Thinking about what lens Sigma should create just for me and my Sigma fp camera. And why on earth do I have two of the 45mm lenses?

The dynamic duo. Identical twins. 

I know there are a lot of people out there who don't understand how, in this day and age, a 45mm lens with a "slow" aperture of f2.8 and no built-in image stabilization can possibly cost $549. Who would buy it? and why? You can get a 50mm f1.4 lens from XXXXX and XXXXX for the same amount of money, etc. etc. 

When Sigma designed the 45mm f2.8 lens I'm not sure they had a giant market in mind. I'm pretty sure they were producing something that might appeal to certain photographers but those photographers would be a smaller intersection of the great mass of people who like to take pictures and people who love to buy gear. You need to like gear a bit to appreciate a well made lens but you also need to like making creative photos a lot to appreciate a lens that has a different character than all the other lenses in its focal length class. 

My first two experiences with lenses in the 40-45mm focal length range happened early on in my journey in photography. My first real camera (and one of the few from that era which I still have) was the Canonet QL17 which was a compact, rangefinder camera that came with its own fixed 40mm f1.7 lens. I used the camera heavily for the first few years of my infatuation with photography and it was my primary camera on a months long backpacking trip through Europe. The lens, when shot wide open and close to the subject would mimic the look you'd get with a long fast lens. The depth of field would be shallow and the subject well isolated. When used in combination with a good black and white film like Kodak's Tri-X the lens exemplified for me what it meant to create art with a camera. 

Paris. 1978. Canonet QL17

The combination of a focal length somewhere halfway between normal and 35mm seemed to be the ultimate all purpose chameleon; wide enough for nearly any street scene but still capable of making a nice and relatively non-distorted portrait. The focal length, through two years of constant use, imprinted itself on whatever part of my brain that determines the appreciation of one focal length over another. 

Relatively soon after my photographic initiation with the Canon rangefinder and its mystic lens I found myself in possession of a Leica camera called the CL. At the time it stood for compact Leica. Leica has dug up the name from their film camera graveyard and bestowed it on a newer digital camera but I think silliness like that is confusing and an affront to the older classic. 

The CL I owned came with one of the finest lenses I ever used. It was a 40mm Summicron f2.0. It was made and produced specifically for that camera. It was bright, sharp and utterly transparent (don't make me explain that...). The lens was made for the CL because the CL had a much shorter rangefinder base than the regular M cameras and so it was thought that the focusing inaccuracies made the 40mm, with it little bit extra depth of field, a better choice as a standard for that mini-system. It was also small and light. M users mostly avoided it because there wasn't a dedicated bright frame line in the finder for that focal length.

Canonet. Paris. 1978. 40mm.

B.Y. 1980. Leica CL, 40mm Summicron

I have beautiful photographs from the 40mm Summicron that were exceptionally easy to print. It's because the lens delineated all the tones so well and with such authority (again, don't ask me to explain).  I eventually got rid of the CL body because it was unreliable but held on to the lens until the end of the century. It was lost in the turmoil surrounding photography's journey to the dark side (digital). 

There were several other cameras that also featured really nice 40mm lenses; one that immediately comes to mind was the tiny Rollei 35S (which, now that I think of it might be considered as the predecessor of cameras like the Sigma fp = a small box with a decent f2.8 40mm Zeiss Sonar lens and one of the smallest 35mm film cameras of the day. Strictly zone focusing!). 

When Sigma came out with their new version of the slightly wider than 50mm "normal" lens I was initially hesitant and bought the L-mount 50mm f1.4 from Panasonic instead. While it's a magnificent, fast lens it's very, very clinical and very large and heavy. I more or less slid into the 45mm f2.8 because I'm lazy and the lens works so well as a walk around. But the more I've used it the more I've both appreciated it's "look" but also appreciated how well it is made and how convenient it is to use when you don't feel as though photography should make you sore, like a day at the gym.

