I'm taking photographs on walks again. Two subjects in particular: camellias, and Halloween decorations.

Halloween decorations because they're everywhere and they're interesting and I am really ambivalent about Halloween and photographing it is a way to cope.

Didn't get any shots this week of Halloween decorations that I liked. Maybe next week.

Camellias, because I like photographing flowers but wanted to scope down a bit. Camellias are common in my neighborhood, and they bloom now and in the winter when not much else is. They're a good thing to be interested in. There are thousands of cultivars. Four colors, in endless shades and variations. Six basic flower structures. So there's quite a bit of variation to record.

Closing in on the final stretch of the book. Finished edits for the photos, then need to go in and replace the placeholders images with the final ones and get the positioning lined up. Then, a test print.

I've been using Bookwright because I wanted to try out Blurb. I don't love it. It doesn't let me flip back and forth between pages with keys, so I have to click a bunch to view the images as a sequence. I will probably use something different for the next project. Though the "something different" might be only for the sequencing stage. Figma, maybe?

Or just stick with cards. I ended up wanting a software tool this time because I wanted to be able to use some 2 image spreads and some 1 image spreads, and that was hard to retain in a stack of cards. But the stack mode worked really well.

Will be traveling soon, so of course the most important question is, which cameras to bring, and which lenses?

This is, as always, a question of subject matter.

I've learned that it's best for me to bring one camera with me, and one lens. Fewer decisions makes easier work.

Hey there newsletters. I'm Nat Bennett, and this is Photo Newsletter, a weekly letter about photos and photography practice.

This week is all about gear.

Social Print Studio Mini Prints

Ordered a new set of photos for the 2020 project today. 48, wallet sized this time for easier shuffling.

A few that are in this batch.

Went on a photo walk yesterday out by Ocean Beach with friend-of-the-newsletter Rowan. Still have to spend too much time fiddling with settings on the Z6 but I'm starting, slowly, to get comfortable with it.

I'm Nat Bennett. You're reading Photo Newsletter, a weekly e-mail about photography and my photographic practice.

It was my first time going out that far west. I've lived and worked in and around San Francisco for -- has it really been seven years now? -- and I'd never been to the ocean.

Craig Mod is right. Walks are a platform. Walking + photographing + notes = magic. I walked 53,854 steps, 19.6 miles, and wrote 4,688 words in four days. I could have walked more, walked longer, and written more. The writing, in particular, was easy. The walking wasn’t but it wasn’t hard, either— I was just barely on the edge of pushing myself. Didn’t even come close on the writing.

The hardest part, weirdly, was photographing. Photographing for even four hours at a time is hard— I would get to this point a few hours in where I would see something beautiful, something that deserved to be photographed, something I wanted to photograph, and think ugh. I have to get the camera out. I love photography but it’s tiring.

Lessons/Findings

Short one today. Need to finish prepping for Point Lobos, then drive down.

Finished Nomad Exquisite. Or, at least, the first shoot. This is probably going to end up being the seed for more projects, more than a project in itself.

On August 28th I'm starting a new pop-up newsletter called Point Lobos, & Maybe Monterey. Four days, four e-mails, words and pictures. Sign up here.

When I'm reading about photography and the history of photography, and see some particularly spectacular example, some early masterpiece of the form, I've started to notice that often -- not always, but often -- there's a word that comes next. California. Usually not born here, and not always shot here, but often lived here, and for a long time. "The Cascades" comes up a lot. San Francisco. And-- Point Lobos.

Took a dang week but I finally got the prints ordered – I got all the way through the Shutterfly ordering system, couldn’t find my credit card, and then the order sat there for a week until just now. (This is why “you forgot your cart” lifecycle e-mails work.)

If you like photographic newsletters, you’re going to want to sign up for Craig Mod’s latest pop-up newsletter, which is about walking around Tokyo.

Have I mentioned that I love dogs?

Finished what I think is the first cut of the images for the new project. There’s something about seeing the set of them together that makes the thing feel real. Distinct. It has its own energy now, as a collection.

Next I need to send these off to get physically printed -- haven't decided yet between 4x6 prints or even-more-card-sized 2x3s. Then, a first pass on sequencing. Probably will borrow an [Alec Soth method of shuffling them like cards](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/keDjIt7BXuk), looking for pairs of two images that work together.

The set is no longer strictly Santa Monica/Venice, either. There’s that section of images from the Getty Museum, and then there’s a set of images from going to pick up my dog, Edgar, and a trip we took to a dog show that same weekend.

Tentative title is now The jar was round upon the ground which is somehow but too stupid and too pretentious to stick. Surely.

Hello again! This is Nat Bennett, and you're reading Photo Newsletter, my newsletter about photography.

