Manifestography #2. The graceful iambic pentameter of imaging intertwined with chaos theory.

 As Claude Levi-Strauss once moaned, plaintively, "This treatise about photography and art is as difficult to muddle through as a field of primordial mud. And less fragrant. Can someone please bring me a latté with an extra shot of espresso?" Then, according to those present, he nudged his smudged glasses up on his nose and, with a long sigh, continued reading about the importance of being earnest with cameras. Especially so with the sacred niche of un-decisive moment landscape photography. 

After hearing about this Garry Winogrand laughed, coughed, loaded a few more rolls of Tri-X, rolled his eyes and then, with a Leica camera over both shoulders he headed out the door saying, "This one is for that hoodwinked sucker, Szarkowski. I could shoot poodle shit and he'd buy a print for the museum." 

Meal tickets secured, they became legendary for their opacity.

Photo: The wall as a metaphor for massively parallel processing in nature.

Manifestography. Urban decay in the midst of exotic wealth.

I am constantly reminded that there is a lot of money, old and new, floating around central Austin. Methinks it becomes oppressive after a spell. But as Roland Bathes once said to Kinky Friedman, if you make friends with the locals make sure to become friendly with those who have deep pockets and short memories. If you maneuver it well enough the earth mother goddesses will look kindly upon you and stick your new friends with the bar tab. To which Kinky is said to have responded with, the hotter the pepper the sweeter the sting. A soft and gentle rain leaked out of the sky like a few erratic drops of urine from an old man's bladder. I looked up to the sky with some hesitation and then ducked my head down and searched for the punctum that would intersect with my dictum. And dodged the savory rain drops by dancing a wild jig that I learned from a bow-legged girl in graduate school who went by the name of Filbert Wayne Moses. My she was yar.  I stopped hanging out with her because I am such a good writer and she was like Kryptonite to me, but also because I've learned by reading spangled and smudged newspapers that all serial killers have "Wayne" as a middle name. No tempting fate. Not when there are donuts and pie afoot for every Jack-man amongst us. Eh? 

So when I came upon these two samples of modern defeatist architecture I decided to document them for inclusion into my dystopian portfolio of the made and manufactured objets existing inside a culturality schism between old order and new, affected disorder. The premise being that there exists ruins and remnants of previous generations mixed in with new constructions but mixed in such a way as to create maximum disharmony and negative resonance in the confines of the space in which both exist. Indeed, they exist in shared space but have differing and burdensome metrics of aesthetic responsibility to the alternate generations. In the example above the windows are made of a wood substance most commonly harvested from local and invasive tree species. Because of "wood's" ubiquity and the facile manner in which it can be worked for incorporation into shelter and structures intended to facilitate commerce it was the preferred material at a time in the development of civilization which Kenneth Clark calls the post modernist dark ages of dual culture paradigm. With a nod to unguents and pervasive use of alcohol for tribal rituals and the facilitation of suicide prevention. Or at least those suicides that are related to boredom and unsociability. The wood becomes a symbol for this particular era of expansion (physically) and contraction (mentally) which earmark the late 20th century and early 21 century as times of total regression of the arts and of primary literature. By using wood to make constructions the ability of the craftsman is evident. But this doesn't imply that the craftsmanship is either good or long lived but only just usable in the moment. Like the music of the Bee Gees or Lawrence Welk. 

Note that the wood pictured in the above plate is subject to comparative rapid deterioration and dis---integration which also becomes symbolic of its limited lifespan and the melancholy reality of its short life span. Especially when exposed to harsh elements and a culture that did not particularly value the idea or act of maintenance. Nabokov often referred to wood and lumber in their original Latin, or when being subject to a desire for humor, Lithuanian, but he is also known to call the material "the fruit fly of building materials whose integrity and affection is as brief as that of the ardor of a teenaged boy." But it's widely acknowledged by art experts such as David Hockney and Elton John that Nabokov could not be trusted with pithy analogies rendered in the Queen's tongue, or English proper. Nor could he be trusted to purchase clothes pins or shoe polish; both of which he thought of as "gag" gifts or party "favors" until his unfortunate series of accidents with both. William Burroughs always told him that a good revolver was quicker and more resolute. 

So, if wood is not worshipped and maintained by tribal communities it eventually fades and brings civilizations to their knees. Brings them lower than Toulouse-Lautrec haunting the bawdy houses. 

