Finally got that appointment locked down. Also took a fun photo with "Willie Nelson." And friends. +Bonus: The SL2 does black and white...

 

I got an e-mail from Austin Public Health at 3:27 p.m. today telling me I have an appointment on Thursday morning, this week, for my second dose of Moderna vaccine. I've had about a dozen friends and acquaintances tell me they got incredibly sick for two days afterwards. Fevers, chills, splitting headaches and dramatic vomiting. But I've got another dozen people who claim they just had sore arms and needed to take a nap the next day. I hope I roll the dice and get the sore arm and the (always welcome) nap. 

I was downtown when I got the message and I was pretty delighted. The appointment will slot in right after my visit with the dermatologist with whom I'll play: guess the mystery bump. I don't really care about the side effects, I'm just happy to be getting the vaccine. Last time I had blood work done the doctor told me I was low on plasma delivered, nano-tracking-bots... But I have been guaranteed that the vaccine will change my DNA --- for the better. Next picture you see of me I'll probably be 6'6" and absolutely ripped. What it really means is that in two more weeks I'll be able to go to the (outside) happy hour with my friend, Debbie K. (You first met her in the Henry White novel...). 

Since I was wasting time waiting for a text or a phone call from APH I had decided to prowl around downtown with the Leica SL2 and the Sigma 45mm lens. I used the lens today in manual focus mode and realized that I really like to shoot that way. I also put the camera into the monochrome mode so I could read comments about how much better everything would have been in color...

To celebrate after I get jabbed Thursday I'm going by the Arepas

shop on Colorado St. for a Mexican Coffee. 

No idea what's in it but that's part of the adventure.

couldn't pass up another photo of my plastic "girlfriend" at the shop 

on Second St.

Even the most caustic and cynical among you will have to admit that

the proportions of camera-to-photographer are perfect.

It's a ratio thing. 

OT: In the waiting mode. Not where I want to be. The perils of decline.

 

My brother and I had a running joke about my parents. His take was that they retired so they'd have all the time they needed for doctors' appointments. Now that I'm over 60 I'm starting to understand that everything doesn't just run according to plan. We become more like older cars that need little (and larger) tweaks and repairs. Lately I feel like a half broken camera that needs an extra dose of duct tape. 

I'm now getting platinum level frequent visitor miles from: My dentist, my dermatologist, and my general practitioner. Nothing is a big, dramatic life or death escapade but more along the lines of the car stereo going in and out of service, or the front alignment needing, well, alignment. Annoying and potentially dangerous, in turn.

About a month and a half ago I went to my G.P. to ask about a smallish spot on my face. He said, "I don't like the look of that one." and sent me along to my dermatologist who said, "hmmmm. we should do a biopsy. Hold still while I slice off part of your face and then cauterize it with some wicked tool." Not long after that he called back to say, "That's a squamous cell something or other and I'm sending you to a MOHS surgery specialist. You'll like him, he's funny. And very good." (I liked the MOHS surgeon; all three of his kids are competitive swimmers).

In the interim I had an ancient crown come off a back molar. Always an unsettling occurrence. So I got in touch with my dentist who looked at the mangled remains of the crown and announced that we'd be doing it over again. Since she is extremely good at dental science and also sings even better than Norah Jones when she does procedures I presented myself on the appointed day to get pierced with a sharp needle delivering numbness, and then drained off part of my checking account to pay for the procedure.

But none of these visits are a closed loop. They all require follow up of some sort or another. You have to go back a week or so later to have the new crown fitted which gives the dentist an opening to say, "Hey, we missed your last regular check up because of the pandemic. What day/date/time works for you?"

But in the meantime I've circled back to the MOHS surgeon for a follow up at which he had nothing but praise for his own good work. And I have to agree with him that I can barely, barely see the scar. Pretty amazing but nonetheless another adventure in meeting with a doctor. Another spell of answering the Covid-19 screening questions for bored receptionist in scrubs. 

But, feeling lucky I signed up for the Moderna vaccine and got jabbed (the one English/U.K. slang I actually like) back on February 10th. I still think it was a good idea but now I'm waiting to hear this week when I will get my second harsh piercing. I pass the time waiting for my appointment to be announced by listening to my friends regale me with their stories of all their gruesome second dose side effects. The one I like least so far is the story of a full overnight session of vomiting.... The splitting headaches are a close second.