This week kicked my ass -- finishing up the move to Berkeley, mostly -- so it's a short one this week. Some more images I took in early 2020, this time from a trip to the Getty Villa.

Hey there. This is Nat Bennett, and you're reading Photo Newsletter, my newsletter about photography. Mostly it's a place where I publish my own photos but I still harbor a vague but very real intent to write about photo books (and what I like about other photographers just in general).

It's also my favorite newsletter to work on right now. It's a weekly reason to share some photos. Sometimes that gets me to take photos. Other weeks, it gets me to dig through my archives and take a closer, more editorial look at pictures I took a few years ago. I always feel great after doing this. So, thanks for reading.

Right now I’m calling this project “Santa Monica 2020” but it needs a better name.

More pictures from January 2020. I think I've settled on that "just before the pandemic" time period for this project, so now I'm in the photo selection phase. My goal is between 16 and 32 pictures (following Alec Soth's "a maximum of one picture per year of the photographer's age" guideline) so I want to pick out about 50, then get them printed and hung up on the wall in my office (Which isn't yet covered in Felt Right tiles but will be soon) so I can figure out sequencing.

A few other decisions I've made about this book:

• Color photographs

• Perfect bound

• Glossy paper

It will also probably have no words. I might write a forward essay since that's semi-traditional but I'm otherwise not going to have captions or interspersed text or anything.

Eating good empanadas and drinking a bad coconut latte as I write this. Berkeley, baby.

I'm Nat Bennett, and this is Photo Newsletter. Once a week, a few photographs. Mostly to help me structure and think about my photo practice, but it's also a way to make your inbox a little prettier.

We're getting into the "whyyyyy" stage of Nomad Exquisite -- which is exactly the reason I'm doing it in public. Can't back out now. Thanks to everyone who's signed up, and especially those of you who have written back about photos you especially liked.

And one picture per day isn't actually that hard. Keeping up with it is just a matter of keeping up with it.

Moving again has me nostalgic for the neighborhood I lived in back in LA. I was only there for a year but I liked it quite a bit. Check out Lincoln Place Apartments if you’re ever in the market for a Venice Beach place.

The time of year, too. Part of why I moved to LA specifically (it was a weird move that I made for a bunch of reasons) was that I deeply dislike both the shortest and longest days of the year. When the sun doesn’t set until like 9pm I just feel unsettled and out of sync every evening.

Me and my camera went on an adventure yesterday.

There were a lot of folks around the march who were surprised by it. I had a conversation with one guy -- as I was running along the sidewalk to stay ahead of the marchers -- who asked me if the protest was "for or against" abortion. Some folks online expressed surprise that places like California or New York were protesting, since abortion is still legal here.

For the record, then: I think abortion is necessary. I'm sympathetic to the folks who oppose it out of a deep commitment to the inherent value and dignity of human life. If you're against both abortion and the death penalty I see where you're coming from, and I hope that we can get on the same side on both issues someday.

But I don't think, right now, it's possible for women to be full, equal citizens and participants in modern society without it.

Back from the road trip, slowly recovering. It got a little weird -- I did a ton of research into Nevada and then we ended up on a route that took us through the Grand Canyon and into Nevada not at all.

Landscape photography -- like studio photography -- is something that I do sort of compulsively, not really out of enjoyment but out of desire to understand its secrets. I don't really have any idea how to approach it but my hope is that flinging myself at it repeatedly -- pointing a camera at a landscape and then seeing what happens -- will produce... if not progress then at least learning?

Hello hello hello--

I read On Being a Photographer this week, by Daniel Hurn. Great book, short, useful-- at least, if you're trying to figure out how to stop making individual pictures and start making photographic projects. If you are, highly recommended.

Speaking of projects-- I'm about to start another "pop-up" photo newsletter, called Nomad Exquisite. It starts June 10th, will arrive daily for about two months, and then-- poof. You can subscribe here.

I have a few different but overlapping goals for this newsletter.

Hello there! If you’re just tuning in – or if you don’t remember your e-mail from last week, because I sure don’t – you’re reading Photo Newsletter, a weekly letter about photographs. I’m Nat Bennett, and I just got a Nikon z6ii with a 24-200mm lens.

Previously I’d only shot on ASP-C sensors, and this one is full frame. That means: twice as big of a sensor, twice as much light. And I can zoom way in or way out on the same lens, which is a big change – normally I shoot medium telephoto primes with a fixed angle of view.

I took, um, over 1000 photos this week, trying out the new capabilities of the new camera.

There’s something really invigorating about a new tool, and this one feels really right. The combination of body and lens is heavier than any piece of photographic equipment I’ve used so far. It feels substantial. Weighty. It’s easier to take myself a little bit more seriously than usual when I’m holding it.