When I came upon the windows I immediately thought them to be the work or at least the residue of anti-Mennonites bent on diminishing the effect of quaint, mid-century architecture by accelerating its deconstruction. Which is exactly what Jack Kerouac was alluding to in his grand opus on Byzantine farm house architecture and its effects on modern cuisine de dessert. "Lots of whipped cream. Very little cake." 

Stay tuned for episode two as we use rare excerpts from snooker aficionado, Gustave Flaubert to dig into the hermeneutics of concrete and concrete stepping constructions and how they relate to the Scheimpflug maneuvers. On our next episode of "Photography meets Art Historical Nonsense on the web."  Grayscale printing on ephemeral digital constructs. 

 

I got stuff done today. My reward was a coffee break on jaunty S. Congress Ave. in the company of a favorite camera.

 

This might come as a shock but I have to admit that I am....not infallible. Twice I ordered the wrong diopter for my Leica M 240. I've given up and I'll just squint harder but I was pleased that Leica Store Miami responded quickly when I asked if I could return the mis-ordered ones for a refund. Yep! Sure! No Problem! 

Lately I've been in the mood to carry around the big Leica SL2 fitted out with the diminutive Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 (Nokton Classic). It's a very nice combo and works well. If you are in the mood for an SL2 and not feeling particularly frisky about dropping $7,000 on a new one I'm here to tell you that I've seen a couple of good condition used ones for under $4,000. How often can you save over $3,000 on a camera? And "Veblen" my ass. It's a hell of a great camera with a wonderful feel to it. And, with the right lenses and the right operator (not saying that's me....) it kicks out some pretty tremendous images.

If I get my inflation calculator revved up and running correctly it tells me that the current price of $7000 USD is just about what I paid for a much, much less stellar Nikon D2X ($5995) not very long ago. Or a Nikon D800 even less long ago. People have just got to learn to keep up with changing economic numbers. Or we'll all start to sound like bitter old men yelling at kids to get off our lawns. Or complaining with fiery hysteria that it's impossible to get a good cup of $0.25 coffee these days. Or bitching because gas costs about half what it does in the rest of the world...

None of these camera purchases that we fret over are part of a life or death need. Most of the people I know routinely overspend on cars and no one raises even a modest bit of shock, indignation or surprise. But man o man, splash out for a camera that makes you happy every single day and it's like tossing a red meat to every lifestyle critic out there in the wild. Get over it. Buy whatever you want and can afford. But let's don't act as though someone is ruining your photography by buying something you don't value as much.

On the other side of the coin, Ben came back from two weeks of travel through Japan. I offered him the use of any camera and combination of lenses he wanted so he could take great photos during his vacation. I shouldn't have wasted my breath. He politely declined every offer and went off on his adventure with only an iPhone.  He had a blast. And he came back with 330 photographs that were almost all right on the money. In fact, some of the night shots with acres of neon and throngs of people seemed better than anything we could shoot on big, full frame cameras and none of the shots required a tripod. 

Ben was right, of course, not to take a camera if photography in and of itself is not something that interests him. As a marketing professional for a fast moving A.I. company in the medical field he understands video and photography. Not to mention that he was raised fully immersed in it for most of his life because of his father. But he understands the cultural concept of modern imaging in a way that I think my generation has a huge problem understanding. I can accept that even if the idea of being out of step, out of touch, rankles my ego. 

As a parent I have to say that watching my kid plan out a two week trip, make his reservations, glide through a different culture with ease and have a wonderful time is so great for a parent. He certainly made the most out of his two weeks of vacation and he did it on his own steam. And his own agenda. His mom reminded me that he was able to handle a long semester in S. Korea at Yonsei University without any help, intervention,  or on site support from his parents or anyone else. I'm beginning to understand that he's a natural traveler. And his recent business travel probably keeps the overall travel skills fresh.  At any rate, the photographs he showed us were great. Well composed (credit his art director mom for that) and perfectly exposed (I'll take a little credit there) his iPhone photos stand up well. 

Since the kiddo got home safely and is back at work and since the stock market came roaring back this week, I thought I could take the time and bear the expense of a coffee break outside on S. Congress Ave. at Jo's Coffee. The weather was perfect, the coffee was almost perfect and the people watching was good but nowhere as thick and plentiful as the people parade on a Saturday afternoon might have been. High of 75°. Bright, clear skies. Just right for punchy color photographs.

