Why I Bought the Ricoh GRiii | Three Months On

Scroll down past all the words to see the full photoset: 3 Months with the Ricoh GRiii

Film vs. digital: a real life story

Over the last ten years or so, I’ve gotten into the habit of visiting NYC in early October (pandemics notwithstanding), and it’s one of my favorite places to shoot photos in the streets.

During my 2022 NYC trip, I carried two cameras with me everywhere I went for six days — a digital Fuji X-Pro3, and a compact Rollei 35S point-and-shoot film camera. But the experience of juggling film and digital didn’t result in the best of outcomes.

When I’m in New York, I walk almost everywhere so I can shoot as much as possible, taking my time, slowing down and periodically posting up in spots that have good light and lots of action. You know, “street photography.”

On this trip, I switched between cameras as often as it occurred to me, at the time it felt like an even spilt between the two. I came back with over 800 digital photos and approximately 150 film photos, and the amount of “keepers” wasn’t what I’d wanted out of it all (and I try to maintain pretty low expectations and high standards when it comes the keeper ratio).

Editing that batch of NYC photos made it painfully clear to me that shooting digital and shooting film are two different disciplines, and trying to do both at the same time generally means that I’m not focused on the essence of the pursuit — the photography fundamentals required for consistent results, especially in shooting film.

For me, working with a digital camera encourages volume — just shoot as much as I can and sort it all out in Lightroom later. The only limits on the amount of photos I can take are how engaged my vision is, how much ground I’m willing to cover, and the size of the memory cards in the camera.

I try to not let the camera do too much of the work, but my photographic mindset is looser with a digital camera in-hand. I can think all I want about taking the time to line up shots, and adjust as many settings to manual as I can handle, but once I’m out in the streets and I can take as many shots as I want in order to get just the right one out of almost any situation, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

And that’s fine. I love the seemingly endless run-and-gun approach of shooting digital, and the X-Pro3 is an excellent camera — my favorite digital rangefinder style — both in terms of user experience and quality of output.

But with an all-manual mechanical film camera, there’s a finite number of shots in a roll, and every setting needs to be actively considered, so a volume shooting strategy isn’t really an option. I need to lay in wait, or move with purpose and attention, take the time to line up each shot (not just think about it), and hope that I captured the moment I saw with my mind’s eye. Because there’s a fraction of a second between pressing the shutter button and the camera capturing the image, and things really can change in that fraction of a second.

The practice of intuitively seeing the apex of movement, light and composition is the zen of photography, in the streets or anywhere else. The whole process is about slowing down, about evaluating scenes and seeing the shots as they emerge — sensing how the composition is going to come together and capturing it at just the right time, when everything in motion is also in balance.

Attention to those fundamentals is what I found in the dichotomy between digital and film photography, so I decided that’s what I wanted to focus on.

A year of shooting film

As 2022 was winding down, I found myself in Tokyo for two weeks, and largely on my own for about half that time. I overpacked for that trip. I took the Fuji XPro-3 and a couple of prime lenses, the Rollei 35S, and a Leica MP — the all manual, 35mm film camera that I had just picked up — along with a couple dozen rolls of film (an even split of black & white and color).

Neither the Fuji nor the Rollei made it out during that trip to Tokyo, they stayed stashed in my backpack in the hotel room closet. I shot 22 rolls over two weeks with the Leica. And I like the results of my Tokyo endeavors far more than those from the NYC ’22 trip. Not just because the Leica is an incredible camera that’s a joy to shoot with, but because I was more focused on the fundamentals of making photographs — being more purposeful, not rapid-firing the shutter at everything that caught my eye, but making an earnest attempt to use light, motion and composition to capture the scenes I saw unfolding.

Starting then, in December of 2022, I only shot film for 12 months — with the Leica when it made sense, and with Rollei the rest of the time. I never left home without the Rollei, unless I had the Leica with me. It was fun, challenging, and more immersive than shooting digital (especially when I started developing black & white film at home). It made me feel more connected to the process and the output than working with digital images, and I think it made me a better photographer…maybe.

