The unsettling realization that your images were better when you just started out. Is it just because your social circle was younger and beautiful?

I remember taking this photograph as though it was yesterday. I was playing around with graduate school, working in a high-fi store near the UT campus, and doing photography as a hobby. A few months before I shot this I'd stretched and bought my first studio electronic flash. It was a Novatron. It came as a metal box (horrible build quality) with two plugs on top and put out a total of 120 watt seconds per pop. Of course the system also had a (plastic) flash head at the end of a ten foot cord which plugged into the box. I stretched my budget a bit more and bought a 42" shoot thru umbrella and the least expensive light stand I could find. I experimented with it for a while and added a background stand set and a roll of dove gray seamless backdrop paper. I remember that one roll of seamless lasting me over a year...

My camera of choice back then (I had two) was a used Yashica Mat 124G. The "G" stood for gold because the camera had some gold contacts somewhere in the mix, I guess. The other camera, the one I wore on my shoulder during almost every waking hour, was the Canon Canonet QL17 iii. I liked to play with different film types back then and at the time the image above was taken I think I was in the middle of a deep dive into Kodak's Panatomic X; a 32 ISO, black and white film. That is not a typo, the film was rated at 32 ASA/ISO. 

I generally left the gray seamless background paper and the flash gear set up in one corner of my living room. It was a time in Austin when one could rent the top half of a sprawling and beautiful house on Longview, just a few blocks west of the UT campus for under $100 a month. And that included utilities. As my then girlfriend, now spouse  would remind me, I left the background and lights up because I never got around to straightening up anything back then. Even laundry was an iffy thing, left in situ until it became an emergency situation. Then the scramble for quarters for the laundromat would commence....

I figured out the exposure of the flash and umbrella by trial and error; which, in those days meant shooting a test roll of film at various apertures and then heading into the darkroom to mix chemicals, roll the film onto reels, and then processing it by inverting the developing tank at set intervals for a set amount of time and then stopping the process by pouring out the developer and pouring in an acid bath, followed by a sloshing in liquid fixer. Oh, and one could not forget the archival wash and the application of Photo Flo. A couple hours later, or maybe the next morning the film would be dry and ready for me to make contact sheets and then suss out which frame might be the correct one. 

I might then pull out the trays, mix chemicals to develop paper, and make a few prints, just to test my findings more rigorously. At that point I might have found that having the umbrella and light six feet from my subject would give me an exposure of f5.6. I would grab a short piece of rope or ribbon and cut a piece to exactly six feet and tie it to the light stand. All future shots (until something got moved or I used a different film with a different film speed) would start with me positioning the subject and then moving the tip of the ribbon or rope to the subject's nose in order to ensure that the light was at the same distance it was when tested. As you can imagine, the subsequent shots were the nadir of consistency... You might ask why I didn't use a flash meter back then but in the mid to late 1970's the price of good meters was huge and my budget was small. I did long for the day when I would be able to afford a camera with a Polaroid back and the additional budget to get some Polaroid test materials...

At any rate I would pull everyone who came by my house into the living room "studio" and make their portrait with this very barebones set up. In the 1970's very, very few of my friends and acquaintances were overweight or would qualify as "couch potatoes." Most were former or current athletes and the lack of fat padding their faces seemed to let the camera see a more natural facial shape, complete with cheekbones and a neck below; things nearly hidden in the majority of people I photograph today. 

Of course, it didn't hurt that we were all in our early 20's and it was really an age of great innocence and openness. People were willing to be photographed without having to negotiate the process or be overly self-conscious. 

I was always falling in love back then and one of the manifestations of that was my desire to capture the beauty I found in the people to whom I was attracted. After a photo session I couldn't wait to be in the darkroom to develop the film and get started making prints. My favorite paper was double weight Ilfobrom #3. It was a superb paper and, when I started out, was very inexpensive. Now, when I pull them out of archival boxes I realize that we were working at a specific time in photo history when printing papers were like visual gold and the purchase price of a box was peanuts.

