Joyful Portrait of Alaina V.
My Walter Mitty-esque day dreams...
I spent a good part of the morning today looking through current and older hard drives trying to round up a big collection of photographs of my dear, late dog, Tulip. There are twelve years of images scattered across a dozen or so hard drives and probably dozens of DVDs. Had I been wise (retrospection is so piercing...) I would have created a folder on Smugmug.com and put photographs up there from week to week so as not to get this far behind. But I promised my son I'd make a really nice print of our best dog ever last Christmas and I've been dragging my feet since she passed away.
At some point looking through all the photos just made me sad so I did what photo nerds and people who love shoes do, nationwide; I went shopping online. It seems especially dangerous right now because I'm trying to convince (delude) myself that we've done such a good job of eliminating debt and accruing a motley handful of assets that nothing seems really out of reach right now (vast hyperbole). All that actually stands between me and financial armageddon is my very rational fear of that disapproving look I know I'll get from my spouse if I come home with something silly and impractical like a Porsche 911 Turbo S. Or something even sillier, like a pool table...
But what about a lightly used Mini Cooper S? Or maybe a great deal on a medium format Leica S3 and a couple well chosen lenses? How about that custom street bike from Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop? A new "Cheese Grater" Mac Pro, all tricked out with $40,000 of RAM and SSDs? Would it really be that bad to come back home on a Ducati Multistrada motorcycle? Especially if I got a good helmet?
In the end both practicality and need stepped in to bring me back to reality. I order some more ink for my ancient but still workable Canon Pro-100 inkjet Printer and a packet of 50 sheets of 13 by 19 inch Pro Lustre paper. I'll pick it up curbside from the usual photo/crack dealer in the morning. And to enforce the message of exercising practicality I dug up a $50 coupon good off the purchase price.
I've got some printing to do and I've run out of excuses to put it off. Gotta get some parental controls on my office computer and block any "for profit" sites. Self-preservation...
10 comments:
We'll done! I filled my cart today with some edelcrone sliders, then looked at the total and closed the window.
To continue the good news here is more evidence that the fatality rate of this virus is magnitudes lower that previously thought:
https://youtu.be/rMWdPRhu_p8
Also I have started to see evidence there is a large over representation of the deaths caused by this. Apparently the CDC is saying there have been almost zero deaths from pneumonia and the flu this season.
Hopefully we get more confirmation like the German study soon. Shopping online is fun, but less fun when you get the stuff and don't have much to do with it!
Amen to that. So much un-fun having a hatchback full of great cameras and lenses but constrained to an invisible leash that barely stretches past the mailbox...
Gees. And I'm dithering over buying a new G9!
Stephen, Be sure to read one more time. I ended up buying about $150 of ink and paper. Only.
Headed to your favorite camera store tomorrow as well. Too bad we can't have that cup of coffee we keep talking about. I never thought of myself as extroverted but like you missing just normal human conversation. I do have a 13 year old that is an extreme extrovert ... and if I take him on a long walk his brain slows down enough for a conversation with dad. Stay well.
Beautiful portrait.
Genuine smiles are hard to find in portrait photography. (but all the better when you snag them)
Mark (who forgot to sign off on the anonymous extrovert reply yesterday... Sorry! Keep writing, please. Your blog is one of the only things I can stand to read these days)
For me the stuck at home mode has been making me look at printers. Naturally a nice used p600 Epson popped up. But my whole living area is in lockdown and the seller is only selling with a pickup by the buyer. Which of course makes sense as printers are darn big.
Seems like I will have to buy new then. Hmmm.
I have the same print setup as well with the PRO-100, various sizes of Pro Luster paper, Photo Paper Plus, some cheapo glossy I bought on Amazon by mistake that is better than I thought and a box of Hahnemuehle art paper I rarely use. Out of all that I really like 13x19 prints on Pro Luster.
The print geeks talk more about the Epson brands such as the P800.
Looking ahead, the smart money is buying seeds for a vege garden and keeping an eye out for a cheap fuel efficient car.
David S. Hmmmm. Or the exact opposite= eating more pizza and driving a Ford Raptor Pickup Truck....
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