Camera, code, coffee

Posts tagged with “personal”

On getting old

When you're 21

Start drinking with your uni mates at 8 p.m.
Run out of vodka by 3 a.m.
Realize you haven't had a proper meal in the entire day. Walk to a 24/7 greasy spoon on the other side of town to get a hot meal (with occasional cockroaches in it) at 4 a.m.
Back in the dorm room by 5 a.m. Smoke and talk about literature, politics, philosophy, and whatnot till 7 a.m.
Realize you have lectures at 9am.
Sleep for an hour and attend lectures the rest of the day.

When you're 54

Wake up and celebrate the fact that you slept well and didn't have to get up during the night to pee.

Mejiro is 10 today

My humble jumble of PHP code I call Mejiro celebrates its 10th anniversary today. As good an occasion as any to raise a glass and get all nostalgic. Cheers!

The limits of open-source photography

Usually, an article like the one you're about to read would go something like this. First, I'll establish my credentials by telling you how many articles and books about open-source photography I've written. Then I'll tell you how much I rely on open-source software in my photography workflow and how much I appreciate the tools I use. And then there will be the inevitable but segue.

Fürth-Utting on Dampflokomotive 52 8195-1 with Nikon D800

Shortly after we moved to Germany, I jokingly told my wife that the moment we get interested in trains, we can consider ourselves completely assimilated. Fast forward seven years, and we're getting up at 05:00 in the morning to catch a train ride organized by Fränkische Museums-Eisenbahn e.V. Nürnberg (FME).

Here's what happened. When my wife bought an issue of the Eisenbahn Romantik magazine for her family back in Denmark, she also got a flyer advertising an upcoming train ride from Fürth to Utting am Ammersee organized by the collective responsible for maintaining the Dampflokomotive 52 8195-1 steam locomotive (click the link to geek out on its tech specs). The flyer promised an unforgettable ride in a vintage train set, an optional bus tour to the Andechs monastery (the home of arguably the best beer in Bavaria), and a dinner onboard the train. All of this for a very reasonable price. How can you say no to an offer that tempting? You can't. And neither could we.

Let's talk about camera straps

And by "let's talk" I mean I'll do the ranting, and you decide whether you want to stick around.

I already have a perfect neck strap. I got it for free when I bought a Nikon FE in Ginza, Tokyo. I think it was in 2013. The strap served me well with a variety of film cameras, and now I'm using it with my Nikon D800. Despite its age, the strap looks like new. While it's the most unremarkable neck strap, it's also everything a good neck strap should be. There is no branding whatsoever to attract attention. It's made of a single piece of webbing, so there is no stitching that can fail. The strap is soft, and its loops are made of strong plastic. This means that 1) I can wrap the strap around the camera or lens, 2) do so without worrying about scratches, and 3) I can loop the strap around my wrist, so it can act as a wrist strap. There is an anti-slip strip on the inside of the strap. In short, it's an affordable, simple, reliable, and functional strap.

This is what an affordable, simple, reliable, and functional neck strap looks like