Yeah. I looked ahead on the weather forecast and saw that the weather people are predicting a high of 102° on Tuesday and then a magnificent ramp up to 107° on Wednesday. This follows a wonderfully mellow and comfortable week with temps reaching only up to the high 70s and lower 80s. We just haven't had any time or opportunity to get acclimated the way we need to.
We're fast approaching "composite time" in central Texas. That's when it gets too damn hot for people to go outside in the afternoons to participate in "location/environmental/outdoor" portraiture. I've put down boundaries this year. If it's over 100° there's no outside shoot. None. I'm done retouching sweat drenched executives squinting towards the camera. Done pulling sweat stains off pressed dress shirts. Tired of having overweight and under exercised company men passing out in front of my lens. For this torrid and tormenting season I'll be photographing people in the studio (if I want to photograph them at all...) and then compositing them into curated backgrounds via the magic of PhotoShop. Or the devilish black magic of Generative A.I. A slippery slope looms before us. And lumes before us. But does not loam before us.
I'm always playing around with assorted cameras and lenses. And I delight in making new combinations of camera bodies and lenses. Especially if I get to use adapters. Today I was fascinated to play with the Zeiss 50mm f1.4 ZF.2 lens on a Leica SL2-S body. Made possible by an inexpensive adapter.
The lens is a manual focus one that was made to work on Nikon F series cameras. It has a reputation of being soft(ish) when used wide open but very sharp and optically well endowed when stopped down to f2.8 and beyond. I think if you focus with a good degree of accuracy that it is pleasantly sharp even at f1.4. Some manual focus lenses are unfairly slandered and libeled as a result of the vagaries of focusing via DSLR cameras which were themselves fraught with inconsistencies between lens, mirror alignment and focusing screens made mostly for bright and cheery photo representations to users. Not for accurate focusing of non-AF sense. I'm mending some lens misconceptions with more diligence in technique. Obviously this combo spends a lot of time attached to a Nikon F to L mount adapter, and that combination graces everything from a Sigma fp to a Leica SL2-S.
I've been lax lately and am given to shooting everything in a Jpeg mode, then providing little tweaks to make the files perceptually accurate for my own uses. Today I thought to at least pretend to be much more rigorous. I used the lens almost always at f2.8. Occasionally I dropped down to f5.6 just to see the difference made by deeper depth of field. I used image magnification to more accurately focus and I shot only in raw so I could work with those delicious DNG files. I set the camera to daylight balance (the sun icon) for everything, reasoning that uniformity of results (when using raw) trumps individual attempts by the camera at guessing the right mix of colors and hues. And again...I focused more carefully than I usually do.
There's nothing earth shattering here. It was just a walk. But it is a fun camera and lens to use together. In one vague sense it's almost as if, with the camera set to DNG, it can do no wrong with the resulting files. It just flat out works.
I don't think any of us are ready to start working in the heat when it's over 105 degrees. We just haven't had a chance to get used to it. Yesterday was bouts of driving rain, wind, hail and temps in the high 60s. To go from there to hot, moist, triple digitals is jarring. Dangerous. We do what we can. More short pants. More sandals. Much more sunscreen. Many bigger brimmed hats. And a switch from hot coffee to iced tea. Summer is arriving early. Like a rogue tariff being exacted to pay for a mild Spring...
B.'s car is Summer Ready as of yesterday. The car spent the day in the mechanic's bay. Fluids changed. Filters changed. Even the differential fluid replaced. Tires balanced and aligned. New front brake pads installed. All the major components checked --- and then re-checked with me in tow. That's a car that's ready for the Summer stress. At just about the cost of a used Leica Tri-Elmar. Oh boy. How much fun!
(I was trying to channel the spirit of poet, Christina Rosetti but my transitives got all mixed up with the possessives and the prepositions revolted; hard. But my Lucerian dictionary and memories of sister Mary Agnes's accurate and devastating motivational work with a wooden ruler will guide me back to correct usage of grammar and then you'll feel more comfortable and everything will be write (ha! ha!) with the world of righting and reading). Go Team Rosetti !!!
This one is at f5.6
This one is at f2.8
this one is "feet up on the desk, relaxing."
Happens a lot. Hope my boss doesn't catch me...
Probably make me work overtime.
I asked ChatGPT for the expected high temperature in August this summer,, and couldn't get a straight answer. It did suggest, however, that you might expect a heat index (as opposed to temperature) of 118 degrees.
ReplyDeleteGiven enough advanced notice I'll be on a plane to Iceland or Greenland ... or Santa Fe...
DeletePhotography during the summer is a lot like motorcycling to me - sometimes it’s just too hot outside. With motorycles, if it’s too hot to wear a helmet and protective gear then it’s too hot to ride. With photography, if the temperature breaks 90 with a relative humidity above 75 percent, it’s too hot to take pictures. This is the New Jersey Shore, mind you. But I set that rule when I lived in Florida. YMMV. Meanwhile, I thought I was one of the very few who generally shoots jpegs these days. Actually, it comes rather naturally given that I started in film. That means I generally just try to get it right in camera with only mild tweaking required - usually in Apple’s Photos app. Big savings over an Adobe or Capture One subscription. It also helps that I’m not being paid for my photography.
ReplyDelete