Just a reminder to myself that early (2002) vintage digital cameras were already good enough for real work twenty plus years ago.

 This is an image of Ray Anderson. He's a professional magician who has worked his act for decades at Esther's Follies, a comedy club in downtown Austin. Every year or so I do a big photo shoot with the current cast of the club. I bring some flashes and big umbrellas and light up the stage. We shoot tons of frames and cover everything from Ray's individual performances to quick, set up shots of skits with multiple actors. 

I've been doing their shoots since the film days and it's always fun. Sometimes they'll hit a joke so well that I'll be in imminent danger of laughing so hard I fall off the ladder I sometimes use to get level with actors' eyelines when they are up on stage.

I got an email today from the troupe. They were looking for a link they'd lost to last year's photo sessions. Since i am somewhat organized it took about 30 seconds to hit their overall folder on Smugmug and then drill down by date to the last session. 

While I was nosing around in the overall folder and looking at individual galleries I came across an archive folder I'd put together with about 2,700 of my favorite Esther's Follies images done over the last 25 years. I found this one of Ray onstage. 

It was shot on a day where we photographed probably 30 setups in an hour and a half. Back then I was shooting (at least on that day....) with a Fujifilm S2Pro camera. Essentially a 6 megapixel camera with an interpolation scheme that yielded about 12 megapixels in the finished files. 

As you can see, the flesh tones are perfect, the white shirt has no burned out highlights, the shadows are open enough that you can differentiate the pleats in Ray's black trousers and the overall balance/contrast of the frame is about as good as it gets. 

I got the camera in 2002 and this image was done in September of 2003. Yeah, it's only six or twelve megapixels (depending on how much faith you put into interpolation) so you can't blow it up quite as well as you can when using a 50 or 60 megapixel file but you'd be surprised at how quickly viewing distances flatten the field.

I liked the Fuji S-Pro series and had a number of them, including the S3 and S5. All great cameras as far as color and human skin rendering was concerned. 

An unintended, morning reminder that digital imaging was good 20 years ago. Add in some experience with lighting and some understanding of technique and I'm pretty sure you could use the same camera in 2023 with professional results. Back then we were still going to print and posters. It's easier now since nearly everything goes to the web. The need for high res has actually (for this kind of work) shrunk. 

Now a 6 megapixel file is probably the sweet spot for just about anything you're marketing on the web. No video in the cameras back then ----- probably just as well.

Ray is still doing magic. He's just more famous now.

EDC. "Every Day Carry." I'm not able to carry the same camera day in and day out. Others can't conceive of doing it any other way. What's your protocol?

Nikon 35Ti. A small and very capable compact film camera. 

Paris. A long time ago.

I've lately come to understand that EDC stands for "every day carry." As in the stuff you pack up and take with you to work or to play as a daily routine.  Amongst those who've made EDC a lifestyle thing the articles usually mentioned include nice pocket knives, appropriate cellphones, wireless ear buds, cool pens and note pads, multi-tools, sunglasses, small but powerful "tactical" LED flashlights, a cool watch --- maybe an automatic?, and I would also include a corkscrew for opening wine bottles; even though that might comes as part of one of your EDC pocket knives. We would, of course, add an "EDC" camera and lens. Perhaps some extra batteries and a back up memory card. And finally, part of your EDC inventory is a great, small bag or backpack in which to stow all this stuff. Because you'll have it with you most of the time. That's strongly implied in the basic idea of....The Every Day Carry.

But here's where it falls apart a bit for me. I have few things that I want to carry everyday. I'm not so sold on giving up variety. 

I have a small collection of pocket knives. What guy doesn't? But I vacillate between a cute little Benchmade folder and an equally cute Kershaw Leek spring assisted folder in the "stonewashed" finish. And then there's always the Victornox, fully equipped Swiss Army Knife... or do you always bring them all? 

And it's the same thing with cameras. I know some of you out there have one camera that you cherish like an only child. You'd elect for that camera and that camera only to be your EDC. You have an inanimate object preference of mastering one tool and using it exclusively --- for a long time. Got it. One and done. You'll be efficient and effective if you pursue the EDC lifestyle. You might even become an EDC influencer...

