By the time I finish writing this post the VSL blog will have hit 30,000,000 direct page views. We've also tallied up nearly 58,000 comments from readers (and trolls) and have written over 5500 posts. That's a lot.

 

Under the railway bridge in the park.

just another morning in Austin, Texas. And some guy with an older camera and a mismatched lens walking around in yet another pair of odd hiking shoes sucking in oxygen and snapping images of stuff he might like to look at more thoroughly once he gets home...

And here's a little something to inspire you to exercise: https://neurosciencenews.com/fitness-neuroscience-23228/

Hi all. We seem to have made it over the hump and hit my target of 30 million page views even quicker than I thought we would. Sorry for the King Charles post. I just couldn't help it. All the mass media was so damn serious about the coronation. Probably a lot more exciting to see it all in person than on a screen...

And I don't really hate pickle ball so profoundly. In fact, I don't "hate it" at all. I only dislike it.  A lot.

No one ever  uses mobile phones for their original purpose anymore so instead of chatting with an art director who has been slow to respond, and light on details for a scheduled shoot, my first task this morning was to get in touch, via email and give him a little push toward moving forward on an upcoming shoot or releasing the hold date so we can both move on, productively, with our lives. After that you know what comes next. Yes, it's swim practice. 

I went off script today and swam solo at Barton Springs. The big, natural, spring fed pool in the middle of town. It's about an eighth of a mile long, about 70°(f), and today was not at all crowded. I used hand paddles and a pull buoy because I was totally focused on the front catch of my freestyle stroke. I'm sure that's too much information for most but the front catch sets up the power of the full stroke and is vital to fast swimming. Every once in a while one needs to break from the group and concentrate completely on the fundamental techniques in order not to get sloppy. Sloppy leads to bad technique which leads to disappointment and micro-quitting. I wasn't looking for yardage; just working on technique, but I did manage to get a couple miles in before calling it a day.

The pool was refreshing and different from my routine. I am happy to say that I didn't physically run into any of the other swimmers and I consider that an achievement since there are no lane lines and no lines on the bottom of that natural pool to guide swimmers onto the straight and true path. Literally, not figuratively. 

After the swim I changed into walking clothes, dropped the swim gear in the car, grabbed my camera which I had (yes!) left in the car, on the front seat, along with a hat, and went for a short walk around the lake. The camera I was playing with today was the Leica SL which has become my go-to, favorite camera. I paired it with the new-ish 28mm Carl Zeiss ZM lens because I've lately fallen under the spell of the wider focal length. I never thought this would happen to me, especially since I've so often expressed my undying love for the 50mm focal length --- but there it is. 

There are several things I've come to like about the 28mm focal length. The one I have for the SL is made for M series cameras and I use it with an adapter. But since it's an M series lens it's much smaller and lighter than lenses made for DSLRs or big mirrorless cameras. I was worried at first about the corner performance of the CZ lens but have since found the lens profile for this particular lens in the lens correction menu of Lightroom Classic and am now very comfortable with all the optical black magic of the lens and camera combination. While reviewers who were incompetent enough to try and use the lens with a Sony mirrorless camera body and then announced that corner performance sucked I did make an effort to do a bit of research and to match the lens to a camera body that was engineered to compensate for the different way in which older lens designs interact with various filter stacks in full frame cameras. Everything led me to the SL and SL2 cameras as good solutions for overall imaging quality with what are, really, excellent quality lenses. 

The other thing I've come to like (again) with manual focusing 28mm lenses is the ability to stop down the aperture to f8.0, set the focus to 10 or 15 feet and get nearly every shot in focus from front to back with little need to tweak. But old habits seems to have me magnifying and double-checking many shots ---- because I have the time and --- just in case. Being able to effectively use the vast depth of field is so, so, so much better than being dependent on auto focus. At least for me. 

