Need Some R&R

Hey, this is Antonio and Ward from a Street Shots podcast.

Well, before we start our episode, I just want to make an acknowledgement of recent events that have happened. Just recently got an email from a barion ex Pirello of Candid Frame. And he unfortunately lost his entire house in the Eaton fire in Los Angeles. He posted up, I'll put a link in the show notes, but he posted something on his Patreon account. So I think we can check it out and read the whole story. Ward, did you get a chance to see the photographs? Yeah, I sure did. Yeah, I subscribed.

I did. And he did post it on Instagram the other day. And he has posted it on his, I believe it's a Patreon link. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's a devastating, devastating thing to happen. The the i mean the good news it sounds like he's safe and his family is safe but it looks as if the picture the photograph he's showing he lost everything his entire house and.

So i just wanted to acknowledge that before we started our show my thoughts are really going out to his family i'm really relieved that he's safe and his family is safe too so and i i just can't imagine what that's what that's like it's yeah it's terrible and you know the news i mean i i don't i hadn't checked today what the news was was and how things are going and which fires are under control or if there's some new ones but yeah it's just it's just a horrible situation there and i encourage

everyone to take a look at that patreon link and there's something as our listeners that you can do for him that I think we'd appreciate it. Yeah. And, you know, again, my, my, my heart goes out to everybody that's affected by this. It's a, it's incredible. We're recording this on Monday night, January 13th. And from what I heard on the news is that there's a good chance that the, the winds are going to pick up.

So they're, they're not out of the, and the situation is still fluid and still happening. But at this point, it sounds like a barion X has found a place to stay that's pet friendly, which was a relief. I know he's got a dog, at least a dog. Yeah. But anyway, if anybody, if anybody can do anything for him, just reach out to his Patreon account. And I know he's going to put up a GoFundMe at some point. So when that happens, I'll make sure we list it on our next episode.

So, but I did want to not start off the show without acknowledging, this horrible event that's happening to the state of California and people in Los Angeles. So we are going to record our show. I've learned over the years not to make big decisions based on short-term emotions because feelings aren't facts and they will pass or at least change.

Give yourself permission to begin again. This is a production of WGBH. Music. Hey, welcome to the Street Shots Photography Podcast. This is Antonio. And this is Ward. And this is episode 223 for the area code of Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York, metropolitan areas of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, yeah. Sorry, I can do this until someone says, please stop. Yeah, is that you saying, please stop? No, no, no. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Episode 223 for the middle of January, 2025.

I can't believe this is 2025. This is the year we're supposed to have jetpacks and flying cars. We sort of have flying cars. Well, we sort of do. I don't know. You remember all of a sudden, was it at the beginning of the year, the end of last year, and we had all these drone sightings in New Jersey and New York? Guess what? I haven't heard a single peep from the, the drone sightings. Although I remember seeing one photograph of a drone, at least what was said to be a drone.

It certainly was some kind of flying vehicle. It didn't look like a plane, but it looked like one of those personal drones, you know, that you see like a one person drone with like eight different rotors or something like that. And I was just wondering if, if people are flying one of those around there and, you know, But suddenly, we don't hear about the drones anymore. It's just very interesting. I hadn't even been following the news that closely. I know when it was first

a big deal. But yeah, you're right. There hasn't been anything on them. There hasn't been anything, yeah. And they all had proper... What was the, you know, the FAA lighting schemes with the red and green, red and green flashing lights. Yeah. And stuff like that. But, you know, anyway, luckily they're, they're not so far. They haven't been found to be nefarious, just a very annoying and mysterious, but nothing bad is happening.

Anyway. Yes. We're in the middle of January. I bought for myself before the end of the year, I bought myself a drone. It's sitting in a box in my living room. As long as you're not contributing to the problem. It's good. I was not, no. I have a friend, Steve Stanger, who's been on the show a long time ago. And he was one of the people who helped me get involved in podcasting way back when. He lives in New Jersey and he flies a drone. And I was thinking of giving him a call.

Steve, if you're listening to this, I still owe you a call. But to go and see if he's got an area in New Jersey to go fly his drone. but I realized nobody was, you know, probably flying their drones in New Jersey. So I ended up getting the new DJI, is it the mini 4K? So it's, yeah, it's an under, it's like a beginner's drone and the price seemed right. And so, but it's still sitting in a box.

I haven't, I haven't put on the propeller guards and scared the crap out of the cats yet in the apartment.

Which i you know is a very i'm i'm not a cruel person to animals but there is a temptation of having that thing fly around in the living room and have them just to sound wake him up just to sound one of my cats is deaf so he would not notice we just keep sleeping ed is ed has lost all of his hearing so yeah anyway happy new year to everybody happy new year to you happy new year So it's our first episode of the year.

And how was your, how was your changeover from, from the past to the future? Well, I went to bed early on New Year's Eve because, you know, I could. We had a, we had a family, my wife's family, part of my wife's family was here. And so they were here for three or four days and then they left and the house was very quiet. So we just cleaned up and we went to bed and it was good. And then you woke up, it was a year later. When I woke up, it was 2025, yeah. So that was good and a nice change.

Over the past week and visiting our week or two, we've been visiting with our neighbors and friends on the block and for a little bit further afield. And that's been good too. And did a little bit of photography when there was the more of the trees that I was talking about last time. Yeah. Last time or the time before. So, yeah. So no, it was a, it was a good, it was a good time. Good, quiet time. Okay. Well, it was quiet for me, except for the fireworks going off right in my terrace.

Because they launch fireworks in the middle of ocean parkway literally in front of my building and they go off at my height so they're they're essentially going off right at the 12th floor and the smoke from the from the fireworks is coming into the apartment so and luckily my cats are not they're not traumatized by it they don't like it but they're not they're not freaking out about it so like the dog who tries to get behind the couch or whatever yeah i'm sure i mean

there's other animals in the building and i'm sure they were freaking out but my guys were okay so and there was supposed to be uh well actually ended up raining here it was a big there's actually a thunderstorm here wow yeah it was like a big explosion i was like what is that i was like oh no it's like i hear the rain i was like it was a thunderstorm and i thought that would dampen out the sort of the illegal fireworks that were going off, but it, it cleared up, it cleared,

it just didn't last all night. They, they, they went for a little while, but there was supposed to be fireworks display in central park, which they canceled because of the red flag warnings because of the brush fires. So that was canceled. Then they were, and then they were supposed to do a drone exhibition, you know, like making pictures in the sky with drones, but there was a, there was a bad accident with the company that made those drones.

