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Weak IV

22 January 2026

No. 1,963 (cartoon)

Do you love one of your children the most?

A better parent would never answer such a stupid question.

I hate each one more than the other.

23 January 2026

Sliding House Overlook, Canyon de Chelly

Last weak I looked at four rejected photographs from Canyon de Chelly. I think it’s important to remember my failures, and especially why they didn’t work. This is the only photograph I liked from my brief trip, Sliding House Overlook, Canyon de Chelly.

24 January 2026

Women, Grand Canyon National Park

Just when I thought I was done with the aftermath of a little road trip, I found this buried in the bowels of my phony camera. On one hand, ...

Cut!

Restart ...

“Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say on one hand, then but on the other ...”
—Harry Truman

There are too many hands involved in thinking about this photograph that I made at a huge gas station in Kingman, Arizona, so I shall instead substitute “hands” with “buts,” even though that’s anatomically inadvisable.

I like this photograph, but the f64 dilettante in me feels uncomfortable with my phony camera’s lack of fine resolution. I would have preferred my real camera, but I didn’t have my ultrawide lens with me. I would rather have a more careful composition to eliminate the glaring light source, but I couldn’t get away with setting up a camera on a tripod outside the entrance to the women’s toilet. I’d like to think of it as Art, but it really doesn’t stand alone.

The fourth “but” put everything in perspective: this only works as part of a series. In the unlikely event I ever publish my life’s work, I’ll file this under travelogue. But until then, it goes into my archives, and will probably never be seen again.

25 January 2026

The Tuneless Choir

I just read about the Tuneless Choir, an ensemble of musicians who are unable to sing very well. I love the idea; virtuosity can be tedious. Paradoxically, I’m appalled by the idea of camera clubs, where mediocre photographers get together to compare their expensive cameras and share the crappy photographs they make with them.

26 January 2026

Like a Human Twinkie

“Forever chemicals” are in the headlines every day, as if they were recently discovered. Ask any oncologist: they aren’t a recent development. And that brings us to Roger Bennatti, a high school chemistry teacher in Maine.

In 1976, he put a Hostess Twinkie, “a golden sponge cake with a creamy filling,” under glass in his classroom to see how long it would last. He’s long since retired, but, fifty years later, the Dorian Gray Twinkie is still there, and in fine fettle.

I don’t know what all the hubbub is about. If you eat chemicals that last forever, doesn’t it follow that you’ll last forever, like a human Twinkie?

27 January 2026

Sally and Richard Go Digital

Sally Mann and Richard Misrach are exceptionally good and commercially successful photographers who have two more things in common: They’ve used an eight-by-ten Deardorff view camera for decades, and now they’re using digital cameras.

I haven’t used film for twenty-five years for only one reason: I can make better prints with digital photography than with traditional processes. (And with no false modesty, I was very good in the darkroom, especially when it came to printing.)

Mann and Misrach’s prints regularly sell for four, five, and occasionally six figures, so here’s what surprised me about their recent migration to digital photography: money was a factor. As Mann said, “I hate spending that much money on each shot ... Is that really worth twelve dollars?” Misrach said he was inhibited by the cost of film, noting that it cost him twenty dollars every time he exposed a sheet of film.

I expect that’s going to get worse now that silver costs four bucks a gram. And I wonder if any photographers are still using gold toner on their prints now that gold is closing in on two hundred dollars a gram.

After a glass or four of wine, I sometimes imagine how nice it would be to go back to making photographs with an eight-by-ten Sinar view camera. When sobriety rears its ugly head, I’m aghast at how expensive that would be. But that’s not the decisive consideration. At the risk of being repetitiously redundant, I can make better prints with digital photography than with traditional processes.

28 January 2026

Drink Your Way Sober

Katie Herzog’s been getting a lot of press for her book, Drink Your Way Sober. I tried her program, but it didn’t work. Still, I keep trying … the journey is the reward, and all that.

Her scheme must be working for others. A friend of mine at Simon and Schuster, her publisher, told me in confidence—ha!—that Herzog’s book is selling so well that they paid her a huge advance on her next one, Fuck Yourself Celibate.

29 January 2026

Trek Mix Barcode

I’ve probably consumed at least a hundred large bags of trek mix over the decades, but I only seriously considered the ingredients for the first time: almonds, cranberries, and cashews. The label on the back declares, “Ingredients: roasted salted almonds (almonds, canola oil, sea salt), sweetened dried cranberries (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), toasted salted cashews (cashews, canola oil, salt).”

That seems like a lot of information, but something important is missing: the source(s). The almonds are probably from California, and the Canadians are likely to have provided the canola oil, since they more or less invented it fifty years ago. I have no idea about the rest, a reminder of how distant my life is from the people around the globe who produce the food that goes down my gullet.

When I looked at the front of the bag, I noticed the barcode obscuring the contents. That seemed like a good generic description of my diet, so I made Trek Mix Bar Code.

Coming next weak: more of the same.

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©2026 David Glenn Rinehart