You've got to hand it to vintage lenses. In concert with black and white camera settings they make something as mundane as a mannequin's hand seem mysterious and somehow consequential.

 

I've walked by the poorly merchandized shop where this mannequin has languished in the window for several seasons. Each time before I had my camera set to record color. I had a lens on the front that was contemporaneously vying for world class status. But I never noticed the photograph lurking there. Then, when I went down the same street again but with the purpose of making black and white images firmly in mind the photo pretty much leapt out at me and said, "Hello."

Even though I was shooting with a micro four thirds camera the longer focal length of the lens (60mm) and the close camera to subject distance allowed for a depth of field shallow enough to effectively separate the hand from the dress in the background. 

The Panasonic G9 has a black and white setting called L. Monochrome. I start with this setting and then I tweak it to taste. For me that means adding one step more of contrast, one step more of sharpening and dropping the noise reduction down by two steps. I also set the "filter" to YL (yellow) to darken skies. Finally, the camera lets me add grain to the files. I choose the lowest setting. 

Once I get the image into Lightroom I do add a bit more contrast and open up the shadows a bit.

I like what I get in my straight out of camera Jpegs. They just need a tiny bit more camera tweak. I guess I could do it all in camera but I might have to slow down my walking pace and my shooting pace to tweak stuff for each individual frame. I'd rather walk fast and enhance images in post. 

But the important thought I was dancing around today is how my setting of the camera (defining it as, at the time, a black and white camera) came to influence what I chose as subject matter. The brain is a tricky collaborator. It takes some stuff literally....

When I take photos in downtown Austin I like to pay attention to signs. Store signs. Sale signs. Informational signs. And signs from the universe...

At some point last week I was brushing up on my relationship with the Panasonic G9 camera. A camera that is actually too good. I actually say that because no matter what lens I put on it and no matter how I handle it the camera does everything perfectly and becomes completely transparent. I feel inadequate. I feel like I don't need to put any effort into making a great shot because the camera is quietly busy just making me look good. If you ever engineer a relationship like that with a camera I'm going to suggest you keep the camera. You might be tempted elsewhere and sell it off to pursue some flashy, bejeweled unicorn of a camera but you'll end up wanting that other, special camera back and you'll have to pay for it all over again. 

Anyway, I was trundling along with the G9 and an old, favorite standby, the Olympus Pen FT 60mm f1.5. And for some reason I felt compelled to photograph just about every funny sign I came across. The one just above is of a perennial sign in front of a cute little boutique that sells women's clothes. Some times the content of their sign is straightforward and at other times it just makes me smile. I originally photographed this one head on, looking down the street, but I circled back around and made this shot at an angle because I though the mildly out of focus store was more interesting than an empty street. 

I came across the image just above at the very end of my walk and it just struck me as so funny; two women just playing around with their teeth. It's too literal, too obvious. And I think that what makes it humorous for me. The mind wonders... were they picking spinach out of their teeth? Was there a flossing failure that day? And why does the person on the left need two hands while the person on the right only needed one? Unsolvable mysteries, I guess. 

The two signs in the restaurant window were one above the other. They seem to be telling passersby that because they are currently closed it's okay to urinate (or worse) in the planters just opposite the sign... I can't look at the duo of signs without a grin on my face. I'm an easy audience...

And finally....the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young advice for the pandemic. Shades of the 1970's.

 

Back at work and having a really good time. Getting productive in different ways.

I touched base with last week's client yesterday. Just a check in to see how they are dealing with 938 very large image files. They are doing the post process retouching and I'm always kind of amused when I hear about "how big the files are!!!" Of course, we covered this in our proposal and our pre-production meetings so I'm not sure what they were expecting. 

On the other hand they seem to really love the files because of the endless detail contained therein. And the sharply focused back edges of the product photos make it so much easier to do perfect subject selections.

I always like to do an "after action" report to myself when I've finished a project so I can make changes to the way I operate; if necessary. Sometimes the after action reports are just good reminders of how you did something on a shoot so you can replicate the production technique for the same company when you get invited back for another round.

One thing I wasn't sure of before last week was how seriously our clients would take the health considerations that come along with the pandemic. People do have a tendency to get fatigued and let their guard down as things like Covid-19 drags on. But I have to give all four of my clients of the past ten days high marks for good natured compliance with mask wearing, distancing and hand sanitizing. In retrospect I should have guessed that a huge radiology practice and a bio-tech company that's fully immersed in making testing equipment just for this kind of public health emergency would come with a heightened awareness and a mindfulness of the important protocols. 