And so they canceled them out. They were at a different event and, uh, there was an accident where somebody got hurt with a drone.

And so they, they canceled it. And then there was supposed to be one in prospect park, uh, which is another drone thing, which I, I would have gone and there was part of me that wanted to go see it, but cause I've never, I've never seen one of those drone shows before. And wanting to see like pictures being made in the sky by these drones is just a cool thing, but they canceled that too. So it was pretty, it was pretty much. Oh, it was like everybody's plans are falling through.

Well, I think they canceled it. Hang on a second. Uh, don't quote me on that. Actually. It was, it was raining enough that I imagined that they couldn't have fly, flown them, but I did clear up, but I, you know, who knows what, what goes on. So maybe they didn't cancel. If anybody's in Brooklyn who I, you know, who knows about it, let me know. But yeah. So it's actually, it was quiet. I, you know, I, I didn't, I did stay up past midnight cause that's just my usual MO.

So it's like, but yeah. Yeah, but other than that, not much has been going on here. No, it's been, been pretty quiet. So yeah, I did, uh, I did get another email from B&H telling me that the XM5 is, we don't know when it's going to be coming through. Remember I told you I ordered that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's not going to come through for a while. Not like that makes a big deal, but, uh, I've been hearing more about that camera.

So I've been kind of itching for it, but, uh. More good? Like. Yeah. No, more good. More good. Especially. A prelate little thing. I just wish it had an EBS. EVF, yeah. Yeah, well, I've got cameras. I mean, I've got cameras that have EVFs. Well, so all mine are, too. Yeah. Oh, wait, before I forget, sorry. I wanted to, hang on a second. Where's my notes here? Acknowledge a listener? I want to acknowledge a listener. John Wayne bought us a coffee.

He's supported us before. I'm assuming I'm pronouncing your name correctly, John, right? I think so. I think it's, I think you're right. He's not the, anyway, but I'm going to read you what he wrote us. Yeah. New Year's. He sent us, he bought us a coffee. He goes, thanks for a great podcast guys. You really strike the best tone for a photographer's podcast. It's like meeting up for a coffee with mates before carrying on shooting.

Happy new year to you both from a reassuringly wet and windy England. So John, thank you so much. And yeah, happy new year to you. Yeah. It was, it was wet and windy in New York too. January 1st. So yeah. But thanks a lot for that. That's it. You know, when we get a, when we get a, someone saying that to us about the show, then it really makes me realize that I feel like I'm doing the right thing. Like we're doing the right thing.

Like, you know, so we're just kind of how I always wanted the show to be like, you know, like we're just, you know, couple of guys talking about stuff and people like to listen to us or not, you know, they yeah i i i'm sure.

I i wish we could i like that i like that because it's you know my friends and beers and cameras and all that it's all like it's a gathering point where people like-minded people get together and talk about things and and it's it's good it reinforces us in our hobby and it, actually it's sort of germane to our subject today too you know things that we do to keep the the fires burning in terms of our creativity and and that sort of thing yeah well

i can go right into that since i started talking about i haven't been doing much well just to go into i you know i cleared off i cleared off a card on one of my cameras and i realized i had not I cleared it off since like September or something like that. And I did that before the, before the new year, the turn of the new year. And which is something, you know, if any of my students are listening to this, don't, don't do that. Clear your camera off. Do as I say, not as I do.

But I also, I cleared, I cleared the card off and I reformatted it. And this is on my, on the X100 VI.

And I have not put a single shot on it since I cleared the camera off and that's what we're almost a couple of weeks into the into the new year plus I haven't picked up another camera I mean the only pictures I've been taking really with my phone because it's the it's what I've been carrying with me around but I haven't really done any anything yet I don't know if it's if it's a malaise or just a, you know, I don't know, a blah,

but it's like, you know, I've got all these cameras, they're sitting around. I don't know why I'm not picking up. Part of it is the weather. You know, if it's freezing out, I'm really not in the mood to put a camera to my face or carry it around my neck or something like that. And it's just a, plus it's been cold here. I mean, not the same kind of cold that you have, but cold, cold for us. Yeah. Well, I've been taking the.

Go ahead. sorry no i've been taking the dog for a walk every day right so and i have the phone with me and i've been taking pictures of the trees like i was saying before and and it's been i mean my output has been slow but supplementing it a little bit with this this weekend i went into my lightroom catalog and did some more editing i put out a rodeo another rodeo picture and a couple of other things so. I don't feel guilty about it or anything like that. No, I don't either.

But I wanted to talk about it a little bit. Just a little bit connected to Sean Tucker came out with video today, I believe. Today or yesterday, I'm not sure. And the title of it is When You Feel Like Giving Up. And not that I'm thinking of giving up, but there was some sort of cross, you know, feelings in his discussion about this idea of. You know, when you really feel like throwing in the towel, he was saying.

And I think he made that deliberately or made this video deliberately at this time of year, because I think a lot of us are maybe feeling in the same way, maybe not giving up, but just, I don't want to say, I don't want to say dragging our ass around or something like that, but maybe a combination of both and stuff like that. So I kind of wanted to say like, you know, now that the, now that the holidays are over and we've, we spent all our money.

We, you know, we, we binged us the light, you know, that last week for those of us who can write off the equipment on taxes, how many lenses and cameras did you buy? Okay. But like now that that's over now, what do we do? Right.

What is, what is, what do we do now in this long month of January? What, what, what are the, what are the rituals? What are the routines that we can do to, to get back into something, or at least not disconnect entirely from, from this, from photography.

And I mean, one of the things that Sean talked about, and I'll put the link in, in the show notes so you can watch the video on the, you can watch, I think you can watch it on our website, but one of the things he was talking about was, you know, uh,

reconnecting with our old work. Right. And you and I have talked about this a zillion times, but one of the things when he said that, uh, one of the things I've been doing, I know I've been telling everybody that I've like, I'm back into, I'm, I'm writing a daily journal, right. With a pen, right. With a, you know, an actual pen and paper and pad and stuff. This is not my photo journal. This is like a regular journal.