But here's the deal. I can't schedule stuff until I know when I'll get the second vaccine dose because I have no idea how I'll react to it. Could be tomorrow. Could be a few days later. But if we're into the middle of next week I'll have to delay it because I've booked a project and the wheels for that are already in motion. 

But, intermixed in the time line was another trip to my G.P. to have him identify a bump behind my left earlobe. It's been there for a while but, hey, over 60 and ample time to visit with my doctor; right? And the bump probably won't go away on its own...

He took a look and then punted. I'm scheduled to go back and see my dermatologist on Thursday, at some ungodly hour in the morning. Certainly too early for coffee..... I can't predict what he might say but I hope it's more of a "let's burn this off with liquid nitrogen" and less of a "let me do a biopsy and then I'll probably send you back to the surgeon."  You remember him. He's the guy with kids that swim...

So, I also had this appointment to circle back around to my dentist for that deep cleaning and check-up and wouldn't you know it! Their state of the art X-ray machine found something my ballad-humming tooth doctor didn't like and now I'm being referred to specialist who does root canals. But I can't schedule that right now since I'm in the holding pattern for the vaccine. Which may save my life if I happen to end up singing with my choir group in a crowded bar on Sixth St. while dancing with vigor and breathing hard. The governor says that's all okay now. 

So, now that I've crested and progressed into the maw of my 60s I'm beginning to understand my parents a bit better. 

Who will win? Will it be the vaccine appointment? Will it be the dermatologist with his torture tools? Will it be the root canal guy with the long novocaine needle? Or will I just settle for a nervous breakdown instead?

And no matter who ultimately wins they'd better schedule quickly because I've got stuff to do. And that photo project next Thursday is not going to get rescheduled. Too many people already committed. And which I want to do in order to feel relevant.. 

I'm sure I'm missing some other torment of aging right now but I think I've had my limit. I did get a t-shirt the other day. It said, "I worked hard all my life and the only thing I got to do in my retirement years was wear this T-Shirt and bitch about stuff." 

One of my less delicate friends let me know that he feels all of this is just my karma for having bought another Leica. I tried to tell him that the fates couldn't be so cruel; after all, I passed on the Ferrari...

West Texas Beckons.

West of everything...

I find everything about this image to be funny. It's funny that the Works Project Administration built this road side, rest stop/camping shelter out in the middle of nowhere all the way back in the 1930's when there wasn't a major highway within a hundred miles of this plot of land. It's funnier still that I was driving around aimlessly on roads that shifted from partially paved to partially graveled just looking for interesting stuff to stare at. 

It's funny, to me, that I was most attracted at the time to the character of the sky and little else in the frame.

It's funny that 2010 was a year when giant DSLR cameras still ruled the photograph scene. Big zoom lenses and fat bodies with ever growing sensors. But I chose to take only two cameras along with me on my road trip that time. My main camera was the brand new Olympus EP-2 and the other was a less expensive EPL-1 that I bought a few months earlier as a  back up to the svelte EP-2. I bought into that little mirrorless system for three reasons. The first reason was that I finally had a camera system that I could use with the old Pen-FT lenses from the half frame system. The second was the introduction of the VF electronic viewfinder which allowed me to easily (and happily) use the camera at eye level. And third, I could set the camera to shoot squares and I could see the 1:1 composition in the EVF. For a camera with only 12.3 megapixels it punched way above its weight for me.

I'm just recently being re-attracted to the idea of revisiting West Texas once again. The epicenter for a lot of people is the little, haute town of Marfa, but for me I think Marathon, Texas is a great base. Smaller but with so much landscape everywhere. Might be time to saddle up the Subaru and take a drive. 

How different the camera market is now. Today the DSLR is the odd man out while mirrorless cameras with EVFs strut around in prominence. Wouldn't have believed it back then. It seemed like camera makers had a long way to go before they could turn the tide and really appeal to the old farts who were legendary for bemoaning the loss of mirrors and pentaprism finders. I still hear the refrain as though it was yesterday, "I'll never use an EVF. They'll never replace an "optical" viewfinder!!!" Same guys are now crowing about the fine finders in their Sonys. The world is a funny place. West Texas can be even funnier. 

 

An interesting afternoon in which I walked around with a new (to me) zoom lens and took a lot of images. Mirrorless actually means "endless adaptations."

Leica R series 28-70mm f3.5 to 4.5 zoom lens

mounted on a Panasonic S1 camera.

