2026-09-04

Hello! This is a technical article, and even I think I went a bit overboard with this one.

I read one Wikipedia article on Ansel Adams's photographic Zone System and I think I know everything. The arrogance! In my defense, it was the clearest article online I could find on the zone system; the rest were so full of fluff.

Here's what I've learned: the Zone System is a way to make sure light elements of a photograph look light, and dark elements look dark. It's about luminance and the contrast of highlight and shadow between different points of an image.

From pure black to pure white, the system divides it into eleven different zones, from Zone 0 to Zone 10 (or X, to be pretentious). Zone 5 is the exact gray middle between both extremes.

The math behind this works out pretty well, aligning with the camera's built-in exposure system. It's exponential: A Zone 2 exposure is twice that of Zone 1, and four times that of Zone 0. I'm going to steer away from the technical math, because it's "exposure" isn't exactly "brightness" and I would have to insert a formula here and there, which I really don't want to do.

My camera is an eleven-zone camera. Complete coincidence; I didn't know about the Zone System when I bought this camera! But it is measured to be able to render eleven zones (or "stops") in a single image. For context, a high-end consumer camera sold in 2026 can provide a "dynamic range" of 13 stops, and an iPhone can provide a "dynamic range" of eight stops.

I'll talk about this photograph now, sorry. I wanted the light parts (the lighthouse structure itself, coated in white paint) to reach the peak of the camera system's brightness, the sky and the concrete walls to be a light-medium, and the bits of shadow under the trees to be a deep black. I visualized the image to have different parts with contrasting luminance, and made sure the captured image would show that.

Ansel Adams, a well-known landscape photographer in the US who helped develop the Zone System in the 1940s, noted that each zone has a purpose: Zone 0 and 10 will have no detail at the extremes, whereas Zones 2 through 8 will provide a sense of texture that makes a photograph pop out. Zones in the middle will usually be mapped to common objects in an image: Zone 4 for dark stone and foliage, Zone 6 for light skin and "shadows on snow in sunlit landscapes". It's a mathematical way to ensure that every element of an image is at the luminosity it was intended to be.

In the current day, I can use my editing software to check my work. Which parts of the image are in what zone?

I can't show the divided into zones without making loads of supplemental images to this article, so I'll instead list which parts of the image actually ended up in which zone of exposure.

Zone 0: barely evident. Shows up in the deep cracks of the wall and the small trunks of the trees in the distance. As it is pure black, there is no texture.

Zone 1: Shows up in the shallower cracks of the wall, the underside of the tree leaves, and the underside of lighthouse's tippy-top. If I look closely, I could see some detail there, separating leaf by leaf, but it's mostly a dark blob.

Zone 2: The edges of the vertical metal pipe in the lower-center of the image and the rest of the tree leaves that aren't facing the sky.

Zone 3: The rest of the upper walls and a portion of the dark sky in the top-right corner. Also, the rectangular blank sign at the bottom-right.

Zone 4: Top tree leaves facing the sky, upper-mid portion of the walls, and some of the sky.

Zone 5: Middle gray of the image, with some of the sky, the middle of the walls, and the rest of the tree leaves. It gets brighter from here.

Zone 6: Creeping to the bottom of the walls, and a horizontal band of the sky that overlaps the lighthouse's top.

Zone 7: The lower portion of the walls, and a lower band of the sky. Still not bright enough for the lighthouse yet, but the image as a whole gets steadily brighter towards the ground.

Zone 8: The rest of the sky. That's as bright as the clear sky gets in this image, and it's also as bright as the wall. Both the sky and walls have been steady(ish) gradients of brightness, and end at Zone 8.

Zone 9: barely evident. The thin vertical cracks in the walls are the brightest portions, and are the only parts belonging in this zone.

Zone 10: the white lighthouse itself. The brightest slice of this image, and the only thing taking up the zone. It pops out, because there's nothing to compete with it.

If the image was in color, more saturated greens and blues could take my eye away from the unsaturated white lighthouse, but when brightness is the only factor, there's one clear focal point.

Cheers,
David

2026-09-03

Hello!

One of the reasons that Day 200: Two Hundred Links was late — 83 hours late, in fact — in its publishing was because I wanted to get it checked through multiple checks of quality control.

If I had even more time, I would have sent the draft to a few people for a sanity check. Nevertheless, I sent a letter to several of the various bloggers I promoted that day asking for permission and for feedback. So far, no one's spotted anything too egregious.

Yet, I have plans for Day 300, in early December 2026. If it's going to be any good, I need to learn from my takeaway lessons in creating Day 100 and Day 200.

How many links did I discover from my RSS feed reader? 183 of them; all except item 28, 39, 47, 53, 61, 100, 115, 116, 124, 163, 165, 166, 171, 176, 183, 197, and 198. For most of these, I could have sworn I clicked on it through another website's feed, but I can't find the proof.

How many links were YouTube videos? 47 of them; items 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 60, 62, 63, 64, 72, 75, 83, 92, 93, 94, 99, 101, 107, 109, 112, 115, 124, 126, 134, 135, 151, 162, 168, 170, 178, 188, 189, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, and 199. More than I thought, given how long it takes to get through them (even on unreasonably fast speeds).

How many links were from social platforms, excluding YouTube? None. I thought that maybe I would find an out-of-context Tumblr post or a witty one-liner on Bluesky, but I just don't keep up with anyone on those platforms.

How many links were about music? 8 of them; items 4, 26, 47, 53, 82, 133, 160, and 197. This category should have been more frequent; music is a bigger portion of my life than the 4% it is portrayed as.

How many links were about sports? 2 of them; items 104 and 115. Not sure how this happened, other than that most sports articles lose their relevance after six hours.

How many links were from women or about women? 55 of them; items 2, 10, 15, 19, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 37, 41, 46, 49, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 70, 72, 74, 81, 82, 88, 91, 104, 105, 106, 112, 117, 119, 122, 125, 126, 135, 136, 137, 138, 142, 147, 148, 149, 150, 153, 157, 159, 160, 164, 166, 168, 182, 192, 193, 194, and 200. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I was really hoping that I could reach the halfway point of one hundred links written by women or woman subject. Oh well.

How many links were web games? 3 of them; items 39, 176, and 183. I'll admit that I added web games to the list at the end of the schedule; this would have been zero items until the last day.

Finally, how many links were just funny? 6 of them; items 5, 42, 51, 69, 144, and 199.

A majority of the links were about photography, and some were about climate or infrastructure. I knew that was going to be unavoidable, but it's not something I'm looking to change. It's representative of what I read about and talk about.

Cheers,
David

2026-09-02

Hello! I took a much-needed break outdoors and went to the beach.

While on the trail to the beach, I came across this view into the prairie beyond the line of trees. I think prairie is the right word; it's not empty of trees or shrubs, but it is flat and coastal land. Unless this used to be a forest and the replacement trees have been planted this decade, I'm looking at a biome different from what I'm used to.

The bottom-left corner of the image shows cacti growing below the grass line. Being next to sandy terrain, that makes sense. The trees grow different, more fern-style leaves than I'm used to. There's less shade in this area, and I imagine more visibility from above.

I felt a sense of dry air in this area. I don't have a good sense for temperature or humidity, but I would expect wetter air from the Atlantic Ocean and cooler air from the, well, Atlantic Ocean. It could have been from the sand getting in my shoes (I neglected to bring sandals), but it felt dry and warm. Not hot and sweaty, but warmer than I would expect. At least my nose didn't burn from the sun this time.

Okay, so maybe I forgot to turn off my over-analyzing brain for the break outdoors. But the large majority of my day was spent lying on a patch of quiet coast, under the umbrella. It was lovely.

Monochrome photography is a stubborn style, which I didn't anticipate. I should have known that it's more than a one-click "turn off the color" step in post processing. An image that was taken with color at the start, although with monochrome in mind, looks flat and boring if the color is taken out. I added a layer to brighten the top-right corner of the sun and another layer to darken the bottom-left corner in shadow to add selective contrast.

Cheers,
David

2026-09-01

Hello! September will be the month of street photography for me, I hope. I know it usually includes faces and happenstance moments. Just have to set things up down the line to allow for such opportunities.

I found this concrete passageway and found the leading lines of the rails to make for a good composition. The place also has some history, but the remains of this site are detached from the original use of the area as a strategic military position for the US.

The image has some constrast loss in the top-right corner where the sun was, but it almost makes this image look more old-timey with its classic monochrome. I wonder how similar it looks to a light bleed on film photography. Combined with an abandoned military pit as its subject, this could serve as a picture for historical record.

The bug spray I was using that day had a lemon scent, which I'm not sure is as effective as the chemical compounds in name-brand bug spray. Also, it made everything around me smell like lemons, a difficult scent to remove in the washer. Lesson learned.

In post processing, I amplified that loss of contrast in the top-right corner a little bit.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-31

Hello!

This long row of buildings was one of the the only structures on this flat, green field. This one, with its front porch crumbling, was not safe to enter.

I don't know which building this was; they're all identical, set apart only by their decay.

The National Park Service manages it, claiming these homes were used for the US Army after the Civil War. Now, it's a tourist destination at a bit of land that happened to be strategic for the military once.

Alexandra Charitan posted a caption for these buildings: "raccoon hotels". I think that fits, and I'm glad I didn't go closer.

The buildings are well documented online, and I wouldn't be adding much to the discussion other than: "it felt spooky, almost like a movie set of identical homes". The specific movie set: the identical row of suburban houses in A Wrinkle of Time, a 2018 Disney film. Look up images of that scene online, I'm not making this up.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-30

Hello!

When I looked around the internet for street photography, I came across some award-winning images that were monochrome. So I know monochrome can look good, I just don't have the skills to make it shine. I'm hoping that this week of experimenting will help.

I'm also going to be following a suggestion from George, who has begun photography and wrote about his experience. Over email, I was issued the challenge to minimize post processing in my photography, which would be a good idea to combine with monochrome. It would force me to pay attention to the world around me, capturing images in black and white, rather than trusting my computer abilities back home.

This is the shoreline bordering the Atlantic Ocean, with wooden boundaries. I'm not sure if they're to keep boats from coming in that way, over rocky waters, or to keep people from swimming out, into deeper waters.

