12.16.2020
How's that 12mm Meike Cinema lens treating me? Pretty well. There's some barrel distortion and some fun flares but...
One of my two favorite lenses from 2020. The Sigma 56mm f1.4. Too tight for a lot of work. Just right for me.
We are currently in an unprecedented building boom. It's not confined to downtown; I see it happening all over the city. Downtown is becoming denser by the month but it's an odd contrast because everyone is working from home and most of these new buildings are class "A" office space. Not residential towers.
So, the streets are nearly vacant, the restaurants are mostly closed down and there's little of the hum that used to accompany downtown living.
While many are predicting that office life won't necessarily return I believe that face to face contact is essential, in the long run, for human health and cooperation. With all the big businesses moving relentlessly to Austin I imagine filling the newly finished buildings will be the least of our teething issues.
The future, it seems, will be crowded. But at least I'll have the right lens to document some of the change.
A Non-Prioritized List of Cool Cameras and Lenses That Hit the Market in 2020.
Yeah, I shoot with Panasonic cameras right now but that doesn't mean I'm above looking at the lovely shades of green grass in the adjoining yards. There have been some interesting photo products gently pushed into the market this year and I'm going to list them here.
The Fuji X-100V. I'm starting with this one because I keep coming back to it, putting one in my shopping cart and then relenting and putting the money into the stock market instead. But you never know, long term the "fun-ness" return and "joy" factor of the X-100V might be more profitable. I can't understand why I'm reticent to actually push "return" and have one of these sent to me right away.
I absolutely hated the first X-100. It was bug ridden and super glitchy to use. Oh what a difference five successive iterations makes. The "V", introduced in the first quarter this year has much to recommend it. It gets into my cart so often because it reminds me (and probably everyone else) of all the old, film rangefinder cameras we've owned. It's gorgeous, and this iteration feels so much better in the hand than any of the previous models. It's actually comfortable to hold.
If I were a fan of the 35mm equivalent focal length I would have ripped open my wallet and grabbed for one by now but I guess that's the one thing that keeps holding me back. I've owned an XT-3 and have much respect for the 26 megapixel sensor both cameras share. I love the film emulations and used the Acros B+W often while ambling around with a rather corpulent collection of Fuji cameras and lenses.
I thought about this camera once again after spending an afternoon walking around town with a Lumix S1H and the 50mm S-Pro lens. The Fuji probably weighs less than half of what the Panasonic lens alone weighs. It would be the perfect walking around camera for someone. Me? I'd love one if I could get it with a 40mm or 45mm focal length lens on the front.
Also, every review I read or watch tells me that the video features and image quality are amazing. Still on the fence over here but very impressed by how far this camera has come. And how loyal a following it has amongst serious photographers.
The Sony A7Siii. So, my picky and hard to please videographer friend, James, has owned a bunch of cameras in his pursuit of the perfect run-and-gun solution. We both hammered through the previous Sony cameras only to be dispirited by their thin video codecs, short battery lives and their tendency to heat up like a waffle iron. We both live in central Texas and we really worry about the reliability of cameras when used in tough environmental conditions for about six month out of the year. James was making due with a Sony FS7 and a few lesser Sony cameras when the A7Siii hit the market. He was first in line to snag one.
This is the 12 megapixel, video oriented camera from Sony. Here's what James said he likes after using it on three or four day long assignments, under a mix of conditions: The color science is much improved and now is easy to grade. In fact, we were talking about it this morning and he said that if one uses the V-Log profile and then uses the paired Sony LUT in post processing he barely needs to touch the files before delivery to clients. This is big for him since he struggled to get reliable performance out of his previous cameras.
The next thing he values is what he considers to be the best video AF on the market. Better than all the rest. I watched some footage he shot and I can't argue with him. The camera locks on, doesn't pulse and doesn't ever decide, mid-take, that it's time to randomly focus on the background instead.
