The reports repeated each other. The message didn’t change. A storm at the end of the week threatened the holidays. Very little to celebrate frost and wind, yet the heart is warm. The spirit’s ablaze in an effort to hunker down and weather the onslaught. The craft felt personal done by hand. A handshake, dap, fist bump, pinky promise. I don’t imagine the digital communicates feeling. No medium communicated infallibly. Abstraction, however, proves indelible in order to provoke, upset or please: I debate analog photography against digital photography like an elliptical. I am in motion but going nowhere. Still, the workout is the action, so athletics or aesthetics, I get to hit the gym.

Problems as puzzling as financial planning, I practiced with monochrome, black and white film and color. With so many styles in jeans to choose from, I grapple a paradox of choice. Reading hasn’t failed me yet, unlike the machine spitting outside. Pecking, tapping. The noise would interrupt thoughts had they not marinated all night, like the recipe reads. Color might please as much, but black and white told stories like facts. Hues and tones constant; the real storyteller became the light. I could challenge myself and photograph more film, that’s why I purchased the Canon 1-N, from Sakuraya in Saitama. I hadn’t budgeted before. I lacked a second 50mm lens for the camera- I had to share like siblings and consoles. As I reflect on my own bias I built, nothing presently kept me from buying the tools I need at the mall. Film wasn’t hard to get if you knew where to look. And moments happened every day. The fun in the game was staying ready for anything.

Budgeting time for writing, meant choosing to pay attention to the clock. Composition of a frame in photography is a similar concept. To make enough for film, I needed a process. Habits stacked like flapjacks; I couldn’t wait to take a bite. I’d stick a fork in anything in the way. After all, the game was just getting good.

‘We did in 12 weeks what we couldn’t get done in five years of trying.’

-AMC CEO Adam Aron

Post Summary

• I was in motion all day, thinking about what to write. Action began once I put pen to paper.
• Abstraction in art expresses as it obfuscates. The viewer then must interpret the work themselves. At least, the best works encourage it.
• Photographers plan visually. I would also need to plan financially to stack more habits, like shooting film.