Are vinyl records out selling other media?

Lady dressed in vintage 1940's outfit looking at a vintage store clothes rack.

Vintage is in.

And vintage music media is also very popular. You will hear that vinyl records are now outselling all other physical media. This sounds like a surprising statement and it needs looking into.

Maybe a better question is what are people listening to?

Well for most its streaming, then there’s those who buy Flac/mp3 etc files. For physical media most people are listening to CD’s so how come the headline?

Well many people are buying records to collect, people who do not even have record players. Then lets look at that original statement and what do they mean its out selling other media, well by value it is leading the charge, but with many records now costing £30 to £50 a record, while a new CD can often be picked up for £8. That’s a big difference. You need to sell three to five CD’s to equate to the value of one vinyl record.

Physical Media, owning or licensing

Picture of the famous music man of Lincoln, very friendly guy always seen with a smile on his face.

I have mentioned before that I still buy DVD’s of films and series I like, and I also still buy music on CD and vinyl.

Sales do seem to be growing and it was interesting to see more films and series being removed from Amazon that people had bought as digital streams, now their purchases are gone.

So remember unless you have the media file downloaded DRM free or the physical media you likely license the software and not own it; and it be taken away from you.

May Day

Morris Dancers leaping into the air.
Dancing in Air

Mayday, May Poles, Morris Dancers; we have a lot of history here in the UK and some of our traditions are still maintained by volunteers.

If your in the UK today, I hope you enjoyed your bank holiday and took advantage of the events in a city, town or village near you.

Coffee Shops

Tables outside a coffee shop, several of the tables of occupants drinking coffee and having a chat.

Whenever I am in a city or town, I look out for independent coffee shops. Away from the uniform chain shops that occupy the high street I find interesting record shops, coffee shops, secondhand shops and sometimes even camera shops, yes they still exist.

Often the buildings have more character and there are often photo opportunities.

Dramatic Portraits and Headshots

Black and white, implied topless portrait of a young female model who is heavily tattooed.  She had one hand to her face and is looking at camera.

Nikon Zf and Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 G F mount lens.

Simple colour headshot of a young female mode with long hair which covers one eye. The nearest the camera is looking direct at camera

Portraits do not have to be boring, but trying to get a new interesting look is difficult and its doubtful you will come up with anything that has not been done before.

But experiment, try models with different looks, try a different lighting style. You may fail but you also will learn.

Shoten Adapters

Advertising shot showing a selection lens adapters. A black Nikon Zf is centre frame.

One of the advantages that has driven users to the Olympus MicroFourThird is the flexibility it offers, with mount adapters available for most lens. Many Olympus users have been collecting and using classic lens from other manufacturers.

I have the Voiglander adapter for the Nikon Z mount to enable me to use my collection of Leica M mount lens, and the Nikon Z to F adapter for F mount lens, but we now have a whole range of Shoten adapters allowing nine major lens mounts.

Back and White Headshot a young female model with long hair looking off camera left.  She is wearing a black dress.

How do you relax – Chess

a chess board from chess.com. White and weaved a check mate net and trapped blacks king in the centre.

How do you relax. If I go out it’s generally taking photographs. Or it can be walking the dog and listening to podcasts or music is also high on the agenda. At home it’s often relaxing with a fine wine, or whisky. But sometimes I want to do something different and stretch my brain. So then I hit Chess.com, and play puzzles or occasionally a game.

This game was an interesting one. My opponent did not develop their pieces fast enough and so I pushed hard, it cost me my queen and on paper he was ahead, but I had forced his king out into the centre of the board and it was not long before I check mated him. I’ll be living with the buzz of this game for a while.

Vision and understanding your focal length

Implied topless black and white portrait of Kim, she is looking camera right away from the viewer.

Your distance to your subject affects perspective. The field of view is controlled by your focal length.

So do you think about the focal length to select the type of image your trying to craft.

Its far to easy to stick a zoom on your camera and just zoom with your lens, but we should also zoom with our feet as this is what affects the perspective.

Spend some time with a prime lens or with your zoom set to a specific length, get to understand what look it gives you and how you can make it work for you.