Warming up for next week's shooting adventure. What?!? You don't practice before a trip? Are you insane? Maybe don't answer that....

Thursday. 7 a.m. Already having fun. Leica+Dermatology.

This was the week to tweak. To get things done. And to practice so I could be up to speed with a camera that's new to me. I moved money from here to there to pay for the trip and to replenish balances lost to camera acquisition syndrome. I had a long call with a money manager. He encouraged me to spend more money on cameras. Yeah, I'll see if B. believes that really happened as well....  I had my teeth cleaned and checked by my wonderful, delightful dentist and she let me know I might want to move more money around because she found a partial crown that's twenty plus years old and failing. She'd like me to spend a couple thousand dollars to replace it. But she did compliment my improved flossing...

At least that's something.

Next stop was at the dermatologist's office. I love the guy. He's got a perfect bedside manner. Not that I was in bed. He loves the jigsaw puzzle that is the sun battered skin on my back. He figures he can cut and burn and cauterize stuff ad infinitum until he's got both kids through college. But he always makes time to see me and I always insist on the getting the first appointment of the day. That way one avoids the nearly unavoidable schedule slip that happens through the course of the day at most doctors' offices. Yesterday we just hit a couple of spots with the good, ole liquid nitrogen and laughed at the ridiculousness of spraying something that's minus 326 degrees (f) onto another human's fragile skin. Don't get any of that stuff in your eyes! And, of course, the wardrobe at the dermatologist's practice is so fetching. I'd rather just stand around in a pair of boxers. I mean, we practice everyday in swim suits. Can't be much different.

If you spent your youth pursuing various ultra violet follies, as I did, you might want to strike up a chummy and routine relationship with a good, board certified dermatologist. Best to keep an eye on all the various spots and splotches so he can catch them early and save your hide. And your life. The co-pay for anyone with decent insurance is minimal. $40. The downside for blowing it all off?  Read about melanoma. Creepier than a Stephen King novel.

After a good dose of frozen insanity we took my blood pressure and it was still pegged at 118/70. Nice. Although I have a mind to talk to my cardiologist about the systolic number. I think it's too low but my G.P. tells me I'm wrong. We should get the heart guy to give a final pronouncement. 

Yes, these are some of the things I think about when I'm not busy with work. 

To cap off the financial underwriting of medical practices this week B. announced, when I came in the door this afternoon, that the new Covid vaccines had arrived at our favorite pharmacy and there's one more open appointment in 50 minutes and I should haul ass over there and top off my day with a jab in the arm that also promises an evening headache and swim practice tomorrow with a sore arm. Delightful. Oops! Forgot the slight fever and body aches. Good stuff!!!

I was okay with it all until the trip home when someone without that Formula One skill base (and five to seven pounds of lost sweat) flipped his SUV in the express lane of the freeway, trying to leap the barriers for free, and made all three other lanes of traffic creep along for an eternity. A sun drenched eternity. Turtles and snails were passing us like we were standing still because....for the most part we were all standing still.

Now. About the cameras. I have been going out every day with the Leica M240 and one of three lenses (but only one per day).  At the beginning of the week it was the 50 APO. Yesterday it was the 28mm CZ-ZM. Today, this morning, it was the 35mm CZ-ZM. Yesterday and today were different though because I had acquired a +2.0 diopter to screw into the eyepiece of the camera to correct for my farsightedness. That was an engineering step that took me back to the paleolithic age of cameras. Back to a time when I had perfect eyesight and didn't need any freaking diopters. But....I have to confess that it sharpened up the finder quite nicely and made focusing the rangefinder a breeze. 

I'd been out for three days this week making sure that I'm up to speed with the operation of the camera, the disposition of the menus and the way the lenses look through the optical finder. Man, that 28mm is edge to edge in the finder. Something to get used to. And that's the whole point --- getting used to all that stuff before I get to my shooting destination. I don't want to be one of the those guys who stands in the middle of the street, oblivious to traffic, trying to figure out how to use the exposure compensation controls on his new camera. I just don't want to open myself up to that kind of judgmental ridicule. 

Every day I try to master something new on the camera. Or something that confused me at first blush. We love to think of ourselves as brilliant technicians. After all we've survived complicated careers and projects. But we're as fallible as anyone else and sometimes all of us need refresher courses to get back up to speed on the nuts and bolts stuff. Best to do it in a situation with zero costs --- other than time spent.

