Jeepers. Do I really need more dynamic range? Should I drop all other considerations and rush towards the camera with the biggest dynamic range?

Lighthouse via Panasonic G9.

I recently made some portraits on a remote location. The light was interesting. We were on the verge of a winter storm and the thick, swirling clouds acted as multiple diffusers. There was little difference between the quantity of light in the shadows and that in highlight areas. What was missing was not dynamic range but rather interesting light for portraits. The prevailing light was great for all the foliage and mountains (and fog) in the background but rather flat on my subjects' faces. I added a light from one side in order to provide some directional illumination which made the portraits much more interesting. But I never thought for a second that the solution to getting a great image was dynamic range. In fact, in situation after situation, over six weeks time, I might have faced bright sun, rainy days and the golden glow of magic hour but I never stopped and said to myself, "If only I had a stop or two more dynamic range."  

I'm speaking from experience as a portrait photographer, not a landscape photographer, but the thing I find in just about every photography situation is the need to add light or control the direction of light in order to control how the images look. If your main concern with dynamic range is your desire not to burn out highlights I suggest that you engage the blinking highlight indicators in your camera's menu and use them as a guide to set the right exposures. Problem solved. Aha! But what about blocking up detail in the shadows? In most situations you can fill the shadows more convincingly with a reflector fill since bringing up all the highlights via a slider control in post opens the shadows everywhere in the frame. That kind of manipulation creates a flatter file overall which is contrary, I think to the way we imagine photographs should look. Just because you can pull up shadow areas with sliders doesn't mean you are adding any information in those darker areas, you are just flattening the overall file and creating a contrast curve that, to my eye, appears unnatural.

In the days when most cameras had dynamic ranges of 7 to 8 stops the mania for increased range was understandable. Now that we have cameras which can capture more range than a monitor or print will be able to even show it's become as much of a red herring as demanding 16 bit files for images that will mostly be displayed on 6 bit phone screens. You can already map your current 11-14 stops across the 6 stops of your monitor in any way you please. Do you really need to condense down even more discrete tones in order to be happy? I don't. 

At the top of this blog post is an image of a lighthouse. It's lit by the sun. One side is in shadow. Nothing got lost. No burned highlights. No crushed, black shadows. There are so many controls to help you get the contrast curve you need in camera for success, it's just up to you to practice good exposure technique and make sure you are putting your rich supply of tones into the correct exposure slots in order to reproduce them the way you want them. Most extra dynamic range is lost in process. 

Get everything right in camera and your file will be better than those from someone who depends on the available "slop" in a raw file to compensate for lack of technical discipline. 

Don't get me started on white balance......

Some blacks are blocked up in this shot. That's intentional. It adds to the graphic quality I was aiming for in the black and white file. Deep, dark shadows are NOT evil. They are graphic elements. 

Another sunny day in urban paradise. Another perfect walk with a camera. Another perfect camera and lens combination.

It's been a pretty nice day around here in Austin, Texas. I got up and went to swim practice and our coach put up a whimsical "12 Days of Christmas" set. As you can imagine we swam sets of 12, 11, 10....etc. distances until we finished with a leisurely 600 yard semi-sprint. We didn't get too much yardage in over the hour and a half but we did get in a lot of zany sprints. At coffee one of our long time swimmer/coffee klatch comrades handed out Starbucks gift cards to everyone in attendance. My swimmer friend Nancy brought everyone ample, pre-packaged servings of her rightly famous bourbon balls. John brought a treasure trove of witty bumper stickers and encouraged everyone to take a few. 

After our coffee I headed home to check in on Boy, Mom and Studio Dog. We headed to our favorite hamburger place for a fun Saturday lunch (a twenty year tradition). Yes, the parents (mostly me) interrogated Ben about the progress of his job..... We're only human. But he takes everything in stride and managed to share a few nuggets (of information, not "nugget" nuggets). 

Since the sun was shining and the thermal measuring device showed 81 degrees Fahrenheit I figured it was high time for a cleansing walk through the streets of downtown Austin, Texas so I grabbed a camera and lens and headed out.