Battery life is improved and the camera also seems to have the temperature tempest under control. But the biggest improvement in our minds is the updated and much higher data rate enabled set of codecs. Hello to the first Sony A7 series camera to offer 10 bit and 4:2:2 in camera. The files are much improved because of these particular updates.
For all these reasons I suggest that the A7S-iii should be considered one of the gems to hit the marketplace this year. If you do video. A lot of video, and you want to stay in the under $5,000, hybrid camera space this and the S1H own that geography. A lot will depend on whether you are already a Sony user and have lots of E mount lenses. If so, it's a no brainer.
Panasonic S1H. Introduced back in February this year this is the camera I didn't think I really needed since I had multiple copies of the S1 and S1R but, after a big video project that could have benefitted from many of this camera's features, I found myself trading around a few of the duplicates and picking one up. They aren't cheap and many people will tell you that the newer S5 can do just about anything the S1H can do but none of that matters to me. The EVF difference alone would keep me in the S1 series camp...
The S1H rips $4,000 right out of your net worth and rewards you with a big, heavy, bulky camera body. But...the files out of this camera, for regular photography, are better than what I've gotten from either the S1R or the S1 and that's big because they are two of the best performing, full frame, mirrorless cameras out there. I seem to remember that the S1R is one of the very few cameras tested by DXO Mark to get a 100 score. So, to have a newer camera hit the market and deliver (at least to me) cleaner, more accurate and more transparent image files is huge. A few months after I bought the camera it got a firmware update that gave it ProRes Raw files at 5.6K when coupled with an Atomos Ninja V. The ramifications in the world of narrative video are pretty amazing, and this was after Netflix already gave its stamp of approval to the camera as a top quality production camera. As far as I know it's the only mirrorless out there to have been bestowed with this blessing.
I've been shooting a fair amount of video lately and while nearly every 4K capable camera I've played with is competitive enough to make it on to the field the S1H is consistently my favorite for color, detail and feature set.
But here's the surprising thing, after really digging down into the Raw and Jpeg files and comparing them with my other S1 cameras and cameras from previous systems I think I would put up with the size and weight even if my interest was only making photographs. The images are that good.
If you've been interested in a good production camera and have heard the siren call of the L mount alliance I would point you to this camera but with the proviso that it's ungainly and requires your commitment to dragging around the most weight of any camera in its class. But damn! If making convincingly good images is your priority then this should be at or near the top of your list. I'm actually tempted to dump the other two S1cameras and get a second S1H to complement the first. From three down to two. What a concept.
The last camera I'll mention is The Fuji XT-4. Allow me to hit the basics. It's as good (or better) an imager as the XT-3 was and uses, I think, the same really, really good sensor but it's been vastly improved with the addition of in-body image stabilization and a bigger, healthier battery. That's the real news. I liked shooting with the XT-3 but many of my favorite lenses weren't stabilized and I missed that. While nothing really competes with the stabilization of the top of the line Olympus cameras I'm happy to just have reasonably good stabilization. Especially if I'm using the Fujicrons.
The XT-3 was a good video camera but it had a few shortcomings. The biggest was that all internal files were 8 bit but the XT-4 fixes that with 10 bit in Log and a few other bonuses. You'll need a USB-C dongle to monitor video file audio on headphones but there is a mic input and the camera can also charge and run off USB-C external battery bricks. Very useful for long programs. But you'll still bump your head on the recording limits in 4K. It'll run for 30 minutes; a step up from the XT-3's 20 minute limit.
This APS-C camera is still relatively small and light and now gets almost everything right for photographers. It would be a distant second choice for video-only, at least when compared to the S1H and the Sony A7S-iii listed above. But it's also still affordable. Well under $2,000.
I shot with the system for about a year and for the most part loved it. I just got side-tracked by video and moved on. If I never needed to shoot video I would probably have stayed put. Lot of nice lenses in the system...
And that brings me to lenses introduced this year.
The Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN ART ABCDEFGH.... There is a point at which, as a one man crew, a lens can be too big and heavy to work well in the field. I hit that point with the original 85mm Art lens which seemed to have weighed in at about 30 pounds and required its own rolling case to effectively transport. There were two reasons to own one; first, it was the sharpest of the 85's you could buy for any camera at the time and secondly, it was less than a third the price of its nearest competitor; the Zeiss Otus 85mm f1.4 (which is manual focus!).
If I was heading to a client's location and we were using the camera and lens on a tripod I could always justify bringing and using the original 85mm Art because it was so sharp, even when used wide open, and when I did use it wide open the out of focus look was wonderful.
Because of its weight it was almost completely unusable for vertical portraits on a tripod and if I had been required to carry it up the side of a mountain or through the streets of a busy city I would have given up altogether.
So it was against this bittersweet background that Sigma delivered, this year, their solution to the original's faults. The new version weigh in at half of the old one and it's also about half the size. It's now designed as a native mirrorless lens instead of being an adapted DSLR lens (which is probably why the original was so big and heavy). I rushed over to Precision Camera as soon as I became aware of the new lens's availability and without any hesitation traded in my old one plus too much cash and walked out with a new model.
It's everything I hoped for. It focuses quicker and with much less hunting, no matter which camera body I use it on. It's as sharp as my older lens and it's a pleasure to carry around. At $1100 it's about half the cost of lesser performing lenses from several of the most popular brands and I'm thrilled to have it in my camera bag/collection. A very nice final rendition. Now we can spend more time playing and less time trying to bulk up at the gym in order to drag the old one around. Available, I think, no matter which mirrorless system you are in fief to.
Sigma 56mm f1.4 Contemporary. This is a small lens that I almost overlooked entirely but one day I was playing with a used GH camera at a store counter and the sales clerk grabbed this lens off the shelf and put it on the camera. A glance through the finder and my interest was well piqued. What is it? Well, it's part of the much lauded Contemporary system of lenses. My three favorites from the line-up are the 16mm f1.4, the 30mm f1.4 and now this guy. The lenses are computed for smaller than full frame sensors and only available in mirrorless mounts so think: Sony, Fuji and M4;3 for right now. I'm sure they'll made Nikon mount versions if Nikon appears to be staying in business and I'm sure they'll make a Canon version once Canon finally decides on a lens mount.
The trio of lenses is perfect for my use on micro four thirds cameras with the lenses translating into 32mm, 60mm and 112mm. All are sharp enough to use wide open and, in some sort of inverse logic, the biggest one of the bunch is the 16mm followed by the 30mm and the 56mm is the smallest of the three. Honestly, it's bite size. But such bite.
My attraction to the lens is because it's so nicely sharp and optically well behaved even at f1.4. It also offers a great balance on any of the G or GH series Panasonic cameras. While it doesn't feature any image stabilization both the G, GH Panasonics and the Olympus high end cameras have such good IBIS it doesn't matter.
The price of the 56mm Contemporary is moderate but the performance, for smaller format cameras, is premium all the way. It's certainly one of my favorite new lenses this year.
I would also list the Sigma Contemporary primes that were just announced; the "i" series, but they aren't shipping in sufficient quantity to really consider them as available in 2020... (Hey Sigma: Let's get that 65mm f2.0 L mount shipped. Eh?).
Meike Cine Lenses. Various. Meike is a Chinese company that's making cinema lenses mostly for the micro four thirds and APS-C cameras right now, but I notice they've introduced a 50mm t2.1 cine lens for full frame that's actually affordable. Some day we'll play with one but for right now my attention is focused on the smaller format lenses.
These lenses are the descendants of a lens line introduced by a now defunct company called, Veydra. The promise of the Veydra lenses was very cool. Small(ish) manually focusing, geared lenses designed with long focus throws and great optics for smaller formats. The goal was to produce an entire set that all used the same filter diameter, had their geared (clickless) aperture rings and geared focusing rings in the same locations (easy to use follow focus gears, etc.), and designed with a consideration for minimizing focus breathing.
