Walking with a purpose. Seeing what I can expect from a GFX 50mm f3.5 lens for the GFX 50Sii camera. For a good reason.

 

One might wonder why I go out on long, repetitive walks and photograph all kinds of familiar and unfamiliar subject matter during all times of the year. I always have some different lens or camera body in tow. The basic idea is that it's a process that gives me the opportunity to test new gear, reacquaint myself with gear I've owned for a while but have not used lately and to separate truth from myth or unsubstantiated opinions about the equipment that I might want to use on paying jobs for commercial photography clients. Will a lens resolve well at f3.5? How does it look at f16? Where does diffraction kick in? Does diffraction really make a huge difference? Are the controls comfortable to use? Does a lens "ride well" on a particular camera? Do I have a fluid knowledge of where all the controls are on the exterior of a given camera? Can I find a much needed control setting in the menu of a camera that is new to me? Or on a camera that I've haven't used in months?

For a person who makes a living from blogging, or for the hobbyists whose only downside in not being able to deliver the goods is personal dissatisfaction, the performance over time  of one piece of gear or another is not a huge speed bump. A huge proportion of my readership here, and the readership on most photography fora or other blogs, are not using their cameras in order to do an imaging business or to make money. They pursue photography for fun, for their satisfaction, as a delightful way to spend time. 

I get that since my hobby is also photography but, as I remind a number of my friends who've long since given up working real jobs, I'm still actively working at the profession of photography as well and my clients depend on me to know my gear and to know how to use it...well. I never want to find out while on a job that a certain lens just isn't capable of delivering. 

In order to get current and stay current with the gear I combine a quiet, walking meditation (no fellow walkers, no phone, no conversations) with a thorough dive into one camera and one lens at a time. I've never wanted to take a bag of lenses with me and methodically shoot each one while aiming at a brick wall. I want to do deeper dives on one piece at a time. Change too many variables and you just get confused. 

I tested the GFX 35-70mm zoom lens over the course of the last several weeks and found it to be very, very good. That gave me the confidence to use it on our shoot last Thursday at the Capitol Area Food Bank. We got a lot of good work done there and the art director, having gone through the final files, feels that the images will do an excellent job when sized up for large truck "wraps." But I would not have proposed using that lens if I wasn't familiar with it. If I had not tested it. If I had not worked through its profiles in Lightroom and Photoshop. 

We have an even bigger job coming up on the 6th and 7th of September. I'll be working with a video crew on two days doing behind the scenes photographs, portraits on set, food photography and maybe even a bit of "b-roll." The cameras that will get the lion's share of use will be the two Leica SLs and the Leica SL2, along with the Q2 for quick grab shots. I'll lean heavily on the Leica 24-90mm zoom and a 50mm APO Summicron but I wanted to do any hero shots of plated food with the Fuji GFX and two different lenses. The 50mm f3.5, which I have. And the 45-100mm f4.0 GFX lens I've ordered. 

Today seemed like a good day to get up to speed with the 50mm, which is like a 40mm on the MF camera. Even a bit longer if you constrain the frame to a square aspect ratio. I'll test the new zoom when it gets here early next week. 

I headed downtown around 9 a.m. It was still in the upper 80's. I walked a slightly different route of about three miles. Instead of going through the middle of downtown I went across the pedestrian bridge that divides north and south Austin, headed east on the Hike and Bike Trail then wended my way around.

The 50mm f3.5 lens is the smallest and lightest of the Fuji MF lenses and I wanted to make sure it at least matched the optical quality I've been getting out of the 35-70mm lens. I shot the 50mm all morning long and at f-stops from 3.5 to f22. I photographed things close up and things far away. All in all it's a great lens and very nice to use. If you stick with medium apertures (f5.6 to f16) and keep the shutter speeds at appropriate settings you'll walk away with tremendously detailed images. And the lens is very neutral in its color rendering. 

I chose to photograph in the square format today; just to make things more interesting for me. I like working in the square and this is the first digital camera I've used that makes generating 38 megapixel, 1:1 files easy and with a natural operational feel. 

If you click on the images you can see them bigger. They start life as 6000+ X 6000+ files and I drop down the resolution to 3200 by 3200 for Blogger. 

I have become much more conversant with the 50S camera. There are some things in the menu which could have been grouped more effectively but it's just a matter of memorizing where the important stuff sits. Really, when you think about it, after you have a camera set up for the way you like to shoot there are only a small number of additional tweaks you might need to make for different kinds of jobs....

I now have four batteries for the camera so I'm confident of getting through a full day of commercial shooting with this supply. On BTS shoots, and as the still photographer on a video production, you can anticipate shooting at least 1,000 shots per day. Batteries become critical.