Ricoh GRiii, a return to digital

When I returned to NYC in October ’23, I had both the Leica and the Rollei with me. No digital cameras. But shooting on-the-go, especially at night or indoors in tricky lighting like museums and galleries and bars and restaurants, and taking snapshots while I was hanging out with my wife and friends (living in the moment as opposed to living through the lens), I realized that I wanted a digital backup, something low profile and pocketable but powerful.

After a couple weeks of internet research, I decided the Ricoh GRiii was my best option. When it comes to digital cameras I’m big fan of Fuji, but Fuji doesn’t make anything quite like the GRiii. Its 28mm equivalent lens is a workable focal length for just about any situation, it’s palm-sized and easily pocketable, super quiet, and not at all flashy looking, but it boasts the tech specs to take decent images.

It’s got a lot of fancy settings that allow for the creation of “recipes” (settings combinations that result in film emulation and other treatments) for both black & white and color, but I haven’t explored those too much. I’ve been far less interested in what the camera can do, and more into exploring what I can do with the camera. So I shoot RAW images and convert, process, and edit as needed in Lightroom.

I started using the Ricoh GRiii in December of 2023, and I’ve been pleased with the results so far. It’s in my pocket about as often as the Rollei 35 — which is to say, I’ve always got one of them on me. Unless I’m out with the Leica, in which case I’ve probably also got the Ricoh in my bag or in my pocket.

This photoset contains photos made with the GRiii, in chronological order, while getting acquainted with it between December ’23 and February ’24. You can see my intent manifested here — mostly snapshot style photos, quick, candid, mundane, everyday life, and street shots, all pretty casually captured as I went about my days and nights…

New York City | 2023

An October visit to Manhattan has become an annual ritual for me (pandemic lockdowns notwithstanding). It’s the perfect time of year to spend a few days in one of the richest street photography environments in the world, visit some of my favorite museums, catch up with a few old friends, soak up a city vibe unlike any other.

This year, while I took pictures every day, I only really had one day dedicated to being in the streets with the camera. I was rained out on Saturday, but Friday was perfect — the sun was shining, the weather was typical NYC Fall plus 10 degrees, and the streets of midtown were full of tourists and locals, shoppers, protesters, and general hangers-out.

Starting at Bryant Park — there were a ton of photographers there, I’ve never seen so many other people out doing what I’m doing in such high concentration — I shot for a while around 42nd, then walked down and around Broadway to Madison Square, Union Square, and finally to Washington Square Park, lingering when the scenes called for it, moving on when I needed a fresh perspective. I suspect that route is a fairly standard trail for photographers shooting street in NYC. There’s a lot happening in that corridor of the city.

About half the photos in this set are from that day, the rest were shot in various other locations around the city — Central Park, Hells Kitchen, West Village,  Chelsea. All these photos were taken with a Leica MP and a 50mm f/2 Summicron. I shot a couple of rolls of Portra (one 400 and one 800) that Friday, which were processed at Underdog in West Oakland, and shot Tri-X 400 the rest of time, which I processed home, where I scanned it all.

Los Angles, CA | July, 2023

My year in photography really began over the summer. It’s not that I wasn’t taking pictures during the first half the year, but my effort wasn’t consistent and my output was far from prodigious. I was coming off a creative slump following what felt like a big project, work was crazy, the stars just weren’t aligned, so my attention to photography was sporadic.

So it was at this point that I found myself in Downtown Los Angeles over the fourth of July weekend with the expressed purpose of shooting photographs. My wife had work obligations in LA that weekend, and as I have no qualms whatsoever about riding her professional coattails for a free hotel room, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some dedicated solo time with my camera in the subject rich streets of DTLA.

But it was kind of a rough go, a rocky start to what’s shaped up to be a reasonably productive second half of the year. The rough patch I experienced that weekend in LA was not necessarily a collection of pronounced individual issues. Rather, the vibe was weird and things just didn’t click.

I never really felt like I found a flow state while shooting over those three days. I only shot four rolls of film in that time, and I remember thinking that I botched more shots than I hit. I was frustrated with my lens choice and decided that I prefer a 50mm over a 28mm lens for street photography…but I hadn’t brought the 50mm with me. The weather was hot as hell, the air was swampy and smelly. Anime Expo was happening at Staples Center and there were costumed nerds everywhere, but they were uninteresting to me and I barely photographed any of them. An off duty jewelry store security guard threatened to shoot me.

