One of those days when walking in nature seems restorative. Less to think about and more to see. Companion camera = Leica Q2.

After a very wet Spring things are warming up. That means it's past time to get acclimated to the Texas heat ahead of what's projected to be a miserably hot Summer. My "to-do" list for Summer prep is growing. Since I bought a new car I now have to have the windows tinted with high grade, ceramic film. I don't care whether or not people can see into the car but I do want to block as much UV and IR as I possibly can. Little known factoid, most skin cancers on people's arms are on the left arm and there is a correlation between left arm skin cancer and non-tinted car windows. In my experience a good tint application can also reduce the interior temperature of a parked car by 10-15 degrees. And blocking UV is a good way to prevent fading and cracked interior surfaces. 

After the car gets its window spa treatment the next thing on the list is to check in with our home air conditioning. Cleaning the coils, making sure the drip trays are functioning properly and that the condensate line is clean and clear. I change the AC filters once a month in the Summer and I've already purchased a case of new filters.

Next up it's time to check in on the current research re: sunscreen. And, a quick search of our hat inventory shows us to be....well covered. A Texas reminder: don't forget to sunscreen your toes if you are going out walking in your Birkenstock sandals....

I just finished packing for Monday's shoot. All the lights and camera gear packed down into one rolling Think Tank case. It includes: One Leica SL2 with 24-90mm lens. One Leica Q2 as a back-up camera. Two Godox V1 flashes with accessories. Two Godox V860iii flashes filled with Eneloop batteries. Extra batteries. A flash meter and extra camera batteries. So many batteries. Anyway, it all fits into one case and the case has wheels. I am thrilled. 

In the stand bag I've got four of the Manfrotto Nano Pro light stands, two 45 inch umbrellas and one 60 inch umbrella. Also, a Sirui N-2004KX tripod with a ball head. That's the total package. I won't even need a cart. 

It's Saturday and we had a great swim workout this morning with one of my favorite coaches. I'm starting to sound like a broken record but we logged a bit over 3,000 yards and swam well. Post swim coffee with my two favorite lane mates and then, a bit later, out to lunch with B. Just now finishing up packing and getting ready to walk through the city with a camera. Most likely the M240 in black, matched up with a 40mm f 1.4 Voigtlander lens.

On Tuesday morning last week I left the house with a Q2 and a desire to get a good, long walk in. I decided not to head downtown but instead to go to the hike-and-bike trail and cruise through the five mile loop. It's always refreshing to walk around a body of water. Combined with my regular walking during the day I logged just short of 20K steps. Enough to keep me young and more than enough, when combined with swim practice, to ensure a solid eight hours of sleep over night. 

Last night I finished reading an interesting book about making art. It's entitled: "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by Rick Rubin. It was interesting, bordering on good, but a bit obvious. Still, any time you can reinforce your own ideas, or  you are pushed to consider things in a different way, a book is worthwhile. 

I know this will sound silly but since I've been using LEDs as my main light sources for the last few years I felt a bit rusty about going back, full bore, to using small, battery operated flashes controlled from behind the camera. I pulled my first book, Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography, off the shelf and re-read it. Mostly the parts that covered the nuts and bolts of lighting; not so much the rationale or history of.  All of the gear is dated (the book was written in 2008) but the basic information is still useful. I actually enjoyed taking a stroll down memory lane...

So, here's what I photographed on Tuesday. Then I had lunch. Then I bought a car. It was, altogether, a fun day. New cars can be very fun to drive and smell very nice. 

This is where Austin's popular Tex-Mex chain started. The original restaurant is

right on Barton Springs Rd. Still a lot of fun...if you don't mind crowds. 

Lunch is generally more manageable. Not recommended for strict

health food adherents...

Ah. The crown jewel. Barton Springs. A one eighth mile long

swimming pool fed by natural, underground springs. Chilly, cool all

Summer long.

And there's always the spill way just outside the pool for those who just want

to get wet in cool water without paying an admission fee....

Not a great place to swim but fine for sitting in cool, clean water and 

watching the day flow by.

We're having an ultra green Spring. 

I'll revisit this site in August and see if anything has survived...

