Seen in black and white on the streets and in the galleries of Austin, Texas.
I'm really enjoying photographing in black and white, in the streets of Austin, across a selection of fun cameras. The Leicas have the fewest controls or settings for their monochrome settings but seem to do a great job of rendering black and white images with the tones I like best. Who knows why? (And that's not really a rhetorical question...).
Today is too freakin hot to care about technical details and the "pursuit of perfection" so I'm making do with the little (and lightweight) Leica CL, paired up with a TTArtisans 23mm f1.4. And I may switch that lens out for the Sigma Contemporary 24mm f3.5 just so I don't have to waste the energy focusing for myself.
Like many other Americans we're currently roasting in place with a high pressure dome overhead and record heat all around us. We're in good shape to "weather" it if we stay inside but I'm already suffering from permanent cabin fever and I'll go out walking this afternoon; at least for a little while...
In a related story, I did "blue collar" work today. We've been trying to get our wooden fence repainted this year. Sure, the costs/charges have gone up a lot since the times before the pandemic, but our biggest issue is that the labor market in Austin is all screwed up. House repair and maintenance demands are at an all time high and the myriad waiting lists for.....everything are untenable.
For example. In the Fall we ordered new windows for the house. It took nearly four months to get them built and delivered to Austin but another two months to get on the schedule with the company's installers. Half a year for a dozen windows. Used to be two weeks.
I finally got tired of looking out of our new windows at the ever-weathering fence and decided that I'd just do it myself. I've been getting up each morning at 6 a.m. for the past couple of weeks to get in a few hours of painting before swim practice. I finished today. We don't swim on Mondays. The pool is closed for maintenance. So I wrapped up with a marathon painting session and even remembered to clean all the brushes.
I guess physical labor can be fun. I don't find that to be the case for myself. I'll work harder in the future to sock away more cash to trade for someone else's time doing that kind of work. I think I'm more productive when I'm taking photos. Not when I'm (carefully) sloshing paint on a fence and trying to schedule the work around staying out of the brunt of the heat.
But someone had to do it. And those waiting lists....
In another related story I discussed with a long time restaurant owner on Friday, the unintended consequences of every economic action. She's had a tough time staying in business. Her vendors are being hit by everything from a shortage of truck drivers to the ever escalating cost of diesel fuel (which has gone up more dramatically than gasoline). The prices they charge her have gone up. Some dramatically.
It's harder than ever to retain employees even if you are paying unskilled people twice the minimum wage and offering some benefits. But on Thursday the city of Austin announced that they were raising the lowest tier city worker wages to $22 per hour + benefits. A good thing for workers but another blow to small businesses.
Most people believe that working for any part of any government is easier and cushier than working in the private sector so now lifeguards, gardeners, parking ticket issuers and many others will start at the new wages with the city and create yet another huge diversion of workers out of the service industries and into "public service." My client's prices will have to go up if she is to stay in business.
But with all the talk of a pending recession and the collapse of various financial markets the customers she is counting on are tightening belts, learning to cook at home, reining in non-critical credit card expenses and generally becoming highly price raise resistant. It's anything BUT a virtuous circle...
It's at times like these that not having employees seems to have been a wonderfully wise decision. And it seems that even something as droll as painting one's own fence is a decent strategy for capital conservation. And a quick way to ruin a pair of pants...
It's a changing world.
Finally....Texas Republicans. Really? "Thoughts and Prayers" that Texas survives the colossal vitriol and obvious insanity of the State GOP. Just astoundingly evil. You can't make some of this stuff up!
Winnipeg Manitoba just broke a high temperature record set in 1888! We are seeing more rain here in cowtown than we have seen for decades. And the "land of the free" no longer believes in democracy. Well in Texas anyway. Yup, the times they are a changing.
ReplyDeleteThese day you can't get the neighbour kids to do anything like shovelling snow, painting fences or mowing lawns. Not for ANY money! Might take them out of the basement and their video games.
I'm glad I no longer have employees, or customers for that matter. My values are very different than those people I would have to deal with. Who needs the hassles.
Fortunately I have a much younger wife and she still likes painting fences lol.
Eric
It's a good time to be retired. 101 here in Minneapolis today; the heat dome goes all the way up thru the top of the state...
ReplyDeleteAustin’s surge in wealth and property taxes might allow a living wage to be paid to people employed by the city; hard, as you note, for the private small businesses who serve the nouveau. But getting back to fences and photos. Twain and Tom had a way with fences. And Nabokov a way with, uh, butterflies.