Having spent far too much time glorifying the Fuji cameras and lenses lately I decided to revisit one of my favorite and most quirky cameras, the Panasonic GH5S. It's the version without image stabilization and with only 10 megapixel files. Most people just presume it's for video.  But it's also the camera with the perfect viewfinder, and the only Panasonic consumer camera I know of that generates true, 14 bit raw files. When I open the files via Adobe Bridge the info panel tells me they are 16 bit files but I know better. I think. At any rate they always seem to look very, very juicy and swank.

The perfect all around lens to mate with this particular camera is the Panasonic/Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 as it has Panasonic's version of lens based image stabilization and it's nicely sharp and well behaved at just about every setting. 

As I walked in the warm sunshine I was feeling a bit guilty after reading Michael Johnston's column yesterday in which he goes into detail about his arduous toil on his estate. Mowing, leaf mulching and all sorts of manual labors. Even bringing his lawn mower into his house so it will start on frosty days... His post made me feel as though I should get off my lazy butt and get some yard work done. 

But then I remembered that I'd had a run in with a particularly vicious tree saw nearly 20 years ago and at that time, after damaging the hood of my wife's car, destroying a $1,200 pair of Armani eyeglasses and giving myself a cut on my temple that required medical attention, all in the space of about a minute (my very first attempt at tree pruning!) Belinda forbid me to ever work with yard tools, and especially powered tools, ever again. As a result, I've never owned a lawn mower, edging equipment, anything that might mulch something and, of course, no power saws!

We've got a yard guy who has a helper. They come about every two weeks during the verdant months and PRN (as needed) in the winter. They do work around Austin so they've got a good sense of how fast grass is growing and how the leafs are falling at any particular time. While I have had to pay for this service for several decades the secondary benefit (after not having our big yard look ratty and unkempt) is that I am free from spending the time it would take me to do this myself. Time I use to take walks around the city and to play with various cameras. My yard guy also does nice rock work and built us a beautiful retaining wall. He also has all kinds of other gear, including a pressure washer. 

I've hired him to drop by on Friday next week to pressure wash the chimney (exterior, of course) because we had all kinds of issues trying to make efficient fires in the fireplace which generally resulted in lots of smoke and a sooty coating on the exterior rock work, and a relatively recent rationale with which Belinda and I convinced ourselves that burning firewood was increasing our carbon footprint and that we should cease and desist for the sake of the planet. That, and the fact that there are only a handful of days in Austin when a fire might really be appreciated. 

I will think of Michael Johnston the next time my yard guy pulls up in his white truck and I hand him a check on my way out for another leisurely walk; which may or may not include good coffee.

So, how was the camera? Did it live up to my memories of its previous grandeur? Yes. It's the current "cult" camera (wink, wink, nod, nod, secret handshake, etc.) for the Panasonic m4:3 system. Coveted by those in the know as much as a seven element, dual range, Leica 50mm Summicron was in the days of yore.

Swimming, eating, drinking coffee, walking and playing with cameras. Nice vacation. Happy Holidays.

Below: all are from the GH5, shot raw in 14 bit, with the 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 P/L lens. Actual sunny skies.....

Predictions about photography and video for 2019.

Cameras in the wilderness. 

Seems like we always end up the year with a blog post of predictions for the next year. Some of them actually pan out. Some are the stuff of hopeful fantasy. Most predictions are obvious because most of us can't imagine things that don't exist yet. But with that said, here we go: 

The business of photography. 

The world will enter a recession in the first quarter of 2019 which will drive down sales of cameras, lenses and accessories and delay or kill some (unannounced) new product introductions. Stuff that's already in the pipeline will get to the market but overall sales of dedicated photography equipment will decline. This means camera makers will emphasize the products they already have in place in lieu of investing in upgrades. Expect to see Nikon advertise how easy it is to adapt F mount AF lenses to the new mirrorless cameras; they'll need continuing sales of their current lens line to prevent a sharp decline in their bottom line. Look to companies like Fuji, Canon and Sony, all of whom have deep pockets, to try to increase or consolidate market share at the expense of the other players in the camera industry. Coincident with these trends I think we'll see price drops on more luxe products in order for each company to try and cement the loyalty of current customer and to try and effect trial by new customers. The price drop on a camera like the Panasonic G9, and the aggressive pricing of some Sony products shows the way...