A semi-photo note: You might not know this but I'm finding that as one ages the padding on the bottoms of our feet gets thinner and, well, it pads less. I'm also finding that along with the general decay of aging comes a tendency for the natural arch of the foot to collapse like a rusty suspension bridge. And don't get me started on those achy metatarsals. Over the last two years my feet get sore in places after walks longer than four or five miles. Not a happy feeling when looking forward to a vacation that should feature ten or fifteen miles a day of spirited walking. Right? 

So, there are these guys who call themselves podiatrists and they are supposed to be experts on feet. And foot pain. And curing foot pain. And preventing foot pain. My regular doc referred me to one. I liked him because the guy, in addition to doctoring, is also a long distance runner. He examined my feet. I told him my tales of foot woe. He nodded with a knowing look. 

"A lower heel, more arch support and more metatarsal padding." He said. And nodded again. Knowingly. Then he recommended some over the counter orthotics to put into my shoes and told me to call back if that didn't work. 

Miracle of miracles. The "inserts" work perfectly. I am rejuvenated. But like the engineer I once studied to be, I had to put a set of these orthotics in every pair of shoes I considered talking on my trips with me and then take each pair of shoes+orthotics out for a test walk of not less than five miles per. I've now got three contenders for the trip. All delivered a pain free romp through parks, on trails and across the concrete of downtown. Not a whimper from my once aching feet. 

I now consider good orthotics as a photographic accessory and will list them as such on the next profit and loss statement for taxes. 

Final technical note. Wheeled carry on luggage. Amazon should have a driver here before ten p.m. with five different airline approved (size wise) wheeled, carry on suitcases. The ones with four wheels on the bottom and a handle that pops up on the top. I've decided against checking luggage. If I miss calculate I'll buy what I need on the spot. But, again, I don't want to be that guy at the luggage carousel with tears in his eyes and the sad slumped shoulders of a man who realizes that he's already been waiting two hours for his checked luggage to come spinning around on the big, wide, moving belt and that it might....never come.  I'll let you know the results of my search. Or I may think that's too boring and give up thinking about it. 

Depressed about Montreal. The weather is supposed to be beautiful. Highs around 70°, lows around 50°. Shorts and sandals weather for northern residents. I was hoping for snow, sleet, perilous wind gusts, glowering clouds and the like. Sigh. I guess I'll make do with whatever I get. 

And that's the wrap up for Friday. What a week. Above and below. The images are from the M240 and the Carl Zeiss (CZ) 35mm f2.0 (ZM = Zeiss for M mount). Nothing really Wow! But nothing bad either. 

Tips for a happy life: marry someone really great. do something you really, really love for work; to make money. save a ton of money. invest wisely and from a young age. get in really good shape. stay in really great shape. hire experts for all the things in life where you have blind spots. treat everyone well. eat and drink the things you like. always in moderation. make and keep friends. don't overbook yourself. try taking a nap. read a lot. but mostly fiction. watch 52 movies a year. but only good or fun ones. live within your means. marry someone who really, really makes life great. easy as pie.

 

This is a re-posting of a blog entry from 2011-12. Just quality testing my ability to predict the future...

 A reprint from over a decade ago. Relevant today? 

Is the age of "professional photographer" over? 

More people are taking more photos than ever before and it's a wonderful time to be a photographer.  It may even be a wonderful time to sell pictures occasionally and to make a little side money but I think we're seeing the passing of the "Professional Photographer" (in caps) as a profession in the same way typesetters vanished from the face of the earth within ten years of desktop publishing hitting the marketplace.  Same with traditional labs.  In the old days typesetting required skill and taste and equipment.  But it cost money to do it right.  We paid the money (in the ad agency days) because that was the way it was done and that was the cost of doing business.

But when Pagemaker and QuarkExpress hit the market it became possible (mandatory, from a cost point of view...) for art directors and graphic designers to do their own typesetting.  While early versions of the desktop graphic design programs lacked the ultra fine control, and the massive number of fonts traditional typesetters offered, the programs offered something that accountants couldn't resist:  The Idea of Free,  and they offered something a generation becoming fascinated with computers couldn't resist:  The Idea of Personal Control over the whole process.  While there are tiny exceptions the vast majority of professional typesetters and typesetting services are gone.  Not transformed, just gone.  We don't have a group who "upped their game" and made a viable argument for the value proposition of the very best typesetting in the world we just don't have any typesetters.

