Gear Reviews

I’m guilty of gear lust myself but I’m pretty sure it’s ruined photography for a lot of people. Constantly chasing the dream, thinking it will make you better. Most of the influential photography channels are centered around gear. Average at best photographers who create images that play well on the algorithm. It’s influenced an entire generation.

Spoiled Sports Fans

Being from Cincinnati, sports mediocrity has been the norm for most of my life until recently. I don’t think the Bengals won a playoff game in over 20 years until Joe Burrow came along. The Reds have been irrelevant for just as long. Still though, with all the struggles, Cincy fans are still passionate and positive about their teams. I’d run into rabid fans who thinks this year is the year. I’m sure they knew in the past it was all a lie but they were trying to look on the bright side. Polar opposite in cities like New York, Boston or Philly. So used to winning, at the slightest sign of defeat the fans will boo you down. Fair-weather fans, no patience with no history of decades long spoils.

Battle of the GRs

I’ve had a lot of GRs. Mainly because they are fragile and I return them if they show any lag with the lens motor. I was playing around earlier with my Ricoh GRIII and the GRDIV. The GRIII has a crop sensor with a 2.8 max aperture, the GRDIV has an iPhone sized 4×3 sensor with a 1.9 aperture. I gtta say, after playing around I much prefer the 13 year old GRDIV. It has much faster AF, macro down to 1 millimeter, DOF for days, superior battery life, on camera flash, separate exposure compensation button, 4×3 sensor which is great for landscape and portrait shots and a bit lighter. The ony thing I’m missing from the GRIII is the faster start up time, wider apertures (the GRDIV only goes to f9. This matters as I like to shoot at ISO 1600 to get that sexy grain), highlight weighted metering and more customization in the film effects. The black and white images from the GRDIV are also superior in my opinion. Set it to ISO 1600 and the grain looks killer. Matched with the CCD tones, the black and whites are pretty spectacular. Shooting JPEG only, the files from the GRDIV are around 4mb so big enough for most things.

Have a look at this using the Ricoh GRDIV. Here’s a macro shot of a callous on my hand from pull ups. This was a SOOC BW film effect with contrast boosted to max at 1600 ISO. I used the auto level correction in camera to give it a bit more contrast.

I’m sure people today will discount this camera because it seems we are obsessed with sensor size and megapixels. I’m guilty of this as well, but if you’re just doing this for fun I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t dig the GRDIV.

My Favorite Grunge Bands Growing Up

I’m not sure how I was introduced to grunge music, but it’s all I listened to growing up starting at around age 12. The following in order are my favorite bands.

  1. Soundgarden
  2. Alice in Chains
  3. Stone Temple Pilots
  4. Temple of the Dog
  5. Audioslave
  6. Pearl Jam
  7. Nirvana

Three of my top five have Chris Cornell as lead. His voice is amazing. Alice in Chains is a close second. Lane Staley is on another level. Their MTV Unplugged album is spectacular. STP third because I listened to the Core about a million times. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were my least favorite. Maybe because they were more popular and played out in my mind. Sadly, four of the five singers have passed away.

Soundgarden, King of Grunge

I think they are my favorite band. I listened to the albums Superunknown and Down on the Upside countless times during my high school years. Those albums bring back simpler times of cruising the strip in my Datsun 280zx with no responsibility, my whole life ahead of me. I was never into their earlier stuff, was a bit before my time and more rough. The two mentioned albums were really grungy with melodic vibes. Great road trip music. Chris Cornell’s voice is fantastic with a wide variety of tones. I was listening to them earlier on my bike ride through Santa Monica and Venice Beach and knocked out 20 miles no problem. Zooming past all the motorized bikes and scooters like they were standing still. Soundgarden moves me to go upwards of 25 mph. They seem like the perfect Venice Beach music.

I was listening to Zero Chance on repeat. Forgot about this song. Lesser known jam. Chris Cornell really shows his wide range on this one. Like a lot of their songs, you must be patient. This one take about a minute to get going.

Another favorite is Limo Wreck. You know a band is good when their lesser known songs are absolute bangers.

Kindergarten Cop

I watched this movie last night. Arnold Schwarzenegger goes undercover as a teacher to catch a drug dealer. The movie was made in the late 80s so the kids in kindergarten are roughly the same age I was when the movie was released. It’s fun to see something you relate to like the milk cartons and pledge of allegiance. It’s a funny movie, Arnold is so good at playing the tough guy with a sense of humor. While watching the movie, there was a scene that could be depicted as anti-gay and would surely face cancellation today. But what’s even more bizarre is, I Googled “Cancel Kindergarten Cop” for kicks and turns out, it was already canceled in Portland in 2020 from complaints of over policing in schools. I hadn’t even thought about that angle. Just when you think you know, you have no idea.