You can view my library of photography and art books by clicking here.
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If the original supermodels of the 1950s were Lisa Fonssagrives (later Mrs. Irving Penn) and Wenda Rogerson (Mrs. Norman Parkinson) you will not find them in this book whose focus is on the fashion photography world of the 1970s. Instead it’s models like Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington who feature heavily in the pages of this book and the whole confection is as fun as it gets.
Ostensibly intended to showcase Arthur Elgort‘s large camera collection it focuses on his always light and fun photography for the leading magazines of the day and, yes, it’s the Big Four which feature heavily in its pages. That means Leica, Nikon, Hasselblad and Rolleiflex.
The type is hard to read but you don’t come here for reading. Viewing is the goal. Highly recommended.
The other day I sadly took my 2010 Mac Pro to the recyclers. The resale value approximated what it would cost to ship this behemoth and the last six generations of OS X releases saw to it that none would run on the machine, denying me the security fixes announced seemingly monthly.
Can you spell ‘planned obsolescence’?.
While this piece is focused on Apple, like thinking applies to all computer hardware makers. They conspire with the software authors (in Apple’s case they conspire with Apple) to make sure that older machines can no longer run the upgraded operating system and many of the related applications. The conspiracy deepens when you look at the horrendous costs laid on users by ethically challenged businesses like Adobe who, in obsoleting earlier versions of their apps, use the planned obsolescence strategy to force you into a rental payment system, euphemistically known as the ‘subscription model’.
So it was with the memory of that great recycled Mac Pro that I read this well researched article in Macworld magazine. The bottom line is this:
So, in answer to the question: How long do Macs last? We’d say five to eight years, but beware that you may not be able to replace any faulty parts in a Mac when more than five years have passed since Apple last sold it.
Imagine if your house or your car lasted only 5 years. But, the hypocrites in Apple Marketing are the first to tell you about their environmentally friendly packaging for the new Mac Mini. It’s cardboard for heaven’s sake. See for yourself:
Hypocrisy redefined.
Any mention of the fact that your new Mac will be toxic landfill 5 years hence because Engineering was told by Marketing to make sure it’s obsolete by then? And because avoiding that required just a few lines of code? You must be joking.
Some fighters, of course, fight. These Russians squared up. They fired Kalashnikovs or shotguns at incoming quadcopters, threw their own helmets or rifles into the path of their descending tormentors or swung long sticks, trying to knock 21st-century drones to dirt with weapons from eons ago. When all other defenses failed, the instant before incoming warheads impacted torsos and limbs, a few swatted or kicked at the quadcopters with bare hands or booted feet, lashing out reflexively at the candid cameras sent to kill them. Then they absorbed shrapnel and blast. The explosions claimed many victims instantly. Others were thrown down and expired slowly, gasping or twisting or rolling in pain, sometimes with uniforms aflame, while observation drones collected footage of their agonies. Occasionally, wounded Russian survivors ended their own lives with hand grenades or by shooting themselves with rifles. Some played dead and ended up that way.
This extract from a superb year-end piece in The New York Times titled “How Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine” by C. J. Chivers, written in gripping prose with photography no less compelling from David Guttenfelder, testifies to the wisdom of subscribing to the last great newspaper in America. With The Washington Post now edited by a Murdoch goon (subscription cancelled) and The Guardian likewise (subscription cancelled) there’s only the NYT left for a sane view of an increasingly nutty world.
Superior journalism from the finest paper in the U.S.
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It’s clear that the only way to stop the Russkies’ aggression in Ukraine it to take out the psychopath in the Kremlin or hope for an early end to his miserable existence. Where is The Jackal when you need him?
For an index of all articles about the Epson ET8550 printer, click here.
There are two major aspects of calibrating the color rendering of your system if you want to make prints that match what you see on the display. And while no print – a reflective medium – can hope to match the dynamic range of a transmission technology like an LED screen, you still want to get as close as possible.
The first is to use the right icc paper profile for your printer and paper, something I describe here. And you must not let the printer manage color. The only way to invoke and use that paper/printer profile is to set up your computer to manage color. Leave the printer color management turned off.
The second aspect is monitor calibration. While in OS 10.15 Sequoia it’s hidden away, Apple’s Monitor Display Calibrator is still around and has been for ages. It’s a cheap (free) alternative to calibration hardware which will set you back a minimum of $170. While my Benq monitor comes very well calibrated out of the box, the Apple tool can make things even better. As for my X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 colorimeter it is toast as the makers have refused to update it to work with Apple Silicon CPUs. A business with the integrity of Adobe.
The problem is that Apple seems not to want anyone using the Monitor Display Calibrator as it’s well and truly hidden. Here’s how to find and use it.
Go to ‘System Settings (Apple symbol)->Displays’:
System Settings->Displays
Click on ‘Color Profile->Customize’:
System Settings->Displays->Color Profile
See that little ‘+’ symbol at the lower left, below? Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click it. This will get you into the Monitor Display Calibrator which looks like this – be sure to click on ‘Expert Mode’ in the right hand window:
System Settings->Displays->Color Profile-Customize
The application will walk you through a five step process to adjust your monitor. Be sure to do this in an ambient light setting as similar as possible to that in which you will display your prints, as ambient light color (‘temperature’ if you speak Geek) affects color rendering in a print. Save the result and then go back into ‘System Settings->Displays’ and make sure your new monitor profile is the one you have selected – see the first image above.
