The bakery in Lisbon, Portugal that was featured in the thrilling novel,
"The Lisbon Portfolio."
My favorite question about the novel: "Was this really fiction?"
Every once in a while I get flustered by robots scraping this site for content in order to make actual, human writers obsolete by using their own work against them. My knee jerk reaction is to shut down the blog and walk away. Then I go through periods of time when I jealously watch people throng to comment on blogs even just tangentially about photography I look back at my own blog and am confused about the comparative sparsity of engagement. And other times I question whether my endless writing and posting is just a near constant need for validation.
At each of these moments my first thought is to walk away from the blog entirely and do what my friends think I should have been doing all along; Photographing, showing physical photographs, and spending more time involved in our local photographic community. I have no delusions that I am a significant photographer, vis-a-vis an enduring art scene. Most of my images will vanish with me. Of that I'm fairly certain.
But each time the desire for permanent closure of the blog hits me I pull back because I, the person who wrote all this stuff, really like what I wrote and would miss it when it's gone. If it's gone. Sometimes, when I get tired of reading about strange personal asides on blogs where I expect to read more about strange cameras and photos I know I can always find something more interesting to read right here on my own blog. With the advantage of knowing that the information has been field tested and is not just the conjecture of an arm chair "expert."
But I'm always stopped by the realization that I have not backed up the content of the blog for well over a decade -- thinking that, left to its own devices, nature would disassemble it all in good time.
Yesterday I started reading a book about "meaning." One of the takeaways is one might consider getting rid of ineffective, time consuming fascinations with and addictions to social media. And what is a blog if it isn't long form social media? So yesterday I took action. I have now successfully downloaded all of nearly 100 Gigabytes of VSL content from Blogger and have backed up the files on three hard drives. It took all evening to get it all downloaded, sorted and accomplished. Made more difficult by a few network outages on the Google end. Seems obvious that rescuing one's content from a huge, global company doesn't constitute a top priority for them.... But now the files have been double checked. The files are situated. The archiving as complete as I care to make it. Now, the next time someone chides me for critiquing someone else's crappy content, or tells me all my stuff is "meh". Or the people in Singapore ravage more of my work. I can go all the way to Defcon One with the knowledge that at least one person on the planet will still have access to the work.
If Google decides to pull the plug on Blogger I will have dodged panic stricken downloading. My content is relatively safe. Safer still when I also stick it back up in the cloud somewhere.
Today's carry around camera is a shiny black paint, mint condition Leica M240 with today's choice of 35mm lens. I've chosen the 35mm Zeiss Biogon ZM because I like its acerbic contrast. I even have a small, red lacquered soft release on the shutter release. It's painted as a lady bug. Adorable. And, with that, I'm out the door to wander around make photographs.
Careful with those comments. DefCon 1 has been initiated. Don't push me to blog armageddon.
17 years of blogging. Lots of time wasted. Some good stuff as well.
I understand the challenge. I started one of the early academic web sites in 1995 and actively added content to it for more than 20 years. I did some protoblogging in the late 1990s and early 2000s on esoteric topics such as communicable disease control and national security, which attracted considerable interest post-9/11. I posted important documents not otherwise available and have archived them over time for researchers. I got a lot of hits before social media, when high traffic was a smaller but harder-to-get number. All of this consists of hand-coded web pages, much of it done before blogging software existed.
ReplyDeleteThere are important documents that I think are only available on my site, such as the withdrawn CDC plans to deal with smallpox. Of course, these are only of interest to a few people—unless smallpox breaks out. While I still get hits and some folks use the materials, unlike photography info, legal info in today's world has a limited lifetime. Trump and the Supreme Court rapidly made my online administrative law course materials obsolete in the last couple of years. I am wrestling with taking the site down because sorting out the subset of content with continuing value is probably impossible. I should let go. You should not. Your site has enduring content. Since you are not trying to live off the proceeds of the site, try not to worry about being ripped off by robots. See it as a Zen way to spread your consciousness.
Please give us your review on your current read on "meaning". I definitely could use some clarity and enlightenment in that area.
ReplyDeleteYou should consider a Substack. Your friend ATXMTX has one that I’ve enjoyed
ReplyDeleteEngagement is the new road to slavery. Engagement trumps quality in todays world. I post my every day photos to Instagram. I do it so I have a running image bank of my adventures. Since I don't "play the game" as far as Instagram is concerned I get very few "likes" even though I have lots of "followers". Every once in awhile I will waste an hour of my life and check out what else is on Instagram that is more or less focused on photography. I see people who are posting absolute crap getting 500 plus likes and have thousands of followers. They have mastered the art of "engagement" not photography. I don't have the time nor inclination to chase "likes" or any other type of "engagement". What I do I do for me and only for me.
