the back pathway to Mañana Coffee shop. Over the railroad tracks.
We finally finished cleaning up from last week's giant and very destructive ice storm. Dead and dangerous branches removed, endless stacks of branches and brush chain-sawed into manageable pieces and hauled off. The yard needs a good raking but I'll leave that to the lawn service.
After biding farewell to the final tree crew I really needed to get out of the house and go for a walk. We'd been hibernating during the cold weather and then I've been sticking around the homestead to find workers/services, supervise and pay them. Now that we have some days of sunshine and temperatures in the 50s it would be a shame not to pepper each day with a long walk. And even more of a shame not to bring along a companion camera.
After a couple days of big cameras and big lenses it seemed like a vacation to go out with just the little Leica Q2. I've posted a lot of stuff in color lately so I was ready for some black and white. I'm enjoying the black and white Jpegs I can get from this camera. Part of it is the high sharpness of both the lens and the high res sensor but additionally the Monochrome HC setting combined with added higher contrast makes the images more fun for me.
After an afternoon of shooting with the Q2 I came home with truly eccentric ideas about pulling out every single piece of photo gear from every nock and cranny and selling every last shred of it. Every camera, lens, microphone, flash, light stand, etc. I'd buy a second Q2 and, in my fantasy, never look back. As I continued along this thought pattern I thought it would be even cooler to make the second Q2 one of the "Ghost" versions in silver and white. I could designate that camera the black and white camera and designate my black version as the color camera. Two cameras. No additional lenses. Nothing in the studio. Just the computer and a small bag with the two Q2 cameras.
Have you ever considered such a crazy move? Would it work? Could it work?
I think if you decide you don't need to work for clients you might be able to pull it off well. Add clients to the mix and everything goes to hell. An interesting thought exercise nonetheless. Might try it. What could it hurt?
Late afternoon.
David Guerrero, Street Photographer par excellence.
Cranes. The official and perennial "birds" of Austin...
Reflections in a coffee shop window.
I really liked using the 35-70mm Leica R lens but it just doesn't fit anymore into my way of working. It's a great lens for a landscape photographer or a person with fast fingers, young eyes and a predilection for shooting in a totally manual mode. Sadly, that's no longer me...
