A Needed Break from All That Leica Nonsense. A Celebration of International "God, That's an Awful Hat Day." And so much more...

 

Can't pass up a reflection in a window when I've got my premium hat on...

As popular taste continues to restrict my choice of "acceptable" subject matter for photographs here on the blog (no more graffiti, skyscrapers, mannequins or anything fun....) I was thrilled when I read in my online calendar that, not only is today Cinco de Mayo, but it is also International Bad Hat Day. A day made famous by the Tilley Hat Company, makers of some of the most atrocious civilian headwear since the Papal Crowns of the 17th Century. Today is that day of the year that people concerned with fashion, good taste and an acute sensitivity to popular outrage find and document hats that make us queasy. Or queasier. 

I'm starting out just below with a picture of modern Cerberus, the three headed guardian of the entry to Hades. And for good reason as, in this blog, they sit just above the sartorial gates of Hell when it comes to head coverings... I'm not sure if I should label this post NSFW or not....

Modern Cerberus on the prowl to enforce good taste. 

So, here we go....

A popular Mother's Day choice.

 I enjoy going to the Pecan Street Festival each Spring with a camera in one hand and a white flag of surrender in the other. Surrendering, of course, to the visual collage/onslaught of middle America on fashion parade. An endless stream of families and singles navigating our famous Sixth Street, from Congress Ave. all the way east to the freeway.  A broad avenue covered with white pop-up tents and featuring everything from window and door sales people to turkey legs vendors and cotton candy pushers. From bad art to fun sculptures made from metal hardware. From empañadas to soy candles. And hats. Lots and lots of hats. 

Usually I grab any old camera and a matching lens and wade through the crowd looking for fun images. Today I chose the Fuji GFX 50Sii as my camera of choice; completed by the 35-70mm GFX zoom. It's been raining on and off for days and days here in Texas and I figured that the Fuji stuff is advertised as being water resistant (both the lenses and the bodies) and I figured that if worse came to worse I'd rather trash a used GFX than a more costly Leica M body. And lens.

It was a good choice. And I made ample use of the rear screen set up as a waist level finder. I shot everything as a Superfine Jpeg (which sounds like a rap lyric) and the Standard color profile. The camera is quick to focus, does a great job of nailing exposure and has a highly functional auto white balance capability. 

And it seems to love to photograph hats. Half the time as I was staring in awe as someone in a giant cowboy hat tried and succeeded in getting an entire Turkey leg in his mouth all at once the camera, with a mind of its own, was busy making more or less autonomous images of hats. It seemed miraculous. 

Just the right hat for all of you who were keenly interested in the Kentucky Derby. 

And so fitting. Resplendent as the noon day sun. Now where did we stick that mint julep?

A full day of press coverage for two minutes of horse racing.... yeah. Just the ticket.

Almost makes watching football on TV seem sensible... 

On a serious note, this is D.S. Clarke. He's a painter and, to my mind, a very good one. 

I usually find the "art" at festivals to be eccentric at best and horrifying at the worst but you know my saying/motto from my teaching days at the University of Texas at Austin,  College of Fine Arts:

"I know a lot about art. I just don't know what I like." 

Anyway, D.S. Clarke studied art and painting at the Chicago Institute of Art and he's a fine painter. 

I looked at his work and almost instantly found a piece that was amazingly good and very compelling. I bought it on the spot. We chatted. I asked if I could take his photograph and he asked me to wait until he put on his "Art Hat." That set the tone for the rest of my stay at the festival. Hats. 

I look forward to getting my artwork. D.S. is shipping it to me since I didn't want to walk around downtown with a big piece of art tucked precariously under one arm, camera in the other...

Warning!!! Atrocious hats coming up. Maybe now would be a good time to take a nap instead...

No? Well, here we go: 

As nice as the hats above might be and as much as you might enjoy owning one or two or all of them, I saved the best for last. In keeping with the city of Austin's unofficial motto: "Keep Austin Weird" I give you.....ta da....the ultimate in comfortable, fashionable pate covers, 

The tie dye bucket hats. In regular and wide brim variants.

A shot across the bow of both Tilley and any semblance of good taste. 

So....of course, I bought one of these as well.

After showing these images of psychedelic, tie-dye bucket hats to a specialty buyer at a big outdoor outfitter, retail chain he sheepishly admitted that the next generation of floatable, SPF 50 adventure hats from a well known hat maker with a long tenure in the market, was actually copying the tie dye aesthetic and the company was planning to launch a complete line of Canadian Made, tie dye, bucket hats with the aim of getting the full line of their hats into his stores by Summer. 

Oh Boy!!!!! Just what the hippie golfers ordered. 

Added after first posting: