One of those cloudy days in late August just before the weather goes insane and rain pours down. Nice time for a walk. From 105° to 91° in a matter of minutes. So fun.

I headed back out today to continue getting up to speed with the Thypoch Simera 50mm f1.4 lens. A lovely lens with a bit of vignetting tossed in for flavor. I have this idea that you need to mentally "break in" a new lens. It's never an automatic transition from one known lens to a new one in the mix. You have to handle the new one, play with it and look at the resulting files. So far I'm happy I bought it. 

I was out for an hour. When I started my walk from the car to the other end of the shopping strip it was sunny and 105 degrees. When I got back to the car less than an hour later the skies were dark gray, the winds had picked up, the rain clouds started randomly dropping big drops in a slow and erratic fashion and the air temperature dropped into the low 90s. The lens didn't care. It continued to work as I expected. 

B. and I made travel arrangements for a short, late September vacation today. 

Travel to most America cities is dirt cheap at the end of next month. 

We splurged on the hotel though.

More details to come? Maybe.... 

But the pressing question is...which camera and which lens to take along. Or should I just use my phone?

(kidding about the phone).

I donated $250 today to be a supporting sponsor for one of my best

friends photography show that opens near the end of the year. 

More details on the show later.

Believe in the power of art? Invest in it.

 

Feeling unsafe and subject to the "female gaze" while out testing a new lens today. I should have brought my pepper spray...

I'm sure this happens to you all the time. You're sitting on a bench because you are too old and feeble to walk very far. You're playing with your camera to pass the time. You're hoping people will just leave you alone because you revel in your identity as an introvert. A loner intellectual. It's a hot day and the heat has already made you forget your Social Security number.  And then, when you least expect it young women harass you just because you're so damn good looking. Happens all the time. And I'm getting a little tired of being objectified. 

This sequence happened just a few hours ago over on South Congress Ave. I was photographing myself and my Leica camera in a mirror on an A frame in front of a shop. Then, out of the blue I wound up with yet another group of admirers. I tried to ignore them and keep on shooting but ..... they weren't having it. 

I walked on after jarring episode this but about a block later they accosted me again and asked me to take their photographs with the city of Austin in the background. With their own battered iPhone. 

And they'd recruited two more friends to share in the process. 

I guess what the smart people on the web say is true, it's hard to approach strangers on the street and ask for their photos. Especially when there is an age and gender difference.

Pepper spray?

Maybe it's the bucket hat that attracted them...

 

People aren't as fearful of being photographed as one might imagine. Nor are they as paranoid about people photographing their children as some "experts" suggest. Good intentions are the secret

 

Just Sayin.

This young girl wants to be an actor. In fact, she already is. Her mom asked me to photograph her. We made photographs in my studio and then we walked over into the house and photographed some more. Her mom had coffee with B. while we photographed in the living room. No one was paranoid....

This young woman is an actress and an author. She also swam with our masters team for about a year until she moved to pursue her career. I asked her one day after swim practice if I could make portraits of her in my studio. I was 68 years old at the time. She was 22. She brought her mom with her. Her mom and I hit it off from the start. We all had a great session. It started with a genuine ask. Fun people are all around. Most are happy to collaborate if they get to know you. 

A child at a private school in Austin. The butterfly is real and alive. Not a prop.

I met this beautiful young woman on Sixth Street two years ago. I was 67. She was barely 25. We'd never met before. I just thought she had a great look and I told her so and asked if I could make a quick portrait of her. Why? I'd like to post it on Instagram. Cool! No paranoia involved. 

I met this person during a corporate shoot for other people in her organization. 

We worked together for an hour or so. After we were all done with the scheduled people I asked if she would come to the studio for a portrait session some day. During our  initial work together she could get an idea of what kind of person I was. She also knew the quality of the work.  

She immediately agreed and we set a time and day.

No creepiness involved. Just a fun collaboration and an exchange of time for retouched digital files. 

Why? Because it was fun for both of us. Photography is supposed to be fun.

Having a well done portrait of yourself should be fun. And have value.

Having a great image you can stick in your "book" or on your website is fun.

You just have to be crystal clear about your intentions. 

Portraiture is far from dead.

This person has been involved in several very successful high tech start-up companies. 

This was the third session over the last eight years I've done with him. His portrait is important to the marketing of companies he is involved with. It has value to him and to his enterprise. 

He was comfortable getting in touch and scheduling a portrait session. 

