An interesting detour from our usual Leica-centric programming. Taking care of a blind spot. Using "retail therapy" to combat the heat stress. Too good a deal to pass up? How do I order more lenses? Oh shit.

 

Fujifilm GFX 50S ii. For those times when you find yourself on an 

endless backorder status for the Fuji X100V... 

We're setting records left and right here in central Texas. But not in a good way. We're under the blisteringly hot thumb of a high pressure system ("heat dome") that just won't quit. The actual air temperature right now is 104° but the "heat index", because of the high humidity, is 110°. I've stopped going outside after ten in the morning. Except when I run out of coffee...it's just too hot.

But that sure leaves me with more time on my hands than I am used to. Or want to get used to. Sure, the pool is great and swimming from 7-9 in the morning is now the prime time, but after a while one longs for more than a daily swim and some time spent at Gold's Gym (thankfully, well air conditioned). So I work on my book project (number 8) and when that gets old I look at cool cameras online. 

I got a call from a close friend who, if you can believe this!!! buys and sells more gear in a year than I think I've owned in ten. He's super interested in cameras and lenses and buys stuff, tries it out and then moves it on. Anyway, he recently got a spectacular deal on a Fuji GFX 50Sii and a 50mm GFX lens.

He tested the camera, liked it okay and then moved on to something else. I asked him about the camera and he asked me if I wanted to try it out. Sure. He dropped by yesterday with the original boxes, extra batteries, an Arca Swiss plate, a Nikon lens adapter, and a dual battery charger (the camera comes only with a charging cable). All in new condition. I spent most of the latter part of the evening going through the menus and learning how to use the camera. Having owned a bunch of Fuji cameras (Xe30, XT3, X-Pro2, X100V, several SH1s, etc.) there was very little I didn't understand. But you never know and it's best to work through the details before you take a camera out on the street. Less futzing around. Fewer lost shots.

My friend offered the package to me for a song today. We just finalized the deal. I guess that makes me the owner of a new (to me) medium format digital camera. And now the fun begins...

Sadly, it was just too f$**ing hot to go out and test the camera in the streets today. I'll try to get up extra early tomorrow.... Do some pre-swim photos. 

Hope you are having a cooler Summer than I am. three words of advice: Wide.Brim.Hat.* 

*Even if you can do no better than a Tilley.

comments have returned. Be nice. It's too hot to put up with B.S. and snark.

For all those who dislike black and white..... Here are color shots from the walk on Monday. Same specs....Q2. Hot day. Heat Index in the .... uncomfortable zone. Click to see em larger.

the road less traveled.

I include this as the George W. Bush Commemorative guard rail. It was at this site many years ago that Gov. Bush was running along with his security detail when a garbage truck took the curve too fast and jumped the curb, barely missing the future president. If not for the quick reflexes of his security team we might never have had the war in Iraq... And what a loss that would have been for Halliburton...

Upside down growing vines.

Taking a vacation from writing. Turning off comments. Chilling out while the weather is iffy. Posting just images from time to time. See you in a little while.

 

Warning: Graphic swimming pool photographs. NSFW !!!

There is something uplifting and life affirming about jumping into a cool pool during the depths of Summer. Of course I would also say there is something joyous and life affirming about diving into a warmish pool in the dead of winter --- when there is ice on the deck and cloud of steam hanging over the water. Seasonally contextual, for sure. 

I was rooting around in the photo cupboards last evening just to see what had "fallen through the cracks" when I came upon a TTArtisan 21mm f1.5 lens complete with an L mount. I had almost forgotten this one and I think I know why. It's soft in the corners. Really soft. Even at f8.0 it's soft. That must have bothered me when I first got it but now it seems eccentric and whimsical instead of flawed and impaired. 

I stuck the lens on a Leica SL2 and headed out the door to swim practice today. The water was three or four degrees hotter than it was on Sunday morning. That just goes with the territory when the heat dome drops by to torture us. 

Jen was our coach. She's mean. Not bad mean, just "get to work" mean. She's out to make sure malingering is not actively practiced at her workouts. If you've come to stand around you've come to the wrong place....

Our main set was tough because of the water temp. We ended up doing 16 x 150 yards with each set of four descending. Which means you start out at a comfortable pace and then each 150 yard swim is supposed to be faster/harder. We managed. But just barely. 

Toss in a warm-up set and a cool down at the end and we still managed to get in a couple miles; even with the uncomfortable temperature.

After I got out, got dressed and drank more water I walked out to the car and grabbed the Leica off the front seat of the VSL staff car and shuffled back to the pool deck just to see if my memory of the TTA 21mm was accurate. Yep! The center can be nice and sharp but at medium distances, even at f8.0, the performance of the lens in the corners just flat out sucks. The trade off, at least for me, is that I can set the lens to f8.0, set the manual focus ring to about 8 feet and be in focus from something like 4 feet all the way out to infinity. It's "point and shoot" simplified. And who really pays attention to anything in the corners anyway ---- except for my friends who are architecture photographers?

