Medium Format vs 35mm vs Digital

6?!?... it's more like 2 in each situation for me...

Comedian Demetri Martin on Digital Cameras

I like digital cameras because they allow you to reminisce immediately.

- Demetri Martin

Printers

When to Start That "Dream Project"

This is too real...

Crop Art at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair

My son and I were in the horticulture building before it was open on the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair last Thursday. I was entering cherry tomatoes (I ended up earning a 3rd place ribbon!), and the drop off was 6:30 a.m. through 9 a.m. when the building itself didn’t open to the public until after that.

So we had the opportunity to do something amazing: look at the “crop art” with NO ONE else around! Usually that room has a huge line, and it’s packed with viewers during normal fair hours! Here are a few pics:

[click each image to enlarge]

My son and about 1/3 of the crop art, before all the building lights were even turned on.

I had a good time explaining some of the “art puns” that were being made with some of the crop art. For example: here we see “Girl with a Pearl Earring” portrayed as a squirrel, as well as “The Son of Man” shown with a corn dog instead of an apple:

"American Gothic" with the 2 MN State Fair mascots, Fairchild and Fairborne.


"Saturn Devouring His Son" but with a corn cob.


Another version of "The Son of Man"


"The Birth of Venus."


"Migrant Mother" - one of the most famous photographs of all time!


"This is not a corn dog" which is a take on "The Treachery of Images,"
and you can see it won an award from the Minneapolis Institue of Arts!

Kodak in Trouble?

In a report that went out on Monday, Kodak noted that their gross profit fell about 12%, or $7 million, declining from $58 million in the second quarter of 2024 to $51 million in the second quarter of 2025, and that it had upcoming debt obligations that need to be fulfilled within the next year. There were concerns that Kodak would disappear.

Kodak pushed back, releasing a statement that they have no plans to cease operations.

One of the photo-based Facebook groups I'm a part of shared this tongue-in-cheek post:

Ha! But seriously, we'll all be watching what happens with Kodak...

Professional Camera Settings

"Wet Paint" Signs at Wet Paint

I love the colletion of "Wet Paint" signs at my favorite art store (Wet Paint) in St. Paul:

Click image to enlarge.

It Must Be Finals Season...

... because I woke up to these 2 texts on my phone:

I love that there was a realization an hour later that I might have been woken up, but then still an embarrassed follow-up text after that realization. Ha!

(Turns out it was a question about processing film - nothing super urgent.)

Contact "Sheets" or "Prints" or...

I recently had this Facebook memory pop up from 2 years ago:

Camera Lens Focus Modes

I'm never going to see the "auto focus / manual focus" switch the same after this...

3-in-1 Lego Camera Set

A Lego Ambassador shared this sweet 3-in-1 camera lego set that's coming out in a few weeks:

1961: John Drysdale Tried to Photograph a Kangaroo...

... but this happened instead:

I can't be certain, but that appears to be a Hasselblad, so I feel a little bad for smirking.

(Oh yes... and I hope he's OK too... but we all know we worry more about our cameras than our own well-being in situations like this.)

Using a View Camera in Public

This is 60 seconds of truth:

Direct link: https://youtu.be/8SQwxOBDplc

"Who taught you that word?..."

You Are What You Art

This was found in the window to the Digital Media Art's Printshop at Hamline University:

Buzz Lightyear Quote

College of Visual Arts Identity Package

In the last days of the Werner Design Werks exhibition "Werk Ethic" at Concordia University, I maaaaaybe did something a little sneaky...

Direct link: youtu.be/8fjBrClyLXY

It actually contained original files from 1995 - a handful of years before I was a student there. Here are some more photos of that wild exhibition.

Failed Selfies

Neon Green

Just a little color-based pun:

Rocket Launch Destroys Camera

I saw this image on the web and had to investigate:

It turns out the story is true, but not how I imagined it.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls set up several remotely triggered cameras near the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to capture a SpaceX launch. And he was successful:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

Ingalls went to pick up his cameras, and he had ones closer to the launch pad that were just fine. But one that was farther away and captured the previous image looked like this:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

No, it wasn't the blast of the rocket that burned this instantly (which is how I imagined it in my mind). Instead, the rocket launch sparked a brush fire (which is apparently not uncommon) and Ingalls camera fell victim. He said it had continued to take photos "until its demise," and shared one of the final images:

Image from NASA / Bill Ingalls.

Is that the lens hood melting down at the top of that image? Wild.