While I know I would never attempt to photograph a sales convention or a wedding in the current time frame I am becoming much more comfortable getting back to work with medical practices, large corporations and also the folks at the theater. They are all taking prevention steps seriously. I am too.

In some ways the seriousness of the situation seems to have been good for more proven performers in the business. I think larger companies who still have cash in the coffers are understandably reticent to take chances on less established providers of photography and video production. Their way of thinking about it is that it's better to pay a bit more and get everything done right the first time than it is to save a few dollars but potentially need to do parts of jobs over again. One of my clients also remarked that a fast and sure working methodology means that everyone involved in an assignment has less overall exposure to each other and also that many parts of a project require less client supervision. That means more potential safety for everyone. 

In the part of last week's shoots that involved photographing product our client stayed out of the shooting studio until we had a product set up, lit correctly, polished and cleaned and a test shot up on the laptop screen. We'd call them in to see and approve the shot, or give us feedback. Once they approved, or improved our understanding of the concept, they exited our space and went back to work on something else (making them more efficient). With less experienced photographers there would need to be more interaction and supervision along with more exposure between client and photo crew. It's a pertinent and valuable selling point. 

Thanks for the suggestions on keeping masks fog free. I'm experimenting with some of the methods and will report back about which ones work for me.

Zach Theatre News: My marketing specialist and partner in video over at Zach Theatre had a successful hour and a half online meeting yesterday to iron out all of the tech details for the project we find ourselves totally immersed in right now. We're essentially producing creative modules for a part live/part pre-recorded online fundraising show that will happen on September 26th. 

We wanted to do a "detail" call without the rest of the team on the line to slow things down. We covered the basic storyboards he created for the three projects and we discussed the scheduling logistics involved. Some of the scenes include up to 30 people, dancing and singing as they move across a bridge and head toward the theater. We spent time trying to figure out how to keep chatty actors socially distanced, how to handle craft service, and most importantly how to film the sequences. How many cameras to use. How many medium shots versus tight CU shots. How to handle syncing the actors with the (pre-recorded) music. 

And even the minutia of which frame rate to use and which codec will work best for the large amount of editing that will need to be done in a short time frame. And who will start the city permit process and who is in charge of providing insurance for the public area shoots. 

While the theatre's creative team deals with casting, scheduling and rehearsing actors I've gotten hold of a preliminary B-roll list. Since the "big shot" of the 30+ actors on the bridge will take place on an early morning I'm trying to shoot all the B-roll to match the time of day. I've scheduled myself to do 30 or 40 quick shots all over Austin around the same time of day. It works out well. I can swim until the sun comes up, grab coffee and then get a handful of shots each day before breakfast. 

We settled on using the S1 cameras with the V-Log upgrades. A lot of our shots will be in full sun and I felt that working in V-Log would help us keep the highlights intact. We're testing now to make sure our editor is comfortable with a basic LUT and his ability to color grade the files. We're still going back and forth on whether to shoot 4K or 1080p. The 4K gives more flexibility and it sounds sexy to the marketing director but we're also looking at "day of" bandwidth requirements for uploading and streaming on Facebook and YouTube. Might just shoot the big, wide opening numbers in 4K and save the heavy lifting on the close ups...

I just finished up buying variable ND filters for all the different lens diameters. Those 82mm filters can get pricey... 

I hope we're able to raise a bunch of money with the online show. I'm happy to be shooting video. I'm even happier not to have to edit it. (But, in a pinch I'm a soft touch to take at least one part of their hands). 

Swim News: We're into week thirteen of socially distanced masters swimming and so far we've had no cases of Covid-19 emerge. We still get our temps taken each morning before hitting the water and we still wear our masks to the pool edge. The big new is that with the kids going (virtually- in our district) back to school we're able to change up and add to some of the practice times. 

We're ending the 6 a.m. workouts and shifting to 7 - 8 a.m. and a second workout from 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. And we're adding a noon hour workout Tuesday-Friday. This should ease up on the pool "traffic."

We got in 3,000 yards in our 55 minute slot today and everyone was in good spirits and seems to have returned to their pre-CVD-19 swim endurance and performance. I can hardly wait to lard in some noon swims just to ramp up my vitamin D intake/metabolism. 

Finally, I was just about to buy another pair of clear goggles since the 6 a.m. swim is mostly in darkness but the revelation that the swims are changing schedule means I can save that money and put it towards new lenses.... (that's a joke).

