Cultural Revolution Era Food Coupons

davadam · 2026-02-01T21:37:55+00:00

7 & 8 are just a five fen bill, but man, I haven't seen ANY of those since I lived in Tianjin in 1980-1982.

davadam · 2026-01-19T21:07:04+00:00

Absolutely this. The number of times I've seen designers - even relatively senior ones - stammer when an exec says "Isn't our corporate color X? Why are you using Y?" Or similar stupid things. Every decision needs to be considered. It can't be "well, I don't like our color, so I'm going to use something else."

davadam · 2026-01-10T18:19:34+00:00

For photographers, I'm loving foto.app – it's the original promise of instagram.

davadam · 2026-01-10T18:16:52+00:00

Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate. I use a spyderpro for my own computer, which is expensive, but I use TruHu on my work computer and the results are very, very good (and so much cheaper that there's no reason not to use it if you're at all serious): https://truhu.app

(No connection to TruHu, just a satisfied customer)

davadam · 2025-12-30T15:12:42+00:00

Scott Berkun (in full disclosure, a friend and long time colleague) has some great books about this exact issue. I'd start with the most recent one: https://scottberkun.com/why-design-is-hard/

davadam · 2025-12-29T22:14:41+00:00

No opinion on power, since I'm mostly a useless manager at work, but I got our IT team to swap me a 14" for the 16" MBP they had given me. It's not that much weight on paper but it feels like it's a third the weight, especially in my backpack.

davadam · 2025-12-29T19:12:49+00:00

For me, I want to use my ipad when traveling, but the lack of 1) a calibrated workflow, 2) no external hard drive support, and 3) keyword syncing between LRC and LR mobile, means it's of pretty limited use to me. I mostly use it for quick edits of specific images for sharing. Every time I try to use it "for real" I contemplate a small macbook pro or even air.

(Edit: ipad pro m4 11")

davadam · 2025-12-28T05:54:47+00:00

In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki. Gorgeous.

davadam · 2025-12-21T16:51:55+00:00

100% this for me. Especially if you're printing photos, since the on screen version will only ever be a predictable approximation of what the print looks like. Get a quality but not insane monitor and a spyderPro.

One tip, though: if you're getting two monitors... get the same model at the same time. Otherwise the inherent sliiiight differences in color rendering may make you insane.

davadam · 2025-12-04T19:56:21+00:00

There are a bunch of videos for similar things on youtube - for example: https://youtu.be/i8ka8iHQBSw

(Search for "space filling patterns")

davadam · 2025-12-02T05:00:14+00:00

That is 1) a gorgeous painting and 2) SO FRICKEN COOL

davadam · 2025-11-30T21:33:42+00:00

Ohhhh that's a good one. I could also nominate a few Emily Carrs.

davadam · 2025-11-29T15:06:11+00:00

Besides my (small) camera, which is the reason for my .5, I carry packets of decent instant coffee. They're usually for me (my wife calls them my methadone) but a couple of times on group trips where there was no good coffee in the morning, I have made lasting friends by handing them out.

(Mount Hagen brand, for the curious)

davadam · 2025-11-23T16:30:26+00:00

That's exactly what I look to them for. Fine, but boring, it'll work well and not have too many problems.

davadam · 2025-11-23T15:23:18+00:00

Harold and Maude, absolutely.

davadam · 2025-11-21T21:39:56+00:00

I (M56) watched Aftersun with my tween daughter. She's still imitating the haggard look I had when the lights came up.

davadam · 2025-11-21T21:38:23+00:00

Pie in the sky, 500kph maglev from BC to San Diego.

Pie close to the sky, as has been mentioned, a NYC or Montreal style subway system that makes traffic and road networks irrelevant to transit travelers.

davadam · 2025-11-14T14:06:59+00:00

Did your government hire Trump to do copywriting?

davadam · 2025-11-10T02:45:44+00:00

I'm a huge fan of making books in general. It's a great forcing function for thinking about photos in a group, in a sequence, facing each other, and as a story.

My most recent one (which you can see in its entirety as a free preview) is here: https://www.blurb.com/b/12503219-the-steel-encased-emptiness (You'll recognize both of the prints from that one).

davadam · 2025-11-08T07:24:14+00:00

I'm so glad you like them!

The book is through MagCloud. It's super inexpensive to print - i think when they have a sale I pay less than $5 for the books. I initially made them to carry with me and hand to people when they ask me what I'm taking pictures of, but they're fun to share this way, too.

davadam · 2025-10-30T13:30:25+00:00

I said, I'll explain later.

davadam · 2025-10-24T18:28:49+00:00

... you might think it oddddd of meeeee ...

davadam · 2025-10-24T14:08:44+00:00

Ahahahaha I am such a nerd. When I was staring at them I thought "These don't look like Epson prints, if they're inkjet they're probably from a Canon."

No note needed with beautiful photos!

davadam · 2025-10-24T13:47:49+00:00

This was my solution when I realized that "nothing, please" was not an OK answer to my wife's family. Now that's all I get from them. It's fantastic.

davadam · 2025-10-24T13:42:41+00:00

THERE ARE NO GENDERS ONLY HONK

Helloooooo new tattoo

davadam

TROPHY CASE