I took the day off from everything today. Slept in. Skipped swim practice (there will be hell to pay!). Ate a late breakfast. Rummaged through the gear and decided to spend my late morning and early afternoon moseying around downtown and S. Congress Ave. with what might seem like an odd combination; a Leica CL camera and the intriguing Sigma 65mm f2.0 Contemporary lens. The "equivalent" focal length in 35mm-speak would be about 97mm, so a delicious short telephoto length, which seemed just right for a gray and plodding day.
I've enjoyed using the lens in the past on full frame and thought it would be a hoot to use it wide open for most of my downtown dalliance. I did get conservative a time or two and stop down to f2.8.
It was a long walk in new hiking boots. A bit dumb. My two outside toes on my left foot were screaming by the time I got back to the high performance studio limo (Subaru Forster).
The CL is not optimized for the Sigma 65mm, or vice versa, so when you mount the lens and turn on the camera you get a message warning you that the battery meter/indicator/scale will not be accurate and this implies that the combo will burn through batteries quicker...than a bunny. (Couldn't help it...).
I banged away for about three hours with one battery but when the battery tossed in the towel I thought the timing was fortuitous and decided to toss mine in as well.
Stepping out of character I brought along extra stuff. Not that I ever used it or needed it. But I wasn't sure I'd be happy shooting everything at the long end. I've been getting used to the 28mm lens on the Q2 and bouncing up to a 97mm I thought would be a bit jarring. So I took along a very small backpack packed with a lightweight rain jacket, a handkerchief, an extra hat, my phone (weird to carry that around !!!), a Sigma fp with a Voigtlander 40mm, a Sigma 35mm f2.0 and a Sigma 24mm f3.5. Some bail money...just in case. My Kershaw Leek, Black Wash pocketknife, and my copy of NWP 3.05.2 Naval Special Warfare SEAL Tactics guidebook. Just for some light reading --- if I had to wait on my coffee order.
I didn't use anything in the backpack but it was nice to know everything I might need was close at hand.
This was basically a day for just getting out and walking with the idea of testing the CL+65mm thrown in as an afterthought. Still, it was really nice to see how well the Sigma and the Leica played together. It's a great combination for portraits in the APS-C format. I'll need to remember that.
Electric Scooter Tours. A motley crew today...
checking out the blue response. Not bad. Not bad.
I like most bandit posters that get put up around town.
This one got plastered on a wall at the building that my favorite ad agency, Hixo, used to
occupy. And a runner up agency after that, The Sherry Matthews Agency.
Now purchased by someone else and empty.
No idea who Annie Bing is but not motivated to Google it...
A big thank you to the Yeti store on Congress at Riverside
for the generous use of their well appointed and sparkling clean
restroom facilities. And a clean mirror with which to facilitate
selfie-izing myself. Nice hat.
There were two lines at this location today.
One was waiting to do photographs in front of the "I love you so much"
grafitti on the wall of Jo's Coffee.
The bigger line was actually for Jo's Coffee.
Yes. Jo's Coffee. To go.
One bystander who found both the coffee enthusiasm and the adoration of wall
grafitti a bit boring... Ready to go do something else....
Selling hats from the back of an old 1969 Chevy pick-up truck.
Cyclist not looking at the camera.
Cyclist looking at the camera.
The human fetish for offering strange dogs their hands...
Crossing the bridge over the lake/river that separates downtown from S. Austin.
Angle one.
Angle two.
Yes. Of course. Austin is known for the healthy habits of the inhabitants...
Practicing self surveillance. Hard to run an SDR on yourself...
An exceptionally stupid shot in which I try to make the idea of the closest work light being in focus and everything else out of focus seem somehow interesting and poignant. And failing miserably.
Last shot of the day. Why this? Because I think the 65mm was begging for a chance to show me
how much better it is than the other less stellar lenses I've used to photograph exactly the same scene and so that some critic can chime in and tell me he hates my abandoned building shots.
Can't wait to pillory the perpetrator.
And that's the afternoon in a nutshell.
The cure for sore feet? slip into your Birkenstocks and become
painfree in moments. Wear them with socks to torment
the fashion fixated.
I agree, nice hat. I'm assuming that did not come out of the back of that truck. All leads appreciated.
ReplyDeleteJohn, It's from REI. New stock, this season. foldable in half. About $30.
ReplyDeleteBirkenstocks! Now I understand why you don't have a Tilley hat. The fashion impact would overwhelm a simple Texas country town like Austin.
ReplyDeleteYour "failed" "miserable" shot of the construction lamps in the out of focus walkway got me thinking. I wonder if there are online galleries of photos that their creators thought were pointless. Might be interesting reading any comments on such a site.
ReplyDeleteEmbarrassingly, the first thing that came to mind when I saw that pic was how much better (though maybe still pointless) it would look with a galloping horse in it. Either heading into the camera or away, I can't decide. Like the Alex Colville painting with a horse on a railroad track.
Does a gang of electric scooters make a distinctive sound?
I find the electric scooters just ridiculously funny. I wonder if they get into rumbles with the Segway tours?
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying a short telephoto for architecture shots lately, even twizzling the camera 90 degrees, a rarity for me
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLove my Fitkicks foldable hats.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B084TBV35H/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1
I usually try to guess the camera you are using before I read the article. Paring your camera bench has helped with that (thank you.). =D I guessed it was one of your Leicas and given that it was just a walkabout, kind of expected it to be the CL.
ReplyDeleteThe point? Man, those Leica colors. I suspect that most of it is your capability as an editor to bring out the pleasing depth of colors, but when you shoot with your Leicas there is a 3D effect more prominent than other brands.
Take your throw away shot of the light at the construction site. Not exactly pulse quickening, but I think it speaks to great capability of the artist/camera combo. That great dimensionality (IMHO) isn't a bokeh effect - It's the depth of your colors, which you always nail. Same thing for the fuchsia rabbit. Even on my 8 year old laptop, the image pops off the screen.
Well done, again.