More than once I stepped into a local bar and knocked back a drink or three in search of my mojo, to no avail. But I put in the work, and photos were taken. And that’s what matters.

I burned one roll of Portra 400 color film and got one decent shot out of it, so it got top billing, and three rolls of Tri-X 400 black & white, selects from which fill the gallery.

Closing Out 2022: I’m Still Taking Pictures

What Was I Even Doing in 2022?

As I look ahead to next year and plot some high-level goals & aspirations, I’ve been looking back over the last year of photographic output. While I can’t help thinking about how, why and when I pursue creative endeavors, and what my personal relationship is with it all, I ultimately tend to get frustrated with all that creative metacognition and go back to focusing on just doing the damn thing.

And when it comes down to doin the damn thing, I didn’t shoot enough this past year.

In any case, the images contained in the galleries sprinkled throughout this post represent my favorite film photos from 2022, taken with a variety of 35mm and medium format cameras. Give ‘em a click to expand.

What’s in Store for 2023?

Keeping it simple for 2023, there are just two things (I think) I want to focus on when it comes to photography:

1. Shoot more. And shoot more film…maybe exclusively shoot film? I guess I shot quite a bit of film in 2021 too, but some of my more notable photo excursions were shot with a digital camera. And to be clear, I really like my digital camera rig and I really enjoy shooting with it. And I’m not a film snob. But I regularly consider limiting my options as a means of up-leveling fundamental skills and digging deeper into creativity.

This idea of focusing more (if not exclusively) on film started in October, after a trip to NYC in which most of my film photos turned out like shit — I think because I split my focus on shooting digital and film simultaneously, and in the aftermath I really came face to face with the realization that I don’t approach them in the same way.

Fresh off that realization, I went to Tokyo in December and, while I took my core digital rig with me (a Fuji setup that, again, I like very much), I didn’t snap a single digital photo. I opted instead to use the Leica MP 35mm film camera exclusively as I explored that city. And while, as of this writing, the results are still TBD (the lab is closed until the new year), the experience was exhilarating, and also a little challenging in that it was entirely without any of the luxuries that digital or more feature-rich film cameras offer. The MP is all mechanical and all manual — it only requires a battery for the light meter, and the camera works fine if the battery dies, you just need to find an alternate way to meter — so it forced to me slow down and get used to having to manage every aspect of the process while on the move.  I came away from the experience with the unwavering feeling that I need a lot more of that.

2. Make more physical media — prints, booklets, foldy zines, whatever else I can come up with that’s equal parts a little polished, but still DIY, and not crazy expensive.

Sharing photos online is the quickest and easies way to connect with photo communities, especially in engaging and supportive environments like Glass, Mastodon and Flickr. But posting digital photography on the internet, even in places where genuine interest thankfully takes the place of algorithmic imperative, can feel a little like stuffing content into a void.

Exploring the impact of physical media, of sharing the tangible results of my photographic endeavors, is increasingly appealing to me these days. The reach won’t be nearly as broad as it can be in a global digital environment where finding new things is as easy as clicking on a hashtag, but I don’t care about that — I want to share work with people in formats that are tactile and interactive, held rather than scrolled through, can be passed on, left out on coffee tables or bookshelves or the tops of toilet tanks, and can be easily revisited.

Physical media just seems like a more worthwhile endeavor than posting for the fleeting engagement of likes, boosts and comments. Not that I’ll stop posting photos to the internet…

All that said, I’ve had 5”x7” prints of the photos for my next booklet project on the wall in my home office for literally months without any movement, so a bias toward action on the production side of things is definitely needed.

I think what it comes down to is that, more than any other kind of photographer, I’m an opportunistic photographer — I almost always have a camera on me — and unless I’m traveling, I rarely set out with the specific intent to shoot. That needs to change.

I need to make the time and put in the effort to approach photography with purpose: take pictures because I set out to take pictures, make things with the pictures because that’s how I want the work to be represented.

I’ll figure out what it all means later.

New York City | October, 2022

On a clear day in Manhattan the natural light is downright dynamic. As the sun moves across the sky, the light floods passages through narrow streets lined with tall buildings, and intersects main thoroughfares creating deep valleys of stark contrast in light and shade. When I’m holding a camera, this is the kind of environment that I see in black and white.

