Film day at the office. A scan from a black and white negative.

I was going on and on about how easy and how high quality it is to "scan" older, medium format film with my current copy set-up. Basically just a camera, a lens, a copy stand and a light source. My mentor, Henry White, stopped me in my tracks. He said, "This is photography not performance art. Don't 'tell' me, show me!" 

I selected a 6cm by 6cm "monochrome" negative from a stack near the scanning table, cleaned it off and put it into the Negative Supply Company film holder, put that on the very well color corrected light source, focused my 70mm macro lens and shot a frame in one of my favorite cameras which was anchored on a copy stand. 

This was a bit of a  torture test for the whole system because the negative we chose was an Agfapan 25 APX film sample. It's a film that's inherently very contrasty. It's a very high resolution film and the way I developed it back in the day added to its overall contrast. All that being said, the scanning set up seems perfect for preserving highlight detail (if there is any) in black and white films. Even in the most egregious samples.

I brought the images into Lightroom Classic where I inverted the image from a negative to a positive and then created a curve for the file that would render skin tones exactly the way I wanted them. Dust spotting then ensued (some things never change....).

The distinquished Dr. White, a veteran of decades of work in darkrooms, and behind all manner of cameras, jumped out of his seat and yelled, "This is witchcraft. It's trickery. Digital copies of negatives are supposed to suck. This is supposed to be hard." But it was evident to him that "scanning" older black and white negatives in order to use them in the digital space could be both very high quality, cheap and quick. Choose any three. Oh hell, choose all three. 

And then it dawned on both of us that people called "bloggers" make everything seem much harder than it really is so they have something weighty and somewhat mysterious (to people who've never had to scan film before. Or people who have never shot film in their lives) in order to generate reams of dark magic folderol to write about. 

Later, in a parking lot at the nearest photo lab we did a ritual burning and sledgehammer destruction of several older film scanners. They were very much tools of oppression and unrewarding labor. 

As Mrs. Lovich, my creative writing about mathematics teacher always said: "Show your work!" 

Show your work indeed!

A note to writers: if you are discussing photography then show pictures or "it didn't happen." 

 

Just a few notes on stuff. A firmware update drops!

 

That company everyone loves? Leica? They've done a little holiday favor for SL2 owners/users. They dropped Firmware Update 6.1 on us. Now we can use the joystick on the back of the camera not only to move the cursor around but you can once again push said button and have instant, punch-in magnification. Don't know about you but I sure appreciate it. A lot. Don't know why it vanished in a previous update but we've been made whole again. 

The firmware 6.1 update fixes a few other things. Mostly speed improvements in AF. But for me the return of a vital control for manual focusing is splendid. 

Panasonic launched/announced a couple of new cameras yesterday. The one of interest to me is the G97. I won't be buying one but I had a G95 for while and it was a damn good entry level camera with lots of video features and tons of controls. It's coming mid-February and you'll be able to snag a kit with a 12-60mm Panasonic lens (24-120mm FF equivalent) for around $895. Might make a good travel camera. Especially if you also pick up a fast normal focal length for use in low light. 

Of all the compact cameras we've been pining for over the last few months it appears that the Leica DLux8 is showing the most inventory endurance. Last I checked it was still in stock at several Leica Stores. You can snag one before X-mas for the actual list price. The last time I checked America's biggest online retailer they had some X-100VI Fujis in stock----if you were willing to cough up nearly 50% over list. Not that hungry for another one. 

All the extra crap that had built up around the studio over the last few years got sold off. My friend sold it for me on FredMiranda.com. All without a snag. Anything that didn't go there got sent to MPB.com. We've already been paid for most of it so I'll be able to afford the good Champagne now. The recently discontinued Fuji GFX 50Sii sold so fast it made my head spin. There is apparently a high demand for used MF cameras and lenses out there in the wilderness. I must confess. Though I really liked the actual results from the Fuji MF I was never really happy (at all) with the  handling of that camera... And that's reason enough to ditch it. 