While more and more photos are being taken, as a percentage, far fewer are being taken by professional photographers than ever before.  And that includes images being used in ad campaigns and in  the general course of commerce.  Wedding photographers have seen a radical decline just in the last two years in total sales and revenue.  And it's not a question of not seeing the future.  Professional photographers don't know how to make money doing what they have done in the past in the future they do see.  Everyone who needs a photo for one use or another is stepping up with their own camera (or phone) and taking their best shot.  PhotoShop and it's lite cousins are the Pagemakers and Quarkexpresses that are driving the total market adaptation.  Time and budget are relentlessly driving the market for images.

Why did I start thinking about this?  It was the news that Kodak might be filing bankruptcy that started me down this tortured thought trail.  If the company that invented digital photography can't figure out how to survive in the age of digital photography what hope can there be for the professional photographers?  Yes, we're more agile and able to change quickly, but we're doing what all the devolving industries have done when confronted with their decline,  we move into other related fields, each of which is probably also in decline.  A great example is video production.  

When the 5D mk2 hit the market, and Vincent Laforet did his video Reverie, it struck a match of hope in the hearts of photographers looking for a secondary income stream.  How simple.  We would all become video artists.  But in the last two years so much programming has moved to YouTube and the numbers in the professional side of that industry are, if anything, worse than those confronting the majority of working photographers.  Some photographers have starting offering web design but that market is flooded as well.  

I've heard the chorus before.  It goes like this:  "Up your game and the world is your oyster."  But the reality is that, for most, even the perfect game isn't going to compete against free, or almost free. And it's not enough to compete against the concept of "good enough."  With tens of billions of images available at the fingertips of people who used to have to assign work, and pay real money for it, the odds are that perfect isn't going to be in the budget again for a long, long time.

Kodak was, for me, the symbol of photography as I knew it.  And the guys at Kodak weren't and aren't dumb.  They are/were some of the best and brightest.  They just didn't plan on the market shifting at the speed of light.  They didn't anticipate that disruption would occur faster than T-Max 3200.  And we, as professional photographers, are now standing where Kodak stood before the Toons dropped the safe or the grand piano on their heads  (Who Killed Rodger Rabbit reference).  Will we be able to do a better job of creating an alternative universe for ourselves?  It remains to be seen. 

I think the markets will continue as they progressively wind their way away from traditional assignment work.  Photographers will transition as designers have.  In order to stay in the middle class they'll need to diversify into video, digital presentation, writing, web publishing and more stuff that we haven't even invented yet. We'll likely become "content providers" working in concert with designers and agencies. Designers work with type, work with graphic elements, shoot their own source materials when necessary, design for the web and print and outdoor and for mobile apps.  Would they prefer to concentrate on pure design?  Sure.  But they also like to eat, pay the rent and buy stuff.  

Our industry will make a similar transition.  We just haven't figured out the whole roadmap yet.  And the people who don't want to learn to swim (all four strokes)  will be left behind, clinging to a fragment of the battered haul from a ship that's sinking quickly into the deep, cold waters of incessant progress.

Ian Summers summed it all up best with his motto:  "Grow or Die."

The only reality check I can offer is that Professional Photography is a much, much bigger and more diverse industry than Typesetting ever was.  And there are, of course, segments that will keep holding on even as most of the formerly profitable market is destroyed.  To make an analogy to video, while people are shooting their own webcasts with small digital cameras, or the cameras in their laptops, they don't want to give up the quality of professional camera and video work they see on broadcast NFL football games.  That level of work still takes a lot of skill and experience.  But a quick training video or "how to" video for in-house use?  Forget it.  Parts of the industry will go on.  But large swaths of what we always considered "the bread and butter" will not.  Not in the same way.  And without foundational work there's no real chance the majority will make it being photographers, exclusively.

