Dog Love, In Photos
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
You didn't come here for a hot take on a 20 year old album but that's what this is. Yesterday I saw a tweet, and it made me anxious. Because I'm …
Once a month I'll inevitably get an email from Paypal saying that "a nice dafont visitor" threw a couple bucks my way. Almost always $5. It's awesome …
Well, RBG died tonight and America is literally on fire. Metaphorically too, but not in a rad way. So, perfect timing for me to rebuild this blog …
I've been working on revisions to seven ETC typefaces for almost eight months now. Before that, I had high hopes for a little project called Public …
I haven’t mentioned this on my website but on January 1st I began a 52 week long project . The goal? Record one song every seven days. All year. I …
What better way to start a quarantine/lockdown than with semi-ominous instrumental music, right? These six ambient tracks span three years of …
I didn’t think I’d be writing a “love letter” to a certain device today, but here I am. The last time I did this was about my favorite ebook reader, …
It's been five years since I blogged photos from the New York State Fair, and you know what? We still hit the same spots and eat the same food. Fewer …
I'm writing this on a Monday, but the title comes from the fact that I spent many hours yesterday finalizing on improvements made to League Mono and …
This blog post started as a silly note on my phone. Less than a note really, just a list of every digital camera I've owned and used and loved and …
I just finished downloading all of my content from Flickr. It amounts to 21 ZIP files that Flickr prepared when I requested my archive, totaling …
This is a quick (relatively, it's 18 minutes long) video tutorial on converting an existing single style font to a multiple master/variable …
For the past few months I have been working on converting my typeface League Mono from eight weights (up from 5 when it launched) to a variable …
Kingston to Negril and back, with a mountain adventure in between. March-April, 2018. Allison rented a car for us that I had the pleasure to drive …
I recently made a quick (15 minute) video tutorial on introductory letter making in Glyphs Mini 2 . I think it is an improvement over my previous …
This is a follow up to last year's running infographic. I'll just let this thing do the talking for now, and get down to some of the details after. …
The world has more free fonts than ever, at a higher quality than I can handle (in a good way). I'm not going to make this a regular Friday thing, …
It has never been a better time to be a graphic designer in Ithaca. I write this as someone who has made a living here doing just that since 2006. We …
I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about how I get by. Many of those years I was an employee with a salary. Some years were 100% …
I packed a microphone for my annual trip to Maine. You can see it in the photo above, very small, in almost the exact center of the frame. Aside from …
I began work on League Mono at the end of 2016, and had the bulk of it in a usable form in March of this year. Why? I had been looking through the …
This isn't a race recap as much as it's my experience as a bystander, but here we go. The date: Saturday, May 13th. Location: Philly's Pennypack …
Create Upstate is a great design event that has lived in Syracuse, NY for the past three years. It was wonderful there, but this year the organizers …
I'm not the first person to write something like this and given how much I love my Nook, I probably won't be the last, either. So I'll keep this …
In September of 2015 I quickly and quietly launched New O'Clock , a website that publishes and tweets an interesting, true fact every day at two …
I still have a soft spot for Gluten, now more than ever. Literally. Figuratively. In food, especially, but I'm talking about my font. I've recently …
My friend Josh returned home to record his third album at Wilburland . He invited me to the studio to document some of the process. I showed up with …
I’m writing this on a bus to New York City. A last minute getaway with my wife. After admiring the winter scene that also distracts me when I’m …
I’m going to try something new with upcoming typeface releases: overdramatic fake movie posters. So I set out to make a simple design and realized …
I was late to join my local (Upstate NY) AIGA chapter, and even later to hop on the chapter’s Slack list. Deplorable, I know, but I tried to make up …
I ran a lot over the past 12 months. More than ever, which was a surprise to me. I didn't have a goal of running over 100 miles each month for a year …
I visit a used book store in Ithaca’s Commons at least once a week. It’s called Autumn Leaves and sits on the ground level above a record/cd store, …
The Rio Summer Olympics kicks off tonight and even though I don’t often watch sports, hit the track, or the road if I can help it, I look forward to …
The Planetary Society (a non-profit with thousands of dues-paying members) needed a few different print pieces created. An advocacy pamphlet, the …