The new and improved video and photographic quality available on cellphones like the Apple iPhone 10 XS will erode more and more sales from the bottom tier of dedicated camera makers product lines. More importantly, the capabilities and ubiquity of the phones coupled with the lowered bar for production value on YouTube will make video crew less important for marcom departments nearly everywhere. I predict 2019 will see a decimation of even the idea of an in-house video crew; at most, companies will keep bright young staff as editors and group source most non-critical content from a bevy of phone P.O.V.s. Editing is the one position that's currently safe because good editing counts on lots and lots of work, good decision making and, at least, a modicum of good taste and education. This contraction of professional positions and expansion of corporate "citizen" content creation has been going on for years and will only accelerate, especially when one

I snuck in one more new lens before the end of the year.

Iceland. 2018

Panasonic G9. 

Olympus 12-100mm.

I've really been enjoying the Fuji X-H1. I like the way the shutter sounds and I'm pretty impressed with how quiet it is. I'm not using it in the silent mode either; it's just quiet. I am very satisfied with the EVF too. But the one thing that was missing for me was a good portrait lens. The 55mm lenses are really close but just a little short for a traditionalist like me. The 55-200mm zoom is fine for most of the commercial portraits I'll do; in fact, it's actually a very good lens; not just sharp but also capable of creating images that are, for want of a better phrase, likable. It's just that I was missing that fast, prime 90mm-100mm equivalent focal length and it was important to me. 

After a lot of reading, and a few times playing with lenses that my friends have for their Fuji cameras, I decided to buy the 60mm f2.4. Yes, it's not the fastest focusing lens in the system, and in poor light it can hunt just a bit, but my initial tests show the lens is capable of high resolution and sharpness, coupled with a high image likability quotient. 

I took it out for a spin this afternoon and it rides nicely on the X-H1. 

I've got the studio more or less organized now and I'm ready to start taking portraits on my home turf again so I'll have the opportunity to use the lens in a concentrated burst after next week. 

A word to anyone considering this lens for their Fuji cameras: Huge. The lens hood is huge. But unlike some reviewers I see this as a distinct plus. It's metal, robust, and does a great job blocking all non-image forming light. If you think it's too indiscreet you can always........remove it. I'll keep mine on. Mostly for the theoretical increase in contrast but also because I think it looks cool.

More adventures with the 60mm to come.

OT: What the holidays mean to me has changed so much in the last year.

Martin in the snow. For a Zach Theatre Holiday play.

My family was like most, a bit contentious, a bit nostalgic and always busy, busy, busy. We were all getting ready for Christmas last year and converging on my parent's house. I'd done my usual sloppy job at shopping for presents while Belinda stepped in with her compassionately professional gift-wrapping skills and made my mostly mindless purchases at least presentable. 

On Christmas Eve my mother collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. By December 30th she was gone.

That's when my brother, sister and I realized that our 89 year old father's dementia was much, much worse than my mother had let on. She and a caregiver had been covering up my father's deteriorating mental condition for the last few years...

We all pitched in to help but my brother and sister are both school teachers and couldn't afford to take much time off. On top of that my sister lives in another state and is battling cancer. The responsibility for round the clock care of my father, and also finding a memory care facility for him, fell almost entirely to me. I made funeral arrangements for my mother while microwaving meals for my dad and me. I had my brother come over after school some days to watch my dad while I met with administrators from different "senior living" facilities in order to choose one that was right for him. And I spent hours with our family lawyers, doctors, and my parent's CPA in order to take over as dad's power of attorney while falling into the role of administrator and executor of my mother's estate. I didn't sleep much in January or February and spent most of my time in my parent's house in San Antonio instead of in my comfortable house in Austin. 

Belinda would drive down to bring me care packages of clothes, mail, paperwork, cash and kindness. 

Over the course of the last year I've been down to San Antonio more times than I can count. I've been to visit my dad every Sunday. We have lunch and catch up with news of the family; which he forgets minutes later. I've driven down on many weekdays in order to visit with a probate judge, ferret out paperwork at the house, and meet with other necessary professionals whose office hours don't include weekends. 

