Nikon Lite•Touch Zoom AF – First Roll Review

Several weeks ago, during one of the many trips to local charity shops with my darling, adorable wife, I spotted a small, leather camera case in the jewelry display. I suspected it to be some sort of digicam, so imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found the Nikon Lite•Touch Zoom AF. The …

Enter the Minuta Stereo (preproduction model)

It was an early, sleepy Monday morning, the first of February, 2021, and the year was off to a frustrating start, when I opened my email to find a note from Dominick Oczkowski, creator of the Minuta Stereo camera. I knew something of Oczkowski already, thanks to a podcast or something I saw on Twitter …

Deep Freeze, TX

If you’re unaware, that is, if you were living on top of a faraway mountain with no access to national or international news, or if you’re reading this far into the future and have forgotten, the polar vortex slid down into Texas, all the way to the Rio Grande, late on Valentine’s Day, or early …

(photo)book(s) of the year, 2020

I looked at and read more books in 2020 than I did in the entire decade 2010-2019. I didn’t keep count, but I averaged 1 book a day for the first half of the year, and then 2-3 a week since. I’m not proud. Most of it was virtually indistinguishable from broadcast television and the …

Nathan Benn – ‘A Peculiar Paradise’

A Peculiar Paradise: Florida Photographs is exactly what it claims to be: photographs, made in Florida, by former National Geographic photographer (and one time head of Magnum) Nathan Benn. Most—if not all—of the photographs were made in two Geographic-funded trips, one in 1973, “to fill out another photographer’s coverage of the flourishing Cuban-born community centered …

The Beatles – ‘The Beatles’ (The White Album) Fiftieth Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition

In March of 1990, an English band with the excellent name of Candy Flip covered the Beatles’ classic “Strawberry Fields Forever.” I turned 12 a month later, and one evening around that time I was riding back to my dad’s apartment after a day hanging out in the back of the Ritz Camera at North …

The Rikenon 40mm f/2.8, an appreciation

The Rikenon 40mm f/2.8 is one of my favorite lenses. It’s sharp enough, with good color transmission and not too much vignetting, and I love the field of view: it’s never too wide like a 35mm can sometimes be, and it’s never too tele like a 50 sometimes is (especially if you shoot with a …