Some more random shots with the new Thypoch Simera 50mm f1.4 lens. It's adorable.

It's been hot here in Austin, Texas for the last week or so. I go to swim practice, have coffee and breakfast, read the news and return emails. By the time I've finished with the daily rituals it's generally past noon and already in the mid-90s. By the time I get motivated to go out to photograph it's nudging the 100° mark and it just feels kinda stupid to go out in the heat to walk around aimlessly, taking photographs that aren't really part of a logical, unified project. But not today!

Today a Northern weathe front came through town and cooled us down into the 80s. And it rained. And the rain was most welcome. After a late lunch I fired up the VSL studio car and headed over to South Congress Ave. to play with a Leica M-E (typ240) and the 50mm Thypoch lens. It was raining but not a hard, continuous rain --- more of a drizzle punctuated by bigger drops at random intervals. Stochastic rain?

I wore a hat even though the UV threat was low. The hat is a convenient camera rain cover for those times when the rain picks up and seems more threatening. Mostly paranoia on my part but I'm unsure about the weather sealing on the lens so it seemed prudent to take proactive care of a temporarily unproductive camera. Worked pretty well and I sure didn't mind a few drops of water on my head as I walked along.   

I made one gear mistake. The camera I picked out of the drawer was wearing a +2.0 diopter on the viewfinder. I was wearing my eyeglasses so I didn't really need any correction to see the  50mm frame sharply but I didn't have a convenient place to stick the little, easy to lose, diopter. I stopped and had a quick self-debate. Was it more important to jettison the diopter and just use my glasses; as I do with most other cameras, or should I just stick my glasses in a convenient pocket and continue on with the diopter? I decided on no glasses/yes diopter which, of course, meant that the world around me, when my eye wasn't glued to the viewfinder window, wasn't tack sharp. Not even rusty nail sharp. More like Nerf Gun Bullet sharp. But I decided that I didn't really care if the world around me was a bit diffused and I went on photographing just the same. 

The only real issue, should you decide to go with a +2.0 diopter and no glasses comes when you want to review something you've shot, on the back screen, or when you need to engage the menu for something. Fortunately my eyes aren't so far off that squinting won't work. It does. It just makes me look dorky in the moment. Oh, who am I kidding? Any 69 year old man in shorts, Birkenstock sandals and a goofy hat, with a camera hanging around his neck, is going to look goofy anyway so why bother worrying about it?

I could go on and on about the lens and get lost in the weeds of detail but essentially it works as well as all the other M mount 50mm lenses I've tried. More than sharp enough, good detail, nice mechanics, etc. I like shooting this one wide open because I always feel like I'm getting away with something. You know, f1.4.

I walked through the touristy area for an hour and didn't really see much I wanted to photograph beyond the mannequins and a few details, but that's okay because it's an hour spent moving and taking in the weird consumer culture of one of high end shopping destinations. And it feels weird to write that because when I first came to Austin to go to school this area was very dicey. Lots of really slimey XXX theaters, sex workers working the intersections, drug deals going down and Texas State Legislators routinely being busted by undercover cops for soliciting sex or buying drugs. It was almost a thing to read the newspaper on Monday morning to see which devote, Bible thumping, conservative lawmaker had been caught with his hands in one of the cookie jars --- so to speak.

Now it's one of the pricier neighborhoods in central Austin and filled with high end retail shops and restaurants. One of three or four epicenters of tourism in the city. And still a lot of fun to walk through. If Austin really needs extra revenue the sheer number of parking meters in this areas should be a huge help...

The rain picked up a bit. My previous dose of coffee was wearing off. My hat was getting soaked. It was time to head home through the traffic generated by the 100,000+ people who'd come to watch a football game at UT Austin. And I needed to make sure I had some presentable clothes for later. A nice dinner out with the spouse. A dressier location. Might even spiff up the shine on those shoes...

Here's some more: 

I just missed these two young women taking selfies while holding a tray of pastries. 

I'm not too shy so I asked them if they would do the selfie thing all over again. 

They did. And I photographed them. And they were happy. And so was I. 

Glad NOT to have been wearing felt hat out in the rain. 

Wet felt hats always smell funky in the car on the way home...

Office window at the Hotel San José. 

And a  walkway between rooms below...

I always thought this was a fun car. 

In other news:

MJ at TOP is doing a fundraiser: details:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-online-photographer-would-like-to-relaunch

if you like to read his writing about photography (and other stuff) you

might consider making a donation to the cause...

Just sayin.