Errata: I have two Japanese Maple trees on the property and the bigger one has branches that are in sun for most of the day. It's been over 100° here for days and some of the leaves are getting sunburnt, shriveling up and dying. The tree isn't too tall; about 12 feet at its highest point, and most of the branches are fairly low --- especially the branches with the sunburnt leaves.

I've taken to setting up a couple of C-Stands and topping them with 50 inch diameter diffusion disks. I go out from time to time and adjust the diffusers based on the position of the sun (as it move around the earth -- at least that's what Fox News says...) and the tree seems to exude a sense of relief at my intervention. I also read up on Japanese Maples and discovered that they like damp, moist soil. Who doesn't? So I have sprinklers on them early in the day. Fingers cross that they make it through the hot spell. 

Lighting: Does anyone have experience with the new Godox VL150 and VL300 LED lights that came out recently? They've gotten great reviews from Curtis Judd and also from Gerald Undone (both on YouTube and both smart/ non-time-wasting reviewers) and I'm thinking of ordering a couple for higher output stuff -- like lighting up the stage at Zach for this project (usual lighting crew all furloughed). If you've them and either love em or hate em, please let me know. 

Another noon call today and them I'm free to roast in the heat. May even take yet another walk. They don't seem to last much past the day you take them.

I get all excited about buying new stuff. Then I take the old stuff out for a walk and wonder when it suddenly got so good...

My apologies. This post was supposed to be about me finding out just how good the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art lens is and how going out and using it on Sunday retarded my passion to run out and get the 40mm Art lens that everyone says is currently the best lens in the universe.... I also wrote a bunch of stuff about using the lens and the S1R body together. 

But then, when posting, I accidentally posted over the good copy with an older post that had....no copy. 

If I have time this afternoon I'll try to reconstruct. But for now, these were all taken with the 35mm f1.4 and I liked the results very much. Thanks! (the non-infallible) Kirk

 

Just out surfing in the Sunday (non) traffic. Latest count; city of Austin now has over 1 million residents.

We have no surf to speak of in Austin and we are hours from even the most placid beachfront but I admire those people I come across who just radiate optimism. Heading over to South Congress Ave. to surf?

 

OT: Virtual meetings suck. We might need to do business this way right now but the computer app-driven meetings uniformly suck. And the coffee is bad too...

Face of photographer getting ready for video conference,

There we are on a call with our client here in Austin, a couple of his co-workers linking in from NYC and a few more from Seattle. We're talking about an upcoming project that started life as a really simple series of still lifes and proceeds, even now, to grow in scope and complexity by leaps and bounds. 

It all starts innocently enough. You've had a phone meeting with an art buyer and you've gotten a shot list and sent along a successful bid. You've nailed down the shooting days on the calendar. You've done this a thousand times and you're going through your own check list to make sure you can deliver everything you said you would. Then you get the e-mail from your direct client asking/inviting/insisting that you need to be on a call with "a handful of people" just to make sure everyone is "on the same page..." but they never are.

You've mastered FaceTime, and Zoom, and a few other virtual meeting software applications but the client tosses you a new one that requires: 1. You download and install an app that demands, almost at gunpoint, that you agree to a Tolstoy-length T.O.S. You are compelled to give over control of your computer's microphone and camera. And they would very much like to use your GPS info to "locate" you. And the company that makes the app is sinister and almost universally disliked...

All that stuff gets tossed into your machine and then, about ten minutes before the "call?" you try out the link your person sent along. Oh Lordy! It goes to a 403 screen and shoves you into a downward spiral of asking you to....download and install the program-again and again. You do this a couple of times before you pick up an actual phone and verify the link. But you get voicemail so you punt to texting. And two minutes before the meeting goes live your person responds, apologizing for sending a damaged link and now providing one that looks nothing like the old one. 

Person number three in Seattle can't figure out how to get their microphone to work for a while but it's obvious that this disfunction is not obvious --- to them. Someone finally texts them and, after a minute or two of frenzied activity their audio gets fixed. When they finally come onto the call with full service interactivity you find that they are the modern equivalent of that art director you experienced a while back when shooting for an arduous annual report. There was a model in the A.R. who reflected the "lifestyle" of their product. At the planning meeting some time was spent discussing wardrobe and it was decided that the blue, broadcloth, button down shirt was the best option. But when the shoot got closer you got a request to have available, and to shoot, with a pink shirt, a blue shirt, a white shirt, a striped shirt and...."just for fun" a forest green, polo shirt.  When we multiplied the choices by the number of people in the shots we found that there could be 24,969 possible combinations. And I'm betting the art director would have doggedly tried them all; if not for the timely intervention of a wiser client!

