A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month

August 2026

Not very much good stuff this month. I either forgot to log it, or my surfing was reduced last month. I have been trying to reduce my scrolling time and read more; maybe it’s working. It may not be much, but there’s some really good stuff down there!

General

  • Jasper has a caution about removing Mastodon accounts using Ivory. If you use the Ivory app, worth noting how this works.

Photography

  • Dark Hours - Yet another great project from Terry Godier. A web-based tool to check on the quality of the night sky wherever you may be and if it’s worth going outside for it. Looks like a great resource for photographers and sky watchers.

  • Frames photography magazine looks really good. I’m still debating whether to try a month or two; if I’m honest with myself, I’m not very consistent about reading the few magazines I do get.

  • Watch this YouTube shot on film, doing a Kodak Rochester Factory Tour. It’s a complete factory tour packed with information. Highly recommend it if you’re interested at all in how they make film. Some of the facts just amaze me, like they have to use special wood to build boxes that hold the film because some trees are irradiated and it would affect the film. Natalie really dives into the science. You get to see the raw solid emulsions. The coating line is a mile long. The amount of work humans can do in complete darkness is astonishing. It’s also scary how complex making film is; you can see why it can’t be produced easily or cost-effectively.

  • Captured by Sam made a video on the Pentax 67II, but what I learned about was how Sam approaches people to ask if she could take their picture. This can be really hard to do; I appreciated Sam’s approach, and she gave me some hope that I could do it also.

  • Film Reciprocity Calculator - A very nice reciprocity calculator for lots of different film.

Books Purchased and Added to the Queue

  • Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart - you can read Robert Breen’s review here.

  • Tracing the Untraceable Buddha by Uffe Damborg - I’m not a Buddhist, but I very much respect many of the teachings, and this book looked interesting to me.

  • Biological War by Annie Jacobsen - I have really enjoyed Annie’s other books; she is a gifted writer, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

  • Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo - A friend recommended this one.

  • Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan - nothing needs to be said about Claire Keegan. An amazing author. If you haven’t read anything by her, please do.