blessingx

Trying the pilot of Naked and Afraid Apocalypse (Discovery & Max) over lunch. For fans of Naked and Afraid, Naked and Afraid XL, Naked and Afraid: Alone, Naked and Afraid: Solo, Naked and Afraid of Love, Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing, and Naked and Afraid: Castaways. 1500% authentic.

When one of my favorite, faaarrr from perfect, quirky, no one should buy in 2025, cameras shows up in a new article... https://petapixel.com/2025/08/14/the-retro-styled-nikon-df-dslr-was-both-behind-and-ahead-of-the-times/ Mine, unfortunately, didn't come with a pocket watch.

I’m not much of a sports guy, so probably behind the times, but there’s sperm racing now? https://www.spermracing.com/races (“race video”) “how the race works: we've designed a microscopic racetrack that mimics the reproductive system—chemical signals, fluid dynamics, synchronized starts. high-resolution cameras track every microscopic move. it's all live-streamed, complete with stats, leaderboards, and instant replays. the winner? the sperm that crosses the finish line first, verified by advanced imaging. the stakes have never been smaller—or bigger.”

As I referenced in the film thread awhile back, I haven’t been reading much the last few years, generally bored in and out of work, and live silly close to Stanford, so Continuing Studies it is. Took classes on (internal v. external) Meaning (Julia Sweeney, on topic, was another student ) and Middle East history. Reading about split between primary and auxiliary texts, but if you’re looking for non-summery end of summer reading... Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Nietzsche’s The Gay Science (aka The Joyous Science) & Beyond Good and Evil, Cleveland & Bunton’s History of the Modern Middle East, and Gelvin’s The New Middle East. Yeah, stuff I should have read 30 years ago. Two classes are too much with work, so cutting down to one, but standby for Mesopotamian archaeology recommendations next.

Also for anyone interested, Magnum is running a 20% off Summer Course sale right now with some heavyweights. Just picked up... Mark Power: Picturing Place Cristina de Middel: Stranger than Reality Gregory Halpern: Documentary Sur/Realism Matt Black: The Documentary Commitment Jonas Bendiksen: Curiosity in Practice Bieke Depoorter: Chance Encounters Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling

Speaking of VW charm https://www.autoevolution.com/news/artful-canadian-engineer-spits-out-the-vw-frankencopter-a-different-kind-of-luftwaffe-255331.html

Because everyone's summer should have a little counterbalance with Nietzsche. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gay-science-1-preface-i-1-i-9/id1573808070?i=1000661659055

Hope it's wonderful.

Gangstagrass

Or becoming a Knight of Infinite Resignation

Read this a few months back, but as Beinart is making the rounds.

The Quiet Melodrama of Todd Hido https://aperture.org/editorial/the-quiet-melodrama-of-todd-hidos-photographs/

Forum showing one day in the future (or geographic accurate time), so happy another spin Antonio!

RIP Tom Troupe. Honestly, I don't know who are, but anyone who starred in Mary Hartman, The Devil's Brigade, Cheers, CHiPs, Star Trek, The Diary of Ann Frank, Cagney & Lacey, Kelly's Heroes, and My Own Private Idaho, deserves a tribute. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tom-troupe-dead-stage-screen-actor-1236324292/ https://abc7ny.com/post/actor-tom-troupe-dies-97-home-beverly-hills/17217594/

Cool

Character lens train. The LLL 50mm f/1.5 Z21 (Angenieux S21 recreation) arrived this afternoon. Only time for a few nearby shots (mostly at f/1.8) due to work, but might be fun.

Beautiful

Iiu Susiraja’s Self-Portraits Are More Than a Dare https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/iiu-susirajas-self-portraits-are-more-than-a-dare https://web.archive.org/web/20250721014944/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/iiu-susirajas-self-portraits-are-more-than-a-dare?mbid=social_bluesky

Congrats and nice shots! Curious how the low light noise would compare if you shot the A7R5 in 26MP or 15 modes (or even downsampled the 60MP to 24)?

Shirley & Company - Shame, Shame, Shame

Soccer Mommy does Pavement

Not really any new news, but Sunshine was mentioned in the NYTimes today https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/maine-arrest-paddleboarder-homicide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XU8.U18S.PmIKYhI8LmAu&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare (Gift article)