When it gets really hot and uncomfortable outside the idea of carrying a big camera and a heavy lens starts to sound more and more... masochistic. Better on the days when it's over 100° to carry along the smallest camera you own. Something just a bit bigger and more capable than a phone.
I pursued a lazy and sybaritic day today. I walked the hills of the neighborhood with B. for a good hour and then I fired up the VSL staff car and headed over to my favorite car wash to spray away a couple of weeks of accumulated grime and random bird droppings. I used the foaming brush, then the high pressure soap spray, then the high pressure rinse. Then the spot free rinse. And for a couple hours, at least, I had a relatively sparkly and teutonic-ly clean car. Since it was already hot outside I did spray the high pressure rinse water up into the air every once in a while so I could walk through the mist and cool down.
Task #1 completed I headed over to the First Light book store to see if they had any depth in their collection of Billy Collins poetry collections. They have the current book but I've already purchased that one. I was inspired to look for more Billy Collin's books of poetry because B. and I had lunch on Saturday at the New World Deli, which is next to the Livra Bookstore (collectibles. very, very good stuff. Now saving up for the very limited edition "Dior" by Richard Avedon. Slip case and all...). After lunch we browsed and B. found a signed copy of Collins's "Nine Horses" which I promptly bought. It's wonderful.
I didn't find what I was looking for at First Light but I did buy yet another of the slender, Japanese, fine point pens the shop stocks, and a little notebook to accompany it. I had in mind taking the pair next door to Bureau de Poste as a distraction (doodling, brief observations, etc.) while having breakfast. So I did.
I ordered the egg, bacon and cheese sandwich on a freshly made biscuit ( too good to be healthy !!!) and a cup of drip coffee. And I spent my time eating slowly, drinking even more slowly, and listening to marketing people at the next table (three very beautiful young women) talk seriously while glancing over and over again at their individual laptops as they figured out how to sell more Texas seafood via "public information" outreach on the web. They obviously have some part of the Texas Ag. Dept. account to work on and it seems pretty obvious that this dept. relates directly to....seafood.
I found it funny that each of the participants came equipped with Yeti water bottles which sat on the table next to the laptops. The Yeti-s got more attention than the coffee drinks but I think the coffee drinks were just purchased to assuage the trio's implied guilt for Bogarting a comfortable table in the chilly air conditioned dining room. The egg sandwich was superb. A gustatory triumph.
After car washing, book searching and a very late breakfast I dropped back by VSL headquarters to change cameras. I tossed the Leica M 240 M-E onto a chair and grabbed the D-LUX 8 from its perch. Said "Hi" to B. and then headed over to South Congress to take a stroll in the growing heat. Mondays are always "people quiet" on South Congress Ave. One restaurant doesn't even open on Mondays. Most of the retailers have "done the math" and stay open because the accounting breaks in their favor. Even if only by a little bit.
I walked for a while until the heat became uncomfortable and then I ducked into Jo's Coffee and, for the first time ever, ordered an iced coffee. Just the right thing to cool one down mid-walk. Delicious. Zippy. And, to placate my French and Canadian readers, I sat nearly motionless and endeavored to "enjoy" my coffee without ambulation. I hope this makes them happy....
And now, back to the office to see what the images look like from the Lilliputian camera. I was experimenting with intentionally using the widest focal length settings where possible and also leaning on smaller apertures for less of that soul sucking bokeh everyone seemed to lust for five years ago...Oh, and I added some color saturation --- just for fun. Modernity. It's all over the map.
Here's what I got:
No clue what Fable is selling. Wait. I'll check Google...
Okay. See if you can make heads or tails of this:
Close and wide.
Now very gun shy about hat buying. I'd hat to look dorky.
I'm wondering if my hat consultant, J.C. would approve of this one
for casual wear? Just asking for a friend....
Chair-itable?
A very large umbrella for a very, very large tropical themed cocktail?
Old guys drinking coffee in the heat with a dog. Jo's. Of course.