I was happy to photograph him and to learn more about his newest adventure. 

Are most photographers starving to death? Working part time as baristas? Living in their parent's basements?

 Find out what photographers really make for a living from this research:

https://petapixel.com/2025/08/29/how-many-photographers-are-making-over-300000-a-year/

Too long and don't want to look at all the charts?

My takeaway from the research is that here in the USA, among full time professional photographers interviewed, 39% make from $200,000 per year to over $300,000 per year, or more. There is a big proportion of photographers who make under $50K a year but tenure in the industry points to rising income by years of experience. 

Men, as usual, are over-represented. 

So, a larger percentage of full time working photographers than I expected are making as much as your average general practitioner doctor, CPA or median level attorney. Much better than expected. And right in line with my observations...

It's a range. But it's likely to be the same in most professions. 

A gifted advertising photographer, working in the right markets, can easily gather a net worth over millions of dollars by retirement age; given a good head for business and a history of sound investments. And no, the latest Sony, Leica or Nikon camera is not necessarily what I mean by "sound investments." 

Just thought I'd toss some red meat to the naysayers. 

Clarity on a blog. No one ever wrote here that people are still buying "traditional/formal" portraits from JCPenney's. Some markets die off. Styles change. And that's normal. Uncomfortable for some. But normal.

I wrote a piece several days ago in response to a blog post by Michael Johnston in which he said that photographic portraiture is dying. That people don't want to have portraits made. That people he asked to sit for his personal portrait work seemed perplexed and a bit paranoid about even being asked to sit for a portrait. And were resistant. 

My small essay was meant to be a disagreement with his premise. Evidence shows that in many fields of photography (editorial, commercial, art) portraits are a healthy product category for photographers but not in the way that 20th century markets were. Families are not necessarily buying formal portraits. They are not investing in images taken in front of dappled canvas backgrounds, lit with a main light, a fill light, a background light and a hair light. Parents aren't dragging their children into retail portrait studios to get images made of Jack and Jill, in matching outfits, grinning into the camera, surrounded by hackneyed props. And one of the reasons they are not is that theirfamily's actual income has dropped, year over year. Other priorities prevail. We didn't used to have to pay for television broadcasts, most family houses were smaller and less expensive, education was relatively cheaper, etc. But one of the biggest changes is that the web showed a much wider range and more vibrant approach to photography than people had been previously exposed.

Styles have also changed and retail photographers did not have the resources to change along with the times.. Or the ability to even understand the differences.

In fact, as good cameras, even the ones in phones, have become more accessible the perceived need for an outside service to take portraits of other family members has receded and been replaced by a constant stream of images generated by the family members themselves. The retail customer has been removed from the profitable practice of portraiture. But those were never our clients here. Nor were they the active participants in making "Art" portraits.

I would posit that the current market for portraiture has actually ballooned but it's not supported by the middle class American (the markets I know about) family anymore. Instead its market now is the advertising industry, across all media, the corporations, the associations, any business with a website, and all the rest of the entities whose wallets have kept up with inflation and economic shifts. Entities that need to continue having forward momentum in the vast marketplaces. Entities that realize the value of changing styles and looks. Entities that have budgets.

Writing to tell me that the last mom and pop portrait studio in your small to mid-sized town has shut down, along with the bricks and mortar camera stores, and the book stores, and the electronics shops isn't relevant to my premise which is: Businesses (the ones with budgets) of all kinds have continued to need and want portraits. Hard stop. College towns and towns with higher average incomes and higher average education levels are a better pond to fish for art portrait subjects as well.

I am not a "gifted outlier" or the last hired gun in Dodge to eke out an existence taking portraits. Portraits are a baseline product for most working, freelance photographers. It's the styles and the target audiences that have changed. And there has always been a hard demarcation between commercial practitioners and family portrait studios!

The second thing I discussed was the fact that a photographer's surroundings (the relative wealth and education of their geographic location) and the photographer's personal presentation have more to do with getting acceptance for collaborations from regular people to make art portraits. Portraits that are taken for personal websites, Instagram, Flickr, all manner of social media, books, shows and portfolios. 

Portraits taken because the photographer see something interesting about a subject and not because money is changing hands.

I would not argue at all whether or not collaborations and mutually beneficial portrait relationships still exist. They most obviously do. You need only have access to the web to divine that. My argument is that there are roadblocks to access based, again, on one's surrounding area demographics, the photographer's personal presentation (his or her appearance, attitude, personality, etc.) and the professed intention of use for the resulting artwork. The portrait subject requires some sort of defensible rationale from the artist in order to feel comfortable and engaged. To feel valued in the process. And the final results.

