Swim practice was the first event on today's agenda. The coached workout started at eight o'clock. The water was delightfully cool as the pool management has started using the water chillers with the arrival of Summer weather. Are we Western Hills Athletic Club swimmers a bit spoiled? Well maybe...
After most swim practices I head home and eat something for breakfast and then blossom into the day's typical activities like reading the current news or catching up on over night email. But today I made a point to stick the G9 in the car and, after a heroic amount of fun swimming I headed straight downtown to reacquaint myself with my new Panasonic G9. I knew it would be bright and warm by mid-morning so I didn't need a fast lens, only a sharp one. The first choice that came to mind was the Olympus 12-45mm f4.0 Pro. It's sharp as an etching tool and as a bonus it may be the lightest lens I own. A perfect combo for a jaunt through urbania.
First stop was the Torchy's Tacos over on 2nd street. They serve a really nice bacon, egg and cheese breakfast taco. Then it was a cross town ramble over to the convention center to take a peek at the arrival of attendees for a Trump"rally". Out of morbid curiosity. But very few people showed up so I moved on and photographed different stuff. Almost all of which is in black and white. It was different for me because I'm usually downtown in the mid to late afternoons and the light was coming in a different direction than I was used to.
Today was mostly a black and white photography day and I was happy to see that my muscle memory of using using the G9 was intact. The menus seemed familiar. Everything fell into place quickly and without effort. The camera's profile for black and white, "l. monochrome d" with a little tweaking worked quite well and I was once again amazed at the apparent sharpness of the little Oly Pro zoom lens.
The farmer's market at Republic Square was also on the agenda and I bought a wonderful cherry and almond scone from one of the vendors. After a couple hours of photography my Birkenstock Sandals (which I have never come to terms with) were starting to chaff my feet and the temperature, even before noon, was cresting 90°. I figured it was time to head home, look at the files from the G9 and embrace the kindness of the office air conditioning...
To sum up, I'm thrilled I bought another G9 to replace the two I mistakenly let go of during the onset of the pandemic. I should have had more faith in their staying power. Click the images to see them bigger.
The capper: the S5 battery, when used in the G9, seemed to last forever. I shot all morning and it's still showing "full."
1 comment:
What a gratifying test of muscle memory... you captured some very nice B+W street and architectural shots Kirk.
I especially like shots 2,12,13,20,26,28. L Monochrome D delivers some lovely tonality SOOC doesn't it, and the organic grain from that sensor is a bonus. The Only 12-45 seems to be a bit special too.
Big sigh... brings back my own happy memories of G9 ownership and bewilderment at letting it go. It screams immediacy and fun - things that are somewhat lacking in my present set up.
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