That's all for now. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be miserably hot and then, all next week, the prediction for our zip code is all days under 100 degrees. It will seem almost like the coming of Fall.

Texas Grass Tanning. This property still has a ways to go. I see patches of green on the ground to the bottom left of the frame...

Window Art at Mañana Coffee. 

the downtown, Saturday morning, Farmer's Market. At Republic Square. 

the downtown, Saturday morning, Farmer's Market. At Republic Square. 

Stephen Shore-ing my way through life.

The Lamar Boulevard Bridge. From the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge.

Looking West in the morning.

Testing gear is a tradition I don't want to give up. We use most of the gear I write about here on jobs. The jobs vary so the gear varies. Sometimes I switch gear around just to keep things interesting. 

Seriously considering looking at one more camera. The Hasselblad X1D2. On sale right now. Everyone raves about how great the color science of that camera is.... maybe? We'll see. 

Hat review. Grudgingly admitting the hat has some value.

Tilley Hat.

I took the Tilley Hat out for a spin this morning. Today and tomorrow will be days with very, very strong sunlight. I thought today would be a good test for how the hat actually works; not just its fashion appeal. 

Even though I ordered my usual size (7-5/8ths) the hat was, at first, a bit tight. But being made of cotton material it has since relaxed and now feels comfortable. Someone asked about the straps. I would be more caustic and call them the "damn" straps. I understand that they exist in order to lash your head to the hat in high winds but when not in use the consensus is to shove them up into the interior ceiling of the hat and ignore them. But you can feel the straps across your head so the straps are soon to be removed and carefully disposed of. If it's windy one day I'll take my hat off and hold it in my hand until the wind abates or until a nice coffee shop presents itself.

Being white the hat stands out more than an olive drab or dull dark blue would. But here's the deal. I wear the hat for protection from the direct rays of the sun and as may be evident to even the slowest minds, white reflects more infra-red energy while the darker colors absorb the energy and continually warm the hat. You may worship the darker colors if you live on the snowy plains outside of Reykjavik and need every calorie of warmth you can gather. We have an opposite need during "hat season" in Austin. We are trying to move heat away from our bodies and, by extension, our heads. 

Part of the lack of charm of this particular hat is the white color. Would you have me be a fashion influencer or a realist about the use and nature of even the butt ugliest hat if it serves its actual purpose well?  But let's move past the color...

The wide brim does a good job blocking sun from my face and my ears. I'll give it a good score there. I wish the brim would hold a set form. It's....flaccid. It droops. And sometimes the droopy brim occludes my peripheral vision to the top and sides. I can live with that; for the most part. 

Another plus of the hat is the material it's made from. Cotton. As such it absorbs moisture well. In fact, today my hands were perspiring and my camera was getting drops of sweat on it. I pulled off my hat and used its absorbency to my advantage, swabbing off both my hands and the camera. The hat handles sweat much better than hats made from artificial materials. Nice. Good job. The hat works as a hand towel. 

I've read that the hat floats. It's even mentioned on the label in the hat. I have not tried that feature just yet. I'll wait for inadvertency to rear its head. 

My one non-aesthetic beef with the chapeaux has to do with its construction as it relates to keeping the top of one's head cool. Yes. It's white cotton canvas material. It reflects most heat. But your head itself also radiates heat. The hat is constructed with thick layers on the top panel and no real way to vent the build up of heat from one's own head. There are holes on both sides but they are not well positioned to allow air flow through the hat. It's closed compartment. 

One inelegant solution is to thoroughly soak the entire hat in ice cold water and then depending on an overall cooling through evaporation until the hat is eventually made dry. I have to say I have a number of hats the materials of which are much, much better at transferring heat from the top of my head. I did try the evaporative cooling method by soaking just the top panel in the cool water of a water fountain and it was nicely cool for the best part of an hour ---- before it dried out and began to heat up again. 

Someone yesterday mentioned that I should try a Pith Helmet and I actually think that's a great idea since those hats sit above your head, suspended by a head strap and a system of suspension straps that mostly ensure the circulation of air through the sides and top of the helmet. Sadly, this is not a feature of the Tittey Hat. At least not the original model. The famous model. 

Yes, I have seen the ones with mesh around the tops. A design stolen from a number of different makers who brought those top mesh designs to market at least a decade before the Canadians. But why buy a copy if you can just go to the source of one of those? 

The hat (now that I've removed the onerous straps/strings) is very comfortable and does a very good job of keeping UV off my epidermis. The stratified squamous epithelial tissues from my neck up are thankful. And yes, the material is great for wiping off cameras, hands and faces. The material is also good at soaking up cool water and then slowly benefitting me with its evaporative cooling effect. 