This used to be a residential location for the US Army, but it has given way to a tourist attraction now. The buildings in the distance are either abandoned or used as a first stop on land after the journey on the seas.

In post processing, I just turned the image into monochrome. I'm not shooting with film, so every raw image from my camera sensor will record color that has to be tuned (in this case, disabled) in post. I'll avoid most of the usual adjustments to exposure and contrast that I would without this challenge.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-29

Hello!

There are subway stations that are so above the ground, I took the stairs up to the top of a several-story building. The view was great.

I made a similar image in the metro stations of Washington DC. This one is an improvement, I think. It's not as shaky, and the colors turned out better since it's outdoors with natural sunlight. I took this image on the way back from my meal at a Sichuan restaurant.

A lot has changed this year. Even if I were to imagine that each article published on this website has been on time, I would have to admit that the process of photography has become more complicated as I learn more about it. I find a new feature or tool that can open up possibilities, and before I know it, it's a default option.

This is not a bad thing! I can wish all I want to speed up my "workflow", but the truth is that taking time to walk around, capture images, and calibrate color at home is a calming process that makes each minute count.

Photographs have landed me opportunities to chat with Jeopardy champions, document international media directors (rest in peace), and be present for local events that matter. All of this is way outside my comfort zone, but I don't regret signing up for any of it.

If that's not enough navel-gazing for a lifetime, I don't know what is. I'm not even done; I'm running analysis on my own article promoting interesting stuff across the internet and the findings are turning out to be interesting for a numbers-obsessed nerd like me.

Finally, Steve, who has an admirable lack of personal information on the internet from what I can tell, reviews military food. He's been going at it for just over ten years now, and the first video I clicked on was this hour-long inspection of a 1944 British ration. Cased in cans and cardboard, it looks like well-preserved museum artifacts. And then Steve eats them.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-28

Hello!

Sichuan being a region from China that I know because of its pepper, and Flushing being a neighborhood in New York City, US, that was near the US Open tennis matches.

My spice tolerance isn't great, but there are so many different types of hot spice that make the world of spicy food worth exploring. Wasabi is a much different spicy thing than jalapeno, and Sichuan pepper is on its own as well. At home, I use a sriracha paste on egg or seafood dishes.

The US Open was great, and I would have gone earlier if I knew it was free. I don't know much about the sport, but I appreciated the opportunity for photography that it gave me. Even if the images don't compare to Andy from Texas, who was posting about New York City and the US Open as I went, I didn't mind that much. Maybe a little bit.

Finally, I found something interesting on the internet, but I don't know whether it's any good. The StoryGraph is an alternative to the Amazon-owned Goodreads, an app and website to record and recommend books. Its privacy policy (and cookie policy, which is separate for some reason) seems solid: no advertising or tracking. It also has social features built in, for any extroverted bookworm out there. I just struggle to find a use case for book apps like these. If it's worth the trouble of logging, contact me and I might give it a shot.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-27

Hello! This is an excerpt from Day 200, where I drafted a rant against the algorithmic apps that have changed people for the worse. I'm duplicating some of it here because the original article was long and cluttered. I hope this can be a cleaner version of the same text.

I'll go right ahead and say that I don't depend on a personal algorithm tuned to my instincts and unconscious reactions. Instead, my biases are put in one by one through an RSS reader.

Allow me to misuse a quote by Holmes Deng: "Smartphone users in China do one of three things... play games, watch short videos, or read web novels."

Aside from web novels — let's replace it with texting or calling, perhaps? — that seems to be similar to the casual screen user in the US as well.

I think we all ought to escape that. The phone is a tool like any other, and shouldn't be treated as the go-to choice to escape reality. People drive and text, and I've seen taxi drivers scroll through TikTok while they get me from point A to point B. It's insane; algorithmic content is not leisure. At home, someone replacing actual hobbies with a mindless algorithm doesn't make them efficient; it makes them boring. The connected world has gone far beyond a balanced approach to the smartphone and the internet.

I take photos with a proper camera, but the smartphone sensors at the back work well enough to help shift the mindset that the phone is a regular tool, not a magical gizmo. One uses the phone to do something; they do not let themselves be manipulated by it.

I can't believe people revere the shopping experience in mobile apps, let alone their willingness to buy direct from an advertisement on their algorithmic platform of choice. That sports jersey they saw on Instagram doesn't fit them, anyway. Yet, commerce is a huge component of smartphone usage. Banking follows on the graphs, although that's a vague category at best.

Navigation is another common use case of the phone. The one time I need to use a maps app, sure, it's useful. But I used to rely on it traveling to school and work every time, and it caused me to lose my sense of surroundings. There's a bar between resourceful app and essential dependency, and it's lower than people expect. I'm not transitioning to paper maps, though. I've only printed maps a few times.

The phone should not be a dependency, destroying the brain from the outside in.

No, the phone is a flashlight. A measuring tool. An inbox. A scanner. A translator. A quick point of reference. A weather aggregator. A unit converter. A camera, maybe. Perhaps a music player, like a better iPod. In short: tools to use in a pinch.

I even use the phone to control a little drone up in the air, and the tablet to drink fake beer :-). But I also use RSS.

RSS is the killer tool for healthier entertainment and general consumption.

Really Simple Syndication is a successful standard that allows users to stay updated with websites, without the ads or paywalls.

Want to subscribe to a YouTube channel and actually get all the videos they publish, not the faulty selection from YouTube itself? Use RSS.

Want to read all the 30+ articles published every day from The Atlantic without a subscription or account? Use RSS.

Want to sign up for an email newsletter without giving them your real email? Use RSS.

Hell, even Instagram and Bluesky have launched RSS feeds, so you can follow a celebrity (or a friend) without navigating the clunky interface and dealing with the trolls or bots.

Imagine getting a feed of online content aggregated from the different platforms, all in one app! That app, for me, is NetNewsWire, but there are so many alternatives out there. No account or login. It's quicker than any of them, as well: it's just plain text (and sometimes images) like the old web of the 2000s. I'll be honest, it kept me from boredom on a ten-hour flight — it was the only thing that loaded on crap airplane WiFi because it's so darn efficient!

In short, treat the phone as a tool. For entertainment and information, the old-school web standards work just fine.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-26

Hello!

I need to go back to Philadelphia one day. There are enough landmarks that I just haven't seen to make another trip worth it.

Instead, my trips consist of shopping malls and home stores. While I sort through my latest bout of burnout, I hope that yesterday's page promoting interesting stuff across the internet was as interesting as it was for me.

I mentioned somewhere in that long list that I received a challenge to minimize post processing. I think that would be a great idea, since I find myself not paying much attention during the photo taking process as of late. More weight away from post processing would do me good.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-25

Hello!

A sequel to Day 100, where I gathered three hundred links. Most of them had little context attached, and it fell apart near the end. I regret that I didn't give myself enough time to allow that project to shine.

This time, all the 200 webpages attached today have a whole paragraph of anecdotal context. Every day, I try to link to something interesting across the internet. This is a new list of two hundred more of them, all in the same style.

Please become a subscribed reader if these articles just show up in snippets outside this original website! I think the reading experience is best on the site itself.