In the fall of 2015 I created a birdfeeder using a single sheet of 24″ x 12″ birch plywood. I designed the three dimensional object in two dimensions …
Yesterday after my son (age 10 at this posting) and I finished up some collaborative Portal 2 levels he went up to his room. He came down about 10 …
A few years ago I had an idea to create ambient music from classic literature. The concept was simple: choose a piece of writing, remove every bit of …
As I always say, if you want one of your fonts on a book cover, you’ve got to do it yourself. Okay I don’t say that, and honestly I’ve seen my stuff …
A simple thought popped into my brain during a run in the rainy woods today: replace the word “fight” in key quotes from the movie Fight Club with …
If only everyone had paid 50¢ per download It feels like not too long ago I wrote a similar blog post about hitting 1,000,000 free font downloads. A …
Things I'm Over India Pale Ales Higher education Apps “Entrepreneurs” Google Chrome Coffee that costs more than $2 Reddit Road races Seeing social …
This isn’t science, it’s personal. I don’t drink a lot. That is to say, when I enjoy a grown-up beverage, I do so in moderation. There are three …
In a flurry of awesomeness and dollars flying everywhere, the first expansion deck for Assumptions is here. After finding, hiring, loving Louie Chin …
I’ve never met Lauren Baker But back in February she emailed in response to my tweet looking for character illustrators for an upcoming project. In …
I got sucked into a bit of a 90s black hole when /r/typography shared a link to screenshots of every title shot from the show Seinfeld …
Sometimes all it takes to find great talent is a tweet asking for exactly that. Looking for the first expansion pack artist led me to Louie Chin, a …
When my friends at Adjacent asked me to take a few photos of their freshly updated space, I was happy to say "absolutely" and wise enough to bring …
I used to love bright, busy, vibrant wallpaper/background on my phone. They were fun but made the locked view/home screen busy, especially at night, …
In 2012 I put out an instrumental album called The Return Voyage of Christopher Mackenzie (TRVOCM). The music is kind of wacky, but it is exactly …
Jonah and I have been going to the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk ever since my sister moved to that area over five years ago. My favorite room/exhibit …
My kid busted out a brand new hoodie recently. Not one he bought but one that he designed! He is still slightly obsessed with frogs, which I think is …
There was a lot going on in town yesterday, but I was able to stop by Singlebrook's latest hackathon (hosted at their place, sponsored by many other …
A few days ago I saw this and got really excited: #twithaca this friday, come make paper creations on the laser cutter @IthacaGen …
A lot of times I try to zoom out, or step back from something, to gain perspective. In this case I got in a close as I could. Closer than possible …
My kid is getting bigger, smarter, faster, older. Summer is gone. Even our schedule is completely opposite what it has been for the past 5 years. Our …
I've used Southpaw quite a bit since Allison and I brought it to life earlier this year. Almost every day, at the Beer co. actually. In fact, it is …
The fairgrounds are in Syracuse, just over an hour away from our home. It hosts the Great New York State Fair, an annual celebration of epic …
We've left Ithaca, barely, but it feels like a wonderful new world. Actually, we’ve been out of “the city” for almost two months now, but that time …
It isn’t new but it is hugely popular, and I’m using it these days in place of Rockwell Extra Bold (which is lovely, but not Chunk). I’ve also been …
That’s right, I made these three pixel fonts in 2007. Flash was a big thing that I seemed to spend a bit of time with, and tiny text was huge (lol). …
Had it been a clear day this view 👇would have included Mount Washington and the beast we hiked on the exact same day last year, Mount Madison. But …
For the second time in my life I was treated to a Lips experience that stimulated every sense and also left me more inspired than I could have …
Last week I received an email from someone asking about a specific usage and style stuff for one of my fonts blah blah blah. I linked them to the …
An Adirondack High Peak Adventure I packed light, aside from the dog, and pitched a tent near the trail as the sun went down. Thunder and lightning …
So when I do manage to get off the ground I find myself amazed at the experience. Luckily I’ve been able to share the past few trips with my son (who …
It’s rare for me to write about concert experiences. Over the past few years I’ve enjoyed MIA, Flaming Lips, Phoenix, and Fiona Apple (among others), …
One day at AWP I took a few hours to conceptualize and design a new kind of text overlay app. I started with the concept, a simple interface, and …
My sister has lived within an hour of New York City for a few years now. I'm not a city guy, but I can certainly love it for brief periods. How …
We went to find scarred landscape. I needed to see the environmental catastrophe that everyone around here has been talking about, trying to prevent. …
