My grandfather wrote on just about every photograph and slide he ever took. I sometimes wondered why he bothered. After all, he already knew everything about each photo, why make all that extra work? Going through his photos after he passed away made it very clear. I had no idea who most of those people were, nor did I know where they were when the pictures were taken. If he hadn’t recorded it, chances are I’d never know.

This got me thinking about my photos. And yours. I want our grandchildren to know something about the people and places we photograph. What seems obvious and self-explanatory today may become unknowable later.

With digital photographs, it’s trivial to add a keyword or two to each image. I have a system for doing that and keep up with them pretty well. What I haven’t done is write good captions. My family photos with keywords like “Jessica” or “Zim” are helpful, but they don’t do enough, so I’ve started writing captions. For the below example, along with a keyword of “Jessica” the caption might be “Jess getting ready to go to Casino for first time.”

Same thing applies to prints. I know, no one makes actual prints anymore. That’s a shame, so let’s pretend everyone is like me and considers “wet” prints made in the darkroom to be the only real photographs. They’re important to me. If they’re important to you, then turn each one over and write a little note on the back. Something describing the who, what, and where of each image.

I’ve dug out my boxes of prints for the past few years and am doing just that. It only takes a few minutes and it lasts basically forever. Your grandkids will thank you.

UPDATE 2012-03-04: Octopress does not currently handle captions easily. That’s embarrassing, but I’ll update things once they do.

Shooting film tends to encourage a more frugal approach to photography. Medium format is particularly good at preventing me from just randomly photographing everything I see. After all, there are only 12 frames on a roll of 120 when shooting 6x6. Best to make each of them count.

There is one throwaway photo opportunity provided by film that is missing from digital, and that is the need to “finish the roll.” This comes up regularly for me. Yesterday, for example I shot some family portraits using a Hasselblad. I went through a roll of Fuji 800 color film, and two rolls of T-MAX 400. Almost two rolls of T-MAX. I wanted to process them soon, so that left me with either not exposing the final 2 frames or “wasting” them on something nearby. I chose to waste them. Walking to my car, I saw an orchard with many of its trees cut down and logs piled up against each stump.

Snapped the final frames and although the results didn’t make for great photos, I kind of like them, and wouldn’t have taken them at all if not for the “finish a the roll” problem presented by shooting film.

My dad’s brother Gordon and family were in town this week for a reunion. I didn’t have any recent photos of my dad and Gordon together, so I shot this one.

Everyone was so excited when Spotify finally showed up in the US the other day. Being a happy Rdio user for the past several months, I wondered what all the fuss was about, so I signed up for Spotify premium to find out. Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve found so far.

I’ll be ignoring cost, as they both cost the same once you rule out the usefulness of the free versions. If you’re ok with what Spotify’s free version offers, you’ll probably stick with that, since Rdio doesn’t really have a usable free version.

Why I prefer Rdio to Spotify

• There is a web interface available when you need one. Spotify has none.
• Feels more album-oriented. I think in terms of albums so this suits me.
• Much (much!) better discovery in Rdio
• Acts like it’s never even heard of Facebook, while Spotify seems to practically require it.
• Pretty good recommendation engine
• Artist-based “radio” (web interface only?)
• The entire process of finding and adding music makes more sense to me than that of Spotify

I also don’t like Spotify’s desktop app. It’s very iTunes-like. While you’d think that would be a good thing, it just confused me because being like iTunes brought with it expectations that the app never actually met.

Both services work well with my Sonos system, but Spotify did throw a few errors while playing with it. Not sure what that was about.

The iPhone apps are similar and basically it’s a jump ball since I don’t use them other than to hit Play when in the car.

I have not yet looked for any music that was on Spotify but not on Rdio, so unless something strange happens, I’ll be continuing with Rdio and canceling Spotify at the end of the month.

This is the latest incarnation of my living room. I spend a significant amount of time here, and it’s almost perfect for me. The walls are completely white and so far mostly unadorned. I have my record player and records, a few books I’m working through, a writing desk (not in photo), and a comfortable chair.

I may break down and get a sofa at some point, since entertaining is difficult with only a single chair. I’ll hang some photos as soon as I shoot something worth hanging. And I should probably find shelves for the vinyl. Mostly though, it’s comfortable and just right.

Grabbed my beat up OM-1n off the shelf this afternoon just for the hell of it. Normally I shoot using a 50mm lens, as I just don’t get along well with anything wider. The OM had a 28mm Zuiko attached to it so I left it alone and burned through a quick roll in the yard. It’s such a fun camera, and the viewfinder is so good that the 28mm didn’t feel as “way too wide” as it does when using a rangefinder. Now I’m thinking about trying the 28 for a while and see if I can get my head around it.

Not quite in focus. Grainy. Badly lit. Off-kilter. Analog. Yep, that’s Tom Waits. I so love this record.

Finished a roll of Delta 3200 that’s been sitting in the Olympus OM-2n. Processed in T-MAX. Lotsa grain, but not nearly as awful overall as I expected. Next I’d like to try stand development with Rodinal.

Fruits and vegetables are great, but I don’t eat nearly enough of them. My newly discovered love of “juicing” is changing that. The above photo shows what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow. There’s no way I’d ever actually eat all that in one meal. In fact, that’s probably more than I’d eat in a week. Instead, I’ll run it through the juicer and drink the lot of it on the way into the office.

This recipe is called “Mean Green” and is featured in the film “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” which inspired me to try making juice in the first place. I won’t be doing any sort of “cleanse” like in the movie, but I’ll certainly be getting my daily dose of fruits and veggies.

Mean Green recipe from Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

• 1 Bulk of kale
• 4 Stalks of celery
• 1 Cucumber
• 2 granny smith apples
• ½ lemon
• Ginger root (thumb sized)

My recent D700 purchase was exciting for me. Beautiful files and a completely versatile, see-in-the-dark sensor makes it a terrific camera and I’ve been having a blast with it.

Yesterday I took out the Hasselblad and fired off a quick roll. The photo above of my dog Katie is my favorite of the 12 exposures. It’s a bit underexposed and not focused very well, but I like the photo anyway. Something about the way medium format film looks is very appealing to me. I love the big square negatives. I love the way the Zeiss lenses render, and I love the way the camera itself looks and feels.

I was worried that the new digital toy would ruin film for me. That was silly.