This Summer we rushed my dad to the hospital after his remotely monitored pacemaker indicated a few random cardiac arrests!!! I spent a week in the cardiac ICU with him, eating sandwiches from the gift shop and drinking coffee from the nurse's station. I couldn't leave him alone overnight because he became confused, agitated, angry. During that week I also put the family home on the market and, in five days, got a contract to sell. Which required more visits with my realtor, more paperwork, more input from attorneys. Selling a house with power of attorney means jumping through a few more flaming rings than normal...

By the end of the Summer I had figured out where all the essential paperwork of my parent's lives was and secured it. I worked with their three banks and their brokerage to establish my power of attorney to administer for my father. And I realized that I had barely touched my cameras and had worked for income for very few days in the first eight months of 2018. No family leave exists for the owners of small businesses. You pull the money out of your pocket and make due. 

With the house cleaned out and sold, the paperwork largely done, the legal work mostly complete I started reconnecting with clients and friends. I made up for a lot of lost work in the fourth quarter. The universe tossed in some nice jobs. The clients tossed in some nice checks. I missed one Sunday visit with my dad because of my travel schedule but Belinda was there with my dad in my place.

Now we've all hit a temporary stasis and I can reflect back over the year. What have I learned? Have I learned anything? 

Just the same stuff you've probably read many times. Life is short and unpredictable; enjoy it while you can. Adversity teaches you to cherish all the good and quiet moments. Make peace with your parents now because you can't make amends after they're gone. Work is never as important as you think it is --- I never thought I could put aside eight months of income in a year but we're still eating, paying our bills and even occasionally buying a decent bottle of wine. Taking a break from normal existence is an interesting process that showed me what's important in my life and what's not. Having millions of dollars in the bank will NOT prevent dementia, heart attacks, death and other unexpected travails. You can't take it with you. Being in love is a wonderful and miraculous thing. Getting rid of useless stuff now, while you can, is so much better than leaving behind dumpsters full of stuff your kids have to sort through. A good attorney saves not only money but mental and emotional wear and tear. A well written will can be a blueprint to get survivors through a perilous journey. Good relations with siblings is better than gold. The Christmas season can be tough on people; have a bit more patience during the holidays. Give more than you think you'll get. The greatest gift is the gift of time... 

Finally, the greatest gift you can give a loved one is....your time. 

Now, for me, the holidays are all about holding my family together and making sure everyone is taken care of. I see it not as a burden but a privilege. 

Real life does not exempt photographers. 

Just sitting in the twilight thinking about a sunny Summer day at Pedernales State Park, just up the highway from here.

I was surprised when I looked at the file info for this one. It was done with an Olympus EM-5.2 and the dirt cheap Olympus 40-150mm f4.0-5.6. Granted, it was shot at an aperture that makes most lenses look acceptable. I forget sometimes that not every image needs to be shot at the widest aperture on the fastest lens.

I like the Summer look and the wide vista. It's different from most of what I like to photograph.

It's the buying season here and, as a blogger, I'm supposed to torment you with a "TOP TEN THINGS TO BUY" list. I'm late so let's get to this.

"Casting a wide net for the holidays!"

Every website and blog I've visited in December is breathless with "news" about "incredible deals" on the most "amazing" and "must have" gear of the year. Plenty of links to click through. Lots of excitement about new camera models that have "improved" and now provide...27.5 pixels instead of the vastly inferior 26.2 megapixels of resolution.

The bloggers and review sites also hedge their bets, knowing that not everyone can afford to splash out on new, $2K+ cameras for themselves just at the peak of the holiday season. For those unfortunates the sites also have lists of "top ten" accessories, and "top ten" suggestions for online workshops that are more....affordable. I think their goal is to get their readers, viewers, visitors, members, etc. to buy something --- anything --- so the owners of these places on the web don't have to finally learn real skills or get real jobs. Those click throughs just ain't what they used to be....

So, here's my top ten list so I can fit in and not be ostracized at the next blogger convention or blogger holiday party for being a wet blanket (Link for wet blankets).