That's the gist of my previous essay. Not whether or not the last portrait studio in Waco, Texas has closed because of some external influence. Not that beautiful woman won't pose for anyone anymore. Not that the web has ruined all interpersonal, actual relationships between artists and their muses. 

Opportunities to do great portraits abound. But everything changed over time. Trying to overlay a style that's dated to a new and well educated demographic is a hard sell. But not because of the potential audiences or the potential subjects. It's the same reason we don't lease old telephones from Bell anymore and instead use continually evolving smartphones. And in fact, we don't really talk on the phones anymore, we text. etc. etc. etc.

 Only one of the images above was done on a job. The rest were projects my friends and I did together.

Now is the time we write about a funny, tiny 90mm lens that works well on both M and SL cameras. It's cute and light but, as you'll see, sharp.

 

Voigtlander makes a small 90mm lens; the APO Skopar. It's an f2.8 which is probably how they got the size and weight down to a manageable level. The lens is made for M mount cameras but as we all know you can pretty much adapt M lenses to any mirrorless mount. Or at least most of them. 

I've never done it myself but I think designed and making a very good 90mm lens for the 35mm format is much easier than doing the same for a very wide angle lens covering the same format. They tend to have fewer elements, less vignetting and higher corner sharpness than wider lenses. So, while it's not as challenging to produce the 90mm is still a wonderfully expressive focal length. And, if one is making a lens unencumbered by autofocus mechanisms, automatic diaphragm stop down and image stabilization it's entirely possible to make the lens much smaller, lighter and less expensive than the lenses for current mirrorless camera brands. Score one for simplicity. 

The Voigtlander 90mm f2.8  APO Skopje is tiny. Non-intimidating. Non-threatening. Pocketable. Nicely made, etc. I had originally had one in the non-glossy, silver finish and for some reason I didn't use it very often. One of my friends was selling off a bunch of lenses (he's an even worse lens hoarder than me...) and he had a black on on the "chopping block." Being magnanimous he offered to trade me the black version for my silver version. Mint to mint. Both in like new condition. For some reason I instantly warmed up to the black version and now pack it with me just about wherever I go. I guess the contrast between a black camera body and a silver lens was just too much for me. And I have to admit that the all black combination is more discreet. 

The trio of Voigtlander APO lenses that I own make a wonderful system, albeit slightly limited with 35mm being the widest of the bunch. But the 50mm and the 90mm see the most day-to-day use. Still, I seem to pack them all when I'm going to a place where photography is my sole focus.

After my friend traded lenses with me I spent a whole day walking around just taking photographs with the new, black 90mm. I was very pleased with the output. Of course, I believe my hit rate was higher than normal because instead mating the lens with an older Leica M240 I used it on the Leica SL2-S which has a much more modern sensor and really wonderful color. Here are some of the images I found while I was walking around clicking away. A fun and mostly healthy way to spend an afternoon.

This hotel is just too much fun. Their pool is exactly what every hotel pool should be.

Laid back. All inclusive and festive. Bar included.

In case you were wondering, JoAnn's serves a wide range of food including some really good Tex-Mex fair. They are joined at the hip with the Austin Motel. It's a fun section of a South Congress Ave. block. 

then, of course, there's Jo's Coffee just the next block over from JoAnn's.

This is the central hub of the whole neighborhood. Sure, there is other 

coffee available but none have been able to replicate the vibe. 

An interior space at the Hotel San José.

When the weather cools off the courtyard here is the perfect non-hurried, non-judgmental spot in which to sip coffee from Jo's or a beverage from the Hotel's bar. Adjacent to the swimming pool.

Not a pool table in sight. 

A new shop opened on S. Congress. Very much NOT a local enterprise. I think LaLaLand is partly owned by Disney. They sell various non-alcoholic beverages and have a big following among

the Tik-Tokers. Lines out the door. Disney characters plastered all around... Weird. 

Crossover mutations abound.

Looking through the window of the front door at the reception area for 

Vespaio Restaurant. Big, fun, Northern Italian food but a bar and dining room that were too noisy for me even in my socializing heyday.

Everyone's boots should be so nicely lined...

A stroll through Allen's Boots. 

And just down the street for cool hats at Maufrais. 

Stopping for house made ice cream at Amy's. An Austin original.

