Earlier today I showed a gallery of color images from yesterday's adventures in the neighborhood across from the UT campus....

 

...and I mentioned that when I was photographing I had the camera set to record both a DNG file (the  color version) and a large Jpeg file (the B&W version). Instead of using the color controls in Lightroom to make conversions from the color files it was my intention to use the direct-from-camera black and white Jpegs when making a gallery. And that's what I've done here. 

Some of the shots may look familiar because they are captured at the same instant to the camera but each version is representative of either the DNG file or the Jpeg. 

I have applied a basic preset to them because the one thing I think most out-of-camera black and white images need is a bit more contrast --- especially in the middle ranges of the tone scale. That, and a bit of opening for the shadows --- which is handily taken care of with the shadow recovery slider in LR.

I figured that since I was capturing in B&W and seeing the potential images in B&W in the EVF it would be a good idea to share them with you. There's a lot of detail in the files so if you can be sure to look at them on a monitor instead of your phone. It's a better way to see what my actual intention was......

Funny to be able to make three cogent posts out of an hour of photography; and to also come away with a group of images that I like...

How does that CL + 56mm f1.4 work for you? Skycapes, etc. No full frame. No IBIS. No PDAF. No Problem.

 

The last frame of the day...

Are these what they call "Bokeh Balls"?

Black and white camera response. A quick outing to test a theory...

 

The past couple of months have seen a lot of discussions about black and white photography. Michael Johnston is exploring a camera that's been converted to shoot exclusively in monochrome while YouTube is consistently buzzing with trials of the Leica Q2 and M10 Monochrom cameras that are engineered to photograph only in black, white and shades of gray.

On a theoretical level I think I would enjoy a monochrome camera but I'm not yet convinced that they are a must in order to make good, solid black and white images. 

I've been shooting black and white images with three different cameras lately and finding that the in-camera settings are very close to the way I like to see black and white photographs. While many cameras have B&W settings most seem only to strip out the saturation from color files and present that as the finished result. Some allow for filter settings which are emulations of the way some film emulsions reacted to yellow, green, orange and red filters. Fuji cameras are capable of being set up to emulate a number of classic black and white film looks and there is even a website that delivers a free app you can stick on your phone to dial in the settings for a pretty convincing look. Right down to the grain. That was one aspect of the Fuji X100V that I truly enjoyed!!! That camera does a very nice Tri-X imitation.

With the most recent Leicas the engineers seem to have paid close attention to the way in which most people like to see black and white files. When I use the "BW HC" setting on the Q2, the CL or the SL2 there is a boosted contrast but there is also some sort of filter emulation going on that makes the look of the file different from the look I get if I just shoot color and then kill the saturation. Leica seems to have modified the spectral response of various colors to derive a filtered look that I find very pleasing. 

The files above were shot with a Leica CL, equipped with a 56mm f1.4 Sigma Contemporary lens. I shot everything around f2.0 and I shot in DNG+Jpeg with the Jpeg files set to BW HC. 

These three photographs were taken in early evening down on the main street that runs North and South next to the UT campus. The clouds yesterday were beautiful and I wanted to capture that. I also like buildings and skies.

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My real reason for being over by the campus was to offer a counterpoint to a friend's unhappy text. He'd been trying his hand at street photography and decided that the younger generation had become so paranoid about photography, social media, pedophilia, etc. that it is almost impossible to photograph people in the street. He claimed that he got the "stink eye" from dozens and dozens of people just for walking down the street with a camera. He felt their suspicions of him were palpable. And his style is not a wide angle, close-up, in your face style either. 

Even in the diciest of neighborhoods around Austin I've never felt that this kind of reaction is really the case and after I read his text I grabbed a camera and headed over to the same area to walk around the same shops and fast food restaurants to see if culture had really morphed that much. Did everything change while I wasn't paying attention?  My contention being that people have not changed much and that they represent a feedback loop for your own attitude. A mirror.

I photographed for half an hour or so and got about ten photo scenarios in which people knew I was photographing and including them in the frames but either smiled or just went about their business unaffected. I sent the images along to my friend to make my point. 

Then, of course, it dawned on me how different our personalities are and how different our methodologies are. He's an introvert, I'm a far to the edge of the scale extrovert. He's not fond of interacting with people. I live for it. He tried to be a bit secretive when photographing on the street while I'm pretty much continuously broadcasting that I've got a camera in my hands and I like using it. Since this kind of work is really more or less a big mirror I see most people as open and gracious. He sees them as closed and protective. 

But whatever you believe that's what you project. And whatever you project is what you get back.

I think one benefit of having your hair turn white and wearing wool socks with your Birkenstocks is that young college students tend to identify you as a retired, grandfatherly figure whose retirement hobby is photography. Most of the people I encounter are quick to give a (mildly patronizing) smile and nod. It's all about what one projects. 

