This vlogger had a good point. There is no such thing as a portrait lens, only portrait photos. Similarly there are no landscape lenses, just landscape photos.
Category: thoughts
My photography kit
Over the last few months I have thought about what I really needed, and more importantly what I do not need. Which is why I went on a selling spree. I sold three lenses and a camera body today. Two manual focus 35mm, and 50mm lenses, a wide focal length 16-35mm auto focus lens, and manual SLR camera body from the 1970s. The manual lenses were too cumbersome to use plus had some mold issues (so I didn’t want it anywhere near my gear. The wide angle lens just never got me any shots that I liked. And the SLR was full manual with no metering.
Essentially, I figured out what I used a lot, which were my 24mm f1.4, 24-70mm f2.8, and 70-200mm f2.8. These got me all covered all ranges I need.
The 24mm was a little too wide for street photography so I played around with setting my full frame body to crop sensor mode. This gave me a 36mm f2.1 equivalent which is, in my opinion, the best focal length for street photography. The other benefit (or downside, depending on how you look at it) was that the images were now 10MP only. For SNS like instagram and the like this is fine. To print out also it is supposed to be enough for A4 prints. Furthermore, I can work with the RAW files in my iPhone apps.
So I traded all this gear to buy an APS-C DSLR. This had meant I can get the 24MP images on my 24mm f1.4 now (my street photography setup) and get an extra 100mm of focal length on my 70-200mm zoom, all without losing image quality.
All three lenses work with both bodies so I have a 24–300mm coverage in focal lengths. And with the 2x teleconverter I have 600mm reach in bright scenes as well, all this with just two bodies and three lenses.
Portraiture lens
On a 35mm film or sensor camera 35-70mm focal length is most natural.
Pol – Modern Strange Love
Lex Fridman and right speech
Lex Fridman, whether he knows it or not, understands Buddhist right speech (17 minutes in). This conversation with Richard Haier about the book The Bell Curve is an example of how something can be misinterpreted.
But sometimes, no matter what you do, people can twist your words to fit their agenda. Nietzsche is one such philosopher who had been the victim of misappropriation.
Speech as an action can be used (another action) against you. In other words, truth is not about what is there, but what people think is true, or rather, how people make you think something is true when it is not.
YouTube Premium still gives you ads. You just don’t notice them
When you pay for YouTube Premium you are led to believe you are getting an ad-free experience. But this is further from the truth. Let me explain.
Before I joined Premium I watched videos which were interspersed with ads that popped up in the middle (sometimes several times) and at the end. Usually, they are random and unrelated ads to the video that either require you to skip or wait until they finish. Furthermore, I could not play videos in the background.
My experience with Premium is that more I can play videos in the background, not having to skip the ads, and I can multitask. YouTube is much more enjoyable.
But why is it more employable? That is because of the convenience now offered. But more subtlety, I am getting different content. imagine watching the normal content I watch now without Premium. It would mean I would get not only the in-video ads but also the interlaced ads that normally come up. But that is not what makes ads annoying. It is the need for me to skip ads that is annoying. In other words I am paying for this privilege and convenience.
I still get ads. They are still in the videos pumped to me by the vlogger. They are less annoying and also more relevant to the content. It is basically a version of good ol’ television … except I am paying for it.
Regurgitator is Epic
Regurgitator’s Epic is not only epic, it’s on Fire.
Onomichi
Walking with my mother in Onomichi who moved here recently is surreal. Every group we meet is a young couple. lol.
If you don’t sin…
Remember, if you don’t sin, Jesus died for nothing.
Richard Dawkins
Dawkins said this in a speech in which the audience laughed.
I half suspect that many of the heinous acts by Christians are really done with this warped thought in mind. How can you actually be Forgiven if you don’t Sin?
Watch collecting journey
I’ve got to say, there is something about collecting that is fun. For whatever reason, men like to collect. It must have been a survival mechanism.
Anyway, I have collected many things over the years. Stamps. Comics. Records. CDs. Cameras. Fountain pens. Art.
At present, it is watches.
Some have a rule to have a limit and a one in, one out policy. That seems manageable. Except when you cheat and buy a bigger watch case. I have a four-watch case right now but I think a six or eight watch case might what I need want.
I have a separate case for three watches that are quartz but I think I will sell those. My wife has a two watch collection for now so the three-watch case may be perfect for her. She may catch the watch collecting bug.
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