1. "You make me hate the world." I make it a habit to share internet links around. If a webpage reminds me of someone specific, I'll message them as well. That instinctual word-of-mouth sharing can be great — my blog depends on it rather than algorithms or advertisement money — but I should be more aware of the emotions that the media makes me feel. No point in sharing outrage. I've since put stricter checks around the links I send, and I hope readers have noticed a turning point as of late. Actually, if I've done a great job at minimizing pointless outrage, you might not have noticed anything at all. I strive to share more fun links like this one: a giggle loop. I give no explanation. I have none.
2. Ford tried to replace their senior engineers with AI. It went badly, failing their quality standards and bringing back human quality control. The next year, with human support, Ford won awards for quality manufacturing. Next Thanksgiving, thank the quality control people. Humanity is amazing.
3. After multiple earthquakes caused buildings to crumble, aid is on its way. From search-and-rescue to medical help, the photographs of the people helping out are incredible and inspiring.
4. A song recommendation. The Korgis song "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" is calm and inspiring. And I would have never heard about it until I happened to come across Louie Zong's more hyper remix, Hatsune Miku style. What an odd blend of genres. I love it!
5. Tinkerers vs cockies, 1-0. I give no explanation. I have none.
6. I have limited experience with using flash for photography. I'm sure I could learn it, but I never thought it would be easy. But this instructional video from New York City makes it look simple enough that I might just give it a shot.
7. "A language is simply a dialect with an army and a navy", but that didn't stop Noah Webster (the name behind Webster's Dictionary) from trying to invent a new language: American, independent of the English empire. The spelling of "color" is his fault. And letter pronunciation was almost changed too. I pulled up The American Spelling Book that he wrote... J pronounced "ja"? W pronounced "oo"?
8. Henry Turner from the UK had the same model of camera as me and printed massive images to sell online. The camera model we both use isn't in the professional line; it's marked as "Enthusiast" on Wikipedia. It's not the gear that matters.
9. Hank Green and Jacob Collier, in a room. I've mentioned both of these people in passing. I came across this video; it's a nice insight into these two brilliant minds. Jacob Collier makes experimental music, and Hank Green is great at making modern science interesting. I'm just so used to watching videos at faster-than-two-times speed that I had to slow down for this to feel bearable again. There's something wrong with me.
10. Batteries too old for consumer use in electric vehicles have been put to the task of operating the US power grid. So long as the engineers do the right testing (an emerging science) and integrate them in a system, the economics are starting to make sense to give the EV batteries a second life.
11. Some clever double exposures on film. Alec Pain from the UK filled a film roll of neon signs and LED lights. Then, he rewound the roll and kept shooting. This resulted in a blend of photographs with people, text, and icons.
12. Oli Brotherhood, a British filmmaker and YouTuber, has moved to France. By nature of being a great artist in online video, his moving vlog is the best — and nothing else comes close. I wish I had more of his spirit and creativity; people like him make me realize I should stop inhaling the pint of sour cream-flavored ice cream next to me. It tastes like cheesecake.
13. On the internet, Oli Brotherhood is better known as Mumbo Jumbo and plays the Minecraft video game, publishing videos weekly(ish). I just finished watching his hour-long video exploring creations on Minecraft and taking video game photography. It's not just screenshots; he is opening Adobe software and applying local edits to fit the block-game format. If anyone out there meets the combined interest of photography and Minecraft, they'll enjoy Mumbo Jumbo doing photography in Minecraft.
14. I've got a new project idea in mind. In Depth Cine lists all the types of cinematic shots that filmmakers use to frame a person in their environment. While it's meant for video and film, I'd like to capture those seven shots in photography. The hardest part will be getting someone okay with putting their face online...
15. Sunscreen update. A UV filter called bemotrizinol blocks the sunlight that cause sunburn and skin cancer, while lasting longer and avoiding the white skin cast of other UV filters in the US markets. It's been effective in Europe and Asia for years, and I can only hope it will convince people to put on their damn sunscreen.
16. George from Romania reflects on his beginnings with a camera. After getting over the initial information blast and experimenting with colors, he has published quite a few photos on his website as a public archive and showcase. His notes remind me what it was like a few years ago, and the experience ran parallel to mine. After a discussion on email, he challenged me to stick to specific constraints — whether that be to use one vintage lens or to minimize post processing. Challenge accepted.
17. The Atlantic traced the dislike of contemporary art to Marcel Duchamp. Art that can't stand on its own two legs; art that requires explanation to be its companion; art that just serves as a clue in a wider story rather than being a story itself... I still don't like it, but I was looking at it from the wrong perspective. It's rebellious mockery, and I'm supposed to be in on it.
18. Photography is a derivative process that goes beyond inspiration and paying homage to older photographers and their techniques. A photograph is not always a copy of an environment or a person's appearance. It also reflects the photographer's vision and erases the bits of context that weren't intended.
19. Bookbinding must take a lot of time. Especially when one has to sew the spine themselves, for art's sake. Adelene Koh from Taiwan has spent a decade and a half making sculptures out of paper and thread. No idea where I could fit this in my home, other than as a light fixture hanging from the ceiling...
20. I ought to do some morning photowalks. Granted, I won't have the landmarks of Yorkshire in the UK where morning sunlight reflects off of ruins and structures, but I should be able to get something, right?
21. Fireballs in space. Two stars exploded and created huge supernova structures about 6,000 light-years away. Using a space telescope launched as a satellite in 2008, astronauts observed the remains of a binary star system and compiled an image of light from infrared to ultraviolet.
22. A summer walk on a hill in England. Using a paid camera app on an iPhone, Alex Wiltshire (who works on Minecraft, among other things) took multiple landscape photos with a film look. I need to get into real landscape photography.
23. Slowing down with old gear. Jim Grey from Indiana, US, takes a compact camera from 2010 to a park and puts it in various scenarios along the way. Simple weekend walk in the summer.
24. That Jim Grey from Indiana is willing to send postcards of his photos around the world. I thought of this idea before seeing this post (to be fair, it's an obvious idea), but I haven't found a way to make it worthwhile and with respect to privacy.
25. Speaking of postcards, Dariusz Winkler captured this exceptional postcard-worthy image from Yamagata, Japan. The train is running down the tracks in the middle, surrounded by blossoming trees, with clear rivers tracing down the side. It's so damn good.
26. 100 songs listed as the "greatest" from the 1960s, as decided by Paste Magazine. They only feature one song per artist ("otherwise this list would be 40% Beatles") so it's a great sample of all types of music that dominated the 1960s of Western culture.
27. I haven't read Moby-Dick. I plan to someday — it seems to be one of those books that any literary nerd just has to complete as a rite of passage, along with War and Peace or anything by Shakespeare — and this current-day review of it further convinces me to borrow Moby-Dick from a library.
28. Inspiration can strike from the strangest places. While viewing the portfolio of Erik Stouffer from the US, I noticed certain elements that were familiar to me. Not exact landmarks, but structures and shapes that I could have photographed if I had stopped for another second or two.
29. Social media's #vanlife is oversimplified. I find easy stories to be so unrewarding, so this account of a rock climber working on her PhD remotely is both genuine and fascinating — the two are mutually linked.
30. I linked to Alex Armitage 100 days ago quite a lot, but the various articles published by him are always interesting to gearheads. Tinkering with adapters to allow lenses working with unintended camera bodies is interesting, and it still works in the modern era of cameras.
31. A screen detox is a popular topic to muse about, and every perspective of someone attempting the noble journey is important. This one, from NPR's Manoush Zomorodi, talks about focus and concentration as observed from the subtle eye twitch and the brain fog.
32. I always wondered what happened to the cover designs of books. They seemed to have changed... there's a reason. As the world turns to digital, the old phrase "never judge a book by its cover" has been ignored, and now readers want to be perceived as reading the right kind of book out in public. Readers want to let the world know they're reading, and the cover must help push that forward.
33. A portal into the chaotic realm of US press and media. A story told through Kent Nishimura's photography and Katy Waldman's captioned narrative, keeping the show continuing and keeping up with the news requires so much labor and lots of tanky gear.
34. The director's viewfinder camera. Christopher Nolan, director of The Odyssey, used a modified film camera to compose shots using IMAX gear without wasting valuable IMAX film. I'm surprised by the scrappy nature of the kit, but it's still a bulky piece of gear that has proven itself in other films for Nolan.
35. I need to keep myself from linking to every photograph by Matt Harvey — they're just too good! Each photograph looks stunning; somehow, Matt publishes daily photos as well... the quality bar is so high, it's incredible.
36. An argument against buying "top-dollar" photography gear. Dennis Mook argues that a good lens is fine, especially now that software can patch up the remaining deficiencies that physical optics might leave.
37. The 5,000-foot Devils Tower in Wyoming, US, makes for a great photograph when the sun sets. It also sent me into a deep dive on Ansel Adams, and I'm overwhelmed with how much I'm yet to learn... that's a good thing, I think.
38. It's not officially a hippie event, but it looks like one. Dave Lawrence took photos for this nature retreat festival in exchange for compensated tickets, and wrote about the opportunity to be an outsider to such a community-focused event.
39. I haven't linked to many web games as of late! This is my attempt to fix that, with a janky game that experiments with physics. It's a short game, and it starts slow, but becomes very satisfying once the player gets to use their wrecking ball to destroy an entire building.
40. Massimo Vignoli from Italy photographed the Arctic tern, a small bird with a massive migration covering "50,000 miles a year". The journey isn't even the most important part. The bird's courting and territorial protection are also important to photography. When Massimo got too close, the bird took a poo.
41. Astronaut training isn't as interesting to the public as the few minutes of rocket launch, but it is a grueling task that takes ages to complete. With new VR technology, ISS commander Jessica Meir ran tests using the tech goggles in a lab.
42. Up until 4 a.m.? "Fuuuuuuuck." I give no explanation. I have none.
43. Send some snail mail. I live the digital life, where my handwriting can't be tracked except for those few signatures every so often. Still, I've lost contact with a few people that I wish I could just send an old-fashioned letter to.
44. I still use a pricing gun. I've been meaning to get a label maker for my home, and this is the closest thing I have. And so while the history of the pricing gun isn't exciting, it's trivial and light enough that I read all the way through.
45. Taking pictures of Hadleigh, a seaside town in England, is easier said than done when the sea itself is drained from a nationwide heatwave. Over on the land, the town is full of ancient history (by US standards!), and the photographs look like a different world despite having similar(ish) climates to the US coastline.
46. I've heard about some trivial knowledge regarding the eradication of rats. It's been covered in interview-style YouTube videos and other, more jaunty, YouTube videos, but I've never thought to do a long read about the subject. Then I found an article on the Canadian province Alberta's ongoing mission, which covers the videos' scope of knowledge and more.
47. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
48. Gobino from Belgium also posts daily photos with captions. They're more consistent than I am as of late, and they started the daily streak just a few days before I did, so here's their Day 200.
49. The chemistry of beauty products changes often, so Dr. Michelle Wong from Sydney, Australia, flexes her chemistry PhD and lists some products to avoid based on their chemical composition. (Also, some important news regarding online science communication at the end of the video.)
50. The Barack Obama Presidential Center opened in Chicago, a city in the US. Before it opened, Kevin Espiritu visited the center's community gardens. I assume it's a great bit of public relations to get general audiences informed about this accessible space, but it also taught me about how to cultivate rich environments for plants to grow in soil.

Not wanting any reader to run amateur psychoanalysis on me for the selection of links I have presented to the public, I'll go right ahead and say that I don't depend on a personal algorithm tuned to my instincts and unconscious reactions. Instead, my biases are put in one by one through an RSS reader.

Allow me to misuse a quote by Holmes Deng: "Smartphone users in China do one of three things... play games, watch short videos, or read web novels."

Aside from web novels — let's replace it with texting or calling, perhaps? — that seems to be similar to the casual screen user in the US as well.

I think we all ought to escape that. The phone is a tool like any other, and shouldn't be treated as the go-to choice to escape reality. People drive and text, and I've seen taxi drivers scroll through TikTok while they get me from point A to point B. It's insane; algorithmic content is not leisure. At home, someone replacing actual hobbies with a mindless algorithm doesn't make them efficient; it makes them boring. The connected world has gone far beyond a balanced approach to the smartphone and the internet.

I take photos with a proper camera, but the smartphone sensors at the back work well enough to help shift the mindset that the phone is a regular tool, not a magical gizmo. One uses the phone to do something; they do not let themselves be manipulated by it.

I'll discuss other uses of the smartphone after the next block of links, and then I'll finish with a killer use case of technology that has slotted into my digital life so effortlessly I forget to talk about it sometimes.

