Sometimes you have to step in and be the machinist.

I was photographing at a spare parts fabricating shop in Georgetown, Texas yesterday and one of the things on my list was to get a bunch of shots of this new machine. The foreman clicked it on so the screen would be live but he was quick to add that the shop was on a tight schedule that day and he couldn't afford to pull any of his people off their other jobs to pose for me.  I had gotten a lot of images of the machine by itself already. Wide verticals, exciting forced perspective shots, shots looking straight into the machine.... but I wanted on set of shots that showed someone working at the machine.

I set the self-timer on the D750 to ten seconds, framed up the shots I wanted and went for it. I just wanted the human element. I'm glad I didn't wear cargo shorts....

Noellia from a different point of view.

©2015 Kirk Tuck

So, I went to this photo workshop today and there was only one participant and one model. We didn't have to listen to anyone pontificate or complain. We got to do everything exactly the way we wanted to. The one participant had total access to the model's time and attention. The model got to work with the very best photographer in the group. The photographer got to work with the most beautiful model in the whole workshop. No one tried to sell us DVDs or photographer branded camera bags. No one compared their camera to our camera with a sneer on their face. Oh, wait, it wasn't a workshop it was just a fun afternoon with a friend. What a great way to learn more about photography....  And it's free.

Noellia. Exterior portrait. At the house.

Slowing down and enjoying a portrait session can be nice for people on both sides of the camera. This was a casual shot on one of the back porches of our house. The lens is an 85mm shot wide open at f1.8.  

Shooting a Precision Machine Shop was a fun thing to do this morning. Photographing my Friend, Noellia, was more fun this afternoon...

Noellia on the couch.

I spent my morning in Georgetown, Texas at a precision machine shop that fabricates parts for the semi-conductor industry. It was fun. Lots of cool, mechanical looking stuff to shoot in fun ways and many CNC lathes and what-not to create a visual interesting industrial landscape.

After lunch I nestled into my cool and comfortable little office to cozy up to the computer and do the post processing that comes with every job. It was very straightforward. This morning I used one camera and three lenses; the 24-140mm f4 Nikon, the 105mm f2.5 ais Nikon, and the 14mm Rokinon. Running the D750 files through Lightroom CC and tossing in the right lens profiles worked like a charm. I made fairly liberal use of one 508 AS LED panel to keep everything on an even keel.

I edited down the files to a small enough batch that I was able to send them along to the client via my WeTransfer.com application. Everything uploaded quickly and without incident. I was just typing up my invoice when there was a knock on the studio door.

It was my old friend, Noellia Hernandez. You might recognize her as the woman on the cover of my fourth book, the one about Lighting Equipment. At any rate Noellia and I have worked together on projects as diverse as book covers, the Austin Chamber of Commerce and Zach Theatre over the last eleven years. She moved to New York about five years ago but we get together whenever I'm in NYC or  she's back in Austin visiting the family.

She stood in the doorway in a great, little black dress and some dramatic shoes and I knew that we were going to spend some time taking more photographs. I shot some stuff in the studio using the D750 and both the 85mm 1.8G lens and the 105mm f2.5, lit with one of the new Photogenic PL1250 flashes into a 72 inch umbrella with a  diffusion cover attached. Then we moved into the house so we could take a few shots on the couch. In most households I think it would seem weird for someone's 59 year old father to walk into the house with an actress in a short black dress, ask her to lay down on the couch and pose but Ben hardly looked up from his laptop.  He was sitting at the dining room table and looked up long enough to say, "Hi" to Noellia. They've know each other since Ben was eight.

We did the images on the couch with available light and the 85mm and then headed outside, after a quick costume change, to do some stuff in the open shade with some landscape out of focus in the background.

You read a lot about achieving balance. From CNC lathes to NYC actors; I like to keep my work life balanced.  More from the session to come...

The All Terrain Video/Still Lens of Choice....for me.

I'm currently reviewing the material I shot for a P.R. agency last Weds. and Fri. There are several hundred still images and about 30 minutes of video footage to wade through in order to extract whatever nuggets of gold, silver or tin might be mixed in with the footage and still frames we'd never want to use.

As I look through the material I feel like I made the right choice in using the 50mm focal length for most of the shots. The relationships and sizes see to work well and it's refreshing to be able to use a fast lens nearly wide open and not have to worry about getting enough sharpness.

I am constantly battling with some part of my brain that always seems to want to compose images too tightly. I am making a real effort to "put more air" around the things I shoot. I guess it's the result of shooting so many slides for so many years. When we put together slide shows we needed to keep the format, aspect ratio and sizes of the projected images the same. That mean we did all our composition in the finder at the time of the shot. Later, when digital was in its infancy, we cropped really tightly because I was worried about loosing any of the information in the frame. Enlarging seemed to mean an immediate reduction in quality.

Now, with bountiful pixels and infinite post processing it almost seems as though we should just put a 14mm on the camera and shoot everything with the idea of cropping out the sections that we want later.... (hyperbole alert...).

Mr. Contradiction. "The camera doesn't matter." "Lenses don't matter." But I have a new favorite lens. And I'm having fun with it just walking around shooting pretty pictures.

