Well Shoot. Who Gets to Decide What Street Photography Is? This post will be here for a while....

 

Images made with small, medium and large cameras.

Images made with manual focusing, manual exposure medium format cameras.

Images made with big DSLRs. And small rangefinders. Even half frame cameras.

Images shown here were made in Austin, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, San Antonio and Siena.

We've got about 200,000 more just waiting to be scanned. 

Not everything I do is commercial.

Images made in the streets, in restaurants, in cafes. 

If it's not "street photography" then we're all delusional.

berlin wall.

Berlin Opera House.

rome train station.

the vatican.

place de la Concorde.

verona.

paris. 1978. Canonet QL17.

siena.

boston.

Here's some links to my favorite posts which are at least tangentially related to street photography:

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/05/approval-tacit-approval-implied.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/05/lots-of-rousing-debate-about-street.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/08/saying-hello-to-strangers-in-public.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/01/old-post-becomes-my-mantra-for-new-year.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/04/sunday-walk-part-1.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/04/photographing-events-being-polite.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/09/say-hello-look-people-in-eye-and.html

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-to-be-mostly-happy-photographer.html

Just dreaming of a little cold weather....

 

Okay. I think I have this whole camera and lens thing figured out. First tests are promising....

 

There are two 50mm lenses that have been vying for the title, "Best 50mm lens ever!" and I finally bought one of them to try out. There are actually three "best in the world" 50mm lenses but one is the very big and very heavy Leica 50mm f2.0 APO Summicron for the SL series of cameras. I took that one out of the running because it's just too big to travel around with and to try and be even the least bit inconspicuous with when roaming around on the streets. That left me with two I really wanted to try. One is the Leica 50mm f2.0 APO Summicron for the M series rangefinder cameras and the other is the Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 APO Lanthar, which is available both in a Sony mount and in the Leica M mount. I, of course, wanted the M mount version so I could easily adapt the lens to my Leica L mount cameras. 

What's the draw of the two selected APO lenses? Well, as far as I know there only three real APOchromatically corrected 50mm lenses on the market right now. All of them are listed above. Unlike nearly every other lens out there an APO lens focuses all three light wavelengths (R.G.B.) on exactly the same plane. They mostly eliminate any sort of fringing or LOCA which should give you greater color precision and greater discrimination between color tones. 

I chose to purchase the Voigtlander 50mm. All of the research I've done points to the Leica being a tiny, tiny bit better in the center of the image when used at the widest aperture. And it's slightly smaller. The Voigtlander is so, so close. Even at full aperture it's supposed to be as good as most top quality prime lenses once they've been stopped down by two or more stops. But the reason I opted for the Voigtlander instead of the Leica APO boils down to eight thousand dollars. The Leica lens is $9,000. while the Voigtlander is $999. I can think of a lot more fun stuff to do or buy for that additional $8K...

Since I was already happy enough in most shooting situations with my motley, existing collection of 50mm, and close to 50mm, lenses I was really just interested in seeing for myself how much difference there would be between the lenses I have and one of the two or three lenses that's held in such high esteem. 

I have only been using the Voiglander on the Leica SL2 body since that's my highest resolution and newest generation camera. If you're looking for differences you might as well start with the camera that can best show them off. 

The lens itself is rather mundane to look at. It's small, being a lens made for a rangefinder camera. The filter diameter is 49mm. There are no buttons or switches on the lens. No I.S. either. You have to splash out for a lens hood separately. It's not included in the purchase price. By most measures it's a boring looking lens --- which is okay by me because I'm presuming it will attract less attention. Certainly less than the magnetic attraction of the big, SL series 50mm APO. Much less of an attention-getter than the enormous Leica 24-90mm zoom!!! 

I got the lens at the end of the day on Wednesday and immediately did an overall test. Making sure the lens focused on infinity with several different adapters; including the Leica branded M to L mount unit. I worked the aperture ring and the focusing ring and found them to be classic examples of luxe mechanical engineering. The feel of which encourages you to have the camera and lens in your hands constantly. 

