Really. It's not like I can keep up with Cat Typing. I would like to post there weekly, or even daily, but I'm lucky to crank out something monthly.However, I think it's a good idea to start this one. Why? Well, because Cat Typing was being too many things, I think. Ironic, no? After all, I can't come up with enough to say on it, but I think it's doing too much? Well, yeah, because the point is why, not what.
I think Cat Typing is a good place to tell stories, share thoughts, generally express the ideas I have that I have to bore my long suffering wife with. (Including perhaps asides on grammar and dangled participles, which I addressed on Tumblr just a minute ago.) But I've also used it as a place to post pictures and generally "build my brand." Seriously, I don't do this just because I think the world will wither without my work -- much of which I do for me -- but so I can get more, paying work and build my reputation.
Another thing I've done partly for me, but also for "branding," is to carry a Leica with me all the time. The story I tell when people ask is true: Just before Christmas a couple of years ago, the family and I were coming out of The Palms in Lexington, only to find local character Mark Cline setting up the decorations in Hopkins Green, a small park in the center of town. I was confronted with the scene of three men wrestling an eight-foot fiberglass snowman into position: a perfect photo. No camera. Never again.
Lunch table at the Leica Historical Society of America convention in Knoxville, Ky., 2009
That's my M3 with a 28mm lens on the right.
Yeah, I shot the picture with a Nikon D200.
Sorry.
But carrying a Leica says something more. It speaks of a history of great photography, and it indicates one is a serious professional. After all, these things are not cheap or particularly easy to use. And it has worked; people often notice the old film camera around my neck and ask about it. I've had some lovely conversations with photo enthusiasts, and some nice chats with colleagues who see the camera as I intend it: a statement of a serious commitment to good photography.
Perhaps it has occurred to you by now that this means there are a lot of pictures. Not as many as you might think, but enough that it needs an outlet. I have been using Cat Typing, and I thought that was okay, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the pictures should have their own blog. So (FINALLY, he gets to the point) I decided to create this blog -- plog? -- to deal with this output.
Stand by ...