I'm just not wired that way. Today's morning camera might be a Leica CL with a zoom while this afternoon's camera would probably be an SL2 with some fast prime. And tomorrow, with a couple portraits to take care of I'll almost certainly jump over to the new MF camera and lens combo. A true EDC pro would bring along the MF cameras for work but alway have, tucked away in the EDC bag, his daily carry camera. I'm betting it would usually be something like the last available  Fuji X100V or maybe the Ricoh GR111. Small and light. Always there. 

If you are truly a single all encompassing choice photographer you've sorted out your everything camera and you're carrying it. Calling it your EDC camera is a bit redundant. But at the same time it's right in line with the basic philosophy. 

If I put together an ECD bag it would have to be both expandable and collapsible. I'd want the option to change cameras all the time. Yes, I would "every day carry" but the emphasis would be on "carry" and there would be NO implication that I'd be carrying the same thing every day. Hope that bag can expand to carry a fully configured medium format camera and lens but shrink down small enough to make packing a Canon G15 look appropriate as well....

At the core of this train of thought is the distilled idea that I do carry a camera every day. And I'm betting that if you enjoy photography as much as I do you are probably carrying your camera with you as well. But which variety of photographer are you? The same camera for extended periods of time? Or the guy who can't make up his mind and keeps repacking every morning? Or worse, repacking a couple times a day?

The camera goes over the left shoulder because it's easier, quicker and more effective to be able to grab with your right hand that way. The strap goes over your knee and the camera hangs down to ankle level when you are seated at a restaurant or coffee shop. Doesn't matter how you carry one as long as it's with you. Even phones count. Just not as much. 

Options are fun. Certainty is fun. It's the most fun when the two ideas meet up. 

EDC. Novel? Not for most photographers. 

 

Playing around with the heat. Black cameras can really soak it up!

 

Summer sale. Leica CL. Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 ZM.

Ah. Here we go again. An "Excessive Heat Warning" issued for the city of Austin. The air temperature was 102° while the heat index/feels like was pegged at 107°. 

I was rational in the morning hours. I got up and drove over to Deep Eddy Pool at 7:45 a.m. to secure my place in the line. You need to get your swim bag positioned right so when the gates open the committed lap swimmers can proceed to the lanes in an orderly and fair fashion. The bag secures the place in line. First there, first lane choice. Keith and I were the first two in line. He took the nice lane in the deep end and I took the lane next to him. My lane is dicier because it's up against the side of the deep end and there are three ladders that protrude into the space. You want to make sure you don't accidentally slam your hand into a metal ladder while you are swimming. Right? 

I choose that lane mostly because it's in shade for nearly all of my morning swims there. No sunscreen lotion needed. It's so nice not to have to "grease up" and to be able to do at least one swim per week in a "no chlorine" pool. A cool one at that. 

Interestingly, Dr. Keith Bell was my kinesiology coach for the swim team at UT Austin in 1975. His wife, Sandy Neilson-Bell, was a three time gold medalist, at age 16, at the 1972 Olympics. It's an elite swim family! 

I jumped into the cold water and got my mile swim in quick. I hung out in the water for ten minutes or so afterwards, feeling my core temperature drop nicely. Cool for half the day after that. 

After some busy work in the morning and a quick lunch I just couldn't stand the cabin fever any longer. I grabbed the closest Leica CL, put the Sigma 18-50mm lens on it and headed downtown. My intention was to take a short walk through the usual terrain and then head back home to the air conditioning. For all my macho bluster I just couldn't stand the heat in the mid-afternoon today. I tromped over to Mañana coffee and got a large cup and some dark chocolate. I figured I'd sit outside under the wooden awning to at least try to acclimate. I thought I'd be all alone but weirdly there were four different young women, each sitting at their own tables under the shade. All of them were exquisitely beautiful. Tall, thin, dark and athletic. All glued to their phones.... Interesting as it's usually a more typical/varied demographic seated outside (see below). The thing about young, thin, gorgeous women; at least here, is that they seem impervious to the heat. The young men I saw out today? Sweating like pigs. These women? Every indication was they loved the heat. Who knows? 