Yesterday I wrote about gearing up for the last commercial job of the year. I shouldn't make statements like that anymore because it seems to just jinx me. In the time since I wrote that I've gotten requests from two other clients for corporate portrait work. I might try putting them off till 2025. We'll see. 

We're closing in on that time again. It's just about time to upgrade office computers. My iMacPro hails from late 2017 and it's already outside my usual update schedule. Frankly, while Apple has great products across their line-up I really wanted them to come to market with a new iMacPro. The same 27 inch screen size. Whatever the fastest M4 processor happens to be. Lots of RAM and a big ass SSD. But so far, when it comes to an "all-in-one" package the only choice seems to be the regular iMac line-up. 

I guess I'll muddle around until I get it all figured out. No compelling reason to move quickly as the iMacPro in hand is still handling all the software updates without issue. Just makes me nervous to get too much of a bargain out of a machine... The iMacPro has been/is an amazing machine, even if it does use Intel Xeon processors...

Retirement notes. According to my fairly accurate paperwork I did about 125 different projects in 2018. In 2024 I saw that number drop to about 23. The actual number of days I worked this years hovers around 60. That gave me 305 days to swim, run, cook, write, read, walk, and relax. And swim. It's been a remarkably different year. But, I'm actually swimming faster and better than I have for the last ten years. I'm enjoying everything I am reading more and more. Maybe because I have ample time to process the writing.  

I am self-funding the difference in income from the big years with the idea of putting off taking Social Security until 70. Seems pretty easy to just chill out and spend my own money for a while. But I have actually made enough in billing in 2024 to keep the wheels turning, the lights on and the bills paid from those scant 60 days of work. Makes me wonder what the hell I was doing working all those "extra" days in the past. 

Swimming. Learned a brand new training secret = stretching. Not the arms so much but the ankles. Seems ankle flexibility is critical to fast and powerful kicking because the more flexible the ankles the better the "whip" effect of the kick. I started doing some ankle flexibility work on a daily basis a couple of weeks ago --- ten minutes at a time --- and I'm seeing freestyle and backstroke times dropping. Nice. If you are getting old and creaky it might be time to up your stretching. Flexibility is a good thing. 

Okay. Go do something fun. 

If you haven't, as a group, decided on what to get your favorite, acerbic blogger you might consider something radically different, like an M10 Monochrome. I promise not to join a monochrome cult...

In Praise of Street Photography. Which we used to just call....photography.

Nearly every study about health, remaining healthy, being healthy, reaching for longevity, etc. makes it very clear that a sedentary lifestyle (which means sitting on your ass all day long at work and then taking a "long" walk from your car to your couch for an extended evening of sitting in front of your TV, computer screen, etc.) takes years off your life expectancy. Full stop. Other implications are that being isolated in your office or home isolates you from the shared reality of existence. At a certain point, as you get more and more cloistered, your ideas about reality, society, wealth, and general healthiness become a distillation of whatever media you consume. And I was going to say, "For Better or Worse" but I think I'll go with "For worse or worser." And yeah, I know "worser" isn't a real word. 

The reliance on media for cues about society and the general condition of life is fraught with real peril. More media = more sadness. More isolation, and an increasingly narrow point of view. Social isolation robs one of the mental health guardrails that an engaged and vibrant embrace of life outside your door and into your community can provide. So, why are so many photographers seemingly content to sit at home and endlessly scroll through blogs, vlogs, videos and the like instead of tying those nice walking shoes (recommended by one influencer or another...), grabbing a cool camera (of which you have many; I am sure) and heading out the door into a vibrant cityscape in order to get exercise, visual inspiration, a better sense of who lives near us and with us and, as an extra bonus, to get some practice framing, exposing and capturing interesting images with your camera? 

Staying home. It's like a giant mental health breakdown...

