Last year, Jaime and I visited Monterrey, Mexico, for work.
My wife and I have been to Mexico several times, but Monterrey was new for us. On the first day, we visited the Macroplaza – the main square in the heart of the city, home to museums, government buildings, and a riverwalk.
It was busy: tons of people strolling the main plaza, selling goods, and enjoying the city. What’s so fun about traveling is to be a stranger in a strange land, and to observe.
Be there with a camera and capture what’s interesting.
After a river boat ride on the Santa Lucia riverway into Parque Fundidora, we strolled through the Barrio Antigua neighborhood just in time to browse a flea market on the street.
We grabbed dinner and stepped inside the largest antique store we’d ever seen – a multi-story museum of collectibles.
Colors, light, sound, smells – it was a great first day in a new Mexican city.
Photos shot on the Canon M6 and EF-M 32mm and 22mm lenses.
Dione Tripp doesn’t just make art—she builds it, reconstructs it, salvages it, and reimagines it.
Growing up in a family of carpenters, inventors, and tinkerers, she was surrounded by the idea that anything could be created with the right tools and vision. Her father was into music, her mother into art, and somewhere in between, Dione found her own voice—one that blends mediums, textures, and emotions into something distinctly her own.
Her artistic journey began with singing, painting, and the idea that she might one day become an art teacher. But she quickly realized her passion wasn’t in teaching—it was in making. Hanging art at the old Thunderbird Café, creating gifts, and submitting pieces for Jackson’s Cool City initiative, she steadily built her presence in the local scene.
Over time, her work evolved beyond traditional canvases into something more layered and more experimental. Even a routine car repair becomes an opportunity. When she gets her brakes changed, she keeps the parts, seeing in them a potential for reinvention.
“How far can you push an object to be a sculpture and not be too crafty?” she asks—a question that continues to shape her process.
Dione pulls from her environment—barn scraps, salvaged materials, even discarded brake parts—to create works that challenge viewers’ perspectives.
“If you’re in a plane, you can see the world differently. I want to express that: the dangers, the fears, the freedom,” she says.
Jackson, Michigan, remains central to her creative world. She studied there, works there, and thrives in its grassroots art community.
“It’s like a blank slate, and we can create our own answers,” she says.
With two to three projects per year, she’s constantly exploring—be it through book illustrations, her new clothing store, or sculptural ideas. While she’s open to branching out, she doesn’t feel limited.
“The only thing limiting me is myself—both in terms of my art and my success,” she says.
Looking ahead, Dione is driven by a desire to amaze herself and find collaborators and appreciators along the way.
“I want to be able to toss ideas around, learn new skills, and try things out,” she says.
Whether it’s trading art, experimenting with new media, or diving deeper into sculpture, she’s on a path of constant evolution—one where every scrap, stroke, and salvaged element has the potential to become something memorable.
I’m aiming to try out the popular film simulations for Canon cameras – like the popular Fujifilm emulations on the X series cameras. While Canon cameras do not come with film emulations baked in, they are available via Canon’s Picture Style editor and camera profiles.
This Kodachrome-style film simulation comes from Cinescopophila: a giant pack of 150+ picture styles featuring a ton of favorites – almost too many to practically try out. But seeing Kodachrome in the list, I had to give it a spin on a recent trip with the family to Detroit.
Unlike the Fujifilm simulation from Thomas Fransson, these Kodak colors are more my vibe: warmer, much better skin tones, and a healthy amount of contrast.
And those reds? They POP. The greens are nice too. There’s none of that washed-out blandness from the Pro Neigh High series.
Overall, this is a reliable film simulation if you’re a JPG shooter or don’t want to worry about editing. Most of these came out correct as-is, with a little tinkering on a few images for exposure and contrast.
Do these photos mimic Kodachrome? Not really. But for my style of shooting, and even some video, these are a good film-like preset to get you started. With a bit of adjusting, you can get this slide film emulation looking just the way you want.
There are plenty of other Kodachrome versions to try, although many come at a cost. This picture style from Vision Wrangler comes with 150 more to try, with everything from wacky out-there stuff to tried-and-true black and white film emulations.
Ten years ago, I introduced my first big creative portrait project called Artists In Jackson. Through that project, I got to know our local artists. Together, we told their stories and let our community know we have a talented bunch of people right here in our hometown.
And – bonus! – I met and made some good friends along the way.
Since then, a lot has changed. I worked on a spiritual sequel, Musicians In Jackson, and then the pandemic hit. Here we are five years later, and I’m happy to announce I’m working on my next big portrait project, Artists In Jackson 2.
This one will be a little different. Instead of disappearing for six months and re-emerging with a fancy book and a bunch of pictures, I want to treat this project more like a platform.
Here’s how it works:
Over time, I’ll work on photo subjects and help tell their stories.
