The Canon G10 meets my newest daily walk around camera and lens, the Lumix S1R + the Sigma 45mm f2.8. Also, I passed the 4300 mark for blog posts. Hooray for me!

I'm having a lot of fun incorporating the Lumix S series cameras into the way I do photography. I have the two S1s that are tasked with day-to-day commercial work. They handle the video and the theatrical documentation and all the regular portrait work that's destined for some company's website. They work well and the lenses are probably the best I've ever owned. The only caveat so far is just the weight and bulk of each piece in the system. But I feel spry enough to cart them around for now. When I finally hit middle age I'll trade everything in for a couple more G10s. They are small and light.

I've more or less settled on the S1R, the high resolution version of the Ss, for my daily, personal shooter camera. I use it with either the Sigma 45mm f2.8 lens but when I'm hungry for a bit of manual focus nostalgia I like to put the 50mm f1.7 Carl Zeiss lens on the camera and focus slowly and carefully. Sometimes just to make other photographers cringe... And lately I've been using it in the Monochrome L mode.

Today I was walking around the house with the dog making photographs with a tripod mounted G10 and I came across this camera sitting on the dining room table. Just a big package of potential abandoned for an ancient point and shoot. I pulled the tripod over and took a few shots down around a full second of exposure. Hey look! The big camera is totally in focus!!! Miracle!!!!

There's room on the studio desk for both. It's fun to play with new cameras. Just as much fun to re-play with the older ones.

Click on the S1R to see just how good a still life camera the G10 is...

The G10 rears its lovely head and goes on a black and white binge. This fella loves a tripod and a lot of light.

Why my sudden fascination with old, small camera tech?

Because we get slammed with all the new tech all the time.

And who wants to read yet another article about the "best mirrorless full frame cameras of 2019."

A "buyers" guide. As if.......

All images done with the Canon G10 set to B&W. 

What am I reading right now? It's a book by Chase Jarvis. I'm actually recommending it.

I've always been wary of people who are too overtly positive and forthright. I was leery of the "Chase Phenomenon" when he was shooting all the silly Kung Fu action shots and putting them up on YouTube, but you know what? He's actually written a great book for people who need a good shove in the direction of either starting out or re-embracing their creative self. Getting projects started. And finished.

Most of what he writes is, in some ways, similar to the work of Stephen Pressfield (and just how many times have I recommended "The War of Art"??? -fixed 12/4, thank you kind reader!) but he leavens it with enough very practical advice to kickstart a tired old pro back onto the path or to energize a young wannabe pro who's having trouble getting out the door and into the mix. He's also a good story teller.

I was feeling a bit depressed on Saturday. I felt as though I'd lost my personal, creative energy. My reason to photograph. My inspiration. I went for a walk and ended up at a book store called, Book People. It's a store I've been patronizing for decades. I rummaged around for a while. I looked at photo books. I looked at novels and finally I ended up in a dark corner on the second floor; the kind of place that hipsters and artists relegate business books to. I saw the word "Creative" on a spine and pulled the book from the shelf. It was by Chase Jarvis. I thought I'd take a chance.

This is no thin volume. It's about 300 pages and it's actually packed with inspiration, stories and practical advice for overcoming resistance, figuring out what you really want to be doing and laying out good plans to get to your destination. This book is about finding your way, not setting up shots. There are no photographs, no gear discussions, no lighting diagrams. It's not that kind of book!!!

I need to let go of my prejudices...turns out Chase is a better writer than he is a photographer. And that's  saying something because he's a pretty darn good photographer.

If you are happy and on the right path you probably don't need this book. If you're stuck and you need both a pathway forward and a good kick in the seat of the pants, well, this one might be just what the doctor ordered. As soon as I finish reading my (paid full price and don't know Chase personally) copy I'm handing it off to Ben...

If you've retired and now have some time on your hands and you feel like you're just not getting stuff done... pony up and read.

Work slows down in the holidays. Might be busy for the "family portrait" pros but the corporate world goes missing quickly after Thanksgiving. I have a sure fire promotion you can try....

I've looked back over the billing for the last decade and I'm here to tell you that the trend amongst big, corporate clients, is to disappear right after Thanksgiving and to re-appear a bit after the first week of January. Predictable. Like clockwork. Off the radar and not spending a dime...

We've tried to goose up the last month of year (each year) by increasing promotions, sending out more e-mails, popping up on LinkedIn with outstanding creative content, and even calling people for lunches.  Not virtual lunches; actual lunches. It never works. But I think I've got it figured out this year; it's not about them, it's all about me.

In our business when you get too busy to handle new work, or you have dramas of a personal nature, that's when clients emerge from hibernation and show up in herds and hordes, ready to collaborate with you. If you are too busy with existing work, or too occupied with helping your parents or relatives, you'll have to decline the new work and hope the disappointed clients will call again, later. So there is a correlation between being busy and having the clients call you. It's almost scientific. It's called, "The Law of Unwanted Attraction." 

This week I'm going to try and spoof the law of unwanted attraction by getting to a task that I've been procrastinating on for too long....That will make me "too busy" and serve to attract the multitudes.

Part of my fence had seen better days and needed to be replaced. I hired our yard guy/handyman to do the job. His part of the job did not include painting the new fencing once constructed. I assured him that I would take care of it, thinking I would hire a painting company to spray of a few coats of paint that matches the existing fence and quickly be done with it. But now that I've come up with a way to potentially fool the universe into flooding me with business I've decided that I'll paint it myself. With old fashioned brushes...

I'm heading to the paint store as soon as I finish writing this blog. I've got a sample of the last paint drying on a board on the floor so I can match it all up. I'll order two gallons to start. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be perfect painting days = dawn-to-dusk sunshine and temperatures up near 70 for highs.