I started a walk but when I could see heat waves coming off the asphalt a block away I just "threw in the towel" and trudged back to the car. I can't kid myself in heat like this. I have to accept that I am actually 67 years old and no longer completely bulletproof. Sad. 

As I walked back to the car I snapped a few photos on the way. Nothing spectacular but I continue to be impressed by the sensor and the color science in the CL and I continued to be somewhat impressed by the performance of the Sigma Contemporary zoom. It's a nice package. 

When I got back to the office there was an email from the radiology practice. They have two new doctors who need to be photographed for marketing and website use. Another reason to use the Fuji GFX camera and to try out that wacky TTArtisan 90mm manual focus lens. And taking portraits is so much more fun than being bored, staying inside and checking out new novels from the library. 

I took this yesterday. Again with the CL+35mm ZM. It's Mañana Coffee. Midday.

Cooler than today...

All over Austin our grass is turning this stunning shade of yellow brown.

The path of the Summer Pedestrian. A tourist in my own town.

The oppressive heat seems to make me stop and point my camera at different stuff.

A building blowing smoke rings. Naw. Just a cloud.

the quasi industrial landscape of downtown shopping centers.

Tomorrow I swim at the usual pool. The six days a week pool. I'm praying the water is around 82° or lower. But any excuse to swim ---- I'll take it. 

New Gear alert: Ordered a new Godox flash trigger for the Fuji camera. I have a universal trigger but I thought I'd play around with HSS flash via the Fuji 50Sii and the Godox AD 200 Pro flash. Who knows? It could be a lot of fun. 

Now off to water trees so we'll have some left for next year...They do a great job shading the house. I think I should repay them with enough water to survive.

Hey! I think this global warming stuff is real. Maybe time for everyone to decide that for one day each week no one drives their car? it's gotta help. At least a little bit. 

Too hot to think straight. Way too hot to go out for a run.

seems hot.

98° by lunch time.

Last week wasn't too bad. Sure, it was up over 100° in the afternoons but the nights cooled down. Mostly into the high 70s. It made the pool water bearable. But I'm looking ahead to this coming week and I can see the forecast trending back toward the high discomfort range. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not in any danger here unless I decide to do something stupid like going out for a ten mile run in the middle of the afternoon. Or undertaking a new job in the roofing industry. 

The house is well insulated. The new windows are absolutely amazing. In fact, we just got our electric bill for the last month (which was the hottest on record here...) and the bill was lower than last year's in spite of our new plan to make the house comfortably colder at night. The main refrigerator is working as it should and the smaller, back-up refrigerator stands ready to jump in should a refrigeration emergency arise. If I stay inside life goes on as happily as usual. It's just that, by nature, I really love to be outside...

The trees are struggling a bit but I try to rotate through a deep watering cycle for them, individually, in the wee dark hours of the pre-sunrise morning. So far they are hanging in there. I'm lavishing more attention on the Japanese maple by the front door, but only because the edges of the leaves exposed to sun all day start to turn brown when the afternoon temperature crests the 107° mark. I have actually considered constructing an 8x8 foot scrim to put over the tree to try and ameliorate its obvious discomfort but early attempts have shown me that it will take more sandbags than I own to anchor a scrim that big ten or twelve feet up in the air --- when the breezes pick up. 

The real issue for me, as a photographer? The endless heat is a bit paralyzing. Not just for me but for everyone. People have escaped by never going outside. Sometimes I'll head over to Barton Springs Pool, or someplace like that, to try and kickstart a photo project only to be tormented by the heat, hampered by my sweating hands on the cameras and ready to retreat to the air conditioned spaces. Oh, and the fact that most people have opted to stay home too...

So, I spend way too much time in the office playing with cameras, lenses and lights. Speaking of cameras...