Once I was certain the lens was in good working order (it is a brand new product; not used) I decided to do a "trial by fire" the next day. On Thursday I took the camera and lens on location to a large public relations company H.Q. to make environmental portraits of five new hires. I set the camera to shoot .DNG files and further set the camera to show me an APS-C crop as I photographed. I knew I would would to crop down to that size but also knew that in .DNG the camera would write the full frame and just show me the crop in the viewfinder and then in Lightroom. If, after the fact, I wanted to use the full image instead of the crop that would be available to me in the raw file. Something I took advantage of in my subsequent evaluations.

Lately I've been photographing a lot of portraits with LED lights but on Thursday I decided to use electronic flash. I also put the camera on a tripod. I wanted a "best case" scenario from which to judge the performance of the new lens. The flash is perfect at freezing camera motion and subject motion while the tripod provides a solid and repeatable base for fine focusing manual lenses. I forgot to mention above but the two rangefinder lenses must be manually focused and have no automatic features whatsoever. You've been warned. 

I carefully inspected samples from the 350+ shots I made at the P.R. agency. The lens renders much differently than the usual lenses I use on jobs. I've previously been using the Sigma 90mm f2.8 and the Panasonic 24-105mm on portrait jobs. The focal lengths worked for what I needed. 

The Voitlander 50mm APO immediately slapped my face. I was expecting the results to be similar to all the other modern lenses. Maybe a bit sharper, a bit contrastier. The results were different. The files are all very sharp but it's the contrast and color saturation which stood out very clearly. I was impressed. Maybe even a bit intimidated.

With the modern convenience of punch-in image magnification the lens is very easy to focus exactly. The operation of everything is very straightforward. But the results are so obviously different from nearly every lens I have used in the past. 

It's early times and it generally takes weeks and weeks of shooting to get used to a particular lens. Still, in the moment I'm thinking this is the combination I've always been looking for when searching for a personal/art/primary camera and lens. That's my mindset in the moment. 

If you handed me a travel itinerary today this would be the camera body and single lens I would pack. It would be enough. 

Is it worth it to buy an APO lens? I think so. 

More experiments coming when we are able to move freely outside. Stay tuned. Somebody do something about this high pressure dome overhead... Thanks.

Heat Paralysis now affecting daily walks for street photography. A hard surrender to growing more "mature."

It is like a desert outside. A desert combined with a swamp.

 Background courtesy of Photoshop's Generative Fill. 

 I remember back when I was in my thirties and even my early forties and I ignored all weather conditions and routinely ran the four mile loop around Town Lake in the mid-to-late afternoon, no matter what the temperature. I remember being the only other person besides Jeff Ward running the loop one August afternoon when the thermometer temperature (as opposed to the "feels like" temperature) was 105°. I think Jeff and I had a similar philosophy; we were running around a big body of water and if we felt "off" because of the heat we were never more than a few seconds away from the option of plunging in and cooling off. Those thoughts seemed to have sustained us in our runs. 

I am no way as brave (or foolhardy...) these days. The idea of pulling on the Nikes and heading out into the red hot swamp today holds no fascination or allure. I've come to grips with the encroachment of age and I've set some new safety guide rails for myself. My physician of thirty years concurs with direction but wishes I would tone down the overall enthusiasm for pushing it. I no longer run on days when the ambient temps are over 95°.  And even then I run much slower. Often passed by moms pushing strollers... tragic.

Even the pool was miserable at 8 a.m. this morning. The water was just shy of 85° and once it crests that we're into the danger zone for hard, long distance swimming; or fast sprinting. The aerators at the pool just can't drop the temperature enough overnight because the humidity remains so high. We swam this morning but the coach took the workout down a notch or two (or three) .... for safety's sake. 

