The Minolta 700si won the 1994-1995 EISA award and a few others after its release in 1993. Today it has faded into relative obscurity. Looking at sold listings on eBay, one finds that only a few are sold in any given period. There are YouTube videos, though, so that’s good. At theContinue Reading
The Old Fourth Ward is a historic Atlanta neighborhood that lies east of downtown Atlanta. The northernmost border of Old Fourth Park abuts North Avenue, one of those streets where, for a long time, one only drove across to get somewhere else—how things change. The new park lies in anContinue Reading
The X-570 is not flashy. It is best described as a gracious, reliable, helpful companion. It doesn’t chew with its mouth open, expect you to laugh at bad puns, or eat the takeout you tried to hide in the back of the fridge. It is simply there when needed andContinue Reading
The Polar Vortex came through last winter and dropped temps into the single digits. I watched as my brown garden with defiant patches of green turned all brown. The gardenias suffered the most. The large seven-foot bush in the front of the house turned and remains brown, looking almost asContinue Reading
Buy enough multi-item lots on eBay, and there is bound to be at least one teleconverter in the batch. Cheap teleconverters have a bad reputation—for a good reason. However, since all I have are cheap, that is what I chose to test. In this case, I used a Tamron 2xContinue Reading
Regional differences in food and dialects fascinate me. I suppose some of that fascination grew out of my having spent time in very different regions of the country. My early childhood years were spent in rural southwest Virginia, tween and teen years in Ohio, a large chunk of my adultContinue Reading
Life is full of surprises. From the time I decided to take photography seriously, my focus had been on SLRs. They are perfect for photographing flowers, cheap, and easy to find. However, as I have continued my photography journey, I encounter situations where an SLR is not necessarily the idealContinue Reading
Description: Office front, Little Five Points, Atlanta Background: I have passed by this office many times on my way to Zesto’s, Atlanta’s answer to Dairy Queen. Each time, I smile. There is something about the list of practices that strikes me as incongruent. I cannot explain why. Maybe it’s the fact thatContinue Reading
The VMLP is a quest to relive the history and innovation of Minolta SLRs. Accordingly, the next camera up for review should be either the SR-7 with its built-in meter (innovation step) or the older SR-1 (historical). But here we have the XD11. Why? Love. Generally speaking, I prefer autofocusContinue Reading
Winter in Atlanta is the rainy season. Fall and spring have regular, predictable rain— the kind one expects. Winter is different. From late December until February, it rains—drenching rains. The temperature varies with the rain. Sunny days are cold, while rainy days tend to bring warmer temps. A sunny dayContinue Reading