It's right next to the lake so the vegetation does have 

a fighting chance...

The best maintained hike and bike and running trail in the USA.

The Lady Bird Johnson Hike and Bike Trail.

M.C. Escher meets the pedestrian bridge...

finally comfortable getting back to the site of the brutal machete attack 

back in January. No bad vibes today...

Shorts, hat, camera, breezy shirt. Ready to walk. 

Zoe Tong, the latest Asian restaurant on Barton Springs Rd.

I haven't tried the food yet but I love what they've done with the 

exterior. Nice. 

And, of course, the food trailer corral. 

The post everyone is going to hate. Including me. A.I. Yikes.

 

"Chip" is ready to discuss third quarter results!

Honesty is the best policy? Yep. Let's go with that. We all dislike being dislodged by technology. We worked hard to acquire and hone our skills so when new inventions come along with the (extreme) potential to disrupt our livelihoods the cortisol floods into our collective bloodstream and we start to grind our collective teeth. Usually. 

We are now, officially, into the age of ubiquitous artificial intelligence. It will be a significant disruptor. But I'll use it where I can to make my job better. Here's today's case in point. I call it, "the other side of the zoom call." 

I'm doing a classic "in the offices of..." photo shoot on Monday. I scouted the location about a week ago and today I'm doing basic pre-production. Deciding on which cameras and lenses to use. Putting together a light, agile and backpack-able collection of battery powered flashes. Shoving lightweight light stands in a carrying bag. But one thing came up in the original scouting and that was the question of how to handle the overall production of representing a "Zoom" call in photographs. Specifically, the person at the other end of the line.

We need to show one of the clients on a Zoom call. We need some shots that are "over the shoulder" and show a person on the screen of the client's computer. The person our client is ostensibly talking with.  We can't use other employees for various reasons. We certainly wouldn't ask our client's clients to let us use their actual images because the model release requirements might get sticky...and maybe some politics. So our choices were to hire models for what is basically a very small part of a project, buy stock photos, or come up with a different solution altogether. 

I dove into the beta of PhotoShop 25.10.0 to see what I might be able to conjure up with the "Generate Image" feature in the edit menu of that application. I opened a new file, clicked the generate image command, wrote in a short text description of the kind of image I wanted and pressed return. It took all of a minute to write the description and less than a minute to be presented with three A.I. generated variations based on it. All created by PhotoShop's image generator. No additional post processing required. None. 

I wrote four of five more descriptions and generated ten or fifteen other "candidates" to work with. At the end of the day I'll put all the selected images onto a thumb drive and take them along on the shoot. When we get to the point in the schedule when we need to set up and shoot the Zoom call content I'll load the Jpeg images onto one of the client's workstations and we'll shoot variations of the completely fake caller interfacing with our client. It's not video. Nothing needs to move. There is no action required on the fake model side. 

So, here's the problem. The images mostly look good. I give the collection a 90. I docked them ten percent because in some of the images that I'm not showing, in which I asked for hand gestures, the fingers and thumbs are a giveaway that something is not altogether right. I could have fixed the images, or described them in a different way and tried again. Or I could have uploaded some actual images as guides. Instead, since it's not a major part of the assignment, I assessed that we were close enough and I should stop working on them before creeping perfectionism sacrificed my entire afternoon. But any of these would work. Will work. And the investment for seven images shown here is zero in capital expenditures and about 30 minutes of writing and rumination. 

 None of this may scare you for various reasons. You might have your head so well stuck in the sand that you refuse to admit that everything is going to change in the world of imaging for money. You may be the eternal optimist who says something like, "This will make us all so much more creative because we'll have more time for the really creative stuff and we'll have to spend less time on dreck." Or, you could be a pragmatist and just assume that most human endeavors are subject to entropy and atrophy. That it's inevitable A.I. will take over the parts of photography that used to have the potential to create (modest) wealth. Much as stock photography quickly eroded the entry level photo job market in the 1990s and beyond. Same thing but on steroids.

The biggest reason for you not to worry is that you are not currently dependent on the business of photography for your income and never intend to put yourself in that precarious situation in the future.