I was on the fence about buying one until I read an interview with my favorite cinematic director of photography, Gordon Willis. He loved using the 40mm focal length as often as possible in his movie productions. One need only re-watch Manhattan to understand the power of that focal length. 

I was struck that he had a formula he used to make many scenes, it was his 40 / 40 rule. A 40mm lens used 40 inches up from the floor. The next day I went to my local camera store and bought my first copy of the lens. But this was well before I bought the Sigma fp camera. 

Initially I used the lens on the Lumix S1 and immediately liked the way it rendered faces. Not unsharp. Lots of detail and resolution but without the actinic sharpness that seems to go with current, high end optics. The lens is a little bit soft when used wide open and at the closest distances. One stop down at f4.0 and it's nicely sharp. By 5.6 it's got heaps and heaps of resolution but without too much of the acutance that makes images seem either sharper or too sharp. 

Once I got my Sigma fp camera two things happened: First, I've never wanted to take the 45mm Sigma off the front of that camera. It's as though some designer worked hard to make a combination which, when used together, creates wonderful images that are different than what I get from all other cameras. Second, it made me fall in love with the combination: the smallest full frame digital camera body available along with a lens that melds with the body to provide the perfect package -- from a handling point of view (with the accessory handgrip attached...). 

If we never get out from under the Novel Coronavirus we'll never again get to photograph commercially the way we were doing it in the pre-virus days. If we can't go back I'll quickly sell off all the stuff I've accumulated with the exception of the fp and the 45mm. And maybe I'll pick up a second fp just for luck. Two identical Sigma fp cameras and  matching 45mm lenses. Identical twins. 

But why two? Because, realistically, we'll get through this pandemic. At least most of us will. If Belinda and I are part of the lucky survivors there's so much pent up travel desire I can't think I'll ever want to go back to working for clients. And if we're traveling all over the place I don't want to stand in front of a beautiful subject and have a camera stop working. That happened to me before on a vacation in the 1980's and it wasn't fun. I want to have the assurance that I'll be able to go back to my hotel room and pull an identical camera out of the luggage, toss the same memory cards in it and be back out taking photographs immediately. It's like taking a long road trip. You probably wouldn't venture across the desert unless you had some extra drinking water in your car and a spare tire. Think of the second camera and lens as your spare tire. 

But, if I were to distill down all the gear, based on everything I've learned about photography since 1978, I would want one or two more lenses to include in the luggage as we wend our way around the world. 

The first would be a 75mm f2.8 that's about the size and design of the current 45mm lens. I don't need super speed but I'd love the same kind of design parameters when it comes to imaging. With a 24 megapixel sensor the 75mm would be long enough for most stuff since I could crop up to half the frame and still have good results. 

The second lens would be a similarly sized 21mm for those rare times when my back is up against the wall and there's still a little more I'd like in the frame. Plus, I like the eccentricity of the 21 versus the ubiquitous 20mm or even more cloying 24mm. And, you could make my 21mm an f4.0 or even f4.5 if you wanted to....as long as you kept it small and sharp. 

Ah. Canon. Why can't you make one of these as a digital camera?

It was absolutely perfect in its time. I'd buy two and never look back. 

Custom gaffer tape added by a younger Kirk....

So, why two lenses right now? Hmmm. Because it's a special lens with a limited market. Not that many people look beyond specs to character, and even fewer value the way a lens creates a look over impressions of high sharpness. If it's taken off the market because it doesn't sell I want to make sure I have an extra to use for years to come. Also, if the one lens never comes off the front of the Sigma fp then I certainly need the second one for all those times I'd like to use the lens on a Panasonic Lumix S1R....

Ian Fleming once wrote that worry is a price we pay for something which we may never receive. 

He also wrote, about James Bond's life: "It reads better than it lives." 

Perhaps a non sequitur but perhaps not.

