South Congress Avenue on Valentine's Day.

 

A couple sharing a moment, eating ice cream at Amy's.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. It's a silly holiday for all kinds of reasons but it is redeemed by making us imagine, just for a little while, how good it feels to be in love. To have someone unflappably on your side. And in my mind those good relationships create concentric circles of happiness. Solid, grounded people attract others who are like them and the circle of good friends grows around you. And, of course, my partner would say that it all starts with kindness. 

I spent time yesterday figuring out some ideas for camera packing. I have to fly to Santa Fe on assignment and I'm always anxious about getting the delicate and expensive camera gear safely to my final destination. The last time I had an assignment in Santa Fe I drove there and I could take every last bit of gear I'd ever want with me. Not that I really needed a lot of gear but sometimes having redundant layers of gear is like having the ultimate security blanket. Warm and cozy and feeling prepared for anything that might crop up...

I'm sure most of you fly at least once or twice a year and I'm sure you've experienced the airlines all tightening up on how much luggage you can bring along. Both by size and by weight. The problems with transporting delicate and expensive camera gear are amplified by many of the new restrictions. Some airlines are imposing very strict rules on economy ticket holders including allowing only one personal item (computer bag? Purse? Small backpack?) and no other carry on luggage. This is a change, but an important one, from being able to bring both a rolling case that would fit in the luggage bins and a camera bag that one could manage to wedge under the seat in front of you. And it's disheartening for all photographers who would like to streamline travel and not have to check luggage. 

The elitists among you might immediately suggest that this is what you deserve unless you are willing to ante up for a business class or first class seat, but Whoa! there. Have you flown on a smaller, regional jet lately? In many cases the bins won't accommodate rolling cases that easily fit in the bins on something like an Airbus 320 or a 737. And the space underneath the seat in front of you continues to shrink... All the pricy ticket maneuvering isn't going to make the space allowed grow and you'll end up gate checking stuff more often than you might like...

If you are going to fly into Santa Fe from Austin you'll probably do so on an American Airlines flight. You'll start in Austin on a 737 variant and make a connection in Dallas. There you'll be shoehorned onto a much smaller plane with much less in-cabin storage space for your stuff. At that point you may have some tough choices to make.... And you can multiply this many times over if your journey is more complex and has more stops and plane changes. 

I'll be photographing a corporate event for a banking giant. I'd love to take everything including the darkroom sink. My first thought was to pull the Think Tank Roller case off the shelf and load it up with the gear I anticipate shooting with as well as back-up gear. The urge for redundancy being, no doubt, a hold over from the film days when mechanical cameras often stopped functioning and photographers routinely brought multiple back-ups. Even though I have yet to have a digital camera melt down the memories of going through multiple Hasselblad bodies on a shoot, or the sudden death of a poorly repaired Leica M3 on the first day of a vacation in Paris still haunt me. I should get over it and embrace the reliability of modern, digital cameras. 

To my mind, roller cases that are big enough to be useful to photographers are easy targets for gate agents. Might not be a problem if the overhead bins are ample enough and you are in one of the first boarding groups but things get dicier if you have a cheap ticket, purchased at the last minute and you are in one of the cursed last boarding groups who are quickly confronted with the fact that all, ALL, the overhead bins are totally full and there's no way you'll get a rolling case of the typical dimensions under the seat in front of you --- no matter how hard you try.

After lots of configuring and reconfiguring of physical gear I decided to reconfigure my expectations about what to bring. Instead of the super hefty Leica 24-90mm zoom lens, two SL-type bodies, the big Panasonic 70-200mm f2.8 zoom, the 14 inch MacBook Pro and a back-up Panasonic 24-105mm lens, along with batteries, phone, more batteries and chargers, I decided to harken back to earlier days and reconsider what I actually used to provide the same kind of photographs at the same event over the three previous years. Almost everything I shot in 2023 and 2024 was done with two focal lengths. Those would be 35mm and 85mm. The other focal length that saw about 25% of use was a standard, boring 50mm lens. So, three smaller and lighter lenses. 

I decided that, at this point in my career, to take a leap of faith and instead of bringing mountains of back up gear I would take just what I can fit into a Domke F1X camera bag. Why? Because I know that I can fit that bag under airplane seat. And I know it will be light enough to carry if I don't overpack. 