When Veydra collapsed Meike, who were the actual makers of the products, stepped in and stepped up. They improved the optical quality of the lens line and put an emphasis on quality control. And they enlarged the lens line up. Some of the lenses were introduced prior to 2020 but the new 85mm t2.2, the 65mm t2.2 and the 50mm t2.2 were brought to market in this year.
I took a chance on a used 25mm t2.2 I found at a camera store and, after using it on a project, also bought (new) the 12mm t2.2. Both are charming to use and have such a distinctive cine look about them. Right down to the focus and aperture markings residing on the sides instead of facing up as a photography lens would have them. Makes them resemble Zeiss Cine Primes.
The optical quality is really good and if I didn't already have a bucket full of options in the 50-60mm range I'd have already pushed "Buy This Now" for the 50mm and the 65mm. But for the moment I'm still wringing out all the potential of the ones I have. At $400 a whack they deliver for budding film makers without breaking the bank.
Sorry to make this so Sigma-Centric but... I have to give a nod to the Sigma 100-400 f5.6-6.3 DG DN OS. I've heard nothing but good news about this recent introduction. There's a whole cadre of photographers who are constantly looking for good long lenses and, for a while, that's been an empty spot in the catalogs of mirrorless camera makers. Even now the longest lens Panasonic makes for the L mount is the 70-200mm (available in two flavors) while the longer lenses for Sony cameras are also hard to come by. By all accounts Sigma has made a lens that's fairly fast focusing and also performs well optically. I've played with one a couple of times and if I were going to continue shooting stage shows from the back of the house this lens would be a great choice. I'd use it with the Panasonic S1R and put the S1R in the APS-C mode which would give me a 600mm equivalent reach but still at nearly 24 megapixels.
The one thing I disagree with Sigma about is the tripod mount. They sell a tripod mount separately instead of making it part of the package. I get that everyone doesn't want to work on a tripod or monopod but if you put it in the box as part of the product you ensure that users who need the tripod mount will be able to source one. The single thing that kept my from picking up this lens in the Fall was the situation in which I could buy the lens right now but the dealer would have to special order the tripod mount for me. The lens would be unusable for my application without the tripod mount and so the whole transaction was cancelled. Put the damn part in the box!
But that's a marketing issue. The lens itself is a bargain.....if you like shooting long.
My absolute favorite lens purchased this year? Easy. That would be the Sigma 45mm f2.8 for the L Mount. It's small, light a beautifully made. It's artsy and interesting at f2.8 and sharp as a tack from f4.0 onward. It's teaching me, once again, how to shoot with more thought to depth of field and to the value of having some stuff actually in good focus. I have two. I bought one with the Sigma as a kit and then I found one used for half price. I like the lens so much I thought I'd buy a back-up. I haven't regretted it.
That's all for this morning. I'm sure I typed this too quickly but sometimes the brain wants stuff out the door and on the page. Nothing has a link. Don't bother repetitively clicking on the bold type. Reason? These are the products I found to be interesting/intriguing/fun this year but your mileage will vary. Sometimes extremely. I guess I just want to start a conversation about what people enjoyed finding new this year. I'm alway interested.
time to walk with my family. back later to find the cap key.
12.15.2020
The "All In" mentality can sometimes sabotage my core pursuits. Or...how many rabbit holes can you jump into at once?
People are all so different. I admire people who are able to make a long term plan and stick with it. I think I admire them mostly because I have such a hard time trudging down the same path day after day. And I tend to be obsessive about whatever new, bright shiny adventure presents itself.
When I first took up photography seriously I was drawn to the thrill of making black and white portraits of people I found interesting. If I'm honest with myself it's obvious that making art out of portraits has always been the constant undercurrent of my attraction and dedication to photography. But I let so many distractions interfere. And spent so many resources chasing them.
Take my recent plunge back into video. I started back in with some simple cameras and basic microphones and I thought everything looked pretty good coming out of cameras as basic quality .Mov files. No fancy bit depths and no extended color ranges. I worked with cameras like the Sony A7r-ii and a Sony RX10-3. My regular working methodology somewhat matched my still imaging routines. Ignore V-Log. Get the exposure and color right in camera and make sure everything is in focus. The work looked good and no big additional investments in gear or training seemed necessary.
