Category: Stories
-
Costco Camera Price is Right! Minolta with 72 Megapixels!
You go to Costco for paper towels. You come home thinking about a camera. That is not a shopping trip, that is a trap, and I walked right into it. Sitting there on the shelf was a Minolta, the MNZ6S, in a bundle with a 64 GB memory card. Six times optical zoom. And right…
-
You Don’t Need a $1,500 Camera to Take Pictures To Be Proud Of.
Let me say it plain, because somebody needs to. Camera prices right now are out of control. And do not even get me started on memory cards. (Go look one up yourself. I will wait. See? Told you.) Here is the part that really gets me. A Fujifilm X-Pro2, a camera that is roughly ten…
-
Will Mark Zuckerberg Ruin Street Photography?
So everybody is worked up about the Senate going after Mark Zuckerberg this week. And the question floating around our little corner of the world is a fair one. If Washington starts rewriting the rules for the glasses, does that trickle down to us? To the people walking around with a camera in plain sight?…
-
Let’s Be Honest About Saul Leiter.
Here is a confession that will not surprise anybody who has ever carried a camera for more than a week. Some days I come home, look at what I shot, and decide the whole card, the whole day, was a waste of time. Seventy five frames. Nothing. At least that is what my brain tells…
-
AI Photos Are Deceptive? So Are NON A.I. Photos.
So Pennsylvania is cracking down on deceptive AI advertising. A new law, coming within the next 60 days, would make advertisers tell you when an image was made with artificial intelligence. Fair enough. Except, hold on a second. Have you ever actually seen the burger from the ad show up on your tray? No. You…
-
I Worked at Ritz Camera. Can You Guess What Years?
Friday night. A little reminiscing. Dangerous, I know. Back in the day, I worked at Ritz Camera. Seven Corners, Falls Church, Virginia. Real store. Real customers. Real film getting dropped off in those little yellow envelopes. And here is the fun part. I am not going to tell you the years. I am going to…
-
The Leica Q in 2026: 11 Years Old. Still Beautiful.
Bless your heart. That is what I said. In my head. (Okay, mostly in my head.) I was out walking last week with my Leica Q when a guy comes up, all excited. “Oh wow, is that the Q3?” Nope. “Oh, the Q2! Great camera. Smart buy. Save a little money.” Also nope. “This,” I…
-
Pixii Camera Is Liquidating, Going Out of Business Sale
Would you buy a $3,000 camera if the company had orphaned it? That is the question I threw at you in this one, and I mean it as a straight question. Not a setup. Not a trick. Pixii. The French Leica M-mount digital rangefinder. Remember the excitement? The little screenless wonder that was supposed to…
-
Photographers Are Ugly: Why Is This Community So Hateful
Somebody asked me why photographers are so hateful online, and I think I finally figured it out. It starts with the word ugly. I did not grow up hearing it used the way Southerners use it. Down here, ugly has nothing to do with how you look. It means mean-spirited. Hateful. And if I am…
-
Photo Slugfest: The Steroid League
Nikon had to disqualify somebody from a photo contest. Again. The reason? The winning image was not a photograph. It was AI. Not the remove-a-power-line kind of AI. The type-words-into-a-box-and-call-yourself-a-photographer kind. And look, I am not anti-AI. AI art can be cool. Knock yourself out. But here is my take: give it its own league.…