ReplyDeleteRe Texas Republicans: Adopting an official party platform that says Joe Biden is not the legitimate President of the United States, is the equivalent of driving up to a state mental hospital and begging to be admitted because you're insane.
ReplyDeleteIf the Texas GOP could secede and not take the rest of the state with it, that would be a marvelous idea.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the ages, philosophers, writers, poets, and thinkers have found that walking offers an additional benefit—time and space for better work. As Nietzsche would later say: “It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.”
ReplyDeleteI suggest that the next time there is a"natural disaster" in Texas and the local politicians ask for disaster designation (and $), Biden simply says they need to talk to their president, he obviously doesn't have any authority.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans in Texas should not be eligible for ANY federal assistance following natural disasters. Instead they should be encouraged to pursue: "Thoughts and Prayers." Let their faith bail them out.... Or Trump. Their choice.
ReplyDeleteW.R.T. waiting lists and such, if it's any consolation, supply chain issues are even worse. We had our kitchen redone last fall and we're still waiting for the oven -- that we ordered 15 months ago.
ReplyDeleteA wood fence is a short-sighted waste of money. humbug
ReplyDeleteLove your B&W. I love B&W
ReplyDeleteI remember when I asked a friend at Foveon years back if Foveon would ever make a B&W camera (Sigma) like the Leica Mono, he replied, "put your SD1 in the B&W raw mode, problem solved you have a B&W camera,...try it,....you'll love it." He was right. The B&W from the SD1M is very very very close to HP5.
Well, the temp out here in Portland is going to hit 90 degrees by Sunday with 90% humidity, not fun. That's ok, I'll just work out in the morning, and try to get rid of more Free Radicals from my system, like what the GOP are trying to do, purge the Free Radicals from Austin :) :( That's what a friend of my says, as she use to live there.
What is going on down there? Do they realize there would be No Social Security, No Medicare, no help from the US, and the Russia or China would try to move in, then the US would have to retaliate, and do to Texas what Russia is doing to Ukraine, or at least destroy the oil fields. It's so weird.
They've changed up voting so regular people can't vote or it's harder, that way you can't say No! What are they thinking? Are they into destroying?
It's like the Nazi's, a few are intimidating the masses all over again.
Trump for their President? Your kidding? Good luck with that. "Thoughts and Prayers"? Where's God when you need him/she/it or at least a nice Aliens from a different planet to help us? I hate to say this, I really do, as I thought Kennedy was great, but they need to Kennedy a few of these fools.
What the Hell???
Good luck, keep your powder dry, and head down. Shoot film, because as you know digital is "Fake Photography" or so I've been told/accused of a few times.
Kenneth Voigt. What an interesting point of view...
ReplyDeleteWhen we bought the house over 25 years ago the fence was already there. Would it have been better to tear it all down and just stare at our various neighbors as the skunks, deer, coyotes, etc. traipse through the back yard? Just let the dogs roam free through the neighborhood? Are you nuts?
Didn't seem like such a crazy thing to toss some more paint on it. And it actually looks nice.
Here in Austin we call them privacy fences. Works for me.
"Are you nuts?" I did not say no fences. If you drive thru a neighborhood, most wood fences are falling down. I just believe it better to bite-the-bullet and go for masonry.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky yours has lasted.
Here in San Antonio we call them privacy fences. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteCool Kenneth. Works for me too.
ReplyDeleteSan Antonio has some advantages over Austin. A lot more rock masons and able construction crews. Plus about five times as many great Mexican food restaurants.
Jealous at dinner time.
I grew up in SA. A long time 0-niner.
Thomas Jefferson
ReplyDeleteAHHS.
ReplyDeleteWooden fences are definitely a temporary solution to privacy. I presume your’s, as they are in a buzzillion suburbs, are made of cedar, but maybe not. Hesitate to imagine the impact this has had on the resource. But good fences make good neighbors, at least keep neighbors out of your business, and foster that sense of protective isolation. Oddly I found my ex’s new home west of Denver to be just fine, however, in a neighborhood where fences are not allowed, none. One has their own place despite that community of apparent shared space in their yards. A more reasonable “wall” possibly is made from stone, etc., with a colorful top line of broken bottle shards like one used to see in San Antonio. And San Antone might be a place to relocate…or it was before growing to 75 miles wide. One probably doesn’t need a wall like Trump’s on the border. Or do they.
ReplyDelete