So much potential for fun in a quiet pool. Just waiting for swimmers to show up...

that's usually my lane. It's lane #4. I share it with several other crazy people. 

Why do I write, "crazy"? How else to explain that we keep showing up and swimming

and I've forgotten at this point what exactly we're there to achieve but we show up and

do it anyway. Maybe we dream that we'll get faster as we get older. Or that 

some miracle will occur and our technique will improve so much that we 

can re-live the swims of our youth. It's a beguiling target; I'll say that. 

Ben more of less grew up at this pool. I spent ten years on the board of directors.

I've probably done 8200 practices over the 28 years I've been swimming there. 

At some point you'd think I'd get it all figured out but there is always something

to work on. Something new to learn. In that respect it's a lot like photography...

sometimes, after workout, I'll grab a cup of coffee from a shop that's close to 

the swim club and sit out here on the deck just breathing in the day and 

enjoying being outside. I guess it's like meditating. 

Save me a spot at the table....

No lenses were harmed in the creation of this blog post. 

Another hot day on tap. You can already feel it at 9:30 in the morning...

 

A quick pop of color for all those tormented by yesterday's display of black and white images...

 

boats at the boat dock on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake.

Just across from Austin High School. Right off the Hike n Bike trail.

Always eager to please my generous readers I did not forget to include some color photographs while walking across the surface of the sun.

This is a big boat dock from which people can rent paddle boats, kayaks, rowing sculls, etc. On the weekends the human propelled boat traffic on the lake in the middle of the city is enormous. No individual gas motor craft are allowed. Which is quite nice. And quieter. 

Not to worry, there are several nearby lakes on which power-boating delinquents and jet ski hooligans can scream around like banshees. 

These images were taken with the Q2 using the .DNG setting. The lens is pleasant. The body even more so. 

More color to come. Apparently by popular demand...

Gotta Get Acclimated at Some Point.... Might as well lighten the load with a compact camera. Johnston inspired monochrome. (AKA: Black and White).

 

Random Plywood. 

We had some nice days in Austin just before and then including the weekend. Highs in the mid-90s instead of the triple digitals. Even the oppressive humidity took a welcome break. The water temp in the pool dropped into the pleasure zone and I didn't break a sweat upon stepping outside the front door of the house. But that meteorological ceasefire is over and this week the heat dome is back in business; testing our patience, our endurance and the capacity of the electric grid. We have high hopes for all three.

When the first heat wave hit a couple of weeks ago I wasn't mentally prepared for the sudden onslaught of the change. I mostly swam early in the mornings, hit the (very) air conditioned gym and spent the rest of the time indoors. It dawned on me that I had more or less surrendered. 

In years past I'd start in the middle of the Spring and gradually build up a resistance to the heat. I'd walk four or five miles in the afternoons as the temperatures increased over days and weeks. Nothing all at once. When I was much younger B. reminds me that I thought nothing of going out for a run in this kind of boiling muck but now I am either much wiser or I have just become more chicken... That's okay. I think it's mostly about self-preservation. 

I got out and did a bunch of walking during the respite last week and today I decided to ramp up the acclimation process instead of spending another week or two hiding behind the curtains and looking nervously at the weather forecasts on my phone.

The "real" temperature right now is 102° Fahrenheit. The "feels like" or heat index reading is at 109°. It was a little bit cooler around noon when I headed out for today's adventure in the great outdoors. I took a bottle of water, a phone (a rarity for me but I guess I bought into the idea that if something bad happened I could at least call for help....), the mandatory wide-brimmed (non-Silly-Tilley) hat and the camera choice of the moment was the Leica Q2 masquerading as a Monochrom camera. 

I walked the three mile loop and added an additional mile and a half by parking far from the hike and bike trail at the lake. Barton Springs Pool was hoping and there were a surprisingly stout number of folks walking on the hike and bike trail. Water fountains every mile and lots of shade trees along the route. Not too bad. 

The Q2 seemed to ignore the heat and function perfectly. Loving the Monochrom HC profile setting (stands for high contrast) and today I set it at the default instead of adding that one step of contrast I normally do. It's really a wonderful little camera. 

Dead tree on the disk golf course. (and two more below). 

Crossing under Mopac Expressway to get back to my car. Which was like an oven.

Thank goodness it's white. And I even had the windshield shade up.

Over the course of a one hour walk I drank 32 ounces of water. 

Stopped at a fountain and soaked my pretty hat as well. 

Thank goodness I supplemented with some magnesium this morning. 

From the pedestrian bridge roundabout. Spiraling down is always more fun that taking the stairs...

Glancing through the fence at Barton Springs. 

Barton Springs Pool. Glorious. 

The Zilker Hillside Theater.

Yeah. The message is pretty clear. Don't park here...

What?!? Nobody wants to picnic in the direct sun and in the 103° temps?

But they do still want to play disk golf. Nice. 

Rock Dolphin. 

I made it back to the house with no ill effects. The camera worked well. The Keen hiking shoes were perfect. The hat sublime. Back out tomorrow to do a different location. New lens arrived. Will be testing. Or playing. Either is correct.