Taking a look back as I work on a new style and new projects. Nothing particularly interesting to talk about today. I'll let the photos carry on the conversation. Amazing how many different cameras are represented here.

Canon 5mk2, Canon 1DS mk2, Canon 1Dmk3, Nikon D800, Nikon D2H, Nikon D810, Fuji XH-1, Fuji XT3, A Contax G2, Various Leicas, Hasselblad film cameras, Rollei MF film cameras, Samsung Galaxy GX,  Phase One, iPhone, Olympus PenFT film camera, Olympus EP series cameras, Panasonic GH cameras, Sony New-7 and various other Sonys, and more.  

I'm taking a few days off here to relax and play. We're photographing live theater at Esther's Follies tomorrow. Got some portraits to do on Friday but I'm just coasting through to the end of the month. No big trajectory yet figured out. Just swimming, fun shooting, dinners with friends and other chilled out activities... enjoy the snaps.

The Leica CL and the TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 L mount lens are a near perfect combination for photographing while walking around contemplating the universe.

Michael Johnston has me on a black and white kick. I'm playing around with all my cameras to see how they are at delivering nice black and white files without too much fuss. I was out in our downtown area a few days ago with a Leica CL camera (now, sadly, discontinued...) and a very inexpensive lens made by Chinese lensmaker, TTArtisan. The lens is the 23mm f1.4 and it's available in a bunch of different mounts, including the L mount. The lens only covers an APS-C frame so I use it almost exclusively with one of  the two CL bodies I seem to have accumulated over the last year and a half. 

I'm thinking about buying one more CL from a reputable dealer because I've come to like the camera a lot and it would be sad not to have an extra if one of my two units ages out and becomes inoperable. It's kind of an insane idea because, with my luck, the minute I spend the money there will be a collaboration between Leica and Panasonic and, voila! they'll introduce a perfect replacement camera at exactly the price I will have just paid for a used, discontinued model. 

These black and white shots of the Seaholm Center and the surrounding buildings downtown were shot in Jpeg, with a monochrome setting in the camera. They don't exist at all as color files. I use the Monochrome HC setting; the HC means high contrast. I add some sharpening to the profile, also in camera, so that when I sit down to look at or process the photographs there are already very close to what I had in mind. I imagine that Leica engineered the profile with a built-in nod to either a yellow or light orange filter effect since the files straight from the camera render skies very well. Much better than a straight flush of saturation would have done.

The combination of the CL and the small, lightweight 23mm f1.4 TTArtisan lens makes for a near perfect walking around camera. As you can see from the examples though the lens is dirt cheap to purchase it's really quite a good semi-wide-angle contender. Much better than I imagined it would be when I ordered it.

The camera is one half the size and one half the weight of my Leica SL camera body which makes it a pleasure to hang over one shoulder while plodding around town. The camera boasts a really fine 24 megapixel sensor which is unencumbered by an "AA" filter so it makes really sharp files. And the Leica color science is my favorite. Even in Jpeg files. 

CL users who use autofocus lenses with the camera and who also use the auto switching between the EVF and the LCD often complain about miserable battery life and I'd have to agree in that use case. But if one uses the "extended EVF" setting which always sends the image to the EVF unless you push the menu button or the play button, and you use the correct power saving mode, along with a manual focus lens, you can get 500 or 600 files from a single small, cheap battery. An extra battery in one pocket is always a welcome tagalong. 

I am experimenting with a small, light kit for travel and leisure and so far it's looking like the CL with the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 paired with two small primes; the 23mm mentioned above and the 50mm f1.2 TTArtisan lens which I've written about before.Those three lenses and a back-up body would easily fit in my smallest camera bag or my smallest daypack and would cover everything I usually want, in terms of focal length range, for just about any casual photography. Especially on the road. 

I'm very happy with the rendering of the metal tube running vertically near the middle of the frame. Seems just like it did when I looked at it with my eyes. Only with less color here....

The sky was deep blue on this day and my conjecture about Leica pumping in some computational color filtering was triggered by the contrast between the sky and the building and chimney.

The images below were shot in color and stayed that way. 

There are a few self-portraits below, in black and white,  but they are mostly included because several of them were shot at 10,000 ISO and I was pleased by the way the camera handled noise and wanted to show you what I was seeing. 

Above image was taken early in the afternoon as I was heading into the heart of downtown.

The image below was taken a couple hours later as I trudged back to my car.