And I, I, I actually started like intensely journaling journaling last year, roughly last year, excuse me, 2023, December of 2023. So I only have, I've got like maybe four or five finished journals from there. I go through them pretty fast, you know? And so I've got a lot of books for 2024, but I decided to go back and read, what did I write a year ago, you know, in my journal.

And it was interesting to, to just sort of to see where I've been and where I've come from and what was going on in my mind back then and comparing it to now. And Sean was talking about that in the same way with like doing our, you know, looking at our photographs, like to see, maybe not in relationship to trying to figure out what to do, but if you were thinking about giving up, like, look at where you, where you were and where you are.

But the connection I made, and I thought about this for a minute, for me reading my journal, let's go back for a second when i'm writing a journal when i'm doing my pages today right i'm writing them i'm not writing them for my future self right i'm writing for what's going on for me now and what are my thoughts now and all this stuff right but when i when i would go back and read from a year ago or even like six months ago or something like that it's interesting to read.

A, a, an entry that was for me back then, but speaks to me now. I'm not sure I can make that any, I don't know if I can, if that makes any sense. Like, yeah. I'm reading my voice that was existing in my thought process six months ago or a year ago, but there's a, there's a message in that to me today. So even though like today I'm writing for myself today, I know like in six months or in a year, there's a good chance that my voice today will speak to my future self.

And so I was wondering about that in terms of photography with our photographs. Like when he was talking about looking back at your pictures, I mean, yeah, He was, he was talking in regards to looking back and seeing your progress. And I think that's, that's great because we, you know, in, in the context of his video, it makes sense. But I wanted to throw that out here, maybe even just to you about when you're taking pictures, right?

You're in the moment, you're taking pictures today of what's going on, but are you somehow communicating with your future self through your pictures? Like, like when you're looking back at your photographs now, you know, in, in a similar way, I mean, I might be just sort of, you know, making this weird connection between writing and, and, and photography, but I don't see. It's a creative act. I don't know why not. It's a creative act. Yeah.

Yeah. And you're doing it for yourself, you know? Yeah. So. But for me, well, photography is my art. So I would, I look at it in terms of my progression, like definitely what, what Sean was saying. And I see, it reinforces my kind of faith in my process of this is what I was doing. I don't do this so much anymore. And what I see that's, I don't know, wrong or a little off from my older work, particularly this stuff that's five, eight years old now,

how I've moved away from that. And I take some solace in the fact that I am progressing and that feels good. And that's an inspiration. So that's, that's definitely part of it. And the further back I go, the less likely I'm going to revisit or find a frame that didn't really speak to me then, but speaks to me now that those older pictures, none of them really speak to me so much. Really? They did once upon a time. They don't so much anymore.

Uh well that's interesting so you're saying you're saying that you're getting less of a message from your past through your pictures some further back i go the less i see yeah yeah and i can tell you and i can tell you what it was kind of going through my mind for some of those like i remember walking down the street like i'm i think i'm pretty good at in my head at recreating the time when i was shooting really a lot of that was with with mark our our brother in light mark ryerson who

we know we walked up and down those streets a lot and 2015 16 17 18 and so there's a lot of those pictures were taken during those photo walks and so that was that was a fun thing it was another ritual was our noon hour walks around downtown calgary that was uh another thing and and an opportunity to create new work so that's good. Yeah, but I guess what I'm saying is that this, there, you're, are there any lessons that you're learning from your past self other than like your progress?

I mean, one would hope you're making progress, right? Cause that's kind of what we're all doing. Right. So, well, actually maybe define progress because, you know, that's kind of what I'm trying to get at here a little bit. Like what, what is the. You want me to define progress? Yeah, for yourself. What is that? Oh, so the work is more interesting, artistic, meaningful, better executed.

That for me, that's all progress. Okay. Even when I go to a more of a simplistic or abstract image, I want to think that my later work is more rich and that I'm not spending a lot of time chasing after subject matter that doesn't have any real longer-term meaning or interest for me. So that's big because it helps me not waste so much time now when I'm doing a photo walk or whatever. I know to walk by this thing that might be interesting, but actually it isn't.

And I like that. So that my head can be more clear for shooting. Do you have any, and I'm just probably asking for you to think about something off the top of your head right now, but is, have you ever come across a photograph from the past that spoke to you in a, in a different way in your present time? Maybe not now, but like, you know, like you've had that, you know, uh. Yeah. Buildings that no longer exist. Oh, really?

Those. Yeah. So there was a, an old hotel that's been here since the turn of the last century and, the, I've forgotten, I've forgotten the name of it now. It's completely demolished in my mind. Anyway, so I had a picture of it that I took with my X20 in 2014 and it was, it was demolished I think eight months or something after that. And so it's sort of like, it's a ghost. I like that. I like that kind of thing with my older work, stuff that doesn't

exist. And also the passage of time, like that has a meaning for me too. Like, I think you and I have talked about, we like time travel stories, you know, back to the future and all that kind of stuff. And sort of, oh, this, this scenario that I get, it's like that with all photographs, of course, but it's a little more jarring when it's a whole building or of a view of downtown that you can't see anymore because it's obscured by a new building, for instance, or something like that.

So in terms of past work that speaks to me, that would, that would be it. In terms of kind of saying something to my artistic self, I don't know that I, I feel that when I go back through. What about you? You see, when you go back to your catalog? You know, that's a really good question. I mean, when I go back and look, a bulk of my work is stuff, is commercial kind of oriented stuff, you know?

And the, I don't know, there's almost like a, there's almost like a regret or something like that from it, like the missed opportunities that I realized that I, like I bypassed when I was, was only thinking about work is like, oh, well, how am I going to make money from it?

And, and so that, I don't know if that's a speaking to me, like, you know, to the future self kind of thing in terms of like, you know, I mean, regret isn't, I'm trying to not to be i don't beat myself up about it it's just like damn you know i had these opportunities like i was you know especially like when i was in you know in a different country or something like that and i look back at some of the stuff i was looking back at some stuff that i scanned on my like scanned

you know that re-photographed on uh from my slides that i did my um x t whatever one of my fuji cameras and so because all my the bulk of my stuff i'm looking at them now it's like five or six, actually one, two, three, four, five, all the boxes behind me are full of slides. And every now and then I go through a box and I start going through them. And a lot of them, I don't have the memory that you have. Yeah, but you shot a whole lot more than I did. I'm really only talking about

10 years. You're talking about 30. Yeah, I know. It's a while of stuff. And so I can't quite get to the. What that past Antonio is trying to tell me in the future. But, you know, if I was to make it up, maybe I would say like really, you know, pay more attention to stuff. Don't get so, don't get so, what's the word? Blinded by having blinders on, like so focused on one thing. Open up to a lot of different things.