51. Oh no: it's February. I give no explanation. I have none.
52. Simon Clark's video on the technology and policies around climate change focuses on the good progress made around the world not covered in US media. I took away two major parts from that video: making the world more electric is getting easier, as electric cars replace gas-fired ones and electric heating/cooling units replace furnaces. Also, electricity itself is becoming more sustainable, as solar and wind plants replace oil and nuclear reactors replace coal factories.
53. A jazz album of the video game Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack that was so influential to me finding my music style that I learned a track from it for a performance. I don't regret it, but it seems like such a silly thing to get so worked up about.
54. NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day has posted a two-minute video simulation. This is a computer simulation of cosmic hydrogen gas creating galaxy clusters, and I love it. It's even set to Beethoven music, which I didn't realize until a rewatch with audio on.
55. NASA's Image of the Day — no, not that one — includes a golden dust cloud taken by the James Webb Space Telescope in August 2026. It looks like a mythical horse, which I'm sure is very useful for the scientific community to know.
56. The creation of the US National Park Service is patchy, but it started with Yellowstone. With secret codes and marketing illustrations, the NPS has fought its way through political challenges to control 85 million acres (about 350,000 square kilometers).
57. I don't have an easy definition for "thin places", but the photos of them are dark and full of lush green nature. Ask Lev L. Spiro instead, who has captured these photos of areas that step into an otherworldly feeling.
58. Science publications are like currency in research. And when it's harder for women to get their research published compared to men, that gender gap can affect grants and other resources. I'm not going to be the one presenting a solution like an armchair critic, but I agree that whatever barriers are stopping women from publishing their findings need to broken down.
59. I have avoided diegetic text in all of my published images. A few exceptions apply: the doggy water bowl and the PLAY sign. But clever text is all around us, and Jim Grey's photos of chalkboard signs outside restaurants and businesses are interesting and meant for the viewer to read. It's like a billboard, for the human level.
60. A YouTube channel from Australia visit an old-fashioned general store archived to sell and show cups, clocks, and cameras. The video was intended to serve as inspiration for the content creators for an artistic Minecraft build, but this snippet was probably the best portion taken out of a visit to the Australian mining town of Coal Creek, now an open-air museum.
61. I've got a new biography to scout out. Nellie Bly, the pen name for Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, entered and uncovered an overcrowded Women's Lunatic Asylum. The hospital was open to tourists during its operation; tourists flocked to "often ridicule" patients. Nellie Bly's work helped raise awareness on mental illness and how it was being treated by the medical society of the era. Nowadays, the asylums are open for tourists as haunted houses.
62. I have the pillars to imitate the "luxury" landscape photos from James Popsys. Three criteria: lots of light (high-key photography), lots of negative space (clear skies), and no harsh sun in the frame while keeping the sun in front of the photographer.
63. A new nuclear technology won't fix our scorched earth. Tristan Sharman talks about small modular reactors, which promise base load power at a lower upfront cost, with more safety benefits. These are only promised benefits for the future, which doesn't solve the need for facilities on the ground today. Wind and solar have proven themselves for years now.
64. A photowalk with Rich Fazo, presented by Paulie B on YouTube. Rich is a DJ around the world, but he also photographs monochrome streets in New York City with big film cameras (so expensive!). Nearly every photo is of faces, whether they be couples, crowds, or carnivals. Within that photowalk, Rich notes that he tries to be out taking photos as much as possible while he has creative bursts of inspiration. In other words, "make hay while the sun shines".
65. Witnessing Steven Pruitt's six million edits to Wikipedia means understanding semi-automated systems, the rules on the English Wikipedia, and the technical limitations of a 25-year-old system. I've been part of that boring world before, and it sucks a lot of time. A valiant effort to explain Wikipedia's current-day role on the internet was made by The New Yorker.
66. A fire rainbow made of ice. Ice crystals suspended in the air in the US refract sunlight in just the right way to create a fiery-looking cloud.
67. A series of informational magazines known as the Whole Earth Catalog. It's known as a counterculture thing from California, US, dated to the 1970s, but I saw it more as just a link to useful resources around the world (and a link to more trivial information that just seems to click with me). That catalog, and the associated "software review" publication, are available online without cost. I skimmed through quite a few of the magazines; they're dated, to be sure, but perfect for the right kind of nerd.
68. To my mind, the American Southeast is made of agricultural industries and petroleum mining. But it's also home to ancient biomes and ecology. The book about the American Amazon by Mac Stone is too expensive for me, but I'll look out for it in libraries, perhaps.
69. Edith the cat likes the window seat. I give no explanation. I have none.
70. Feral cats are a health code violation, but that doesn't stop New York bodegas from housing the street cats in exchange for their rat-catching expertise. I hope the future can hold a modification to the health codes, as there are plans to support the iconic animal with subsidized "vaccination and spay/neuter programs".
71. On the New York subway, the dog is the happiest. An awesome golden retriever might not be a service animal, but the street rules dictate that as long as they're not making a fuss, the passengers won't do anything about it.
72. The team behind Answer in Progress on YouTube has published a video on toothpaste. I realize it's not important to most people — just use the one already in the drawer, or handed by the dentist — but any trivia about otherwise-boring things is interesting to me. I watch sunscreen videos, after all.
73. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, so there are 1,440 slots to see a park every minute that day. So far 250 have been filled out, but the One Minute Park project is whimsical and great for some background screensaver stuff.
74. At the heart of computing is a bunch of manufacturing for rare elements that are only in some parts of the world (or byproducts from other high-tech industries). I'm impressed by the efforts of scientists looking to work around these rare earth bottlenecks in material gathering, using salt and nitrogen rather than hafnium and fluorine.
75. I know of BdoubleO100 from his videos on Minecraft. But his specialty in that sandbox-style video game is making art, and this one video is about his inspiration and reference drawing. Even if I didn't like seeing a video game on screen, I would appreciate the thinking process of an artist.
76. The architecture surrounding New York City's Hudson Yards is bougie, without a doubt, but the High Line walk is free to the public! I worry that any photograph I take from there would be way too obvious and cliche, but I ought to go anyway. Might even come back with something creative despite the pressure.
77. An album of bumblebees, buzzing around colorful flowers with the light coming in from above (and to the right). Chuq Von Rospach photographed quite a few of the bumbles, and I wonder how much patience was required to get so many stable shots.
78. There's no story or text to go with this photograph, but it seems to be of a carnival or fair. Given that I neglected to capture the crowds at the ren faire I went to, it's nice to see a similar environment photographed with a different bag of skills.
79. At a big enough scale, an animal can't even support its own weight. The folklore giants (and the fairy tale tiny dwarfs) don't hold up to physics; orders of magnitude are unintuitive but play a crucial part in calculating just how strong a giant would need to be to walk.
80. The Poetry Foundation – which I haven't looked at in years since I was in school — invited Boris Dralyuk to write on the aching feeling of nostalgia, which started as a medical term and has come to this temptation that only hurts once the veil is broken.
81. The winding pattern of rivers. After evolving over millennia, rivers dump water from mountain and cloud to sea and ocean with surprising structure. It doesn't help that rivers are tough to study, but formulas can still be applied to this geology.
82. Ranking fifty songs based on their ability to really hammer a music amplifier system is so niche, but I love it. I haven't yet listened to all fifty tracks, and I'm sure online music streaming causes some of the quality to dip from its full potential of critical listening, but my earbuds were a gift item worth less than a printer cartridge.
83. Hot Ones is a well-known format on YouTube, where celebrities in pop culture (mostly Western) eat food dipped in spicy sauce while being interviewed. The ideal example of that format is the episode with Daniel Radcliffe. He's charming as hell; who knew a line of spicy sauces could work as a social lubricant?
84. In the middle of 2026, film photography is as popular as ever. Jim Grey from Indiana, US, has compiled a list of over one hundred film photography blogs, all active and all compatible with RSS.
85. The English Wikipedia keeps statistics on their most viewed articles over a duration of time. Most of the articles are about the US, and they're all Western, which makes sense for the English Wikipedia.
86. One good side of the camera technology from DSLR to mirrorless is that the old systems are way cheap. Today's cameras are worth car money, which is extraordinary. My camera wasn't that great a deal, but I made the right compromise, and I'll stick by it.
87. Brandon Bowe from Naples, Italy, wrapped rugs around retired surfboards to give them a sweater-like appearance. Whether the rugs are luxury or leftover, or if the pattern is just an image applied to the board, they're an impressive bit of craftwork that I hope will sell well enough to keep it going; the designs are pretty.
88. Japan's department stores started out as luxurious experiences, but adapting advertisements and Western market designs transformed the big shopping buildings. Also, I've found another trivia newsletter to read: the MIT Press Reader. It's a good day.
89. More from the MIT Press Reader, since I've got nothing better to do this rainy evening: the urban environment lighting up the night sky is the home for a majority of the human population. Species like birds and mice have evolved to this new reality, and the world as a whole is now different.
90. Cement produces carbon in its chemical reaction and in its industrial production. To mop up that pollution is itself an industrial task that is tangled with politics and the flow of profit. Governments around the world are stepping in to force an incentive through, and some very smart people are working on the task.
91. The industry of green is profitable. Where coal utilities have failed, electric battery factories have bloomed, and Chinese solar panels are the new magic needed in Africa.
92. Mathieu Stern from France collected a vintage projector lens that had surprising value and history. I don't want anyone thinking this is a lesson on buying more gear; no, it's about appreciating the antiques in photography and videography as artifacts of history. These lenses made 1960s films possible with more compact, handheld equipment.
93. I am excited for the new season of Taskmaster. It's free on YouTube, where five comedians play one-off minigames set in the UK. But that season isn't fully out yet — it's released on a weekly schedule — so instead I'll link to an existing episode where teams solve a food-based word puzzle and use a T-shirt launcher.
94. I am excited for the new season of Jet Lag: The Game. It's free on YouTube, where two teams of two players each race across Japan. But that season isn't fully out yet — it's released on a weekly schedule — so instead I'll link to an existing episode where contestants hide across New York.
95. I've seen lots of people play Big Walk online, and it looks like one of those games that would be way more fun playing for real rather than watching a let's play recording. I've been looking for an excuse to call up some friends, and I might just test my luck this weekend...
96. Capture the scene, not just the landmark. My favorite photos aren't of good quality — hell, I'm in them — but just thinking of them as a still image in my mind brings such good memories that a stock photo could never do.
97. Some solar eclipse photos, but not of the sun itself. Rather, the people on the field that are also spectating such a spectacular event. A great example of the "landmark" eclipse being the uninteresting thing to photograph, compared to everything else that could be captured even at that moment.
98. I know it's unfair to portray anything as "look, this thing is still going". But... look, this thing is still going. The xkcd webcomic series is delightful for the science-type nerd that I am, and I tune in every week(ish) to the latest panels and their unofficial explanations.
99. I found out about xkcd through my Wikipedia days and then forgot about them a short time later. Then I came across the "What If?" channel on YouTube and learned about the whimsical science that results from a simple question. Then I remembered about the mobile game Jetpack Joyride, and now I'm going on a whole round of nostalgia and oh no I should probably stop.
100. While infrastructure changes year by year, this 2023 snapshot of internet in Antarctica reveals the challenges to modify and update that infrastructure at a human level. Slow satellite connections on an intermittent schedule rely on technical knowledge and call for technical improvements.

