Sunday, October 20, 2024

Too Close To CallYesterday's British Columbia provincial election was impossibly close. We won't know the official outcome for at least a week. The stalemate has me wondering if something about our increasingly polarized society is contributing to 50/50 outcomes. QueuedI've started listening to Oliver Burkeman's follow-up to Four Thousand Weeks, Meditations for Mortals, Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. I'm consuming the prescribed 1 chapter a day, for 28 days. It's off to a strong start. Atmospheric Rivers and CreeksI remember a time, not too long ago, when an Atmospheric River was called "heavy...

October 20th, 2024

Should It Stay Or Should It Go?

I have a fair number of cameras and lenses.  Not an intervention-worthy number but it's a fair number nonetheless.  I find it hard to sell cameras and lenses due to a combination of FOMO, nostalgia and novelty.  I always return to all or most of the gear in my collection eventually but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to keep it all.  Too much gear leads to indecision for me when I want to go out and photograph.  Eliminating some gear won't solve this but it does help, I know from experience when I unloaded a bunch of...

May 19th, 2024

Battery Low

My watch knows how I'm feeling right now.  A walk in the forest helped!

May 16th, 2024

Yet To Figure It Out

I like Scribbles, the authoring experience, the look and feel. It's a low-friction way to blog. I have yet to figure out exactly how I want to use it.  I have 3+ years invested in my photo blog at dougmclachlan.com and while it takes a bit more effort to post there (I'm using a Git repo and Blot.im) I like that platform a lot. Best not to overthink it I suppose. They are just personal blogs after all! Here are a few of photos from yesterday.  More on the photo blog.

May 4th, 2024

Sunday Serendipity

Being in the right place at the right time still requires putting yourself there.  I was feeling particularly slothlike yesterday but forced myself to go for a photo walk. I was rewarded with a beautiful afternoon and the gift of a spectacular rainbow. Even before spotting the rainbow my mood had improved significantly! More pics from the afternoon on my photo blog.

April 29th, 2024

Examine The Wall You've Hit

When you hit a wall in life it's often a good idea to stop and examine the wall before you try and get around, over or through it. It's a life lesson I've had to re-learn many times!  A few snaps this evening with the Ricoh GR3x.  

April 17th, 2024

Twilight Companions

I took this photo a couple of weeks back and published in in this post as a color photo.  I like the black and white version too!  The photo was made with the Fujifilm XT-2 and the 70-300 lens. Neither the XT-2  nor the 70-300 lens get much love from me these days. I don't tend to gravitate towards long focal lengths but I was shooting some people playing in low tides that evening and having a lens with some reach is handy in that situation! 

April 11th, 2024

The Black Keys' Ohio Players - Expectations Exceeded

Ohio Players, the new album by the Black Keys dropped on Friday.  I've been looking forward to the release and it's exceeded my expectations! I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a new album so much!  I also enjoyed the review on Pitchfork and the recent interview on Spin's Sonic Impact podcast

April 7th, 2024

A Tail Chasing Kind of Day

It was one of those days where I just couldn't seem to get on top of things. Whenever I get too busy I figure I must be doing something wrong. Perhaps some days are just destined to feel like you are running in circles. I did feel better after a late afternoon walk among the neighbourhood cherry blossoms!

April 3rd, 2024

Kita Boshi Is A Wonderfully Minimal Mechanical Pencil

This lovely, Japanese-made, 2mm mechanical pencil/lead holder arrived today.  It feels similar to a wooden pencil, perhaps just a bit heavier, and comes with a compact lead sharpener.  I like the minimal design and it is inexpensive too! 

April 2nd, 2024

A Place For Scribbles

I've tried a few times to have a personal (micro) blog.  Somewhere just to post random, interesting (at least to me) tidbits.  I have my photo blog over at dougmclachlan.com hosted on blot.im but I wanted something even lower friction for quick & random posts on a variety of topics.  So here we go!

April 2nd, 2024