The Amazing and in-depth Summer Hat Photographic Inventory. Complete with "Super" model and "Mega" influencer "Mr. K"...

Ah. The hat inventory. These are just the Summer hats. We don't have enough bandwidth for the Winter hats as well. That will come later. Much later. I keep a collection of hats for a couple of reasons. First off, I carry an extra, inexpensive bucket hat with me when I walk around downtown in the Summer. Sometimes I come across someone working in the sun or walking somewhere without a hat. I offer them the extra one. Secondly, I get bored wearing the same hat every day. An added bonus is that most of these are machine washable so I can toss them in the laundry when they get dirty and know I have lots left to choose from.

I woke up this morning with the idea of doing a silly self-assigned photo essay of me and my hats. I set up a Leica SL2 on a tripod, put a flash trigger on top and then set up a 60 inch octabox with no front diffusion panel. I wanted big but contrasty light. I fired up Leica Fotos, the iPhone app and photographed myself after previewing each set up on my phone. I used the 24-90mm Vario Elmarit lens set to 75mm and got busy. 

The hat above is "lavender" colored and is one of my favorites because it's so lightweight and foldable. I rescued it from the trash at the pool. It looked brand new until I got my hands on it. 

Here's a hat I wear every morning. It's bright yellow. It's my swim cap.

It keeps the chlorine from constantly flowing past my hair. 

It is my secret for keeping my hair absolutely perfect at all times.

I actually hate this hat but I keep it around for all those times when one's hat might

not make it through a project. Like painting the fence. Or bleaching black mold off 

rock walls. Everyone needs one protective "crash" hat. 

A cheap Tilley imitation. Reminds me constantly why I don't have a Tilley hat. 

Or a Billingham camera bag. Or a Jaguar. 

My dad came from a small town in Pennsylvania. He did his undergraduate work at 

Indiana University of Pennsylvania before heading off to Washington University in

St. Louis. When he passed away I ended up with all his alumni swag.

I have a matching t-shirt as well. 

Without a doubt. This lightweight treasure from REI is my favorite bucket hat.

It's very crushable and is a perfect all-arounder. 

Finally. When you are out and about you'll need a dressy Summer hat. 

This one works for that. And at this point the "super" model was getting antsy

and ready to call it a day. Freakin' prima donna.

Got a hat? No? Get a hat.

Even if you have to settle for a Tilley hat.

 

I am becoming my own Cindy Sherman. These are still images from my yet to be made movie. One day people will be able to buy them in a gallery. The payoff will be spectacular.

anonymous urban photographer.

 anonymous artist working in the photographic medium.

The very first lens I ever bought for an interchangeable lens camera. Somewhere back in the 1970s. Still works.

 

Back when I was a poor, poor student I worked part time at a "hi-fi" store that was situated at the bottom of a high rise dormitory just on the edge of the UT campus. The bottom two floors of the building were for retail and restaurants. Across the walk way from our hi-fi shop was Austin's preeminent camera store, Capitol Camera. They had all the good stuff. When I started working in the shop in 1976 everyone around me was also into cameras and photography. Really into it.

I'd been photographing with a Canon G3 QL17 and loved it but the path forward was obviously an SLR with a "real" lens on the front of it. I saved for months and months and bought the least expensive Canon SLR at the time. It was a Canon TX and it came in a kit with that 50mm f1.8 FD lens (above). The camera, lens and I were inseparable. Home-rolled Tri-X film from a bulk loader and a membership to the Ark Cooperative Darkroom rounded out the my early and long initiation into the wonderful world of photography. 

The camera got traded in a long time ago. It was perfectly usable but pretty primitive. The top shutter speed of 1/500th of a second was the sticking point that moved me along to my next camera. I think that one was a Canon EF...

But the lens stayed around. This morning I put it on a cheap adapter and then onto a Leica SL camera. This puts me mostly back into all manual territory but with a few perks. One is that I can use the rig in aperture priority automatic. Another is that I can use auto-ISO. And the best perk is that I can magnify part of the frame for very accurate (manual) focusing. It's important to also know that you are always working in the stopped down mode with these adapted lenses. Whatever aperture is set on the lens is the aperture you are viewing and focusing with. But it's neither an impediment nor a blessing. It just is.