Welcoming a new addition to my happy camera family: The Nikon Z6ii, with the superzoom kit lens. It's good! More detail on it and how and why I bought if you scroll down to the second heading.

This is Photo Newsletter, a newsletter about photography. I'm Nat Bennett, and I'm not a dentist, I promise. I obsessively take photographs and every week I share a few of them here. I often can't help writing some stuff, too.

Craig Mod is doing another pop-up photo newsletter until June 14th, about a walking trip in England. If you like this newsletter you'll enjoy that one too, highly recommended.

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

Over 1200 photographs this week. Nearly five times my usual rate. They really need some time to rest before I start picking through them but a few caught my eye flipping through just now.

Oh and– hey– if you’re new here or just tuning back in– I’m Nat Bennett, this is my photography newsletter. Some weeks I also write more about process or practice or tech, some weeks I am BIG FLAT so it’s just a few photographs. If you’ve been enjoying this, forward it to a friend?

Hey there newsletterers-- quick one today, I've got a family vacation starting tomorrow and lots to do to get ready still. I may skip next weekend or you may get a special "deeply weird vacation photos" edition, so-- be prepared.

And, oh yeah, if you're just joining us, or if it's been a minute since you checked one of these-- I'm Nat Bennett and I take a lot of pictures and then I send some of them to you.

Slowly improving at composition

I remain amazed at what the iPhone can do. And it does the editing! And I can send them to people immediately! These would be better if I'd spent some time messing with them, but, still.

Hey there, photo friends. If you’re new here (or just haven’t been in your e-mail in a minute), you’re reading Photo Newsletter, a weekly newsletter about photos. I’m Nat Bennett: Obsessive photo-maker and incredible nerd.

This week, two things: I dragged out the tripod and a speed light and started taking more pictures of orchids under different lighting conditions, and I got a tip to trying layering photos in Procreate.

🌸 Stupid pictures of stupid flowers

I’m always self-conscious about pictures like these because at best they’re just pictures of flowers, and then on top of that the flowers have the temerity to be really technically challenging for both lighting and composition. So it’s not just a dumb picture of a flower that any idiot with a camera could make. It’s a dumb picture of a flower that a not-particularly-good idiot with a camera made– they show off all my technical weaknesses.

Hey hey hey photo people. Thought we'd take a bit of a dip into the ol' archives today.

Old Pictures

These are from December 2019, shortly after I first got the Nikon D3500. (I've written a bit about that period before, on my other newsletter.)

I've been looking through those older photographs again recently and I've been a bit surprised-- I don't think they're great photos or anything, but they're better than I thought. In my memory there was a long period before I learned how to take photos with any kind of composition, but in reality that was really only about a week. By the time I took these, about three weeks in, I had identifiable subjects and was using at least basic framing and leading lines and stuff.

Hey hey hey-- it's photo time! You're reading Photo Newsletter, a weekly letter from Nat Bennett about photographs. Unsubscribe at any time!

This week was all about manual control and repeating motifs. Then we've got a review of my first week with the Monument 2, the backup device I (finally) set up for managing my photographs.

Manual control

Friends, enemies: Welcome back to Nat's Photos, a weekly letter from Nat with, and about, photos.

Simplify, simplify

My goals right now are

• Simpler compositions

• Increase my confidence taking portraits

• Take better pictures of dogs

Hello hello hello! I'm Nat Bennett, and this is Photo Newsletter, a newsletter about photographs.

Stuff I'm actively trying to get better at right now:

• Composition. Just-- ugh. How. What is it. There are rules but also there aren't? God.

• Portraits. Main obstacle here is that I'm, uh, afraid of people. Workin' on it.

• Dog photography.

• Understanding light, especially in the evening.

• Organizing and managing photos. I have over 10,000 in my Lightroom collection right now, and even more on my iPhone. Fragmented backups. I know I need to fix this but have been putting it off. Tips super appreciated here. Most of the advice I have access to is oriented at portrait/event/session photographers.

• Street... photos? Less of an active goal and more a thing I do a lot that I think I suck at so I'm constantly thinking about getting better at it whether I really want to or not.

Goals for this week:

Hi there. I'm Nat Bennett, and this is a letter about photographs.

I've been fussing about what to call this thing for a couple of months now, and writing and rewriting my manifestos about why it was going to be called what it was going to be called, but what I haven't been doing is writing the dang newsletter. So we're going to go with "Photo Newsletter" for a minute here and if we get a better name we'll get a better name. I've got your e-mail address, you'll still be able to find it.

I've been taking just absolute fucktons of photos lately. I'm up to over 4,000 for this year, not counting photos that I haven't yet pulled off of various SD cards, and over 2,000 of them just this past month. Again, not counting at least a few hundred photos that are still on SD cards.