I always love the simplicity of Jo's logo. And the "everyone welcome" feel of the place. 

I ought to bring along a notebook and write another book here. Lots of characters to

install in stories. iPhone photo.

Yes color. Lots of color. Dripping with color. 

Excellent coffee should have bubbles on the top. Jo's is on  the right track. 

Jack Kerouac at a diner couldn't be more satisfied. 

Mannequin porn. What is this dress shop up to?

The background at f2.0 is fun and chirpy. 40mms can be a lot of fun. 

I own two different Voigtlander 40mm lenses. Some day I'll test them and 

get rid of the least well performing one. Yeah. And one day I'll win millions of 

dollars playing the Lotto. 

Advertising at its most minimalist.

I have mixed feelings about the holidays. More window design and store embellishments via lights and holiday decorations make for fun dusk photos all over the place. People do tend to cheer up a bit and the number of invitations to parties skyrockets. But you have to consider the horrible downsides! I just got a note from the swim club. No practice on Thanksgiving day (expected) but what the hell were they thinking in not having a big long practice on the day after? How will we burn off the extra servings of pecan pie, stuffing, freshly baked rolls, cakes, and festive bottles of good wine? It smacks of negligence.  And I predict the Christmas and New Year's schedules will be at least as bleak.

And, it's become a tradition for the lines to check out at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods expand and extend beyond imagination. Don't buy ice cream during the holiday season --- it might melt before you steer your cart up to the cashier. 

It also looks like all the low hanging used camera "fruit" is also being snapped up now that it's near the end of the year. Someone out there is sweeping up all the M cameras older than the M10. And driving the prices up for whatever remains. 

You know, for a brand of cameras that so many people consider too expensive they sure are hard to find and buy. Seems like the company immediately sells every one they make. Right on the spot. I guess you have to be in some secret club to find your way onto a waiting list... Maybe Santa has the juice to make it happen. I wonder if my behavior has been good enough to warrant Santa and his rowdy band of elves to drop by with a Q3? That would take a lot of the sting out of having to wait in line to buy groceries. Right? 

Portrait of an actor.

 

"Sam"

Camera: Panasonic S1

Lens: 70-200mm. Focal length 200mm. Aperture f4.0

It was nice to get out and do a commercial portrait this morning. Fun to work with a clunky, heavy 90mm f1.25 manual focus lens.

 

Another self-timer masterpiece. 

Somebody tell this guy he looks too damn serious.

I've been making portraits for a particular downtown law firm for about eight years now. When they hire a new attorney the firm's managing director sends along an email asking about my availability. I respond. We set up an appointment. And since I've gotten more and more adamant about not missing swim workouts in the morning we've pretty much landed on having me arrive at their offices around 10 a.m. to set up lights and a camera. They schedule the portrait to take place at 10:30. That gives me time to grab coffee and breakfast after the swim ---- as long as I remember to pack all of the gear the night before. 

The gear package is simple and manageable now. After having shot over 100 different portraits for the firm I've got a good handle on how they want their images to look and where on the floor works best as a background. With a good gear moving cart there is no need for an assistant on jobs like this. Sure, if I was trying to shoot ten or twenty portraits of ten or twenty people in a bunch of different locations in the offices, I guess an assistant would come in handy. But we usually just photograph one person per engagement. I arrive, we photograph, and I'm back out to the car by around 11. Eleven thirty if we need to spend a bit longer. It's nice. I respect their time and they never question how much or how little time I take to do the work. The fee is always the same. 

Not having an assistant does mean that once I set up what I think works for lighting, composition, etc. I have to use the self-timer on the camera to test my set up. It usually takes a couple of tries to get what I want. But it's not a big deal. 

Today I photographed an attorney in a small conference room. But I really wanted the background to be the same hallway that's in the photo above. After I finished photographing him I picked up the camera and tripod and walked over to shoot that background with no people in it. We couldn't set up there today for the session because it's a passageway that gets a lot of traffic and the firm had multiple clients coming through. But a quick ten frames with some focus bracketing meant I could decide after the fact if I wanted to change backgrounds for the shot. 