Even though this particular lens is about 46 years old the aperture ring works fine, the blades stop down correctly and the focusing ring is still mostly smooth and still pretty well dampened. The glass is clean and clear and the distance scale, even when the lens is used on an inexpensive adapter, is accurate. 

In our current time when lenses have become huge and everyone seems obsessed with optical perfection it's a wonderful vacation to work with a "lesser" lens. But I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with the lens. Just that it only has six elements in five groups, there are only six aperture blades and they are NOT curved for bokeh enhancement. and the lens coatings are primitive when compared to current products. 

If you have an interest in working with a vintage product like this you'll find zillions of them on the big auction site and generally there are always some available on KEH.com. Expect to pay less than $50 for all but the most exquisitely "mint" copies. In exchange you'll get a small, light, easy to handle lens that you'll want to stop down to about f 3.5 or f4.0 in order to get nicely sharp images. More aperture....up to f8.0 keeps improving the sides and corners and....adds to the already sharp central core of the images. 

When I came back home from my exploration with this old friend I was so happy with the way it worked in the "field" and the way the images looked in Lightroom that I called my local camera merchant and asked my expert if they had any other Canon FD glass in their used inventory. I'm currently looking for three focal lengths. I'd like a 35mm f2.0, a 50mm f1.4 and any one of an assortment of 85-100mm lenses. As long as they work and the optics are good I'll take em. 

Why? Because sometimes perfection isn't as perfect as it's cracked up to be. And most of these lenses are still very good performers with unique "fingerprints." Couple that with "smaller and lighter" and you have the winning formula for making the kind of images I like. Kind of consider it embracing "good enough" in trade for smaller, lighter and less stuffy. 

By the way, the kid is doing well. Eating like a horse (I forgot that 26 year olds can really put it away...) and recovering quickly. 

Here's some images from this morning: 

This is where I park when I go downtown. It's shaded from about 1pm onward. 

It's on a quiet, non-residential street and it's in front of law offices, etc. 

It's safe and I've never had to pay a meter there...

That white car is mine.

This place closed early in the pandemic (2020) and nothing has happened yet with the space. 

I'm endlessly curious about it. It's a really nice restaurant and bar space...

note the presence of direct light and no flare. Seems people could make 

very satisfactory, cheap lenses even 46 years ago.

 I like the black and white straight out of the Leica SL. It's nice.

A different color palette.

Plenty detailed. The lens has a decent ability to deliver resolution and sharpness when used 

at f4.5 or f5.6. I'd use it to this day; even for work.

It's safe to presume that what were considered failings of earlier lenses used on earlier digital cameras has been largely remedied by toning down the AA filters on newer, higher res digital cameras and also making the filter stacks thinner so light rays didn't get clipped as they moved toward the corners and edges of sensors. Better sensor technology lifts all lenses. Even these older, "made-for-film" lenses we've held onto. 

Got any old Canon lenses sitting around? Ready to get rid of that 100mm f2.0 or f2.8? No use for that 50mm f1.4 that's just sitting on the edge of your desk in your Summer house? No space in your Leica drawer for "lesser" glass? We can help.

Oppressively hot here but I'm staying indoors and acting as the boy's butler this week. I'm hoping for a generous tip but you know the reputation these millennials have.....

Okay. I have to partially reverse my previous position on Peak Designs camera straps. Familiarity overcomes contempt.

I have composited myself into this background. I shot the "Kirk" shot in 

the studio against a gray background. Beats using a tripod and a self timer out in the sun.

