Total Change of Plans. All Previous Camera Strategies Trashed. Fun at the "Day of the Dead Celebration" with a Weirdo Camera. Saw five different young people photographing with Leica M cameras. It's now a thing!

 

Some people are shy about approaching strangers. Me? Not so much. With kids these days I always ask a parent first. Always. Even if the kid is doing something so cute and unrepeatable that I'd love to click the shutter right now. No permission from mom or dad? No pix. Just my approach... All the kids here have had their "participation" approved by one of their parents. 

I wrote a post this morning meandering around about which camera or cameras to take with me downtown to casually photograph at the "Die de Los Muertos" event. I thought about Leica CLs with big lenses and CLs with little lenses and then, about fifteen minutes before B. and I were about to walk out the door I switched gears entirely, dumped all the choices on the dining room table, went out to the office and grabbed the Fuji GFX 50Sii camera with the 35-70mm zoom lens and also snapped up an extra battery. I used that one camera and one lens for the hour and a half I spent downtown making these photographs. It was actually fun. 

The camera is not the quickest focusing camera in the world but it makes really, really nice files. B. and I walked over about a half mile from my usual parking spot and watched the parade of bands, dance teams and weird floats make their way down Congress Ave. After the parade B. went off to find her sister who was in town for the event and they caught up while I walked through the crowds very gently asking people if I could photograph them. No one turned me down. No one hesitated. But it only makes sense. If you are going to go to all the trouble to paint your face and make a costume I'm thinking it's a pretty sure bet that you'd love to be photographed. But I still asked before I shot.

We were starving by 2 o'clock so we walked back over to Lamar Blvd. and had lunch at the Whole Foods flagship store. Lots of veggies and some mashed potatoes and a piece of fish for me. And some fizzy water. After lunch we headed over to the West Chelsea Contemporary Art Gallery where we had been invited to a Q and A with the artist, Cey Adams. His work is a blend of Pop and Graffiti with a liberal amount of repurposed imagery from 1950s and 1960s print advertising. He's definitely a hot property in the art markets right now. Call me a cheapskate but as much as I liked some of his work I was not feeling particularly motivated to drop $30,000 to $60,000 on a painting this weekend. Gotta keeps something in reserve in case Leica M11-P cameras actually start to ship. Right? 

The files I shot today didn't need much work in post. The camera meter is pretty accurate and if the camera had time to lock focus I never had to worry about sharpness. Be sure to look at the images on the big screen. Otherwise why bother? I thought that 500 images  was a good "take" for a less than two hour shoot and I have about 60 selected that I like the looks of. It's not so hard to do the work and finish the work. You just have to want it.

Experimental frame with dropped out/replaced background. 

Sure. Bacon wrapped hot dogs fried in bacon fat. What could go wrong?

Not exactly a WFPB diet option. But who am I to judge?

I ate more different birthday cakes this week than I could count. 

And none of them were particularly healthy. I know that for sure.

Is Champagne on the WFPB diet? Should be....

The barricades lining the parade route were mostly ignored by all manner of photographers. 

I'm a stickler. No press pass? I'll stay on the other side and shoot across. 

But that's just me. 

Sorry. Just one draft. No re-writes. Life's too short to fuss.

Survived the transition to 68. Now headed out to photograph at the "Day of the Dead" event in downtown. Which camera? Which camera?

I was at loose ends in the early afternoon yesterday and trying to decide what the perfect camera would be to take along today for the Day of the Dead celebration. I'd gotten good images back in 2022 with an SL body and one, lone 40mm f1.4 Voigtlander lens but I got really good images in 2019 with a Panasonic S1 and the kit zoom. I like the idea of the longer reach but I've been indecisive. 

At some point, perhaps because I've had two of them sitting on my desk for the last week, I thought it might be a fun solution to use a Leica CL along with the Panasonic 24-105mm lens. I'd get a wide range along with image stabilization and the small camera body would help to offset the bulk and weight of the lens. The lure of getting the equivalent of nearly 160mm lens on the long end was strong. And, in my world, losing a bit of the frame on the wide end makes no difference at all. In fact, a 36mm equivalent is just about as wide as I like to go and still be happy.

Ever the cautious plodder I felt compelled to test the rig out in advance just to see what I might be overlooking. I grabbed an extra battery and headed over to S. Congress Ave. to see what was shaking on a Friday afternoon. 

Here's my report: The focal length range on the APS-C camera is wonderful. Just right for me. At the long end I can isolate subjects and toss the backgrounds out of focus. At the short end everything works to create a neutral experience. The lens is more than sharp enough even wide open and the I.S. works even on a camera from circa 2017.

But there are a few downsides. First off, if I use the image stabilization feature and also chimp from time to time the camera sucks out power from its diminutive battery at a frightening clip. If I choose to take this combo with me for the parade and festival today I'll probably cram at least two, and maybe three batteries into a pocket. It's that perilous. 

Second, the camera and lens combination is slower to focus than I am used to with the SL and SL2 cameras ---- which gives me pause. It's workable but only adequately workable. The smaller lenses made for the format are much quicker and more assured. 

Finally, the size of the lens in comparison with the camera body is almost comical. The ergonomics are all wrong --- not that this consideration has ever stopped me from enjoying a thoroughly counter-intuitive combination in the past... (hello Sigma fp...).

If I want to take advantage of the reach of the zoom lens when combined with the APS-C frame I think a much better alternative is to take the Leica SL2 and use it in the "crop" mode when I want more reach. The combination feels more natural. The battery life is about 50% greater and with the high resolution sensor I'm still getting 22 megapixels in the crop mode.

