Making things easy
New technology often makes a task much easier to do. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s done better.
Junk mail
Film photography
The tools of a professional
A ladder is often essential
What a photographer needs to do the job is sometimes far from obvious.
The colors of your mind
The John Henry moment
Old technology triumphant
A mathematics teacher is not much like a nineteenth-century railroad worker–but there are parallels. Our consultant who tutors High School math and science continues to learn from it; sometimes, his students do also.
Tools shape the artist
A choice of camera is unexpectedly important
Our photographic consultant finds that the camera he uses can have an unsubtle effect on the pictures he takes.
The angle of the light
A photographer and appearances
Our photographer draws our attention to how differently the same objects appear in different light. It’s a lesson easily generalized.
The postures of photography
Conforming to the machine
Our photographer notices how a new technology forces our bodies into new positions.
Why an f-stop?
It’s all the astronomers’ fault
Our photographic consultant is reminded how complicated things are for beginners, no matter how straightforward it all seems to the professionals.
How big is a picture?
Returning to the Brownie format
The photographs that came out of this Kodak Brownie camera from the 1930s may be the best size ever found.
For the long run
One of our consultants has been working on a genealogical project this past week. It prompts some thoughts on the difference between science and scholarship as well as the longevity of documents.