I enjoy seeing how much prevailing light influences a photograph over time.

Camouflaged as a worker with work boots, nondescript work pants and a bland shirt.

I like the way current Leicas handle reds and flesh tones. 

And I like how sharp the files appear.

Shot in the late evening with very low light. ISO 10,000 with the 23mm lens used at its full f1.4 aperture.

Having big, full frame cameras is great for lots of stuff where absolutely getting the exact shot a client wants is mandatory (or urgently preferred) but having a smaller system that doesn't require a bunch of bandwidth to move around with is nice too. It is possible to have the best of both worlds. Just scrimp a bit on that new car. 
 

I'm slowly discovering just how good the Sigma 65mm f2.0 lens can be for making photographs while out walking. The secret, for me, is to stick with the fast apertures...

You've probably guessed by now that I like to swim, I like to walk, and I like to make photographs of three different mannequins that live over on 2nd St. Whoever designed the mannequins put a lot of time and effort into their gesture and the expressiveness of their hands. That sort of attention to design gives them an equivalency to commercial photography, as a practice. 

When I photographed this pose back in early 2021 there was a young man who dressed and positioned the window facing mannequins at this shop. He was meticulous in his fashion sense and each time I walked by the shop something was repositioned, partly re-clothed or completely re-dressed. The window designer seemed to know where to position each "model" so that there was attention to how the reflections on the windows would affect the overall look. 

This designer seemed to have left the shop back in the Fall of the same year and the windows have struggled to maintain his high standard. 

I've photographed the windows with all manner of lenses but I never really nailed the look I was trying for until I took a lens along that might seem counterintuitive for "street" photography; the Sigma 65mm. 

In recent years I've worked hard at making peace with wider angle lenses. Lenses like the 20mm and 24mm were tough for me because, I think, I've spent so many years making portraits and my portrait style favors longer lenses. When photographing faces I seem most comfortable with the angle of view provided by a 135mm lens on a 35mm camera. Or a 180mm lens on a square 6x6 cm camera.

Everyone else seems to be in love with the 28mm or 35mm lenses for "urban adventure" work and I've tried mightily to "see" in those focal lengths. Obviously with mixed success. As I venture toward 50mm I get less and less antsy about composition and depth. When I bought the Sigma 65mm I thought it would be love at first sight. But every unfamiliar angle of view takes time for me to become really familiar with. 

The first few outings with the lens left me feeling a bit incompetent. I'd choose the lens as my sole walking companion but suddenly all those wide angle vistas kept rushing towards me. It seemed almost as if the universe art directed perfect 28-35mm frames just to taunt me. To challenge me for bringing along a lens that requires some space. Some distance in order to work well. 

Over the last month or so I've been tossing the 65mm back into the mix. I reviewed some of my favorite shots with the combination of the Sigma 65mm and the Leica SL this morning and this image popped up and waved at me. And it was interesting that, at the time, I was also playing with converting many of the images I was making from color into black and white. Monochrome. 

At the time I thought the B&W image was the keeper. But now, a year and a half later I'm not so sure. There's a lot I like about the low contrast color image and I keep coming back to it. Part of the appeal is the intermixing of the blues and the greens. Another facet is that shallow depth of field and the ephemeral rendition of the background. I'm happy to have both versions. 

Lately, I've chosen to work with the 65mm on a cropped frame (APS-C) camera for some corporate portrait work. I'm using it on a Leica CL and the combination gives me the effect of a 98mm lens on a full frame camera. The lens is one of the sharpest lenses that most test sites have tested. I find it to be amazingly sharp and detailed at its widest aperture. Stopping down gives incremental improvements but it's sharper wide open than many other similar lenses are two or three stops down. 

The CL isn't a popular camera because of its initial pricing and its limited range of trendy features. But the one thing in its favor is a really great sensor with no anti-aliasing filter at all. The color science is great and the high pixel density, coupled with high sharpness, is a great test for lenses. The 65mm is definitely up to the challenge. 

My use case for the combo in commercial work is when I'm doing available light or continuous light portraits of men. I like having extra sharpness and definition in this genre and I always want to start with maximum sharpness with the idea that I can easily take away unwanted sharpness in post. That's much easier than adding sharpness that wasn't present in the first place.

The use of the 65mm or 90mm Sigma lenses on the CL is refreshing for me. The biting sharpness coupled with the fine detail at maximum apertures delivers a style of its own. 