Number 10: A bottle of inexpensive (but not cheap) wine for your accountant who keeps you from governmental perils and self-inflicted business decision wounds. You want the CPA to return your phone calls and be responsive, right?  (Link for cheap wine with nice labels...).

Number 9: A set of reading super cheap reading glasses that are NOT your prescription. Use these to "evaluate" the sharpness of your camera at 100% and to compare cameras that you are pretty sure you'd like to buy. Put samples from both up on your screen, magnify to 100% and then don on the glasses and begin your evaluation. Extra points if the glasses are from the Goodwill Store and have plastic lenses. This will save you lots of time and trouble learning new menus.

Number 8: I can send you my complete course entitled: How to enjoy a walk with your favorite camera and lens for not very much money at all. In it you'll learn the joys of dropping by your favorite coffee shop, trying to steal a good photograph of a pretty girl/guy out in the wild, how to walk quickly enough to burn calories but not so quickly that you pass by cool stuff to photograph. Bonus: For a limited time only you can learn to bring along a friend, spouse or family member and integrate them into your grand photographic world. (Link for direct payment for walking workshop; includes: video with shoe tying, street crossing tips and more).

Number 7: One of my favorite things, if you just need a smaller gift for yourself, would be gift certificates that you can make for yourself giving yourself the gift of a midday or mid-afternoon nap. Wake up refreshed and ready to show that Alec Soth a thing or two. Naps are also generally indicated if you get to a location too early and you're willing to wait for better light. Tip: all those snazzy phones have alarm clocks built in. Don't worry, you won't miss anything.

Number 6: You desperately need a brand new Hasselblad H6D 100c camera and a couple of lenses. Without this 100 megapixel imaging machine you'll be doomed as a photographer. They're cheaper than the average family car so maybe also get a back-up body!!! You can get one right here.

Number 5: If you aren't already considering a mirrorless camera then you might be falling behind. I'm suggesting that you buy the very best one on the market so you can really enjoy all the new vistas it will undoubtably open up for you. And according to those in the know the best one is THIS ONE.

Number 4: Once you splash out for that mirrorless camera (and really, that's the future of all imaging, right?) you'll need some primo glass to hang off the front. It's well known that bigger, faster lenses are much more impressive to all the people around you as you venture out so I'm going to suggest that you look at something like a 12-1000mm f1.4 from one of the premium lens makers. If you can carry it with you you'll also save on that gym membership you didn't want to purchase. My favorite one to buy is this one: It's very, very dramatic!

Number 3: A serious suggestion. Go out and see live theater as often as you can in 2019 and beyond. You'll learn so much that you can apply to your photography. Sophisticated lighting, practiced gestures, beautiful movement and much more. A handful of show tickets will be entertaining, enlightening and probably less costly than any piece of gear you might have had in mind.... Along the same lines I'd suggest joining as a supporting member of your city's best museum. Can't hurt --- unless they put up and Ed Ruscha photography show.... My fave in Austin is the Blanton. I'll bet your city has a good one too.

Number 2: Another serious suggestion. Buy yourself a plane ticket and go someplace you've always wanted to see but haven't had the guts to splash out for. I traveled a lot in the second half of the year. I saw new stuff. I learned stuff and, after a few weeks off I'm ready to go out on the road again. Maybe if things are slow in January I'll take my own advice and find a cheap flight to Seoul or Lisbon. Maybe just to Mexico City. It really helps your photography if you've got something interesting to point your camera at.

My number one buying suggestion of the season is to get yourself the camera you always wanted. There's got to be one you've always had an unrequited love affair with. Now might be the time to buy it. But don't buy it from one of my links, find a bricks and mortar store that's fun and independent and willing to work hard for your cash. I just bought myself a Fuji X-H1. It's a gateway camera. I'm liking it enough to now start considering their GFX line of medium format cameras. But first I'm going to toss some money here to protect my rights as provided by the Constitution of the United States of America. It's the patriotic thing to do in the season.  

Well there's nothing here that will bring me affiliate cash but I guess you know that's not the point of the VSL blog. It's more about having a platform and a community. We'll kept it running and free if you promise to drop by to read and comment.

That's it for the Holiday Top Ten List. Hope you found something you'd like!!!