I'm sure the hat will become more and more comfortable as it "wears in" and I am habituated enough to ignore it completely while wearing it. Having looked in the mirror a couple of times while wearing it I had the sinking feeling that I should stop being very active and submit to a routine of golf, bitching about what things cost, doing my own repair work, and perhaps taking up bridge. Horrors.

The hat will stick around for use on ultra-bright days. Sunglasses are mandatory so that, at a glance, I can remain somewhat anonymous while so festooned. 

And there you have the final review of the Tilley "Traditional" hat. Glad it was on sale...

The Texas Tradition of suntanning the grass. Hot by 10 a.m. Soaring to 105°+ today. Saying a prayer for Austin's trees. 
 

Another job completed. Now setting up for tomorrow morning's shoot.

I ate a piece of quiche Lorraine at 6:30 this morning. It was good. I made the quiche last night, ate it for dinner and decided it was tasty enough and convenient enough for breakfast. My morning coffee was spectacular. But I assumed it would be. I've spent about 35 years perfecting my brewing techniques. And I'm paying a fortune for custom roasted coffee beans.

The mainstay of the photo gear got loaded into the car last night. Lights, stands, backdrop, cart, cables, etc. The only thing I'm not comfortable leaving in the car overnight is the rolling case filled with cameras and lenses. They are the second to last addition to the car in the morning. Just before me. We live in a very, very safe neighborhood but why tempt the fates? Lights are cheap to replace --- cameras less so.

I headed East through my part of town and out onto the freeway system around 7:15. Got to my destination; the Capitol Area Food Bank, about 15 minutes early. But as they say in the service: If you're not early you're late. I found a bit of shade under a small tree in the parking lot just across from the entry and hauled my gear out of the hatch and onto a collapsible cart. Wheeled that over to the door and sat down with my phone to read today's news and to wait for the guys from the ad agency to show. 

The doors to the facility opened at 8:00 so I hauled the gear in and then went back to the car to pick up the long roll of white seamless paper. The roll we didn't need to use. The doors to the large conference room we'd be using as a studio space were open so I started setting up the five LED lights and various light modifiers I planned to use. The agency guys arrived around 8:15 and got busy building our subjects: Metro shelves filled with vegetables or fruits. Carefully and artistically arranged.

After I got the lights set up and tested I worked on priming the camera for the day. I was shooting with the Fujifilm 50Sii and the little 35-70mm lens and I'm happy to report that we got through all six hours of shooting on one camera battery. The little Atomos Ninja V we used as a monitor made it through on two batteries but, in its defense, it was on and live all the time. The camera was set to go to sleep if not in use.

The agency guys worked hard to put together 12 subjects. 12 groupings of produce that will form the image content for the truck wraps that are the end target of this assignment. 

Around 2 in the afternoon we called it a "wrap" and the agency guys fled to find lunch or whatever. I broke down the set, the lights and the camera gear, packed it away and then loaded it all back into the car. We had a good time shooting. Everyone was in a great mood and the collaboration was rampant, fun, productive. 

Before the art director left we pulled an SD card from the camera (I was backing up on second card). He popped the card into his burly laptop and downloaded the uncompressed raw files right then and there. 119 files. Variations. Tweaks to the produce. Spritzed and non-spritzed. He's happy to have choices. 

We didn't stop during the shoot for snacks, coffee or craft service. We just plowed through. I was hungry by the time I got back into my neighborhood so I stopped and picked up a tuna sandwich on whole wheat from my favorite sandwich shop; Thunderclouds. 

When I pulled into the driveway it was 105°. I decided to have lunch and an iced coffee before heading back out into the inferno to unload all the goodies from the car. It's not as much fun as one might think, the hauling of a couple hundred pounds of gear from the car to the studio. The studio that was blazing hot because I forgot to turn on the air conditioning this morning. The power grid people sent out a request for electricity conservation last night and today. Nobody wants a blackout so I complied as best I could. 

Tomorrow's shoot is easy and straight forward. A bunch of detail shots of golfing grips and golfing paraphernalia for the book project I started working on with Jim last Saturday. All in my studio. All against a white background. The same background I didn't have to use today. 

Working on all these projects with LED lights. Perfect for slow paced, thoughtful work. 

The camera is wonderful. Incredible amounts of dynamic range. Shooting at ISO 160 means no noise anywhere. Shooting at f10 means the images are incredibly sharp. Of course, being anchored on a tripod makes a big difference as well. 