You will see these profiles periodically as I work on them and get them done. You don’t have to wait for a book – you’ll see my progress as it’s happening, either on social media or my website.
And it will just keep going. There’s no end, there’s no finish line. Artists In Jackson becomes a platform to tell stories, not a website or a book.
At a point in time, when I have enough profiles done, I can collect them all and make a book or a ‘zine of some kind.
But that’s not the goal. The goal is to tell stories about creative people in our community.
And I have some profiles already set up to publish – one, reaching back several years, on Dione Tripp (above). Others I have a head-start on and you’ll see those soon. As always, I’m open to your ideas and tips on creative people in and from Jackson.
I hope you’ll join me in this new experiment. I’m excited to once again share these homegrown artists, their work, and their stories.
“What have people left behind,” Sean asks in this video, which is a great discussion about how street photography can include remnants of people if not people themselves.
I’m back with another Thomas Fransson film emulation for Canon cameras. This time, it’s time for a Fuji film simulation.
Thomas released Pro Neigh High, a Fuji-inspired picture profile pack for Canon. I loaded Pro Neigh Standard, one of the options, into my Canon 5D Mark II and took a few laps around the yard on a cold winter morning to test it out.
And? It’s fine. Lots of strength in the blues, but otherwise, nothing remarkable.
Street Photography Test
Then I took a warm morning and drove up to Leslie, Michigan, to test Pro Neigh Standard, one of the other options in Thomas’s film pack. There, I was truly in my favored conditions: high contrast, lots of light:
And again, nothing remarkable except those bright, saturated blues. Especially against bright buildings and white/beige, the blues truly pop with this film simulation.
Fuji film – actual film – tends to highlight the cooler colors like green and blue. But with this emulation, it’s mainly all about the blues. Every other color takes a backseat.
One additional test I could do is in the summertime, with foliage and greenery, like I did in my Kodak test last summer.
Testing Skin Tones
Another test includes some people photos to test skin tones. I brought along Pro Neigh High to church with us to grab some images of the kids, both inside and outside. Here is where Pro Neigh High does not shine:
Skin tones are, frankly, not great. Everything has this beige undertone, not at all natural or pleasing. In fact, the Pro Neg emulation takes away everything I love about Canon colors. Instead, most everything is flat and unappealing.
After these tests, this pack won’t be one of my three custom Canon picture profiles on any of my cameras. But that’s no shade on Thomas – he does great work, and maybe there are Fujifilm lovers out there who think this film emulation is just what they need, especially for vide work.
Grab the profile on Thomas’s Gumroad page and test it out yourself. He also gives a quick run-down on how to install these film simulations on your camera on his YouTube channel.
Our middle daughter, Madelyn, was born to perform.
Last year, she had a starring role in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And for the past few months, she’s been working on writing and performing her own song for our elementary school’s winter concert.
In late January, she hit the stage – and nailed it.
The whole concert focused on well-being, kindness, and self-realization. Madelyn’s song centered on overcoming anxiety and doing your best in spite of obstacles. She stood there, spotlighted on the stage in front of the whole school, and sang her heart out.
My wife wrote about the community collaboration it took to get this concert up and running with the school’s integrated arts teacher, and the benefits of music for the kids:
The impact of music in elementary education—especially in today’s post-pandemic world—cannot be overstated. Children are facing higher levels of anxiety, decreased attention spans, and increased dependence on screen-based dopamine stimulation. Public schools, now more than ever, need programming that fosters resilience, emotional regulation, and connection.
Don’t we all need a bit more of those, too?
Thankfully, our elementary school was open to the idea, and we saw it pay off at the concert.
It’s a crazy world out there. Thank goodness for music.
I often drive by perfect scenes or interesting settings and add them to my mental “I have to photograph that” list.
My list is pretty long, and the geography of it stretches across counties and even states.
When I’m on the highway, I must drive by this little one-room schoolhouse a thousand times on my way to work. When I do, I think, “I have to grab that little building out in that field.”
Sometimes, the light isn’t right, or I don’t have time on my commute. But on this day I did, so I grabbed an old Nikon D700 we have at work and tromped out into the snowy field to photograph the little schoolhouse around sunset.
One by one, I check these little scenes off my list.
Do you want to know the benefits of being a hobbyist photographer?
No pressure.
No client to please. No money to make. No expectations. No deadlines.
If I’m working on a big portrait project, the only deadlines or expectations are the ones I put on myself. And I do, but no one else knows that. It’s just me.
I can go out on a foggy winter morning, after dropping off the kids at school but before heading to work, and explore. Just me and my own desire to make something, see something, photograph something.
My recent trip to Arizona included a stay in a sprawling resort just outside of Phoenix. Throughout the work conference, we never had to leave the place: golf, dinner, swimming, hiking. It was all there.
The sun was also always there, with light bouncing off the faux adobe façades. That, combined with the bright colors, made for a photography feast.