The very idea that I could spend a half hour on this and turn out images that will certainly work well on a computer screen in a small part of an overall photograph is sobering. And the actual resulting composite has one targeted use: It will be an image on a website. Hardly the heavy lifting that would require more rigorous control and resolution. But a wonderful solution for a harried photographer and his clients.

You can refute all you want but I'm pretty certain this is happening right now in nearly every creative office in North America. Clients are being offered easier and easier solutions for every day imaging and, believe me, it's all camera neutral. No camera was directly used to make these images. You only have to have an image in mind and the ability to write a description in a small text box. A bonus is that if you don't like the first collection of images created by A.I. you can push a button and generate a different set almost immediately. Wonderful from the client side but you can see where this will take photographers; right? Ragnorak. The end of the world as we know it. 

But as usual, I'm happy to be along for the ride....

"Marjory" can't wait to bring you up to speed on the new regulations!

"Brian" is checking in to see how you are coming along on his project for global destabilization.

"Gloria" Zoomed in to tell you that your services will no longer be required. But in a nice way.

"Charlie" wanted to show you how well he can type now that he's had two additional typing fingers grafted onto his right hand.

count on it.

Since Mike wrote about half frame cameras a few days ago I thought I'd repost something I wrote in 2017. Along with one of my all time favorite portraits..

 

I often hear that one has no real depth of field control with small sensor photographic files. I'm not sure that's right..   

It was a typical Sunday morning back in the film days. B. and I headed down to West Sixth St. to have brunch at 

Sweetish Hill Restaurant. We sat on their lovely patio under a translucent awning and waited for our waiter to bring 

over the most addictive coffee I have ever known.

As has been my habit for well over thirty years I had a small camera dangling off my left shoulder, just in case I saw 

something that wanted to be photographed. I was running an advertising agency back then so there were no external 

constraints on which cameras I carried. On that day it was a small, black Olympus Pen FT half frame camera, loaded 

with Ilford FP4 film and sporting a smart little 40mm f1.4 lens. The same one I own and use now.

I liked the way the light came through the awning so I pulled my camera up, adjusted the exposure from experience 

(the meter in the camera had long been non-functional) and shot two or three frames at f2.0.

The dim finder of that camera (ancient even back then) coupled with the greater depth of field of the frame area meant

that focusing was at it's best with the lens wide open, or nearly so.

I have printed this image onto 11x14 inch paper many, many times in an attempt to get it just right. This is a copy image 

of a fiber based print that I made sometime in the 1990's. The FP4 film contributes to the higher contrast of the photograph 

but at the same time it keeps film grain (analog noise?) to a minimum.

The film frame is hardly any bigger than today's micro four/thirds sensors but the lens does a good job carving out 

lots of detail while delivering good contrast.

To my eye the background areas are well out of focus and have a pleasing out of focus characteristic to them.

I couldn't have gotten a "better" image with any other camera. I might have gotten a different image; a sharper image, 

a more detailed image, an image with more dynamic range, etc. but this is the image I ended up with and have come 

to love over the years. As long as my subject matter is highly captivating to me no other metric or feature of 

photography matters.

The Pen F series of film, half-frame cameras of the late 1960's and 1970's were the precursors to a whole niche of 

current cameras. They are no less valid now than the Pen FT was to me back in the 1980's.

I never made a habit of dragging around a Hasselblad or motorized Nikon f4 when we were heading out to have a 

nice meal, just as I would never take a cellphone into a nice (or any) restaurant today. A small and sleek camera is

acceptable, a giant, noisy power tool is out of place. And a ringing phone or a loud and loutish conversation is never 

welcome.

I love small cameras with big capabilities. Thinking about Sony RX100's today.... Nostalgia or practicality?

Original link: https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2017/12/i-often-hear-that-one-has-no-real-depth.html

There are many articles about the half frame Olympus cameras on the blog and there is a search box 

with which to find them....

Here's a favorite about a half frame lens: 

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2022/05/re-visiting-equally-ancient-olympus-pen.html

OT: Wouldn't it be cool if you went out to lunch and then came home a bit later with a new car? Stuff happens...

