Hello again. If you are reading this we must have survived the page view nightmare of 2025. Welcome back.

Observed while walking past the JW Marriott Hotel in Downtown Austin. 

It's been a while. I've been chilling here in Austin waiting to see what's going on with the blog over in Vietnam. I guess whoever was responsible has scraped as much information as they needed in order to feed their large learning modules for A.I. for the moment. The "visits" have slowed down. But in truth it was nice for me to take the time off from the blog and think about what I should be posting here. 

If you've visited my Instagram feed you'll no doubt see that I've been on a tear with the little Leica D-LUX 8. It's a swell camera and I've been getting really groovy photos with it over on S. Congress Ave. I don't think anyone else should buy one right now. Why? Because I'm trying to source a second copy from one of the trusted dealers and they seem to be in short supply. No, I won't buy one on EBAY for twice the retail price. No, I won't buy one from someone on Fred Miranda's site who might want to sell me one without a USA warranty, etc. etc. 

Why do I want a second one? Hmmm. I guess because the files coming out of the one I have are really wonderful, the form factor makes it almost transparent to carry around and I've always believed that if you are traveling with cameras you should bring them along in exact pairs. Duplicated batteries and accessories and if one goes down there's no readjustment or renewed learning curve. Besides, it's barely more than the cost of a lens cap for one of the more esoteric Leica lenses, or a Billingham camera bag. So, why not?

It's finally gotten really hot again in Austin. And the heat didn't come alone. It brought its friend, humidity along for the fun of it. Today I really wanted to go out for a long walk and when I looked at the "feels like" temperature I decided to pair down the camera load to something rational. I grabbed the Leica Q2, plugged in an SCL-6 battery and found a hat I liked from the ever growing pile of hats that's been accumulating in the studio. Twenty or thirty at last glance. A lot of duplicates that are only differentiated by slight differences in color. A hat emporium in the making.

Since I've attracted the attention of a dermatological surgeon I took the precaution of slathering every square centimeter of exposed skin with sunscreen, including my lips. Which most people forget about. 

Just saw Dave Herring's YouTube video about his Leica M11 P Safari getting stolen at a UPS Store and the implications for insurance, etc. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syjw0oZ078c He's smart. He had a professional insurance policy through his membership in the PPA. Some try to push their homeowner's policies to cover business losses. Not the best plan. Biggest takeaway from Herring? "UPS Stores" are not actually affiliated with UPS the company. The stores are privately owned and operated by third parties. UPS's (the company) liability starts once the packages are loaded onto the trucks, not before, when using a third party vendor. 

As a professional photographer I don't try to leverage my homeowner carrier into insuring my business cameras off site, or providing the liability protections for my business via my homeowner's policy. I carry a separate policy for those business needs. That's the way I understand that it's supposed to work. How would it be logical for my homeowner's insurance to cover damage to a borrowed camera at the hands of a third party in a non-specified location? Not very. 

Satisfied that my house and business are well covered I got into my car and headed into the big heat sink we call downtown. The walk was interesting. I hadn't been all over downtown in about a month. I documented some of the demolition of our convention center. We won't have an operating convention center here in Austin for at least the next three years. A really goofy decision on the part of our city council... With big income producing properties as with wing walking on a biplane, one should not let go of one strut until one has a firm grasp on the next strut. SXSW should be interesting next year. And the next year. Something unpleasant about an event dispersed over multiple, small locations. 

When I got to the seedy part of East Sixth Street I happened upon a nice thirty-something couple desperately looking at menus for the few dive establishments in the near empty neighborhood. They were obviously from out of town. They seemed so lost I had to stop and help. They were in town on a short vacation and had heard about Sixth St. but sadly, the buzz about Sixth St. was more relevant back about two decades ago before other parts of town stole the thunder, and the clients, and the decorum. And the pizzazz. Now East Sixth Street is mostly seedy bars, empty rental spaces under construction, and lots of unhoused people. 

I walked them over to Congress Ave. and Sixth St. put them in the shade and suggested that they go to the center of S. Congress Ave. which, on a Sunday afternoon, no matter what the weather, is crawling with tourists and locals, packed with much, much better (nicer, more upscale) restaurants and bars, and completed by the presence of almost endless high-end shopping opportunities. And much safer. They thought they might walk it until I showed them on a map how far they would have to go. We collectively decided that they should go over in an Uber. Having done my good deed for the day I trudged on, heading back to my car. With a pit stop at Whole Foods for a muffin and a cup of coffee. 

With the convention center deducted from downtown attractions there is NO foot traffic on the surrounding streets and no customer traffic in that neighborhood to speak of. But it's still interesting to get out and walk it, if you know what to expect... And a three mile walk in blistering heat is the perfect adjunct to this morning's swim workout. Pretty much a perfect Sunday. July 27th. 

Next up? I need to borrow my friend's Fuji Half camera and play with it. It's interesting and I have a long history of owning and using half frame cameras. Almost totally with cameras from the film days. The Fuji Half is small, light, cute and inexpensive enough digital camera to buy as a diversion or as a go anywhere pocket camera. As long as you have a jacket or very loose pants pockets. It's on my list to try. 

Hopefully nothing else will go amiss with the VSL blog for a while. It's a new age. Everyone I speak to who blogs is getting content scraped. Sad but true. 

I've been back in the pool for a week and change and I'm so happy. I missed the routine, the comrades and the exercise so much. Is there a twelve step program for swimming addiction? If so I don't want to know about it...

The camera I'll be working with in the coming week? An old Leica SL with a Canon 50mm f1.4 FD lens on it. Thinking about covering all the parts and spray painting the body bright white. It might be fun. On the other hand it might destroy the camera. But I've always wanted a bright, white Leica SL. This may be the Summer of experimentation.