I seem to be rotating through my cameras almost like rotating crops. Yesterday I pulled a Leica CL out and photographed my visit to the Blanton Museum in Austin.

 

New sculpture on the walk way from the State Capitol to the University. 

The hallowed Horny Toad. 

Yesterday was another gray and lackluster day. I slept in and missed morning swim practice. Sometimes just getting those eight hours seems like the healthier play. Especially since there's always a noon workout on the schedule. I made breakfast, drank coffee, read all the depressing news online and decided that I needed to do something fun and uplifting --- so I took a trip over to the Blanton Museum. And I decided to take a small and light photographic toolset with me instead of depending once again on my larger, heavier cameras and lenses. 

I snooped around in the camera cabinet and saw the CL cameras. I realized I'd been ignoring them lately in deference to the full frame choices. I also elected to take one small, fast prime lens and my choice for the morning was the TTArtisan 23mm f1.4. Is it sharp enough? I guess you'll have to judge for yourself. I found it to be very good, all around. Yes, there is a little barrel distortion but I've given up worrying about that. The only distortion I dread is the terrifying "mustache" distortion that a number of wide-to-standard zooms seem to exhibit. And the terror is mostly because the distortion is hard to correct manually when there is no profile available. 

With the small, light, but potent image making package sorted out I stuck an extra battery in a pocket and headed out. I parked on Lavaca St. but, just between you, me and 10,000 other readers, I've given up paying the parking meters. In fact, I've taken my chances by not ever paying the city parking meters since the onset of Covid; and I've only been ticketed once or twice. I figure that's about 1% of the times I've parked in the downtown area. I happily paid those fines and then did the math on the total outlay. I figure I've now paid about three cents for each parking experience committed over the last three years. Not bad. A classic risk versus reward exercise. 

I parked the high performance studio staff car in front of this 

shuttered sandwich shop. It used to be a Thundercloud Sub shop.

An Austin original. But not to worry, there are plenty of other 

Thundercloud locations around Austin.... 

I was interested in heading to the Blanton Museum to take a second peek at the "Day Jobs" show. And also because, after what seems like years of construction, the grounds in front of the museum have re-opened and I wanted to see how they changed the plaza between the two buildings. More on that below.

The first floor exhibit is very interesting because it showcases fun, insightful art but it also "discusses" what artists have to do to make a living/survive while working on their own art. Some worked in the service industry, some in graphic design and even a few in banking and law. The caregiver industry was well represented by a small collection of Vivian Dorothy Maier's black and white, square prints while Barbara Krueger was representative of artists who worked in publishing. Sol Lewitt had an interesting work path before his success as a painter and, of course there were four prints from Andy Warhol who was the poster boy for commercial artists who made  the leap into highly collectible fine artists. 

It's a well rounded show and nicely hung. Well worth an hour or so, or a first and second viewing. Yesterday I had a much more positive reaction to the show than my first contact as there were far fewer people in attendance and that always helps. 

I had almost forgotten, but was reminded as I walked around snapping photos, how small and convenient the Leica CL camera is when used with an equally small prime lens. Emboldened by recent experiments with the "Denoise" function in Lightroom Classic, I set the auto ISO to give me a minimum shutter speed of 1/125th of a second and a maximum ISO of 12,500. I thought it would be a fun, real world test of both the camera's sensor and the Lightroom application's prowess in cleaning up files. (Just be sure you are shooting in raw because the "Denoise" doesn't work with Jpegs...). 

The camera's viewfinder (EVF) is good and the 24 megapixel, APS-C size sensor is nicely detailed and, at most ISOs, pretty much noise neutral. 

This is a detail of the exterior of the newly revamped museum exterior. 

The camera's dynamic range is wide enough to open up the deep shade across the 

greenly decorated wall while holding on to highlights outside. 

I did apply an auto transform to correct for the converging verticals. 

I have not gotten a tilt shift lens for this camera system...

Again, I was quite happy with the camera's ability to "see" in the shaded, covered 

areas but to also grab detail outside, through an arch.

I don't know about anyone else but I love reading the curator's 

notes next to individual pieces of art as well as the written introductions

to unique galleries. The writing generally goes a long way toward

explaining the art and the rationale for its inclusion. 

