11.23.2019

Saturday Swim Practice and Camera Sorting.



It was one of those weird days at swim practice. I showed up for the 7:30 a.m. workout today at 7:20 and got ready. When we got out on the pool deck everyone was looking around for the coach. Somebody dropped the ball with the schedule and we had 30+ people ready to swim and no coach. Someone noticed that Friday's workout was still up on the white boards so we all just decided to duplicate that workout. We had enough coaches with water safety certification in the swim group to not worry about liability and we're all disciplined enough to follow a written workout without supervision. It was still a bit disconcerting not to have someone standing up on the deck yelling at us to go faster or to streamline off the walls better....

Matt, Brett and I pounded through  couple miles worth of sets and then relinquished our lane to a new crop of swimmers at 8:30 a.m. Today I was working on correcting arm angles for the underwater portion part of the freestyle stroke. Not too much bend inward, and hand further away from my torso. There's more leverage that way which translates into more speed.

I'm finding as I get older that I need to lean on technique as much as I can to keep up with people who are younger. Good habits pay off.

After practice I made my typical breakfast: one cup of 2% Greek Yogurt with half a cup of muesli, a quarter cup of organic blueberries and a couple ounces of organic walnuts. I don't actually measure stuff; I mostly do it by sight. It's a delicious breakfast and it won't weigh you down.

Now I'm sitting in the office reveling in my giant purge of equipment yesterday. All that's left in the studio are a couple of lonely tripods, some lights+lightstands and an older Canon inkjet printer. Still mulling over what to do next. Replace everything with more Lumix stuff? Just get an iPhone 11 Pro (leaning in that direction) or download a new scriptwriting application for my laptop and give up imaging altogether?

I still have a few film cameras in the bottom of a filing cabinet as well as a Canon G10 but.....

It's one of those post-equipment-purge days when I just wish I could figure out how to get paid for swimming. 



Added shortly afterwards: Okay, so, full disclosure. I still have the Lumix S1s and a very, very small sampling of Lumix lenses. It's not much but I think I can use them to muddle through. 





19 comments:

  1. kirk

    Probably shouldn't ask what you sold; might take you hours to write. What cameras do you have outside of the Lumix S1s and G10?

    Jay

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  2. Ha, such a tease!! Keep that good technique :) I am getting some physio on my knee as clearly playing basketball with 23 year olds is a bit tougher than I thought!

    Looking forwards to the big reveal.

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  3. Okay, So I have the Lumix S1 and a very, very small sampling of Lumix lenses. We'll just have to make do.

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  4. IF I had more money I'd buy and sell more cameras than you do :)

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  5. Jay - None.

    Michael Ferron - I don't know about that. Too many choices actually make this seem harder than it has to be....

    Rene - nothing but Lumix S1s. No Pentax. No Fuji. No Nikon. No Sony. Just the S series.

    ODL - No big reveal. Well, I might fill in a few corners with more Lumix or Leica L-mount stuff but nothing dramatic.

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  6. So after your affair with Fuji, jumping from T, A and H series, you come crawling back to Panasonic. Not sure if she would take you back you hopped in with an old Pentax. But Panasonic was nice and instead of leaving you sleep on the couch with a G9, took you back with wide arms into the S series.
    So the obvious question is how long until you write about the Sigma Fp? Maybe a good video addition.

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  7. Time will tell for how long Kirks affair with Panasonic will last. BTW Canon has some pretty daughters. 😃

    Hugo

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  8. Congrats on the decision Kirk. Not easy to transition after getting comfortable with the Fuji's. Looking forward to some content on the new system.

    Careful now, you seen to be getting a reputation ;)

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  9. ODL, Looking back over the comments it seems the reputation for switching camera systems is long running. My reason for this one? Just because I wanted to. No other rationale.

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  10. Hugo.....only cool cameras need apply. Canon's got nothing very pretty....

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  11. David, Yes. I do want an FP. Maybe I'll pick one up for the video James and I are going to work on in December. Fun when cameras cost less than a day rate....

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  12. Ok, it isn't April 1st. You're not prone to hyperbole. Most recent post was a love letter to the new new Lumix. Damn, did you really purge out your entire Fuji system? I mean, I've done something similar before on a smaller scale (my wholesale, all-in switch from Nikon to Fuji over two years ago). But you seemed to get along with all things Fuji so well. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are days where the siren song of full-frame lures me towards Robert's Camera, but I keep the earplugs in and myself lashed to the mast.

    Ok, I must admit, I will be curious if you dip your toe into the wild, wild world of Sigma (as a former SD9,SD14 shooter). Maddening cameras that create spectacular love/hate relationships!

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  13. I was wondering how long your Fuji period would last.
    Maybe when you're a professional and your eyes are highly trained to look at photos very critically and you aren't really concerned with weight it gets hard to resist the benefits of full frame.

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  14. When I first started following your blog you were transitioning from FF to MFT and more video work, touting the benefits of the the smaller form factor while still being to deliver to your clients what they need. I was surprised when you transitioned away from MFT. So here you are having dabbled for a brief moment in the Fuji/aps-c, and transitioning back to FF. So, is a return to MFT some time in the not so distant future an inevitably? It's been interesting following your gear acquisitions and purges, Kirk, and look forward to seeing how this newest chapter plays out.

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  15. I'm guessing Precision Camera has a pile of used gear now. I should check their site.

    Neil

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  16. Hi Neil, I'd give them till Monday to get everything priced and out on the shelves.... But yeah.

    Ronman, Remember, for a long time m4:3 (especially the GH4 and 5 ) were just about the only professional solution for good, inexpensive video performance. Now Panasonic has brought most of that capability forward to their S1 camera(s) and you also get the benefit of a much, much lower noise floor, lenses that don't breath much and are wickedly sharp.

    They had me at "50mm f1.4 S Pro."

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  17. Wow.
    I also like the boldness of the S1 series, but bulk and budget definitely keep me on the more compact side of the Lumix spectrum. Thanks for letting many of us live vicariously though your gear adventures!

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  18. Kirk,
    I previous comment was just for fun. But I do think you made the right decision to focus again. I have many lenses and a couple different cameras. I do reach photography paralysis thinking I should shoot one camera over an other or which lenses to use. But I couldn't pare down. I still like to have all the options.
    I am also looking forward to the Sigma Foveon L-mount camera. I have an SD14 and think it could be a great option.

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