So there was the magic set of bullets. Beautiful, fit people. Young and fresh. Innocent and, for the most part, joyously happy. Films that still rival the best image quality we can get from digital but with ancillary, subjective benefits. Papers that were like magic and were, by their very nature, imbued with artifactual gravitas. And time. We had so much time. Time to linger over a session. Time to linger in the darkroom, sometimes going through an entire 50 sheet box of paper to get EXACTLY the look we wanted. Time to wait for processes. Time to share prints face to face, heart to heart. 

So now, decades later, I sit in an office surrounded with layers of the best gear money can buy, sitting in front of computers laden with thousands of dollars of processing software, a dozen feet away from a drawer filled with your choice of flash meters, and nothing I shoot these days comes close to delivering what I shot then. Perhaps the constant compromises of doing photography as a business have all but extinguished the thrill. Perhaps it's just the relentlessness of it all...

Sobering. 

If you have a happy, optimistic counterpoint I'd love to read it...

I photographed a play yesterday evening. It was called: "THIS GIRL LAUGHS, THIS GIRL CRIES, THIS GIRL DOES NOTHING." It was my first rehearsal shoot using both the XT3 and the XH1.

I was walking around the Zach Theatre campus and looking at the photos that are on the walls of every building. I realized that over the last several decades of photographing for them that I've shot dress rehearsals and marketing shots with every camera format from 4x5 inch sheet film to one inch sensor digital and, literally, everything in between. So it should come as no surprise that I was back over to do a quick project with a relatively new camera. At least new to me...

The play, This Girl Laughs, The Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, is not a big blockbuster play; it's aimed at family audiences and is being presented on the theater's smallest stage. The Whisenhunt Theater seats about 100 people and almost all the plays presented there are done in the round. All the lighting is mounted on grids and floats under the ceiling about 25 feet up in the air. Because of this it's hard to get soft, frontal light, or even fairly low angle spots on the actors so the lighting is always a bit more problematic in this venue. It's also the last theater of the three production spaces on the campus that still uses all tungsten stage lighting. 

All the walls and all the overhead space is painted matte black so the room is a big light sponge and you can't depend on reflected or bounce light from the walls or ceilings to help bring down the contrast range. Shadows go to black pretty quickly...

Yesterday was a dress rehearsal and I was able to move around the theater to shoot. That's a luxury I don't always have when we're photographing in our biggest theater, the Topfer Stage, because the cost of producing in the bigger space is higher, schedules are tighter and we almost always have an audience during the dress rehearsals of the major plays and musical presented in that space. That can make shutter noise an issue.

"This Girl Laughs...." is a joint production between Zach Theatre and the University of Texas at Austin drama department. We had four actors on the stage and one musician over on one side (stationary). As you can see, the stage dress/props is minimal so the play depends heavily just on performance.

I took two Fuji cameras; the XH1 and the XT3 along with a smattering of lenses. But the play is short and moves fast and there was scant time to waste with lens changes. I put the 18-55mm kit lens on the XT3 so that combo would take advantage of the lens's image stabilization and put the faster, 50mm f2.0 WR lens on the XH1 to give that combo equal access to image stabilization. Both cameras were set to ISO 3200 although, when the lighting got dramatic enough (meaning: very low levels) I did go all the way to ISO 6400. I used each set up with the lenses nearly wide open so I could get a shutter speed of around 1/250th of a second which gives me a fighting chance at keeping hands and moving feet from blurring too much. It was weird, for me, to use the ISO dial as my basic exposure controller but I felt compelled to stay in the shutter speed range and if I ran out of light there was no where else to go except UP in ISO. 

How did each camera do? Well, when it comes to telling them apart the only way I can tell without looking at the file info is to look at the angle of view in the frame. If it's wider it had to come from the XT3 if it was tighter and had shallower depth of field then it probably came from the XH1 and the 50mm. The colors matched well between the cameras and as far as noise performance goes I'd call it a tie at ISO 3200. 