Watched over by unflinching, benevolent mannequin agents. 

Do I like the VM 90 f2.8 APO? Yes, very much. I also like their 75mm f1.9 Ultron. Also tiny but an optical powerhouse for those who like the focal length. Would I buy it again? Sure, why not? But then there is the newly introduced Thypoch Simera 75mm f1.4 lens. Bigger, longer, heavier but so sexy with that fast aperture.... No one says you have to pick just one....

Is portrait photography gone? In decline? No longer popular? I guess it all depends.

It mostly depends on context. 

I'm sitting at my desk having just read a blog from a photo commentator who wrote that people are no longer interested in photographic portraits. This is not at all my experience. 

In fact, I am sitting here because I'm waiting for my swimmer friend Julie to arrive at my studio for her portrait session. This will be the 18th portrait I've taken for non-family people since the first of August. And I no longer advertise or market much for photo work. Professional people in Austin just seem to like to have current photos of themselves for things like LinkedIn, their websites, their book covers, their theater programs, public relations, speaker photos, and sometimes just because they want a portrait for their significant other. It hasn't slowed down.

I will be 70 years of age in a few months but I have approached many people half my age or younger and asked if I could photograph them. All but a tiny handful were happy to oblige. So it can't necessarily be be an ageist thing.

Most of my commissioned portraits are done for corporations. Big businesses with deep pockets and a need to maintain a human looking presence on the web. My rates for making portraits on location for advertising have gone up, not down in the last few years. A good day in the portrait business for advertising agencies, as opposed to "retail" individuals who want something for their family, is enough to cover my burn rate for a month ---- and I live in the most expensive city in Texas. 

If something was "going out of fashion" I think we'd see the trend line first in Austin. Currently the #1 city in the country for business. And a cultural hotspot for millennials and Gen Z.  But we aren't seeing anything like that. If anything businesses are looking for images that convey a sense of authenticity for their customer-facing people. People need to be represented. Good portraits are a great introduction.

Okay. So that's the business side but what about the other side of the coin?  What about artistic portraits of people that I just want to take because they look interesting, good, beautiful or compelling to me? Do the beautiful people now shun photographers? Have we become pariahs?

My recent encounters say no. It's really a very person specific thing as to whether someone says yes or no to a portrait request from a photographer. That is, specific to who is asking. We exist within networks of people. Our ability to connect is part of the equation. Our approach is important.

But first of all you have to speak to opportunity. If you live in a bustling, healthy city filled to the brim with bright and happy faces you can just play the numbers and be certain you'll find a large group of people who might want to participate in your art portrait exercise. If you live in a sparsely populated, rural area the demographic of which skews older, poorer and more conservative your mileage may differ by a great deal. The people in a region like that are less likely to see the value of a collaborative portrait exercise. 

Once you eliminate that variable you have to look to your own presentation. Do you look kind and benevolent or are you cold, stand-offish and malevolent? A happy extrovert or a brooding introvert? A "high energy" or "low energy" person? Do you fit in, culturally, with the people you want to photograph or do you present yourself as an outsider? Do you have a rationale that explains to the person you'd like to photograph what your use of the photograph will be and what is in the transaction for them? What is their benefit in sitting for you? And, in 2025 it's probably not going to be a print. 

If I lived in the Antarctic I think I might have a tough, tough time getting people to pose for me... But a major metropolitan area? One filled with other artists? Not so tough. 

I may be about to step over the line to 70 but I believe that I think younger, act younger and am well situated in my community and my work sphere to be approachable and verifiable. And the potential to verify someone in their community is important. I can point to work at the theater, work for known clients, and work on various social media sites. The best approach to invite a stranger to be photographed is to give them links to portraits on your website and social media and have a few people who like your work and can vouch for you willing to do so. Obviously, if you are mostly interested in photographing women it's best that have the ability to get references from other women who've worked with you. 

If you are surrounded by happy people you have multiple opportunities to connect. If you surround yourself with old codgers who think old you'll have a tougher time finding and connecting with the people you'd like to photograph. 

But the biggest thing is that you have to be clear about your own purpose in wanting to make portraits of people. And it should be a clarity that leads to being able to explain your desired collaboration in terms that resonate with the demographic you'd like to photograph. 