I have a new strap attaching method for conventional, "old school" camera straps. It's a little complicated but it's so secure. The other day I had to unstrap one of my Leica SLs to put a Buff gaiter on the strap. The Buff gaiter is a tubular cloth construction meant to worn by humans as a protective scarf keeping your neck safe from UV. I figured if it's good enough for a photographer it just might be good enough for my camera. By running the strap through the gaiter tube I can...... oh wait.... I wrote a whole blog post about this in 2014. On the 28th of July. Right around this part of the year. To learn more, read here:

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2014/07/finally-kirk-stops-horsing-around-with.html#more 

Anyway, I spent a hot afternoon using the new, white and gray Buff device (as described in the link just above...) and then I disassembled the strap and fully intended to re-strap the camera the next morning. But the boy's accident superseded the strapping agenda and time became unfixed. So when I reached for my favorite SL (and yes, they each have a personality...) it was strap-naked. Not wanting to spend time on my more rigorous strapping modality I instead pulled the much maligned Peak Designs strap out of the "reject" drawer and attached it. The work of seconds instead of minutes. And then I headed out the door. 

It's really the first time I've seriously tried the cross chest carry of a camera since, well... never. 

I always carry a camera over my left should in a traditional strap that has some built in stickiness that helps prevent shoulder slide. On the Peak Straps that stickiness is on the wrong side of the strap so I decided to go with the flow and at least attempt the cross body carry. I adjusted the strap length for comfort and headed out for a long morning walk. Hoping to get in three or four miles before the humidity returns and the afternoon heat becomes oppressive and dangerous.

Everything worked out okay. I got used to pulling the camera up from the side to shoot and letting the slippery strap slide around. It was fine. I guess I could get used to it if I really needed to. The quick attaching and detaching is the primary selling point for me. Maybe Peak Designs could do a thinner strap with the sticky friction stuff on the correct side and the same round quick release parts included. That might actually be a good strap. 

From an aesthetic point of view I felt as thought I'd fashioned a camera strap out of a 1975 Chevrolet Nova seat belt. Same basic material and same color schemes. Hopelessly tacky. 

But, usable and not at all uncomfortable. See? I can change my mind. Under temporal distress. 

As a partial and lukewarm apology I've decide to put up a link to their site. I am not affiliated and no one. Literally, no one, is paying me.

https://www.peakdesign.com

The Sky Is The Limit. Endless Blue Skies Over Texas. And a "Progress Report" from Austin.

Today is wicked hot. And humid. I had stuff to do today and in a rare lapse I didn't bring a camera along with me nor did I make it to swim practice. We had to get our young one to the surgical hospital by six o'clock in the morning. That really sucked. But the procedure went well. The arm is on the mend. The boy seems to recover quickly. 

Eight a.m. was nice. B. and I had "breakfast croissants" at Central Market while we waited for news from the orthopedic team. We sat outside and enjoyed the shivery cold breeze and the mild, 83° temperature under the shade of the long porch. And that's as low as the temperature got in central Austin today. The croissants were good and since Central Market is a big, upscale grocery store they came with sides of fresh fruit salad. Nice.

I was preparing for trauma and all manner of medical panic today but apparently the combination of a really great surgeon/specialist and a twenty-six year old in ultra-marathon good condition augers well for a quick and drama-free recovery.

It's rare for me to leave the house without a camera and it's even rarer for me to go all day long without at least touching one. Truthfully though I didn't miss it. I think my cameras and I needed some alone time apart. We'd been getting too chummy lately. 

When I was clearing off the desktop I found a folder full of landscapes with very nice clouds. I thought I'd share them. They are my only point of contact with photography today... 

Downstream from Barton Springs Pool. 

Where the water is almost always 68°

Currently the ambient temp outside is 103° with a heat index of 108°

Just looking out the window watching the grass grow brittle and brown.

 

The end of photography is nigh. The economy is falling apart. But...

 I answered emails today and got booked far ahead for a corporate event starting on the17th of November and a more detailed project starting on October 24th. Both traditional commercial photography.

In other news clients are paying their bills quicker. About a five day gap between billing and receiving  payment these days. Based on this year's transactions.

And...clients are taking price increases in stride. We've raised rates by between 20 and 30% this year (depending on the type of assignment) with no push back from nearly a dozen clients to date. 

We're trying to track our billing to inflation and our track our spending with a recession in mind. It's all a crap shoot but I'm not really seeing any of the doom and gloom come to fruition. 

I am seeing the trees and landscape drying out and turning brown. But business? Still green.

One of the Google buildings in downtown. 

Long term clients are a nice thing to have.