But for all the ballyhoo about the XT3 having better autofocus I'd say that was immediately cancelled out by the one stop difference (or more) in aperture. If one camera has more exposure on the sensor it stands to reason that the AF performance is going to be better and that was the case here. I used S-AF for both cameras and they both did a good job. I can't imagine anyone complaining about either camera if you were outside shooting under an 18 EV lighting situation. But even here in the near dark each camera locked in well and quickly and neither hunted for focus at all. 

I have to say that my experiences so far make me partial to the XH1 with battery grip over the handling of the smaller and daintier XT3 without grip. I am also much more impressed with the almost silent mechanical shutter in the XH1. Yes, you can always switch either camera to its electronic shutter mode and go completely silent but there are some situations in which that's a non-starter for me. When I shoot performances at the bigger theater all of the lighting is done with LEDs. Mostly high output LED spots made for theater, not for filming! They trade a certain amount of flicker free performance/resistance for throw and power. Shooting with fully electronic shutters is an invitation to non-stop banding if you are shooting at shutter speeds that are high enough to freeze motion (anything from 1/125th up...). I've been down this road with Sony, Panasonic and Nikon as well and none of them are immune from the nasty combination of theater LEDs and electronic shutters. It's all venetian blind patterning all the time. Being able to use a nearly silent but fully mechanical shutter may be specific to my work but it makes a huge difference to me. I can't wait to sit through the dress rehearsal of the next big production, with a full audience, with two gripped, XH1s in my camera bag, both set to fully mechanical shutters... If there's music no one will ever hear the shutters....

Both the XT3 and the XH1 have basically the same menus and the same control layouts. Since I was shooting in manual exposure with both cameras I didn't have to test whether or not the removal of the exposure compensation dial and the addition of a top of camera info LCD was a good or bad thing. I will note that being able to see a bunch of important camera info in the top mounted LCD was a plus.

Basically, the cameras are so much alike that I can go back and forth without having to overthink anything. It's pretty straight forward. I do find that I like having the battery grip on the XH1; partly because I can use the camera in the boost mode and would never have to worry about running out of electrical juice during a long performance,; and mostly because it makes shooting in a vertical orientation easier and more comfortable.  

If there's a difference in resolution between the two cameras it more or less gets lost at the higher ISOs. While both cameras had well controlled noise profiles at 3200 I've seen better from cameras like the Nikon D750 and the Sony A7Rii. 

One thing I've learned about evaluating the image quality of files is not to rely on the "standard" previews that are the default in Adobe's Lightroom. They are invariably higher compression than the final processed files will be and have more noise and less detail overall. I was depressed one day when I looked at some files shot at high ISO in Lightroom. I thought I'd be spending a lot of time cleaning up noise. But after sending a few test files all the way through the process and looking at them in PhotoShop, or even online at Smugmug.com (at the highest magnification), I could see that they were much better than the previews might have us believe. Now I either use 1:1 previews or I sample files in PhotoShop to make sure that anything negative I'm seeing is a result of the preview creation and not inherent in the files themselves. 

If you must have an opinion about which of these two cameras I like best I'll say straight out that I prefer using the XH1 to the XT3. I like the bigger body and the advantages of the grip. So much so that, after last week's shoot for "Hedwig" (another Zach play/musical) I ordered a second XH1 and grip. It arrived today and, for the time being, the twin XH1s seem to have earned the prime spot as my live theater photography cameras. 

Now it's high time to flesh out the lens inventory a bit. Next on my list is the 14mm f2.8 XF and then the 90mm f2.0. New year/New gear.

I do have some thoughts about lenses and shooting in a smaller studio space. The 50mm f2.0 was about as tight as I needed for yesterday's shoot. I could have, or perhaps should have, put the 23mm f2.0 on the XT3 and just done a classic two lens shoot. Then again, I'm sure I would have thrown myself a curve ball in the process somewhere...

