Fellow photographer roaming the festival with a Nikon Z9 over one shoulder and a Nikon film camera over the other. Fist bumping happened. Sweet guy.
The Pecan Street Festival is pretty lame but it still draws a crowd. Lots and lots of vendor booths selling everything from jewelry to grape free "flower wines" to timeshare vacation packages. And lots of art. And food that isn't very good for you. And beer. And more beer.
I drove down and parked a mile away from the five or six blocks that have been closed off for the event (continues on Sunday). I needed the walk. Nice to get out of the office, out of the pool and to wander carefree with a small package of gear.
I took a Leica SL camera. I guess I have to admit that the older SLs are my absolute favorites at this point. I pick them up first and put them down last. I was going to go with just the 58mm Voigtlander lens but at the last moment I put the Carl Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Biogon ZM in a very small sling bag. The slim sling bag I bought as a hedge against rain on my visit to the Blanton Museum of Art on Thursday. The sling bag held the extra lens, two additional batteries for the SL (not needed), my phone and a lens cleaning cloth (also not needed).
I split my hour or so of shooting between the two lenses. I started with the 58mm and transitioned to the wide angle about half way through. Just wandering through the crowds stopping to snap a frame whenever the spirit moved me. When I felt hungry and thirsty I looked around at the culinary offerings and determined that I'd be much better off raiding the pantry at home. When I left the house there was a new triple creme brie, a demi baguette fresh from the bakery and a nice bottle of Bordeaux Superior lingering on the butcher block table in the kitchen. I thought some variation/combination of those ingredients might refresh me.
But first I sat down at the computer, edited down the take to about 70 images, went through to crop and tweak them and then edited down the stack to what you see here. Took about as long to do the post production work as it did to shoot the images in the first place.
I have to say that the endless depth of field of a 28mm lens, stopped down to f11 and used with auto-ISO is an infinitely faster way to shoot in the street and get stuff that's nearly always in focus. That's nice. The 58, shooting wide open, needs care and practice if you are going to nail stuff. My "keeper" rate for the 58mm was pretty dang low today. Much, much higher for the 28. Which leads me to suspect that the legion of street photographers don't really "LIKE" the 28mm focal length no matter how vociferously they laud that focal length, they are just too afraid of failure to shoot with a manual focusing, fast 50+ mm lens; even if it's secretly what we ALL think we should be shooting with ALL the time. In this regard I think the 28mm is a cowardly choice.
Out of all the images I took today only one person objected to having a picture made. It was the mom of a toddler in a stroller who had his face painted like Spiderman. The mom didn't want her child's photo on the internet. I totally agreed with her and promised I wouldn't put it there/here. Sorry. Of course it was the best shot of the day.
Here's some OT.
I heard on a secret information sharing site just for bloggers that the latest ploy for goosing up readership of photography blogs is to go completely off topic and discuss anything at all about cars. Not cameras. Just cars. So, not wanting to be left behind, here goes. I buy cars when I need them. I buy them new. If inflation raises the price of new cars I'm pretty sure that the yearly increases in my fee income compensates for the higher prices and renders the idea that cars are getting more expensive mostly moot. Things only seem more expensive if you are not raising your prices to match market reality. I'm driving a 2021 Subaru Forester. It has 15,000 miles on the odometer. I wrote a check from my business account to the dealer to purchase the car. I don't do car payments. My father (wise and kind) once told me that if you had to pay over time for something that means you really can't afford it. The only exception he made was for the purchase of houses. (He drove Honda Accords even though he could easily afford to purchase any car on the market).
All current cars seem pretty good. I never really exceed the maximum Texas speed limit of 75 mph so faster cars or cars with bigger engines are meaningless to me. My CPA handles the math for depreciation and the like. A car is like a utility (gas, electric, water). If you live and work in Texas you more than likely need one. You can get a very good and reliable car for about $30K, brand new. When my current vehicle feels "old" I'll buy another one. After a day or two of research. I've owned a number of different cars. The most costly to buy, service and "enjoy" was a BMW 540i. Went from a "magic carriage" to a "costly piece of shit" as soon as the 48K mile warranty expired. Not much fun but a quick "good riddance" and off I went to buy something reliable. That time it was a quick transition to a new Honda. The cars most people consider fun or desirable I think of as poor bargains. I rarely hear complaints about reliability from Toyota Corolla owners. I hear complaints endlessly from Range Rover owners and BMW owners. I also hear that it's painful to point a loaded handgun at your foot and pull the trigger. And that sums up everything I need to know about cars.