Do I write this because I am angry or cranky?  No, I write this as an honest opinion.  It's as inevitable as the waves on the beach.  How can we battle  it?  We can't.  We can sort through our options and figure out our futures but we have to recognize that things changed quicker than anyone thought and, that old models are breaking down.  My business used to be completely devoted to assignment photography.  Last year a large percentage of our income was from publishing royalties.  Another segment came from several video projects.   Another part of the pie came from web marketing.  And some money even flew into the coffers as a result of teaching at workshops and seminars.  I may be a curmudgeon but I'm embracing change as quickly as I can.  Wanna buy a Visual Science Lab T-shirt?  

I hope Kodak makes it. Not because I believe they must for nostalgic reasons but because it would validate my thoughts that we can, as an industry,  retool and we can re-engage our markets (and new markets) in different ways.  

This essay is aimed solely at the people in the audience who make a living from taking photographs.  If you don't fall in this category you are either luckier or less lucky than we are.  If you get beyond the idea that the people at Kodak are not intelligent and you can understand that they were at the mercy of the data they had at hand you'll likely do a better job with your re-invention.  It starts now.  

Traveling "minimalist" this time.

 

It's hard to pack for a photo excursion when you have a work agenda to tackle and client expectations to fulfill. Then, you have an almost compulsive desire to bring along everything you might even remotely want to use. And you have to figure out how to pack it, transport it, pay baggage fees to get stuff onto an airplane and then figure out ground transportation at the other end. I'm guessing that even though commercial photography can be fun that dealing with tons of gear is why they call it work. 

You're always trying to balance what you need with what your journey can handle. Too much and you might get weighed down and delayed at every step. Too little and your project might fail completely. "For want of a lithium battery a kingdom was lost."

But then there's the opposite. Traveling just for the pleasure of traveling. Photography just because you want to. Traveling without the burden of equipment logistics. Trips where a good dinner is as important as having time to play with making images. 

When I planned my upcoming trip to Montreal my first priority was getting a room on short notice at a hotel I've always wanted to stay at. It's a small property. A boutique hotel in the Old Town. I could have found a cheaper/less expensive place to sleep but this time I wanted to toss caution to the wind and go in lavish comfort. I didn't want to settle for a hotel that gets a nice, fat eight out of ten stars from customer reviews. I wanted a 9.9 out of 10. 

I have a list of places I want to dine in. Not the smoked meat, fine bagels and poutine list. While that fare might be fun and popular I was thinking of places with great wine lists, wonderful menus and creative chefs. I've already made several reservations. Having been to the neighborhood before my one happy nod toward rank tourism is a daily breakfast at Crew. Bagels beyond bagels. Great coffee (a given) and one of the most spectacular interiors ever imagined for a .... coffee shop. 

So, what to bring? Camera wise?

A quick and easy plan there. The new (to me) Leica M240 with the 50mm APO-Lanthar. And extra battery. The second camera is the Leica Q2. And two extra batteries. And that's it. Fits in a small Domke bag along with my phone, travel docs and a Kindle. Nice fault tolerant back-up.

Clothes? Whatever fits in my carry on case. If I misjudge the weather I look forward to buying some cool outerwear on the ground. 

It's weird to me that we no longer really need to bring paper money. Well, we do....but just for tips. Everywhere I go and everything I buy is set up to be paid for with credit cards these days. Just with credit cards. Only with credit cards. From coffee to cars. Such a change from the days of looking around for ATMs or the even older days of going into the American Express office to get travelers checks before departing. 

My client is lackadaisical this time around. I asked for a shot list and he laughed in my face. I talked about budgets and he scoffed. His one demand was that I spend my time on two pursuits. Having fun and taking photographs. So nice to be self-propelled. 

Just in case you were wondering about my plans for packing....

No itemized receipts required upon return.

Taking a break from thinking too much, just to look at photos. I've always liked this one.

 I shot this image of Renee Zellweger a long time ago. Long before I owned any digital cameras. Long before I started playing with medium format cameras. In fact, long before I could afford professional lights. Instead I used an ancient Canon camera with a lens that was unique at the time. It was a Canon 135mm S.F. lens which would allow you to defocus parts. Essentially adding distortion to the image. It was a soft focus lens for 35mm cameras. 

Since I didn't  have "pro" lights I set up a rickety old light stand, put a hand-me-down 40 inch, white translucent umbrella and aimed a $10 work light through the fabric and onto my subject. There was no fill card and no other mods. 