And I just like the way type sometimes photographs. 

Yes. I see the vignetting. Not all vignetting MUST be corrected.

Works by Andy Warhol. 

A fun observation by a fine artist who started out working on TV shows

and movies. 

I was going to wear my fabulous Birkenstocks again. Even though the idea of 

open toed shoes seems disturbing to Canadians. But since we had heightened 

chances of rain yesterday I opted to wear a pair of Keens. They are fine

if you are into imprisoning your feet... Feet want to be free. Or is it 

the internet that wants to be free. 

Send me money so I can buy more and more shoes! 

I think this painting has been my long time favorite of all the paintings in the 

permanent galleries of the museum. It's just..... I can't put it into words....but

I don't know; wonderful?

This image and the one below,  of one of the upstairs gallery of "modern" and "contemporary" 

art, were my test images for high ISO combined with noise reduction.

Each image was shot at 6400 ISO and then the raw files were modified 

by Lightroom's "Denoise" tool. I find the results pretty amazing and it makes

high density sensors cameras even more likable. Great for dense sensors on APS-C, 

but equally good on a high res camera like the Leica SL2.

On the left, a painting by one of my new favorite Painters, Deborah Roberts.

Click in to try to find the noise.... Magenta cast thanks to some ill-considered

neon art, out of frame....

I don't know why it took well over a year to assemble and implant these 

giant shade structures that are the focal point of the plaza in front of the 

museum buildings. They are interesting but.... eh.

this used to be a trashy street with tons of intersections and stop signs.

After years and years of construction it's recently reopened as an expansive 

walkway and pedestrian paradise in the middle of town. Connecting the 

UT campus with brand new, shiny state office buildings and, at the 

far end, the State Capitol building. Which is also architecturally interesting.

When I got back to my car I noticed the new rack in front of the 

shutter sandwich shop. I liked everything about it so, of course, it got "documented." 

It never rained while I was going to or from the museum but I got a bit paranoid about having a camera with me that's not particularly weather sealed. Same for the lens. Usually, on sunny days I have a hat and can cover my gear with the hat should a rain shower pop up unexpectedly. Yesterday I found myself under equipped. I dropped by the museum's gift shop and found a small sling bag that was just right. And, for the first time I also bought a Blanton Museum T-shirt as well. The sling bag joins a veritable mountain of camera bags and backpacks here in the office, but for a short amount of time I felt better about the health of my gear. It never did rain. Just looked like it all day long. 

I made it to my car in time to cut through Austin's lunch hour traffic and make it to the noon swim practice; by the skin of my teeth. (I should brush more). During the entire hour of practice the sky was dark and ominous. Gray and glowering. But it never got around to raining and we didn't experience any of the lightning or thunder the meteorologists were try to sell. 

Later in the afternoon I met a photographer friend, let's call him "Paul", for a mid-afternoon coffee. He brought along an extra lens hood and companion hood cap for a Voigtlander 58mm lens. He bought it for his version of the lens but his has a 58mm filter size while my version is a 52mm. He tried to send it back to the seller but the seller told him he'd just credit the selling price and not to send it back. Paul gifted it to me. I was doubly glad because bit of post coffee research was enlightening. The hood will also work on the 40mm f2.0 V lens without any vignetting!!! Very exciting. And a savings (to me) of about $60.

I suspect that my photographer friend had an ulterior motive for our visit. At the end of our coffee meeting we walked outside so he could show me his latest automative acquisition. Seems the hot car to have these days (and proof that photography doesn't impoverish every practitioner...) is the Porsche Macan Turbo. A lovely car. In white with black leather interior. Not sure I would call it an "investment" but I can sure call it a fun indulgence. I thought for a moment or two that I should splash out for one of those cute and outrageously powerful SUVs but I'm too financially conservative to take the plunge. 

It looks good on him. I just can't pull it off the same way. So glad I love my Subi Forester. In some odd measure of compensation I took time to wash my car and vacuum the interior yesterday. Not 400 horsepower but a lot easier to buy gas for. 

That's about it. I'd write a much longer and much more interesting blog today but B is coming home this afternoon and if I don't clean up the house a bit....maybe get rid of some of those pizza boxes.... well. You know.