I used only two lights to make my portraits today. A big Nanlite LED fixture with a 60 inch umbrella and a small LED panel light that I used to punch up the background a bit. It makes re-packing easier when you don't use every light you brought along. The floor to ceiling window in our conference room helped. A lot. The attorney was nice and interesting. We had a good connection. The shoot went quickly.

I packed everything back into two cases; actually, one case and one stand bag, and then I stopped by the front desk where the person who mans the phones looked up, smiled and handed me a small square of white paper with a QR code printed on it. I pushed the cart over to the long row of elevators and waited for the audible and visual signals that let me know which elevator to ride on back to the lobby. When you have a cart in two you can usually count on the "live" elevator being the one the furthest from where you've parked the cart to wait. Elevator "whack a mole."

Once in the lobby I steer the cart across the open space to another row of elevator doors. These "lifts" take people to the various floors of the attached parking garage. When the building first opened I remember marveling that the building management had little business card holders in each parking garage floor's elevator lobby. The cards were neatly printed business cards which told you on which floor you had parked your car. It was a thoughtful touch. No doubt thought up by someone who often forgets where their sedan ended up...

I used to dread this particular parking garage. It had nothing to do with the overall design or even the size of the spaces. No... it was because there is only one exit lane and before the pandemic the office building and its garage were busy places. People were constantly on the move.  I had two or three experiences in which the automated parking machines refused to read the QR codes on the little white pieces of paper I'd been given. My get out of parking jail free cards. There would be a steady forming up of cars behind me while I tried and tried to make the infra-red reader compliant with my needs. 

What I discovered is that two things generally happen in this scenario. One is that you push the "help" button on the machine which wakes up someone dozing the security offices, which are hidden from the tony guests and aloof tenants of the building. The guards understand that the people whose ire can interfere with their own happiness expect NOT to wait in line behind some vendor who seems incapable of executing one of the basics of downtown survival. The guards will prefunctorially raise the barrier and wish me well. The other alternative, when the guards can't be roused, is that one of the impatient lawyers or captains of industry stuck behind me will get out of their car, stalk over to the machine and wave their own, personal magnetic card in front of the reader and free me from my embarrassing inability to de-park. They are able to open the gates of the corral. I try not to make eye contact as I murmur a "thank you" and then get the hell out of the garage --- just in case the automated barrier bar changes its mind and holds me captive even longer. 

Since Covid the garage has lost its threatening potential. The elite are working from home. The worker bees don't generally come and go from the garage in the middle of the work day. The QR readers seem to have all gotten firmware upgrades and, maybe, now I just don't care. 

The car heads towards home and I don't dissuade it. It's cool, gray and rainy outside. The car heater keeps my Birkenstock exposed toes warm. As I get closer to my neighborhood I remember that Ben came home from Japan on Saturday and we had him over for dinner last night. Of course I remember all that but I'd forgotten to remember that I was so happy to see him home and well that I handed him my fresh bag of precious coffee from Trianon Coffee thinking that after having been out of the country for two weeks that he might not have fresh coffee for his first work day back. Today. But after I gave him my prize coffee and waved goodbye, as he drove off last night, it dawned on me that I wouldn't have coffee in the morning now instead. 

I drove by past the turn to our house and continued on to the coffee oasis. I ordered up another bag of Columbian Medium Roast Organic coffee and, since I was there, a cortado and a very, very nice walnut scone. I ate half of the scone and saved the rest for now. For when I would have afternoon coffee and take random breaks from post processing a dandy series of photographs of a kind lawyer, and also a break from my rhythmic typing that creates the machine code for the blog. The scone was delicious then and even more so now. The perfect capper, with more coffee, for a late lunch. 

I know, I know. For you ten shots in a portrait session and you've nailed it. Perfectly composed and precise exposure. Perfect expressions and each one profoundly different. I wish it worked that way for me but when I start talking to a portrait subject while taking photographs I can actually see their hesitation and reticence to open up melting away. By frame 35 we're done with figuring out where each of us fit in the hierarchy/pecking order and there is a relaxation that shows in their face. By frame 60 we've got genuine, warm smiles and more engagement. By frame 90 we're sharing stories about where our kids went to college and where they are now. And we have become at ease with each other like old friends from the same fraternity, drinking beer on the porch, and all guards are down. The photographs feel animated and perfectly sorted. I know I've got good stuff --- in spite of myself. And it mostly comes at the end.

