B. is in S.A. taking care of her mom. The refrigerator is still broken. No swim practice on Easter. The pool is closed. It's overcast. It's the perfect day to roam around downtown and play with a new lens.
I rounded up a spare battery, plugged the Voigtlander 58mm f1.4 lens onto the front of a Leica SL2, ditched my cellphone into a desk drawer, double-knotted my walking shoes and headed downtown. My intention today was to photograph everything I wanted to photograph while doing it in black and white, at ISO 50 and with the lens spot-welded at f2.0. I gave myself permission to try some shots at f1.4; just to see how it might work out.
If you are of a certain age you probably remember the Easters of your youth in the same way I do. All the stores were closed. All the churches were open. Some families dressed up with the little girls in pink dresses and matching shoes and the boys looking uncomfortable in hand-me-down jackets, choking-collared white shirts and clip-on bowties. Other families looked out the window at the earnest church-goers going by, with shaky dads holding the curtains open a bit with one hand while nursing a hangover with a can of beer in the other.
I had to go to church back then because my father played the organ there. He didn't really believe in any of the religious dogma but he loved wailing away on the big organ just behind and to the right of the pulpit of the church. We sat bored and uncomfortable, feet unable to reach the floor and looking vaguely forward to a nice brunch at a restaurant with white tablecloths, extra forks and spoons, tuxedoed waiters and an older African American man in a black suit playing "Alley Cat", "Mack the Knife" and other favorites on a much smaller organ. A restaurant sized organ. We got to order hamburgers and french fries. The grown-ups got shrimp cocktails with cocktail sauce, and then steaks.
At some point in the day either my brother or I got in trouble for drawing pictures of the Pillsbury Dough Boy with captions that read: "He Has Risen."
It all seemed so innocuous back before the far right started weaponizing religion again... Funny that "Happy Holidays!" is now a call to arms... so sad. So misguided. So....off message.
Sunday morning in Austin was quite different today. In fact, it seemed like just another day in a (cloudy) paradise. Torchy's Tacos was open so I was thrilled to get a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast taco and a coffee there. The restaurants were open up and down Congress Ave. and also Second St. The homeless on the streets were a deep contrast to the well dressed crowds hustling by on their way to hotel restaurants for Eggs Benedict and Mimosas. And the weather over all was comfortable but gloomy.
I walked through downtown with the camera over my left shoulder and my sunglasses hanging off the collar of my black shirt. The one with the demure Nike logo on the front. I was interested to see how the lens performed when I used it close in and wide open. Seems pretty nice to me. The contrast there is a bit low but that's why Adobe invented the contrast slider and the clarity slider in Lightroom. If you can correct for geometric distortion and vignetting in the camera's firmware is it any more "cheating" if you correct the contrast in your software?
I didn't stay long. I made a loop through the parts I thought might be interesting today and then headed back to the house. I was on a mission. I'd volunteered to bring along two nice bottles of white wine to have with fish at a friend's house later this afternoon and it dawned on me that I needed to chill the bottles and.....no refrigerator. In 2023, in an age of endless affluence, I actually had to go to a convenience store and buy some ice with which to chill the wine. Savagery. Despair.
To sum up: The re-delivered lens is great. That and the 40mm are a fun pair. Not having a functioning refrigerator has moved from being annoying and frustrating to being an interesting experiment in adaptation. With luck and lawyers the fridge should be fully restored by Tuesday. The lens doesn't need any repairs which is enough to currently endear any device to me. Car, camera, lens, water faucet.... If it works I'm a fan.
It's a weird holiday for me this year. Usually spent with family. Not this time. But it's good to have friends. The more the better. And I'm avoiding Peeps this year and embracing Cadbury Eggs instead. It's part of my theologically inclusive Easter diet plan.
It's not as much fun searching for Easter eggs if you have to hide them from yourself, for yourself.... Just a thought.
11 comments:
Happy Easter! I’m glad I stopped by hear today as these black and whites are glorious.
By the way, I’ve been using a fairly new photo sharing app for the past year that I think yourself and your readers would love. No ads, no tracking and a fantastic UI. I’m not affiliated with them, just passing along a hidden gem.
https://glass.photo/
Note - it is a paid app but I think very worth it.