Street photography is one enjoyable cure for cultural isolation. One can go to events and venues that cater to people who are different from the insulated and "safe" people who surround you in whatever bubble of comfort you've created for yourself. I try to go to events, public gatherings, farmers markets, parades, and sometimes just the day to day flow of life as often as I can. And not just in my own neighborhood, my own church, or nestled into my own social and economic demographic but in as wide a choice of experiences as I can find. 

Street photography is merely the practice of going outside, being among the public at large and getting comfortable documenting real life. Current life. Diverse cultures. New stuff. You can watch the news and get riled about isolated events, curated to make you feel sad, angry and aggrieve or you can step outside and see how actual people live day-to-day. It's different. I assure you. 

I went out to do a few errands this afternoon. I parked at the grocery store and walked the six or seven blocks to my bank in downtown to deposit a check. Sure, yes, Europeans, I know I can deposit a check from the comfort and "safety" of my home with a phone. And I know that checks have become a meaningless form of payment for most of the "first" world country dwellers. But have you considered that the physical act of depositing a  paper check at a non-virtual bank can provide you with a nice walk through the urban landscape? That you can stop and photograph things or people you didn't know existed but which suddenly present themselves in front of your eyes and your camera? That you can greet the bank tellers who, here in Austin at least, still exist? That you can walk back to the grocery store on a different route and see even more new things? That you can detour down an interesting street? That you can extend that walk for as long as you like?

And then you can head back to the grocery store. Yes, all my young GenZ friends, I know I can order groceries online and have them delivered to my house by someone trying to make a living. But I would miss an opportunity, an excuse, to get up from my chair in front of my computer and .... experience more shared, real life. And I get to look through the various pints of blackberries and choose the one I think is freshest. I can investigate the breads on offer and see which one best matches my habit of eating hearty toast with olive oil on the side before swim practice. And I can see what other people are buying, how they are dressing, how they are interacting and how they flow through their lives, which are different--- but the same as mine. 

I read about wealth distribution on a photo blog site yesterday. There are rich and poor people. But the whole exercise immediately reminded me of the sage saying that "comparison is the thief of happiness." 

There is an equalizing effect in walking together through the streets and down the sidewalks. A joint experience that's missing, really, in all these online media. The media create granular silos of thought and expectations that fly in the face of the idea that we're all going through life while trying to be as happy or as comfortable as we can be. Chasing love, companionship, belonging and joy. Belonging being the key to the rest.

On the street there is poverty but after the hurdle of poverty is overcome everyone else is more or less equal in the moment. And the camera is there to document that feeling of community. From documenting a random hug between old friends, a shared coffee with a small group out shopping together, families out sharing meals, and even the occasional documentation of budding love. It's all so life affirming. Such a great cure for a sedentary and lonely life...

Street photography is, in the moment, on the street,  a social equalizer. One afternoon I photographed billionaire, Michael Dell as he walked past me on the sidewalk near the Austin convention center. A few blocks away I stopped to talk to a person experiencing homelessness.  I didn't need to give the billionaire anything but a smile and a nod. I felt compelled to give what I had with me to the person living on the street because, well, in walking outside I've come to see him as an equal in the process of living, albeit one who needs a bit more help. There but for the grace of God go I.  I purposely bring along cash now when I'm out photographing just in case. But a donation of time and money is not just for someone down on their luck, it's also for me so I can understand better that we're all, in some way, connected. And there is always hope.

If more people in the comfortable middle class got up off the couch, out of their cars, and walked through the streets of their cities and met the people who live all around them and saw life as a breeze flowing in and around the individuals who surround us their understanding and compassion might grow. Their jealousy of people who have more might recede. Their compassion for those who have less might surge. And, in general, they might feel more comfortable about real life. Their real life. Instead of the lives of virtual strangers and the politics they get fed through their ever present screens.

Sadness, jealousy, rancor and division seem to be addictions. Just as strong and as destructive as alcohol or drugs. Maybe street photography is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but every positive effort is somehow rewarding. Even if it's just an excuse to get outside your bubble and experience more of real life. With real people. And real scenes. Every smile and nod from a stranger is a connection...