Not just for retired people in Florida anymore!
Will people migrate from Pickle Ball to Shuffleboard?
I think so.....
furniture for aprés swim. At the Austin Motel.
Didn't feel the urge to give it a try. Not today...
This is Joann's restaurant's outside patio. I'm presuming the flock of
owls is there to dissuade the grackles from their usual customer vexing
hijinks. Or maybe the owner is just a big fan of ceramic owls...
Something blue.
My take on the DLUX 8? Pretty much the perfect carry around
camera for a hot, sweaty day. Love the EVF. It's really, really good.
Wish the diopter wheel had a firmer detent. The friction between my shirt and the wheel always seems to change the setting. Frustrating. Gaff Tape to the rescue?
I had a summer job scooping ice cream one summer in the early 1970s. We had a tub of Tiger ice cream, orange ice cream with black liquorice. By the end of summer, we had only sold 2 or 3 cones of it. I never tasted it myself.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize till I looked it up just now but that camera has an m4/3s size sensor.
Yikes! Tiger ice cream. Reminds me of the first Adams Family movie where the Girl Scouts come to the Adam's door to sell cookies. Wednesday asked if the cookie are made from real Girl Scouts.... And I'm leery of the Bubble Gum ice cream as well. Yes, the Leica DLUX8 has an m43 sensor and the images are really quite nicely detailed. All good.
DeleteIf you really like poetry, I'd suggest that you buy the Garrison Keillor anthologies, "Good Poems," "Good Poems for Hard Times," and "Good Poems/American Places." Garrison has always been a little too smug, but he's got a great eye for poetry.
ReplyDelete"Carnation milk is the best in the land/Here I sit, with a can in my hand/No tits to pull, no hay to pitch/You just punch a hole in the sonofabitch." Doesn't get much better than that.
We don't know "grackles" this side of the pond, so when I first read this I saw "grockles" and immediately started looking for ceramic owls as we are plagued by grockles every summer. Disappointed to discover that grackles are similar to jackdaws or starlings, they're nowhere near as irritating as grockles!
ReplyDeleteGrackles are fairly big, black birds called, in the science world: Quiscalus Quiscula. Tristam's Starlings. They taunt restaurant customers who've chosen to sit at outside tables! Recorded hawk screeches help and owls as well. But after a while the grackles get acclimated to the decoys and return to their brave state for more customer harassment. I happen to have a t-shirt with a grackle image on it. It says, "Grackles Got No Boss." I liked it. Seemed....freelance.
DeleteI endorse the straw hat in your photo. It may be a Tula, made in Mexico and imported by an Austin company. They are great sun hats.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a Stetson variant. But yeah, a lot of nice shade there.
DeleteI had gotten away from reading poetry in recent years. But, just a few months ago, I dug out on old copy of “The Complete Poems of Robert Service” and I have been enjoying rediscovering his work. But it can get a bit dark at times. On John Camp’s advice I think I’ll look for a copy of “Good Poems for Hard Times.” Seems timely.
ReplyDeleteSame.
DeleteLove the saturated colours and graphic design!
ReplyDeleteThanks!!! I'm really digging higher saturation these days. More fun than the pale stuff that the film world adores.
DeleteIs the D-LUX 8 just a little bigger than the Sony RX100 cameras? Those were a great size to carry, but not enough better than my phone for what I used a carry around camera for. The bigger sensor in the same size package changes the math. The pre-tariff prices is not that different from the Sony.
ReplyDeleteJust buy a Lumix S9 and save yourself some money.
DeleteOr a GX9
DeleteBut Eric, I don't understand. Since I already own the DLUX8 how would I save any money by also buying an S9? That makes no sense... Besides, I don't want another camera with no eye level finder. No light at the end of that tunnel.
DeleteOh! I see. You were trying to mislead Edward.... :-)
DeleteEdward, it's a great little camera. Smaller than the two mentioned by Eric. And sexier.
DeleteAlways trying to help ;)
ReplyDelete