Leica made a whole series of SLR cameras called the "R" series, starting in the 1960s and running up to the turn of the century. Most were well built although some were re-badged Minolta cameras and a few were prone to reliability problems that could be traced back to the electronics. From the beginning they made a number of lenses for the "R" series that were very good in their day. A few were "just okay" by Leica standards but were still excellent by anyone else's measure. Many R lenses are still highly coveted for their optical character and performance.

The company discontinued their R line completely in early 2009. They faced a choice between allocating thin financial resources either to continue the analog film SLRs or to go "all in" with digital versions of their rangefinder cameras. The R9 was their last SLR film camera and when it was discontinued a big fan base of R series fans where left with large collections of very, very good lenses and nothing new to put them on. Leica did produce an R to M series adapter but putting big and heavy lenses, designed for SLRs, onto the svelte rangefinders wasn't such an elegant solution. 

As the market for mirrorless cameras grew from 2009 to the present the shorter flange-to-sensor plane construction of the newer cameras allowed for the adaptation of many "orphaned" lenses from various older film systems. This revived the used market for Leica R series lenses as photographers could now adapt them to the Sony A7 series cameras, all of the micro-four thirds cameras, and each successive generation of mirrorless cameras from other makers, like Nikon and Canon. 

In 2015 Leica launched their own mirrorless camera; the SL. It also had a short flange-to-sensor gap which allowed the SL to use (with one or two exceptions) all the lenses in the R system; all the way back to the mid-1960s. When Leica introduced their new flagship mirror-free camera, the SL2, in 2019 it was immediately backwardly compatible with most of the R lenses and both Leica and Novoflex already had R to L lens adapters to make grafting the old lenses onto the new cameras easy. 

I bought a Leica SL2 last month and it's been mostly a great camera to work with. I'd already bought a couple of adapters that let me use older lenses on the Lumix S1 series cameras and, of course, the same adapters worked on the SL2. I bought a couple of adapters for Contax Y/C Zeiss lenses and a couple for R to L conversion as well. Last week I put my older (1983) R 90mm f2.8 Elmarit lens on the SL2 camera and I was curious why I couldn't find a way to set the focal length for the lens for IBIS as I could on the S1 Lumix cameras. After looking around in the menus for a few minutes I came across a sub menu that allows one to set a profile for a very large number of M or R lenses which, I assume, gives the camera's brain a lot of valuable information about the lens currently attached and aids in making various corrections which improve optical quality. I went through the menu and found a setting specifically for the R series 90mm Elmarit and set it. 

The images from that day's experiments showed me that the 90mm Elmarit was a really good lens and that it left little on the table when compared to current lenses from other manufacturers. The extensive catalog of Leica legacy lens profiles pre-loaded on the camera was a pleasant surprise and adds value to the SL2 for people who might still have a bag full of lenses from the R system (or the M system for that matter). 

Later on, just after the snow all melted from our "Ice-apocalypse" I happened to be sitting in the office waiting for a call when I started surfing around on Precision Camera's hit-and-miss website. I came across a listing for a "good" condition Leica R series zoom lens. It was a 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens, a focal length range that's always welcome, so I called my "guy" at the store and asked him to hold the lens for me. 

In the interim between requesting the hold and finally getting around to visit my research informed me that Leica started making this lens in 1990 and it was discontinued in 1997. The lens was a mechanical redesign of a Sigma zoom lens made during that time. Meaning that Leica had control over how the exterior of the lens looked and worked but the actual construction and the optics were all in the hands of Sigma. There is conjecture that Leica specified the multi-coatings on the lens but that's not verified. Sigma made the optical elements and was responsible for the optical design for the lens throughout its life but at one point the lens was updated to have electrical connections to the R8 camera and the lens was then called a ROM version. The consensus of Leica geeks is that the mechanics of this version were improved and this version of the lens was built by Kyocera but the actual optical system continued to be sourced from Sigma.

The lens was discontinued when Leica came to market with a much improved, new lens (still built in Japan) which was the 28-90mm R lens. Optical and mechanical designs by Leica but still made in Japan. This is a lens that is still highly sought after by collectors. 

My research into the reviews of the period for the 28-70mm Vario Elmar R suggest that it matches up with the expected lens performance across manufacturers at the time. It's basically always sharp in the center but the sharpness tends to fall apart in the extreme corners; even if you valiantly stop down. If you use the lens around f5.6 to f8.0 you can expect really good, overall sharpness from the lens, and it does seem to deliver high contrast results. Where the lens absolutely falls apart is in geometric distortion. There is wild (5-7%) barrel distortion on the wide end of the focal length range and then nearly as bad pincushion distortion at the long end. 