Cameras can be more than toys or tools. They can be magic carpets that give us some insight to experience more. To see more deeply and intently. And to incorporate what we see as learning for ourselves. Just a thought.

I can't imagine a career where I sit down and pontificate about photography every day but rarely go outside with a camera and participate. And make real photographs.

 I can't imagine that you would be excited to read about what I tried to do with film thirty years ago. Or what my professor said about my unspotted prints. Or the time a girlfriend complained that my photo of her made her look fat...

I can only write about a subject if I do it. Hands on. And I can only write honestly about the subject if I stay engaged with it. Otherwise? It's just a job...

The right balance? One day for clients, the next day split in half between my personal shooting and processing. And writing about it all. 

Funny how a career all goes in a circle. In years past, around the end of year holidays, I'd be looking around for a fun new camera to pick up for myself. This year all I seem to care about is lights and lighting. The stuff nobody seems to be talking about anymore...

Oh yeah. I just bought one more of those Compact LED panels. So much fun. But...can't wear them out on the street....

Warming up on South Congress in anticipation this week of my last commercial assignment for the year. Still having fun with that crazy Sigma fp camera. Who knew?

I went photographing and holiday shopping on the ever popular 

South Congress Ave. (AKA: SOCO) today to look for gifts

and get my hands and eyes warmed up for work this week.

I got lots of fun photos but I was only able to buy.....

a cappuccino. It was good. 

It's odd. I thought this December was going to be a slow, relaxed and non-work month. I kept trying to get out of the business but they kept pulling me back in... But the best laid plans...

I've actually gotten quite busy this year end which is probably more an indication that businesses took a deep breath before the November elections and decided to pause in order to see what might happen next. That generated a backlog of demand for overdue services and...boom... the rush into the end of the year was on. Mostly my work has been with law firms and medical practices this year. Especially here at the end. And no matter what you hear from the whining chorus on the internet clients seem happy to spend  right now and largely are indifferent to whatever budget figure you might toss their way. It's a good time to be a freelance photographer. Or, at least it is from my perspective. 

On Wednesday this week I'll pack up the car with lighting and camera goodies, make a detour over to the pool for the morning swim practice, and then head straight downtown to park on the 2nd floor of the parking garage connected to the 26 story building in which my favorite law firm (I'm a vendor and also a client!!!) occupies a couple of floors. I'll set up two very new Nanlite Compact 100 panels, toss some diffusion on one and call it "fill"; put a grid on the other and call it "main." The Compact 100 panels are self-contained, soft light, LED fixtures that offer very nice, soft light from a 16 by 24 inch front diffusion panel. You can use them bare as defacto soft boxes or you can put Nanlite's extra diffusion cover on the front (which adds about two inches more to the depth of the light. Alternately you can use their egg crate, grid attachment to make the light more directional, with less spill. A bit of control for those of you who need more control. I'm also bringing along several of the Nanlite LumiPad 25s which are smaller panels that give you soft light from a 12 by 14 inch panel that's only 1.2 inches in depth. 

While the bigger, Compac 100s need to be plugged into an A/C source the smaller LumiPad 25s can be wall powered or they can be powered by Sony video-style NPF batteries. These smaller panels make very nice hair lights, background lights and accent lights, and they take up so little space in a travel case that it seems dumb to not bring them along just in case. 

With this particular client; the one I'm working with on Wednesday morning, we've always used continuous light because we find our best locations for environmental portraits in the public spaces around their offices. Since most of their client conference rooms are nearby and have frosted glass walls the continuous lighting is much less intrusive/disturbing/distracting than what we'd get with pop after pop of electronic flash lighting. We've lit the portraits for this client with continuous light LEDs for going on ten years now and it just plain works. It's also easy to match our lights with existing interior lights and the light coming through floor-to-ceiling windows in most parts of their offices. 