Can't remember if I mentioned it but recently I traded in the Olympus m.45mm f1.8 lens and bought myself a Panasonic 42.5mm lens. No, it's not the ultra sexy 1.2 version it's the smaller, cheaper f1.7 version but as of about an hour ago it's my favorite lens. (If you are new to the blog you may as well add this to the last sentence: "for at least the rest of the day....").

I've been regaling you recently with tales of productivity that revolve around the full frame Nikon cameras, and you could be forgiven for assuming that my allegiance to them was complete and air tight but nothing could be further from the truth. The Nikons are amazingly proficient in the same way that my Kenmore washer and dryer have been amazingly proficient. I take them out and set the controls correctly and they return to me big, technically perfect files. That's all very well but technically perfect gets boring quickly. It's eccentricity that sells.

When I've had my fill of routine, day to day work with the Craftsman power tools of my profession I like to relax and sink into fun photography with the quirky but powerful Olympus m4:3 cameras. In fact, I had so much fun shooting with an EM5.2 today on my walk through downtown that I am already changing my Tues. plans to dump the Nikons back into their drawer in the studio and instead bring only the smaller cameras along with me on an industrial assignment, because there is nothing in the assignment that leads me to believe I'll need the "ultimate" files. The client has evinced no desire or even interest in me manufacturing Ultra Prints (tm) at this juncture. 

I am sure that the ad agency I'm working for will be happy with the micro contrast either system delivers but I have an intuition that the Panasonic 42.5mm f1.7 might just give me the edge where ultimate NANO ACUITY is involved. I know that the Panasonic/Leica 25mm f1.4 is a masterpiece of Nano Acuity as well. And I'm just a little bored with the bigger cameras since I shot them for four assignments last week (proof that professional photography is waning, right?). 

Why the new resurgence of my interest in the smaller cameras? Some of the lenses, like the 42.5 (either flavor) the 25 Panasonic or Olympus, and all of the pro, f2.8 zooms for the micro four thirds cameras are exquisite and much more fun to haul around. The image stabilization in the EM5.2 is magical and the EVF, for me, handily replaces the crystal clear but dumb OVF in the Nikons. I'm of the mindset that you have to have both. Maybe it's a Texan thing; a Tesla or cute little BMW for week days in the city and a Ford F150 pick-up truck for weekends hauling crap the dump or firewood out to the ranchette. I love shooting the M4:3 cameras and lenses for just about any thing but I also love the steeper de-focus ramp of the bigger format and there are times when nothing will do but the higher res files of the bigger cameras. 

Sometimes you go to the pool to compete and other times you go to float around, stay out of the heat and have fun. I can't give up either modality. And most of the times, with the smaller format, it's hard to see that I'm giving up anything at all. 

What prompted me to make the lens change? I've had two different copies of the Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens and wide open I always found it to be good but not great. Stopped down a couple stops and it's as sharp as anything out there but with the smaller format and the more limited options for controlling depth of field it's more important to me that those first two f-stops be functional. No, better than functional, I want them to be as good as the lens's optical performance at f5.6. I want it all. 

I borrowed the Panasonic 42.5mm f1.7 and tested it on the new Olympus EM5.2. I found it to be sharper wide open and I liked the form factor much better. The crowning determiner in the trade-in? Those smart marketers at Panasonic throw in the lens hood as an included accessory. (kidding? maybe...). 

I've shot a few things with the 42.5 but I've been enmeshed in some video/photo hybrid shoots and that's something the D750 and D810 do with greater ease (and longer battery life) than the Olympus cameras. Today was my first day to spend three or four hours shooting with nothing but the 42.5mm economical Panasonic. When I got home from my walk I shoved the Large Super Fine jpegs into the absolute latest rev. of PhotoShop CC and took at silly look at 100%. The lens convinced me that it's in the class of High Nano Acuity along with a select smattering of other lenses. When I start investigating my own brand of ne plus ultra prints (tm) it will be one of my "approved" optical tools. 

The lens is also small and light. Works well on both dominant m4:3 systems and even comes with I.S.

You should rush right out and buy one now. They may become scarce.....

Guess which company gets a delivery of Sunday New York Times newspapers in downtown Austin!?? Why it's Google Fiber, the subsidiary of the world's biggest aggregator which is helping to kill real newspapers and journalism around the world. I guess when the elite companies who are changing the "paradigm of tomorrow" really need solid news for their own research they still depend on the wonderful resource of well researched and well written journalism from one of the few sources left standing..... And they like to put on their white gloves and read it on paper, the way the gods intended.

Fun line-up of live music at the Moody Theater/Austin City Limits. Sorry to let you know that Jill Scott is sold out. But I notice that Weird Al Yankovich is on the list....

We love taking our friends for walks around the city so they can see for themselves how beautiful and special Austin (the new Dallas) can be. The construction clutter is everywhere. No one's mom is teaching them to clean up after themselves anymore...

To sum up. Lens very good. Walk always healthy for your eyes and your heart. Construction currently ubiquitous, makes me think the bursting of the bubble is coming sooner rather than later. Finally, nice to walk on days where the temperature stays away from the triple digits. 