I've checked Studio Dog's schedule and she's clear to help out by keeping pesky squirrels at bay. 

But don't get too excited. I know exactly what will happen when I have on my new Armani painter's outfit and my Cole Hahn painting shoes are just right. I'll dip the brush into the first can of paint and then the phone will go nuts with texts, e-mails and direct phone calls begging and cajoling me to do "emergency" photo assignments. It's as predictable as washing the studio Bentley then leaving the top down in order to summon rain...

How can you help? Well, if you've read, "Tom Sawyer" you know just how much fun fence painting can be. Right? It's a blast. And, for a small donation to my Patreon page you too can share in the fun and games of painting Kirk's fence. The cost? Marginal. I would normally charge myself $100 an hour to paint the fence but.....if you come over with a brush and some cold beer to share I could let you enjoy painting with me for only $50 an hour. And, bonus!!!! I'll buy the paint. Sound good? Let's start in the morning around 10 a.m. Okay? See you then! 

Camera reality check. Go back 10 years and see what a point and shoot camera of that era can do. Even with a CCD sensor.....

The steps to the Topfer Theatre at Zach Theatre campus.

I gave myself a Sunday afternoon challenge....

I've been buying state-of-the-art cameras lately as if my photographic existence depended upon them. Just a few days ago I went over the top (even by my standards) and ordered a second Lumix S1R body. Can you blame me? If you've been shooting with one (along with the Lumix S Pro lenses....) you know just how good that camera can be, and it's that good without having to wait for all the stars to line up correctly. But do you really need to hemorrhage money to get decent photographs? Is it mandatory or just pathological? Yes, I know what the financially prudent among my readers will say.... no mystery there. 

But is it all about the gear?  Naw. While it's fun to buy cool stuff, and to see stuff come out of the camera files onto your computer screen that only a year or two ago would have taken your breath away I started to wonder just how far cameras have really come. Or do we just remember our older cameras in a pessimistic and dismissive way as a adaptation of our new camera rationalizations?

So, here was my Sunday challenge for today: I hunted through the studio to find my oldest and crappiest(?) digital camera still remaining in inventory. I would take that camera out for a walk through part of downtown and see just how many decent shots I could get in one hour. I would use no tripod, no filter, no fancy (first aid) post processing and no attachments of any sort. I would use the camera only in its Jpeg setting but I'd give it a fighting chance to do okay by using the camera's highest quality Jpeg setting. 

The only extra help I gave the camera was to intercede on white balance and to step in an adjust overall exposure with exposure compensation when I disagreed with what I was seeing on the small and primitive rear screen. 

I did not pick a ten year old, full frame DSLR with some esoteric lens. Nor did I pick some (for that time period) state of the art APS-C camera with a cherry-picked optic either. Nope, with the exception of the S1s and the S1Rs, the only other digital camera I have left in the entire office/studio/or house is a Canon G10. It was introduced in 2008. It has a very small, CCD sensor and it coughs up files of about 14.7 megapixels. It did not achieve parity with the most recent VSL acquisition; the Lumix S1R. 

I charged the battery for the G10 about a month ago and was happily surprised to see that the camera still registered a full charge. I outfitted it with a 16 megabyte, class 10 SD card and set the ISO for 80. My experience informed me that going much about 100 ISO would make the camera work that much harder....

I parked at Zach Theatre and headed across the beautiful pedestrian bridge and into downtown proper. If I shot in full sun I changed the WB to the sun icon. If something was in open shade I chose to shoot in "cloudy" and if I was inside in mixed light I just punted and went with AWB. I chose (as I almost always do with every camera...) to use the center focusing point and to use S-AF. 

It's important with these smaller sensor cameras to be a bit sensitive to diffraction effects caused by stopping down too much so I tried to stay as close to wide open as I could with the 28-140mm equivalent lens. When I got back to the studio and looked at my take on the computer monitor I was a bit shocked to see just how nice I thought the files were. The two major fixes I did use in Lightroom's develop panel were the camera profile (which corrects for vignetting and lens distortion) and the check box that fixes chromatic aberrations. 

I shot for one hour, took a break for one of my favorite downtown lunches (grilled Cuban sandwich and Iggy Pop coffee at the Royal Blue Grocery, right across the street from Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop (owned by Lance Armstrong...) and then headed back home the same way I came. 

While the G10 won't compete when it comes to dropping backgrounds out of focus or making huge files or giving me noise free files at high ISOs it certainly does a great job when you use it in the envelope of  opportunity in which it excels. Shoot these small cameras in great light and with good operational technique and you'll be a bit surprised that your newest Sony, Nikon or Panasonic camera isn't really that much better. And then you'll remember that you dropped twelve grand or so on your new system but you bought the G10 from a friend for a couple hundred bucks.... Sobering, no?

Anyway, you'll have your own opinion about the quality of the files but I won't hesitate to bring the G10 out with me if I'm on task with something secondary to photography but not comfortable leaving the home base camera naked. It's always fun to shock oneself with a bit of reality therapy. We'll see how long that lasts...

The one thing I have to admit is that I find it fun to challenge myself by using a very old, low spec, used camera to take images. You really do have to tighten up any sloppy technique if you want the machine to shine. Maybe the extra care and concentration on optimization I apply to the G10 will transfer to my work with the cameras that aren't on the edge.....  Kind of like doing a closed fist drill in swimming and then being amazed when you can go back to swimming with your open hands.....

Click on the images to see them bigger!

The red and green are perfect, color-wise. CCD? 

 A menu simple enough that even I can handle it...

I think the dynamic range is just fine!