Craig Mod

For me, the Leica Q camera. I've fallen in and out of love with photography over the years and it (along with a toddler who makes for a great subject) has certainly rekindled things for me.

I took a (film) photography course as a teen that initially sparked this interest, and received a secondhand Canon AE-1 film SLR camera as a gift from a relative. I had fun experimenting with this for a while, but when I went to college, I guess it didn't make the cut of things to bring with me.

While I was in college, I was somewhat aware that digital photography was emerging, but it was expensive and I was broke, so the photo thing was just shelved for a while. A couple years out of college, digital camera prices had come down and I had a good job so I treated myself to a Canon Rebel XT digital SLR. Having infinite film was amazing for experimentation and I got really into nature photography for a while.

Then, like everyone else, the camera that was always in my pocket (attached to my smartphone) improved to the point that I didn't find myself reaching for a dedicated camera very often. I got a Sony and then a Fuji mirrorless camera with the goal of getting something smaller than the SLR that would still produce noticeably better photos than the smartphone. They did, but I still didn't find myself using them often, and I sold them off.

Then, I guess it was 2016, I read Craig Mod's review of the Leica Q camera[0]. I become borderline obsessed. His description of "delight" in…

I like this author's idea of curating bookmark lists, but I think they are most effective when two criteria are followed: (1) keep the list small, (2) write small notes about each entry.

For example, the bookmarks list the author links to (https://www.marginalia.nu/links/bookmarks/) has 48 URLs annotated only by category. That's too many for my tiny brain to handle and I move on.

A webring like Hundred Rabbits' (https://webring.xxiivv.com/) has 203 entries. For me, this is in the same category as 48. (It also reminds me of those "Awesome X" lists on GitHub that end up flooded with hundreds of links.)

To attempt an example of what I mean, here's the bookmark list I publish on my website:

- Bret Victor (http://worrydream.com/) • interaction and abstraction

- Craig Mod (https://craigmod.com/) • long walks, atmospheric photos

- Hundred Rabbits (https://100r.co/site/home.html) • physical and digital minimalism from first principles, extensively documented

- Mu-An Chiou (http://muan.co/) • rhythm, space, movement, color

- Steven Wittens (http://acko.net/) • 3D sorcery

(edit: formatting)

I enjoy photography but not enough (at the moment and foreseeable future) to sink a lot of time/money into it. I don't even consider it a "hobby" as much as I just like to carry a camera around with me when I know I'm going somewhere interesting.

Marco mentions them towards the end of the post but I absolutely love my mirrorless, micro 4/3s camera (Panasonic GF-1). [1] It's small/light enough that it's not a burden to carry (form factor is somewhere between a point and shoot and dSLR) and the picture quality, at least to a novice like myself, is excellent. I'm a big believer in the idea that "the best camera to own is the one you have in your hand" and I really wouldn't want to lug around anything bulkier/heavier, despite the added functionality.

[1] http://craigmod.com/journal/gf1-fieldtest/ - epic craigmod post that sold me on my camera, and has by his own admission given him a good chunk of money/exposure.

I like your site design (and the most recent article), particularly the side/margin notes. I had done a similar thing on a previous incarnation of my own site but eventually decided to keep them in the footnotes section so that the focus would be kept on the essay. But seeing them here makes me rethink that decision.

I am slowly working my way through Web Typography by Richard Rutter (http://www.book.webtypography.net/) as I redesign my website. You may find it helpful as well. Another inspiration is Craig Mod's (https://craigmod.com) site (of which I took more than a few suggestions from).

Looking forward to reading your other articles! Good luck with the writing practice.

Edit: Change 'first article' to 'most recent article'.

Hi,

I come across a lot of blogs when I curate for my newsletter Interesting Things [1]. Just looking through the links that have been curated in the past month or so, I would suggest:

Tech

- https://wasteofserver.com/

- https://tonsky.me/

- https://brianschrader.com/

- https://blog.thea.codes/

- https://fasterthanli.me/

- https://jvns.ca/

- https://blog.royalsloth.eu/

Non-tech

- https://www.drorpoleg.com/ - About work and society

- https://staysaasy.com/ - About tech work

- https://www.nateliason.com/ - About life in general

- https://andymatuschak.org/

- https://craigmod.com/

- https://perell.com/

And, of course, shameless plug: https://bengtan.com

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[1] https://bengtan.com/interesting-things

> only those which access the Play Store

I'll bet this means an enormous number of outdated devices outside the first world are missing. In particular, any area without cheap and reliable data access is probably eschewing the Play Store for some kind of local-area app sharing like Zapya.

Not your fault obviously, these are fascinating stats as is. But I'm also really curious how many smartphones have gone "off the grid" without being retired. Generalizing from Myanmar [1], I suppose Facebook's internal device data would be the best source.

[1] https://craigmod.com/sputnik/smartphones_in_myanmar/