That's today's morning thoughts about photography. Pondered in the pool and then fleshed out after I cleaned the windows at the front of the house. 

checking in with my medical providers.

I've been working on my flossing. I asked my favorite cardiologist for a list of all the things I could do to stay "cardio" healthy and near the top of the list was the active prevention of gum disease. Apparently bad bacteria in one's mouth causes pernicious inflammation in the rest of the body, but especially in one's arterial walls. Which leads to stenosis and other Latin-esque words that cause fear (although that word seems more ancient Greek to me..). His suggestion was to be mindful and resolute about brushing one's teeth with a Sonicare or Oral B electric toothbrush at least twice a day and to be sure to floss, and floss well each evening. 

I see my dentist twice a year. Her hygienist is like badger when it comes to looking for periodontal dismay and decay. I floss so that I don't have to endure her disappointed look when it comes to gum probing. After all, who could be proud of "deep pockets" when it comes to gums?  I look at it as a challenge. I saw my dentist and my hygienist on Thursday and after an hour of looking, scrapping and measuring the general pronouncement was, "Good Job." Putting off any random ambulance rides for as long as I can with the simple habit of playing with string.

Since I was peppering my calendar with medical stuff (I also photographed a couple of oral surgeons in the middle of the day) I thought I'd start off the morning with a seven a.m. visit to my favorite dermatologist, Dan. He's got a photographic record of all my spots and bumps that goes back five or so years. I strip down to my boxers and he uses a UV light and magnifier to examine every dark speckle of skin on my entire body; all the way down to the bottoms of my feet. 

He loves to use his spray can of liquid nitrogen to zap stuff so he was happy to find a number of "SKs" and "AKs" that were just begging to be annihilated. He hit a couple on my face that now makes it look like I've recently been in a fist fight. But he hit a big sebborheic keratosis spot that's been rubbing on my waist line for years. I thought it would be great to have it gone but .... damn.... that hurt. 

But, at the end of the early morning venture, he proclaimed that I am currently "skin cancer free." Now, I know a lot of you live in the Northern climes and you don't see sunlight for years, sometimes decades, and all this talk of visiting dermatologists twice a year seems like lunacy. Or a sheer waste of dough. But consider a lifetime swimming in the Texas sun and you'll understand my caution when it comes to things I can live through --- if they are caught early. 

Next week is the yearly visit to my cardiologist. The guy who is the big fan of flossing. I guess I'll run on the treadmill with wires hanging off my chest and stomach but I'd much rather do a stress test in the pool. Too back they don't make underwater EKG machines. I'm hoping I get the same response from the heart guy as I got from my dentist and dermatologist. But however it pans out I know I'm doing my part to keep the economy thriving and the medical professionals in the black. Not enough stuff going south with my health to help any one of them finance their new BMW but that's a net positive for me.

It's a beautiful day in Austin. It would be even better if it was 20 or 30 degrees cooler. Wouldn't that be nice?

Posting a Portrait of Michelle. Thinking about how important the light is...

 

©Kirk Tuck. 

I think in the middle years of my career as a photographer what I really spent most of my work time doing was designing and contructing light. And mixing it with dark. 

Sure, the rapport with a friend who dropped by for a portrait was important but the lighting was equally a priority for me then. 

For this portrait of Michelle I came into the studio hours and hours before she arrived. I started by setting  up my favorite canvas background far behind her. It was an era when space was cheap in Austin and I had about 60 feet from my camera position to the back wall to play with. I love the look of a background so far away that there was no way to keep it in focus. Then I'd bring in other drapes in between to play with cascading feelings of depth. I always used flag to tone down light anywhere on my subject but the face. 

My goal in those days was always to light a person so my light could come into the frame from the left (from camera position) and produce a triangle of light just under the eye on the (model's) left. I don't know why I always preferred to bring my main light in from the top left of the frame but it just felt so much more comfortable to me. 

My favorite expressions were the quiet ones. The contemplative moments. 

We had lots of cameras back then as well. It never seemed to matter which one I used as long as it was bigger than the 35mm frame and we had the right film in stock.

But however we shot one thing was constant --- I always printed my own final prints. There was just too much creative potential in a negative not to try and coax it out onto nice paper. 

I'm not sure it's a style I'm still completely comfortable with now but it's a nice starting point. 

My only tip: Long, long lenses and lots of distance. It's a look I don't see often these days and it's so visually interesting...