A newsletter about photographs
Hi there. I'm Nat Bennett, and this is a letter about photographs.
I've been fussing about what to call this thing for a couple of months now, and writing and rewriting my manifestos about why it was going to be called what it was going to be called, but what I haven't been doing is writing the dang newsletter. So we're going to go with "Photo Newsletter" for a minute here and if we get a better name we'll get a better name. I've got your e-mail address, you'll still be able to find it.
I've been taking just absolute fucktons of photos lately. I'm up to over 4,000 for this year, not counting photos that I haven't yet pulled off of various SD cards, and over 2,000 of them just this past month. Again, not counting at least a few hundred photos that are still on SD cards.
This is partly because I've had access to fewer cameras. I'm up to three so far: A Nikon D3500, an iPhone 13 Pro, and a Ricoh GR III. Love 'em all, use 'em all, happy to have all of them, but I also sometimes don't take photos because I can't decide which one to use, or because I can't decide which lens to put on the DSLR. Last weekend, though, I left the DSLR at a friend's house, and didn't charge the Ricoh, so it was just me and the iPhone 13 and honestly, damn does that thing have a great camera.
I have it with me everywhere. And it's super unobtrusive. I take a ton more street shots and surreptitious photos of people because it's basically silent. I finally figured out too how to use the button on the side to press the shutter, which means I can take pictures one-handed now, so I'll just have it out while I'm walking or riding along in the car, snap-snap-snapping away. Helps that it's so small at the dog park, too. When dogs are wrestling right next to me (or actively on top of me) it's tough to get a camera any bigger into position. There are shots I get with it that would definitely be better with aperture and shutter control and a bigger sensor -- if I could get that sensor into position fast enough. A shot I can take with the iPhone is way better than a shot I can't get with the DSLR.
This has gotten me using a wide angle lens a lot more, too. Normally I shoot primes, and I tend to favor telephotos. My favorite lenses are my 85mm f/1.8 and my 85mm f/3.5 Macro. (Micron, technically, 'cause Nikon gotta Nikon.) The main lens on the iPhone is 26mm-equivalent, and the wide lens is an unheard-of-for-me 13mm-equivalent. I've been keeping my eyes out for things that would look interesting with a wide angle lens's foreground and background separation, which I feel like is bending my brain in a skill-developing way.
Lots more to say about some other ways I'm trying to improve my compositions but we're now at 500 words and that seems perfectly respectable for a first outing, so lets optimize for getting this thing out.