That's all I've got today. I'm happy to have an XT3. I'm looking forward to using it for video. I'm happier to have two of the XH1s, I'll use them for all the still photography stuff. Fun cameras!

One more odd observation. I recently updated the firmware in my first XH1 body to rev. 2.0. It added a lot to the camera. The camera I got today was brand new, in the box and came straight from B&H. And it came with the original 1.0 firmware. As soon as the batteries charged up I updated the firmware. I guess I just assumed that new, shipping cameras would have the current brain food in them. I was wrong. Maybe Fuji just wants us to learn how; you know, just in case we need to update in the wild.....

My mini-review of my Fuji X-H1 and 60mm f2.4 macro lens. From yesterday's long assignment. 1,500 exposures taken, post processing and color corrected. Closing in on my first 10,000 exposures...

I was working at Zach Theatre yesterday and it was a great time to really dive deeply into the Fuji X-H1 camera and the (much criticized) 60mm macro lens. I was part of a creative team making content for an upcoming show called, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." Here's the quick version of the play: 

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell. The musical follows Hedwig Robinson, a transgender East German singer of a fictional rock and roll band.... (From Wikipedia)...."

Our goal was to get video, for both social media and broadcast, as well as photography we could use in social media, postcards, web and print advertising and large posters. Because of various rules and scheduling we could only book time with our primary actor from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm. Our first priority was the video capture, with me sneaking in between takes and during location moves, and set-ups, to capture what we needed. 

Since the video crew was handling the overall lighting I was able to "borrow" their active photons and also use some of the location's existing light to take stills. I was depending on the X-H1 to grab good focus in a range of interior lighting situations, and with the historically maligned 60mm macro lens. The TL:DR is this: Nice, fast rig with the ability to nail focus in light low enough to call for 1/60th of second, f2.4, at ISO 3200. The files (raw) looked great and were very malleable in Lightroom.

I worked entirely handheld since we were moving quickly between video set ups. Also, many of the shots were very close-in and working without a tripod allowed me to move into position quickly and get the magnifications I needed. (even though my usual preference is to bring a tripod...).

So, let's start with the body. I'm using the X-H1 with the battery grip for a couple of reasons. First, I like the feel of it. When working with a camera all day long it's got to feel right in my hands and a good part of that is whether or not the camera is big enough to hold without weird hand contortions. The grip makes the body feel just right for production work. You might not feel the same way if you just want a camera to dangle over your shoulder all day long but if you have it in your hands for hours at a time the weight and size is a whole different equation. In this kind of set up it's no longer necessary or even helpful to have a small, discreet camera but a hefty production tool with really good control surfaces makes life easier. There's ample gripping space around which to wrap your hands. A more comfortable hold. Better access to buttons and controls.

Second, I use the grip because this camera is famous for just chewing through batteries; especially if you use the "boost" setting. The boost setting speeds up all the camera processes and makes the camera feel responsive and quick. I want my camera to be responsive and quick so I use boost. But I also want my camera to be able to shoot all day long without having to stop time and again in order to change batteries and the boost setting delivers more battery juice to the camera. The grip gives me two more batteries in addition to the one in the body. All three of the batteries in the X-H1 and grip are the new 126S batteries that are said to have more gusto and endurance, and better thermal handling than their predecessors. One thing I love about the battery grip is that you can attach a charger directly to the grip and recharge the batteries while everything is still attached to the camera. 

film crew with Sony FS7 and an attaché case filled with Veydra primes. Interesting choices...

I started my day downstairs in the theater's make up area, adjacent to the "green room." The video guys were upstairs hauling in (many, many) cases and getting all their stuff set up in the actor's dressing room (our primary shooting location). Everything I brought along fit into the Think Tank Airport Essentials backpack making me extremely efficient. While the video crew was getting their feet wet in the space I found the actor and our theater's head of make up and started photographing the transformation process of actor-into-character. I'd wanted to try out the 60mm macro lens from Fuji since I purchased it a few weeks ago but have had few opportunities to play with it over the holidays.

