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	<title>Mike Ricca, Picture-Taking Guy</title>
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	<link>http://focalmatter.com</link>
	<description>Portrait and Lifestyle Photography</description>
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		<title>greener pastures</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2014/08/greener-pastures/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2014/08/greener-pastures/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Aug 2014 03:16:03 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=7002</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Coming up with fresh blog content is an interminable, drawn-out process enough as it is; add the editing and laying out and formatting involved in making the post pretty, and all of a sudden it's a lot easier to put off updating.]]></description>
		
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		<item>
		<title>go</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2014/06/go/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2014/06/go/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2014 00:57:57 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/_wp/?p=6780</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I was never cut out for day jobs. Anyone who’s worked with me at one can attest to that. Thank god for the people that are because the world would cease to function without them, but I wasn’t one of them. Back in high school, as we looked at the future with that unique combination of hope and naiveté and my classmates fantasized of winning Pulitzers and Oscars, of curing diseases and ending hunger, or even just of making boatloads of money, I dreamed of living on a boat and sailing from port to port. There was too much out there I wanted to see. I wanted to travel.]]></description>
		
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			</item>
		<item>
		<title>don&#8217;t shoot your heroes</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/10/dont-shoot-your-heroes/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/10/dont-shoot-your-heroes/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Oct 2013 03:44:44 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[words]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chumping out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photoplus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zarias]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5945</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I'm not an autograph hound. It's just not in my nature. I enjoy the thrill of a celebrity encounter as much as the next guy, but I never feel compelled to get an autograph or ask to have my picture taken with them. I just don't really see the point, to be honest. I don't need a photo to remind myself of the experience, and I don't feel the need to prove it to others, so I don't really bother. (This is more or less the same reason why I don't have photos of myself in front of landmarks or exotic places). Which isn't to say I haven't collected <em>some</em> autographs. But it was never just for the sake of the signing. What was signed was just as important. Ben Lee signed my iPod, for example. Neil Gaiman signed my old work badge.  Stuff like that.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>indiewentwent</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/10/indiewentwent/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/10/indiewentwent/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2013 16:27:01 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[words]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freeharmonic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indiegogo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nyfh]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5932</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Years of seeing various Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns going viral and hitting record numbers made me start to believe I could easily do the same. After all, I had a pretty decent online presence, expert friends I could surely depend on for advice, maybe even one or two that could give me a sizable signal boost. I figured all I had to do was make a good product, set up a campaign, share it with my friends, and let Internet Momentum take it from there. This was, to put it mildly, optimistically naive. ]]></description>
		
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		<item>
		<title>dear fuji</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/dear-fuji/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/dear-fuji/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Sep 2013 04:32:47 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fuji]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[x100s]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5913</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Half a year after it hit the market and your wunderkind is still on back-order almost everywhere. You don't need me to tell you that you knocked this one out of the park, so I won't bother. What I will say, though, is what you can do to to make it even better. As amazing as your camera is, you missed a few things. And, this being the internet, I'd be remiss if I didn't use my completely unknown blog to offer my unsolicited opinions to a massive megacorporation. So here goes.]]></description>
		
					<wfw:commentRss>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/dear-fuji/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>square one</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/square-one/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/square-one/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:35:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[street shooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new york]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nyc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[simplicity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[x100s]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5838</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[ I once went busker hunting with my X100s and brought my d700 along in case I wanted any close-up shots. Every time I pulled it out of my bag, I felt like I was intruding. Every time the shutter snapped, I wanted to apologize. Needless to say, I didn’t use it much.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>punk&#8217;s not dead</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/punks-not-dead/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/punks-not-dead/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Sep 2013 06:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[the city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[words]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[independent press]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nostalgia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[punk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zines]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5712</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I first saw Pump Up the Volume in high school, around senior year. I watched it at the urgings of my best friend, who had seen it and loved it. I don’t remember if I watched it at his place, or if I borrowed his copy and watched it at home. What I do remember is walking away from the movie feeling inspired. There is nothing better for an angsty, angry anti-establishment teen than a movie that lionizes pirate radio and the message that the right person, with the right message, can change the world. That’s pretty heady stuff when you’re a teenager.]]></description>
		
					<wfw:commentRss>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/09/punks-not-dead/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>the eye of the beholder</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/08/the-eye-of-the-beholder/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/08/the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2013 20:07:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[post-processing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[musings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[park slope]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retouching]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5702</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[It's very easy to get carried away during post. Some amount of post-production is always gonna be necessary for images (even those "straight out of the camera" JPG images have been processed by the camera as they were saved), but where do you draw the line? First, you're just color correcting and adjusting levels and curves. Then you're cleaning up the street. Then maybe removing a No Parking sign or two. From there it's not much more work to clone out some errant traffic cones. Then hell, why not the whole orange area? Which is how you start with the photo immediately above and end up with what's at the top of the page.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>the first day of the rest of my shooting life</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/08/the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-my-shooting-life/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/08/the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-my-shooting-life/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Aug 2013 06:06:25 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[compact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fuji]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[x100s]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5659</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[So it's been an interesting few weeks since my last update. Most notably, I photographed the 2013 American Academy of Dramatic Arts company (a two-day head shot intensive photographing twenty-two students, a first for me), I visited Canada (another first), and I had $4,000 worth of camera gear stolen while on the trip (also a first). I'll talk about each in time (probably), but for now I want to do something pretty much every other photographer on the internet has already done, many times over: Talk about the Fuji X100s.]]></description>
		
					<wfw:commentRss>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/08/the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-my-shooting-life/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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			</item>
		<item>
		<title>stop and hear the roses</title>
		<link>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/07/stop-and-hear-the-roses/</link>
					<comments>http://focalmatter.com/blog/2013/07/stop-and-hear-the-roses/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[mike]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:52:12 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[musicians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buskers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new york freeharmonic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new york moments]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://focalmatter.com/?p=5485</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Like most people who move to New York, it wasn't long before I found myself falling in step with the "'fast' isn't fast enough" mentality. At a certain point, the city stopped being one of the most amazing places on Earth and instead turned into a blur, the thing that got in-between Points A and B. It was especially surprising in my case, as prior to living here my average pace was somewhere between a "mosey" and an "amble." Now I instead found myself harried and hurrying, dodging slow-moving pedestrians and cyclists, and god dammit, would someone get those tourists out of my way before I shoved them into oncoming traffic? New York has a frenetic rhythm to it, and it's easy for it to infect your bloodstream if you let it. And though I still sometimes meandered (usually when I was outside of Manhattan), if I had somewhere to be, woe betide anyone that got between me and it.]]></description>
		
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