This small gallery contains images created with the following cameras: Panasonic GH5ii, Panasonic GH6, Leica CL, Leica TL, Leica M240, Leica M240-M-E, Leica SL2-S, Sigma fp. All good cameras. All good fun.

Photographer's self portrait with a Leica CL

It's a cloudy day here in Austin. One best captured, I think, in expressive, contrasty black and white. I've just wrapped up several assignments even though I hinted around that I was thinking of retreating from the commerce side of photography to concentrate more fully on my own work. But after 40+ years the habit of accepting work for money is hard to shed. Hard to kill off. And, when I do have more time I tend to ruminate over what exactly it is that I'd like to do with the time I've created. What images would I really like to make and how would I like to make them?

In the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s I thought the secret of exciting photography was propelled by constantly heading to foreign locations to capture life that looks different from life here. Life in my own town. Life in my own milieu. But those were times when so little photography was shared. Before the web exploded and before discount air carriers opened up the market to travel to and fro for bigger and bigger swaths of humanity. And it was a time in which everything over someone else's border looked odd, mysterious, different and sometimes very cool. But the last few times I traveled to places like Germany or Iceland I noticed that everyone who traveled in the preceding years had succeeded in homogenizing pretty much everything. Most urban environments echoed most other urban environments with the main differences being the ages and the styles of architecture. 

The most popular restaurant when I was in Reykjavik was a ramen restaurant. Or the famous hot dog stand. Polartec looks the same everywhere. Germans were just, for the most part, better dressed than Texans. And more intentional about which part of the sidewalks to walk on and which to bike on. But nothing was as striking to me as when I first went to Rome with my parents in 1963. Or later to Turkey. Or backpacking through France, Italy, Switzerland and Greece back in 1978. Everything has gotten more internationally local. 

So the imagery I see from Lisbon or Madrid or any of the other "cities of the moment" for tourism look remarkably the same. And that begs the question about whether it's the quality of photography and personal vision that matters most or just convenient and trendy content that drives the popularity of images. One of my favorite Instagram photographers is Marcel Mellema (Marcel.Mellema@instagram) from the Netherlands. His portrait work is nothing like mine but is beautiful and timeless. And completely independent of location. He works in a studio. But the work rises above the need for an "exciting" location as a background. As does the work of newcomer, Yvonne Hanson. 

I'm not a landscape photographer and when I was complaining to my son about not traveling enough lately with my camera (for personal, family reasons) he laughed and said that I had always told him "if you can't make a good photo in your own home town .... well, wherever you go, there you are." 

So, I'm working through what it is I really want to do instead of filling requests from clients. I'm lucky enough to not need the paid work now. What I really need is direction but don't bother making various suggestions because I'm really, really bad at taking advice when it comes to artistic direction. Just sharing where I am and what my mind is up to these days....

Pana GH5ii

Author with Pana GH6. 2022. 

Coffee with a TL2

Leica M240 + Tri-Elmar

Sigma fp with 45mm