I was mostly doing interviews and testimonials for a German healthcare company at the time and everyone was pretty happy with the edited results. Logic would have suggested that I just continue on doing the same thing and trying to get better at non-gear stuff like: the art of interviewing. tweaking lights for interviews. better audio techniques. trying more adventurous angles and shots. But being a gear nut I was drawn into shooting more and more stuff with two cameras simultaneously. And, as the projects proliferated I convinced myself that I needed two identical cameras so everything would match up in the edits.
After a spell with the two Sony cameras my research "convinced me" that I couldn't like the video files coming from the Sony consumer cameras because, unlike all my video friends' cameras, these weren't 10 bit and didn't write files in 4:2:2. Eventually I found myself deep into the Panasonic systems.
This year, instead of pulling back and enjoying enforced time off from spending and wheel spinning, I bite off the production of more video projects for the theater and other clients. After our big project near the end of the summer I was asked to shoot video of the theater's outdoor concert series. And here starts the big disconnection from logic/purpose and intention and a plunge down the rabbit hole with a little push from my own ego.
I should have declined the offer to shoot the videos because that kind of work is more rote documentation and isn't really creative. It's more like tossing equipment at something visually mediocre to try, through heroic angle changes and editing, to pull out something people might want to pay to stream and watch for an hour. The constraints were many.
The music and voices of the artists were all great but there wasn't much visual interest. No stage decor. Minimal lighting. No costume changes. Not much to work with, visually. But the projects tweaked my ego and also pushed me into the boring realm of technically mundane problem solving.
I convinced myself that in order to do this right I'd need a follow camera with a long lens and then I'd need two or three other camera angles on the fixed stage so the editor would have more cutting options. I tried certain cameras and decided they weren't exactly what I needed so I bought more cameras. The cameras worked well but I decided I could use also use different lenses to better effect. In essence I was brutally over-engineering each project and, given the tiny stipend attached, ended up "losing" $500 to $1,000 per show.
In a depressing moment of shocking Satori I realized that I had, in that moment, strayed completely from my core mission. forsaking my real love in the arts and replacing my passion with a misguided pride in my technical problem solving. I could rationalize that I was "helping" out the theater but at a certain lower level of production the role I was filling wasn't anything any other technician could not do just as well. And I'd been an active participant in my own "straying from the course" for decades...
Now, don't get me wrong. If you are mid-career and you need money to keep the lights on and the wolves from the door then the ability to solve problems and accept bigger and bigger, or more complex projects can be a real plus. Financially. It gives you more products to offer your clients. But the day you find yourself sitting in the office charging batteries for six cameras, loading each camera with V90 SD cards and putting cinema lenses on your designated stationary cameras, all in order to film a quickly produced, three person singing experience for little more than coffee money you will, hopefully, have the sudden realization that you've lost the thread. You've moved away from making art to doing "blue collar" grunt video and you were driven to it by your "need" to step in and show off your technical proficiency. The need to keep your ego fed.
After getting five of these projects in the can I thought I was finished. Then the theater wanted just one more. I declined. And the next day, when I went into my office and saw all the cameras, lenses and peripheral junk I'd quickly amassed to do multi-camera video shoots I was embarrassed at my own lack of guard rails. And a bit shamed by my squandering of time and resources I could have better put into service doing the real work I know is my core passion = portraits. In black and white.
It's the ultimate destructive extension of the idea that gear matters. If one camera angle is good then four different angles must be so much better. But at some point you have to either give in entirely to the idea that it's all just a job or stop and reconsider where you true love lies.
In retrospect I should have considered the year 2020, from March until now, to be an opportunity to break from my compulsion to freely accept any and all commercial work. Only now, in mid-December have I come to grips with the spinning rims of non-intention. Only just starting to separate need from want.
