The studio gear inventory takes a hit. Yet again.

 I was at the hat shop on S. Congress Avenue again this week. Just walking around with that little Leica CL and that wacky 50mm f0.95 lens I wrote about yesterday. It was a busy retail day and the fine weather pulled people out of their homes and SUVs and sent them out into the wilds of urbania to try their hands at window shopping, zany coffee buying and general passeggiata activities. We'd just say that the sidewalks were packed. I stopped by the hat shop to get out of the stream and because they do such a very, very good job at merchandizing. Even stuff that would look terrible on me looks great on the displays. And I like the way hats look in photographs.

I was lining up a terrific shot when a young woman wearing a beautiful, gray Stetson, classic cowboy hat sidled up and asked me about my camera. I told her it was a Leica CL and she told me that one of her own film cameras was the Leica/Minolta CLE. I asked if she had the original 40mm lens that was generally sold with that camera and she said yes. This, of course, led us down the path of talking photography and all sorts of related topics....like filmmaking. 

As our conversation progressed I learned that she was very interested in film and video and had just taken several courses at a workshop space created by famous Austin movie director, Rick Linklater. At 33 my new photo friend just had resigned from teaching and switched careers, hoping to make photography and movie-making her focus. As we were wrapping up our conversation (because the mannequins are not going to photograph themselves!!!) I remembered that I had three big Nanlite LED panels that I was bent on getting rid of. I asked if she could use some LED lights. She did. 

We met at Medici Coffee in her neighborhood this morning at 9 a.m., chatted about the industry for a while and then I helped her load the three big Nanlites LED panels into her car. I also passed on three stout, air-damped light stands to go with the lights. She was very pleased and most appreciative but not nearly as appreciative as me since I found someone to take stuff off my hands who will really get good use out of the gear. And I now have additional more empty space in my studio. Which was my primary goal. 

While this certainly doesn't fall under the concept of mentoring I'm pretty sure it counts for the concept of helping to support emerging artists. 

It felt good to pass on gear to someone who is clearly on fire about being a visual artist. It feels good to get rid of more stuff. Kind of like the idea of "Swedish Death Cleaning" only more specialized; as in: "Swedish Death Cleaning for Photographers." While I'm not planning on dying anytime soon the basic concept here is to not leave a pile of unwanted stuff for your loved ones to deal with when you exit the fixer of life and go into the print washer of the great beyond. It takes decades of planning, I am told, to do a really clean, archival exit.

More stuff is heading to the chopping block soon. And I'm finding that giving stuff away is like losing weight. You feel better, your space is less cluttered, your pants fit right, you look better and you've winnowed down the number of subroutines your brain needs to make when you need to make choices between different piles of equipment. 

The weather here turned chilly in the middle of the night. It was 80° yesterday. It's going to stay in the 40s all day today. Fine by me. I got to try out a new jacket!