Metroid has been on my mind lately. It started when my kiddo obtained Nintendo Land / WiiU and found the Metroid level, which begins with the …
My friend Keith lives in a pretty sweet spot in New Hampshire. So the day after Christmas, while we were all in the same area, my life long friends …
Last month Adam Baker had a very impressive photo show in town. Having only seen his work as large as my browser window would allow I was blown away …
Seriously. Justin James Muir takes a good photo. When he sent me a few sample portraits for his beard book, titled A Book of Beards, my (bearded) jaw …
"Also known by the Indian name Tahawus, meaning Cloud-Splitter" I'm not really hiking all 46 Adirondack high peaks and it seems like cheating a bit …
Each year at the end of May all of Ithaca seems to come out for the Ithaca Festival parade! Sometimes it rains but this year we had beautiful …
I’m standing on what used to be Route 61, the now closed off southern path into Centralia, Pennsylvania. Underneath the road, and much of the old …
I recently released an instrumental album that tells the story of a spaceman (whose ancestors originated on Earth) returning home. I, for better or …
I posted this on Vimeo . I’ve been holding on to it for too long and putting off making the video, but here it is. This is in my opinion Radiohead’s …
This blog post started as a silly note on my phone. Less than a note really, just a list of every digital camera I've owned and used and loved and hated since 2003. Very quickly: I'm not a pro photographer but have supplemented my freelance career with photo gigs (weddings and headshots, y'all). Most of my photography is simply to document the people and places around me. I snap a lot of pics, I'll say that.
So here's the list in chronological order, with a little bit of why I put down one camera and picked up another...and repeat.
2003 to 2007 Ah the early years. This thing weighed a lot, burned through AA batteries, and was slow slow slow. But it took digital pictures! No more scanning. It also filled up 32mb CF cards rather quickly, I learned. I couldn't afford anything else, so I made it work for longer than I would have liked. I was able to dig up a photo I took with it 12 years ago! 👇
2008 My first DSLR! It felt like a 35mm film camera and was almost as frustrating! It enabled me to get some quality shots but pixels started dying less than a year after buying it, and I never went beyond the (bad) kit lens. It also couldn't shoot video.
2009 After 2 frustrating years with the Nikon I snagged the 7D. I actually bought the Canon Rebel but was so disappointed with it that I returned to Best Buy (yes, seriously, in Syracuse no less) to exchange it for the 7D. This camera was amazing, even though I again only shot with the kit lens. After 2 solid years with it I sold it for almost exactly what I paid for it.
2011 I wanted something smaller and I got it. This camera came with my first "pancake" lens, a 20mm (40mm equiv.) and began my love affair with the Micro 4/3" sensor. Ultimately I needed more in low light than this was able to deliver. Ironically, this thing did great in bright light, but the lack of viewfinder made it hard to operate in bright light.
Back to Canon! The flip LCD on the back of this thing was amazing and I finally bought some basic prime lenses to go with it. This is the best APS-C sensor camera I've ever used. I'm still impressed by the image quality I was able to pull out of this camera. And the video was beautiful. I had no reason to switch from this to anything else. Again, I sold it for almost what I paid for it, but kept my lenses.
2011 I couldn't resist this yellow brick. The autofocus was slow as death, there was no viewfinder, it was heavy, the video was rough, and I never found a better lens than the 40mm (60mm equiv.) pancake that came with it. But it was crazy cheap ($500). I did have fun with some old Pentax lenses (no autofocus, but fun)! Shooting with it was a blast, and the quality of the stills was great. here's a photoset from 2014, three years after I bought it. It was so reliable that I never sold it. The next three cameras came and went but I would always pick up this Pentax. Behold, another mirror selfie (which is handy since it shows image quality, too) 👇
2012 And then weddings happened. A full frame camera (aka, big sensor) was a long time in the making, for me. I purchased this in 2012, 4 years after it had first been released. The autofocus was (still is) awful in low light, with a meager amount of points to focus with. But it was a beast, able to withstand anything, and reliably produce quality images. Ultimately I got sick of carrying several pounds of camera around with a bag and needed a break from the big camera scene.
2013 My first pocketable camera since 2005, look at that! The 1" sensor on this thing sounded promising, but definitely came up short against the much cheaper micro 4/3" cameras. This thing was great, but a little overpriced. You're paying for portability, really. The optics were nice though, and the built in zoom was also handy. I only hung on to this thing for 3 months (a record for me).