The priority tomorrow is to make it to the first two swim practices. One for tomorrow and a second one to make up for today. It's kinda fun to be almost 68 and still able to keep up with the kids at the ad agency. Not in the pool. They're no competition there. But on the job. I guess it's all about not wanting to slow down. 

We're still writing mostly about photography here. Photography that's been a daily practice for about 35 years. I write about it because I actually do it and love it. Hands on. 

Grab a camera and head out to shoot. Or not. It's up to you.

Camera battery on the charger, now heading out to Baldinucci's to grab a great pizza. B. is home. Pizza on Thursday is a long standing tradition. We'll eat something healthier tomorrow....

 

The final piece of the puzzle.....

 

The Tilley Hat. 

We're shooting a day long campaign tomorrow with the new Fuji MF. What am I bringing as a "just in case" back-up camera and lens?

 

A hot day to run around the Hike and Bike Trail.

But...nice clouds.

For most of my career I've taken back-up gear with me on location shoots for clients. Why? I think the answer is obvious. If you can't make a photograph you will have jeopardized all the time and preparation that you, and more importantly, the client have invested into a project. Having a "safety" in the equipment case can save the day. I know that current digital cameras are more reliable than ever before but accidents can happen. Do happen. You can accidentally fumble the primary camera as you go to place it on a tripod. Somebody can trip over a tripod leg. Or you may have gotten a camera that just dies on its own. Mysteriously. At exactly the wrong moment.

When we go on location tomorrow we'll cap off weeks of preparation time, scouting, sourcing fresh produce as props, and ad agency time spent pitching the concept and doing all the backend work of getting a project to fruition with a client. 

You can't be responsible for everything that may go wrong during a shoot day but you can take steps to ward off "Murphy's Law"; or at least lessen the impact.

I've always taken a back-up camera and back-up lens with me on photo assignments. It's rare but I have had a small number of incidents over the last 40 years of working where a primary camera stopped working and we had to rely on our back-ups. The clients were thrilled that we didn't need to scrap a shoot, send models home, or watch a couple thousand dollars of produce go bad. And, the ad agency that hired me didn't have to explain a "failed" choice to their clients.

On one shoot, on a hot and dusty day in San Antonio, we had not one but two Hasselblad MF film cameras fail during a shoot. It was project for a big box retail chain, weeks in preparation, nearly a dozen talents on a rented baseball diamond, clients and ad agency personal in tow. 

The clients were nervous when the first camera jammed up. They were relieved when I pulled a second camera out of a case. When that one failed half an hour later they assumed that we were screwed. I could always have blamed a near sand storm for the failures but it was a lot cooler to pull a third camera body out of the case and continue on until the assignment was complete. (All the cameras repaired, cleaned and adjusted and then worked fine thereafter). 

That made a huge impression on me and it's probably why I don't leave the office for a job without a plan to overcome equipment failures. A mainstay of the plan? Redundant gear.

Tomorrow we'll be working with the Fujifilm 50Sii camera and a couple of Fuji lenses to shoot big assemblages of fresh produce positioned on Metro shelves. All against a nine foot wide, white seamless background. The final images will be used for "wraps" on big, refrigerated trailers. The images will be used in sizes around four by six feet each. Using an iPhone as a back-up just won't work.

I'm packing the camera case right now and in addition to the Fuji 50Sii, its lenses and four batteries, I'm also packing the Leica  SL2 along with its 24-90mm lens and its four extra batteries. Either camera will do the job. If I have to go with the Leica I'd want to use the in-camera, multi-shot, high resolution mode --- just to maximize potential results. I hope I won't need to switch gears/camera systems but the gear will be there if I need it.

Same with lights. We've designed the lighting to work with three Nanlite FS-300 LED fixtures and their modifiers but I'm packing two extra lights --- just to be sure. If something goes down I'm not going to sit cross-legged on the floor trying to troubleshoot a complicated fixture. I'm going to toss the offending unit back into its box and move on to a working unit. I am a better photographer than I am a service technician and we are working around a schedule; with a team in tow. 

In my mind it's not just "nice" to have back-up gear. It's part of the business philosophy. You need to be able to deliver the work. Otherwise everything falls apart. 

I'm out of practice with logistics. That's what I get for flirting with the idea of retirement. I'm doing pre-production all day today. Charging stuff, packing stuff and figuring out the best way to set up on location. There's a lot of gear and that's usually fine but I have another shoot, for a different client, scheduled right after swim practice on Friday morning.

That means we have a quick turnaround after the shoot tomorrow. We'll wrap around 5 p.m. and get back to the studio by 6 (traffic gods willing). I'll need to unpack everything, put all the stuff in their appropriate places and then set up the studio for a white background photoshoot the next morning. 