So I went into the purchase with my eyes wide open. I wanted to play with the lens and my consistent prejudice is that most people didn't know how to focus well back in that period (and the R series were all manual focus cameras) and that the sloppiness of film and developing/printing,  and the variability of film plane channels in cameras all gave rise to an obscuring of most lens' actual or potential performance. I've found, for instance, that Contax Zeiss lenses from the same period, when focused in a mirrorless camera, punched in with magnification at 8X or 16X times, are magnificently sharp; some even when used wide open (the Contax 50mm f1.7). Being able to focus at high magnification has also given me much new respect for older wide angles such as the Contax Zeiss 28mm f2.8. It's blossomed into a super sharp lens, as far as I can tell. 

My presumption was (and still is) that the Vario Elmar would have some faults but that the combination of punched in manual focusing, along with focus peaking, and image stabilization, matched with a super sharp, high resolution sensor, would unlock more of the potential lurking in an older lens such as this one. As far as distortion goes I never thought much about using the 28-70mm R for serious architecture and most of the distortion is uniform enough to be easily corrected in post production software. The wild cards would be how the coating on the rear most element would deal with reflections of light back off the sensor and how well the lens was designed to be more tele centric (it wasn't). Reflection artifacts show up from time to time...

I paid $350 dollars for the lens which is in pretty nice physical condition and has optics that are perfectly clean, unblemished and unscratched. The one issue (and it's one mentioned often in user reports of this lens) is that the telescopic hood is very loose and won't stay in position. I have it gaffer-taped into its recessed position and so now I just ignore it altogether. 

Yesterday, after I brought the lens home and modified the hood with tape I set the actual lens model profile in the menu of the SL2 and headed into town to shoot a bunch of frames and see how I liked the lens. The images that follow, below, are from that one and a half hour first run. I gleaned a lot of information from them in the first hour or so of post production. 

My take? The lens is flawed in little ways but if I were a struggling beginner I could certainly do a lot of good work with this one. If you are shooting wide and doing it for a commercial client you should always take a step backwards after you compose and resign yourself to cropping the extreme corners out of the frame before you deliver it to the people who write checks. This is mostly a caveat for people who might tend to spend a lot of their time dialed in at 28mm. 

For general work in bright light the lens can be quite good. I kept the camera locked in at f5.6 unless I felt like I needed more depth of field for certain subjects. The results from the lens are  sharp, contrasty and it has good resolution at nearly all focal lengths (if you discount the corners at the wide end). I tried to use the lens the way I usually use standard zooms and that means mostly shooting around 35mm to 60mm. In that range, at f5.6 I feel as though I'm getting the same excellent optical performance I would out of a really good prime lens at those focal lengths. It's really a very friendly, middle of the range shooter. 

There was one disquieting thing I did discover on my maiden jaunt and that is that the (very expensive) R to L converter from Novoflex, in conjunction with this lens, is unable to focus all the way to infinity. There is a mismatch somewhere in the mechanical system. It's not grievous as the combination is able to focus out hundreds of yards --- just not all the way to infinity. I'll give the cheaper Fotasy brand adapter a chance to outshine the Novoflex next time I go out. That's an easier fix than finding out that it's all up to the lens and that the rear flange needs to be adjusted. For the record, all the L lenses I own, used without adapters, are well able to hit infinity so I'm letting the camera itself off the hook. 

As a portrait oriented shooter who mostly pays attention to stuff in the middle of the frame I'll go ahead and say that I'm happy with the lens as a banging around addition to the lens crew. I wish I'd been able to source a Leica 28-90mm for the same price but those seem to fetch upwards of $3,000 when in very good condition. The one standout performance feature is the lens' resistance to flare and veiling light. There is one image in the bunch below where the lens is aimed right into reflective glass for a bright reflection of the sun and the flare is negligible. If I really want top quality, neutral optical performance in a wide ranging zoom I think I'll still give preference to the 24-105mm Lumix lens. It's pretty superb all around. Stuff changes. Check out the images and see what you think...

so we've got a guy sitting in the hatchback/trunk of some spiffy Mercedes and 

he's shooting video with a Canon 1DX of his friend's shiny red Ferrari.

I guess it's a new, downtown thing. So many car commercials shot on the bridges here.