For me a nice portrait session is never ten minutes of "look left. look right. chin up. A bit more smile" ten frames and you're moving them out the door. I'll take half and hour if I can get it and longer still if I think we can do better. There is comfort in taking one's time and trying to collaborate closer and closer. 

The other side of the coin is that you quick and assured shooters have time to skate into MacDonalds for a Fillet O Fish and a trash can sized diet Coke while I have to hunker down in front of the computer and figure out what to do with a hundred or more similar frames of a person I've just met. And since I pay a lot more attention to the human exchange than I do to the screen on the back of the camera I've also got to make adjustments to the cropping and composition. I've got to pay more attention to getting into the circle of non-confusion as it relates to colors and the way they look on human skin. I've got to go through all the frames and toss out the ones that are out of focus ---- because --- I'm using an "old school" manual focusing lens at perilously large apertures. And then I have to output the files that pass the sniff test and upload them to an online gallery for client consumption. After which there is the hot wash, personal to myself briefing of what went wrong and by how much and what should I do to make everything better the next time. 

And therein lies the real fun. Sure. We could do it all faster. We could do it all in a compressed manner in which ten files or even fifteen are the sole visual distillation of the sitter's existence in the commercial marketplace. But I'd like to think that by going deeper we can offer something that very, very few other working photographers want to try. The fast shooters consider the slow and virtuous session to be inefficient. A waste of valuable time. Not a profitable way to run a business. But what do I know? I don't want to short change the subject. They deserve to have something better than "satisfactory" to act as their avatar. Besides it's the fact that for me it still has to be fun, meaningful and unique. Or unique enough. And I do enjoy the social process as much as the technical stuff.

I've done portrait shoots every which way. Rushed cattle calls. Time limited CEO sessions. Long, luxurious personal sessions with beautiful friends. And the ones I like best are the sessions that we do without regard for time, budget or outside guidance. Just two people trying to make each other look good. 

I added noise to the file above to cover all manner of post processing faults. But you're not my client for that portrait, you are my audience. And I like the noise. It's fun. 

I'm happy today for any number of reasons. The equity markets are up so I feel richer. The shoot went smoothly and well so I feel like I'm still a professional at this. But probably the biggest bump of happiness was when the three of us; me, Ben and B. were sitting around the dining room table yesterday evening listening to Ben describe his time discovering Japan. The meals he most enjoyed. The hotel in Tokyo. The Ryokan in Kyoto. The six course breakfast there. The miso soup. The coffee served at the very end of the meal; like desert. And we marveled at the wonderful photographs Ben took with his iPhone and his determination to see everything all the time. But even better... he made it back safe and sound. And he seems so....adult. So sure.

So, it's a great day. I've replaced the gifted away coffee. I've used my cameras today for good and not for evil. I didn't exploit anyone.  I've dodged looking at the news. I've eaten fun meals. It's all a snapshot of one moment but I'll be happy to put a frame around the day and call it perfect performance art. 

Gotta tell you, that crazy, cheap lens is pretty nice. So is the zany Fuji GFX. But then so is that scone that was in the brown paper bag on my desk until just a few moments ago. 

Hope your week is off to a great start. 

Back in the office. Polished the computer and the hard drives. Sorted cameras. Sat back and admired clean, white walls. Went swimming.

If you like the look of a 40mm, full frame lens you might be interested in grafting a

Carl Zeiss ZM 28mm f2.8 onto the front of a Leica CL. It's a nicely compact

package that makes really nice photographs. Unless you are afraid of the smaller

format. And the fact that the camera has been discontinued. Still.....

it looks so darn cool...

The studio looks great. I'm just now moving everything back in and trying to come to grips with the idea of leaving the walls bare for a while, just to enjoy the "blank canvas" bright white look of it all. This morning I moved the computer, hard drives and printer back into the office space and hooked them all up. I would have done it earlier but I was reluctant to spend a lot of time inside until the paint smell receded and mostly vanished. That was today. 

I love the clean look so much that I'm getting more and more serious about tossing tons of extraneous stuff out. I've got a bag full of microphones, mixers, cables and more microphones and mixers that I'm going to take to the camera store and "trade in." I'd try to sell them online but I have no patience for things like Ebay. I'd rather donate stuff than wade through the pathos and insecurities of online buyers. 