With the outside mimicking the surface of Mercury (the side facing the sun....) I resigned myself to spending the day inside. That's okay. I got some banking done. Deposited some checks that had been sitting on my desktop for too long. Deposited with my phone. Always novel. At least to me. It's a generational thing.

The studio needed to be put back into shape after two shooting days here this week. Gotta put the gear back away so we know where to find it next time. I was bored so I went to Mike's blog hoping to read something engaging about photography but sadly left after learning about Instant Pots. Something I care less than zero about. I wonder if he's in the process of giving up on covering photography altogether. Why do I think this? Well, how could he have possibly missed out on the BIG NEWS that Leica just introduced a version of their SL2 camera in a silver finish? So beautiful and just right for his audience.... I'll forgo writing about it here --for now-- so he can take the first stab at it.---- if he wants to. 

After spending too much time in the studio I started to get antsy. Any day without a lot of movement seems like a period of lost opportunities. I tried to think of some activity to burn off energy without frying myself on the surface of the sun when it came to me: "Go to the gym. The gym is air conditioned. The weight machines have missed you. Fight entropy. Conquer sarcopenia. Get out of the compound." 

Apparently there are people who like the heat less than me because the attendance at the gym this afternoon was light. Sparse. Spare. People unwilling to make the long march from their front doors to their cars. I spent an hour making myself tired and borderline sore and then headed back home. 

How much can change in an hour? 

Well, there is a new piece of furniture in the kitchen that wasn't there when I left. A nice, waist high cabinet complete with drawers for storage and glass-fronted doors with more storage shelves behind them. I'm sure B. talked to me about this at some point... But...it's furniture.

More importantly the driver from Amazon had also dropped by and left a padded envelope outside the front door. High excitement. It contained a brand new metal lens hood for the almost as new Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm lens, as well as a B&W filter for the front. A wonderful source of excitement for about the minute or so it took me to attach them to the lens and make sure nothing vignettes. Well, the lens vignettes at f2.0 but that's a different thing. And I knew about that going in...

There is a bit of meteorological progress here today. For most of the day we've actually seen blue sky. Seems that the smoke from the Mexican farm fires has shifted with the wind and gone to torture some other community for the moment. My throat and sinuses are thankful. 

I'm waiting either for the dangerous heat and humidity to break or for my new passport to arrive. I'll be happy either way. If the weather breaks here I'll probably head to San Antonio and spend some time walking around with the new lens (and hood, and filter) but if the passport gets here before the abatement of dangerous and uncomfortable conditions I'll be checking on the weather in in the great north and heading there as fast as I can. With camera and lens in tow.

Is the business of photography dead? Well, not today. We billed enough this week and last week to ride all through the Summer on cash flow. That's always my goal. Why use your own money if you can gets someone else to share with you? Some proprietary products and many portraits seem currently immune to the charms of A.I. so I'll take advantage of my clients's trepidation about progress and keep billing in the moment. 

Back to the pool in the morning. Hoping and praying for a quick cold front to lower that water temperature. But at least the grid is holding and all the air conditioning in house and studio seems to be taking the 110° (current) "feels like" temperature in stride. 

Finally, I used the Voigtlander APO Lanthar 50mm on the portrait job yesterday, cropping an APS-C frame out of the hulking full frame files from the Leica SL2. Everything looked great. The lens is superbly sharp and contrasty and the colors more saturated than I'm used to. All good on that front. 

Stay cool. Stay safe. Be happy. If you can't be all out happy then at least try for contented. 

Nasty Hot Weather Does Not Put a Crimp in Today's Shoot.

Can't pass a mirror without taking a selfie. 

CL with the Sigma 24mm.

So...what have we got going on in Austin, Texas today? Let's start with the smoke from Mexico. Just as in India the farmers in northern Mexico burn the leavings after harvesting their crops. The prevailing winds are from the south right now so Austin and the surrounding area is covered with a blanket of white smoke.  Throats are irritated and eyes itching. And the weather experts have indicated that we're at a level of about 154 for air quality instead of our usual 20-50. Add to this a dome of high pressure and record heat and you've got a perfect storm for misery. While the temperature today is only 100° the high humidity is giving us a current heat index of between 108° and 110°. It's less than delightful...