For a visit this past October — my first trip back to NYC since October, 2019 — I stayed at a hipster dive boutique hotel in Chelsea, in what’s known as the city’s Flower District, a single block of plant and flower stores on 28th Street between 6th and 7th Aves that service the bulk of the city’s floral and horticultural needs. The sheer amount of flora & foliage that hits the street first thing in the morning is impressive. It turns the sidewalks on either side of the busy one-way, single-lane street into a jungle of plants, trees and flowers that encroach on walking space, fill the environment with lush life, and cast wild shadows that divide visibility into into high contrast zones of light and shade.

The block starts bustling around 5am, several of the stores close mid-day, but many are open until late afternoon, so I managed to take advantage of the light and the action in the street most days, whether I was coming or going. In the morning I’d grab a coffee at a spot around the corner and move up the block east to west; if I was back on the block later in the day, I tried to roll up from the other direction, west to east. In both cases, I kept the sun at my back, giving me some cover and lighting up the subjects in front of me.

This strategy framed most of my travels throughout the city over six days. Whether I was headed to a museum in midtown, meeting some friends in the Village, or on my way to hit up a record store in the LES, whenever I moved through the city, I traveled mostly on foot and tried to roughly map out routes that let me take advantage of where the sun was going to be, in areas where I knew the foot traffic was likely to be busy. I tried to leave enough time to get to where I was going so I could stop and post up in spots where the light was especially good.

And even if it didn’t work out as planned and the sun was squarely overhead flooding the streets with light… New York still the most bustling and interesting city in North America, a target-rich photo environment regardless of the lighting particulars.

This collection of images contains both digital and 35mm film photographs. The digital images, which make up most of the batch, were taken with a Fuji X-Pro3 and an XF27mm f/2.8 lens (equivalent of 40mm on the Fuji’s APSC sensor); the film was shot using a Rollei 35S (also a 40mm f/2.8 lens) with Kodak Tri-X 400 35mm black & white film. A few of these shots are pretty decent, but they’re all passable enough to share publicly. (I might throw some outtakes into the next edition of One For The Road… just sayin’ .) Enjoy…

Los Angeles Noir | A Short Story in Four Photographs

“Please… I’ve come so far.”

Long Time No See | A Return to Blogging (sorta)

I’ve got a wicked case of writers block.

The last time I put anything on this blog was January, 2021, about 20 months ago, around the time I started my monthly newsletter, One For The Road, which became my main outlet for sharing photos, writing, and music.

I recently decided to make a change to the way I do things with photos and general writing — that is, to post that stuff to this blog instead of the monthly Substack email — and use OFTR to share some music recos and drop links to whatever I’ve done here.

And for some reason, that’s the only writing topic I’ve been able to focus on for a week: basically a blog post that classifies as a “meta procedural.” And holy shit is that boring.

So in lieu of something interesting to read, here’s something (hopefully) interesting to look at: a gallery of black & white 35mm film photos taken over the last few months, on Kodak Tri-X 400 with either the Rollei 35S or the Olympus XA.

Adventures in Landscape Photography: Shooting Point Lobos

I don’t go around calling myself a street photographer (or any kind of photographer, really), but for the most part I’ve generally focused my photographic efforts on streets or urban spaces, and the people, objects, architecture — whatever else captures my attention — within them. But my earliest exposure to photography was the nature focused work of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

I grew up on the Central Coast of California, south of San Francisco, where the names Adams and Weston are as synonymous with photography as Steinbeck is with literature. My dad, being a seasoned photographer himself, was always a fan of the local masters and that’s what I was raised to see as the gold standard of the medium. I’m certainly a fan of Adams and Weston, but I’ve never been interested in emulating either of these two pioneers, and nature is not a subject that I’ve explored a whole lot in my own pursuits.

But back in July, when the decision was made to take a quick road trip from Oakland down the coast for a midweek escape from the apartment (after almost 5 months of laying real low), I revisited the old copy of Weston’s My Camera At Point Lobos that my dad gifted me, and felt somewhat motivated to have a morning hike around Point Lobos, just south of Carmel, to make some photos. It’s a nice place for a light hike, photographer or not.