One of my friends who knows me better than I know myself suggested to me that I might stop and meditate and really consider what I want to do with the time I have left on this mortal coil. Did I want to work like an itinerate pot mender and go from job to job doing an endless repeat of basic and un-inspired projects or would I be better served by stepping back from having to constantly prove my technical worth and taking stock of the very core activities that I would truly enjoy? Could I go back to the beginning and experience that joyful feeling of making beautiful images?
The act of meditation, as I understand it, is an attempt to quiet all the little voices in one's mind and to concentrate on your own truth. After having retreated from "work" projects at the beginning of the month I've had time to reflect on this. Like a glass with muddy water you have to wait until all the debris settles before you can see through clear water. In effect, not having deadlines and responsibilities for projects that are busy work has given me a bit of clarity.
So much of the office/studio is still filled with stuff for "just in case." What if I have a job that requires we shoot against a white, full length background? Oh, that's what those six lights in that case and the long roll of white seamless paper are for.... What if I need to shoot macro photos of semi-conductor dies? (something I haven't done in over a decade...) well, that's what the big macro rig with rails and stuff is for. And the video slider, and the three gimbals, and the eight shotgun microphones (each new one being just a little better than the last one), and what about those fifteen, big light stands? And those five soft boxes (now with front panels in various strengths of yellowing)?
Even the compulsion to keep an inventory of every focal length lens I might ever need for any commercial job when, in fact, my real passion in photography requires maybe three lenses at most. I have a 20mm; I've used it twice in a year. I have a 50mm, I use it every day.
All of these things take up space and, more importantly, mindshare.
They are a result of the "compound interest" of our shared beliefs in our industry, carried over from the last century, that we need to be ready to handle anything at any time. From architecture to food shots. From portraits to landscapes to microscopic processes. And the point of pride was that being ever-ready we could handle anything. Even if we didn't like a particular process and were only doing it for the financial rewards. But being able to and wanting to are vastly different things in the current age. And at my current age.
I shudder to think I will end up years from now surrounded by mountains of gear but unfulfilled in my basic, personal mission.
Cameras and gear are an addictive trap. They also function as an ill-fitting life jacket for your self-esteem. A hopeful antidote for your imposter syndrome. Haunted by the thought that you might just be a mediocre image-maker but you'll be able to fake your way through as long as you have the best support gear you can buy.
When I get introspective I sometimes think I'm being unrealistic and that having this wide tool box of stuff is really important. At that point I usually think back to two people who each rented my studio back in the 1990s, for one day projects. Both were from Dallas and both were working on big campaigns for agencies here in Austin. One studio renter was a guy who specialized in photographing beverages. More specifically, beer bottles or beer cans with just the right amount of condensation and sparkle. I expected he would arrive with an entourage and tons of gear. He brought two lights, one ratty and yellowed umbrella and one well used wooden view camera with two lenses. He worked alone. He was methodical and self-assured. He called his client when he had a perfect Polaroid and the client came over mostly to sign off on the Polaroid.
The photographer let me look at the Polaroid and I was a bit surprised and very impressed with just how good the final photograph was. After the client approved the shot and left the studio the photographer worked on a few different angles, just for himself. Then I helped him take down his set and pack up. There was no camera clutter and no mental clutter about his work. Just the work. I had the sense that he could do amazing work with a cheap camera and a work light. The gear was just a clean window into his vision of the project.
The second photographer to rent my space and teach me a lesson that I apparently, quickly forgot, was a former student of mine from UT. She'd gone off to Dallas which, at the time, was the center of all cool advertising production in Texas. She had apprenticed with two different photographers: one a fashion photographer and the other a catalog photographer. By the time she showed up in Austin she'd been a regular shooter for the Neiman Marcus catalogs and also shot for two, big cosmetics companies. She was in town to photography The Budweiser Girls. An image of three beautiful girls in white swim suits lying on a big pile of sand (our studio beach?).