2014 Another full frame! I found a deal for this thing and sold the Sony to buy it on a whim. I was not disappointed, this camera was superior to the 5D MKII. It was at this point however that I realized I didn't want to take photos for a living, so I could downgrade. As I learned with almost all of my Canon camera bodies, I could sell it for almost what I paid for it. Wild.
2014 Back to the micro 4/3". Nothing bad to say about this cheap (I bought it used for $150 with a lens) beauty except that the screen was hard to see in the daylight, and there was no in-body image stabilization. I still have this camera and bust it out from time to time. I give it to my kid if he's going somewhere scenic. It's great.
2015 I found another deal on a used Olympus and built up an army of prime 4/3" lenses. The 60mm Olympus macro is incredibly capable. As is the 25mm f/1.8. These are inexpensive lenses, relatively speaking, but the image quality was amazing. I still have this camera too, and shoot nature stuff with it (with a telephoto zoom). It's small, even with a viewfinder, and great for travel. This is the best all around camera I've ever used. The only reason I really stopped using it was because I broke the back LCD screen (while traveling). You can view photos from that trip on this page. It still takes amazing photos though, you just have to use the viewfinder for everything, including menu/playback. My wife (a pro photographer) was so impressed by this camera that she picked up the second model of it. Here's a gallery of her photos taken with the MKII.
2015 I thought I'd give Fuji a try and I never found a sweet spot with this camera. This isn't their best model, and again I used the kit lens exclusively. But it just never felt quick and the image quality seemed worse than cameras with smaller sensors. It wasn't bad, but just seemed like a new system that I'd have to invest money in to benefit from. I used this fuji for 5 months. I have played with more recent Fuji cameras that are awesome, however.
2016 So then I took a weird path and bought a used Powershot! This one had come a long way since my first digital camera (see above). The sensor was 1.5" and had a relatively quick built in zoom lens (no option to change that!). It was 4 years old when I bought it, used (like new, really) for $244. I loved shooting with this thing. It was just small enough to fit in big-ish pockets. It was so travel friendly that I didn't think much of it getting rained on while hiking a mountain in the Adirondacks. RIP Powershot #2. If this camera was half the price I would buy the third iteration of this camera (released in 2017). Here's a sample pic of the storm that moments later destroyed the camera. 😭
2018 - Now So then I shot with my Olympus for a few years, only upgrading to this Sony in 2018. It was not hard to find a new A7 MKI (yes, the first version) for $650 so I said why not. You can still get one new for $650, which is nuts. It might be the least expensive full frame camera available. It's what I shoot with now and while it has some flaws (slow focus) I enjoy it immensely. The only lens I've used on it is a sub $200 Sony 50mm that works fine. Every photo in this set is from the A7 with the 50mm. Here's a recent shot I took with it 👇
For under $300 you can get photos with amazing quality and range. I don't think you need to consider yourself a photographer to justify spending that cash on a solid camera. I'm glad that I took photos of things I really wanted to preserve with a larger sensor instead of my iPhone. Only using one lens is fine, sometimes better. A viewfinder is necessary, and when used leads to photos that I'm happier with. GPS on a camera is not necessary. A smaller camera will always feel more fun to me than a big one. Wi-Fi in a camera body is amazing in that I'm able to send favorites to my phone and edit them there (which is super fun).
That's about it. I've been posting some photos to Unsplash if you're interested in seeing how different cameras stack up (lots of good exif data there). If I could only use one of the cameras above it would easily be the Olympus. The "industry" will tell you that the consumer/prosumer market is dying, but I don't think so. The prices certainly don't reflect that. And if it is dying, then I'm having a blast playing with all of these unique cameras before The End.
Since posting this I sold the Sony A7 and switched to a Sigma SD Quattro. It was without a doubt the strangest camera I've ever owned. That isn't a bad thing, as it only cost $700 with a beautiful lens and took the nicest APS-C sensor photos I've ever made. That said, it was the trickiest camera (slow) I've ever used, with some unforgivable qualities (autofocus, and the viewfinder "resolution"). I could write a whole blog post about it, as the ergonomics and body design are wonderfully different/beautiful. I used it for about 5 months before switching this month to a Fujifilm XF10, a pocketable fixed lens APS-C mirrorless (with no viewfinder). Bought new for $370 on Ebay, and so far, so good 👍
📍Ithaca, New York
Currently I write and release one open source song every week and make new type on Google Fonts through ETC👍