I guess when meetings become virtual and all engagement comes from a screen it seems like a video game and encourages people to ask for the moon. 

The call continues and I try to keep track of everyone in tiny windows along the bottom of the screen. 

All the people involved in the call are in the marketing and advertising field and yet their screens represent the worst "production values" I have see yet on a multi-player call. One person is sitting with his back to a window effectively silhouetting him entirely. Another person seems to have achieved sharp focus on the bulletin board in the background of her office but is so out of focus that we're not sure where her eyes end and her nostrils start. Or whether she has hair or is wearing a sickly hued yellow bowl, turned upside down, on her head. And yet another person seems to be making his appearance via a 1992 laptop which is currently delivering about 192 pixels (total) of resolution. 

Even though we've all received the same briefing package, delivered as a .PDF days ago, we engage in the strange ritual of reading along through the entire document together. With that done the person who originally had audio issues begins the part of the call that every freelance image maker should dread. It starts with...."So, we need three different views of the new router and I see that we've included that on the brief but I'd like to show some of the accessories too. Could we do each angle with and without the charger, with and without the accessory antenna, with and without the packaging it comes in? Would that be okay? I mean, as long as we're there.... And then finally a group shot for each product showing the antenna, the power supply and the packaging altogether?"

Since we're going to be dropping the product out to white and compositing in new screens the bulk of the real work isn't necessarily the extra time spent photographing it's the extra time in post production, that the client doesn't see, that frightens me. But it's also the fact that all the permutations will effectively double the time we've estimated and should, at least, double the budget that's been approved so far. 

The art buyer and I talk them off the ledge and explain how much the budget will need to expand and wonder if she will approve it out of her budget. She relents. But she chews her gum more quickly...

By the end of most of these calls I'm confused, bored, frustrated and wracked with new anxiety. Half an hour later I'm ready to call my direct contact and surrender the field entirely. But instead I just demand a complete dictionary of his particular company's incessantly used acronyms and gird myself for the big event. 

And each time I hit the button to hang up, whether it's from a chatty social Zoom call with fellow swimmers or an hour long video slugfest with an ad agency, I end up swearing that I'll never participate in a "virtual meeting" again. Ever. 

And then I get the e-mail with the iCal icon that asks me/invites me to join in. Seems like one of those horrible new added steps in life. Reminds me of the early days of Power Point.... (shudders at the memory....).

face of photographer after eight way video conference.

If you've already retired from the workplace I'm sure you'll respond with how great Zoom calls are because now you can keep up with grand kids and old friends. And if that was the only use I'd praise it too. But like most things/inventions pressing them into the flow of business is just painful.

Another way to do meetings....which were already mostly a waste of time.

Biggest unexpected inconvenience of getting back to work. Comfort.

Ben before becoming a professional writer.

You know me. I never complain. And this last week I was pretty darn happy to be back at work. It wasn't about the paycheck, that was a very secondary consideration. No, I like being busy, I love the problem solving of making more complex photographs for corporations and professional practices, and having jobs gives me more sense of purpose than sitting home working on some hobby or crusade.

I was very happy to do a three day project for a very tech forward company and even happier to be able to include Ben. Working with your post college-aged kid on an assignment is fun and satisfying. He had the flex in his schedule and I needed someone I could count on as an assistant and a second set of eyes and hands.

I could not have been more pleased to be "back in the saddle" with the Panasonic cameras (which I am coming to believe represent the last of the truly professional cameras in the market --- the S1 system....). The cameras were absolutely suited to this sort of higher budget work since reliability, repeatability and overall quality are much more important priorities than how many frames per second one can shoot or how tenaciously the AF can lock on with a handheld camera and a fast moving subject. I might think differently if I was a sports photographer. But I'm not.

The ability to generate highly detailed files of products via the multi-shot, hi-res feature is valuable. To hand over perfect files that can weigh in at over 300 MB is remarkable. The other joy across three days was just how competent and beautiful the results from my collection of Panasonic and Sigma Art lenses really are. I know that many reviewers split hairs and try to quantify how many Zeiss engineers can dance on the head of a pin but I also know now that after you've hit a certain level a lot of the really good lenses on the market are within a percentage point of each other for actual performance. At any rate it's nice to work with comfortable tools that deliver professional/well balanced results.

