Why I love vintage lenses

I’ve recently become interested in old photography lenses. A lens is typically considered a “vintage” lens when it is 30+ years old.

Unlike the modern masterpieces of electronic engineering that we use in photography, these vintage lenses are far more analog. They have finely machined metal, smooth focus rings, and glass elements that move around to bring your image into focus. They’re heavy, solid, smooth, and just beautiful.

They generally lack the advanced coatings and clinically “perfect” look that you get with modern lenses. They have character and a more organic feel.

I find that they not only render a beautifully natural image, but they also force you to slow down and become a mroe technically precise photographer.

Focus is all done by hand so you need to learn to gauge distance and the feel of the focusing ring for each lens. You look twice before taking the shot. It’s more satisfying when you nail the focus.

The aperture is also manual. You begin your exposure by physically changing the size of the opening in the lens. This has implications on the amount of light that the camera sees, but it also changes the depth of field in an image (more blurry background, or more stuff in focus.)

Vintage lenses present a different flavor of photography. One that is slower, more technical, and more organic.

I still wouldn’t trust myself to use them in my commercial work, but you gain a new respect for the photographers who used manual lenses and film cameras in the bygone decades.

My hope it to begin sharing some photos shot with these older lenses here soon.

The problem with AI

I do not believe in the promised future of AI. In fact, I am closer to a Luddite in the AI world than a fanatic in favor of neural networks being our new overlords.

I think the average person stands to lose much more than they might gain from Artificial Intelligence.

As far as I can see, AI is not intelligent at all. It’s a massive calculator that can guess at words and numbers that ought to appear in certain orders and make a reasonable guess based on its set amount of input.

AI cannot create something new or novel. It can only present you with information (or forms of information) that are new to you. At its core, AI is still limited to purely mechanical operation. What is mechanical is not self-sustaining or self-reproducing. On the contrary, organic matter can do both.

When AI finds a way to bridge the gap and step from the mechanical world into the organic world, then I will be concerned. I do not, however, believe this will be possible and like all technology, it does not grow at the same speed for the same amount of time.

Progress in tech is non-linear. It ebbs and flows–and eventually hits a brick wall of diminishing returns. AI is nearly at its brick wall. It will become a useful tool for a select number of uses and we will look back at the early 2020s as a time when the world was sure we’d have flying cars just any day.

The Resistance comes quickly

Incredible how quickly good habits deform and how quickly bad habits pop up in their place. When it’s time to stamp out the bad habit and return to the good, the process feels agonizing. This is only my second day back to writing and it’s fallen to the bottom of my to do list.

Not a good sign for the future.

But the resistance doesn’t know me. I never give up. More specifically, I never give up when I am still thinking about something. I give up when I get distracted and forget. I don’t know if that counts as giving up.

My good will will break my bad will and I will never give up the fight to improve myself every single day.

Let's try this again in 2025

Hello again.

When I started writing my daily blogs in late 2018, I remember writing that I was afraid that I would only commit for a few days before quitting. Instead, I made it to late 2023 posting six days each week without missing any time (at least, that’s how I remember it.)

When I write, I read more. When I read more, I think more. When I think more, I do more things. When I do more things, I feel an unspeakable sense of fulfilling the purpose for which I was placed on this earth. So I will start by writing again.

2023 marked a few somewhat significant shifts in my life as well as trying some new things. These new commitments dragged me away from the stead routine I had. Or rather, I began to prioritize other things above my daily routine. This did not help me to have a more healthy, steady, or productive 2024. It was fine, but could have been much greater.

That brings me to today. Day #1 of 2025. I have been mulling my plans for 2025 for much of the last month and they look like this:

Read every day.

Write every day.

Make a drawing, photograph, or video every day.

Ride my bike every day.

Lift weights every day.

Drink more water.

Sleep more consistently.

Make content again.

If this year will be good, I have to make it good. God-willing, I will do just that.

It’s always the right time to do the right thing

Is it prudent? Is it wise? Is it tactful? Yes, maybe, or no. Who cares? When in doubt, always choose the right thing because when we do what is right, there is always an element of good in the decision we have made–even the difficult decisions. You’re always right to do what’s right.