This image was done years before Renee launched her acting career. It was done in a time when living was cheap and easy in Austin and everyone seemed to have lots of spare time for art projects. You'd call a friend and they'd drop by and sit for a portrait. Then, maybe, you'd both head over to the Omelletry for some gingerbread pancakes and a plate of eggs. Or you'd gather a group of friends and head to Barton Springs and someone would come up with enough cash to pay the fifty cent entry fee for each person. 

I like this image because I think it's a good portrait but also because it was done on a shoestring and with the most basic camera gear. 

Ah. The good old days.

Just finalized travel plans. First solo shooting trip in a long time.

 

Lemons in the Jean Talon Public Market in Montreal. By B. She shot this with her Canon G15 point and shoot. She's a better photographer than I am. I was walking around with some big, state of the art full frame camera and didn't get images half as good. 

I really enjoyed my last two visits to Canada. I'm happy they are still allowing Americans to travel there on vacations. That's very "Canadian" of them.  I have only been to three different cities there. Once, to Montreal, pre-Covid, with B. It was chilly on our late October 2019 trip but chilly for Texans in a welcome and exhilarating way. I was in Toronto back in early 2018 just in time for a blizzard, a quick tutorial on driving on black ice, and a series of video projects that were well received by the German company funding the whole shebang. We made a daring trip to Vancouver in 2022 during a welcome pause in the pandemic and, again, had a blast. Great hotels, great restaurants, great scenes. 

Of the places I've seen in Canada the one that is most compelling to me as a photographer is Montreal. It has a wonderful vibe, it's inexpensive to operate in without abandoning a bit of luxury, and the food scene is incredible. The Old Town has some terrific architecture and some of the neighborhoods in various parts of town are just ---- totally cool. I might even get to Quebec.

I've been anxious to get out of town and spend four or five (now six) days by myself with a good camera or two in tow. When I looked at all the travel destinations out there my thoughts were that I needed to let the European hotspots recover from a satanically hot summer and the overwhelming hordes of American and U.K. tourists. I'll give them a few months to decompress from the giant swell of Summer-Panic-Oh-My-God tourism. 

So, when I started looking around for a place to spend time, shoe leather, SD card memory space and what not I immediately pegged my next destination to be Montreal. 

There are no direct flights from Austin, Texas to Montreal but if you work the schedule correctly you'll find well scheduled flights from the major carriers that can get you from here to there in about six and a half hours. And then get you from there to here in about seven hours. Not at all outrageous and cheap as underwear from Walmart. (Just making fun of Walmart. I've never actually been in one....). 

I booked a room at a nice, small, boutique hotel in the Old Town for six nights. I'll take the bare minimum of wardrobe and buy what I need if I find out that I didn't pack right. I've scheduled one arrival day, on departure day and five days of doing nothing but walking around with a camera or two photographing everything that catches my eye(s), my attention. Oh, and also eating like I just got out of prison. No vegan diet that week. For damn sure.

B. encouraged me to go and shoot by myself. She'll be here holding down the fort and relishing her days without my constant mansplaining and anxious check-ins. We'll pick somewhere else to go for a different sort of vacation later in the Fall. 

Deep down I think most photographers relish (at least they should!!!) the idea of getting away from any and all schedules, clients, chores, routines and family obligations and just having unfettered time to walk around aimlessly, or even with good aim, taking photographs with their favorite cameras. I might even bring a small tripod and stay out later than my bed time making street photos by lamplight. It could happen. 

Go re-read my post: Lonely Hunter, Better Hunt. ( https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/10/lonely-hunter-better-hunt.html )

I'll be up north from the last week of September till the middle of the first week of October. If you are in Montreal and want to meet up for coffee at Crew drop me a note at the email on my actual website. I'm thinking of setting aside one morning to meet up, if anyone is interested. Don't plan on flying over from Tokyo just to meet me for coffee --- I'm not that interesting in person.

I love booking non-refundable trips. It's always the best incentive to follow through... $$$

Yeah. I really like the M240. But how is that Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 ZM lens working? Well, I shot the two together today to find out. Take a peek. Click to see them large. G'Night.

 

Damn fine color and detail in this particular shot of a very familiar subject. 

Punch in to see it at its best.