The four LED lights pack into one rolling case with a second, soft bag for the light stands and tripod. Instead of having to put up soft boxes or separate diffusion frames for our lights these hard shell panels go straight onto light stands, get plugged into the wall and are ready to go on the spot. Time savings? At least ten minutes saved per set up. And the same again on the back end.

We do a photo style for this firm that incorporates their office environments as backgrounds. These are thrown mostly out of focus but it's a fine line because you want them to read as distinct, nicely designed interiors. We light our portraits of attorneys to get the same soft look one gets from using a medium sized soft box or umbrella from close in. For math geeks we try to put the light at a distance from the subject roughly equal to 1.5 times the diagonal measure of the light emitting surface. A bit more if we are using a low ratio fill. This gives me soft transitions in shadows and helps to subdue unwanted skin textures. 

We've used so many different cameras and lenses over the years; everything from micro 4:3 cameras to Fuji medium format models. The point of continuity is that we're generally staying within a 70-105mm, 35mm focal length equivalent for our portraits. Usually an 85mm on a full frame sensor camera and a 120mm on a MF camera. A 50mm lens on an M4:3. All of the images are shot in a horizontal orientation  because that was the style set for me by the original webpage designer. And it's worked well for the client (with updates along the way...) for the last decade. 

On Wednesday I'll be doing portraits of two different attorneys; new additions to the firm. I arrive at 10am and I'll be ready to do the first portrait by about 10:30. Then I'll reset in order to get a slightly different but stylistically similar background. I'll do the second portrait at 11:30 and then pack up and be home in time for lunch. And maybe a nap...

On this week's adventure I thought it would be fun to mix up gear between two kinds of systems. I'll use the Leica SL2-S as the primary camera and then use either the 75mm f1.9 Voigtlander Ultron or the VM 90mm APO-Skopar f2.8 lens, depending on how much room I have to maneuver in. Both are great lenses and both are designed for use with the M series cameras. But all it takes to adapt them to the SL camera is a simple, Leica M-L adapter. I guess, out of habit, I'll toss the Sigma fp into the camera bag as a back-up. One never knows.... Best to be prepared. Merit badges for the folks with a solid "plan B." 

I'm of the belief that one needs to commit to frequent practice in anything that requires eye and hand coordination, and also requires dealing congenially with other humans. Take too much time between practices and you lose that special touch you had between your seeing and your reactions. And, without warming up to other humans on a regular basis you might become touchy, grouchy, or otherwise antisocially bombastic. So, I was out with a camera today and will probably be out again tomorrow for a number of reasons...but warming up for my two sessions on Wednesday is the current catalyst to keeping up momentum. It's also nice to look out toward infinity for a large sections of the day. Good for your eyes and your brain. I'm also breaking in some winter boots for upcoming travel. You have to walk in them to do that.  And, I had a wonderful time just walking around in a t-shirt and short pants in the middle of December. It was 76° here today. Nice...but weird. 

Hope you guys are doing well. Stay in touch. The family rush of the holidays is a meager excuse for not leaving comments!!! 

Somebody else is still out shooting fun stuff for a living. Count on it.

Who knew that curtains could be so visually delightful?

I was at Maufrais today. It's mostly a high end hat shop in SOCO.

JC recently sent me a thoughtful note about why I should never, ever wear a

Stetson Open Road hat. Like the one LBJ always wore. His argument was

sound. I thought I'd go by and look at them one last time...

Well, that's $425 saved.

The mannequins on SOCO are snottier than the ones downtown. 

But you can see the family resemblance. Yeah?

I walked by this woman sitting in front of a coffee shop working on her laptop.

I observed that she was, in a certain way, very beautiful. I don't know why I walked by.

But I got twenty or thirty feet down the sidewalk and decided I really wanted to to photograph

her just as she was. I turned around, walked back and asked her permission 

to make a photo. She said 'yes' and started to close her laptop, turn and smile.

But I wanted an image of what she looked like at work so I smiled and 

asked her if that would be okay. It was.

When I got the frame I wanted I thanked her very much.

She replied, "Thank you for asking first. I appreciate that." 

And there it is.