Winter makes the sun a little lower in the sky, meaning there wasn’t a bad time to walk around and make pictures.
And that’s fitting for my way of doing things: I use photography as a way to explore a new place. Walk around, look for good light, capture what I see – that’s 90% of photography for me.
Luckily, I had lots to see and photograph here in Arizona.
I’m kissing Squarespace goodbye and moving my two portrait projects to my blog. Instead of sending web traffic somewhere else, Artists In Jackson and Musicians In Jackson—as they’re updated—will live here, where visitors can learn more about my other projects.
As I was putting together the project landing pages, I remembered JTV’s Bart Hawley Show featured Musicians In Jackson late in 2019, but I never shared that conversation on this blog.
I’m still feeling the effects of that winter trip filled with gorgeous West Coast sunshine. A week full of vitamin D does a body, and a spirit, good.
That’s why I looked so forward to a recent work trip to Phoenix, Arizona. The forecast? Sunny and mid 70s. Perfect for this winter-worn Michigander.
We had a few chances to stroll through the Sonoran Desert surrounding our conference resort, through the Phoenix Mountains Preserve near North Moutain Park. One morning we traveled with a hiking company, through a tunnel under the road, and wandered around a valley to watch the sun come up.
On the other side, we watched the sun set over a nice BBQ dinner. In both cases, the desert light never left.
The real challenge isn’t in upgrading your tools, it’s in upgrading yourself.
That’s when the investment shifts. Instead of pouring money into a new lens you don’t actually need, you start to invest in the work itself. The personal projects. The stories you want to tell, the places you want to explore.
It’s true that I upgraded my original Canon M early last year with the Canon M200.
As the year went on and I used it more and more, a little itch in the back of my brain started. The itch, which weirdly has a voice, started saying, “Using this camera should be easier – and more fun, like your original Canon M was.”
What the itch said was also true.
Some of those true things included:
The M200 is not a customizable camera. You get what you get, no mods allowed.
I also missed the little handgrip bump on the front of the M. The M200 is as flat as Ohio
Last March, I said:
There aren’t many buttons or options, it’s not the toughest model, and you don’t have the in-the-hand control you have on a more advanced camera. But coming from the original M, the M200 felt at home in my hands.
“Trust your instincts,” the itch said, and there I was with this 2019-era mirrorless camera that did not bring me joy.
With all these truths in mind, I went back and looked to see if I could still upgrade to a Canon M6 mark II. The price was still high, and it still wasn’t widely available. That’s when my budget-friendly brain had an idea:
It doesn’t have all the modern bells and whistles of the mark II, but it does have:
Customizable buttons – and lots of them. The M6 has an almost Fuji-level amount of physical dials and buttons.
A physical button to recenter the focus point.
A wonderful hand grip on the front – more DSLR-style than a modest bump like the M had.
All the features of the M200: higher resolution, flippy screen, faster focus, etc.
And, little itch, the silver version looks kind of cool, cashing in on the retro silver-and-black look of film SLRs and rangefinders.
So that’s what I did: I purchased a refurbished Canon M6 and sold off my M200.
Here are some glamour shots with the EF-M 32mm f/1.4, taken on the Canon 5D and EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens.
So far? I dig the M6. I love the improved ergonomics, retro styling, faster speed, and manual controls – especially the bumpy, knurled dials for aperture or ISO.
A few things I don’t love:
I do wish it had a viewfinder, even though I’m used to not having one on the M series. A rangefinder-style viewfinder would be so handy.
There’s a greenish/cyan tint to the files in Lightroom. I’m not sure if it’s the camera or Lightroom’s raw file handling, but I load up some files and they look icky.
Certain buttons on the camera drive me crazy: the touchscreen zoom button in the lower right and the physical manual focus button on the main dial. When I go to focus on a subject, the camera is unresponsive because I accidentally brushed that MF button. I turned it completely off in the custom settings.
Those quirks tell me that modern cameras, with so many hybrid demands put on them, are never perfect. My Canon 5D is perfect. Everything else has limitations or annoyances.
The above shot shows me using the M6 exclusively on a new photo project to learn my new camera.
This leads to the larger question about my camera strategy: what am I going to keep, and why do I need a different system than my EOS+EF system?
Mobility: I like the Canon M lineup’s weight and small size. It’s a perfect everyday carry and travel setup, including if I ever want to do some video.
Quality: Images are good, and the lenses make for sharp, pleasing photos.
Vibes: Since that first Canon M, I’ve admired the series, flawed though it is. It’s weird investing and tinkering with a dead mirrorless camera system, but I do love these little cameras.
With the M6, it’s so far, so good. This combined with my old, clunky (but reliable) M as a backup, and I’ve got an old+new system similar to my Canon 5D plus 6D.
I brought the M6 with me to Austin, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. It served me well during the holidays and on random photo outings. It feels so much better in the hand.
