A Non-Linear wrap-up of the last three days. And what I bought myself for an end of the year present.

Belinda creating table decor with free rosemary. 

On Thursday, early afternoon, Ben and I drove out to Dripping Springs, Texas to Emmett and Lisa's Christmas Eve open house. Lots of people who I swim with were there with their families and friends. Ben got into a long conversation with an old friend who makes his living as a child psychiatrist while I took photos of Emmett (famous chef and restauranteur) using a saber to pop the tops off fancy Italian sparkling wine. Emmett and Lisa are the owners (totally hands-on) of Asti Trattoria which is my absolute favorite restaurant in all of central Texas. 

I knew Emmett was going to do something like use a saber to decapitate wine bottles so I brought along a camera and appropriate lens. It was a Lumix S1 and the 24-105mm kit lens. The perfect choice for a sunny afternoon out in the Hill Country.

Ben survived his interrogation conversation unscathed in time for us to head back home and help Belinda get ready for our Christmas Eve Celebration with a family of close friends. We made a standing rib roast which I think was a tactical error. Oh, it was delicious and everything but if you have a nicely marbled hunk of beef you'll be shocked at the sheer amount of grease that ends up on the bottom of the pan, on the cutting board, etc. As designated cleaner I now have an appreciation of just how labor intensive kitchen work can be. 

A good selection of red wines and Champagnes was a nice antidote to the very thought of my impending role as head dishwasher....

I photographed Belinda putting together sprigs of Rosemary with the Lumix S1 and the Zeiss 50mm f1.7 Y/C lens, wide open. (it was such a "wide open" sort of day). 

We ate and talked and laughed and sang until late in the evening and then, after our friends headed home, all settled down for a long winter's nap. 

A blue Santa in the window at Toy Joy.

On the 23rd I took a bit of time to go walk downtown to see if any pretty baubles caught my eye and would make nice gifts. I came home almost empty handed but did manage to take one photograph that I liked. It's the one just above of a plastic Santa in a blue costume. I love all the lights and colors in the background and captured this image with the Lumix S1 and the Sigma 45mm f2.8 (shot at f4.0).

As we say in Texas: "This here is Emmett, fixing to whack the top off a bottle of wiiiiiine."

I've been carrying the big Lumix S1 cameras and the even bigger lenses around for a couple of months now and they've done a great job but they left me desiring a small and discreet kit to carry around with me on long walks and in social situations in which five or six pounds of big, black camera gear seems to be a little out of place.

You probably read my musings about the possibility of adding a Lumix LX100 ii to the herd but I swerved after conferring with my retail camera consiglieri and carefully comparing the LX100xx and its sister camera, the Lumix GX85. For $900 I could buy the little fixed lens marvel but, with a current Panasonic end of year sale I could get the GX85 and two Lumix lenses for.....get this.....$449. 

I spent an hour at the store today, going back and forth and walking around shooting stupid stuff with each camera. The GX85 was the definite choice. Don't get me wrong, I loved most of the ethos of the LX100xx but the GX85 stepped up when I reminded myself that I had saved my complete collection of Olympus Pen FT half frame lenses from the chopping block during my last studio equipment purge. 

The GX85 can use those lenses (easily) since the mount (with lens adapter) is perfect for them. So, for less than $500 I end up with a body, a 45-150mm G Vario zoom and a 12-32mm G Vario zoom lens. I came right home and put the 40mm f1.4 Pen FT lens on the camera and I've been walking around, happy, ever since. 

Guess what? The GX85 menus are so similar to the S1 menus that I had the camera set up and ready to go in about 10 minutes. Bonus. 

I have time for a few more blog posts in 2019 so stay tuned. Or not. Your choice, but I won't be changing editorial content to please you.....

Love. Actually. Is so much cooler than cameras. I can't believe I just wrote that....

What's on my wish list for Santa? What are my chances?

From "Christmas Carol" at Zach Theatre.

So, here we are, the day before Christmas Eve. I'm having six or eight people over for dinner tomorrow evening and we decided to buy an eight foot collapsible table to handle the overflow. Belinda found one at Walmart.com and ordered it online for at store pickup. I haven't shopped at Walmart....ever. But I had a huge load of prejudices against the chain of stores: They've ruined small town retail, they have a huge employee base and many of them are on Medicaide because they aren't paid enough to buy health insurance, the majority of their inventory is cheap crap from China, they are a shopping nexus for all the people with MAGA hats, and so much more. But here's the deal, the store nearest us was clean, modern and well appointed. The waiting area for online pickups had nice chairs and pleasant employees. Everyone was helpful. The service was prompt. Someone even offered to carry the table out to my car. I left with a much modified impression of my most local Walmart... Go figure. Not going to be a regular stop on my shopping agenda....but....