I had heard from various people that the 60mm, being one of the oldest lenses in the system, was slow to focus and could sometimes mis-focus entirely. Things change from initial introductions. Newer bodies get better focusing hardware and, just as importantly, Fuji seems to keep making improvements via firmware which keeps making the products better and better performers. I made sure the camera body and the lens were both upgraded to their latest firmware before considering them for this (paid) shoot. 

My initial testing showed me that the macro lens was a bit slower to focus than one of my newer WR series Fuji lenses but that it was generally fast enough--- and always accurate. As I rarely shoot with continuous AF enabled, and mostly shoot under fairly controlled circumstances, I didn't really stress test the AF of the camera or the body. It's not that I am hesitant to do so but rather that I rarely shoot in that mode and wanted to use both pieces of gear in my usual way. 

I shot the 60mm lens mostly at f2.8 and was pleased to see that it was nicely sharp at that aperture; especially at the closer distances at which I was working. When I reviewed the files in post the next day I was happy to see that they were very detailed and very easy to make changes to. The cameras does perhaps the best job I have seen so far at having the images I saw in the EVF match the images I was seeing in Lightroom on my iMac screen upon import. That sure makes life easier.

The battery grip on the camera body makes it a bigger and heavier package than I think most people would imagine if they have the prejudice that mirrorless should always mean, smaller and faster. The main advantage of the X-H1 body and grip is that they are very solidly made instruments. According to Fuji the camera uses a magnesium alloy shell that's 25% thicker than previous cameras like the XT-2. Going back and forth from my (smaller and lighter) X-T3 to the X-H1 you can feel that the later camera is denser, heavier and gives the impression of being more in the historic mode of the battle ready professional camera ilk than an enthusiast's tool. The same holds true for the battery grip. The camera and grip exude reliability and resilience.

Another advantage of the bigger, denser camera package is my ability to better hold the camera steady. In combination with the X-H1's in body image stabilization I can generally hand hold a lens like the 60mm, with good results, down to about 1/4th to 1/8th of a second. Not quite the territory offered by the superior I.S. (and dual I.S.) of the Panasonic G9 but also nothing to sneeze at. Finally, the grip serves its actual purpose admirably by getting the through an entire day of still photography with ample charges left on two out of the three batteries in the little, closed eco-system.

So, to start out, I was shooting using the theater's everyday work lights in the make up area; which are regular, long tube fluorescent fixtures. I hate to leave white balance to chance, even when I am shooting in raw format, so I did a custom WB when I first pulled out the camera. Fuji makes custom WB's easy as pie. Having a good, custom WB locked in keeps from having different color casts as you move your camera around the room, and change compositions, and even angles of view. While the auto white balance was very pleasing, usually, I knew that a singular WB for each location would make batching corrections in post processing that much easier. Good thing the X-H1 is easy to set for that! Also, there are three or four custom WB "slots" (presets) so you could make a custom WB in every scene ( up to four)  in which you'll be shooting and then choose between them for correct color balance in the quick menu when you change locations. 

I mostly use single point AF and my shoot at Zach Theatre was no different. We were shooting lots of very tight shots; just an eye or just lips, so I'd set my composition and then use the joystick on the back of the camera to move the AF point until it was exactly where I wanted it. I found that staying in the center area, the area filled with PD-AF points got me almost immediate AF lock-in. Nice. 

A grab shot of the jewelry props. Focusing on the blue necklace.

