We'll be back on Monday. Stay tuned.

When, in a period of frustration, I quit blogging on October 3rd I had no idea that my decision would be met with 260 comments from disappointed readers and over 200 comments directly to my e-mail account asking me to please reconsider my decision.  I talked to my friends and business associates about it and got some really good feedback.  I've decided to resurrect the blog.  I'm making some changes.  If you want to comment you have to be a follower (or use Open ID).  That means you have to click the button on the side and be a public follower of the blog.  What does that get me?  It gets me your feedback and a contact so if I misconstrue your good-hearted jab for vicious character assassination we can work it out off line.  It's also makes it easier for me to block you if you decide to be a real dick.  All the anonymous people are resigned to a hellish existence of non-commentary.

If, for reason of your geography, you are constrained from joining you can send me a personal e-mail and, if I feel your comment has validity or humor I may, at my discretion, post it.  I'm taking most of the advertising totally off the site (I'm leaving links to my own books).  As soon as I can figure out the programming I'm going to add a donation button to the site.  You don't need to donate anything but if you are exuberantly wealthy and the value of the site is proportionate to your wealth I want to create a pathway for you to share your largess.  I reserve the right to put some links in the copy but you never have to buy anything to read my blog.

I change my mind a lot.  You are forewarned.  I may like Nikon next week and hate it the week before Christmas.  Ditto any other brand.  If you came here to kneel in worship with me to some brand of camera or light you have me confused with a church and need to re-read your Google Map.

But here's the bottom line.  If I don't hear from you I'm basically working in a vacuum and it's not very much fun to toss pebbles into a pond without seeing some ripples.  If you like something a little then check a box under the post.  Like it a lot?  Tell me why.  I actually wrote something that changed your life?  Wow.  I'm not sure I can handle that level of responsibility.

As before, I will write what I want and when I want.  One of the reasons I'm not eager to accept sponsorships is my feeling that they'll change, however subtly, my relationship with the site and I'm not into it.  I'm writing because I like to write.  I write about photography because I love photography and I think we have some standards and some points of view to uphold.  I also think the gear affects our vision and I like writing about the connection, the attraction and the frisson.

You are free to drop out at any time.

Finally, I've been hearing an interesting line from about 25% of the people I meet when I do public speeches or photo meetings or walks.  They keep telling me that I seem "joyful, funny and light-hearted" in person.....less so in my writing.  I'll work on being more serious in public...

Just kidding.  Please know that what I write is from my experiences.  It is always meant to be light-hearted and exuberant.  I'm not writing any of this for you.  I'm writing it for me.  And I have come to find out that is what most of you really value.

Thanks for reaching out and giving me a reason to write and share.  This time around could you drop me a line from time to time and tell me how I'm doing?

See you Monday October 17th, 2011.

Interior with Nikon D100. How did we ever survive?

Kitchen.  The Nokonah Condominiums.  Nikon D100.  17mm Tamron lens.  Some light.

New Career!!!! Teaching people at serious companies how to play air guitar.

Working on a Holiday Card for a client of nearly 10 years.  Putting together the card with a background illustration and 70 individual people photographs sprinkled through.  Someone needed to make the scientists and engineers smile and laugh.  I was showing someone my air guitar technique when "Lightning Reflexes" Amy Smith grabbed a Canon 1dsMk2 and popped a couple shots.  If you can't be silly you really shouldn't be around other people.  Arch seriousness is just annoying.....

Interplay of Dark and Light.

Agfapan APX100.  Leica R8.  90mm Summicron.  Printed on Agfa Portriga Rapid.  The film, paper, camera and lens are no longer made.  This is officially an antiquity.  I can't make the same photograph with a newer camera and newer materials.

Austin Autumn. Earlier times.

I called Lou up on a cool autumn day and asked her to go with me to Laguna Gloria Museum to make a little art, apropos of nothing. She wore an old courderoy coat and smiled beautifully as she looked down at her feet.
Hasselblad 500 CM, 180mm f4 lens. Agfa film.

Thank You.

Thank you for all the kind posts that followed my announcement that the VSL would stop or at least radically slow down its output.  I'm re-a-musing myself.  I'm taking portraits and finishing projects.  It's my intention to post images and brief haikus about them here as time goes on.  To share the art instead of the recipe.

End of the road.

Back in January 26th, 2009 I got side tracked.  I was a book writer and a working photographer.  The economy had just ground to a halt and I had time on my hands so I started writing this blog.  I'm not sure what I intended to say, what the long term goal was or what I thought I would get out of the practice.

To date I've written over 720 entries; some bad and some good.  Some popular (the gear reviews), some contentious (anything about the death of the commercial photo industry), and some largely ignored (the ones about inspiration, art for arts sake, personal growth and inquiries into what propels and sustains us).

I've been lifted up by a dedicated core of readers who like my style and what I've written and I've had days when I wanted reach through the web and throttle the hit-and-run, anonymous posters who can be insulting and belittling.  A fair tradeoff given that no one signed a contract, no one has expectations and people can sign on and off at any time.

I know I could "monetize" the blog and make some money from the content but that's not really what I had in mind when I started.

Yesterday I posted a piece about the Olympus EPM1 camera (which I liked) and, mixed in with genuine responses was a post by someone who liked the photos of an attractive woman but felt that the rest of the blog was of little value.  His/her comment really bothered me.  In the age of free content I guess we need thick skins but it made me step back and really think about how I was spending my time.

I should have been on the phone continuing to make calls to prospective clients.  I should have been working on the two book projects I have in front of me.  I should have been swimming or running.  But instead I was writing a piece about a $499 camera that will be obsolete in a few months and lost to nearly everyone's memory in a year.

Sure, there's an ego reward that goes along with putting out a blog.  On a good day we'll have 12,000 pageviews of the material here.   My name recognition among photographers is currently strong. If I liked doing workshops that would be a good thing.  If I had products to sell to other photographers that would be a good thing.  But the time spent here is time stolen from things that are more important for me.

We had a good run.  Now I'm turning my attention back to where it should have been all along:  How to re-invent what I do to make it fun and sustaining for my family.

I'm done spending time creating content for free.  It's a great way to make friends I never get to meet.  Putting something out to the public is a two edged sword.  Some people love it and some people will argue with anything.

I'm keeping the VSL blog site open because people seem to be coming more and more to also read the older articles I've written.  I intend to drop by from time to time to toss in something I think is important but the era of daily posts, equipment reviews and the wide open embrace of anonymous barbs and arrows has come to an end.

Thanks for reading.  Thanks responding.  Now get up off the damn couch and go shoot.