Kirk
I remember being choked by tight collars and ties on Easter, much like you described.
Wonderful images. I think the lens is a keeper.
And No, Contrast and Clarity sliders are no more cheating than using HC110 or Grade 4 Oriental paper.
Happy Easter to you and B.
PaulB
If that fridge was a camera you'd have called time on it weeks ago and just swapped it out for a more reliable brand..... just sayin. Love the pictures of the decay much more than the newly built stuff; was that building with the tall gateway something to do with railroad engineering? I would love it if you could caption some of your shots (I know you do that sometimes). Hope you enjoyed Easter, have a great week!
If I could toss a full sized refrigerator in a small box, drop it by Fedex and send it off for a repair or return don't you think I would have done that? On big appliances you are stuck until you exhaust the warranty agreement terms. Or you can take a $2200 loss and just have a junk dealer come and haul off your $2200 purchase price and eat all the time you've already sunk into the process of getting it repaired.
I am jealous of my European readers who seem protected in their purchases for decades into the future and who have government agencies the sole purpose of which is to come and collect faulty gear and get it replaced. I'm sure there are no scheduling delays in any of the EU countries. I'm sure if you call the Greeks, Italians, French etc. appliance companies would be there the next morning, at your door, with a brand new, upgraded refrigerator. Oh the un-fair-ity of it all.
Unfortunate about the fridge, but more concerning is how long B has been away taking care of her mother. From what you've said about her she is a strong woman, but feel free to pass along the best wishes of a stranger to her if it might buoy her spirits at all.
Thank you Tom. B has been coming up to Austin for two days at a time over the course of all this. Her sister and one brother live in SA, close to their mom and the family is really, really close and all on the same page. B will be here Tuesday through Thursday this week. At least she better be....we're celebrating our 38th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday. It will be a bit lonely if she misses it....
Very nice comment Tom. Appreciated.
An Easter well spent – excellent photos! Like you, I decided to do some Easter shooting, but with B&W film for old times sake. However, as I was getting my film development gear out (including HC-110), I realized I wouldn't be developing those rolls anytime soon. While my GE refrigerator is running just fine, my five-year-old OA Smith water heater has quit for the second time and I'm cutting my losses. So while I wade through the incentives and rebates my city, county, state and utility company offer to switch to an electric water heater I have no way to adjust my tap water to the needed 68/20 degrees to develop film.
You have my sincere "appliance" condolences.
It could be worse. Here's a woman whose refrigerator exploded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNk3RbIneqI
Hi Kirk:
I think you are on a path with your fridge that I trod down ten years ago with a watch. I hope you have a similar outcome on your journey as I had with mine.
I splurged on a fancy solar powered watch. It was well made by respected Japanese firm. It has lots of dials and buttons and was loaded with features support, no doubt, by lots of internal bearings and gears.
After a few years of use the days and dates went out of whack. I reset it and the problem popped up again a few weeks later with no rhyme or reason or pattern that I could deduce. Under warranty, the watch went back for service. Four times over the next two years. Each time it was returned (once with entirely new innards they say) and each time the problem returned.
In frustration, I sent it back once more with a request: "Please do not send this back to me. Keep it!"
I promptly got a call from the service manager. She asked me to pick any new watch from their catalog that cost less than the MSRP of the watch I returned. If I wanted a pricier one, simply pay the difference.
Rather than go down the same rabbit hole, I asked her to pick me a bullet-proof watch that simply tells time. Nothing else!
She picked a nice world time watch that syncs to a radio signal each night. For the past eight years I have enjoyed perfect time all year long. I do not even need to worry about daylight savings adjustments anymore. It is sort of like getting a smart watch a few years before they came to market:)
I think once you demand that GE simply take back their junky product you will get their attention. I wouldn't even ask for a refund. Big companies cannot handle true rejection.
Good luck.
CDC
Chris, from your keyboard to God's ears! I've asked for them to pick up their fridge on every call. Now I'm open to your suggestion that they just remove it. I've now adjusted to living life with no refrigerator. It's cheaper and less hassle and if I remove the refrigerator I can put in a nice cabinet in which to put more cameras.
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