though it worked pretty well for me there is no need to repeat the same move again. I have profession and I have hobby and I like it this way.” MORE

“This is New York. This is the upper east side of Manhattan. I could tunnel, secretly between my apartment and the next door apartment and have a suite. Again - prices would go up substantially - and that could very well put me out of business. That would be just like me - kill many years of hard work because of ego. Oh sure, I’m represented by the xyz fine art gallery in Soho and they have 12 of my prints on the wall. Nah… I like my web home. I like that I can offer over a hundred prints at various sizes.” MORE

“No single model will work for everyone. There’s room for all of us. Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that’s fine.” MORE

“My point, though, is this: the buyer does not care about your heat bill, or the cost of rubber bands, or even the cost of your printer. The buyer is buying an object, and what the buyer is willing to pay for it has a everything to do with demand for that object and the supply of it. We can alter the buyer’s demand (by advertising, or by giving a convincing story about the object), and we can alter the buyer’s perception of supply (by using limited editions and other gimmicks). I’d argue, though, that those alterations are minor.” MORE

“Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements.” MORE

“These points illustrate that you shouldn’t be basing what you do on price, or technical skills. Instead, it should be on vision, and customer service. Is there any difference, really, between this single white t-shirt at Nordstroms for $18, and this pack of 3 fruit-of-the-loom t-shirts at K-Mart for $9.49? Probably not much. But, the service - is it worth it? Nordstrom’s has proven that the answer is yes, and photographers who choose to compete on points other than price or rights-give-aways have shown that it works in our field too.” MORE