Somehow, four months have passed since I last updated my About Now page.
It’ll be a new year before we know it!
Anyway, the page is now rewritten to include, well, what I’m up to about now.
How about you? What are you doing right now with photography and the other passions in your life?
Please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
Thanks for looking.
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35hunter 
I love Spotify 🙂 I have been using Google Play Music over the last few months but have just switched back to Spotify because overall it’s a better platform. Google aren’t really developing GPM anymore and YouTube Music is just not good enough to replace it yet, whereas Spotify are always coming out with new features and I love the little extras they give you, like 2019 Wrapped. I just wish they would work on their queue system, it’s the only thing about Spotify that annoys me.
Thanks Mel. I was using Google Play Music for a while, I liked its far greater simplicity compared with iTunes or “Music” as it seems to just be called now. Plus it let me upload files already on my MacBook (from CDs, or purchased as mp3s) which I could then access with different devices, like my phone, and my daughter’s iPod.
Spotify just makes it much easier and simpler!
I have noticed they seem to heavily lean towards playlists, and offer these at the top of search results, and encourage you to make your own. I guess this is because the music itself is not theirs, and not unique to Spotify, whereas a playlist is, and then can hook you in more to using them, and staying with them if you invest time in finding and creating playlists that are app specific. It increases your loyalty to them, in other words, theoretically.
Personally, I’ve always loved albums, and how they are a collective work in themselves, greater than the sum of their parts, so this is nearly always how I listen to music. The only time I’ve made a playlist so far on Spotify is to “attach” three albums together to play in sequence, then go have it on repeat to go back to the start of the first again. But I think perhaps I’m drifting into the minority here and many people these days listen only to playlists of different single tracks by different artists, compiled by theme, or date, or genre etc… It’s back to that short attention span again, tracks versus albums, social media over blog posts and so on. I prefer longer, slower, more immersive experiences!
I’m having another go with my Panasonic LX7 with my new EVF. I was looking at pictures on Flickr today and any shortcomings with the LX7 are clearly user error, the pictures posted are superb. We have a foot of snow and the temp was zero this morning, so no photo walks for the next few days anyway. I can’t even get my dog to leave the house.
Ah, how’s the EVF Jon?
I really don’t think the LX7 has many, or indeed any shortcomings. It supposedly has an even better and faster lens than the LX3 and that’s fantastic.
Our kids would love that amount of snow!
Hi Dan, The EVF is great, much brighter than the similar one for the GF-1, which makes sense as it is a generation newer. I does make the camera a little top-heavy, but I can live with that. I have seen complaints around about how the lens on this one is inferior to the previous model because of the increased speed, but I can’t see anything wrong with it. I like the snow myself,I even like shoveling it which is weird I know. We got fog yesterday and I was out taking pictures of that very appealing combination, but it seems it was too dark or my approach wasn’t right, but there should be plenty of other opportunities soon enough. This morning it is warm and raining so the snow is mostly gone.
Does the EVF show you aperture, shutter speed etc? Or just the scene in front of you? What’s it like to see where you’re focused?
It shows exactly what is on the screen and it’s as sharp as a pin. The only odd thing is that there seems to be a bit of a delay, so I guess it wouldn’t be ideal for action photography. There is a big button on the back to switch from screen to EVF. And it tilts. Very well thought out.
So is it giving the LX7 a new lease of life for you?
I think so Dan. The weather has been awful, hopefully I’ll get out with it soon. Results around the house have been encouraging.
I wish that didn’t look like chocolate… (something I can no longer eat, unfortunately)… but curiously, it does! Isn’t it strange how, in monochrome, things can become other things?
As for what I’m doing – nothing creative, sadly.
Yes, I see what you mean, the type of chocolate that has letters “embossed” on it. I think you must be craving chocolate pretty strongly, we tend to see what we want to see in photographs!
Hope you’re back in the creative flow soon.
Hi Dan, about now I’ve been repurposing a wooden gift box into a pinhole camera. So far I have the light tightness worked out, the pinhole, and the film plane. Next I have to work out how to set the film roll and take up spool. And also need to drill the film counter window and add a tripod screw mount. Other than that, just trying to stay warm and working on a few blog posts.
Lisa Marie, that sounds like a great project!
I managed to make a pinhole camera out of a modified (or perhaps butchered might be a better word!) old Kodak Instamatic. I wanted to use an existing camera shell that had some kind of film transport mechanism.
As I was using 35mm film, it would have been much easier to modify a 35mm camera!
It did make surprisingly decent photos – the fact that I got any images out of it at all was amazing, and very rewarding.
Are you familiar with this blog?
https://gretchenhayhurst.wordpress.com/
Look forward to seeing the outcome of your pinhole project.
No I am not but I’m a follower now, thanks. I imagine it may have been problematic with the instamatic without the film cartridge for the 35mm film. It will most likely be months before o share any results. I always seem to be that far behind. ☮️
Yes, it wasn’t pretty inside the back of the camera once I’d filed it down to fit a 35mm film canister in! It worked reasonably well though, even the wind on.