Maybe it’s the Central California coastal climate that keeps the Point Lobos State Natural Preserve in what feels like constant, concurrent cycles of decay and rejuvenation. It’s two seasons at once, all the time: fall and spring. The bright greens of lush growth are always accompanied by the paler greens, bright reds, oranges and yellows of degeneration as the forest eats itself, the older growth becoming mulch for what’s coming up next.

I shot that morning with the FujiFulm X-Pro 3 and 18mm f/2 lens for a wider view. It was the inaugural run of the X-Pro 3, which I had just picked up and expected to prove in the streets rather than the forest. But I’m not one to stand on ceremony, and either setting is potentially as fruitful as the other.

I also shot with the Minolta XG-M, loaded with Cinestill 800T 35mm, and a 50mm f/1.7 for a tighter view. The Cinestill is, admittedly, an odd film choice for this type of outing. A tungsten film, it seems to prefer bright artificial lights, especially reds and blues, in high contrast situations — think: urban nighttime photography. But I wondered if it might react interestingly to the gray skies, light spikes through the forest canopy, and the colors & texture of the Point Lobos landscape. The outcome wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I’m not mad at it either.

Here’s a gallery of both film and digital snaps from a morning hike around Point Lobos in late July 2020…

San Diego Comic Con 2019

I attended San Diego Comic Con this year, for the first time. My girlfriend works in the industry and has been going to the show for years, and my daughter is a burgeoning manga and anime nerd, and is now old enough to 1) know what Comic Con is, and 2) know that access is just a polite request away.

So basically, I just went along for the ride, figuring I’d get some quality time in with the kid and make photos. Which is pretty much exactly what I did. And while Comic Con isn’t necessarily my jam, it’s a sprawling event — taking over the entirety of the San Diego convention center, and spilling out into the surrounding Downtown San Diego Gaslamp District — and its general sphere of cultural reference is broad enough to appeal to almost any interest, so I was certainly never bored while we were there.

I tried to avoid taking pictures of cosplayers blatantly posing for the camera, instead working to keep a low profile — dad mode or whatever — and capture people being themselves, regardless of their appearance. That turned out to be more difficult than it sounds. Generally speaking, as soon as anyone in cosplay at Comic Con notices a camera pointed anywhere in their general direction, they immediately get into character. And I did specifically ask one or two people if I could photograph them.

In any case, I managed to make a handful of passable images at the show, and aside from one image in this set, all these photos are in color. It’s just too vivid of a scene to shoot in black and white…

Getting There...

I’ve been tinkering with this site a bit. The design isn’t changing, but the structure’s been slightly tweaked, the galleries are being reorganized and culled a bit to focus on images that represent what I think is the best of my efforts. I’m still trying to find my photographic vision and voice — honestly, I think that’ll probably be a life-long pursuit — but hopefully I get closer to figuring it out the further along I get. The changes to this site are meant to represent that current state org that pursuit.

Part of this process involves the removal of some images from the galleries. There’s no pressure on me to build a portfolio. I don’t eat off photography — this is strictly a labor of love. If I had the time to spend my days behind the lens I’d probably be developing the vision and voice much more quickly. But the slower, more restricted approach comes with the freedom to work at a pace that allows for deeper (perhaps more brutal) reflection, and the opportunity to populate these galleries with the kinds of images that fit the vision of where I think I’m trying to go with all this…even if I struggle to put that vision into words.

At any rate, I’m getting there.

Here are a handful of photos I made in April…

Weekly Photoset: March 17, 2019

Time flies when you’re working your ass off.

i‘ve been taking photographs every chance I get recently but, per usual, haven’t had much time to circle back around to review, edit and post what I’ve been shooting. But I’m still making that effort to get it in when I can, so this week’s set contains scenes from the few weeks. In that time, I spent four days in Anaheim, CA for work, and traversed the Bay between Oakland and San Francisco on the usual paths.

I’ve been thinking a lot about photographic style — my opportunistic approach, no matter the setting — and have been sort of longing for the time required to post up in busy places, make myself invisible, and capture the traffic of life as it goes by. But right now I have no time for plotting careful approaches, or lying in wait, so shooting on the move’s gonna have to continue to be the M.O…

Weekly Photoset: February 25, 2019

Back to routine, scenes from daily local travels…

Weekly Photoset: February 18, 2019

I’ve spent a lot of time recently playing catch up (work, life, creative pursuits, etc.), so this week’s photoset includes images I’ve made over the last few weeks (the recent LA trip notwithstanding).

