As commercial photography changes more and more quickly I am running out of things I want to write about here. Validating my long held hypothesis that everything has a parabolic trajectory which starts at zero and inevitably ends at zero. The longer the curve up, generally the longer the curve down.

I have to confess that I'm feeling less and less connected to the rapid evolution of photography. You can  see it, I think, in my purchasing habits when I buy older cameras designed in 2012 and use them in the same way that my old photo-heroes used their rangefinder cameras in the 1950s and 1960s. My selection of favorite lenses is also boringly traditional and echoes what better photographers have preached for decades. I'm attached to the iconic old focal lengths of 35, 50 and 90. Trained by my parents' subscriptions to Life Magazine, National Geographic and Look Magazine. I am a product of my own history and the era in which I grew up, and during which I started working as a photographer. 

In the arc of my career I've mastered everything from shooting still life photos with an 8x10 inch view camera and color transparency film to shooting 4K digital video on small, sleek digital cameras. But to me, now, nothing is as attractive or alluring as the older digital rangefinder cameras and lenses that could have come straight out of 1965. 

I'm slowly winnowing down my client list and re-directing myself toward more and more fun, self-assigned projects. And here's the issue for a blogger doing work for himself; it's less prone to fit into norms and structures of mainstream photography. I can frame a photo the way I like to but bristle when I post it and get feedback that it doesn't work because I didn't consider the rule of thirds, or impart into the image a full range of tones, or that the noise in the file is too obvious. Or the subject matter is boring. The reality is that I've never posted to the blog with the intent that the photographs represent some sort of online portfolio and I've never really looked for feedback of my work. Having a representative gallery of images was never the intention for this blog. 

While I impulsively pre-ordered a Leica SL3 last week I doubt very much that I'll follow through and buy one. I already have too many choices to make every time I go out the door. While the price isn't an impediment what's stopping me is the fact that, over the last year or so, none of the new additions and features to new cameras do much to excite me. Cameras are already so good that it would take something truly spectacular to move the needle from "oh that's pretty cool" to "Oh Dear God I must have that NOW!"

It's always enlightening to have a long history with a practice. One can look back at work done over decades and see what was and wasn't important to your own art. The work that truly made you happy and satisfied. The work I did for myself in 1980 - 2000 is still very satisfying for me to look at. Not because the cameras and film were so great but because of my enthusiasm for the subjects. For the "look" and for the entree photography provided for social observation and cultural literacy. 

It's inevitable that one becomes jaded by experience and age. Lost is the newness of things. 

As I look across the blogging and personal video landscape what I'm finding everywhere is repetition, repetition, repetition. Since camera introductions have slowed down and the progress of camera and lens technology has become less and less important content producers/creators have stumbled about to find things to fill the space (and time) with. I can't imagine that my descriptions of walking through the streets of a car-centric, middle class city are so riveting and fascinating that they fill a need for my readers. I can't imagine what people are thinking when fellow photo bloggers veer into posts about mid-brow, mid-century home architecture or tube amplifiers. I can't share the enthusiasm over videos of younger people with cameras roaming around urban landscapes pontificating about the perfect street shooter lens while sneaking zone-focused shots of inherently banal subjects. I guess that's when you know it's time to move on and mark the end of an era. 

And by saying that I'm not implying that these are not the "golden years" for someone else. Kids just now discovering the magic of photography have their own point of view about what is relevant and what is cool. It might not be shared universally but it's good for them. It all has value for them.

I have never had the intention to steer the blog into being a geriatric entertainment channel. I don't want to write about high blood pressure, compression socks, senior discounts, the benefits of Metamucil,  or how we used to do things in the good old days. I'm not interested in how to "slow down gracefully." I'm already tired of writing about my hobbies (swimming. more swimming. food that's not "health guru approved" and so on). 

I think I wiggled under the lowest bar my younger and more interesting self might have set for me when I started to write about the installation of a new floor in our living room. I can't imagine for a moment that anyone thought that was the least bit compelling of a subject. 

And then there are the comments. Most of them are fine. A lot of them are wonderful and insightful. But so many are about some favorite camera from the 1970s that you love and which is not even on my radar. Nor does it need to be on my radar.  I'm resistant to every comment that tries to shame me into traveling more. I'm not the world's greatest or most fervent traveler but I have been to over a dozen countries and many of those countries I have visited more than a few times. So much we've done that isn't in the vitae. Have you been to Russia? How about the Dominican Republic? Turkey? Jordan? Or even Mexico City (as opposed to the tourist towns on the Mexican coasts...)? And, oh my gosh, I spent most of the 1980s through the early 2000s traveling from one corporate event location to another. From one advertising location to another. Including some annual report jobs that kept me on the road for weeks at a time. All over the world.  I'll travel for my own pleasure and on my own schedule now...

My least favorite comments have always been the ones that insist I be nicer. That I overlook dumb content elsewhere. That I cut every content "creator" more slack. But why? There's never a good reason to shy away from delivering deserved criticism. My readers do it to me all the time. Not ad hominem attacks. Just honest critiques written out plainly and without pulling punches. 

I've tried to walk away from blogging before but something always pulled me back in. I do love the practice of writing but I think there must be some more effective venues in which to do so. While we can't all be a John Sanford  (and here's where a more mercenary/desparate blogger would add an affiliate link to his latest book...) I can do a decent job of writing like Kirk. 

Blogs are dying off and the ones that remain are ripe for the contagion of generative A.I. Sooner than you expect you'll inadvertently be reading the musings of a computer program as you savor that morning cup of coffee. And you might never suspect it... We'll all be living in the matrix.

Just a few thoughts on a Monday morning. I'm not angry, sad, disgusted, frustrated or otherwise emotionally stressed. To be frank I've become bored and by extension the writing is getting boring. Long in the tooth. Time, I think to try something else and to leave the photo space to writers who need to generate income from their writing work. And the audiences who will support them.

Writing out loud. Mostly just for me. Feedback not necessary.