How to be more healthy

The Salerno School of Medicine is simple (if you are able to read Latin.) Si tibi deficiant medici, medici tibi fiant haec tria, mens laeta, requies, moderata diaeta.

In English: If you don’t have a physician, let these three things be your medicine, joyful mood, rest, and don’t eat much.

I prefer to live without a physician as much as I am able and these rules work well. Be happy, get good sleep, and eat as little as you must.

I don’t know if they’re right, but the principles align with what makes me feel good. Therefore, I concur.

Time to fire up the engine again

Since late 2018 I’ve written a post on my blog for six days a week and hardly ever did I miss a day.

I haven’t posted a blog here since the 14th of December and today is the 31st of January. I guess you could say things are going pretty well.

There has been a bit of a shift in the workload in my life since about September and coincidentally since then, I have been more inconsistent with my blog posts (and reading in my personal life) than ever before.

The hope is to break the seal and not establish a new habit of NOT writing. I want to re-establish my reading and writing habits and I can only start one day at a time.

I’m hoping for another solid five-year run of writing and (hopefully) improving my writing as well.

The artist and the politician

“Robust is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who dislike it (artists); fragile when you care more about the few who dislike your work than the multitude who like it (politicians).”
— Nassim Taleb

Not “getting anything done”

When I feel like I am not getting anything done, I stop trying to get anything done. The reality is usually that I am just not happy with how much I still have on my to-do list. When I stop “trying to get stuff done” I still get a lot done, but I also tend to feel more accomplished.

The more sincere offer

I forget where I saw this or who said it, but check this out:

“The more abstract the offer, the more insincere the person. People who say "call me if you need anything" or something vague are trying to get rid of you. Those who offer something concrete, such as "call me if you need tickets for Saturday's," are genuinely trying to help.”

So, how can I help?

Good news

They say “No news is good news,” but did you know that good news is also good news? I’ll take the update if I can get one and I always appreciate hearing about how well things are going.

The secret to failure

Nobody knows the secret to success, but I know the secret to failure. It’s trying to please everybody. You can’t do everything even if you want to. Become an expert at one or two things and everything else can be a hobby.

How to make your brain work better

Your brain is never so brilliant as when you leave it alone and don’t tell it what to do. Think about a problem–but only long enough to plant a seed in your mind. Then go for a long walk or take a long shower. You’ll figure out the rest.

Totally unbothered by the critics

Robinson Jeffers wrote a poem entitled, “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours” and the final stanza goes like this:

The mountains are dead stone, the people

Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,

The mountains are not softened nor troubled

And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper.

That’s right. The mountains do their duty and stand. They are totally unbothered by the critic. So, I believe, is a great man. Who goes about his business, not for influence or gain, but rather for the purity of doing good work.

When you do what you do for a reason deeper than how people view you, you gain an invincibility to the criticisms of those who would cast stones.

Yesterday you said tomorrow

This morning you said you’d get it done before the afternoon. Then you said you’d get it done before you went to bed. Yesterday you said you’d get it done tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s here and you’re ready to push it off again.

How many days can something live on my to-do list without actually getting done?

I’m beginning to think I don’t procrastinate

For years, I’ve assumed that my problems getting the things that I need to get done stems from a problem of procrastination.

Lately, however, I think I cripple myself with a kind of content consumption obsession. Well, that and multi-tasking.

When it comes to multi-tasking, I know that I have a hard time just committing an hour to one specific thing. I always believe deep down inside that I can squeeze a little extra in everywhere. More often than not, this leads me to get much less done than if I had simply done one thing at a time.

When it comes to content consumption, I know that I am much, much more productive when I sit quietly and work. Instead, I reach for a podcast, a YouTube video, a pen in my hand, and something always lingering in the background just ensuring that I’m never quite 100% focused.

These two problems consistently have me leaving things on my to-do list that should have been done right away. Right at this moment I have two tasks that have been on my to-do list since November 2nd. Each task will take about 30 minutes and there is absolutely no reason or excuse for them to still be hanging around.

Some days I feel like I understand myself and other days I am sure I make no sense at all.

(Also, I’m in a hurry right now so I am not proofreading this blog post. There’s my built-in excuse for anything that doesn’t make sense.)