Mike R. requested that I post my iPhone rig and I am complying with dispatch... Thank you for giving me a momentary feeling of purpose! 🤣

I see people taking photos and videos with their iPhones all the time and goodness knows I've tried to squeeze good stuff out of my telecommunications gear as well. The problem for me is that there's no good way to hold a naked phone. I always end up with my elbows in some weird position while my pinkies seem to stick out at awkward angles like a 1950's caricature of a proper Englishman having a cup of tea. As a result I spend way too much time thinking about how to hold the phone still and way too little time actually doing so. 

I bought a device from Manfrotto that attaches to my phone with spring loaded pressure and then allows me, via a tripod socket, to mount the assemblage on a tripod, or in this case, a handy gripping surface.  It's called, Manfrotto Universal Smartphone Clamp, Pro Version, and it set me back $20 USD. 

I was going to buy a handgrip of some sort but while lounging lackadaisically in front of my computer I happened to look around the office and spy not one, but two Leica ball heads. These were the original tripod heads for the fabulous Leica table top tripods and they are well built (did you expect anything less?) and it dawned on me that not only would one of these provide a dandy gripping surface but would also allow, via its bullhead, the ability to adjust the angle of the camera and it's mounting piece to  suit whatever need rears its creative head. You could use just about anything as a grip so long as it has a quarter 20 screw thread for attachment. 

The advantage of the Leica ball head is that you could put it on a monopod or a tripod if you were so inclined. But we've got a lot of tripod heads around that work just fine so I purposed the Leica head solely for handheld iPhone use. There is no red "Leica" logo dot on the head but there is a very lovely and discreet "Leitz" logo engraved on one part of the body of the tripod head so I guess if I need to impress someone I could ask then to put on their reading glasses and take a gander.

Here are a couple of shots of this heavy machinery in action. Don't try this without attending some sort of "best practices" workshop or spending hours on YouTube getting some expert advice on clever techniques.... I stabilize with my other hand but that's more habit than necessity. 

A darker and more "authentic" look at the rig in action. I was just about to hit the slow motion video recording option and call for the fog machine when I took this photo. Just out of the scene; six feet or more from my left, was the obligatory iPhone-tography super model practicing her pout and trying to decide just how much cleavage to show while pretending to embrace a rather large cactus plant.... while jutting out her derrière. 

I tried for a "viewer's perspective of this mission critical tool set but I was hampered by not having my usual entourage of photography attendants and hangers-on. My entourage. Because of social distancing I thought it easiest if I just shot this stuff myself. Tragically, a few of my compositions are a bit off. I will not be winning any PPofA Master Craftsman awards for this piece but I felt the time pressure to get the more vital information to Mike as quickly as possible (but after coffee/made at home/from a jar of instant). 

Seriously though, the handle is at its best when you are attempting to hold the camera steady for video clips. If you can lean your arm on something like a table or a railing it's even better. The Leica head works because it has a tall, thin body structure that seems made for medium sized hands like mine. 

The Manfrotto device depends on a spring to provide a grip and little friction pads to keep the phone from moving around. Since iPhones are very much a luxe product it's little wonder then that the discontinued Leitz ball head is the ONLY grip handle approved by Apple.....(as if). 

This shot is not an example of a way in which I would use the rig but is included to show you the products in their entirety. What a superb hand model. I should do that for a living instead. 

I'm just getting up to speed on the XR as a video tool. I need to plug in ear buds, complete with a microphone, and see how it is for narrator audio. I'd love to create small movies with the rig and a bit of audio stuff but if I have to attach the proverbial kitchen sink I've got other cameras that are just begging to be used. 

I normally don't take blog requests but MikeR has been a very cool reader for a good long while and I wanted to reward his patience with my patented manic depressive writing style. 

Hope this helps Mike. If you haven't tried the slo-mo on the phones it's pretty incredible. And you don't need to do it in 4K; 1080p is just fine.

Thanks! Fun stuff to play with as we shelter in place. Alternating between Xanax and red wine here. Alternate days. Depends on which day has a more depressing news cycle... (just kidding, self-medicating NOT recommended by VSL). 