I'm happy to photograph just about anywhere. Below is a photo I took while taking a break for a cappuccino. I was photographing the two women sitting at the bar. We'd had a quick conversation when I was waiting for my coffee and I liked their energy. The out of focus guys in the foreground were discussing video production when I took the shot. When they saw the camera aimed in their direction they smiled and waved. I walked over and apologized for photo-bombing them into my shot. We all had a chuckle and then, a minute later we were deep into a discussion about which mirrorless system to buy into for general, day-to-day video production. Strangers are just friends you haven't (formally) met yet. 

coffee at Medici, on the Drag.

On the way home I wondered how the same location could yield such vastly different vibes. The answer, I think, lies in what you bring with you. 

A new version of formal wear.

 Last week I surprised myself by pulling the Sigma 70mm Macro, Art Series lens out of the drawer and tossing it onto a Leica SL for a tromp through the streets. I found this dinner jacket to be hilariously over-tooled....until I decided that I really like it. Maybe not for me but on someone...

That lens is a real sleeper. Might be the sharpest lens I have in the whole bucket of glassware.

Today's combo is a CL with the Sigma 56mm f1.4, set up for monochrome. Gee, it just dawned on me how much Sigma stuff I've accumulated and how good all of it is. Saved a fortune compared to some other L mount company's products....

SXSW coming soon to a city near me... Austin girds itself for the onslaught of SXSW 2023. Coming in March.

These date back to 2019. We're about to do the drill again...

 No better time to do "street photography" in Austin than during our (used to be...) annual SXSW Conference and musical showcase. Expecting a hundred thousand extra people in Austin for a long week in March. I'm practicing my black and white chops in preparation. Pent up demand indeed!

Enjoying a different type of subject matter. Making one (really lucky) processing "error." And a TLDR bit of health news below.

 

When I was teaching my one person workshop this week I made a point to bring along the same camera and lens that my student brought. We both dug into the Panasonic S5 equipped the 20-60mm Lumix lens. I had no intention at all to make photographs for myself but wanted to have a camera in my hands to match menus and shooting parameters so I could be quicker with fixes and explanations of the features and settings. 

I put my camera in the "vivid" color profile, set the color balance to the little "sun" icon and shot with manual exposure. Everything was a Jpeg. When we found something that provided a teachable scene we'd both stop and shoot it in the way each of us liked best. 

I've always thought of myself as a portrait photographer or a people photographer but lately I feel like I'm shifting into what I can only think of an urban landscape photographer instead. Sure, I still like to make images of people but I've expanded my circle of what interests me when I have a camera in my hand. 

We were out at the Wildflower center and on our walk around when we found this area which incorporated a series of greenhouses on the West side. For some unexplainable reason I found myself captivated by the lines, colors and atmosphere of these functional and simple structures. I guess I was lucky in that the high, thin clouds worked well to impart both contrast and a lack of contrast at the same time. 

When we describe photographs that we generally like we often talk about an image's three dimensional quality. I think we mistakenly imagine that the effect is the provenance of very expensive lenses coupled with very elite cameras but reality likes to smack us on the head and show, sometimes, that even modest cameras and lenses are more than capable of realizing the same effects. 

When I got back to the office I imported the files into Lightroom. Normally I do this without applying a preset so I'm starting with a neutral image that's been modified only by the in-camera settings. However, the last time I imported files I was importing raw test files from the Leica SL2 and I imported them with a profile/preset I got from David at Leica Store Miami. I made a few modifications to the preset to better align it to my tastes in images but all the starting points came from David. I forgot to turn off the preset. Forgot to uncheck the little box in the import panel. So all the already vivid files got a dose of SL2 preset added to the overall color, contrast and dynamic range settings already selected in camera. 

It was, by definition, an accident; but a happy one. I loved the way the balanced dynamic range of these shots is shown here. I also appreciate the saturation of the blue in the skies. In fact, thinking back, these are my favorite non-human images of the last three or four months. They seem to capture a time and look that really resonates with me. 

What a happy bit of happenstance. 

Health notes: I've lately become more focused on maintaining good health. My elevated interests in personal fitness were magnified by my reading of Michael Johnston's medical scare over at "TheOnlinePhotographer.com"...

I've never been a fan of pharmaceutical cures or crutches but I've been forced to pay attention when a routine calcium CT scan returned some less than perfect numbers. That was behind my recent interest in Vitamin K2, M7 (not all K2 is the same. do the research!). Under the supervision of both my primary doctor and my cardiologist (everyone should have a great cardiologist who returns email and stays current) I've started to take 150 mcg of K2, M7 along with 5,000 mcg of vitamin D3. I also added 100 mg of Niacin along with my usual 150 mg of CoEnzyme Q10, too. I feel like I've opened a pharmacy now. 