Working with a video team is always a process that requires patience. When shooting stills I was the camera operator/director/creative director and producer. A film crew from an ad agency has a different person for each and every position as well as a representative from account service, and also a few ad agency interns. There's an approval chain to be respected as well. The result is that many times the camera operator will set up what he thinks is a good match for the image, based on the storyboard, and then the director will make his changes while looking at his monitor. Then the creative director will step in and pee on his corner of the approval process before the account service person then realizes that it would be smart (politically and bottom line-esque) to also include the client in the loop, which the requires the in-house marketing director to look and approve, who then solicits her team to come look and to give her feedback and suggestions. 

While the actual video shooting of a scene might take only one minute of time with the camera rolling it's entirely possible the the set up and approval process that proceeds the actual pushing of the button could take as much as half an hour. More, if substantial changes are requested....

While all the deliberations ensued I was able to gently move non-essential people out of the frame, collaborate with the actor/talent and get as many shots as we needed before the video caucus adjourned and was ready to "roll." Working around "group think" is something I did all day long...

Talking about the 60mm macro f2.8 lens for a minute. I liked its small size and the way the lens rides on the front of the big camera. The lens hood is very long, well over-engineered, but as it reflects the most conservative aid against flare and non-image forming light I could only presume it does its job well and left it on all the time. Since none of my shots were ruined by flare or lowered contrast I was happy to always have the lens hood along for the ride. The added weight was negligible.

I mentioned that I used the 60 macro lens mostly wide open (at f2.8 mostly) and it was sharp and had a nice, almost film days/nostalgic feel to it. I found that I needed to crank and crank the focusing ring to get the changes I might need when using manual focusing but the auto focus was more than acceptable. Most lenses would be easier to focus if the attached cameras were stabilizing them, and since the X-H1 is the first stabilized Fuji body it could be that the very good performance I was getting, when focusing with the 60mm, was due to the positive effects of the image stabilization. 

At any rate, with the equivalent angle of view of a 90mm lens on a full frame camera the 60mm on the Fuji was right in the middle of the sweet spot I'd been looking for in the APS-C format. Long enough to compress and also drop stuff out of focus in the background but not so tight as to remove all vestiges of background information from the resulting images. I like the lens I got and I intend to keep it. 

Back to the camera. I have to spend a sentence or two praising the camera's fantastic shutter. Even in fully mechanical mode it makes a Leica M series rangefinder camera shutter from the golden days sound like the banging of a metal trashcan lid. Remove the X-H1 a foot or two from your head and, in a normal room with conversations taking place, I can't imagine you'd ever hear the shutter. That's classy! And it meant I could shoot all day long without disturbing the flow of the video process. It meant calling less attention to me.

One more plus for the X-H1 is the finder. The EVF finder. It's just great. Big and sharp and detailed. It makes reality, as seen through an optical viewfinder, look vague, uninteresting and amorphous. Once you look through the finder (EVF) on an X-H1, or a Panasonic GH5S or G9, I doubt you'll ever want to go back to the dark ages of (non-informative) optical viewfinders. 

None of this is meaningful without knowing about image quality. It's one thing to hold a camera comfortably and well, and to be able to view the image well, but the reason these beasts exist is to create images. In this regard I can say that the Jpeg and Raw images I've been getting out of the X-H1 and the X-T3 are, in their own way, every bit the equal of the files I've gotten from the best full frame DSLR and mirrorless cameras I've owned. 

There is only one operating function that threw me for the first five or ten times in the field since I've owned and started using the X-H1, and that is having to do with the shutter speed dial. If I'm shooting in manual mode and have both the aperture and shutter speed dials set to non-automatic settings I'll go to change the shutter speed in 1/3rd stop increments with my front or rear dial (depending on how I have my camera configured) and if I'm within the two thirds stop range on either side of the number set on the shutter speed ring the camera works just as ever other camera I've owned does. But beyond that range the shutter won't respond to the camera body dial (not the dedicated, mechanic SS dial) and appears frozen. I finally realized that I just needed to move the dedicated shutter speed dial to a greater or lesser value to get back into the zone. Full shutter speeds are set on the shutter speed dial while third stop increments are set with a (reconfigurable) dial that falls to the thumb or forefinger. Remember that eccentric part of the old dial aesthetic and operations and you'll happily pound through the universe of manual settings, forget it and you'll hit the magic wall of frustration. After that happens everything seems harder and more challenging.