Any Netflix movie or documentaries you guys can recommend? I'm running out of good programming and considering getting the Russian surplus TV shows to tide me over. Melodramas from the collective, etc.

I had a job today. It was fun. It was supervised by two doctors.

I think this is an enormous air conditioning tower. Someone is anticipating a level of global warming 

that is gigantic. Still under construction...

Life continues to be interesting. One of the medical practices I've worked with for decades asked me to make a portrait of a new partner/associate. This is something we do a dozen or so times a year. The practice is growing quickly and they keep adding radiologists at a rapid clip. We do the portraits by appointment in my little West Austin studio but this was the first session I've done  since the virus crisis began here, a couple of weeks ago. 

I asked for some guidance from several of my physician friends about sanitizing my space and putting protocols in place that would ensure that no on would come into contact with any virulent pathogens. No viruses. No weird bugs. I cleaned all the flat surfaces with Chlorox wipes, mopped floors with strong detergents and carefully wiped down the photo gear with isopropyl alcohol as per "Dr. Roger" at LensRentals.com.

I positioned hand sanitizer bottles at our entry way and even called my subject to see if she wanted me to wear a face mask (we are not hoarding masks, I had a small pack left over from an eye surgery shoot I wrote about last year...). Not necessary. We're actually into our 10th day of more or less total social distancing around here. 

It felt odd not to shake hands when the two doctors (also husband and wife) came into the studio but that's our new normal. I had the studio lighting totally set up and measured via an accurate incident light meter. The camera was about eight feet from the posing stool I normally use for portraits and I used the 70-200mm f4.0 S Pro lens on an S1 camera to make the photographs. Only one of the doctors needed a portrait so we went through the process quickly but in no great hurry. They were surprised how soon the session was over and also asked to see a few of the shots on the rear screen of the camera. Success.

We all did a good job maintaining good distancing and after they left I made sure to wipe down any surfaces they may have touched. But --- they were pros and they know the no contamination drill a lot better than me. After my cleaning routine I sat down at my desk to edit out the blinks and grimaces, convert the raw files to really nice looking Jpegs, and put the images up on Smugmug.com in a private gallery. I continue to streamline the process with every session so it all just goes faster and faster. Soon it will seem completely transparent and instantaneously; I wonder how I will be able to justify my fees then....?

I shopped today. Groceries only. It would seem wrong to bop up to Precision Camera just for a quick look around; especially since there is nothing photographic I really need to buy right now. 

My first leg was to Whole Foods. I wanted to buy a really good steak. A better one than I could get at the other local chains. Belinda also asked me to check and see if they had milk. I was expecting the experience at the store to be time consuming and would require waiting in a long line to get in. I thought they'd be limiting store traffic in that way. But no. There was ample surface parking and the store wasn't at all crowded at 2:30 pm when I walked in. People were shopping but there was no sign of frantic panic and no carts overflowing with milk cartons or cleaning products. 

The only aisle that was picked over and naked was the one for toilet paper and paper towels. And, of course, there was no hand sanitizer to be found. But the meat counter was well and fully staffed and the inventory of prime cuts was as burgeoning as ever. The same story in the cold cases, for milk. I bought two half gallon jugs of organic whole milk ($3.99 each) and moved on to vegetables. 

Today organic asparagus was on sale for Prime Members for $2.99 per ample bunch. I bought some but when I got home Belinda reminded me that Ben isn't a big asparagus fan and the reason for the shopping trip was to stock up for our weekly family dinner with the kid. That's okay --- I think I have some Brussel sprouts hoarded away for just such an emergency.

My next stop was the neighborhood Trader Joe's store. There was a line there... but it had about 12 people in it and moved rapidly. I was inside and shopping in about three minutes. I bought a bottle of red wine and two small, spray bottles of hand sanitizer. In and out in five minutes or less. 

Embracing the iPhone. I went for a walk in downtown yesterday. It's still totally legal here as long as you keep to yourself. The complication was a steady rain. I know that all the cameras I've bought in the last year are supposed to be weather proof or weather resistant but I still have a perhaps unreasonable fear of walking around with a soaking $3600 camera body attached to a $2200 water covered lens. And the last time I went out walking nobody seemed to like the photos I came back with anyway. 