The Domke bag will get the main camera, a smaller, lighter back-up camera (Q2) three prime lenses, one hot shoe flash, extra batteries, and the computer. And at the moment I'm considering another photographer's advice that I switch from a bulky laptop to a smaller, lighter M4 iPad --- just to reduce the total size and weight of the package. I'm resistant but still considering. 

I'll pack a generic, rolling case with necessary clothes, extra shoes, a second battery charger, a well packed back-up shoe mount flash, and a very well packed 135mm lens ---- just in case I decide I need some more reach. If the roller needs to be checked I'll suck it up and gate check it. I can afford to lose the clothes, the lens and the flash if the luggage goes astray. But the rest of the gear will travel with me all the time. Mostly under the aforementioned seat.

Taking advice from Hanoi-based photographer, Justin Mott, I bought one of those wretched, unfashionable photographer's vests. It's muted black. It has lots of big pockets. If I feel the need to bring "one more thing" I'll pull out the vest from the roller case and put the wanted item into one of the pockets and then I'll suffer the indignity and wear the vest... The sacrifices we make for our photography... 

There is a part of me that wants to turn back the gear clock to a time when I did so much with one camera, one lens and one flash. And the lens back then was never a zoom. As a compromise I dream of working with just two camera bodies and two lenses. One flash. You could almost wear all of your critical gear on a flight. Unless the gate agents count each camera as one "personal item." But wouldn't it be great to travel and work so lightly? I think it might be plausible. And along those lines I think I'll ditch the business suit this year and lean on my work as a photographer to exclude the burden of a suit jacket. More room in the roller bag for swim gear....

And it's not like Santa Fe is at the end of the world, adrift from consumer civilization. There are a couple of camera stores there and if everything goes to hell on the journey in one swipe of a credit card could supply the bare essentials to get an event oriented job done. So I guess I should chill a bit.

Anyway, after I went through all the ideas and permutations of packing logistics I arrived at a couple solutions I'm good with and decided I'd worried enough for the day --- especially about a job that's a month in the future --- and headed out with a camera and a totally different lens to see what was afoot on S. Congress Ave. on Valentine's Day. It was a short shooting adventures. A chance to try out the Sigma 85mm f1.4 on the new SL2, just to see if my "two cameras, two lenses" idea might have value. 

I needed to be home at a reasonable time because I was the designated chef for our Valentine's Day dinner. I got lucky and cooked two filet mignons perfectly (not always the case). I made two sides. One was a cold potato salad of fingerling potatoes mixed with smoked salmon and a very subtle vinaigrette dressing; the other was a pickled beets, walnuts and kale mix. The cute looking, romantically heart-shaped, chocolate cake came from Whole Foods. Add wines and dinner was a success. 

Here's some of the stuff I shot yesterday. It was gloomy and overcast but it's always nice to get a walk in and immerse one's self in the sea (or puddle) of humanity... Hope you had fun yesterday as well.

Every day revolves around swimming. Or swimming pools. Or contrasting colors. Or coffee....

Ready for immediate application. At Jo's. In a paper cup. That's the way it comes.

 Coffee means different things in different cultures. 

Many EU cultures can't imagine coffee being portable. Or coming in 

disposable cups. We can't really imagine coffee that you acquire outside your home

any other way. And Americans, at least the younger ones, seem more comfortable 

with a warm or cold drink in one hand as they walk around. 

The French and Italian citizens become paralyzed by a cup of coffee, 

served in a ceramic cup, and can't move from the spot until every drop is 

drained. They'll never know the pleasure of being ambulatory with coffee.... Sad. 

I guess this means it's okay to bring your dog. As long as he or she is kind and 

unthreatening. Noted. 

The mannequins see the need for coffee as a very human weakness. 

They disregard people on the other side of the window who dare to bring their coffee with them.

The shop windows these days are filled with examples of very modern coats. Dress coats. Trench coats. Fashionable trench coats. Long, wool coats and so many other coat styles that look so very nice but which are only practical for about two weeks of wear, per year, in Austin, Texas. 

Sunglasses, on the other hand, are always in fashion. Always stylish. 

And then the walk was over and it was back into the kitchen.