Let's examine the smartphone again. I can't believe people revere the shopping experience in mobile apps, let alone their willingness to buy direct from an advertisement on their algorithmic platform of choice. That sports jersey they saw on Instagram doesn't fit them, anyway. Yet, commerce is a huge component of smartphone usage. Banking follows on the graphs, although that's a vague category at best.

Navigation is another common use case of the phone. The one time I need to use a maps app, sure, it's useful. But I used to rely on it traveling to school and work every time, and it caused me to lose my sense of surroundings. There's a bar between resourceful app and essential dependency, and it's lower than people expect. I'm not transitioning to paper maps, though. I've only printed maps a few times.

The phone should not be a dependency, destroying the brain from the outside in.

No, the phone is a flashlight. A measuring tool. An inbox. A scanner. A translator. A quick point of reference. A weather aggregator. A unit converter. A camera, maybe. Perhaps a music player, like a better iPod. In short: tools to use in a pinch.

I even use the phone to control a little drone up in the air, and the tablet to drink fake beer :-). Past the next block of links: my opinions on RSS, the killer tool for healthier entertainment and general consumption.

101. Hilarious letters of complaint that compare a menstrual pad to a supersonic military aircraft and describe the dangers of (briefly!) getting stuck to burning metal. Rude humor, the best kind of humor.
102. Parts of the US are better known for their basis in fictional works of literature. So, a literary map of the US was born to chart those stories. Those stories include The Great Gatsby in New York City and To Kill a Mockingbird based in Alabama.
103. UK council pool meets Chinese terracotta army. Attilio Fiumarella from Italy photographed a community building that served during world wars and dance events. Getting the right image required timing the sunlight with precision, to create a powerful photograph of the community in support of the historic hall.
104. August 2026 is the month for a new baseball league: the WPBL, or Women’s Pro Baseball League. I've watched a few women's basketball games on TV and in person, and I turned up for a PWHL hockey game. Not wanting to sound too performative today, I'll leave it at this: I'm getting used to the idea of a 24/7 sports channel on the TV as background noise. No matter what league it is, I'll give it a chance.
105. The Houseplant Hospital in Scotland treats houseplants as patients: with quarantine, drips, and nutrition. I've seen the healing effect of having houseplants in one's living space; it gives someone something to do. While ventilation still beats plant organics for air quality, it's still nice knowing that the houseplants can give a splash of color and a calming atmosphere.
106. The only Black-owned bookstore in Kansas has moved to a larger location, carrying with it a supporting community and an educated audience.
107. Trying to get back into home cooking should be easier than it seems, but I'd like to save money when I'm at the store. At the first item on this store shopping video I found, I knew I was messing up. I regret to say that I buy spices in the premade glass jars, rather than buying in bulk for much cheaper and storing them in reusable tubs. A lot to learn.
108. Nikon mirrorless cameras are more computers than anything else, and modern technology at the fundamental level is crazy. My camera uses a third-generation processor from late 2013, and now engineers are developing an eighth-gen chip that might have quick bandwidth to "pass back and forth" information within the chip itself. Orders of magnitude faster than just a decade ago.
109. I'm humbled by the work of professionals on a low budget, where it's really not about the gear; it's about the creativity. A commercial short film of a fictional music idol looks extraordinary, but the behind-the-scenes really opened my eyes to how creative shots can be done with such simple equipment.
110. Florian Ziegler visited the Dutch Marine Museum and took a series of monochrome images. Image three is my favorite; it could be a desktop wallpaper.
111. Every so often, The Atlantic publishes photo albums of a certain theme. This time, it's releasing animals back into the wild — a feel-good album. I was surprised by the large variety of animals photographed; it just keeps on going!
112. Some scenic hikes in Japan. If anyone out there is an outdoorsy type, there might be some recommendations off the typical tourist trek (that being Mt. Fuji).
113. Space is full of colorful young life... at least, in astronomical terms. This photo by NASA of glowing dust was taken by the Hubble telescope, a science feat so impressive that even the neutral and refined Wikipedia article can't help itself from describing the telescope as "accomplished, drastic, extensive, famous, leading, massive, numerous, remarkable, renowned, significant, striking, tailored, world-class". Yes, I got a new extension to point out bias in Wikipedia.
114. This photo compilation sorted by Flickr gave me a good example of what street photography can mean. It's not just people in a city street! Lots of candid moments and clever contrast are included.
115. This is the best video on YouTube: every single mascot from the Olympics and Paralympics. It's 80 minutes long, but I've rewatched it several times now. It's just great, and I promise it's more exciting than it sounds — nothing can top this. Graham Stark goes through the spotty history of mascots and makes the listing funny and clever. I still can't get the Cobi Troupe theme song out of my head.
116. I might have a favorite artist. Ted Harrison from Canada used blocks of color to depict landscapes and people. I don't like the lines separating different blocks of color, and I might try to put my own spin on them, similar to how I ripped colored construction paper for a photograph months ago.
117. The American berry farms. In US grocery stores and supermarkets, it is possible to find all sorts of berries available in every season. Based on research and intensive data collection, the Driscoll's company invented the best ways to transport these "highly perishable" items across the world, despite the pollution and labor costs of that work. Agriculture is more than just the taste of food now.
118. Ted Kinsman from the state of New York, US, has built a custom rig for "ripple portraits". Boy oh boy, do I want to build this myself. I don't have the chops to engineer something permanent, but I would love to get a group of friends to hold various parts in the air to get some funny photos.
119. The charming old town is now a current-day idea. These walkable towns have character, with current-day materials up to current-day safety codes. Civilians can stroll around on the trolley or the bike while the town generates renewable energy. What's not to love?
120. Sugars in space. I always thought that the search for life consisted of water detection, but nutrients like "erythrulose", a sugar, can be a sign for early bacterial life as well.
121. This photo from Erkner, Germany, feels like a photo I could have captured — maybe not in Germany, but at a similar-looking park with a lake. Take the landscape view and a bright red boat, and I've got a photo combining two elements. And two is more than one.
122. The fearless war photographer. Georgette Louise Meyer photographed World War II and the Vietnam War. She was nearly hanged for her efforts, but her resolve never broke down.
123. Solar panels can plug into a household outlet in some US states. It's also being pioneered in Germany, but I'm paying attention to this as the one utopian technology in the near future. One day, I'll be able to go to HomeGoods or IKEA and just buy a panel for free electricity, where power can be sent into an outlet, not out.
124. Would a civilian be able to land a plane with autopilot? Probably. Tom Scott uses a motion simulator and over-the-radio help of pilot Petter Hornfeldt to simulate a plane landing. I had a brief hope that I could get access to a simulator and let some friends play with it for a nerdy birthday party, but they're all for professionals. Fair enough.
125. The New Yorker published the story of Emily Shur, a celebrity photographer from the 2000s. Along with taking professional photographs with medium-format film, she also used Polaroids as an intermediate warm-up step in her job. She kept these informal photographs as an archive of the 2000s pop culture style in the Western world, with scribbled annotations in the margins. From Dr. Jane Goodall (rest in peace) to Mark Zuckerberg ("dead-eyed stare"), Emily used these instant Polaroids as a reference image for her professional work.
126. Lotta Milde from New York, US, used paint and canvas from a hardware store to make a photography background, exchanging money for time as a creative DIY project. I've never painted a life-size background, and the weather has been pretty crap lately. But I've listed it for a future project weekend with friends, and maybe I can take some portrait photography soon.
127. In response to the "disruptions to global health funding" this year, GiveWell has stepped up to donate millions towards HIV treatment and malaria prevention.
128. Forget Artemis II and III; NASA is assembling Artemis IV. In the image, crews move a hydrogen tank to a testing facility in preparation for Artemis IV. Space science is so far above my pay grade, but I would love to be a photographer there anyway.
129. The Last Museum is an online archive of public domain artworks, and I don't know what to do with it. It's cool that more than six million copies are preserved, but due to copyright, a lot of newer media can't be archived on that website. The only use case I can see for it is a discovery of non-English media to develop a more worldly perspective.
130. Underwater photography is so far beyond my scope of understanding, but the photos that come out of it are award-winning. Literally! There are incredible photos coming out of Oceanographic this time of year with the Ocean Photographer of the Year competition, and I'm wondering how the finalists captured their insane images.
131. "I sometimes wonder why I point my camera at anything besides water anymore." Jackson Frishman from the mountain west of the US is an avid hiker, but still finds water of any form to be the more magical form of nature and landscape photography. The vibrant colors of reflecting light remind me of Mark Cornick's abstract photography a little bit, which I tried — tried! — to emulate a while ago.
132. Clever street art on the side of a building in New York City, US. I don't think it needs to be deep or thought-provoking; it just helps split up the monotonous commute and maybe draws a chuckle out of some people.
133. Whether I like it or not, the links I present online are a reflection of what I "consume" online. Yet I'm realizing how much music I listen to by Louie Zong. It just plays in the background when I write these articles, so I never thought to check the music artist. A prime example: Queen Ant by Louie Zong is a great energetic track that I could have sworn was produced by another artist.
134. Former teacher and current comedian Matt Parker from the UK finds the optimal clothes combination to last an entire year. It's not practical; it's just fun. Matt makes the mathematics easy to understand to a general audience and even goes out to test the theory.
135. Self-titled "forest goblin" Courtney Victoria uses an extreme macro photography lens to capture spores just one or two millimeters big. Precision, patience, and pmosquitoes.
136. Jollof rice from five countries across West Africa is the main feature of a festival in the US capital. I've never had jollof rice before, and the festival is too far for me, but the article includes a recipe that I might try... who knows.
137. Consumer Reports is the only way I'm able to keep up with recalls with regard to automobiles, food, and probably other things. I had purchased raw jalapeño peppers by themselves, so I'm not affected by the current recall of prepared jalapeño products in the US.
138. JSTOR is such a powerful tool that I took advantage of during my school years. I wasn't great at searching through them; I mostly used external databases that the school itself programmed, but I wish I had an academic account to look through more of JSTOR's catalog!
139. August 19 was World Photography Day. The photographs coming out for competitions and showcases are brilliant, and I wish I had something better to show than a public phone box! But nothing can beat the massive library of inspiration on Flickr, as per their announcement.
140. Some more landscape photography, this time by forum users and hobbyists online. The sunset of Philadelphia is the most striking, but all of them, with their sweeping vista views, look amazing.
141. Cancelled flights are the worst, and getting stuck in the subway only hurts more. Yet, Chris Glass made the best of it by exploring the sketch comedy scene of New York City. I can't do improv to save my life (despite reading a book on it!), but I'd love to see a show.
142. The Flower Carpet in Brussels, Belgium, is huge. It is so vibrant with colored dahlias, and I bet it looks even more impressive in person.
143. How many times have I linked to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day? I'm doing it again, because the meteor shower leaving streaks across the sky makes for a brilliant image. As the moon gave Spain its solar eclipse, the Czech Republic sky fell darker than usual, making for noticeable shooting stars.
144. Cat on the stairs. I give no explanation. I have none.
145. Shooting handheld can be a nightmare for post processing, but it can serve wonders for the emotion in videography. Whether that be to give more kinetic energy to a scene or break from the traditional norms of cinema, there's a reason why filmmakers choose the technique even if they have a big budget.
146. I don't know if this is interesting to anyone, but the moon is big over the UK as of late July. Pretty cool. That's all I got. The photos look pretty.
147. Hydrogen-powered machines seem futuristic, but their start has to come from somewhere. How about groundbreaking? Besides mining out space and creating underground areas, fractures created by zapping rocks with electricity can produce hydrogen as a clean fuel. Even if it's not used alongside electricity for transport or heating anytime soon to replace coals and gasoline, it can supply rich fertilizer for agriculture.
148. Going out onto the trails and gravel roads for landscape photography isn't always clear skies and sunny days. I wouldn't want it to be. The best landscape photography can come from mysterious mist, snowfall, and wispy clouds at sunset. For all these varying conditions, great photos can come out, and Kate Garibaldi from PetaPixel has loads of tips for each weather setting.
149. The marketing around yogurt has shifted between exotic and safe food. JSTOR writes that the modern image of yogurt is a dietary treat for women, yet I've got stacks of the little cups. Still, the marketing history behind such a fridge staple piqued my curiosity.
150. I'm not a stamp collector — it seems like a pit of money and effort — but the designs are so cool, I might stop by the post office every so often and see what they have in stock. Even if I don't plan on sending any snail mail. Come on, the US National Parks collection looks awesome.