Lately, photographically speaking, I’ve been trying to see past the drudgery of the every-day (my life is fairly routine when I’m not traveling) and find beauty in the normal average spaces and places around me. Spaces devoid of people are easier for me, though the perennial challenge of photographing people is a part of this — and something I still struggle with. Ultimately, regardless of the subject, I’m trying to employ the (often [mis]quoted) wisdom of California photographer Morley Baer: “Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it.”

At any rate, here are some ordinary objects I’ve photographed recently (all shot with the FujiFilm x100f, and edited as minimally as possible in Adobe Lightroom). The beauty is, I suppose, entirely subjective…

Photoset: Los Angeles, CA | January 2019

I’ve been beyond busy for the last month, as well as sick (twice), and generally preoccupied — so much so that I haven’t even thought about posting photos. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been taking photographs, I just haven’t had much time to review, edit or share.

So in an attempt to get back into the swing of the complete process, here’s a gallery of street photos from a recent quick weekend trip to LA, where I attended the women’s march with friends, and wandered the streets of Echo Park, DTLA, and the Arts District.

Weekly Photoset: January 6, 2019

Wrapping up the first week of the new year by publishing some photos I made over the last seven days. Here’s the first photoset of 2019…

Weekly Photoset: January 1, 2019

Happy New Year. I spent some time in Carmel and San Francisco last week, and these pix came out of those adventures. This batch is predominantly black and white, except for one — when I pulled the RAW image from the camera, the color was so vivid, it clearly wasn’t meant for black and white. There’s also a rare selfie here, please don’t hold it against me…

Weekly Photoset: December 20, 2018

After months of deactivation — and a couple of years after removing the app from my phone and iPad, which essentially removed it from my daily life — I deleted my Facebook account this week. So, just a heads-up: if we were connected there, we’re not any more...or rather, we won’t be for much longer, as it takes 30 days to delete an account for some reason.

I’ve been toying with the idea of shitcanning my Instagram account too, but I’m not quite there yet. I’ve managed to keep it curated enough — mostly photography, art and design, records, bands, vintage cars, and boxing — that it still delivers content that generally makes me happy…despite the glut of advertising, and the fact that I’m pretty sure those bastards are hot-micing my phone to target said advertising.

Anyway, few days late (per usual), but here’s the week’s photoset…

(Bi)Weekly Photoset: December 10, 2018

I blew it last week and failed to post The weekly batch of photos, so here’s a short collection from the last couple of weeks. No black and white — these are all color, all made with the Fujifilm x100f in my Oakland, CA neighborhood.

 (Also, just a heads up — I finally published a gallery of pictures from my trip to Oaxaca, MX back in June, and I’m writing up a post about that. I’m also working through photos from a trip to NYC in October, and I hope to get those published here soon as well. Life’s been a little nutty lately, so unfortunately creative pursuits have suffered.)

Weekly Photoset: November 25, 2018

I had most of last week off work, which offered a break in routine, as well as the opportunity for a short road trip in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The upshot of all that is a weekly photoset that’s a bit heavier than usual.

This week’s set also features some pretty vivid color shots among the standard black and white fare. I do love strong black and white images, but I’m certainly not married to the look, because every image has its own requirements. I’m just trying to create what I see in my mind’s eye — without too much editing — and I see in both color and black and white.

Most of these images are devoid of people, too, which has, historically, been a compositional norm in most of my photography. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’m still working on my comfort zone when it comes to taking pictures of people in public, but the opportunity to do so didn’t really avail itself last week.

Weekly Photoset, November 19, 2018

If there’s a theme to this photoset, it’s traversing the Bay on BART. I made a couple trips between Oakland and SF last week, and captured these images along the way.

I’ve been working on photographing people more lately. It’s not something I’m super comfortable with, and like most of my photography, regardless of subject, I’m opportunistic with it.

One of these pictures was made with the Lightroom Mobile camera on an iPhone 8, the other three with the FujiFilm x100f. (Can you tell the difference?)