30 comments:
Glad you made the sacrifice to go down to Pecan Street Festival :). Agree with you on BMW's. Modern BMW's have a low enjoyment/fun ratio! So do Range Rover's. Thinking about cars more since the teenager wants one...
I can't remember the last time I saw a "Killroy was here" sign, but I thought "Kilroy" was spelled with one "l" (ell).
An exquisite collection of actual, bonafide, street photography and incredibly well done. Fifty two winners in an hour and some change of shooting. Fucking amazing. Every once in a while you just smack me on the side of the head with your skill and vision. And you seem fearless while doing so. Thanks for the reminder of why I listen to you. "Real Deal."
R.A.
Thanks R.A. Blushing...
Robert Roaldi, I think you are right but I couldn't find the artist anywhere. I would have asked him to change it. Or maybe not...
Sanjay, in my experience the pricier the car the greater the problems. The one exception might be Lexus. But after all, a Lexus is just a very, very nice version of a Toyota Corolla. Right?
When I see a gallery of shots like this, I realize that I've lost my eye for B&W. When B&W was everywhere, you could look at a shot and sort of imagine it in color, even if your imagination was way off. I can't do that so well anymore. Though, maybe it's the subject matter -- carnivals seems to demand color. Military action, not so much.
Cars. I have an expensive car, a Porsche Cayenne. In October, I got one of those messages on the car computer screen that said I needed to take it in for service. I called, and was told that the earliest I could get it in was February. I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing in February, so I put the guy off, said I had to figure out my calendar. I called back a week or so later, and was told that my date was now March 13. This was more than a four month wait. When I took the car in, they found "a leak." Turns out the leak came from the transmission. They have to take out both the engine and transmission to fix it. They've had the car for more than a month and a half now, and I'm still not sure when I'll get it back. (Edit: It's actually coming up on two months.) Fortunately, the car was still under warranty; if it hadn't been, I could have been looking at $15 K for repairs -- half the cost of a new Subaru, which, according to my son, who buys nothing but Subarus, are far more reliable than Porsches.
JC, I have a friend who just bought his second Macan; a turbo. His first Macan was one of the earlier ones that had issues with the exhaust system and a series of too tight metal binding without enough play when the engine torqued. The strain on the exhaust system caused fissures in the pipes that could either be repaired via patches or totally replaced. He opted to replace twice on Porsche's dime and the problems returned each time. The cost to replace the exhaust system outside the warranty was something like $11,000. My friend claims that Porsche fixed this in the later versions such as his new Turbo model. For $110,000 I would expect something as straight forward as the exhaust system to be competently designed. Why did he buy another one? I think it's because his wife likes it. And it is nice and speedy.
I owned a few expensive cars in my life time and had many, many friends in the ad biz who splashed out for stuff like Aston Martins, big BMWs and the like. In nearly every episode they ended up on the verge of tears. I learned my lessons via BMW and from now on it's only Subarus, Hondas or Toyotas. No exceptions. Your son is smart.
LOL!
I never owned a BMW, despite wanting to own one badly in my late teens/early 20s. Had an uncle had an early 80s 5 series that he put almost a million miles on before he sold it. He took immaculate care of it, but I don't ever remember it having any issues until it had racked up an extraordinarily large number of miles. Had a friend with a more modern 7 series with very low miles that was constantly in need of some kind insanely expensive major repair... maybe they really don't make 'em like they used to???
Among the most reliable cars I have ever owned, a Subaru was one that just wouldn't die. I drove that car like I was trying to win the world cup rally in my late teens, and it ended up like swiss cheese after 20 years (could literally see through it in places due to rust!) but it still drove as well as it did the day it rolled off the dealer's lot. Most unreliable was an MGB. Despite spending many hours on maintenance every week, driving it was a roll of the dice. Sometimes you got lucky and it made it home, most of the time you lost the bet and got stranded or at least had to stop and repair something on the side of the road...
I was involved in motorsport in a minor way for a couple of decades and rubbed up against much bigger car nuts than me. The bottom line is that if you're going to buy exotic or semi-exotic vehicles from limited production runs, you have to expect to spend a lot of money on maintenance. There is no escape from this.
Did you use the presets you got from the Leica store? The colors look somewhat different to me.