There is always another choice and maybe today I'll choose portability and limited focal range instead since, in an unusual twist, B. is coming along with me to experience the event. And it's very rare for me to head to a photo event with anyone else in tow.  We'll park and walk the usual route and bring phones to stay in contact in the crowds. Since I am, by nature, hyper-vigilant and protective the Q2 might provide the best chances at giving me potentially great images while at the same time not impeding my emotional need for good situational awareness. 

The above was written half an hour ago.  Now I have a final photography gear plan for today.  It consists of two Leica CLs. One fitted with the Sigma 56mm f1.4. And one fitted with the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8. I'll wear my tiniest backpack to hold extra batteries, a rain jacket, the phone, a small first aid kit, and whichever camera body and lens I am not using in the moment. 

But, since the process is more important than the final imaging outcome I think I'll check my need for great results at the door and just plan on having fun.

Gear note: for the first time in years and years I bought myself absolutely nothing on my birthday. No new Leicas (or old ones), no lenses, no cool Benchmade pocket knives, no super cool hiking shoes and, of course, nothing automotive. It's either a sign of late arriving maturity or I just wasn't able to find the object of desire that clicked this year. I'm sure it will change...

Oh, point of this post? To circuitously explain why a big, fat, chunky zoom lens isn't the right fit for a tiny APS-C format body when shooting outdoor events in a crowded urban setting....

Lunch with Greg. An update on advertising over burgers and fries at Hopdoddy.

 Greg. Ad Agency Creative Director. Fine Art Painter. Lunch companion. 

Leica CL with Sigma 24mm f3.5 I-Contemporary lens.

68. Shit. That went fast. Smooth sailing ahead....

Now 68. 

Since it's my birthday and I get to do whatever I want I deactivated my Instagram 

account. I got tired of generating free content for the folks at Meta to use to 

help generate huge bundles of cash. Seems like the model for most free use

sites is to get the participants to make stuff other people want to read or watch

and then to make money when people show up to do just that.

I also worry about identity security on  the various sites that everyone uses.

I mean, there is little to no risk for an anonymous commenter to come on 

and bitch about my opinions but I feel like having too much 

social media presence (like a blog) is an efficient way of putting a target on

one's own back for all those folks who like to hack and make

the rest of us a bit miserable. 

With ever diminishing interest in traditional blogs and an even quicker 

progression of disinterest in traditional photography it feels that the 

risk/reward equation of posting keeps tilting toward unprofitable. 

Not "unprofitable" financially but in a more general sense encompassing

personal security and general loss prevention.

I have been guilty of crying "wolf" too often in the past when it comes

to quitting the blog but then here we are again. 

The options for entertainment based solely on photography continue

to contract. And who in their right mind could blog about swimming

everyday? Not even me. 

I'm heading out the door for one of those long walks on which I make

either profound or knee-jerk decisions. Stay or go? Write, or 

accept a good friend's advice to embrace irrelevance?

In the end continuing the blog or shelving it isn't going to make even 

a small ripple in the fabric of social media or photography when 

viewed against the sheer numbers of people out there doing 

their own stuff. Living lives in blissful ignorance that there

was a guy in Austin hammering away on his keyboard for the last

15 years or so, trying to make a life as a photographer sound interesting.

I am now also Facebook free. Twitter free. And probably soon to be Flickr 

free. And with each peeling of the onion -- less encumbered.

 

The Sun Came Out. A Walk Was Undertaken. News About Crazy People in Congress Was Turned Off. Cellphones Were Left at Home. Camera? Just a Q2

 

Empty barstools. 

Count on Sixth Street for classy entertainment. Not.

One more of Emily from the archives. Fun to reconnect with a different time. And different tools.

 

A weird day. Off and on driving rain. Thunder and Lightning cancel swim practice. What to do? How about revisiting a photoshoot from 2009?

 

This image of my friend, Emily, started life as a color Jpeg file from an Olympus E-30 camera and its companion 40-150mm zoom lens. We photographed in the studio and all over town on that particular day. I made some final, retouched images for Emily, some for myself and then moved on to other stuff. 

When the rain and atmospheric drama but a damper on swimming, walking in downtown and pretty much anything else I wanted to do I started going through my Smugmug files and tossing tons and tons of mediocre, old corporate portraits. I also skimmed through some of the many "forgotten" galleries such as this one of three that I'd put up for Emily. I dug into the files and decided to play around with the tools in Photoshop to see just how differently I would approach the work today.

The first thing was that the color in the old Jpegs was.....underwhelming. And my immediate reaction to blah color is to make photographs into black and whites.

Playing with files can be fun. Especially if you aren't laboring under the constraints of deadlines and client prerogatives. Hope the rain slows down; I'd love to at least get a long walk in....

On the other hand this week's rain is going a long way toward refilling our lakes and streams and we sure could use that. Desperately. 

Re-posting some past "Day of the Dead" photos from previous years in Austin, Texas. Picture of the day? Nope. Dozens of pictures of the day.

Every year around this time there is a parade and afternoon long celebration of "The Day of the Dead". A celebration of family ancestors. A different way of understanding death.

Part of the event is a parade of various groups on Congress Ave. Faces are painted, elaborate costumes created and so much more. In 2022 I went down equipped with just a Leica SL and a 40mm f1.4 VM lens and got some images I really enjoy. Like the first one below. The second and fourth images down were done in 2019 with a Panasonic S1 camera and the 24-105mm Lumix zoom. 

The whole event is a great introduction to the Mexican tradition of "El día de los Muertos."  I go for the photographs, I stay for the food and the energy of the event. Grab a camera and come on down. The event starts off with the parade on Saturday, October 28th. That's this Saturday. 

(JC, no club membership required...).

The 51 photos in the top link are the best I've done at an event. ever. Love me even more this morning. If you have time please take a look....

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2022/10/ah-zeroing-in-on-sweet-spot-spending.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2019/10/day-of-dead-in-austin-flailing-around.html