All these links were pulled from an RSS feed. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a successful standard that allows users to stay updated with websites, without the ads or paywalls.

Want to subscribe to a YouTube channel and actually get all the videos they publish, not the faulty selection from YouTube itself? Use RSS.

Want to read all the 30+ articles published every day from The Atlantic without a subscription or account? Use RSS.

Want to sign up for an email newsletter without giving them your real email? Use RSS.

Hell, even Instagram and Bluesky have launched RSS feeds, so you can follow a celebrity (or a friend) without navigating the clunky interface and dealing with the trolls or bots.

Imagine getting a feed of online content aggregated from the different platforms, all in one app! That app, for me, is NetNewsWire, but there are so many alternatives out there. No account or login. It's quicker than any of them, as well: it's just plain text (and sometimes images) like the old web of the 2000s. I'll be honest, it kept me from boredom on a ten-hour flight — it was the only thing that loaded on crap airplane WiFi because it's so darn efficient!

151. The total solar eclipse in 2026 across Spain has been livestreamed. It never occurred to me to subscribe to NASA's YouTube channel via RSS, but I did so at the perfect time to get the notification of a solar eclipse livestream. I skipped to the moment of totality in Spain, but not before reading the necessary safety disclaimer presented about three minutes before.
152. The realistic cautions about Australia. No, spiders and sharks aren't out to get the civilians. Yes, it snows. No, I'm not visiting anytime soon. Yes, I want lemon butter.
153. The words meant to cover "general English use" have changed over time, shifting away from objects and things to abstract concepts and phrases.
154. The gray mountains facing the sunlight in Colorado, US, look amazing. I didn't realize this, but Matt Harvey's photos have precise geolocation data with elevation. Hell, even the temperature is listed. Such technical info, such nerds.
155. Photography on a budget. Like, a real budget. The used market has deals; one just needs to hunt for them. That said, I love the quote that "people who are strapped for cash are going to be working instead of using up their time trying to find the best deals". Not sure if it's true, but I love it nonetheless.
156. More tips on going into the used market. Cameras have mileage that indicates the usage of a camera pretty well, and each component of a camera can and should be tested.
157. List articles aren't my favorite; it's rare for me to find one that strikes me as useful. This is one of those rare articles: what to do with leftover food. I need to add herbal spices to my supply list.
158. In the EU, there are loads of options for online shopping, so customers don't have to choose Amazon or Walmart. At a time when the EU is trying to wrestle itself away from big US tech companies, I admire the effort — even if I've never heard of these alternatives!
159. Is it just me, or is monochrome street photography much more striking than its colored counterparts? At least, that's what it seems like from this selection of the street photography contest winners.
160. Gangnam Style was my first introduction to K-Pop, and it brought the Western world into the genre. What does this change look like from the perspective of two Koreans in the US? People who have grown up with K-Pop, before it had that formal name. Through the early days of YouTube, and now the early days of TikTok, K-Pop has changed between generations.
161. I feel like I shouldn't be seeing this, but someone scraped the archives of the lost and found departments in stadiums and airports. It's mostly smartphones with the occasional book.
162. Some speculative science on coffee presented by James Hoffmann from the UK. Except it's so much more than that: digital animation, a full production team, and even a whole new side character voiced by comedian Ed Gamble.
163. There are so many photography competitions out there for every niche, and they all showcase some incredible work. So long as they don't charge an entry fee, I would be happy to send a link to them. One example of this is the Comedy Wildlife Awards, which have hilarious terms and conditions.
164. The power of the photograph is beyond the selfie and the tourist attraction, even if they carry memories and stories. Documentary photographers have changed the world, aiming to record the truth as it was captured.
165. Read up on local news. Whether that be a radio station or an online newspaper website, I've found events and community gatherings that I otherwise wouldn't have heard about if not for the local region's newspaper. Instead of giving away my favorite local paper, I'll link to an unrelated article from Seattle celebrating Cambodian culture in a free event for all ages. How cool is that?
166. This is a book that I don't own and haven't finished, so it doesn't count as a book recommendation or toward my count of completed books this year. The Art of the SNL Portrait by Mary Ellen Matthews is a photobook that I feel like would have worlds of inspiration for me. I only found out about it through a local bookstore; they closed for the day before I could get to the last page.
167. Nuclear technology never looked this cool. It's cutting-edge science and construction work, and the photographs coming out of a recent project in France look awesome. They even have accurate captions.
168. Planting a forest at the equator requires technology to make sure the trees last their intended lifespan. Trishala Naidu from Planet Wild visits Old Bonjoge near Lake Victoria in Africa to see how simple gadgets can detect biodiversity and growth speed.
169. Art is not only powerful, it's educational too. Access to arts education can allow for students to grow with a mix of emotional nuance and solid reasoning. Museums play a part in this by reaching out to schools and providing learning experiences outside the classroom.
170. Leica made a video on their museums, called Leica Galleries, which have existed for fifty years. These exhibits of documenting and storytelling are also spaces for cultural exchange from artists around the world. I wish I had visited the one in New York!
171. I saw the English Wikipedia tick its counter past seven million articles in late May 2025. That's old news; people are now guessing when the English Wikipedia will publish ten million articles. The voting and speculating are still open.
172. A photographer nowadays is judged by their worst photographs, not their best. But being honest about failure is important, so how should I strike that balance? With my daily format, I wonder if I'm a bit obligated to show some photos that aren't my best work. A mix between quantity and quality.
173. The daily life of someone is unique and personal to them, but it can still connect with others if it is documented as a series of photographs. At least, it worked for me, because Teejay from the US has photographed a week of city commutes into one article, and I love it. I was in that city a long time ago, and I've been meaning to go back.
174. An entry from the Nikon history book. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI-S, which still holds up today, was in production from 1978 to 2020. That makes it one of the longest-lasting on the shelves of a Nikon store. I don't own this lens myself, but its write-up in the company's history book reminds me of the human designers and scientists in the labs.
175. Some modern Nikon lenses. A comparison between a $1000 USD zoom lens and a $500 USD prime lens (one that has a single, fixed focal length) seems to break the traditional advice on lens types. That advice used to hold that zoom lenses were meant for convenience, while prime lenses delivered sharper images, and wider aperture for challenging conditions, all for a cheaper cost. That gap has closed, and the advice is outdated.
176. I'm not good at rhythm games. I played Ensemble Stars!! Music for longer than I'd like to admit, and I never did that well despite the hours of time I spent toasting my phone during the daily commutes. Well, I've tried the demo of A Dance of Fire and Ice and, yep, I'm still bad at it.
177. A full-day pride celebration in Amsterdam, Netherlands. With "people waving, dancing, singing, and enjoying", it must have seemed like a natural opportunity for Luis Natera to take a film camera and go capturing the event.
178. Using financial contracts to flow in the right direction for Earth's sustainability is an experiment that Brazil is trying to limit deforestation. Long-term results have yet to be seen, but people in power are taking this as a top-priority mission that can be solved, which is optimism and drive that I aspire to.
179. Pete and Mango, the parrot. Jasper Tandy from the UK took a portrait of Pete the Pond. Pete has his own YouTube channel, although I haven't watched anything yet. This one's just wholesome and nice, and I don't have much more to say about that!
180. Jamelle Bouie from Virginia has started a series of unraveling rolls of film to be scanned for his website. When each film roll is its own convenient photo album, it makes sense; there's no digital equivalent, unless I find a really limited storage card.
181. Adding color to monochrome images. Beyond the typical sepia tone one could add to an image, there are the purples and reds to fit in, which could be the filter that makes an otherwise gray image pop out. There's a thin line between clever filters and "I've just learned how to add the Instagram effect", but I think this is on the right side of that line.
182. I came across the speculation that Black quilts were part of an elaborate code during the Underground Railroad, but after finding limited evidence on the subject, I abandoned the topic just before publishing my article around Juneteenth 2026. But Black quilts are pieces of art that have history in the US, summarized in a book selling later this year.
183. A web game based on rotating gravity. The art style is awesome, and there's even character appearance customization! This puzzle game is perfect for a plane or some offline time-wasting.
184. This simple tool pulls from map data and builds a loop for people to explore new routes. It was developed by Riley from New York, US, to encourage discovery while exercising, but I'm using it to find new routes for photography in my local town :-). It works great, so long as I check if the routes actually have sidewalks
185. Variation in horticulture. Gardeners want to grow pretty plants, myself included, but that can harm the local environment. A compromise has its trade-offs too: striking colors that we enjoy as humans may confuse and disrupt the insects, making it unsustainable. A living system has its own beauty too.
186. A solar-powered heater that radiates energy outwards is simple to build (if one has builder equipment). On a website that itself is powered by solar energy, a manual is given for some bricks and some wires.
187. I'm not in the market for used cars. But I know someone who is, and I'm sending them a free guide from Consumer Reports. While I'm at it, I might as well link this information on this here website. I wonder if they'll go electric. Probably not.
188. A gas car is more complicated, but is the more common type, with its internal combustion engine. Alec Watson from Technology Connections made a video on YouTube to explain the mechanical workings of a car engine. It's a long video, to be sure, but my physics lessons were in hour-long segments, so this doesn't feel that out of place for such a complicated subject.
189. An electric car is less complicated (in some aspects), but that didn't stop some "madman" engineers from overcomplicating things and stuffing a Rivian car with too much battery for a two-part video series. To anyone worried that this could be replicated by some amateur to their detriment: yeah, I'm worried too.
190. The origin of red squiggles under misspelled words comes down to one employee at Microsoft Word. That man, Tony Krueger, who died at 58 this April, made spell checking unobtrusive with a subtle icon that has been copied into every text processor (including the several I'm using right now).
191. The Historical Tech Tree is a cool (if laggy) website that shows how technology innovation was made possible by earlier, also groundbreaking, technology innovations. Nearly 2,500 technologies are included, from bridges to bridges, from dyes to printing, and from plastics to the Mars rover.
192. Broadband noise (white noise, pink noise, and brown noise) is a popular technique to fall asleep, and multiple gadgets and apps will sell that idea. But is it a technique grounded in science? The evidence is limited on whether it actually works, as per Dr. Vanessa Hill, who goes on to describe the mixed quality of these studies (half with ten or fewer participants!). No easy conclusion can be drawn; science is slower than salesmen. Sleep is one of those things I would love to optimize, but it's a slow process.
193. "Regular civilian experiences specialized thing" is a favorite format of story for me. Hannah, a stuntwoman, put on the firefighter gear of the Suita Fire Department and worked a whole training session with them. It's extraordinary, requiring such a level of body fitness that I could only aspire to. The training itself expends more than 4,000 calories.
194. The stairs of Pittsburgh, a city in the US built on hills. Mariah and Chris travel up the abandoned stairs and take the... well, maybe not the weirdest tourist trail, but it's up there for most "it's the journey, not the destination" trails in the eastern US. Mariah even mentions some of the history of Pittsburgh, which I also noted early days on this website. My only comment regarding their journey: you didn't bring bug spray!?
195. Samuel Lintaro from Germany is taking monochrome photography for all of 2026, and released monthly "reports" documenting the experience. The July report gives details on how one must keep monochrome in mind; it results in a different image than just converting a color image into monochrome. Also, there's a point when photos are better in color (Samuel's son had their birthday in July, and no one wants to remember it in black and white).
196. Tape. I've showcased a website on glue in June 2026, but this is a video on all the different applications for tape an engineer (or particularly resourceful craftsman) would need. I couldn't watch it in one sitting, but then again I was taking notes on grippy silicone tape. There are gear-oriented photographers out there that put more interest in random clamps and metal gears than the camera itself, and I would probably be one of them in a parallel universe. Instead, I'm watching videos online on tape.
197. While at the US Open tennis tournament a short while ago, I heard a remix of Bulletproof by La Roux that was somehow more electronic than the original. My favorite version of it is the Pomplamoose recording of the same name, which is less electronic and more Lone Digger-style electro-swing.
198. Radio Garden feels like it doesn't fit in the modern chaos of international copyright. I also thought I linked this before, but I guess not. Well, here it is: Radio Garden, a website to access over 40,000 internet radio stations for free.
199. This is my wife knife. I give no explanation. I have none.
200. Finally, and I didn't want this to be the last one on the list, long live Dolly Parton.

