Photography

Going to a DSLR from a pocket point and shoot a few years ago was a wonderful change. My lizard/frogs/bugs photos jumped up in quality significantly. Fall is coming up, and the bugs are starting to get more sparse, so I've been focusing more and more on birds. They're more difficult to work with though, as they're often any combination of pretty far away, very shy, move around a lot, or sticking to the shadows and thick leaves and branches. My 70mm lens isn't cutting it, so I'm gonna save money so in the spring, I can buy maybe a 400mm lens or something. I already have a bird/bug hunting strategy for if and when I do. From sunup to about ten, I'll have the bigger lens out for birds. Then from ten to early afternoon, when the birds become less active, I'll switch to the 70mm lens and turn my attention on the crawly guys.

iNaturalist has done me a lot of good this year, motivating me to get out more. I've learned a lot from it too and look forward to getting out and learning more the rest of this year and into next year.

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Life

I wanted to talk about other things tonight, but my heart isn't in it at the moment. I don't want to be all Facebook Melodramatic Cryptic Post or anything, but I don't want to go into detail about some hardships I'm working through. My burdens are my own to worry about and I'm trying my best as possible to be a level, positive voice on Hubski and in life in general. I'm having a tough year though, I'm ashamed to admit, and today was such a good day it really made me realize how much I've been struggling, for quite a while actually. I know I'll survive in the long run, cause I'm a never give up kind of guy and I'm blessed with some genuinely good people in my life, so don't worry too much. All that said, maybe if some of you are the praying type, as vulgar and selfish as it is for me to ask, throw one or two my way?

Legally, due to copyright, none of us really own the movies, books, games, etc. that we buy. But when we buy it on physical media, we have more control over access. Even then, there's attempts to limit our control. Blu-Ray and DVD both have region coding, Blu-Ray has DRM built in to the system, and if those seem a bit much, I'd like to at least be thankful DIVX crashed and burned.

One of the things we need to think about, when we think about ownership, accessibility, etc., is that physical formats don't last forever. Everything from magnetic tape and magnetic drives to optical disks to paper all have a limited life span. Similarly, in regards to electric media, the devices that can run these formats also have a limited life span. So while we might own a physical game or movie, copy isn't going to last forever and I think it's important to consider if, how, and when we might be able to access it again down the road.

As an aside, there are some great YouTube Channels like Techmoan that go over all sorts of obscure formats and their history.

Recently, due to the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, Filmstruck was closed down and with it, people lost easy access to classic, rare, unique, and fringe cinema. Many of those films are hard to find and if and when they'll be easily accessible again is anyone's guess. In some ways, it reminds me of how the majority of silent films were lost just because studios didn't perceive them as valuable and as a result, thought it was more prudent to destroy their copies than to store and preserve them. I'm not saying that AT&T is going to destroy all of their copies of various films, just that businesses tend to worry more about what makes business sense first and cultural value is often an after thought.

All of that said, the more I tend to think about this subject and similar subjects, the more I see the value in concepts like public domain and creative commons, creating our own culture through crafts and hobbies instead of relying on corporations and businesses to provide us culture, and most importantly, enjoying and appreciating what we have while we have it, because for one reason or another, what's here today isn't in any way guaranteed to be here tomorrow.

Here is a very small sample of some of the books I make. These are the best ones I currently have, but are by no means the best ones I’ve made. Like I told flac last week, when I make a really good book, I’m so excited about it, I can’t wait to give it away. I’m thinking about creating a post eventually, about how I make the majority of my books and why I go that route. It’s funny, because I’ve made so many of them the process seems pretty straightforward to me, but when I stop to think about all of the techniques I use and why I use them, I realize there’s quite a bit of stuff to explain.

In short, I made all of my books with as many natural and bio-degradable materials as possible. The only polymer based materials I intentionally use are PVA Glue and Acrylic Paint. I bind my books with the flat back binding method for two reasons, mostly because I don’t have the tools to do rounding and backing on my books, but also because the extra board on the spine means I don’t have to put headbands on my books if I don’t want to. The one drawback to that binding method is though, while the books open completely, they don't lay flat. It makes writing in them a bit awkward. So it's great for text blocks with pre-existing text already in them, but for journals and sketch books, not so much. When I create my own textblocks, I use linen book tape for reinforcement, french link stitch to help prevent vertical travel between signatures, and kettle stitch on the ends to keep everything nice and secure.

Here’s what a text block looks like by itself.

Here’s a close up of two different lino-cut stamps I’ve made for my books. I like lincocutting a lot. Partly because you can kind of get a woodcut print look out of it, without having to work as hard as you would carving a block of wood. Additionally, because linoleum is made from plant materials, it's biodegradable, which is a plus.

The paint for the dog is Liquitex Acrylic and the rooster on the right is Speedball Block Print Ink for Fabric. I’m not too happy with either. The Luquitex Acrylic, while it dries nice and quick, is really hard to get an even, consistent color out of. I use it though, because I know it’s acid free. I’m saving up some cash this month and I’m gonna buy a few tubes of Luquitex Soft Body Acrylic to see if that’s easier to work with. I’m assuming the answer will be yes. The Speedball Block Print Ink on the other hand, takes forever to dry. We’re talking days. Additionally, I can’t find any information as to whether or not it’s acid free, so there’s that as well.

These are just test prints for the two linocuts I’ve made so far. I’m thinking of buying a button making machine in the future, to turn these test prints into buttons. That way, they’re just not sitting on fabric going to waste.

So yeah. Bookbinding. That’s what I’ve been spending a lot of my free time learning and working on. I have three different projects down the road that I’m gonna try and document to share with you guys, but other than that, if you’re ever wondering what I’m doing with my free time and blowing my money on mindlessly, you’re looking at it.

Have a beautiful day guys.