VSL is an Amazon Affiliate site. If you click through a link here to Amazon.com and buy something we get a small commission which does not affect the price you pay. As with any blogger's recommendation, take everything you read, that suggests you buy something, with caution and trepidation. We are a predatory group of blood suckers, for sure....

I remember how good an older camera can be when I look at this image from "A Midsummer's Night Dream" performed by the Austin Shakespeare Company outdoors at the Zilker Hillside Theater.

I was deep into my first micro four thirds romance when I took dress rehearsal images for this play. The lighting was primitive compared to the stage lighting we had at Zach Theatre and the light levels were uniformly low. My camera of choice at the time was the EP-3 and it was "backed up" by an EP-2. But what made it work was the lens, or the lenses. At the time I had adapters for all of my older Pen FT half frame lenses and was determined to make them shine.

This shot was done at 1/30th of a second, at f2.0 or f2.5 with the ancient 60mm f1.5 lens. I focused carefully and held my breath while caressing the shutter button. The old sensor in that camera did its job very well and, it seems, twelve megapixels was more than enough for the marketing people who were helping to sell the play.

It's really not the camera but what you get to point it at. Opportunities abound but you have to stop reading the camera and lens reviews long enough to show up and shoot.

What makes this shot special for me? You already know the answer... It's the awesome, third order, nano acuity of this special lens. I couldn't have expressed this with a lens possessed of lesser nano acuity. I would have known every time I looked at it that it wouldn't measure up to my critical eye....

Penny's Pastries. An old favorite from an assignment for Entrepreneur Magazine.

It's fun to look back at assignments that generated images I really like and try to understand what commonalities that exist with the work I am doing today. This was shot on location for an article about "failing" and getting up and trying again.

I'd never met Penny before we got the assignment to shoot and I walked into her small, commercial kitchen in central Austin cold. The first thing I did was to put the gear down and ask for a tour. We walked through and while Penny pointed out things that would be of interest to a chef or baker I was busy looking at the angles and "props" that might tell the story we needed to share in one image. Part of taking a tour is that process of looking for common touchstones. Austin was a smallish town then. Who might we know that intersects both of us? It was Patricia Bauer Slate who started the first real European style bakery in all of Texas.

These were the film days and we worked with big lights and big cameras. As Penny and I chatted and shared connections my wonderful assistant, Anne, set up lights and a medium softbox which would be out main light for Penny. We used several other lights with reflectors fitted with grids to put sufficient light on the background areas.

By the time I started setting up the shot and positioning Penny we were chatting like old friends. I chose a 100mm f3.5 Zeiss Planar for my Hasselblad 501, took a few black and white Polaroids and started shooting. Penny's look is absolutely perfect. The magazine loved the shot. We made a new friend. We got paid. Almost two decades later the shot looks fresh to me and I remember the afternoon as being fun and productive. I also left with a bag of outrageously good cookies.

When I look at the picture now I realize that I've let life speed up the process of taking images and I'm not reaching as deeply into the process as I once did. I'll start working on regaining that sense of engagement and depth first thing Monday morning.  We think it's about gear but it might really be about spending more time working with people and sharing the joy of making art together. Pretty cool.

A Portrait to commemorate the last day at Ben's first, college, Summer job.

We have this kid named, Ben. He went off to college in New York state last year and did well. Learned stuff. Made the Dean's List. When the Spring semester ended he came back home to Texas. He wanted a Summer job and a friend of mine offered him one at a well established, international software company. Ben has spent the last two+  months helping the marketing department make videos, proof press releases and even do some writing. He looked so grown up leaving each morning in a nice shirt and clean pants, computer bag over one shoulder and a travel mug with coffee in his hand.

Gleaning information from both sides (my friend and my kid) I've pieced together the idea that it was a successful engagement for everyone involved. Ben signed an NDA and he took it seriously so I know little more about the company and its products than I did before. My friend met me for coffee and told me the boy did well.

Since this was his last day I decided to take some portraits of him in the studio when he came home. I set up some lights and dragged him away from his laptop long enough to photograph him looking serious and very focused.

We have loved having Ben here this Summer and it's so much fun around the dinner table nearly every night. We all work in advertising now in some capacity and we understand each other's shared stories in a deeper, better way than before. When he and his mom talk about infographics it's because they are both working on different aspects of infographic design or content creation. When Ben and I talk about technical writing we both see the same markets and issues. I troubleshoot Ben's computer and he gives me sage advice about Final Cut Pro X and the mysteries of editing.

Ben's boss (and my friend) is one of the few consummate professional sales people I have met. I think Ben has learned so much from him by ongoing, direct observation. From osmosis. He's learned to take care of clients and to deliver what you promise.

The kid made good money and I was stunned to see him "brown bag" his lunch each day in order to save a good portion of what he earned. His discipline and frugality are a good example for his own father.

I've had a fun Summer with the kid. I've got two more weeks before he hops on a plane and reconnects with college. I can hardly wait to hear his plans for next Summer.... 

Muted Portrait from film. 2011.

Camera: Rolleiflex SL 8008. 150mm Sonnar.