We went to our local grocery store to pick up our grass fed, organic, standing prime rib roast for tomorrow's dinner and I found myself thinking I could have bought a new lens for the same price. Odd; food and lenses priced in the same range. Of course, it would not be a pricy lens, nor would it be organic but still... Might not be wise to shop often at a store where one fights for a parking space with Bentley and Maserati owners.....

I got stuff done today that had nothing to do with photography. I bought a few last minute presents for family. I cleaned the main bathroom (and I mean I cleaned!!! Scrubbed the floor, scrubbed the toilet, scrubbed the sink, made the bathtub look brand new. I also washed the kitchen floor (Saltillo tile) and did a couple loads of laundry. I hit the wine shop and impoverished myself rounding up something for everyone on our dinner list. 

But the most important thing I did was to ignore all the other things on my "to-do" list and hightail it over to the Deep Eddy pool for a frosty, refreshing, noon swim with my friends, Emmett and Julie. The water was a brisk 72 degrees but it was made more manageable by an air temperature around 70 degrees and a beautiful, sunny sky. I was in a hurry so I got in my 3200 yards and got back to (domestic) work.  (Our regular pool is closed---much to our chagrin---from now until Friday!!!! Grrrr.). 

As I was swimming along, trying to keep some feeling in my freezing toes, I started to think about what I might want for Christmas.... if there is a Santa Claus.

I made a list just in case someone out there has been torturing themself trying to figure out what to get me for being such an adorable and entertaining human. Let's go through the list. It's short. Call me if you need the shipping address. Okay?

I've been thinking of getting a new compact camera and I've narrowed my choices down to the Lumix LX 100ii or the Lumix LX 100ii. Either will do fine. My rationale? A good lens range, a small, nearly pocketable overall package, and a menu that's similar enough to the S1s that it won't cause my headaches. Reviews tell me that the 4K video is actually decent (no mic or headphone jacks) and that the color is a good match for the S1s and G9 in the Panasonic family. It's not ruinously expensive like a Leica and it's kind of on sale for about $100 off. If you decide that this is what you'd like to send along, Santa, then can I also request a second battery? I love back-up batteries.... 

I don't know why but after using some of these enormous lenses I've purchased for my Lumix S1 and S1R cameras I'm desiring one more big and over-engineered lens. The one I'm looking at right now...two days before Christmas.... is the Sigma 40mm f1.4 Art lens for the L mount. Sure, I have the 35mm Art lens and the breathtaking 50mm Lumix S Pro lens (which they sell by the pound...) but for some reason my avaricious brain is trying to convince me that it would be great to have something somewhere in the middle. You know, when your camera bag just isn't heavy enough and you're paralyzed trying to decide between the 50 and the 35. 

The 40mm Sigma Art lens is supposed to be made to cinema lens standards (whatever that means) and according to those guys over at LensRentals.com it's wicked sharp and has an MTF curve that would pop the pennies off a dead man's eyes. Gotta have it. It will go well with the featherweight Sigma 45mm f2.8 and will allow me to select middling primes in 5 mm increments. What could be more artistic? (Tuck as never heard of cropping!!!?).

For all those times that I want to travel without the massive density of the assorted primes I thought I might also like the new Panasonic 24-70mm f2.8 S Pro lens. I handled one recently and it's less than half the weight of the 50mm f1.4 and is right snappy when it comes to focusing and handling. Yeah, I know it seems a bit over the top. Especially since I already have the 24-105mm f4.0 kit lens and have found it to be really, really good. But what are you going to do? The Think Tank rolling case knows what it wants to coddle....

If you had a banner year and you're just splashing cash all over the place you could impress the hell out of me with the gift of a Leica SL 90mm Apo Summicron. Really, for as good as that lens is the folks at Leica are basically just giving them away. Sharp and imbued with enormous character it could be the "break through" lens I've been searching for (in vain) for all these many decades. It might help me unleash my (until now) hidden talent as a photographer. If that doesn't work it will still look good when I saunter into those ASMP meetings or dangle it over my shoulder at a Photo Expo. 

I'll probably leave the price tag on it just so people who don't know the brand will understand just how cool it is.....

Oh heck. If we're looking at getting me 90mm Summicrons from Leica we might as well just pull the Band-Aid right off and go for the sweet pairing of the Leica SL2 and the 50mm Apo Summicron. No. No, it is not possible to have too many 50mm lenses. Let it go. It's my fantasy. Maybe I'll sell some under-performing lens in the inventory to make room ---- but probably not.

I realize that $10K is a bit much to ask for but I'm sure a couple of you might want to pitch in together and make it happen. Just don't ask Belinda to contribute to the fund; I've already made that mistake...

So, Then reality kicks in and I tell you what I'm really looking for at Christmas: A new, winter swim cap. That's really about it. All I can handle right now. 

Anybody out there getting something great (camera or lens-wise) for the Holidays? It's the perfect time to rationalize raiding the retirement account... No. Really!