And I think I'm still learning that. I think I'm, I'm still trying to learn how to not be overly repetitive and like focused only on one thing and, and, and, and try to open up to different subjects and stuff. So, I mean, that's kind of what I can learn from, you know, from my, my past self and stuff like that. So, but I was just wondering if it, if it had any kind of correlation with, with writing, like does the photography, it's not exact, but does do the pictures I take?

Maybe with more personal work, there might be more of a voice. But I don't always tend to look back at my personal stuff as much. I don't know. It's interesting. Yeah. The lion's share of mine is personal. And I think the biggest observation is just simply the passage of time. What's different? The kind of nostalgia, the whatever, longing for a simpler time when I was single and no kids or whatever. Or maybe I'll feel that more when I go through my black and white negatives from the 80s and 90s.

Like that might be, you know, my negative catalog, 88, 89, 90s, pretty thick.

I should go through that and just see. Even just looking through them, like I don't need to necessarily scan them or anything. No. Because I did keep development notes in my observations of, you know, the quality of the shooting and the processing. And those, those, those notes definitely bring things back. Yeah. Yeah. The fewest, the fewest characters I can possibly write, mostly in anger because of my mistakes, but. Underexposed. Boo. Yeah. Undereveloped. Boo.

Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So we've crossed over into this new year. What are, what are the things that.

Don't know what what are the things that you do to sort of keep yourself grounded in in in the photography like you know let's talk about rituals or routines or something like that what what's the what's the thing that can keep you going i subscribe to photography podcasts i subscribe to photography youtube videos which are like little gems you know i see see the guys from petapixel do their thing and they're local it's you know kristin jordan i know those guys

so that's fun and they have an international audience which is also fun and and even if i'm not interested in in a particular model it's interesting to see what else is going on in terms of the the the technical geeky equipment kind of thing you know i have my photo books i I have a kind of a rotation of photo books.

If I don't buy one, I'll buy a magazine, and that'll sit beside my easy chair, and I'll go through those when there's a commercial on or there's some TV show that's not interesting to watch. Sometimes on Saturday morning, I'll get a couple of photo books or whatever, and if my wife's out shopping and the house is quiet and I have the need to walk the dog, then I'll go through a photo book or a magazine and just kind of stay in the moment there. I mean, there's a lot that I do.

I mean, I'm always trying to think photographically all the time because it has some real meaning for me. And we talked ad nauseum about my plans for my trip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And those are important to me too. So this Thursday we have got beers and cameras. I commiserate with those good folks. And we talk about photography or not. It's just a group of people that I like that have interest in things. And there's, there's a lot that I do even in a day that's specific to photography.

Really? Wow. Okay. Good for you. Because I feel like I'm way behind on this. The closest I've gotten to do anything really of significance was I said last couple episodes ago, I bought, I bought Gordon Park's book. Now I'm already forgetting where I bought that from. And I did in my local bookshop, which is strange to have a local bookshop in my neighborhood, it's really kind of a nice, cute little place, but they were a buy local.

Yeah. Yeah. They, they had a Gary Winogrand book in the, in the front window and it was the book on his color work. And I walked by it a couple of times and I was like, you know what? I think I have to get that. And I finally walked in there and I, and I bought it was 90 bucks. I was like, yowch. Yeah. But. I was fine because I supported them, but I still haven't really looked through it. In fact, I don't even know where, I don't even know where it is.

It's not in my, it's not in my office right now. It must be in my, my living room someplace. So I skimmed through it a bit. I mean, you know, how could I not skim through it? But I didn't spend any time really, you know, going through it and doing sort of a, you know, dive in the work and stuff like that. Although I remember seeing a lot of the color work when it was, a lot of the stuff was in the show that was at the Brooklyn Museum a bunch of years ago.

So it's not necessarily new the book is really nicely printed though it's like a you know again books we know that books are a sort of an art form unto themselves so that becomes really nice but but yeah i haven't you know you know i'm looking at a lot of excuses kind of thing like you know i want to do some writing and then my spending time my girlfriend from nebraska came and did a second visit i think i probably talked about it the last show legit though that's like Like that's

the best reason ever not to do anything. It's a relationship. Yeah, it is. And even then I brought my camera with me and I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven't even processed them yet. I sort of just put them in Lightroom. And so, I don't know. Like I've gotten into this daily routine now where I'm not bringing my camera with me. And when I go out to breakfast or do a walk afterwards. And I don't want to say I'm in a funk because I don't feel like a funk.

You know, because you know what a funk feels like. that you're not, yeah. Yeah, I, my photography is, is just not a priority now, which is really interesting. I am doing, you know, teaching and stuff like that. And I got, I got some classes and stuff to, to get up and running. I do take my phone with me. So it's not that I'm not taking pictures and I don't want to say the phone is not a legitimate camera, but you know what I mean? It's like, it's what I've got with me.

It's not, you know, not a deliberate going out and photographing thing. It's just like, I happen to have a camera with me and it's a, and it's a phone. Actually, I've actually liked some of the pictures that I've taken with my phone. But anyway, in our, in our, um, in our discord group, in our unusual collective, I have been posting some older pictures that have been sort of sitting around on my, my phone for a while. They were shot with multiple different cameras. And so I, you know.

I was, it was kind of fun going through those older pictures and saying, oh you know they've been sitting around for a while let me see what what what how they're speaking to me now and it was kind of fun to put those up and stuff but yeah i haven't you know and actually speaking of that you know our group has been kind of quiet too i mean i wonder if that's not blaming anybody but like i'm wondering if if like we're not the only ones in sort of a in a

in a photo lull as it were it could be it could be i mean uh i mean certainly in this part of the this part of the world things certainly slow down um you know you're busy with with things and new years and new budgets at work and things like that and getting things spun up. Music. Finding inspiration in, in, in a time like this, like tell me, and I mean, is it, is it really like just looking at books and stuff like that?