Same with buying stuff from individuals. I'll buy a lens or a camera from a good friend but I'm always hesitant about buying stuff online from anywhere but a well known retail store. Or the same retail/web storefront. I like the guys at Camera West. I'm happy to bite the bullet and pay a bit above market price for used gear at The Leica Store Miami. And, of course, for lots of new stuff there's always B&H Photo. Each of these vendors does a good job of standing behind the products they sell and taking care of their customers when things don't turn out as intended. Not so with strangers online who seem to vanish at the first sign of trouble. 

For the first time in a long time I'm not really in the market for anything. I thought I might resell the two Leica CL cameras but I took them out and used them again and I'm right back in love with them. I've found that Leica stuff holds my interest in a different way than other camera brands. Take the Leica SL camera for instance. It was launched in 2015 and the sensor tech in it is older. It's strictly contrast detect auto focus which drives a lot of photographers around the bend. It's hefty and the battery life is less than stellar but it's adorable, solid and the files that come out of the camera, when used well, are really quite good and, in many ways very different aesthetically than the files that come out of most other (non-Leica) cameras. 

If one purchases a brand like Sony I think a lot of the reason for that choice is to stay up to date with the latest features and technology. If that's a primary reason to buy than it's only logical that those are also the good reasons to want to constantly upgrade. To keep up. Since the Leicas are constantly at least a generation or two behind when it comes to features, and some pizzazz technology at the time when you buy them new, you come to understand that maybe we're buying them for different reasons. 

Since I'm not really in the market for a new camera or lens I find myself rotating through the existing inventory with a sense of new discovery. As in: what have I overlooked before?  On Monday I'll pack up a few LED lights, grab the Fuji GFX 50Sii and head over to my favorite law firm to make an environmental portrait of an attorney. 

I'm delighted to do so because it's a chance to re-visit the TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 lens. Yes, it vignettes quite a bit at the edges of the medium format sensor and it has some geometric distortion built in, but it's also a fast, fun lens. I'll shoot at a safe aperture to start out. "Safe" from the perspective of ensuring enough depth of field to cover from the tip of the attorney's nose to the backs of his ears. Once we have an ample number of keepers I'll ask if he'll collaborate with me by hanging out while I make more exposures at wider and wider apertures. When we're operating in safe mode while doing commercial portraits I mostly stay "North" of f5.6. Venturing as high as f8.0. But after we've got good stuff in the can I want to venture all the way down to f2.0. I know the lens has wider f-stops but by f2.0 the depth of field is so shallow that anything under f2.0 and you're just showing off mindless bokeh rendering techniques, not solving an issue that needs resolution. (And I'm not sure the lens is sharp enough at and near wide open to make this kind of tiny slice of depth of field viable....). 

As far as vignetting goes I tend not to use the 4:3 aspect ratio since various other ratios don't include the far corners and that's where the darkening is most pronounced. Even 3:2 sidesteps most of the vignetting that this lens delivers. Finally, the closer the subject the less vignetting occurs. 

In the end, knowing myself as well as I do, if I find myself shooting a lot of portraits with the Fuji GFX I will almost certainly buy the 110mm f2.0 lens which is almost universally adored by people who use the system. But not until I've hit a wall with the 90mm TTArtisan lens. Not today.

Outside of the commercial portrait arena all my other "fun" work recently has been shot with various cameras set to black and white. It's this week's trend. And with all the controls and presets available now in Lightroom black and white has become such a joy. I like boosting the contrast and I like making images darker. The scenes seem more realistic when I darken them and the increase in contrast makes images a bit more exciting. I'm so over endless tones of mushy grayscale that I almost can't look at flat images anymore without feeling a tremendously underwhelmed.

Shooting all the time sucks up memory space in the office. Currently have six 12 terabyte drives attached to the iMac Pro. Three of them back up the other three. I'm also using a couple of fast SSDs for temporary work. Stuff I'm processing in the moment. The trade-off for speed is limited size. They are each 1 terabyte. Seems to work as long as I continue upgrading, migrating and transferring. But it's a constant reminder that film was/is a pretty robust back-up medium. 