(Written Sunday evening) So, several people have asked me in the last week how I like working with the Fuji X-H1. They want to know if I prefer either the new X-T3 or the less (internal processor) advanced but I.S. capable X-H1. I would answer like this: In response to the question of "how much do I like the X-H1?" I would just say that when I found out I could get one (the X-H1) with the battery grip for only $1299 at B&H Photo and Video this evening I ran to my computer to order a second set. When asked for my preference between the X-T3 and the X-H1 I would say that my preference is to use the X-T3 for video and the X-H1 for absolutely anything else. On paper the X-T3 has a newer, higher res BSI sensor and also a bevy of hot, new processors but the X-H1 has it all over its stable mate when it comes to the overall feel and operational fluidity. I grab for the X-H1 nearly every time....

My favorite new discovery about the X-H1 (and by extension, the X-T3): The final thing I wanted to mention in regards to the X-H1 is something that came to me in post processing. I'd shot everything using the standard camera profile and in a raw format. When I pulled the files into Adobe Lightroom I wanted to experiment with all the different, available camera color profiles. I like Classic Chrome a lot of wide scenics but the profile I found myself using on hundreds of files, where skin tone quality and dynamic range were concerned, was the Eterna profile. I know it was included as a decent, low contrast, low saturation profile for videographers who wanted to deliver work straight out of camera (meaning pleasing) files but I found that profile to be a great starting point for anything I shot that had a person in it. 

Eterna is not for everything but it's a beautiful profile and one which makes everyone look better; whether you are photographing them for still images or capturing video. 

I'm pretty happy with the Fuji system. I have one or two more lenses to buy and I'll happily use it for a good portion of my photography work. I'm going to have to let go of a couple lesser bodies once my second X-H1 camera is delivered but I think I can live without the smaller bodies and shed few tears. 

But why did I buy a second X-H1? Simple. When I use cameras in the theater I put a long lens on one body and a shorter lens on a second body and then use them interchangeably. I've thought for years that it's easier to grab the right camera body (from a choice of two with two different lenses mounted) and blaze away rather than to stop, scour through my camera bag, change lenses and the shoot. You lose too much time that way; you become like a person texting and driving; you take your eyes off the road in front of you....

With two identical cameras you can use a short zoom on one and a long zoom on a second camera and you'll likely have everything covered. Set the cameras to identical white balances and exposures and you'll find post production to be quicker and easier than ever before. 

Since I bought my first unit at a very advantageous used price and am buying the second one at a radically low new price I'll have only $2200 invested in two current (and mostly state of the art) cameras with battery grips and a total of six new batteries. For a person who would never want to be caught without an identical back up camera I think I found my perfect camera deal.. 

I will most probably divest some earlier (Fuji) purchases from my nascent days with Fuji in order to soften the blow. I can already see the X-E2 and X-E1 up for sale, along with some other bits and pieces, but for the moment all the Panasonic stuff is safe and protected. 

More to come as I know more about these miraculous, modern cameras. 

Camera beauty shot, just below:

A quick, quick heads up. B&H and Amazon currently have the Fuji X-H1 and the battery grip (with two Fuji batteries) on sale for $1299. Go check. Limited time.

It looks like the sales have subsided. The current price of $1299 isn now for "body only." Still worth considering but not quite the adrenaline pumper the price was when the battery grip was included..... (writes K.T. on Monday morning...). 

I spent a full day with the Fuji X-H1 on Thursday. Shot 1200+ shots with it. Loved looking at them in post. Imagine my surprise when Michael Johnston's blog had a note that the camera with the battery grip and the two batteries for the grip was on sale at B&H for $1299. That's amazingly cheap. I vacillated for an hour, finger hovering over the "buy" button. In the end good sense overcame fear and trepidation and I just went ahead and ordered one.

