The Year's End
A few random thoughts to close out 2025
Excuses, excuses…
First off, I wanted to apologize for neglecting to put out a newsletter last week. Tuesday I was in day two of what I thought was a minor cold that started sometime late Saturday. I did try to get one out, I setup my little still-life studio with the intent of systematically evaluating Adobe’s “Super Resolution” features I briefly reviewed earlier when they were first released. I follow-ed that up again late last month…
My thoughts were exactly as I outlined in that previous post. I wanted to systematically test many of the notions I had based on the tests so far. Specifically I wanted to test my 20 megapixel camera against my 50 megapixel camera with the same glass. Some of the glass “good enough” and some superlative to reasonably determine my comfort level with using my low-megapixel camera as a substitute for my high-megapixel camera and under what conditions I’d actually do that. I also wanted to determine once-and-for-all what produced the best results; A great lens with lower megapixels using “Super Resolution” or a so-so lens using significantly more native resolution.
As the day wore on my physical condition grew significantly worse. A few hours in and I was growing frustrated with my setup. I was making mistake after mistake. By lunchtime I was spent. I accomplished nothing beyond producing a few examples that reconfirmed some of my initial observations as well as reconfirming I still hate my iPad for work like this. In all fairness my condition may have contributed to my iPad animosity, we’ll leave that for evaluation when I am more rational. Fast-forward, I am still sick. Yep the entire holiday season. I probably had something to do with that as I kept pushing myself to the point of spending an entire day out in the cold the moment I felt even a little better. No more of that.
Thank all of you and best wishes for 2026
I didn’t want to let the year’s end go by without mentioning a couple things. The first is a warm, sincere thank you to all of our subscribers, especially those who contribute a few hard-earned dollars to help us keep going. The second thing is to wish all of you a happy, successful, and wonderful 2026.
I also wanted to encourage you in your work and in all of our shared love for printed photographic art. It’s winter in the northern hemisphere and for many of you that is not a great time for making outdoor work. That doesn’t mean there aren’t many productive and rewarding endeavors to participate in. Just a reminder to all of the things you might want to consider when the weather is not productive for your particular photographic endeavors.
It’s a great time to finally organize your work, to make sense of it, and give it an editorial voice.
Use the next couple of months to host a small local showing of your work, it is not impossible, be creative. Look for venues, it might be easier and closer than you imagine. A lot of our newsletters in the last quarter were focused on doing just that.
Go see other people’s work. Don’t only go to museums, search out smaller venues close to home as well.
Heck, go to a museum. There are plenty of great photography exhibitions there.
If you’re close visit your local Leica store, there’s almost always a great display of photographic work to be had (just one thing to like about Leica even if you’re not a Leica shooter). Look here…
Do what I recommend more than once as a wintertime activity… Teach yourself to shoot still-life.
Shoot some still-life, even just a little bit
You really don’t need much. Try some skylight through a large window. You cannot move the light but you can move what you are making pictures of. Experiment, get yourself a large white reflector of some sort. Nothing fancy, I prefer big hunks of white foam-board. In a pinch you can make one from any old white fabric. Move on from there and experiment.
Still life is not “easy” but can be extremely rewarding as well as practical. Don’t make it too difficult before producing any results. You’ll be surprised how much you learn and how quickly subject matter and ideas pile-up. Stuff in your pockets… the reflections or microcosms of what you’re working on, thinking about, and even things you’re writing down. Are you going to make yourself lunch… the material is endless but I assure you you’ll start to get ideas that will influence all of your photographic endeavors. The trick, like most things is just get started and it will take on a life of it’s own before you know it.
For a little bit of inspiration I’ll refer you to a Leica event mentioned above. Specifically Sarah Schorr’s Ephemeral Field Journal event at the Leica Store in Boston. It seems this event is more still-life photographs of her actual mixed-media work. Looking at her website much of her publications uses photography to show a lot of that mixed-media work as well as some environmental photography to enhance her multi-faceted art. Just viewing some of how she uses photography to supplement her main work has inspired some things for my own photographic projects related to my local environment and specifically my Watercolors mini-project I walked through in this newsletter.
Winter does not have to be a dead-zone for your own work either.
Great ideas but I’m still banned from the Leica Store in Boston because they had to have security pry the Q2 out of my hands at closing time 😁 And don’t give up on the iPad for consumption, but yikes, trying to create on it is not a happy path.
I usually will do one or two Still Lifes shoots during the winter keeping it simple but usually includes one off camera flash that is seldom used. Thanks for the Leica links. Happy Holidays.
Tom