The Stay Focused Spring Mixtape
Photography made me do it.
Side One
Intro
Welcome to the first of what will be an ongoing quarterly update; this is where we’ll cover all the goings on at the Stay Focused headquarters. A whole mess of news, highlights, photos and more that I’m calling a “mixtape”, because it’s a real assortment of stuff.
Track 1: The News
For the first Stay Focused Spring Mixtape, I want to start by sharing some super exciting news:
Negative Exposure Podcast
I think quite a few of you will have heard of Justin Allen - if not, you will soon; he’s a super talented, fellow photographer out of Michigan. He’s got a great Substack and YouTube channel. In addition to all that, he recently started a photography podcast called, Negative Exposure, and I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of the first guests!
Justin is easily one of the raddest people I’ve met since joining Substack and we had a really fun and casual chat about photography, film, and like a million other things. He’s written some of my favourite Substack pieces; his sense of humour coupled with insightful and informative posts alongside his great photos are a treat!
I can’t wait for our episode to drop. I’ve never been on a podcast, and honestly never ever imagined I would be, but Substack seems to be opening doors I couldn’t have anticipated and that’s been so cool.
You can hear or watch my episode starting on May 26. It will drop as part of a three-pack bundle with episodes featuring two other photographers.
Interview with Richard Schulz
On top of the podcast, I’m also in the process of finishing up a written interview with fellow Substacker and talented photographer, Richard Schulz! Like, what even is happening?? I’m incredibly honoured to have been asked by Richard, he’s done some amazing interviews with some extremely talented photographers, and I’m shook to have even been asked.
Richard was one of the first people I subscribed to on Substack. His photography is unique and inspiring, and I was immediately drawn to his heavy use of black and white. In addition to his photography, his newsletter content is full of great, super-useable information.
I’m told the interview will be published over on Richards Substack in June, and I’ll be sure to share it here as well once it goes live.
Track 2: Stack Achievement
Big news (to me, anyway!), I’m stoked to share I recently reached 100 subscribers since kicking off Stay Focused earlier this year and am already nearing 150! This is a huge deal to me because in all the busyness and demand for people’s time, the fact that this many people are interested in what I’m sharing, is pretty damn cool. To recognize the 100 subscriber milestone, I sent out a Tips and Tricks photography reference sheet through the chat that people can keep on their phones. I’ll have to think of how to level up the subscriber perks for 200!
When I started this newsletter, I had no expectations or big grand plan, but to say that I’ve been blown away by the support and fun of it all would be an understatement. Thanks for sticking around and hanging out with me here on Stay Focused - appreciate it, buds.
Track 3: Some History
By some miracle, I’ve managed to publish a post every single week since starting this whole thing. Before kicking off my own account, I spent a solid month digging into Substack, exploring other people’s publications, subscribing to those that resonated with me or simply looked interesting. I took in as much as I could before committing to starting Stay Focused, taking note of what worked well for others, and figuring out how I could stand out from the crowd in some way with what I wanted to bring to the table. And who knew what I wanted to bring was lots of talk about old new cameras and learning all about film (💸💸💸).
And, friends - I’ve bought so many film cameras. Full frame, half frame, SLR’s, range finders, point and shoots (like…so many). Getting into film (💸💸💸) has been super fun, and exploring all the different types of cameras, shooting styles and film stocks has absolutely absorbed me. I’ve written a lot about these things and shared a lot of photos to document the successes and mistakes that I’ve learned from along the way. I have slowed the buying down a bit, having found a lot of really great cameras in the past few months. Now I want to focus on really digging in and getting used to shooting with them.
Here are some of my favourite posts from the past few months that, for me, represent great learning experiences and are (hopefully) mildly entertaining to read:
I started my Substack, Stay Focused!
I started shooting film again after 30 odd years.
I documented my growing camera collection.
I got my first full manual SLR, the Pentax KM!
I had two Canon point and shoots battle it out!
I’ve also written a few notes, but none went over as well as a gigantic rant I went on about Substack vs. Instagram (I also wrote it as a test to see how long a note could actually be before you get cut off - turns out, pretty long)!
Side Two
Track 1: The Photographers
Okay, so if you’ve made it this far, I’d like to give you some relief from the “me me me” and turn my attention to some of “you you you”. I subscribe to some really amazing publications and wanted to share some of my favourites with y’all. I could honestly write entire posts about how awesome these people are, but you’ll just have to go read and subscribe for yourself.
Track 2: In The Headphones
Lastly, I’d like to leave ya’ll with some recs. There’s nothing I like more than recommending something that someone might end up seeking out and enjoying.
I listen to a ridiculous amount of music. Outside of photography, it’s easily the other “thing” that people know me for. For the Spring Mixtape, I thought I’d keep it particularly bright and colourful.
V.I.C. Tomorrow
Force of Nature
One of the best hip hop albums of all time is from a duo in Japan called Force of Nature and it’s called V.I.C. Tomorrow. If you’re an anime fan, you may be familiar with some of their work from the Samurai Champloo soundtrack. However, this is not that. These beats go hard - it’s pound for pound one of the best albums out there, and in my opinion, goes toe-to-toe with any of the golden era greats from the 90’s. I understand how controversial what I’m saying may be. I stand by it, come at me.
First is the original album, with lyrics.
Second is the instrumental version.
Track 3: The Books
I don’t read as much as I’d like - I usually manage three to five a year. However, I really want to step things up, and have set a goal to finish eight books this year (unlikely, but, you never know, there’s still six-ish months left to go). Here are a few of my favourites so far:
How I Make Photographs
Joel Meyerowitz
This is the one I currently have on the go - a great read full of Meyerowitz’s most well-known works. It features an amazing photo collection alongside some truly insightful commentary and tips from the man himself. I wasn’t expecting the depth and history he goes into about each photo, so that’s been a huge treat. How I Make Photographs is a series that features different photographers, and next up will be the Daido Moriyama edition (titled How I Take Photographs), which at first glance seems to have a bit less writing and more photos. I’m excited to dig into it and hopefully report back in the Summer or Fall Mixtape.
Go Ahead In The Rain
Hanif Abdurraqib
Outside of photography, I love books that document music history - particularly hip hop culture and music that lies outside of the mainstream - and this is one of my favourite books on the subject. In it, the writer documents how the music of A Tribe Called Quest has been a constant in almost every aspect and major moment of his life, and how their music became the connective tissue of his experience of being Black in America and coming of age in the 90’s. It’s an amazing read and cemented Abdurraqib as one of my favourite writers of all time. I read this one years ago, but I had to mention it. I still think about it and want to re-read it soon.
Outro
So gang, that’s it for the first quarterly of edition of the Stay Focused Mixtape. Thanks again for reading, commenting, and helping to build in this amazing community of photographers - not just with my publication, but as a whole thing. It’s really inspiring to see a return to what made the internet so dang fun.
Stay focused.
Love this quarterly round-up! I’ll have to give that music a listen later, definitely seems like it could be something that interests me based on your description.
And thanks for the mention, it’s truly appreciated!!
This is fantastic news!! No surprise though - your enthusiasm is not only contagious but has harnessed you some well-deserved attention! I can't wait to hear the podcast and I also subscribed! congratulations on the 100 too!