Scans done a decade or so ago showed that swimming and running have succeeded in adding much brachiation of capillaries around my heart and lungs. Essentially I've developed lots of pathways for good circulation and am not depending on "one road in and one road out" for blood flow. According to my medical team that's a really good thing. (An older Texan probably would be wise to have the following: cardiologist, general practitioner, dermatologist, and dentist and to see them once a year). 

Diet crazies would suggest that I need to radically increase all the dosages of the above supplements if I'm to see any real changes in function, flow and arterial calcification, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn cautioned me in a phone conversation a year ago that reversing any arterial build up is tough to nearly impossible without the world's strictest diet. I'm conservative enough to want to go slow with new stuff. 

But all three of the people I trust with my cardio health are adamant about the same message: Exercise is the magic bullet. Exercise is the fountain of youth (not immortality). 

I've never smoked. I've never had more than a few glasses of wine during a week. I don't eat much sugar. I love peanut butter (which I predict will be the next insanely popular new "cure" for everything, and trendy health food). I eat a lot of fresh caught King Salmon. I eat fresh berries and apples pretty much daily. I've held my weight to a max of 158 pounds for the last 20 years. I sleep  seven to eight hours a night. I don't snore. I'm happily, happily married to the same person for nearly 4 decades. I have reduced stress to such small levels that my main worries revolve around whether the pipes at the house will freeze if we have a prolonged cold snap....

I swim, hard, five days a week. I walk at least three miles, seven days a week. 

To be clear, I'm not trying to live forever but I want to live well, pain free and with abundant energy while I'm here. So many people my age (67) seem to have an acceptance of the narrative that ALL of us will have horrible symptoms of decline by the time we hit our sixth decade. I believe that can be true but I think it applies only to those who are constantly willing to cut corners with their health when they know better. The people who give up. Who resign themselves. Who think staying in shape is too hard. But...

We weren't constructed to live with constant pain. We weren't destined to fall apart once we've retired from work and child rearing. Just as giving up smoking prolongs life so do all the things I mention just above. And just like giving up smoking they all revolve around personal choice.

Life's a gamble. There are some of us who, at no fault of their own, will contract some sort of disease or malady that truly is beyond their control. But that in no way constitutes the overwhelming majority of people over 60. Most of the decline the majority experiences is in one way or another self-inflicted. And a large part of the decline caused by casual disregard for good choices can, to an extent, be stopped and even reversed. Mostly by eating a much better diet and getting good, daily exercise. 

But a person has to WANT to do it. Yes, getting back in shape is much harder than staying in shape but the benefits are obvious and the costs of not staying in shape become more and more apparent as the years go by. We all get to choose. 

The biggest impediment to staying in shape is being surrounded by a negative community of family and friends, co-workers and neighbors. If no one around you exercises that factor alone pounds a message into your brain that says, "Don't bother." Many studies have shown that people with overweight friends quickly become overweight themselves when they become part of that group. Drinkers whose friends regularly drink alcohol drink more alcohol. BUT...

People who exercise with a group tend to stick to the program with much more tenacity. A spouse on a healthy diet helps to bring along everyone in the house on the adventure of improving their eating habits. 

An unsettling thought: Since it takes less energy to carry around smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter cameras are the ever shrinking burdens of carrying around ever smaller, lighter cameras actually reducing the exercise we get from good, long photo walks? Should I find a battery grip for my SL2 to add some weight? (somewhat kidding here...). 

Most of us get wake up calls from our bodies warning us that we've made some bad choices. The few who don't get the wake up calls are the ones who sometimes suffer cardiac arrest and go out in a flash. Maybe we should work on being supporters of each other's healthy habits. I'll stop thinking of donuts now.....

I feel sympathy for folks in rural communities. They often lack the easy availability of resources some need to stay in good physical shape. Weather, lack of access to facilities, lack of easy access to friends and exercise partners, all play a huge part in reducing compliance to good health habits. It either takes more discipline to stay fit and healthy or requires a re-location to someplace more conducive to living a healthy existence. 

All the cameras in the world won't help. So much off topic stuff for a Wednesday. I'm done. I'm going to grab a heavy camera and go for a loooonnng walk. 

A private photography workshop for a single client. A chance to see the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Winter. Another check-in with the Panasonic 20-60mm zoom lens.

 

A client of many years got in touch with me last year to ask about getting a camera. She's an art director with decades of design and art direction experience but a relative newbie when it comes to taking her own photographs. We talked for a while and it became clear to both of us that she has a passion for landscape photography (actually lives far to the West of Austin on a picturesque ranch) but also wanted a camera that would fill in for routine and quick photo jobs around a corporate office as well as being able to handle some very informal video interviews. 