I have high hopes for the Fuji GFX50Sii combined with the scary fast (max. aperture) 90mm lens, but I've had little luck finding talents to sit for me, and about as much luck finding my own motivation to move forward and recruit people. 

I do have some observations to make about the 50Sii. I wish I hadn't waited so long before buying one because even the modest increase in the sensor size makes a difference to me when it comes to the way depth and focus ramp is represented in photos. Even though the frame is only 70% bigger than a full frame sensor the ability of a lens to drop backgrounds out of focus is more obvious. I'm convinced that the bigger format has a much different look than smaller formats. Not necessarily better for many subjects but more interesting to me for portrait subjects.  

I can report that the Fuji, combined with the 35-70mm f4.5-5.6 lens, is a lighter package, overall, than a Leica SL2 with the Leica 24-90mm zoom attached. I can also report that the battery life of the Fuji, with its bigger sensor and more aggressive in body image stabilization, is at least as good as the battery life in any of my Leica cameras. That's encouraging. 

From my point of view the camera delivers best in two types of photography; maybe three types. It's a sure bet, with the right lens, for making great portraits. I've shot three different portraits so far for clients and if I use the raw files and add the Fuji Color Neg. Std. profile in post production I get long tonal ranges, well behaved highlights and great color. So, check one box --- for portrait work. 

I don't have all the lenses I would need to use the camera for a range of studio product shots but with the right lens options, combined with the high res mode, the camera should be a monster at making product shots easy. If that was my primary business I'd buy one of the bellows accessories on offer for the GFX line  that allows for tilts and swings with the right lenses, and use that all the time. 

And then, of course, there is landscape photography. In fact, the camera inspires me to give landscapes a try. BUT... all the state park landscapes that are within a pleasant drive have turned from green to brown as the sun relentlessly bakes them. I'm not in good enough shape to climb Mt. Everest or K-2 in order to make landscape images so I guess I'll wait until the Fall hurricane season hits the gulf and then pray for rain to arrive here. In anticipation of landscapes to come I have considered buying the Fuji GFX 100-200mm zoom. It should be very nice for some images with nice compression. Even some portrait images. Still pondering because, well, it's really big.

I did buy one more light recently. It's another LED fixture. This one is from Nanlite and it's the model, P-200. It's daylight balanced and the feature that differentiates it from other, similar lights I have is that it can accept a fresnel lens accessory which turns the light into a tight spotlight without the hard edges supplied by snoots. I haven't bought the fresnel lens yet but I did put the P-200 into a big soft box and made some quick tests. It's a nice, clean light with a lot of power. It's oversized because it's engineered to dissipate the additional heat created by having a glass lens in front of the emitter. 

Don't get me wrong, it's not a heat demon like a tungsten fresnel fixture would be. It's just that in the potential configuration that one usually buys this light for (using with fresnel...) there is a need to wick away more heat. But it looks incredibly industrial. Love the look. And the look of the light... Couldn't resist a bargain price at B&H.

We have largely abandoned the idea of having coffee outdoors after 10 a.m.

Looking forward to the arrival of Fall. I hope it comes before Winter this year. If winter comes at all...

Heading back to the pool. Ready for a second workout today. Actually, any excuse to float around in cool water.... Now, where's that sunscreen?

Today is starting out well. For the first time in weeks we have no heat alerts or heat warnings. It'll be hot today but not much hotter than it normally is this time of year. I celebrated by going out for a "traditional" walk. And I took along a Leica CL. Stripped of all accessories.

How glorious to have a day on which you don't start sweating before 10 a.m. How wonderful to have the air temperature match the "feels like" temperature. And how wonderful to leave all the heavy and "perfect" cameras at home and reacquaint myself with the tiny and uncluttered Leica CL and an equally tiny and uncluttered Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 ZM lens. 

It's fun to park the car in the shade and wonder around aimlessly but at the same time respectful of the usual loop through downtown. I set my camera to make Jpegs and at first I set it to make black and white images. But I am able to change my mind so when I encountered stuff that might look better in color I shot that instead. Or in addition to. 