She rented her lighting from one of the neighboring photographers and her assistants set up a simple but very effective lighting design. My former student brought only her camera stuff with her. It consisted of one older Hasselblad film camera, a 150mm lens that looked as though people had put out their cigarettes on the front element, an ancient but still working 80mm lens and a Polaroid back.
She made some adjustments to the lighting, climbed a tall ladder and shot the image of the models hanging out on the beach. The shot would become part of a national ad campaign. There was not angsty indecision about what she would shoot with or how she would proceed. It was so clear to her.
The process was quick and efficient. She was also having fun. And, in the process, billing in a day what I might have billed back then in a week, or even a month. But she had a mental clarity about her work and she didn't stray from her vision and her purpose. Again, her gear was absolutely secondary to her vision.
This month off is helping me achieve a modicum of clarity. I no longer need to be a "jack of all trades" and I no longer need to be equipped with every permutation of camera and light necessary to shoot....everything.
I just wish I had been paying attention a bit earlier. That's all.
I wish there was a way to hold a big garage sale and make most of the stuff in my space disappear. But managing that seems equally odious. But I'm consolidating and I hope to get back to my earliest passion. Taking beautiful black and white photographs of most interesting people. Taken in a style that I like and not because a client has requested/demanded that it be that way.
It's hard to do. We've all (in the USA) been raised in such a mercantile culture. We are so quick to assign monetary values and class status values to everything we do and everything we own. It's a tough paradigm to move on from.
My presumption was always that moving on from the work that put food on the table to a "golden period" in which I could kick back and do my own stuff would be easy. But it's not. In some regards it's the routine stuff that gives one's life structure. Take away the work and you take away the structure. The money becomes immaterial but the awkward transition to adventurous leisure and rewarding self-assignment has its own discomforts.
How do you do it?
12.13.2020
Yeah. The other stuff I shot with the S1H while I was out tooling around.
I was surprised to walk by this bar on Congress Ave. and see this sign. The bar association has tried everything to stay wide open. They even passed a law in Texas exempting restaurants from closing when the state closed down bars which declared bars TO BE restaurants as long as over 50% of revenue came from food. The bars rushed to sell wings, queso and chips and anything else they could to their customers.
An afternoon with a decidedly inappropriate camera and lens for street photography. Too big. Too heavy. But I got to watch a big production, car photo shoot...
Back in control. Back in the pool. Back to stasis.
With a successful swim under my belt I felt, mentally, that all the jigsaw pieces of my regular life were falling back into place.
I'm signed up for a full roster of workouts in the week to come and anticipate that as I get back into good shape there will be naps galore.
It's not as though I've been inactive since the day after my medical procedure. I've tried to walk five or six miles a day. Once with a friend, or Belinda, and a second time with an amiable camera in my hands. It's just that swimming hard is a whole different adventure. Don't worry, I won't dwell on swim posts, or snooker tables, too much in the next week or so. We've got other things to cover.
Hope you are all happy and well and continuing to move. -Kirk
12.12.2020
Hanging out at the old Sweetish Hill Bakery on a Sunday Morning. Back when we had so few responsibilities or worries that it now seems like paradise.
Inside the Ellsworth Kelly Chapel at the Blanton Museum.
Documenting the stained glass "windows"
I like scrolling through old folders marked with cryptic words like: "Desktop Blog Art late 2018"
I find things like a batch of perfect photos done with the last GH5 or GH5S I owned. Makes me feel good that I still like the photos. Makes me feel silly and a bit dumb to realize how good this cameras were in the moment and how unwise it was to sell them off and then have to buy them again.
Funny, if you wipe all the projects off your calendar then all of sudden you stop dreaming about how X piece of gear would be "just the ticket" for upcoming job Z. I've been shooting video with three and sometimes four cameras at the same time. Now I have zero video projects on the books or waiting in the wings. The extra cameras I bought end up cooling their heels.
This time around I'm keeping them. If I don't feel compelled to use them I'll just pull the batteries out, wrap them in paper and shove them in a drawer. The next time I'm anxious to buy something new I'll reach in and unwrap one of them. Like getting a new camera all over again.