Also, I’m on my sixth gallery software install since I first put images up on this site some six years ago.  It works ok, but it uses Flash which annoys me and the fallback (primarily) for iOS doesn’t work well, which doesn’t annoy me.  I’ve decided to leave it for now, but I realize the best option to do an HTML5 gallery, probably from scratch or at least with pasted together code.  There’s plenty of nice things (and much overlap with my Facebook fan page, so it can wait.  Weiter.

I decided that rough is better than none, so I posted a preliminary write up of the Hasselblad 2000 FCW. Fortunately, I can cut and paste much of that V body’s review into other pages, so hopfully it will speed up the 500 ELX and 500 C(/M) reviews.

Also, I found I tend to repeat the same damn pearls of wisdom in one too many conversations, so I figured I’d make a running list and expand on each one of them in a blog post. I don’t think there is any particular order for them, but we’ll see. It might even get me to write more.

Again, we’ll see.

This time I have done some hardening of the install beyond new .htaccess files, plus checked my database (but disturbingly didn’t find anything), and added an IDS and some other stuff.  Yeah, should have done that ages ago.  Well, here’s hoping I don’t have to deal with this again… which will require me paying more attention.

So last year, this site more than doubled in traffic. Not a bad result from flirting reluctantly with self promotion – handing out maybe 200 business cards since the end of October 2010. This year, goals are explicit, higher and pursued with intent. My public presence now includes:

• This site with formal collections of finished artwork.  The visual component will be fairly static.   Text, in the form of blog posts and information pages, will be frequent and more importantly, useful.  Expect equipment and technique reviews from my unique standpoint, and I plan to add a good bibliography in the next few days.
• My new, public Facebook page will have my most up to date work, often in a raw, lightly edited state.  What was once accessible to a select group of artists and friends will be public.  Please hit “like” and “share” it with your friends, too.
• My work will be represented on one more site, but that’s a bit down the line and somewhat hush hush.
• My twitter feed collects much of the above and serves as an overall RSS feed.  I still need to figure out a proper flow for these microblog links – I want to inform, not spam.  It should be manageable, but if you find a flood, let me know.

And that pretty much covers the online stuff only.  Other things are in the works – and that doesn’t include the real work : the art.

2011 was a mixed bag – everything about it could be described as half-hearted – and yet, still a success.  Let’s see what happens with some intent behind it.

Yay.

[3:02am EDIT: fixed. WordPress might have a similar hole. need to check.]

The rest, however, are not so lucky.  I have a bit of an upload going on; “retrospeculum” (formerly, “Start Here”) will be changing a bit.  Too much overlap with other sections.  “Destilled” will be getting, well, destilled, as soon as I figure out what belongs there.  I know there are things that don’t belong there right now, and they will go.

Oh, the bio, which was boring and stupid was rewritten.  A lot fewer details and a lot more informative.  I did remove my ICQ account listing.  It kills me.  It was six digits, and I had the thing since (cringe) high school.

Moving along, that stuff will sort itself out.  More important is what is coming to this section.  Since my trip to Miami this past March, I’ve been shooting a fair amount of film, mostly MF (6×7 and 6×9 in particular), but also a little 4×5 and 35mm.  I just took possession of – god help me – an 8×10, but nothing is happening there until I build, buy, or steal a new bellows.

The upshot of all this is that I have a significant range of film cameras, many of which are system cameras, and have developed approaches to using and specific purposes to each.  I mean everything from a Mamiya C330S to a Graflex 4×5 R.B. (with factory Graflok!) sporting a 8″/2.9 slapped in front with gaffer tape, epoxy, and a steel lensboard from an unknown system.  All of these systems have reviews online: none of these are new cameras and lots of people have things to say.  I do not intend to duplicate that.  I just want to give my notes on these tools, especially since I have a pretty good cross section of MF offerings (thought LF and 35mm will get some notes).  Systems include Mamiya TLR, Mamiya RB67 and RZ67, Mamiya Universal, Koni Omega, Pentax 67, Horseman 970, Kiev 60, Hasselblad 500 series, and more.  I think the first up will be the Koni, representing one of the best price/performance ratios in film cameras, which is remarkable given the current prices of systems like the RZ67 and the Fuji GX680.

But for now, I sleep.

Well, it isn’t: I’ve just been very busy printing and doing some new work. I’m sure I’ll take a break one of these days soon and write about rant-and-read-worthy matters.