If you want one check with B&H and Amazon (who subsequently price matched...). But if you decide you want one then consider going to Michael's blog and ordering it through his links. I don't do links to B&H. Never got set up to deal with it. MJ deserves it since he found it and alerted me.

I'm loving my time with the Fujis. They work.

Coming soon. My rationalization for owning two Fuji X-H1 cameras...... yeah, gotta write it. It's good therapy....

Just got word. My second X-H1 is on the way! Now to clear out some inventory clutter to make way... Anybody need a barely used X-E3 (Bought new in October) or a used by nice condition X-E2? Drop me a line. Let's make a deal. 

OT: A weird instance of realizing one's "privilege."

It was nasty weather here in Austin this past Wednesday. The incessant rain loosened some boulders which fell into the roads on HWY 2222 and also on HWY 360, shutting down traffic for quite a while. There were hundreds of low water crossings closed across the county. The rain came with its pals, cold and wind, and made most outdoor activities...uncomfortable.

I stuck close to home in the morning. I wrote a few letters, did some book keeping and entertained Studio Dog (who is not a fan of rain or thunder...). At 11:45 I put on my coat, warmed up the car and headed over to the Western Hills Athletic Club swimming pool.

It's a beauty; seven lanes, flow through lane lines, 25 yards, just recently renovated, and it's outdoors. The water is chilled in the Summer and nicely heated in the Winter.

I thought I'd see if we would be doing our regularly scheduled, noon, masters swim practice. A coached workout, midday, that lasts for one hour. I thought it might be lightly attended because of the weather and the holidays but thought I'd at least follow through on my intention to swim and show up.

As I got there coach Ian Crocker's group of high school (and younger) competitive swimmers were just wrapping up their workout. As they levitated effortlessly out of the pool their bodies were surrounded in steam. The difference between the water temperature, their body temperatures, as a result of their exertion, and the cold air temperature, made for a cinema-worthy scene. Cue fog machines... Endless swirls of steam.

I changed into my swim gear, grabbed a swim cap, goggles, a pull buoy and some hand paddles and exited the warm locker room into the rude embrace of the wet chill. I lost little time making it to the pool and leapt into one of the newly vacated lanes. I started swimming to warm up, though the water was a balmy 81 degrees (f).

When I'd swum enough to feel comfortably warm I stopped at the shallow end of the pool to see who might be joining me for the workout. There was no one else in the pool.

In fact, the only people in the vicinity were the coach and one of the pool's lifeguards. I felt a little guilty keeping them poolside in a freezing rainstorm and asked the coach if she wanted to call off the practice and go home. She declined and suggested that some stragglers might show up. The lifeguard was wrapped in a swim parka and parked under a wide umbrella in the lifeguard's chair. He needed to be there in case any lap swimmers showed...

The coach was bundled up and held an umbrella over her head. I swam every set she suggested and succeeded in getting a couple miles knocked out. At one p.m. I was finished and we all headed across the deck and down a short hill to the warm offices and locker rooms. As I stood in the hot shower, washing away the light, clean aroma of fresh chlorine I realized that I'd taken for granted that the pool would be open, staffed, ready, comfortable and available. I remembered a few years back when we swam on a day when the temperatures plunged into the low 20's and icicles grew on the starting blocks. We, as a group, never questioned whether the pool or the coaching staff would be available to us. It just was.

As I drove off to find a fun, engaging lunch I realized just how lucky I am.  To be in a warm, outdoor pool, midday, in a winter storm, supervised by not one, but two people, as I merrily knocked out my yards. No disruption in my casual schedule.

After lunch I went home to comfort my distraught dog. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the couch, sipping hot coffee and reading Jason Matthew's fun novel, Palace of Treason, and occasionally contemplating my interesting day. Totally self-indulgent.

Now, if I could just figure out how to bill for leisure time I'd be set.