Now would be a good time to throw a giant musical festival in the park. After a week like this one we'd never have to deal with out of state folks wanting to move here and goosing the housing prices. Or the highway capacity. And I'd never have to hear about how they mix mojitos in Malibu again. Misery does not love company!

Oh...and ERCOT (the Texas energy guys) are warning us about running up against the max. capacity of the grid. You know the "grid." It became famous during our ice storm of 2021 when pretty much everyone in Texas lost electrical power for days, which precipitated a loss of water for more days, and left some unlucky folks with enormous utility bills. Wacky stuff. 

Today marked my third day of work in a row. I can tell you right now that the whole process of work is highly overrated and each time I head out I get a little bit more reticent about doing it again. Today was a mellow and fun shooting day but I still had to rush over after swim practice and that chapped me.

I was photographing five different people who needed to have portraits made over at my favorite P.R. agency. Somebody bungled the schedule a bit so I spent some time sitting in on their creative conference about generative A.I. and got a sense of the general direction that advertisers are interested in taking with the new tech. The message was clear. This is here now. Not next year or next month. "Now how can we use it to keep clients happy and make money?" Yeah. That was the question. 

The set up for today's shoot was decidedly minimalist. Two battery powered flashes and a flash trigger. One big umbrella and one bouncing off the ceiling. I took advantage of the agency's in house video studio and used their green screen as the background. All the images we end up using will be composited into other backgrounds that I've already shot. The green screen was perfect. And I didn't have to bring background stands and a roll of seamless paper.

Kinda stupid of me but I decided to go in a different direction than usual and just take the Leica SL2 body and the brand-spanking new 50mm APO LANTHAR lens from Voigtlander. I pressed it into service as a portrait lens by switching the camera to APS-C mode from full frame mode. That made the lens a 75mm equivalent which worked well since the composition wasn't a tight "head and shoulders" but instead was a loose, waist up shot. Works well for compositing. And it's still a 22 megapixel file size. 

In between portrait sessions I grabbed a Leica CL, equipped with the Sigma Contemporary 24mm f3.5, and shot "fly on the wall" images of the ongoing A.I. workshop. Lots of smart, young people figuring out the best use case for all these different programs. What I hear repeatedly/emphatically was that generative A.I. was going to be incredibly useful for presentation materials. Creative teams can make very detailed comprehensive layouts for their clients which takes a lot of the heavy lifting off the account executives who never seem particularly good at selling/pitching creative concepts to clients in the first place. Makes sense. A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture is worth a purchase order?

The client fed me well. We had nice coffee, fun donuts, and breakfast tacos early on. Lunch was a make your own spicy Mexican food bowl with tons of freshly made guacamole. If I had stayed around till the finish of their workshop they promised a happy hour as well. But I had pressing things to do. I wanted to see how the lens fared. It fared well. 

I used the Voigtlander 50mm mostly at f5.6. Not for any reason other than to have the right depth of field. The files I got were insanely sharp and contrasty. Beyond the measure of most other lenses. And I was happy to find that Lightroom includes a custom profile specifically for the 50 APO. Not that the profile made a big change but then I didn't expect a thousand dollar "nifty-fifty" to need too much help in post. 

The lens is nice and small. Has no confusing features and focuses nicely. Well, what I mean is that focusing ring feels just right as I focus the lens nicely. 

It's dreary outside now. Looks like we might be adding some nasty weather to the mix. 

Done working for a while so I can concentrate on swimming, strength training, napping and novel reading. 

A man has to have priorities...

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading.

(written by a survivor of 38+ years of professional photography and still making a living at it. No armchair pundits here...just contemporary, real world stuff).