I'm always looking for signs that I've changed my relationship with commercial photography. One of the things that's been a constant for years and years in my working life has been the "need" to have an SUV style automobile for the business. We spent many years/decades stuffing big lights, big stands and lots of support gear into the gaping maws of Suburbans, Honda CRVs, Honda Elements, and two Subaru Foresters in a row. The litmus test for a new car purchase was always to take the empty box that once held a long, nine foot roll of seamless background paper along with me for my test drives and general car shopping adventures. Would it fit into the car in such a way as to be able to go all the way to the passenger footwell and still be able to cleanly close the rear hatchback? If "yes" then proceed. If "no" then pass on that vehicle. Function dictated form. 

It was even worse in the "analog" era when lights were bigger and heavier and more assistants were required on location jobs to make everything work. Those were the days when most Texas-based photographers had Chevy Suburbans or Ford Explorers of various ages... And gas was much cheaper. We'd pull up to a job site and unload and unload and unload...

Since Covid, and since my kid launched and no longer needs to occupy the backseat of one of my SUVs,  I've mostly been driving around with a lot of unused space inside my vehicles. Most weeks I feel like the chauffeur just for my swim gear. I bought a new Subaru Forester back in 2021. I got it at a bargain price; all things considered. It was a great vehicle which never failed me and never needed repairs. But it followed all the other smaller SUVs in that the model I selected was built as a pragmatic, economy choice of transportation, and portage. Safe? Sure. Economical? Absolutely!!! A blast to drive? Not likely by nearly anyone's standards. But at least they all had air conditioning...

I've been looking around the last week or so like a car adulterer scoping out new talent. The neighbor across the street has a kiddo going off to college. They originally bought him a used Subaru BRZ sports car which the kid and his knowledgeable dad completed overhauled and machined into a "like new" performance car. But the drive back and forth to college is about eight hours on crowds highways. They decided their precious child would be better protected in a bigger vehicle. I looked over their BRZ and lusted after it but, in direct contrast to another blogger's oft proclaimed lust for cars with manual transmissions, that was the deal killer for me. I know myself very well. Sometimes I drive with coffee. The coffee is in a cup. The cup is generally in my left hand ready for immediate applications. If I had to shift gears constantly (the BRZs are nearly all six speed manuals) I'd have to have my hands off the steering wheel for....well....too much time to safely operate the vehicle. I passed on what was otherwise a good deal on a fun car. 

But the short term experience sunk the hook of car lust and I started thinking less like a photographer constrained to hauling half the inventory of a camera store around town and started thinking more like someone who would really like to enjoy driving a bit more than I have for the past twenty odd years. 

Over the last two years the jobs I've accepted are more in line with the Minimal Lighting/Minimal Gear philosophy I wrote about in my first book = Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography. To wit; lighten the load and enjoy the work more. I started to carefully examine the kinds of work I've ended up doing in the interim. Nearly all of it requires one camera bag with several cameras and lenses in it and one rolling case with lights of one kind or another. Topped off by a stand bag with stands, umbrellas and a compact (but extensible) tripod. I have big stands but I just replaced a slew of them with Manfrotto Nano light stands. I've gotten rid of all my AC powered flashes and replaced them with various battery powered flashes. I choose the right flashes based on the specific job needs and the duration of the jobs. Less always being better. Now I can go to a location, with or without an assistant, and carry in everything I need for most projects with two hands. 

Do I really need to hold on to the idea that I need a vehicle with tons of space versus getting something that's more fun to drive? Maybe this is new math for we people on a gradual glide path toward retirement. Or just a changing perspective about the balance of fun-to-practicality. 

I headed to lunch at Maudie's Mexican Food on Lake Austin Blvd. yesterday to meet up with my favorite creative director. We just wanted to check in with each other, compare notes, trade "war" stories and hear about each other's families. It's a relationship that goes back well over 30 years. And our history is amply sprinkled with hundreds of similar lunches, occasionally punctuated by actual "working" lunches to really discuss contemporary projects. 

I mentioned cars to my friend since the idea of cars was bouncing around near the top of my mind and he laughed. He said, "You've always driven cheap, practical cars, why not step out of that habit and buy something just because it's fun?" 