Currently driving my third Subaru Outback. Drove the previous Outbacks to 200K miles and easily found willing buyers for them both. Nothing but the usual regular maintenance... now my history with dishwashers is a completely different story! ;-)
karmagroovy, And don't get me started on refrigerators!
Jon Maxim, I tried something a bit different. Shot raw, imported with LeicaStoreMiami's SL2 profile even though I was shooting the original SL instead. I find that the SL2 profile opens up the shadows and protects the highlights better/differently. It seemed to work for this cloudy day.
Okay. This counts as "street" photography.
JL
I’ll take the first kid in a stroller with the red bow, and then the chihuahua. And the other photog. Some other folks I would just not like to see, frankly.
Car wise, have had lengthy experiences with Subies. Once utilitarian now too glossy for me. Never a fan of the flat four, routine oil consumption, the head gaskets or the relatively poor gas mileage. After me, family or friends have had 6. I told the Subie dealer when they put a toyota engine in them, I might be interested. Meanwhile I have a little over 650,000 on my last three toyotas.
Did have a beautiful BMW motorcycle, deep metallic red with sport fairing, but take the advice of Zen and the Art. If you cannot rebuild the engine yourself, don’t get a cycle. Sold it before getting killed in Houston traffic.
Kurt, I never doubted that you could do street photography. To me, street photography often is just a bunch of snapshots. To me that applies to most of the photos you posted. There is nothing wrong with that, these I characterize as photos of something seen, sometimes interesting, to be mostly remembered by the photographer. But you include a few I particularly like, which are several notches above snapshots. I call these, "Passing Portraits." These include the older couple sitting chairs off to the side, apparently responding with great joy and enthusiasm to you taking their photo; the couple you photoed from the rear apparently having a quiet, perhaps serious, conversation that leaves me with a feeling of mystery; and the last photo in the set, again apparently responding to you and also leaving a question about "what is the rest of his story." Very nicely done.
Also, I am inclined to comment on the photo of the fellow in the blue hat with the large maize "M" and matching colored shoes/laces. He is obviously very proud of attending/graduating/supporting the University of Michigan. I happen to be a two-time graduate from that other very large university about 50 miles north of that one, Michigan State. At these times, not wanting a good rivalry to go unchallenged, I typically walk up to those with large M labels and say "Go Green!" to which the proper response is "Go White!" More times than not I get a MOST inappropriate but expected response, "Go Blue!" This is often followed by a smile, a chuckle, and sometimes a fist bump. You might try doing this some time, just for fun. :-)
Pics #22 and #24 depicting owners of Birks and Crocs and Tevas, open toe, socks - the lot. Good show.
Kirk, Thanks for sharing the street shots from the Pecan Street Festival. It’s great fun seeing the people and trying to figure out something about each of them. (Some more interesting than others.) Your tip when using the 28mm with auto ISO stopped down to f11 was most helpful.
Does “..shot raw, imported with LeicaStoreMiami's SL2 profile” equal “went through to crop and tweak them and then edited down the stack to what you see here.”? I’m trying to interpret how your settings would apply to my using the same lens (with adapter) on my Z6.
Stay safe. Bob A.
Street photography - a bunch of snapshots. ?? Politely - No. Go back to B&W days, look thru what people were doing - maybe see something.
Car topic: when you were buying the subie there was discussion about things like the engine turning off at lights. You were concerned. And now??
Finally - many of your notes (all) about going out to shoot, what gear, etc. include 'extra batteries'. So how many times out on those walks have you needed that extra battery? I don't remember you ever saying, 'then I stopped to put in a new battery' Doesnt mean you didn't, but I'm just wondering.
Ray H
Ray. Who should I go back and look at that I don't know about? What do you think was better in the B&W days? I, of course, and politely, think you are dead wrong. Yes, they are photographs taken out in the street. They are my style. Might not be a style you particularly like but I do.
Car topic: The engine auto turn off seemed icky to me. Then I learned (via the owner's manual) that there is a button to the left of the steering wheel that defeats the auto turn off option. Presto. One click of the button and you're done. No shut off. Since I bought a second Subaru Forester with the same "feature" I'll have to guess that it doesn't bother me at all.
Yes, occasionally when I'm out shooting a lot and using lenses with I.S. in them I find myself needing an extra battery about two and a half hours into a walk. Also, lately, since I have eight or ten batteries for the SL, SL2 and Q2 I've taken to turning off the power saving options and just having the camera live all the time. That, of course wears down the battery quicker. The worst drain is in the SL2 which I think is a result of the processing power needed. Second down is the Q2 for similar reasons. Third place is the SL which is actually pretty darn efficient with batteries (no I.S., smaller files) but all of them pale in comparison to the Panasonic S5 which is miserly with battery power.