Or is there just, is there some other way to get fired up a little bit, right?

Not fired up, but just, you know, get some of that mojo back, you know, stuff I happen to see, like, you know, cinematography and movies has been, you know, it's been a few movies the last couple of years and you know the the part two of dune and oh yeah these these you know that have these things that just make you think cinematically i think there's some inspiration to be taken by that for me and for the me in the temperate zone here the changing of the seasons like i'm not really any

kind of nature photographer but i sure take a lot of pictures of trees this time of year because i see them every day and you know it's it's you know mixed mixed results and mixed success but you know i i find there was a picture i took it's gonna be 10 years ago now of a shooting up an elm tree and the the boughs and twigs and everything going up into the sky I look just like a artery on a heart. In fact, I called the picture artery because of the kind of the parallel of natural structures.

You know, this tree looking like, you know, the arteries and veins around an organ almost. You know, you're finding patterns in things, and it doesn't even necessarily mean to be photographic or whatever, or the Fibonacci sequence in a pineapple or whatever it is. You know, all these little things that come into your head when you're just looking at things.

And yeah and then i go up to my room or we were we were cleaning up the house this weekend and you know it was dusting off in our closet or whatever and found uh the twin lens we're talking what the twin lens is my son and i started shooting with and like it's an opportunity to think about what i'm going to do with it this year and that sort of thing you know just. I think I'd take it with me to the Handhill Stampede, yeah, and do some like more formal portraits, black and white.

Yeah. I did get pictures of portrait, a very brief portrait session with a rodeo clown. They're the guys that jump around the bulls when they kind of get out of control or whatever.

He was very kind and he was one of our friend Shane Balkovich's subjects as well.

He went to South Dakota to sit for Shane, so I recognized him and asked him if he'd come over so I got pictures of him which I haven't posted anywhere yet but I'd like to do if he's going to work that rodeo again this year then I'd be happy to try and get more pictures from him that sort of thing so for me the rituals really are more about, planning and thinking about things or what I'm going to do It's very self-centered.

Are there rituals that keep you sort of grounded in it? Like the sort of touchstones that you can keep coming back to? And when you think you're kind of... I don't know, maybe moving off the path or something like that, you get back to a ritual. Yeah. Yeah. Taking my gear out of my bag and cleaning it and making sure the batteries are charged and shooting some air film, you know, pretending a little bit, you know, like a little kid with his toys, I think.

That recharges my batteries pretty quickly because then I'm like thinking about, you know, shooting and making the camera feel as comfortable in my hand as possible.

That's interesting. So it's almost like, you know, if you're a collector of something every now and then you sit in your room with your box of whatever you collect and you open it up and you take it out, you look at it and, and, and suddenly you're, you're remembering why, oh, why do I, this is why I like this stuff, you know, and, and photography has a whole bunch of that associated with the books.

There's a lot of that, and it's the kind of love of the gear, which I'm happy to talk about when we're sitting doing nothing and not shooting. But when we're shooting, it is like, I don't think of the gear at all other than have I got the right lens? Is our thing set up the way they are? And that's all, everything's in my head.

Right. And then that's a whole other thing. That's that flow state and all that kind of stuff, which is completely different experience than sitting at your dining room table, you know, with the lens, you know, the lens closed. Cleaner cleaning your lens off. That's interesting. I probably should be doing that because I tend to.

I use my stuff and then I put it away, but sometimes I leave it out or sitting in a bag and like, I don't really like, I take care of it, but I don't tend to it, tend to it. And as you're saying that, I'm thinking like, yeah, geez, every time I've like put on a lens, a new lens on my camera or have combined a lens and a camera that I haven't done before, I suddenly get a little spark of something. Like what's, oh, this, here's the potential of something, you know?

And if in my house, like, you know, I'll try to grab a shot of my cat and see what it looks like because that's the subject matter. That's a ritual you have. You get a new lens, you get the new Viltrox or whatever. And Opie is the first image. Like, I think that's one of your rituals, right? Yeah, that's true. Are those whiskers in focus? Are they in focus? Yeah. I do have another lens coming in on Thursday. I have a lens coming actually in the next week or so. Yeah, that's true,

true. I saw, what is it called? Bright Lens? Is that the name of the company? Bright Lens? I don't know that one. I think so. Anyway, bright is- Sounds like something that would be made of a plastic.

It's unfortunately one of those things i saw on youtube and there's a couple of reviews on it and i was like it was a it's an it's a 35 millimeter 0.95 but has very very little distortion in it and very little vignetting and it was less than 200 and i was like okay and it's silver so it'd be interesting to you know and that's going to come in thursday and that's kind of in a way that's kind of the shiny thing that like, oh, look, a shiny thing and I can get it.

And, and, but I think that also does spark a little bit of interest back into, into the thing. And, and yeah, you know, that graph might be, I get interested and then I puts it on the shelf and then the interest dies down again. But I, I like, I like, I mean, lenses are my thing. I mean, I happen to really love lenses once I just got a big, like Thermador there in your room. Yeah. I got it behind me. Yep. At least they're at a good low humidity setting and stuff like that.

So I do take care of them. But... You know, to have something other than gear to like, you know, get, get that interest peaked up again. I don't know, books, gear, what am I going to photograph? I mean, I don't really think of this year as like, okay, well this year I'm going to do, you know, I don't do resolutions. I mean, photography resolutions or like that, cause that that's meaningless.

I guess the only thing I would say in that case is like, maybe as I go see as more photo shows, you know, to try to just get some more, I mean, first to get out into the world a little bit more, and then also to see how photographers want to display their work. And, you know, you know, it's always wonderful to see prints, you know, to see really nice prints. I really wish, I really wish that, that the burned and Hilla Besher show was back. I really want to go see that again.

That was such a good show, but. I lent my, uh, catalog book, the book to a friend and he's still going through it. Oh, really? He's like kind of an engineer type and he's always really enjoying it. Just the shape of things, you know? Yeah. Well, all right. What else was I going to say? So you talked about like routines and rituals. What, what's, what else can you think? I mean, what about support? Like, you know, a support, our, our, our support group, right?