We had a long chat about A.I. and how it's affecting the advertising industry. Some good, some bad. Depends where one is on the hierarchy. It took my mind off the anticipation of acquisition; at least for a little while...

During the last week or so, after thinking about the BRZ, I started researching different Subaru models. I know there are good and bad cars in every maker's lineup but I'm currently pretty positive about Subaru's products based on recent experience. The last three cars B. and I have purchased have been from that company and all have been problem free. So, I wanted something more sedan-like and less "off-roady." 

I've had a four wheel drive something or other with "amazing ground clearance" since 2019 and I have yet to leave a paved road in an SUV in search of adventure. I'm hardly a rugged outdoorsman and most of my car use is in going someplace urban or coming back from someplace urban. I thought I might be able to do better with a more traditional roadster. Also hoped to find a car that's quieter on the highway...

I read about Subaru's Legacy line of cars. I went online to my favorite dealer's website to see what's out there and I found one that caught my interest. A dealer demo Legacy model with 2500 miles on the odometer. A 2024 on the lot just as Subaru is announcing the introduction of 2025s. White. My favorite car color for Texas. 

After a traditional lunch of cheese enchiladas covered with chopped onions, refried beans, rice and jalapeños --- and a big ice tea, I thought I'd head north and poke around at the dealer. I had the plan of seeking out the Legacy I'd seen on their website and, if it was already sold, heading back home with no alternative plan in mind. I did have the foresight to put the car title in the glove box of the Forester before I left for lunch...

Well, the car was still there and I took it for a short test drive. OMG. It's was so different from the ride of a utilitarian SUV. The car in question is a Legacy Sport model. That basically means it has the 260 hp, endless torque, a turbo-charged engine, the sport suspension, the really groovy (and huge; to me) alloy wheels, and every safety feature you could put in a car. Along with a bunch of stuff I don't really think I'll ever use. Like seat heaters and a heated steering wheel. It will be my first car ever with keyless entry as a "feature." Not sure how I feel yet about the 500+ watt Harmon Kardon sound system complete with subwoofer...

I had a price in mind that I wanted to pay for the new car and an amount I wanted to get for my 2021 Forester. The dealer, after a short and sweet amount of cross negotiation, took the deal. But I thought there would be a catch. I didn't bring a checkbook along with me. I asked if they'd take a credit card for the balance. No dice. ( Sad, would have loved the points). But, on the other hand the dealer didn't seem to care much about it. They took my old car, detailed my new car, we did the paper work (simpler by far if one is paying cash...eventually) and they  handed me the keys. I let them know I needed to transfer some cash and I wouldn't be able to drop a check by until Friday and they didn't blink. 

I motored away into rush hour traffic. I drove the new car to swim practice this morning. It was lovely. I came home and test-loaded a bunch of gear into the trunk. Everything fits except a 9 foot roll of seamless. About which I no longer care. Job needs long seamless? Can't have it delivered? Don't accept the job!

The last sedan I owned was back in the mid-1990s. It was an Olympic Edition BMW 540. Also a nice car but back then it quickly became apparent that I really did need to worry about hauling cargo and long rolls of seamless paper. Now? Not so much. 

The final test will be how the CFO reacts. She was out of town and I hadn't really planned to buy a car this week. Didn't actually mention it as a possibility. But you know how CFOs are, right? I'm sure she'll just smile and be satisfied that I'm happy. At least that's what I'm hoping for. Always optimistic...

Is this the absolutely best work car? Probably not. Is it fun to drive? Absolutely yes! Does the purchase really affect me one way or another? Not much, other than adding to my fun quotient. But not much more of a buzz than buying a really nice Leica camera...

There may be a road trip coming up to San Angelo or some other medium distance destination in the coming weeks. Gotta see what it's like to drive longer distances in comfort... And, bonus, winding, uncrowded roads....

I'm tired of inkjet printing at home or in the office. What is the very best print service out in the online world? Best for archival matte papers? Best for high quality, large (13x19 inch) glossy prints? Best Color match to your profiled monitors? Got an opinion or experience? Let's hear it.