"The Hell with it!" I said to myself, I stuck my iPhone XR in the pocket of my rain jacket, tossed the Sigma fp onto the floor board of the car, covered it with an old, black baseball cap and went off to look for my little corner of America.

I've come to like shooting with my iPhone now. I fixed the stuff I didn't like about it. It was awkward to hold but I bought a Manfrotto phone holder that allows one to attach the phone to a tripod or other quarter inch mount tool. I chose a Leica table top tripod bullhead as a grip for the phone and its attaching mechanism. Now I like the way I can old the phone and steady it in my hands. The grip is nice but I still, out of habit, stabilized with my other hand on the right edge of the phone. 

The most compelling feature of the phone is the slo-motion video. You can do 240 fps or 120 fps. That's 4X slow mo from the 120, if you are basing it on a 30 fps finished file. But here's the weird thing! It looks really, really good. I was just playing around with it but it's fun to point the camera at your feet and shoot as you walk. It looks hilarious when your motion is slowed down by a factor of four. Really fun. 

I've also found that a really steady grip when shooting iPhone stills is paramount to getting really nice files. So I think I've mastered those parts too. Shooting with the XR is so different than shooting with a conventional camera in that every shot is wide and every shot has pretty much everything in sharp focus. It's something you have to get used to after spending months shooting everything with a full frame camera and mostly fast, traditional lenses. Amplify that when you take into consideration that I mostly shoot with 45mm and longer lenses...

The final thing I've learned is that Airdropping images between the phone and the desktop computer kills some of the image quality of the photos. I think Airdrop must do some compression to the files... I tend to hook the phone up to a USB cable and do a manual download. Done that way the files look great. All the files in today's blog were done with my phone. I thought I'd give my brain a break from the Sigma fp camera; even though it's as close to perfect as almost any camera can be. Well, at least for snapshot-y things and art-sy things. 

The walk itself was a bit depressing. There's no one on the streets except the homeless. They seem especially lost these days since their primary source of income = other people = have almost completely dried up. Downtown is empty. Everything is closed. The hotels looked almost forlorn. One or two shops, like Jo's, were trying the "carry out" only thing but they seem to have thrown in the towel for now two as there was no one there and the lights were off at 3 p.m. 

When the number of people on the streets drops below a certain count the magic of the street vanishes completely. The added insult is the boarding up of all the store fronts of the bars and restaurants in the downtown district. You can't even enjoy some of the historic buildings' interesting facades and shop fronts.

I think I'll give up on photographing the downtown area until the people are able to come back. It's too sad. Too depressing. Nothing like this has happened in Austin since I got here in 1974. It's like someone just suddenly sucked the life out of a city. The only salve is my belief that we're just in a state of social suspended animation and that soon the bars, theaters and restaurants will be back and thriving. At least I hope that happens. It was be sad if this was it. The end. The downfall of civilization. 

Boarding up an historical district. A safety precaution against looting and squatting?

The one bright side is hearing about big companies stepping up during the pandemic. Target just increased worker salaries by  at least $2 per hour. So did Whole Foods. Starbucks closed all but their drive up locations but announced that every worker would be fully paid through the next 30 days (at least) and would keep getting health care benefits, including mental health support. Even if they chose not to come in during those 30 days. 

Several CEOs are bargaining for federal loans and offering to forgo their pay for the year. 

With the walks downtown gone, the theater gone, swimming anywhere cancelled, and all the coffee shops gone my universe seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Bleaker and bleaker. But I guess it feels that way for a lot of people. 

And since we're all watching our budgets; either for our own survival or to have enough to donate wisely, while still meeting our obligations, the one thing I've stopped buying is photography gear. Really, what's the point of buying ever newer toys if all the things and places you wanted to photographed are now off limits?

When (if?) everything comes roaring back I'm throwing caution to the wind and embracing travel and adventure to the max. Time all of a sudden seems so short and there's so much left to see and do. 

The house feels big and empty without Studio Dog. Maybe it's time to try something completely different. But I couldn't plan a worst time to launch something new. Right?  Right?

As my wealth managers says, "Stay the course and keep with the game plan. You'll come through this (the crisis) unscathed." Maybe so but it's not quite what I had planned for...

We're not so used to standing still. I'm using some of this down time to look back at photographs I shot a while ago and haven't visited again.

Leslie Anne Leal in "The Witch and the Wardrobe" at Zach Theatre. Small format, big picture.

This was taken back during my flirtation with one inch sensor cameras. Taken with the Sony RX10-2 under available stage light in our smallest theater. I love the look of the file. I was trying to emulate the look for film documentations I'd done a couple of decades earlier. I like the contrast with everything else and the blacks.

Here's a fun video Joshua and I made for Zach Theatre's Production of "Every Brilliant Thing" last month:

https://vimeo.com/398689613


The Brilliant Things in Life | Every Brilliant Thing from ZACH Theatre on Vimeo.

We shot this in an hour or so on a rainy afternoon back in early February. It's a bit rough in places but there were no rehearsals, no crew and no control over the locations.

I used a Lumix S1 camera with the V-Log update but I shot in the flat profile instead of V-Log. We used the 24-105mm lens and stabilized in an "old school" manner with a monopod.

The mic is a Rode reporter mic and I broke all the rules by using it with ALC (automatic level control).

I like the footage and I like the energy of the people being interviewed.

It's a good message. Enjoy.

Notes from the field of photography. March 18, 2020. A nervous day...

The photograph, just walking around and trying to blend into the landscape.

Since there are no jobs and no swim practice I've been getting up later than usual. I have the bad habit of reading the news over coffee and kale pancakes and the news lately always tastes bad. Maybe it's the kale. Maybe I should buy some kale syrup or something. At any rate watching the Dow Jones average plunge under 19,000 was a poorly conceived way to start the morning...

I needed a break from the ongoing crisis and I needed some exercise so I laced up my favorite pair of walking shoes, grabbed my (current) favorite camera and got busy. Walking in Texas is not forbidden or discouraged. As long as we maintain good social distancing it's something we're actually encouraged to do as a remedy for "cabin fever." The route I did today was about four miles and it was perfectly pleasant weather for it. 

I've been using the Sigma fp camera all the time now. I don't think I've taken a Lumix out for anything other than an assignment in the last two weeks; maybe longer. The fp is small and light and I love the images it makes. I've been playing around with the cine setting which in no way is accurate or even always pleasant. I've discovered that you can dial in the strength of the color settings so I've pulled the cine color setting back to minus two which should bring it a bit closer to "normal" color. I think it's still a bit green but I kind of like it. 

Since all the pools everywhere within a hundred miles are closed I've taken to a new 

routine. Walk briskly for four or five miles and then, at some point in the day, do

100 push up and 100 sit ups. It's still a workout but nothing like the intensity 

of our typical swim workouts.

As you probably know, all of the restaurants and coffee shops have become "Pick up and take away" only. You can walk in and head to the counter to order but you're expected to leave as soon as they hand you your product. All the bars are closed. And if I had to guess I'd say it will be about a month and a half until they re-open. There are fewer and fewer people on the streets downtown and that's probably a reflection of there being fewer and fewer places to go into. The homeless are really taking it on the chin since the tourist population dropped from 'ample' to 'non-existent' in the space of two weeks there are few to none people to panhandle with. The line to get into the homeless resource center was long and quite rowdy when I passed by. It's gotta be tough.

While some of the coffee shops are valiantly continuing by serving "to go" coffee a number of them have decided to just temporarily toss in the towel and close the doors for the time being. Some, like Intelligentsia are brand new and obviously couldn't have seen this coming. It has to suck to open a new business and then have to temporarily close it just a month or two later...