I'm thinking this was just playing around. No cleaning crew in sight. 

full into a glass/sun reflection and all I can see is a little red discoloration in the sky area just to the right side of the reflection area. Not bad performance for flare resistance. 

Even cropped to less than 1/4 of the original frame this image is still full of detail. 

The photographer had some sort of Canon on one strap and a Contax 

Medium Format film camera on the other. This felt like more of an 

editorial shoot than a personal commission...

Yes, the lens can do a relative close up. Lambert's bar and BBQ on 2nd. 

would not be an afternoon of photography in the downtown area without 

one of my trademark mirror shots. Bitch all you want; I'm not paying attention. 

Felt kinda dumb wearing my rock climbing shoes on flat earth. 

they were just screaming to get out of the closet and outside. 

I'll take them along to Enchanted Rock next time.

You're so lucky! You got two mirror shots and no diet advice today!

End of the walk. Back to the parking. Heading home at dusk.

 

Keeping things square. Another photograph of a favorite collaborator.

 

We both laughed when we saw the final image of this pose. I think it's over the top cliché and thankfully so did she. But when it surfaced in a computer cleaning this week I looked at it again but from a different perspective; one of just being able to let go on any given day and have fun. 

But the interesting thing about photographing people is that you go out with a plan in mind and your plan ends up being pure crap but all the stuff you shot on the way there and all the stuff you shot after you got the shot you thought you wanted ends up (many times) being where the good stuff is. This is one of the few "hard" direct flash in sunlight shots I was able to do with the little Sony Nex 7. The camera and me and the flash just didn't seem to often work in the same "language." 

This was obviously done with the Sony Nex 7 but on this shot I used the much disparaged 18-55mm zoom lens. The little chrome finished one. It really wasn't bad at all. But once you get past f5.6 I guess every lens looks better and better. 

The area behind Noellia is the spillway down stream from the actual pool. The spillway is where people go to get into the cold, clear water if they can't or won't pay the admission price for the actual pool. In Austin there always seems to be a workaround.

Some purchases are just for fun. Some cars and cameras have the "street appeal" most are utilitarian.

 

Corvette. 

camera: Sony Nex-7

Lens: Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS

It's been a wild week in Texas. ERCOT might have to refund 16 BILLION DOLLARS; billed in "error", the governor has gone over the edge and basically unleashed the mask-less hordes just in time for a Spring Break Covid-19 resurgence and the stock market is dropping because (?) bonds are selling off? Crazy times. 

Me? I'm just enjoying going through old files and separating the wheat (thimbles full) from the chaff (ton loads). 

The image above was taken on one of my many, many monotonous walks through downtown Austin. It's a beautifully maintained, early 1960's Chevrolet Corvette. Not a very practical car but a very striking one indeed. I have to say that the twin headlights and the front grill are wonderfully designed. And car aficionados always love a car with "hips." 

If I looked to photography for the analogous product it would probably be a Leica M4, in chrome finish, with a matching 35mm Summicron on the front. That seems just about right.

So happy it's Friday. I think. But what month is it? 

 

People always say of photographs, "It's all about the light." But I think you need to have an interesting subject for the light to fall upon.

 Noellia is an actor I met when an ad agency cast her for a print campaign for the Austin Chamber of Commerce. We had a fun time working together in the studio and it was a fun coincidence when I ran into her again, but this time at Zach Theatre where she was performing a kid's play called, "Suessical." (how topical). I hired her again to help illustrate lighting concepts in several of my books but we always had the most fun in impromptu photo shoots meant to help both of us build portfolios and goof off around Austin. 

After she moved to New York and started really advancing in her acting career I was sad to think we wouldn't have the opportunity to work together as often but I was wrong. Every time she returned to Austin to visit her family for holidays or vacations she'd text me in advance and see if we could get our schedules to match for at least part of a day. She'd arrive at a chosen location with an arm full of wardrobe and I'd have the camera of the day with me. 

This photograph was from the earlier days. I was using an interesting camera at the time and one of the few cameras I really wish I still had. It was the Sony Nex-7 which was one of the first to use an 24 megapixel, APS-C sensor. I used the little Sony 50mm f1.8 lens that was popular at the time. 

I remember the day well because of the stifling heat. We started shooting over by Barton Springs Pool and finally made our way under the little railroad bridge at the intersection of the hike and bike trail and Barton Spring Rd. We ended up there for the shade and relative cool. While we were shedding some of the heat load we found time to make a few more images. 

You photograph when you have the opportunity.