That means working in the studio until 9 or so. If I don't get set up on Thursday night I have to skip my swim in the morning and do it then. A choice I would be loathe to make.

By noon on Friday I should have the morning shoot completed and that allows for an afternoon of post production on both projects. If I'm efficient I'm looking forward to a weekend that's free and clear of work obligations. 

B. might be right. It may be easier to just retire..... but not yet. 

Back-up gear is stuff you don't want to have to use but it sure is a nice "safety blanket" for an anxious photographer. If the next three or four shoots work out well with the MF camera I'll bite the bullet and get a second camera in that system as well. It just makes sense.

Does all this talk about medium format cameras mean I'm getting ready to get rid of all the full frame Leica gear and move on? Naw. I've hit the point where I don't need to move old stuff out to buy new stuff so I'm just having fun cycling through, and back around, from camera to camera. 

I'm pretty excited still to shoot with the Leica SL gear. I just got booked on two day project to shoot BTS (Behind the scenes) on a food show. Everything from personality/celebrity photos to action shots of food prep to making beautiful images of the "hero" plates. I'll be three Leica SL type cameras deep on that assignment; along with a box full of lenses. The final back-up camera there? The Leica Q2. 

I expect to go through a couple thousand frames over two days. Pre-prep will include charging lots and lots of batteries for the cameras. You can never have too many charged and ready batteries...

Back to the packing for tomorrow. Stay cool. 

The unimaginable has happened. I'm nearly certain it was a mistake or a moment of radical incoherence but....

 I was making fun of Tilley Hats on Amazon.com with a friend and I "accidentally" ordered one. It was on sale. 30% off. Whatever excuse I can find. It arrives tomorrow. I'm taking the day off to walk around town and see what all the fuss is about...

This is how bad the heat stress has gotten ----unsupervised shopping insanity and the general destruction of my reputation as a fashion forward influencer on the web. 

Photos tomorrow. 

Blank space. discarded copy. Sadly self-censured. Taking all the fun out...

But the lead is: Tilly Hat + Kirk

Sunday, August 20th. 2023. Midday, Urban Landscape Photography.

current favorite camera of all time: The beat up, oldest Leica SL I own. It's just wonderful. Like an old, broken in pair of jeans. current favorite lens for Leicas: The Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 APO-Lanthar. Sharp like a scalpel. Bursting with personality. Goading me to enjoy the "miracle" of vignetting...

Tree with intersection. Finished with diagonals.

A brick billboard for taggers. (note: parallel sides. Yay! me.).

The new Texas fad of "grass tanning." The trees will be next.

the number one, must have Summer car accessory. Get a back up. Just in case.

I tried one of the Lightroom presets for the sky. Tropical neon. Never again... maybe.

today was "red car" day on the walk. I seemed to have seen them everywhere...

They had me at "ring pops." 

Store mannequins doing double duty directing traffic.

Meditative mannequin. Looking outward to infinity. 

Summer wardrobes. Big water bottles. Weird cars.

Towers. Version one. With birds and wires. 

Towers. Version two. No birds, no wires.

fencing. Epée. Riposte. Sabre. Chain link.

Hallucinogenic wiring for train engines. Lovely color choice.

coming nearly full circle. 

Cooler today. Only 105° (f). 

I woke up with a weird and rebellious thought this morning. Our neighborhood is in the middle of an extended bout of people buying up 50 and 60 year old houses for anywhere from one to two million dollars and then tearing them down and building four and five million dollar houses on the lots. The original neighborhood was mostly a nice collection of 2,000 to 3,000 square foot 3:2 and 4:2 houses on big lots. The lots have to be big because ours is one of the last small neighborhoods with septic systems. Septic systems need drain fields. Hence the bigger lots. 

I get a little riled when people buy up perfectly good houses and then scrape them off the lots. And I'm starting to be annoyed by older couples, empty nesters, who believe they need five thousand square feet of living space, covering most of the square footage of their lots. Delusions of grandchildren visiting frequently...

My idea was to buy the lot next door to ours, tear down the houses on both lots, Join the two properties together and then put two "tiny" houses on the big, combined property. That's it. Just  two tiny houses. About 450 square feet apiece. One for me and one for B. Maybe we'll build a dining pavilion right between the two homes. Everything else goes into landscaping. Kind of the antidote to excess size and minimal taste. Might be fun.

On the other hand. We can just stay the course and watch the California-fication of Austin springing up all around us. Either way my current pronouncement is: "Long live the mid-century ranch houses." Destined to be collector's items --- in a big way.....

circling back to actual photographic talk.... that APO Lanthar lens is quite something. A good bit better than my iPhone lens I think.