Thanks for reading and clicking on some of the links. Contact me if there's a favorite link out there in this glorious mess, and send me some RSS feeds that I might enjoy. I'm always hunting for more.

For now, it's time for me to go hunt for breakfast. It'll be in the fridge.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-24

Hello!

I got in early to secure front-row seats to an all-day practice session between multiple tennis players at the US Open. They were free.

The first athlete I saw was Jessica Pegula from the US, who practiced for about an hour and a half before the next session started.

I saw well-known tennis players such as Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, and I wish I brought better gear to the event if I knew security would let me by! As it stands, I could get some action shots if I was lucky, but no close portraits of professional quality, which is alright.

I need to step out of my comfort zone and get back into more creative photography. A trip to the city did me well, but I shouldn't need to go to a great location to get great photos. The search continues.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-23

Hello!

In the build up to Day 200, I've been trying to pull so many different resources from around the internet. It's looking like I'm going to be promoting less stuff this time around, but with more detail and context.

Combined with other life obligations (and a possible case of burnout?) I've fallen a day behind. The usual solution to that would have been a photowalk. Problem is: I'm out of ideas.

This time, I need something exciting if I want to create original work that's still refreshing, so I need to take a train to the city.

(So, if anyone has recommendations for photogenic locations in New York City... let me know?)

Finally, embrace the vandals and get street art all over your New York truck. Company trucks "stumble" through the chaotic streets of New York with scenes of unique graffiti, and I think it gives them some great character.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-22

Hello!

I've completed another book. It's been a long while since I last did some extensive reading on paper — in fact, I've only finished four other books this year. This one, which I completed in August, is Semicolon by Cecelia Watson, a book studying the English language mark.

This is a book recommendation not meant for most people, but those who want to seek out a nuanced interpretation of language. The old textbooks sold to children in the US were created by businessmen making up rules on the spot (often contradicting each other), criticizing even the grammar of Shakespeare's works. Yet when it came to punctuation, those same arrogant textbooks cowered away from making clean, scientific rules. Still, the semicolon (;) has been fundamental in cases of law, poetry, and computer programming. Also, this emoticon: ;).

I'm also going to use this book recommendation to ramble about emoticons — those text-based faces that can come in Western style (side-on) or Japanese kaomoji (upright). I'd like to say I have well-defined rules for using each. In public writing, I avoid them: they're an extremely prickly subject when it comes to web accessibility or readability. If the reader doesn't understand what the emoticon is representing, it's a moment of alienation that's just not worth getting confused over; the written word will do just fine.

Emoticons are also far from universal: diacritical upright emoticons Ö and Ü are unintuitive for me, and I would have to copypaste the katakana smiley ツ.

But I use plenty in texts and (sometimes) email. The western smiley :-) and its noseless sibling :) almost seems like the default emoticon. The newer noseless :) is far more popular these days (particularly among younger folk), but the original smiley :-) has that charm of old-fashioned politeness that I swear has a different, more desirable, aura than the current "being online is my personality" smiley :). In secret, I admit to using the cutesy smiley c: and its even more cutesy companion :c for frowns. I rarely use :3, but rarely does not mean never.

Any variant of the original western smiley :-) looks ugly and I would assume pegs any user of those variants as out of date. The grin :-D and wink ;-) only work noseless — :D and ;) are the only acceptable forms. In the same way, an oval shock :0 looks ugly (especially in the case of the slashed zero!) compared to the circle shock emoticon :o.

I see plenty of Japanese kaomoji on the internet, and each time I've had to copypaste them — with the exception of some anglicized kaomoji owo and uwu. Elle's homepage uses extensive kaomoji and it unlocks these really nice emotions that I would otherwise struggle to replicate with plain-word text. I mean, come on. I've thought about sobakawa pillows five times in the past month as I also struggle with sleep and travel; part of that was from the vivid kaomoji (๑>ᴗ<๑) and (∩❛ڡ❛∩) included.

At no point have I made rules or even recommendations for other writers or casual message-makers. I do not have authority to do so, and I wouldn't want anyone to copy this style anyway; I would completely shift away from it were this to become close to standard.

Emoji are much harder for me, but I try to have similar detailed self-guidelines for them; for example, I prefer the modern use case of the moyai emoji 🗿 and skull emoji 💀, even if I couldn't explain the former.

What I'm saying is: emoticons and emoji both have their use cases, whether side-on :o or upright O.O, whether old-fashioned :-) or so modern they're unexplainable 🗿.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-21

Hello!

Pets keep me busy. I didn't have to worry too much about them pooping in the wrong spots or breaking fragile objects, but they need exercise and food. They're also curious little fuckers.

I'm not answering whether I'm a cat person or a dog person — there's a satisfactory answer in Tom Scott's comparison video of the Western world versus his audience — dogs are definitely easier for me, but cats are cuter! Simple as that.

The internet loves cats. Hence the cat tax: a gesture of goodwill between internet posters (or a way to garner attention, I haven't decided which).

