Cecily Walker

Category: newsletter

  • Income, Outgo, and Becoming One with the Blur

    Income, Outgo, and Becoming One with the Blur

    Money’s too tight to mention
    I can’t even qualify for my pension…

    As I write this, I’m $30 short on rent, which is due today. Maybe I should feel as sense of shame about this, but honestly, I’m not special, everyone’s going through it right now, and I’m just too tired to continue acting as though everything is alright when it is very much not that.

    Yes, I am living above my means, but (1) so is everyone else in this city, (2) admitting that feels deeply uncomfortable, and (3) my chronic television habit costs a great deal of money to legally sustain. Besides, season 3 of The Gilded Age starts in a couple of weeks from this writing, and that’s my drug of choice.

    Then there are the costs of trying to divorce myself from meta’s social media platforms, such as web hosting, newsletter hosting…it seems to never end. And the fiscal and emotional pressure of it all isn’t great for my overall mental health. Let’s hope this isn’t the month that my landlord decides I’ve bounced one too many rent cheques…

    One of the things I hope to do with my website/this newsletter is to set up a web store that will allow me to sell prints and Lightroom presets. Speaking of which, I’ve created a couple of presets that work pretty well for enhancing blue hour photos that feature complementary colours (i.e., blue and orange) with a slight tone curve and some slight grain. One preset adds a vignette while the other is vignette-free. I’ve used this preset with OM-5 RAW files and with my Fujifilm X-T20 RAW files and liked the results. You can download the presets for the affordable price of free.99 from Dropbox using the code FREENINETYNINE. The files will be available until Sunday, June 15, 2025. Enjoy!

    Drag Me, Mama!

    I’ve been experimenting with slow shutter speed photography to make my boring photographs more interesting. Slow shutter speed photography, also called “dragging the shutter”, is a technique where you leave camera’s shutter open for an extended period, allowing more light to hit the sensor and capturing motion blur or light trails. You’ve probably seen it in photos with smooth, silky waterfalls, or in fireworks photos. I used it in the featured image in this post.

    It can be tough to capture motion blur during broad daylight without a tripod and additional ND filters, but thanks to the OM-5’s LiveND feature, the camera’s onboard computer does the work for me. The camera can block between two and sixteen stops of light, and I like to play around with the settings depending on the effect I hope to achieve. If I want just a slight blur, I’ll use a lower setting, but if I want people to disappear completely, I’ll use a higher setting. That can come in handy if you’re in a touristy area full of people. Set Live ND to block 16 stops of light and poof, no more people!

    Because of the effects of the THC-infused pain gel I use, I’m usually in a dream state while I’m taking photos, so this technique gives me another way to “show myself” in my work. I get more duds than successful shots, but when the successful shots happen, I feel like a winner.

    Do you experiment with different photo techniques in your work? Leave a comment to let me know.

    This week I discovered I am a Street Rider Photographer, a vlog by Guillaume Taneux, a French photographer who lives in Osaka. Just like me, Guillame rides a bike as part of his street photography practice. The POV of his action camera results in some vertiginous shots (seriously, 360 cameras are evil and should be outlawed), but I like the spirit of the video and his commentary gives some insight into his thought process.

    How fentanyl ravaged Victoria’s Pandora Avenue – Fentanyl has turned one of this province’s nicest (and most English-y) stretches into an open-air fentanyl market. I expected this in Vancouver, but to hear that it’s in Victoria breaks my heart/makes me angrier. Fuck fentanyl.

    Hobi’s back! Hobi’s back! I haven’t stopped listening to this for the last 72 hours.

    As always, thanks for reading! I’m hoping to make the longer newsletters a monthly feature, but keeping to a regular blogging schedule isn’t my strong suit.

  • A Couple of Baddies and Ethics in Street Photography

    A Couple of Baddies and Ethics in Street Photography

    Daylight has returned to my evenings. I’m starting to get over the fear of pointing a camera in people’s faces, and as a result, I take every opportunity to chase the light for as long as I can, even if it isn’t very far. But only when it’s dry. I’ve lived in this town for over 20 years, and photowalks in the rain still don’t have much of an appeal. Whatever illusions I have about moving farther north, this body is not built for cold, damp temperatures.

    Someone asked whether I would share the photo of my neighbour, but I demurred. I remembered reading these guidelines on the use of appropriate images to represent Indigenous people a while back, and I always try to keep them in mind when I’m taking photos of the urban landscape. However, I feel absolutely no hesitation about taking photos of non-minorities in urban spaces, possibly because I think they’re fair game.

    I think I need to unpack this a bit…

    It’s March Madness, South Carolina’s going back to the semi-final, and KIM MULKEY LOST AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

    Last One Laughing UK is a show where UK comedians are placed in a Big Brother-style house with other comedians, but if they laugh at each other’s jokes, they’re penalized. Not only is the show hilarious, it’s an interesting case study in social niceties.

    I feel bad about recommending this what with it being on Jeff Bezos’ internet, so if you can find another source for this show, you should.

    Alison Moyet went to art school and got her degree at 63 and shut up already, universe.

    Counterpoint: List of art schools in Europe

    Luvinya is a local (Vancouver) artist who is appearing at the Cherry Blossom Festival’s Blooms After Dark event, but it’s too cold for me to be out and I’ll miss her performance. I like her R&B-inflected sound.

    Thanks for reading, and enjoy the photos!

  • A Slice of Light

    A Slice of Light

    The original idea was that I’d come up with an essay or two for your enjoyment, but I get the feeling that you’re not here for that, so I’ll spare you the prose and make with the purty pictures instead.

    I’ve been thinking about making it possible for you to order prints. It depends on whether I can be bothered to fight with WordPress further. I should just move to hosted Ghost or Squarespace and be done with it.

    (more…)

  • Longing for Summer

    Longing for Summer

    Can you really call it “the doldrums” when there’s solid proof that democracy is collapsing in the West and your home on Native land is caught in a trade war with a country ruled by a despot funded by a Nazi?

    Vancouver is due for a whopper of an atmospheric river this weekend. While I am emotionally well-suited for late winter’s cold and damp, physically my body longs for summer.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about my creative pursuits and how I can appear unfocused. Occasionally, I feel bad about that, usually when I’m trying to figure out how to fund my latest obsession — an unrealistic prospect when I’m living on tuna and jasmine rice for dinner. I dream of travelling the world and documenting everything I see, not because I have ideas about being a great photographer, but because I think we’re living in a politically precarious moment, and I feel an obligation to sharpen my skills.

    You ain’t got to get ready if you stay ready.

    ——–
    Other things I’ve recently enjoyed:

    This is so satisfying!

    Dan Levy on creativity when the world is a garbage fire

    Tatiana Hopper’s YouTube channel has some of the best film analysis I’ve ever encountered, and her breakdown of the production of The Brutalist is yet another winner.

    Lights, Camera, Accelerate Action – MPB gathered a group of women photographers in honour of International Women’s Day to discuss access, representation, equity, and equality in the photography industry.