With all those things in mind my recommendation (six months ago, or longer) was one of my favorite, inexpensive cameras, the Panasonic S5. I also suggested that she buy it with the "kit" lens because I have found the 20-60mm Lumix zoom lens to be very, very good. Far better than what one normally associates with "kit" lens. She bought the camera, the lens and also the 24mm f1.8 Lumix lens because she thought she might want a faster lens in the same focal range that she already likes. She took my advice and also got a second battery to go with the camera. 

If one is coming to an interchangeable digital camera directly from an old film SLR in 2023 it is understandable that the complexity of the menus in a new digital camera and the sheer range of controls and customizations can be daunting; even overwhelming. My client watched some videos about the camera on YouTube, took a stab at reading the manual and also did a number of adventures around the ranch to get a feel for the camera but there were still a lot of things that perplexed. And some fundamental idea about digital that we pick up over time but are not always obvious. 

So right after the holidays she got in touch and asked if I would do a private, half day workshop to help her better understand her camera. Since she is smart, curious and delightful I was happy to carve out the time from my busy schedule of drinking coffee, swimming and strolling around with eccentric camera and lens combinations. 

Yesterday I pulled out my Lumix S5 and my 20-60mm zoom lens, tossed a couple extra batteries and a Rocket bulb blower into an old, worn Domke bag and met my client at the front gate of Austin's Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. A favorite haunt also of highly competent photographer and VSL reader, Frank. Here's the info about the Wildflower Center. 

With a cup of coffee in hand we settled into the on site coffee shop to go over basics, theories of use for landscapes, and basic digital camera use. We'd both been on a number of shoots together over the years. She was the lead creative person on several annual reports we did for the corporate client she works for, and as recently as last Summer she hired me to photograph the co-CEOs of the same company. I knew she had the creative vision she'd need to get good photographs and she trusted my knowledge about the technology and how to leverage it in the service of making good photographs. 

One thing that impressed me was her desire to learn how to work with the camera in fully manual settings.  She really wanted to understand and master the exposure triangle and like most people who are new to working with a manual camera her biggest question was: how do you establish a baseline for the settings? How do you know which to set first and what the optimum settings for good photographs really are?

My take on all things exposure is that unless you shoot only fast moving sports the single most impactful setting you can make is your choice of aperture. We did the usual march through the apertures on the lens to show directly the affects changing from wide open to stopped down have on depth of field. And distributed sharpness. Then we discussed shutter speed as it relates to being able effectively hand hold one's camera and also (but very importantly) the impact of shutter speed settings on subjects that move. 

Once we've figured out those two settings we can select an ISO that gives the correct exposure for a given scene. With a current, full frame camera like the S5 one can more or less confidently set the ISO in a range between 100 and 3200 and not suffer from much image degradation at all. 

Then we drilled down to understand what to do if you set the aperture you want but the scene in front of you lacks enough light to set the shutter speed you want and stay at a workable ISO. That brought us into the real of slower shutter speeds and the ability to keep the ISO low for lower noise and better color. I was impressed when she pulled a very competent tripod out of her vehicle. 

After a couple hours of menu diving, theory and demonstrations we did a long walk around the gardens. She was able to shoot a bunch of shots and work with me to fine tune her applications of what we went over. By the end she was able to master the manual settings she had been intimidated by earlier. 

It was really fun for me to work one to one with an aspiring photographer instead of having to do a workshop in a group situation. In groups there is always someone who has a hard time understanding basics bookended by an impatient prodigy who already knows it all. With a single person and a well known camera you can tailor your teaching to exactly what your "student" wants and needs to learn and you can do it even better if you own and use the same camera. 

She asked me why I default to the S5 from time to time when I have other more expensive options at hand. I had to admit that the S5 is every bit the image maker my other cameras are but it also combines long battery life, cheaper to buy batteries (great for travel), the ability to charge over USB, and it's lighter and smaller than my other full frame, interchangeable lens cameras. I also mentioned to her that the S5 was the only camera I took with me on my last travel adventure and that it worked out swell. 

Finally, if the S5 is lost or stolen it would be much easier to replace. 

The client was thrilled with the workshop and really did master manual exposure in one long session. I saw the proof in her subsequent photos. I headed for home feeling happy and somewhat proud for helping to launch someone on a fun photography adventure. I'm sure this won't be our only workshop together. We could spend a day talking about style, and ways to go through the process of shooting. 

But for now I think she'll advance quickly if she takes my advice and keeps the camera with her always and shoots on a daily basis. The feedback loop with a good digital camera is priceless for accelerated learning. 

And that's what I did on Monday.

tons of families with small children at the Center yesterday. It was gorgeous, warm 

day in January. That's for sure.