Yeah. Finding like-minded, like-minded people. One of the things that I started a while back and I just haven't followed through with this was my version of what you guys are doing with your beers and cameras. I did coffees and cameras and, you know, some meat at the coffee shop. And I have never, I haven't set up, we only had one meeting and I haven't set up anything after that.

And again, it's just sort of the circling of the wagons kind of thing a little bit where, you know, it's not the first thing in my mind, but you know, you've got your beers and cameras. So what is, what is, what is that doing for you in, in, in dry spells and stuff? I mean, I know you said you don't always talk about photography, but.

Yeah. It's a, for me, I'm an IT guy and I don't have a lot of friends outside of.

Work and it's just it does a whole bunch of things actually socially it gets me out dealing with people that's and just go to my home and cooped up and watch tv and go to bed i have something to look forward to every couple of weeks to get out with people and the environment and and you know a positive a positive social experience with people that i that i like very much and we share observations on photography and whatever and actually

sometimes we don't really speak about photography we just talk about our personal lives and so on and that's fine too but it's it's.

We're pretty careful about making sure that the thing it keeps going on even if they're just like i mean if there may be one or two or three of us out of the six or seven you know we may cancel it but we've been pretty good about making sure that we're all we're all free and that we have that every two weeks cadence like you're like our show here right it's same thing you know you make sure you keep up you keep the cadence up so that we can all plan ahead and meet so there's

some real value there so it's a social thing it's yeah it's a photography thing uh it's another place to share observations about photography and and we're in different places and we our interactions with photography are different one of us is into like the the like the associations and clubs she organizes.

You know, events for the clubs and that can, I've forgotten the name of the organization that she represents, but, and it's, you know, putting together meetings and having speakers come in and all that kind of stuff. She's sort of on that, on that line. One of the, one of the other guys in our group is, has been started to, he's recently retired and he's kind of traveling the world now. And so his experience of photography is his travel now.

And he's got a, he's got a Canon R5, I think the first generation one and everyone, and, and, and, you know, it's a great camera and it's interesting and, and sure the work he's creating a lot. I don't think I've seen much of the work he's done from his, his vacation pictures, but you know, that's how he finds fulfillment. And one guy travels around the continent on a motorbike and he takes pictures when he's out doing that.

And so we're all in different places and then there's me with my crazy black and white pictures and that sort of thing. So we all come and we all, it's good to see that diversity in us, I think. And it's just, you know, it's a lot of fun and valuable to have that interaction with people and not just on the web. I think that's another thing too. It's not just, you know, back and forth in a forum. There's actual, we're meeting people and chatting and making faces and that

sort of thing. It's a more... More OG, more, you know. Yeah, yeah. You know, I have that experience when I'm teaching. I had my first class of the year last week, and it was just my introduction to digital photography class, which, you know, I've turned on and made it its own thing, which I'm really enjoying. I had a really interesting experience, actually. While I was during the class, I had, that's what I describe it, was an out-of-body experience.

Which yeah well no I mean I wasn't like floating above myself but what was going on was I was I was as I was talking and I've got my my I hate to say spiel I don't want to belittle it but I've got my thing my script my thing that I do and it's really good and I really like it and as I was as I was saying something I had a moment where I was able to listen to what I was saying I was like that's really interesting you're really you're doing this well like i

was having a dialogue with myself yeah while i was talking and and i wasn't sort of spacing out in the real world i i was doing my regular thing but another part of my brain was being very observant as to what was going on and i was like that's really interesting like i i noticed it enough that it's that it that you know i sort of wrote it down and i was paying attention to it and i was like Like, and I've never had an experience like that before.

And part of me thinks that it's coming from the fact that I know what I'm doing, that, that this is my thing that I like to do. And teaching is my, my way to meet new people and, and, and get excited about photography and then actually get people excited about photography. People who come in thinking they're going to learn. Well, the intro to digital photography sounds very much like, okay, well, I'm going to learn.

But I make sure it's not. I make sure it's a little bit more than that and I enjoy it and they, they seem to enjoy it too. So anyway, it was, I just, I wanted to mention it for, for no other reason than it was something I noticed and, and it was a very strange experience to be able to sort of watch myself like, like, like an audience member, you know, like listening to what I was doing.

It kind of reminds me of what some Broadway actors who are doing like eight shows a week, you know, they can, they can emote and do their whole. You know, doing their acting thing on the boards and their mind is elsewhere. They're like, what am I going to, where am I going to go for dinner? Maybe that's a, maybe that's part, maybe that's not too dissimilar actually, because, and again, I, I remember, I'm, I can't remember if I mentioned this in the last show, but.

Lately I've been getting, which is very strange. I've been getting applause from the, from the class when the class was done. Which, which it is great. I, it means a lot of things. First of all, I mean, there is a bit of the ego thing, which is nice, but I'm not there to get applause. I'm really there to, to get them excited about photography. And so what, when, when they do that at the end, and it's been universal now, it's been in every class that I've done. And it's not like it's like I'm,

I'm bowing and waiting for applause. It's just, it, it occurs naturally. It does mean that I'm doing like something that I know I should be doing. But anyway, that's my, that's kind of my socialization, you know, in some way. I don't, you know, I haven't really fired up the cameras and coffee group as much lately. And, and it would really be kind of like, you know, just getting on the horn and saying, Hey, can we just meet at the coffee shop and talk again?

You know but it's just i haven't done that and and like i said our group has been a little quiet online so there's there's not a lot of that but where was i going with this i just lost my train of thought of course i did but just things to stay grounded i thought yeah well yeah let's stay grounded and what was interesting was that i the class that i was having it's really supposed we capped at 15 people and there was 17 people signed up for it, which was,

I was a little annoyed by that because there's, if there's too many people in the class and I can't, I have a harder time answering individual questions, you know, cause there's too many people, but usually nobody ever, not everybody shows up. So that's not a problem, but, but 12 people showed up and that was the, like, like to have that many people out of 17, you know, usually half the people show up or something like that. But to have that many people show, I think it was actually maybe,

no, excuse me. I think it was 13 people showed up 13 altogether. Yeah. Which was quite a group of people in the room that, that I'm in. And that made it even more, you know, there was a bit of an excitement, but you know, I've got that as a standard. That's, that's like these little droplets that happen once or twice a month so far in my schedule. And I mean, I'm looking to get other classes and other places, but you know, those have those little moments.

