The only hard part of photography is getting to the locations you want to shoot. Everything else is just a math problem or an emotional equation. Photograph is nothing more than the messy intersection of physics and art.
For example, next week I'll be in Santa Fe for five days. I'm working for one evening, one full day and one half day. Mostly photographing speakers and attendees at a banking and economics conference but also a few out and about assignments like a group adventure up through the galleries on Canyon Rd. As usual I am radically overthinking which cameras and lenses to bring along. Part of the reason is that I'm driving instead of flying so I can take along anything I'd like. I just don't know what I like in the moment.
I'm pretty much settled on taking a full frame camera and a big, long, heavy 70-200mm zoom for those tight speaker shots at the podium and I'm toying with dragging along the big, fat Leica 24-90mm zoom just to assuage my current masochistic photography tendencies. Which will require me to bring along a couple of full frame SLx bodies and accoutrement. Which will cause me, midway through the trip to wish that I'd opted for the micro four thirds cameras instead. An ongoing leitmotif this week, what with the Iceland G9 images being front and center. At this juncture I'm guessing it's likely going to be a mix of stuff. And that's okay too.
If I go full m4:3 and eschew all the FF cameras I do need to source a longer zoom for the mini-system that I currently own. I have the 12-60mm Panasonic/Leica lens but I found myself gasping for more millimeters during a similar corporate shoot just last week. I have an Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro on hold over at the camera store but I'm vacillating because of the embarassment of having owned and sold this lens once before. My brain hates to admit to patterns of waste and indecision if I'm the target of my own withering judgement.
But I'm sure I'll get it figured out before I leave the city limits on Monday. At least I'm pretty sure which car I'm taking...
When you look through the images below you'll find some that are variations of the same shot. I thought I'd include them to give you an idea of the way I work a shot instead of always just showing the final output.
Two off topic notes. OMG!!! Property values in Austin are sky rocketing. How do I know? I just got my property valuation this year from the local taxing authority. I'm now officially "property rich" but if I sold my house there's no way I could afford to buy a better one in Austin. I'd have to convince B. to move someplace else instead. And we have deep roots here. The alternative is to convince ourselves that it's cool to live in Austin and just suck it up. Pay the taxes and bitch...like everyone else.
Second. Gotta say that yesterday's noon swim practice was one for the record. Not the swimming on my part but the pantheon of swimmers in attendance. The practice was lightly attended. Just seven swimmers and a nice coach. But... of the seven swimmers two were gold medal winners from various recent Olympic Games, four of the seven were former UT hot shot/elite swimmers and three of us were just floating around watching superstars swim with perfect technique and at speeds that defied the apparent ease of their aqueous locomotion. It was pretty stunning. On the way home I thought about how irrational it is for me to even try to compare my splashing and sputtering with the performance of the "Henri Cartier Bressons and Robert Franks" of swimming. Especially the ones who are still in their 20s. Ah well. You have to have role models...I guess.
On to the photos. Remember to view them on a tightly calibrated 27 or 30 inch 5K monitor in a darkened room and be sure to click on the images to see them larger still.... Or use your phone...
I'd like to try a mid-winter there. My wife and I went in June. The sun almost never sets! In a way, it's exhausting, but you can pack a lot into a never-ending day. Then you say, Holy crap, it's 11:30 PM, and the sun just now touched the horizon.
ReplyDeleteLike Mike, we were there in July. Rented an SUV and drove around from Reykyavik; home base an apartment rental. The season was fine, the long days were a bonus for making lengthy daytrips, but if it were a do over would not stay in Reykyavik, but would likely drive the loop and try for BnB places or camp. Take the family and lots of cashola. Reminded me of New Mexico’s landscape, visited closer to the glacial maxima, occupied by tidy bright farms, colorful houses and friendly people.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that in the dead of winter, it'll be quite dark there most of the time.
ReplyDeleteLove your photos from my homeland ...
ReplyDeleteAm I daring enough to point out that lensrentals.com will provide seven days use of the Olympus 40-150 f/2.8 Pro for $89? I know, it adds at least two unwanted variables - certainty of delivery and sample variance - but maybe it would be invigorating to loosen up a little and skate near the edge for a change. Besides, if it doesn’t pan out you have a truckload of gear which definitely will suffice. Oh, what? You’re back from the store and have the desired lens in hand? Never mind.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Kirk -
ReplyDeleteGreat photos - I hope to travel there someday.
Are many of these from the Olympus 12-100 zoom you had around then?
Looks like you need to pull the trigger on another one!
Chris in Wisconsin
Hi Chris, Most are from the 12-100 but a number of them are from the Sigma 30 and the Panasonic/Leica 15mm. All good lenses!
ReplyDeleteMichael Matthews, It's too late to redeem me. I just don't have the "gear rental" mentality.
Wife and I visited Iceland in June. Decided to drive the entire rim road to take advantage of the cheap petrol prices and then got sticker shock when we did the litre to gallon conversion! Thank God for the black out curtains in every hotel we stayed at. They ensured that we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for another day of adventuring.
ReplyDelete"Or use your phone" You are kidding I hope.
ReplyDeleteI click on the photos, go full screen on my 24 inch hd monitor and I'm amazed at the detail in the photos. I must be easy to please.
The light....photography is all about the light. Iceland has the light photographers love.
Sometimes your swimming comments remind me of my squash-playing days. I belonged to a public club which had as regular players three of the best dozen players in North America. It was quite remarkable to see them so often and at such close range. At the time I used to bring in my daughter, about 11 years old, on weekends. One time she got down to the courts before me and when I arrived she was hitting with one of those pros. He was completely gracious, kept the ball in play for her, etc. After about ten minutes, he stopped, chatted her up a little more and left for his match. I asked her how that happened, and she said that she got on the court by herself and he asked her if he could join in. She’s not a squash player any more but she’s never forgotten his kindness.
ReplyDeleteWould the new Oly Pro 40-150mm f4 pair well with the 12-100mm, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI find that having to much gear makes it very difficult to choose what you really need to enjoy what your doing. I'm trying to cut back, no, honest, I'm trying to cut back and sale what I don't need, but it's hard, so hard.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to cut back to just 2 bodies and 3 lenses, but I do not know what to keep and what to sell.
I may have to sell all my gear and a kidney if my property taxes keep going up. I have a hard time believing my property has gone up 6 fold in 12 years. I could sell here and buy a nice place in Austin for cash. :)
Enjoy your trip
Roger
I 've been to Iceland 6 times over the years, travel kit is an EM1x, 7-14, 12-100 and 100-400. For me the perfect travel kit.
ReplyDelete