For me, I've shared around cute images of pets when I have nothing better to do, or nothing better to say. This is one of those days.

A few weeks ago, I had drafted an article on philosophy and psychology. I've since split that up into smaller chunks that aren't as far-fetched, because I'm realizing how I know nothing about what I'm talking about.

I've never had a philosophical perspective of anything, despite quoting Chinese philosophical texts and stumbling into a more fundamental answer on occasion. I don't know any philosopher names by heart, and I've never read any of their works.

I have one exception, though. I do have a favorite philosopher: Linus Van Pelt from the Peanuts comic strip (you know, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Woodstock?). His appearance in the comics and the television specials made up the happiest days of my childhood.

... Other than that, though, philosophy and its cousin psychology are a waste of time :-).

Cheers,
David

2026-08-20

Hello!

I saw a quote somewhere that read something like: "young writers only write about themselves, not realizing that bad autobiography is the most oversaturated genre on the internet." This blog is not that high above the mass of text posts on algorithmic platforms, but I ought to put more weight on the field of photography rather than the photographer.

Not today! Realizing that I had not listened to my collection of digital music in a while, I plugged my earbuds in to my computer and shuffled through the tracks. (My phone doesn't accept wired earbuds...)

As always, a song got stuck in my head. This time, it was Midnight Blue by Electric Light Orchestra and I decided to make a picture based on the song's name. The song itself is good, but it doesn't lend itself well to a photograph.

I have this star projector whose list price is way too expensive despite my love for the dark sky. I set the camera to capture a long exposure image. Dots of purple light created an arc as the projector spun around facing up to my bedroom ceiling.

I took this image in the middle of the night — I didn't need to, since it was indoors anyway and I could have pulled the curtains at any time of the day! But those with Originals access will see that I took the photo late at night. Besides, it fits the song name better, which is what I was going for.

The star projector claims to emit a blue light, but through editing (and my general confusion with all things color) it is presented as purple in the final file. Oh well.

I can give a song recommendation to Midnight Blue, and maybe the entire Discovery album as well. Electric Light Orchestra are just amazing.

Finally, people are working on eliminating malaria. A disease that still kills 600,000 people every year, malaria is a main mission of the GiveWell charity, who spent $1 billion USD worth of medication and mosquito netting according to their announcement. After many surveys and trials, it's clear that there's a lot of work to be done, but I'm optimistic.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-19

Hello!

We are close to Day 200 on dpanphoto, and I'm compiling a list of links across the internet that I find interesting. If there's a website I should know about, please contact me! I do this, in part, because it helps me take account of my biases and my circles of knowledge.

This is an old-fashioned telephone at the entrance to a trail in the woods. I don't know if it works, but I assume it does. Otherwise, they would have taken it down by now. Still, it needs US quarters, the currency for laundromats, parking meters, and telephones.

Why a telephone here of all places? At a bus stop or a public center, I can understand. But what kind of calls would come out of a trailhead? Emergency calls, perhaps?

In fact, the panel on the telephone box even says that emergency calls are not charged. So it makes for a good utility tool, I guess.

I might bring a pocket of quarters if I ever come by another time, just to test if it still works.

Finally, make music with code. With simple web code, one could generate beats and sounds by typing into a keyboard. It works on slower computers and can work on its own. I'm not going to touch it — I'm not that much of a tinkerer — but I do like the examples they've put up.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-18

Hello!

This is the final photo from my drained creek photo series. I wanted to highlight the influence the creek had on this woods, my personal connection to it, and the physical mark it leaves behind when it's dry.

I didn't realize how shallow the water was. When the creek had water flowing through, I can't recall ever seeing the bottom. But it looks like I could have walked across this with the water lapping at my knees. If I didn't get swept away by the fast current.

Looking back at this month's photos thus far, it's clear I need to put more focus on the light. In the future, I'll look for shadows and rays of light, instead of the flat cloudy light filtered through tree leaves that give everything a warm green tint.

Finally, typography. Designing a font or a typeface is more than the alphabet; it must also include symbols like the arrow. I've stayed away from the tempting field of digital graphic design, and I draw my fonts on paper thank you very much... but now I have ideas on some waterdrop-like arrows to write up.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-17

Hello!

I found more images on this creek in the woods. I don't have much else to say, but I find the act of writing itself to be a bit soothing during such a busy month, so here I am.

When I get the time, I do plan on asking the ground keepers (or whoever is in charge of preserving this land) what happened to the creek. It could be as dull as "it hasn't rained enough this past week" or I could get a detailed response that points to multiple factors. I'm still hoping for the former, because it would suggest that the creek could return any day rather than leaving this permanent scar on the trail.

If the creek does return to its former glory (or any other big changes happen to the woods), I'll come back and continue taking photos here. The trail goes on for a lot longer, but the weather and time constraints meant I had to head home early.

I eliminated some of the distortion in this image through cropping out the extreme edges. I adjusted the color of the orange log in the foreground and the brightness of the trees in the background.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-16

Hello!

I parted ways with John the local and started walking back to the trail entrance.

As I was leaving the woods, the rain started to fall. I was following the trail, so I knew I would make it back to the parking lot; I was more concerned about the bike ride home.

I hoped the rain would be enough to fill the creek again, or at least get some water flowing through it. But as if mocking me, the skies stopped raining and turned blue as I picked up speed on my bicycle. It had hardly rained at all.

Finally, Isabel Emrich from California, US has produced amazing paintings of portraits, cities, and flowers. There's no text to describe the process of any of her artworks, but just looking at them, I can see a connection between her style and the works of Van Gogh (a stated inspiration of Isabel's).

Cheers,
David

2026-08-15

Hello!

An older gentleman named John came up to me and said he found a "water snake". He pointed to it, curling around a branch hanging over the creek. I tried to capture a photograph of this snake, but it was too obstructed by other twigs and leaves.

His name isn't actually John, by the way. But that doesn't matter. He's been looking out for wildlife in this area for years as well, and used to spot a snakes and frogs every time. Now, they're an unusual encounter at best.

Usually here during springtime, he said the best time to see frogs and tadpoles were in the morning of spring season. But this year, he hadn't spotted any.

He noted that the woods were due for another shower any minute now, and I noticed the sky getting darker with thicker clouds. We parted ways and I headed back to the parking lot.

Finally, the James Webb Space Telescope has detected 16.5 million stars in one image. The field of astronomy science is so far beyond my comprehension that all I can do is link to the image and NASA page explaining it in brief. I'd be butchering their information otherwise.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-14

Hello!

I don't know what caused this creek to dry up. It would be easy to attribute it to the climate crisis at large, but I wonder if the water is pooling up in a different spot. It's not like this area hasn't had rain — there was an overnight shower two nights ago.

The water level is there — there's some muddy water in the bottom left of this image — but it's not significant enough to count. Again, the creek used to carry so much watter, it flooded on occasion! This is nothing.

I can't determine when this creek dried up; it looks fresh, since roots are still exposed and moss hasn't made it all the way into the creek. At the same time, the rocks are dry. Sticks have fallen into the carving, where they would otherwise be swept away by water.

I started to turn around and walk back to the parking lot when a local came up to me. He noticed I had a camera on me, and said to follow him.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-13

Hello!

As I write this, I am surrounded by many people on their screens. Playing mobile games. Watching vertical videos. I've been toiling away at this website for hours, writing articles and queuing them up to lead to these five photographs of the drained creek.

I was surprised when I got here. I've been here multiple times before, and every time, the creek was full and sometimes overflowing into the trail. Wooden boards were set up for people to balance on if the soil had turned into sludge and mud.

There was no use for them now; everything was dry. Yesterday, I wrote that I caught tadpoles and frogs in this creek years ago. I brought little fishnets and scooped up a section of the creek to see what I had caught. Now, I could have just walked into it to stand on dusty land.

Finally, baldio: abandoned land. In central Portugal, a forest of trees recovering from wildfires is getting support from the Ecosia tech company. They're planting chestnut and pine trees to cope for both the current climate and the predicted climate forty years from now.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-12

Hello!

The bird feeder is empty, I think. It has squirrel protection — the dome at the top should prevent squirrels from taking the birdseed — but squirrels are clever, so I wouldn't be surprised if they ate the week's supply.

This entire area looks untouched, with vines every which way and a thick wall of leaves to the left of frame. Not abandoned, just untouched; left to its own devices for now.

Starting tomorrow, I will be releasing a series of images on a creek in the woods. If anyone remembers the week of March basketball photos I published in succession, this will be a sort of similar situation.

I used to visit this creek years ago; I caught big tadpoles and small frogs. Now, the creek is drained and doesn't hold any water. Over many years, the creek carved through rock and soil. Now, the dried creek is a rich bed of soil for moss and other plants.

I've been extremely busy this month, so I do apologize if I haven't been responding to emails! I'll reply as soon as I'm able to.

Finally, Saype's massive mural on the grass of Minneapolis, a city in the US, has been completed. The images of overhead drones photographing the crowds linking arms and acting as a community are extraordinary. These images capture moments that would not exist at another place or another time — the fight between the linked city of community and the distant arrogance in Washington DC set the backdrop for this mural and what it stands for.

Cheers,
David

2026-08-11

Hello!

People from this area might be able to identify the specific historic park is being renovated, but I don't want to reveal it just yet until it's done. For now, I'm just using photography to document the progress and construction.

The past few days have been dreary, with intermittent rain and a continuous layer of clouds. I wasn't expecting to get interesting light on this photowalk, but the sunlight hit at the right time and place to produce this golden hour view.

I think I might come back to this location and photograph it every so often to see how the area has changed, as it's undergoing active construction and the new building (a visitor center?) looks exciting.

Again, no post processing was used in this image; it is straight out of camera. Editing software dulled the golden light for some reason. I'm looking into it.

Finally, Jan Kraus from Germany publishes one photo on a German war hero — that's all it needs. Annika Schröder, who served in the Bundeswehr for nearly two decades, has started a "veteran farm" for war veterans like her suffering from PTSD. The one image, in Annika's kitchen, is a portrait of her in full uniform (down to the shoes). Surrounded by fridge magnets, baked bread, and potted plants, the photo itself is a strong one that is only helped by the story it's connected to.

Cheers,
David