My friend, David Guerrero, is the ultimate pro at building quick relationships with strangers and photographing them in a solid collaboration. Here's his Instagram: dgphotoholic

Go look at David's samples on Instagram. He's been on that site since 2020. He has......1.5 million followers. ONE POINT FIVE MILLION FOLLOWERS. And his impromptu portrait work is amazing. Just amazing. So.... there are examples of about 800+ people who've stopped and collaborated with David. He's traveled extensively. No barriers from language, age, etc. Not just pretty women but older men and even cops.  He just does, and shows good work. David approaches strangers, shows them his portfolio on his phone and asks the stranger if they can make a nice portrait together right there and then. I've watched him work. When people see his past work they almost always immediately say YES. 

I think his magic, if there is such a thing, is that he believes people will say "yes."

Portraiture is not dead but if you are showing work that might compete with very old portrait styles you may be using the wrong lures...

Here are the important things that help with successful engagements:

Population density

Prosperous demographic

Well educated prospects

A city with a tradition of people getting out in public

A beautiful set of samples to show

A nice, unthreatening demeanor

An honest approach

Those things should go a long way into breathing life into modern portraiture. 

Is it regional? Or is it a difference between a tech forward, urban population and a somewhat isolated, rural population? run the numbers.

 

Taking my lens to the museum to see what we can see. The Blanton Museum does not disappoint.

 

Crispy hot day. A wonderful time to be in a museum on the UT Austin campus. They have the resources and the know how to really air condition a building. I remember back to the time I was teaching there in the Fine Arts college; we'd have to bring jackets to stay warm in the Summer. 68° seemed to be the default of the campus engineers. That made the Blanton Museum the perfect destination on Tuesday. And it coincided with the opening of a new show (see the signage just above). 

Ever a sucker for a 50mm lens; especially a fast one, I attached my newly acquired Thypoch 50mm f1.4 Simera lens to a Leica SL2-S body using the Leica branded M to SL lens adapter and headed over to scam some parking at the Bob Bullock/Texas History Museum's garage just across the street from the Blanton. 

I didn't have a specific goal in mind other than to enjoy the newly hung show and then wander through the more or less permanent exhibition galleries on the second floor. I also hadn't had the opportunity to play with the new (to me) 50mm lens and it seemed like a "target rich" environment for lens work. And also to soak up the air conditioning for a while.

Two things to know about the 50mm Simera lens. First, it's very sharp. Even when used at its maximum aperture. And second, when used wide open it can vignette like crazy. Not up to failure level crazy but crazy enough for me to keep wanting to correct it in Lightroom. 

UT faculty and students are admitted at no charge to the Blanton Museum. If you are no longer a faculty member you might think about going on Tuesdays. A foundation contributes money to make Tuesdays  "free art" days at the museum. A great opportunity to dip a toe in, to checking out each new show. 

I'm charmed by the 50mm Simera lens. Its haptics are great and the files, and the colors in the files, are right on target. Physically it's quite beautiful. Nicely designed and presented. On the SL2-S there is a nice balance and it's a pleasure to punch in at higher magnifications to check sharp focus. Did I mention that it's a manual focus lens? It is. 

The nice thing about the Blanton is that when they hang a show they don't default to museum white walls. I like the color differences on the walls of the exhibit almost as much as I love these Baroque paintings. 

Isn't the 50mm focal length just perfect? I think so. It's my deserted island lens. Although I probably wouldn't take many photographs on a deserted island. I'd be spending all my time trying to figure out how to quickly grow coffee beans. Or maybe a better idea would be to figure out how to escape...

Random captions below.

I need to go back to Christian Fiction and read the book of Revelations again.

I'd forgotten that there was a huge battle between good and bad angels. 

Whose bright idea was it to give angels self-determination? 

And it seems that Arch Angel Michael was really a bad ass...

the Thypoch Simera 50mm has a floating element design and also focuses closer than most other M mount lenses. Nice for detail work and the files stay sharp as you go close...

Putti Mania. 

I was playing around with limited depth of field. The phone is my focused object and everything else is up for grabs. I personally like the rendering of the corner of the kitchen prep table best.

I never seem to get out of the Blanton Museum without looking at some 2000+ year old T and A. 

The Battle Collection. 

Modern art from the second floor....incoming.

Romero had me at "Reuse of ordinary objects" Like Formula One tires....

See a better use of Formula One Tires, just below.

The only thing that really stays the same at the Blanton is the ceiling on the second floor....

The show is good. 

The lens is good. 

The air conditioning in the museum is fantastic.

The underground parking worked a charm.

Oh, and portraiture is not dead. Not by a long shot.