We also enjoyed the good and happy collaboration of our client who made both Ben and I feel more like friends than vendors. Working in a largely empty space, along with truly professional partners is a joy unto itself. And when we're all of the same mind on a project the work just seems to flow.

So, after all this written Kumbaya what have I found to complain about? In short, it's the discomfort of working for long periods of time with a face mask.

Having been to college, studied hard in many science courses, and having a subscription to Medscape, I very much understand the absolute need for everyone in the USA to be wearing face masks in all public settings and especially indoors. I totally get it. When I go out I have a mask on my face and a back-up mask in my pocket. I won't work next to people who don't take the relatively easy protection protocol seriously. If you want to walk around with your nose sticking out of your mask I guess that's up to you but please don't stand anywhere near me!

My discomfort with masks that are used over the course of eight hours is nothing psychological and certainly nothing ideological. If I can master just one negative thing about wearing a mask I'll be in good shape for future jobs. Here's the deal:

If you wear glasses and wear almost any approved mask your glasses will invariably fog up when you work in air conditioned spaces. When your glasses fog up you can't see to inspect a product or look at the review results of a photographic exposure on your laptop screen! I developed a few workarounds to help make the work flow but none are optimal. I can only imagine that it will be even worse when working in freezing weather as well!!!

So, in an air conditioned studio, working on very precisely focused and highly detailed product shots, the EVF of the camera becomes a big and very important feature. If you can set your diopter to a useful correction and use the EVF well you can work that part of the process (accurately manually focusing your camera and lens) without glasses. I could and that was a big plus for me. All the critical focusing was done with my eye riveted to the EVF of the S1R. In this use case the 5.75 megapixel, super clean EVF was the most superior way of working I could find. I took off my glasses and magically, no fog. 

Could I have worked with a 2.74 or 3.68 megapixel finder instead? Sure, but if I can work with a better finder experience why wouldn't I?

If I looked at the computer screen with my regular glasses (bi-focals) I would invariably get fogged lenses because I was breathing but also I had my head tilted down to see the computer which caused any escaping breath to go straight up to the cooler surface of my glasses. I found I could do better by using a very small profile pair of reading glasses instead of my regular glasses. There was less surface area to capture my moisture laden breath and more ventilation around the lenses. I tossed the regular glasses in the gear case and spent the of the time looking through the EVF with no glasses and at the computer with cheap, small profile reading glasses. This was the best way for me to work.

There is a difference, as far as comfort goes, between various kinds of masks. The two highest rated that are not N95 masks are the standard, three ply surgical masks that come in various shades of blue. These are meant to be disposable, one use masks. You'll want to brush your teeth often unless you really want to come to grips with how grungy your breath can get by the end of the day if your oral hygiene is vague....

The second highest rated face masks are the three ply cloth masks that people are making but which are also available commercially. 

I started the first day with a black, three ply cloth mask because it fits so well and doesn't move around as much as the surgical masks when I speak. But the cloth masks muffle voices more, making it hard to give and receive direction. They also heat up more quickly and tend to get damp from the repeated deposits of condensation from your breathing. 

By the end of the day with the cloth mask I was pretty miserable. It was also a day of trial and error for glasses and visibility. The next day I switched to a surgical, disposable mask and it made a big difference in my ability to work efficiently. That, and the reading glasses reduced the discomfort level down into the readily manageable category. 

By the third day we had all this nailed down and we were humming right along. Masks came off only during socially distanced coffee breaks and the lunch meal. Fortunately those events took place in a large lobby area with very tall ceilings and were attended by only four people.

So, with the right mask, the right glasses and a stellar, state-of-the-art EVF I was able to work with nearly as much fluidity and efficiency as we have in the past. You get used to stuff. When you know it's important it's even easier to get used to.  Interesting to think about but I may have just written the first "review for photographers" about face masks and masking methods during interior, commercial photo shoots. 

At the end of the second and third days I tossed my used mask into the "bio-hazard" waste bin, washed my hands (again and again) and pulled out a second mask to use exiting the building and chatting in the parking lot. I see masks falling into the same category as paper towels. Use and toss. Add a bit to the invoice for replenishing and move on. 

If you don't want to wear a mask at work you probably aren't going to be invited to work at the same companies we're servicing and I certainly won't be hiring or working with you either. No matter what you think your "rights" are. Your rights legally, morally and ethically happen to end at the interface of public domain and private property. 

Don't let (flawed) ideology kill your business. Learn, adapt, profit.