The weather here has been dicey as of late. We're constantly presented with forecasts of thunder storms only to go on getting gray skies and near misses. Just enough rain to put the kibosh on random outdoor plans but not enough to keep the lawns moist. The moisture thing is now forecast to happen in a big and dramatic way on Saturday; this weekend. The Met. Sages are predicting something like five inches of hard rain midday. Enough to cause flooding on many of the local, low lying roadways in the area. Not to worry, we're up in the hills here and 400+ feet above sea level. Any flooding we get is localized to puddles in the yards or small messes as a result of foundation lines being too low and water not moving away fast enough. 

But all the more reason to do my 28mm walk today since it's a lens that's not stated to be water proof or even water resistant and the use of an adapter compounds that deficiency. 

I am, overall, thrilled with the look generated by the 28mm as I used it this morning. It's sharp and makes very detailed files. The lens profile in the LRC lens correction menu is great and takes care of both geometric distortion as well as "dodgy" corners. I especially love how small and discreet the lens is, even on a bigger body such as the SL.

Rendering depth. A wide angle thing I think.

Rendering nice red. A Leica SL thing I think.

It's been a rough month for me. B has been spending half her time in San Antonio helping to take care of her mom. It's not fun for her and in my case it makes for a fragmented schedule and a fragmented mind. I'm always anticipating her arrival and then her departure and I can't seem to get much done. Other than clean the house and restock the now-working GE refrigerator. Clients are in the wait and see mode about assignments. They'd like to see if we're going to have a debt ceiling deal, see if we're going to head into a crippling recession, and waiting to see if they can just toss everything over to a staff member with an iPhone and a generative A.I. program. 

I don't really care which way the whole thing goes it's just hard to decide on a pathway in the moment. Too much is in flux. Not ready to totally retire but no longer ready to put up with much nonsense either. We'll call 2023 a year of research and exploration. 

Crappiest thing in the moment is the looming expiration of my passport. I need to get it renewed but I'm in that wilderness between deciding that now is the time to send in the old one with the renewal forms or whether I should make a few quick trips to get it out of my system and then apply at the very last minute. 

I explored the path of 'urgent' renewal but appointments to do that are far and few in the Texas area. I'd almost stand a better chance flying somewhere in Canada and then accidentally losing or destroying my passport and then throwing myself on the mercy of the consular system. But that would be unethical and maybe illegal. So I'll muddle through. With my luck the day I ship everything off I'll get asked to do a cool job with half naked super models in Istanbul or Tokyo. And I'll have to wave off the clients for the seven to nine weeks it currently takes to get a new passport back in one's hands; not counting the shipping.

I know, I know. It's very much a first world problem. I just remember fondly the days when there was a hidden office at the state capitol building that would handle this sort of thing for legislators. Little known was the fact that it was illegal to restrict the service from the general public so they just did a good job hiding it. I used it several times for renewals and one could get a passport in a week from start to finish. There was also a driver's license renewal service there. Both are gone now. But much mourned by me.

I got a lot of mail from people here who want me to continue blogging. I'll try to make it work as long as I have clients to talk about and am doing stuff that might translate into good blog material. The last five years, from around the time of my mom's passing, through the year and half of caregiving for my dad, followed by a couple years of Covid pandemic and now B's mom, have put a huge damper on my ability and desire to prospect for new clients and have limited the amount of photography, external to the central Texas area, I been able to accept. Seems like I always needed to be here waiting for "the other shoe to drop." It's a bitch being responsible and responsive. It sucks to always try and do "the right thing." But there it is. 

Food trucks. None of the amenities of regular restaurants but all of the prices. 

The average food truck price for a quarter pound hamburger in Austin now is

$12-$14 dollars. Makes McDonalds seem like a charity. And no restrooms...no air conditioning.

I do have a request for members here. I'm as much of a blog reader as anyone else but I've run out of good photography blogs to follow. MJ seems to be struggling to find a direction that's more about photography and less about personal trials and tribulations and while I will continue to read his blog and support him I am also looking for blogs that I may have overlooked but which you think have great photographic value. I like to read about new gear, techniques, new approaches to business, etc. If you have suggestions to pass along I'd love to hear them. At the base, here at VSL, I've tried to stay centered on the core strength of the blog which I think of as all things photographic. 