Stacks of one inch plywood are all over Sixth St. 

If South by Southwest had occurred this year it would have been (as usual) a bonanza for the bars that line blocks and block of this old, historic, downtown street. But it didn't happen that way. Instead, the mayor, the governor and the federal health agencies decreed that there could be no gatherings of 10 or more people until further notice. Our city immediately required all the bars to close down. 

A bit of background: Austin is home to the number one party school in the country: The University of Texas at Austin. While students have rooms in dorms and apartments surrounding UT they mostly live at the bar scene (kidding = hyperbole). We are basically shutting down hundreds and hundreds of bars and clubs per square mile. The bar owners know that this might go on for a while and have started boarding up the fronts of their establishments. I presume it's to mitigate vandalism, looting and trespassing. But it looks like a big chunk of downtown is preparing to weather a hurricane at the coast. 

Random plywood box covering some utility connection. 

In times like these who doesn't want a unicorn?

The Sigma fp is a wonderful camera for this kind of walking documentation. It's small and light. The big sensor means detailed and mostly noise free photographs. The 45mm Sigma lens is the perfect complement to the camera body. I've been bringing along an extra battery on each walk but I've never had to use it. There's no wear-and-tear to your shoulder either. It's just a delight to use. And I've even gotten use to using the rear screen for composition and menu setting.  I mean, I really don't have any option otherwise, right?

I never thought I'd see Chez Nous, a very nice and very traditional French restaurant 

end up doing take out only. I hope it works and I hope it keeps the kitchen staff busy and 

getting paychecks...

I guess it is in the nature of some humans to be real assholes. 

How can the driver of the truck on the right and the driver of the SUV on the left 

really expect the driver of the car in the middle to be able to exit his/her space? 

As I walked on I realized that life in Austin, at least downtown, orbits around drinking in bars and eating in restaurants. There really are no other attractions. Once the clientele moves out the space seems  empty and quiet. Traffic was a tiny fraction of what usually blocks up the downtown streets. Driving around Austin was actually a pleasure as there were no slow downs on the freeways and no gridlock in areas that are usually cloggy during business hours. 

When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.... Since I've always had fast 50mm lenses I've always tended to use them near wide open but with the 45mm Sigma, knowing it is at its best at f4.0 and smaller I've been shooting more and more stuff at f5.6 and f8.0 and loving the increased overall quality I get. 

The reason I take cameras out and use them all the time is to practice the craft; to keep the eye hand thing in sync, to keep from feeling self-conscious when shooting. I liken it to being a piano player, you keep practicing to stay limber and comfortable with the keyboard. I think it's the same in photography. I read recently about someone who had hosted Josef Koudelka in their home for a couple of weeks. He walked around and shot three rolls per day. Stuff that had no relation to his typical subject matter. When his host asked him about this he replied that he needed to shoot about a hundred images a day just to stay in practice. I can only imagine what Garry Winograd would have said...

I look at this giant tree, wreathed with little white flowers every time I park my car at my house. 

They are wonderful. I water them in the Summer. I couldn't bear for them not to be there...

The tree in the center is a Japanese maple. Belinda is concerned that it will eventually

overwhelm our front door. I think that would be great. We'll learn to go around and use

the back door. 

We live in one of those West Austin neighborhoods where people are buying older houses for a million dollars just to scrape the old houses off and build giant new houses to the lot lines. 

This is the latest one and it's right across the street from us. 

5000 square feet of progress.... Nothing we can do about it.

I see this branch of my Japanese maple every time I head into the house. 

I love that it's thriving. 

A young girl and her mother were out drawing with chalk on the pedestrian bridge today.

They were having fun. Their messages were sweet.

Social distancing doesn't have to be a prison sentence. Grab a camera and go for a walk in a wide open space. If you are in France or Spain then get a doctor's prescription for exercise. Just don't expect to stop at the café to have coffee with a friend and to argue about politiques.  Two meters between people and don't go if you are sick.