Worst battery hog of all my cameras is the Sigma fp. But in its defense you can get Sigma branded batteries for it all day long for $40, brand new. When I use that camera out on location I tend to bring two extra batteries. And use them.
Finally, sometimes I drink water when I'm out for a walk. About 16 ounces over an hour or so.
Story in the Washington Post today (Sunday, May 7) says the average cost of a new car in the US is now $48,008.
Once again Kirk. I'm warning you - It is spelled "Monochrom".
JC, I understand that the number you quote might be the average cost of a new car in the U.S. but what is the median price of a new car in the U.S. I'm betting you'd find it's closer to the $30K price point. The average is skewed by pricier models like Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Lexus, Range Rover, Porsche, etc. and the fact that recently it's mostly the highly affluent who can afford to buy new cars at all. That screws with the numbers in a fashion that makes things sound much more dire.
zillions of cars under $30K. Toyotas, Hondas, Subarus, Kias, Hyundais, and even GM models. Not everyone needs heated armrests and a champagne cooler in the center console. ...
So, nobody is interested in talking about the photos here? Interesting that cars have more agency on a photo blog.
It's not cars, it's economics. There's no photography without money and money has agency anywhere. During my 25 years or so as a museum photographer, our rate of increase each year ranged from nothing to, rarely, 3%. No matter who's doing the math, the increase in cost of living in Boston was never that low. You might say, "Your own damn fault for being a museum photographer" and now, with it three years behind me, I will agree with you.
When I see these cost-of-living increases in social security each year, I'm amazed. And appreciative. But with our 20-year old Hyundai gone off to the graveyard, another car is a daunting prospect.
I'm having gallery shows these past dozen years and the annual raising of gallery rents here is staggering. Worse than cars, worse than education, worse than anything. My sales certainly don't justify my biannual exhibitions and I'm grateful to be kept on. But in Boston, at least, the gallery model may itself be headed for extinction.
By all means, let's discuss economics. I'm interested in that more so than anything else but (maybe) lenses. Real Estate prices everywhere you'd want to live have been skyrocketing for a while. Actual increases in consumer spending power are nowhere to be found. We're going over a cliff into becoming a society with a small group of wealthier and wealthier people on one hand and a much larger group getting poorer paycheck by paycheck. What do we do about it? Can we do anything about it?
The weird thing for me is to look around Austin and, at least on the Western side of town, seeing a never ending sea of luxury automobiles everywhere. And we're not talking Ford Explorers with Platinum trim packages, we're talking about Bentleys, Ferraris and other luxe toys. I went into the local coffee shop to meet a friend a few days ago and when I came out my (highly superior) Subaru was wedged in between two different Bentleys. Never happened before. But we've jimmied the tax laws and other levers of privilege to the point that the decks are permanently stacked against people who work for a living.
I wonder what would happen if we straightened out the system. Would the 1% stage a violent coup? Or was that what Jan6 was really all about. Only in a desire not to get their hands dirty the 1% used a gullible proxy army to do their bidding. I know one place we do need to do battle is on the tax laws. We have to pay for all the stuff; the wealthy should pay as well.
But, because we are a country of special interests I would ask that we cancel the import duties on German cameras. I'd be okay with that... (yeah, it cuts both ways...).
You know, I agree that the median price would be a far better measure of the real price of cars, but it's almost impossible to find -- even when you specifically Google "median," and find articles titled, "median," it's almost always the mean that comes up. Actually, even the mode would be a better measure. I think this is an expression of the "clickbait" trend. After bouncing around a bit, I think the median price of a mid-sized cars is somewhere in the mid-30's.
Sucks to realize that the system is wired to reward those who least need it and penalize those who are desperate. Not enough coffee in the world to make that okay.
The National Car of Texas, as you know..a whole ‘nother country, is a Pick-up Truck. Might take the price of those into consideration when you think of medians and averages for a “car”. About 90% of the households in my suburb have a pickup, and in addition the
“car” these days, if not a truck, is a SUV. Those don’t need to be Exotics like Lamborghinis to be over 40K in a blink. Think JC’s number is correct. And median isn’t much lower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWDx0odScco
The picture of the other photographer is truly delicious. A voice in my head was saying You wouldn’t know, you weren’t there, man!
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