HERE’S A BRILLIANT IDEA
Please do not play your albums on a turntable with built in speakers. In fact, don’t place your record player anywhere near your speakers. LPs never sound their best that way.
MUSIC REVENUE CHART
For folks who care about such things, here’s an interesting chart adjusted for inflation that shows where each music format has fallen in yearly revenue. LPs peaked in 1978, and CDs peaked in 1999. Only sales of new items are included. Colored vinyl is the new collectible fetish. Elsewhere, physical music formats have remained niche products, with revenue from used sales on-line unaccounted for. The days of finding gold in used record stores are pretty much over. Click on chart to enlarge.
THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS, IT’S ALL ONE STORY
Everything worth doing takes time. Commitment and intention are everything. Otherwise, projects end up half-baked, or worse yet, contain inaccurate information when they were thought to be “finished”.
Our title says it all. Remember the big picture. “You’re only as good as your last job” is something else to keep in mind, no matter how far up the tree you climb. Another is, “The higher you climb, the harder the wind blows.”
WHILE YOU’RE WAITING
While you’re waiting for the earth to end, here’s a cool turntable to play your carbon based records on. The Brian Eno LED turntable is a collaboration with London’s Paul Stolper gallery.
NOT A GOOD SIGN
From Uncrate: “In airplanes, the black box records and stores flight data to provide information in the event of a crash. With climate change putting our planet in a downward spiral, earth is getting one of its own. The 33-foot-long steel vault is being constructed on the coast of Tasmania and is designed to record and collect measurements and interactions as our planet continues to decline. Continue reading “”
LOOK UP, THE SKY IS OPEN.
Drone photography and videography can be magical.
However, it is not for the faint of heart. The deeper you go into this discipline-laden aerial specialty, the more you risk being confronted with the limits of what is possible. Those limits are not very forgiving.
Still, for me, the effort is worth the risk for the imagery that can only be acquired aloft. It’s an inspiring and addictive vocation. Fly safely.
For more, see Randy’s Landscape Instagram page: @landscapes.randywells
THANK YOU FORZA MAGAZINE
The magazine about Ferrari just published a feature on a super rare aluminum bodied 1967 Ferrari 275 NART Daytona Spyder in their January 2022 issue. I was fortunate enough to photograph it for Forza, and Jay Gillotti wrote the text. Grazie!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Goodbye to the old. Hello to a fresh start.
(Non-manipulated sunrise photo above by Randy on a Leica Q. Photo below by Andrea Wells at dawn earlier that week, Los Cabos, Mexico – December 2021)
THE PORSCHE CAYENNE TURBO GT
A Porsche Cayenne in one form or another has been my camera car for the past dozen years.
Here’s a new one for 2022 that Porsche describes as, “An SUV to the eye and a race car beneath the hood.” Continue reading “”
12-25-21
CHRISTMAS IS HIGHER THAN THE WORLD
Merry Christmas!
I posted the following music video over a year ago. After talking with folks in the past month about what the’ve gone through since then, I think it’s an appropriate time to revisit it.
THERE ARE NO RULES #5
OK, here’s the last in my arbitrary list of 5 traditional photographic rules meant to broken on the 21st day of the 12th month of the 21st year of the 21st century:
“Don’t Place The Horizon In The Middle Of The Frame”.
Another version of this is, “Never put your subject in the middle of the frame”. That’s another compositional rule to break, unless you’re shooting for a full-bleed double page spread!
CHECK OUT OUR NEWEST VIDEO CLIP
If you have 22 seconds to spare, I think you’ll like it!
Lots of film work lately! More video to come…
Alive on Arrival
Steve Forbert’s debut album, Alive on Arrival was released in 1978 on his 22nd birthday, December 13. This foretelling unknown gem is still worth repeated listening. The original vinyl sounds great!
PERSONAL WORK 2021
Followers of my blog know that at the end of each year I post a series of three personal photographs from a non-assignment single location.
Here are some images I made at the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon this fall.
Happy Holidays!
THERE ARE NO RULES #4
The following photographic advice is often recommended: “Never shoot at noon on a sunny day.â€
You actually can do this.
However, here’s a tip. It’s easier to do if it’s late fall, winter, or early spring. And you need to aim the camera up. Include that beautiful blue sky in your image.
THE MULE IN PANO!
The Porsche 916 is a rare beast. Only a dozen were built in the early ’70s. Based on a 914-6, a test mule for the 916 (pictured above) was recently featured in PCA’s Panorama Magazine using Peter Linsky’s article and my photos made in Florida earlier this year. Here’s a part of my sidebar that explains this car and the 916: Continue reading “”