ReplyDeleteBlogging was something I really enjoyed for a number of years. I gave it up because again people are to lazy to comment. They don't mind consuming but to expect much more than a "like" in todays world is unrealistic. Taking it back to Instagram, it seems only five percent of an accounts followers generate "likes" for that account. Given it only take minimal effort to click the "like" button if you are getting at least five percent of your readers commenting you are doing really well. I would suspect it might be closer to two percent on a good day for most traditional blogs.
I'm retired but still had three interruptions while trying to type this comment out. Working people would find it even harder.
You keep writing and I will keep reading. Finding good quality intelligent discourse on photography is hard. When it comes with excellent photography it's a bonus in my books. I look forward in seeing how your photography changes over the next few years. Or maybe it won't. Nothing wrong with that either.
Take care Kirk. Keep on "trunkin" as we use to say.
Glad you had a great and productive trip to Montreal, over the years I've had many successful working relationships with Canadians in the healthcare research field. An update on the SCL-2. I had an email from Leica UK, today, "The batteries are now in stock please provide your full details for the invoice" which sounds like they are treating them as 'spares'. No problem, even though it looks like you can't just click and order one. Since they have been non-existent for a couple of years, I have ordered just one for now to give everyone a chance of buying one. So, I am assuming it will be similar in the USA, hope so for you!
ReplyDeleteMeaning, now there's something to talk about, but some other time as I have to go prepare supper now. Meantime, think about your life in weeks: https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's true that almost all we do, write, photograph, etc., will be forgotten, that's no reason to be disheartened. Tell yourself that most of the works of history's greatest have also been forgotten. It would almost be arrogant to think that we would do better than them.
As for gear, last week I bought an Olympus PEN S half-frame camera from a guy in Japan that I found on that online auction site. The camera is almost as old as I am. I just shot my first roll of 72 half-frames, which was fun. I'd be willing to bet that there won't be a single memorable photo in that set but I look forward to driving myself nuts scanning them with my Olympus m4/3s camera because I don't really have a scanning rig suited to half-frame 35 mm. Is that friction enough for you?
I think there is value in preserving one's own creation. You've invested many hours of your life in both educating your readers, and documenting your path. As noted by Mr. Richards, above, "Your site has enduring content. ... See it as a Zen way to spread your consciousness." I agree.
ReplyDeleteI have to own up to a bit of obsessiveness in archiving my stuff. For the last 30 years, every time I've upgraded my computer system, I yanked the drives, labelled them, and put them on a shelf. Why? Damned if I know.
I'd expect that Google themselves use Blogger content to train their AI. For grins, I queried it with:
ReplyDelete"Generate a short essay about cameras in the style of Kirk Tuck" and here's what it gave me:
"The thing about a new camera is that it usually comes wrapped in a lie. The marketing departments want you to believe that those extra three megapixels or that slightly stickier autofocus tracking will finally bridge the gap between the vision in your head and the file on your card.
It won’t. I’ve spent forty years chasing light in studios and on street corners, and I can tell you that most modern cameras are "too good." They are clinical. They are efficient. They are also, quite frequently, soul-crushingly boring.
Lately, I’ve been reaching for the older stuff—the "obsolete" gear that the forums have long since buried. There is a specific kind of joy in a first-generation Leica SL or an aging Panasonic Lumix. These cameras have quirks. They have buttons that click with a certain mechanical honesty. When you get a great frame with an older sensor, it feels like a collaboration, not a calculation. [and so on] "
I dunno, I think it's got some of the details right, but not your voice. Yet.
Jeff in Colorado
I read your blog regularly and enjoy the photos (especially the 1980s black and white ones from the European trips). I also appreciate the regular insight into how people -- a sample of one, of course -- live and think in the USA, from day to day; some days grumpy, some days not, as we all are. What keeps me from commenting is a mixture of respect for your career and achievement and a feeling that I had nothing meaningful to contribute. Until now. Regards from Zagreb, Croatia, Neven
ReplyDeleteThank you very, very much. We're all just ordinary humans after all. I appreciate knowing you are here.
DeleteWell… modern times measure things through interactions. Blogs may no longer be the best format to get feedback from your audience, Kirk. That world now belongs to X and Instagram.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been following you for years. I used to follow others too, like TOP, but VSL is the one I come back to every day to see what you have to share.
Please keep going.
With affection from a Portuguese reader,
Valter Coelho