Ben streamlining off the wall. Night swim.
Camera: Sony R1
The sky over Austin lit up like a non-stop fireworks display last night. Constant lightning, and thunder so loud that Studio Dog spent the night cowering under my hanging shirts in the closet. I woke up a few times just to check and see if we had any water on the floor of the studio; if I might need to fire up the enormous shop vac to stave off flooding...
When I got up this morning it was still gray and misty outside but the drama of the night before had subsided. My original plan for today was to work in the studio this morning doing droll stuff like billing, and then to head to the noon swim workout at the pool. But the weather reports all pointed to a new front cruising onto our turf by mid-day with predictions of hail, high winds and more lightning. I decided to take my chances with the 8:30 am workout. It's the swim practice we call, "the Executive Workout" because it's filled with people who command their own schedules and make their own time accommodations. Or, who have retired early and well and have dedicated some part of their lives to swimming well.
I drove the two miles to the pool ever mindful of small weather changes but it still looked like everything would hold for a while. I changed into my swim gear and hit the pool deck. Coach, John R., suggested I get in "immediately" and swim fast because he was estimating (using Weather Underground, no doubt) that we'd be calling this practice for lightning in 25 minutes or less.
We pounded through the 800 meter warm-up and were in the middle of a main set when a huge flash of lightning struck a few miles away, and the thunder was so loud you could hear it clearly even when submerged. That was it. Everyone out. The pool policy is to wait for 20 minutes from the last lightning strike before getting in but everyone's weather apps showed that the whole nasty mix was accelerating in our direction. Since then the thunder has been like a continuous sound track in the background.
If the weather pundits are wrong I'll go back and noon and try to do the other half of the workout. If they aren't I'll hunker down and do what I've been wanting to do for a while; write a review of the Sony RX10ii and RX10 cameras. It's about time I distilled down my feelings about that duo.
Here we go....again.
One of the original Craftsy Photo Classes and
still one of the best!
I met Lance a couple of weeks ago in Denver
and found him to be really fun and knowledgeable
this class reflects what he teaches in hands-on
workshops in Ireland and Iceland, as well as
cool places around the U.S.
How to make what we shoot into a cohesive
train of visual thought.
4 comments:
Kirk,
As I type this it is 78.5 here and sunny. The new normal seems to be upside down weather. Tomorrow it will rain. Today would have been a good day to swim in an outside pool, however I had a lane to myself and a new Speedo to wear so life is good.
Fred
Other than Bob Kirst,, who never writes any more, how come no one else writes about 1" sensors.
For the record, Daniel, Bob Krist is still writing, though not frequently. He blogs at http://www.oldmaninmotion.com/.
Hey Kirk,
I've been meaning to jot a couple of lines ever since you've been taking the time to write about the RX10 II. So today's finally the day. Mainly, thanks will sum it up. I made the purchase a while back and have noticed the little Sony creeping more and more into my Lighroom downloads. I've experienced rising guilt pangs when glancing at the ThinkTank Retro 20 bulging with L glass and MK III body ... it's getting left behind more often than not when I'm knocking about. Am I doing the right thing or am I cheating on the real camera and my family of L's? What if there's a beautiful scene unfolding before me, is it right to only have the little Sony? What if it's twilight am I missing the chance to make a winner shot? It's gotten bad enough several times, like during the local Art Walk that they've both gone along. The MK III being limited to faster than the Sony primes. But I can't go on like that according to my shoulder and neck muscles protest. I guess what I'm getting at is that you've really helped in this time of stress with your posts and well endorsement, or reassurance that it's ok to leave the real cameras behind, even a lot of the time. It's lifting the burden off my recovering shoulder and helping free me from the "best thing" anxiety of this RX10 II romance. I feared I may have just been smitten by the allure of her svelt frame and temptingly lush output. And oh the video! So plz keep it up, validation from a guy that like I, that remissness the romance of our wild days of TriX and Ektachrome is doing wonders calming the qualms of this affair.
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