They, they, they light me up. They get me my energy again, but yeah. And the shiny objects, the new lenses and stuff like that. But I think this idea of the ritual, like what you're talking about, like getting out and like sitting there, you know, like maybe organizing my books better, right. By size or getting them, you know, organized, like doing, you know, it's, it's shuffling stuff around, right. But it's keeping my hands in the world that I choose to be in, right?

So, you know, take the cameras out, check the batteries, make sure all the settings are right, get them all set up, make sure the cards are cleaned out, you know. All the stuff I tell students to do. Well, my bag is ready to go at all times, right? Like, if I need to leave to go out, if, you know, it's the cub reporter, you know, there's something going on over there.

There's a car accident over there. You know, I can just grab my bag and go and, you know, that would have said, I don't know where I got that from, but it's, it's ready to go. And I go on my little vacation here in a, in a week and a half, like I just, I just picked the bag up and go, it's ready to go. In a week and a half, you're going to where? To Florida. I'm going to Daytona beach, Florida to see a auto race and photograph it as much as I can.

Okay. What's the, what's the race? Is the 500? It's no, it is the, the 24 hours of Daytona. It is a sports car. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Starts at Saturday at two 30 in the afternoon or four 30 in the afternoon and finishes 24 hours later. So that's the thing. Maybe, you know, also finding, finding events and stuff to go and, and photograph. I mean, I know you're traveling for that, but that sounds like a, an interest of boy.

Like if, like if that drone show happened on New Year's Eve and it didn't rain, like what would it have been like for me to go to park with my camera on a tripod and do like long exposures and stuff, you know? So, okay. There's always next year. There's always next year.

Yeah. Or maybe sometime in the summer, maybe they'll, you know, maybe they'll, you know, have these shows ongoing because they're worried about, you know, brush fires and stuff. So. Yeah. So let's, let's wrap it up. What would be, what would be, I'm now visited by a cat. Oh, no, he's just, he just hit the microphone. Oh yeah. Well, it's, it's better to have him here than having him screaming from far down. But you know, this is a show that we've, we do at our house.

So we're going to hear laundry and we're going to hear sirens and we're going to hear cats. So anyway, let's just wrap this up in a sense of like what, oh, let me see. I'm just looking at my list here of stuff. what, what would be not as a resolution, but what would be like old habits, like to change and experiment with new methods? What, what would you like say to that?

Like, you know, here's a new year, here's an, you know, it's a symbolic, you know, new thing, which we've sort of imposed on ourselves as humans. Like, okay, well, January 1st in the Western hemisphere, we're going to do this whole new stuff.

So what like old habits and new experiments would you think would be worth you know if someone like me was coming up to you and saying like you know hey i'm kind of stuck and you know what what are the things that i can do differently and this is not seinfeld where we're saying doing the opposite right although there's something there's something to be said for doing the opposite but well no just, just on a tangent the old when the kids were little we used to watch spongebob

squarepants and they had the opposite day and, and, and, and SpongeBob's friend, Patrick, it was a starfish. He, he got that SpongeBob got the knock on the door and it was Patrick and he said, oh, it's opposite day. Just don't do anything that you would normally do or whatever. And so Patrick decided to stop breathing. No, no, no. We're not quite that literal. It's not quite, you know, you don't have to, You don't have to go there. And someone had asked me actually in the...

In our Unusual Collective, on my blog post about Mexico, someone recently put in a question about that they feel that they were in a slump. And I always say, just find something. What are you thinking of right now? What is it that you're interested in, even in the slightest? Oh, cars. Okay. Let's go out and shoot some cars. And you do that. And if it doesn't work, then what's the next thing? Like, there's always something. Like I don't, I've, in my mind, it never really ends.

If you need to take a break, take a break and don't feel bad about it. It, for me, it will, it would always come back. And then I have, again, I have these annual things that I do every year that I can plan for that. I think that helps a lot and it helps sharpen your ability or abilities and we are whatever your sensibilities on what to do when you're covering these events, I suppose.

But if you're in a slump and you you don't have any direction i just say go just do something. Persevere and you know persevere and don't give up you know it's jingoistic you know dribble i suppose but it's really true you can't create work if you don't go out you know if you don't go out yeah yeah and i always think of ralph gibson and his his point of departure you're not just going to go out and stand by the, by the drug store, hoping something will happen, go out with a bit of a purpose.

And, and you'll, you'll, maybe the pictures will suck at first and they probably will, but do you need to move on? You look at them and say, what's working and what isn't? And just start down a different path, really big on that. One of the things that I do in my classes, and I took it from some, somebody's photography book was that we had a whole bunch of prompts and I, you know, I put it up on the screen and I say, screenshot this. And it's basically things like, you know, make something big,

look small, make something ugly, look beautiful. You know? And I tell them these are all, you know, if you think of them like journal prompts, they're photography prompts and everybody, everybody whips their camera and they take a picture of the screen, even though I think it's in their handout as well, but they all, they actually all, that's like a one universal thing. When I, when I put that up and it's usually near the end of the class, everybody takes a picture of it.

And, and I've never actually heard back from any of the students. I mean, do give them my email address, but, uh, like, I always wonder if anybody's actually like put that on their phone or like decided, okay, I'm going to try to figure out, you know, take, look at the, look at the, you know, photograph a shadow or, you know, make something beautiful look ugly, you know, and, and how, how did they translate those prompts? And.

I think there's something good about that. Cause you know, in terms of going back to writing, you know, sometimes I sit there with my, my journal and it's funny. I'll, I'll start my journal sometimes writing about what I'm, what I'm writing with. Like I'll talk about the pens and the paper. And it's sort of like, I don't know if you ever remember the honeymooners. Oh yeah.

When there was one episode where, where I think they were Ralph, they were going to go on a music show and, and Norton was always playing Swanee River ahead of any song that he played. And, and Ralph says, why do you play that all the time? I was like, it's just for me to warm up, you know? And I was thinking the same thing with my, with my journal writing.

It's like for me to warm up to writing, I, I sometimes I'm writing how I like the pen and the nib and the ink and the paper and, and all that stuff.