The focus peaking in the CL works crazy well and from time to time, when my anxious brain would fight for supremacy, I'd punch in and magnify a frame, worried I would not have sharp focus otherwise. The focus peaking verified or unverified by magnification never failed me. Nor did the light meter.

I walked from one side of downtown to the other and shot well over a hundred frames. I knew I wouldn't keep them all but sometimes it's nice just to see what stuff will look like when it's been photographed. And how familiar things will look if one changes between cameras, or camera formats, and takes them again. 

In some ways it felt as though this morning was a bit of time off in order to save up some energy. Energy I'll need when I take the big Fuji MF camera and the even bigger TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 lens out for a spin. I hope to do some of that this weekend. 

I used to think it was a waste of time to walk without a plan and to take images without the benefit of a formal framework or project to guide me. Then I read something about one of my all time favorite photographers, Josef Koudelka. Magnum photographer, David Hurn hosted Koudelka at his house for an extended visit. During his time there Koudelka would load and shoot a minimum of three 36 shot rolls of film each day even if he was just puttering around the house. He told Hurn that he needed the daily practice and the daily routine in order to be ready. Ready to capture some fleeting image at some future time. Like katas or swim practice or barre exercises. Staying in tune. 

Add to that the much reported benefits of being outdoors and the even greater benefits of walking and you've got some compelling reasons to embrace an un-agenda'd day to the fullest. 

Proud of being able to so well rationalize the frittering away of another nice morning with another nice camera in hand I rewarded myself by stopping at Mañana Coffee for a cup and a decent croissant. It was pleasant enough to take the coffee and pastry outside under the shop's expansive awnings. A nice way to spend a morning without getting anything substantive done. Be sure to try it. Often.

some of the images below captioned. some not.

I have no idea what this object does. None at all. I've begun to think it might be an alien relic. 

Set in the middle of the city to monitor us. But it probably has something to do 

with railroads since it's right next to the train tracks. 

I  have seen this bus in the parking lot of the Amtrak Train Station here in Austin for the 

last few weeks. People are currently living in the bus. There are signs of life. 

An unusual dwelling for our city. But interesting.

This is very unusual. It's a shot of the four lanes of Lamar Blvd. A street that is usually 

full of cars. But I stood on a bridge looking down for several minutes watching no traffic.

Just looking at the strips of asphalt running north and south.

This is what a dozen coats of silver paint look like when photographing a metal

utility box in black and white.

the path from the railroad tracks back into civilization and .... coffee. 

I was happy to see the lens resolving dried grass so well. f5.6 is our friend.

four bad styles of architecture in a row. How droll. 

Blue.

Blue, red, yellow and teal.

"I look at taco shacks from both sides now...." (see below).

Only NSFW in red states.

It's really not an aquarium. It's a bar. On Sixth St. One tiny fish tank does not

an aquarium make. Fish Tank Hyperbole. 

this is a mobile Starbucks trailer. I'd never seen one before. 

I guess they drag it around to places where people line up to buy tickets to 

see live music performances. Not sure if that's a feature or a detraction. 

I'm so, so over the Pike Place blend....

My interpretation of the 1950's overlayed on 2023.

This photograph which I've taken is easily as exciting as anything Stephen Shore has 

ever shot. No. It's more exciting....

Now, by switching angles we overlay the 1960s on 2023.

From my future exhibition. "Lounging by the Colorado River." 

It has always been my desire to live in a surveillance culture. 

The federal courthouse building does it with vigor.

the unfettered happiness of good diagonals. And barbed wire.

I shot this originally as a black and white image. It was boring as hell. It's still a bit boring if you don't particularly like urban architecture but at least you can rest your eyes on stuff that's blue. That's the most popular color for paintings across all cultures. We, as humans. like to look at blue.

I'm trying to trademark blue as my own. I thought of this after Elon grabbed for the letter X. I think Blue is more valuable. It will be the name of my "everything" app.