The one thing I am not interested in is constantly looking backwards at the recent and not so recent history of photography. I won't typically be directing you to a Walker Evans retrospective or an Ansel Adams show. We've all been there and we've all seen that. If you haven't you need to get a good book about the history of photography and dig in. I've researched it (deeply), taught it at "Uni" (which we Americans call: Universities or Colleges), lived it (Russell Lee and Garry Winogrand were both instructors at UT) and written about it. Now I want to see who is on the front lines today. Not who did something we all know about 40 or 50 years ago. Same with cameras. What's driving photography now? We can dive into recent cameras (last 20 years?) but I don't see myself pounding the keyboard to dribble out yet another article about how good the Hasselblad 500CM was back in the day... Nor pretty much about film of any kind. 

So, if you know someone good on YouTube or with a written blog and you'd like to share with us please put it in a comment below. It might help more people than just me. 

Loving those reds....

This "convenience store" on Barton Springs Rd. has been there for decades.

They are far more than a conventional quick stop store. They have a massive collection of good wines, fresh foods, real, fresh coffee, good quality pastries and much more. A treasure.

One should be able to tell that by their signage. 

Barton Springs Pool. What a wonderful place to start out the day.

Even without a first cup of coffee. But now there's a food trailer just 

outside the fence for that....

Notice the nice lens correction via the LRC lens profiles. Nice. 

Makes the lens much, much better. A good reason to shoot raw.

A walk  through paradise gardens. Now just need A.I. to add the little 

boy and little girl holding hands, a la Eugene Smith...

So, the long and short of it all is that you have me writing stuff here for the foreseeable future. First chance I get to travel abroad I'll be taking it and you'll have to suffer through some "hit and miss" delivery stuff. But for now, if I think it's at all interesting I'm going to post. Thank Bob A. in part. He's an inspiration to me now. Spent time on the phone with him early in the month. He's been reading the blog for a long time and let me know how he really feels about it. It's enough to make it work for me.

One thing though. I hate, hate, hate it when I write something caustic, critical or just mean and someone has to rush in and tell me how "disappointed" they are with me. If you think I'm a mix of Buddha, Jesus Christ and Ansel Adams then you've manufactured a standard, an expectation, to which I'll never live up and don't want to. If someone writes something stupid I'm probably going to point it out and since I've never worked in the diplomatic corps (close but no cigar...) I'm not going to be particularly politically correct and all warm and fuzzy. Call me on it at your peril. I am self-aware enough to know when I'm stretching the bounds of propriety and when I'm not. I don't need you to guilt trip me like someone's mom. If I step over the line I'll apologize, sincerely. But I define where my line is. Not you. If your delicate sensibilities will be hurt you might want to find a blander blog. They do exist. Still. 

Not that I want to be the Charles Bukowski of photoblogs but still....

This is as good a place as any to go for a run. The lake through downtown Austin

(Part of the Colorado River) has a series of ever bigger loops to choose from. From 2.9 miles to 12+ miles. All it takes is a pair of shoes and, in the Summer, a water bottle. 

Thanks to everyone who commented in the last month. The site runs on your energy as much as mine. When there's no feedback loop or metric of engagement my own writer-reactor system slows down and gets gummy. I appreciate all the hoopla lately. It's good. 

Signing off now to go do a "happy hour" with the former CFO of my old advertising agency. We've kept up for decades. Mutual admiration society. Or the expectation that the other person will pick up the tab for the bottle of wine and the cheese plate. Kinda works that way too. In a good way. We'll check in and make sure each is doing well. Then we'll toast to our long, happy ownership of certain equities we've held long enough to see a 3200% return from and we'll imagine (just in the moment) that we're smart instead of just lucky....

The under belly of the pedestrian bridge across Lady Bird lake. 

Cloudy days are good for shots like this.