And I can write like a page and a half about that until I get to the thing that i'm wanting to write about it just loosens my brain up so you know the photographic version of that i don't know what that is you know maybe it's going through the gear in your bag it's going it's the same thing yeah going through the gear and and then and then maybe even picking a prompt or something like that instead of just like okay well i like the idea of prompts yeah that's good do you yeah let me actually

put those in the show notes that i got but they're not my original. I won't put them in the show notes if I can't find the source that I grabbed them from. I grabbed them from a photo book, so I don't want to give them without the proper acknowledgments. Attribution, yeah. Yeah, so, but those kind of things are very helpful. I mean, I even carry a deck of cards with me. This is basically for the class. It's like a deck of cards that is also prompts.

It's from, I can't remember the photographer's name on it. And he's got his pictures on the front, and then he talks about the prompt on the back, like photographing reflection. Then it describes about what it's like to do a reflection. And it's funny because I, I offer these to my students and I've like never really done it for myself. And, and I know that in this time.

For me, at least this is not always a seasonal thing, but it feels like for this season, I really got to push myself to do something photographic. And I have no, you know, no consequences if I don't do something photographic other than just getting rusty and whatnot. But to me, this is where the time is now. I mean, we're only just the beginning of January-ish and we've got a couple more months of, you know, cold and a couple more months until we get to February.

Sorry, because I know that January seems to last forever. So we've got a couple more months until February, and then we have February and then March. And I don't want to go through that much time not getting new cameras and new photographs made and stuff like that, regardless of how cold it is or something like that. If I could go and photograph my phone, then I could easily bring my camera with me and take some pictures with it.

So are you bringing in hipstamatic and do like make it look like a tintype or whatever i like yeah yeah or just play with things yeah taking out my my one of my instant cameras i mean i bought a whole bunch of of of fuji instax film a little small little small instax the two by three films in anticipation for holiday photographing and i didn't use i didn't use barely any of it and so you know there's a good opportunity there to use

that up and create artifacts and stuff like that i just know that for me now i you know i'm like i said i don't think i'm in a in a in a in a funk, but i could see this leading to a funk you know i could see like stagnation leading to, not wanting to it's easy it's sort of just you know sitting in a chair all day like i don't feel like doing i'll do it tomorrow well you've got train stations and museums and stuff too that you like to walk around you can get my ass out there right.

Actually, I do have to go to the city this week because I have to actually return something. And when I go in, my plan is to, like, I'm not just going to go to the city and return a shirt and get a new one and figure I'm going to be there. So I might as well do something. I just haven't figured out what that something is. And it just depends on where I'm going to go. So anyway, that's a good opportunity. You already got the skaters on Rockefeller

Plaza though, right? You already did the touristy things. The skaters. Well, you know, I did try to take pictures during the holiday and it was just too crazy and I was too distracted with my girlfriend here in town. So I couldn't be two brains there. It was a little hard to do the street shots and stuff like that. I think I'd have to go now and do it by myself, which, you know, I got a whole week. So we will tune into this channel again. Sounds good.

Yeah, I do think just that I'll end on this, but I do think like the last bunch of stuff I shot, I think I posted it up on, uh, in our group. I was getting very, I was getting kind of tickled by it. Like I was like, Ooh, and like I said, some of the shots reminded me of kind of the stuff that you would do. Oh yeah. That went well. I said you, you were looking to me, it had energy like Melissa O'Shaughnessy actually, which is pretty.

Which thank you for that. Yeah, but, but I'm looking at it thinking of you, but it's just, it's just okay. I mean, I, you know, if you want to see her and me, that's great. And I can see you and me. That's also, that's also great. But it was, it was nice to have those influences there and it was like, okay, you know, that's, that's, uh, you know, you said, but you said something like I'm getting a little closer to people or something like that. And I said, I'm sensing closer proximity. Yep.

So anyway, that might be on the agenda. So I only did this episode today so that I could get some energy from you. Okay. Well, you got to do that. I mean, add that to the list. Do a podcast on this. So anyway, we got through routines, rituals, ideas. I think we covered what we wanted to cover. Was there anything else that we'd leave out? Nope. Yep. Sounds good. All righty. All right. Well, then let's call that a wrap. Where are we finding you in this new world here?

You can find me on Vero Twitter and Blue Sky at WRosinPhoto. On Instagram at WardRosinFineArt. On Facebook, I'm WardRosinPhoto. My sad little website is rosin.ca. I have shoveled quite a few pictures in there, but I haven't enabled those pages until I sort them, so that effort's ongoing. And our unofficial sponsor is Ornus Photo. And as I said before, the postal strike is over in Canada. So I can email both Canada Post and USPS.

So go in there and take a look. See if there's any product in there that you are interested in. And let me know and we get it sent out to you. Okay, congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Antonio, where can we find you? Well, Blue Sky, I've been dabbling in, which is nice, at AM Rosario. Instagram is amrosariophoto. My website is amrosario.com. If you're on Facebook, I'm going to throw that in. It's rosariophoto, facebook.com slash rosariophoto.

And let's see. Oh, we've been getting a lot of subscribers to our Substack newsletter. So I would say that's one great way to support us because I think both of us like the idea that we can write directly to our listeners. So join our Substack newsletter at streetshots.substack.com. And if you like what we do, share our articles with people, trying to build that up.

What else? Okay, and look, you know, if you want to support the show in other ways by buying us a coffee, you can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com slash Antonio Rosario. So we appreciate that. That's really fun when we get a little hit from people, a little Starbucks hit from our listeners and the little messages we get. It really does. It warms me. It gives me a warm feeling inside. When I see that little email, it says, someone bought you a coffee, you know?

So, thanks, John Wayne. You're, again, our honorary producer for the show tonight. So, wrap that up. Anyway, that's it for tonight. Thanks, Ward, for joining me on a Monday night. And, yeah. And hope everybody's, I hope your New Year's going to be good and everybody else's New Year. And as I said at the beginning of the show, our thoughts are going out to the people in L.A. and all what they're handling. So fingers crossed for that whole thing.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing everybody in a couple of weeks. And so have a good night. And you may need to get another co-host or work solo because I will be in Florida probably around the time we'll be doing the recording. Okay. Well, and I won't see you in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah, it could be a solo show. I've been thinking about that. All right, I don't know. We'll see. Okay. All right, well, have a good trip then. Okay, thank you, sir. Music.