Finally. Having a blast at the pool. Yesterday I swam with an outrageously fast swimmer who won gold in the Sidney Olympics. The coach paired us up in adjacent lanes in order to mirror each other. It's a training method in which one person leads and the other person tries to mirror their stroke cadence and pace. It's a great way to learn subtle (and not so subtle) stroke improvements. Then we did a set of 50s in which my coach set (too fast) targeted repeat times for me, and my partner would estimate how much time difference in our starts would allow him to sprint and try to catch me. He pushed off the wall about five seconds after me. The logic behind the exercise is that trying not to get caught, or trying to catch a leading swimmer, on each repeat makes each person act, maybe subconsciously, more competitive and thus makes each one swim faster. Outside their comfort zone. It worked for me. I probably swam those ten 50 yard "races" faster than any I have in about 15 years. 

My fellow swimmer caught me five out of the ten times. I sprinted well but thought he might be holding back ---- just a little. It's one thing to try racing against someone about half your age but it's another thing entirely when that person is a six foot four inch tall former record holder who never stopped swimming. A bit intimidating? Yeah, I guess so... Required two lunches afterwards... and a long nap.

Winter is coming to Austin sporadically. Cold and wet today. But that means something different to us here than it does to people in, say, Montreal. Cold here is 60° and wet is --- well, wet is the same. Still, it's nice to break out sweatshirts, jackets, etc. Can't wait for another 20° drop. Then I can pull out the trench coat and pretend to be a 1950s spy. Fun with winter clothes.

 

Painting complete. Client (me) happy as a clam. House and office nicely refreshed.

 

We'd been meaning to re-paint the living room, the guest bathroom, that ceiling of the screened in back patio and, of course the studio, for a long, long time. Like 26 years a long time. I guess the fact that it wasn't urgent is a nod to the quality of the paint the last homeowner used. But it was time. Beyond time. And now I can't believe we lived with the quickly deteriorating paint for as long as we did. 

I'd like you to believe that I volunteered to climb ladders, scrape paint, re-caulk long beams positioned high up, and also to bleach the ceiling of the patio to remediate some small moldy cultures. I'd like to tell you that I couldn't wait to clean the abused white walls of the studio/office to prep them for my expert application of new paint. I'd like for you to believe that I relish hard work like this. That I have no fear of heights and love to hang out on the top two steps of twelve foot ladders. All carefree and relaxed. I'd like to write all those things with a straight face but I would worry that B. might read this blog post and write a pithy and much more honest rebuttal. Showcasing my reticence to do anything really productive around the house.  And I would be so embarrassed.

But in my defense I have been here every day to answer questions, help out, make coffee for the two man team that our painting company sent over to do the actual, hands on work and also endure the smell of drying paint. Just as I am certain that I'll be writing the check when it's all said and done. 

There was something both sad and cathartic about this particular process. I had no idea that moving all the clutter from the top of my desk and clearing off piles of stuff would be so emotionally fraught. It dawned on me that this was yet another signpost of change and transition. 

The office space looks so clean and Spartan right now. Right at this moment. I'm hesitant to start bringing stuff back in which will have the unwanted effect of cluttering up the room. For another 25  years. 

The bare white walls are so minimalist right now. Like an austere NYC art gallery.  I'm guessing this might be just the motivation I've needed to purge about 80% of the old gear, modifiers, old work, etc. that this room has been housing; like a mini-museum with metastasizing clutter syndrome. 

Drop by. Maybe I can persuade you to leave with a small parting gift. A C-Stand anyone? How about a couple hundred feet of heavy duty extension cable. Some nice, well used frames? Who needs some long rolls of white seamless background paper? We'll pay you to take it....

Since we rehabbed and re-painted the guest bathroom I can now 

invite friends over for dinner without having to apologize for the 

tattered condition we once experienced in this one. Now it seems 

like a wonderfully neat place in which to wash one's hands. 

The painters covered every piece of gear and furniture with plastic.

If I had done the job I would have convinced myself that I would

never drip paint. And then I'd have spent a few days trying to clean up the mess

followed by months of rationalizing how artistic it is to have white speckles 

applied randomly around the room.

A Nanlite LED spotlight shrouded for protection.

And I may be lazy enough to leave it just l like this and to tell everyone

that it's an expression of modern decor. I'm sure that will go over well.

The painters have departed. I should move the stuff I positioned outside back into the office space before it rains. But I'd rather take a nap. Watching other people diligently working can be exhausting.