OT: Rough day. But good in a few ways.

 

Author in a factory in Mexico. 

I think people generally delight in routines. I know that I do. Routines eliminate the anxiety of anticipating the unknown as it nears you like a panther stocking you in the night. I like to go out of town to conferences and trade shows and I also enjoy advertising assignments that take me to places I'd never get around to visiting on my own. But the re-entry is always a bit annoying. Either because I've put off unpleasant tasks until a job or project is over or because I've put off a doctor's appointment or financial task. Today was the day when I handled things I'd put off in anticipation of my time in Santa Fe. 

We don't have swim practice on Mondays so Tuesday was my real re-entry day; post travel. Sure, I was at  swim practice on Friday and Saturday of last week but the Easter holiday put a crimp in my swim schedule on Sunday and Monday. So those other two days didn't really count.

Today's workout seemed normal to the people around me but I felt like I was trying to drag a small truck up a steep hill with my bare hands. Lots and lots of freestyle sets on tighter and tighter intervals. The kind of stuff that feels fun in your twenties but seems like real work in your late 60s. Matt, in the next lane over, set a mean pace. A couple seconds rest in between sets. Tight, tight intervals. And speed work.

By the time we finished our hour we'd covered about 3400 yards. Not bad but even just a week out of the pool is enough to make you feel the workout. It's tough until you get your feel of the water back.

After swimming and a quick breakfast I made a trip downtown to my bank to make a deposit and also quickly catch up my banker on last week's bank conference. After that I was on my way through highway construction and beastly traffic to visit my dermatologist. I wanted to know if a spot on my face was something not to worry about or something that, left unattended, might kill me. 

Dr. Carrasco doesn't beat around the bush. "We need to scalpel that puppy off and then biopsy it." Oh joy. A shot of pain killer in the cheek and some quick work on me with a sharp knife. I'll know in a week if it's just a creative actinic keratosis or some sort of scary basal cell cancer that will require a bit more digging and scrapping and, maybe some sutures. While he had me in the chair he also offered to blast a seborrheic keratosis he found behind my left ear with a few healthy applications of liquid nitrogen. You know, just to make things a bit more fun. My only question for procedures like this is: "Will I be able to go to swim practice in the morning?" The Doctor, knowing me pretty well, asked, "Chlorinated or not?" I assured him that the pool was perfectly chlorinated (whatever that was supposed to mean) and he gave me approval to go swim. What's the worst thing that can happen? Cue the flesh eating bacteria...

One thing I like about my relationship with my dermatologist: I called yesterday to set up an appointment and I walked into the office the next day for analysis and treatment. That's service I like!!!

After my exciting experience at the office of minor skin torture I dropped by the house, thought about taking a nap, but got a text from the production company I worked with in SF last week. They wanted to know what to do with my back-up case full of Leica cameras and Leica lenses. I got in the car and drove from my house in the SW of Austin to their offices in the NE quadrant of Austin. Traffic was about par for the course in our fair city. The Mopac expressway was stop and go almost all the way there. 

Now I am back in the office and very clearly thinking that a nap would indeed be just the thing. I'll go take care of that right now....

Now that the numbing agent has worn off my cheek hurts. Two things I wish I had done more diligently during my teen years in Austin (and beyond): Flossed more and used more sunscreen. Do those with relentless application and you'll probably live well into your 150s...

Happy to have the Leica inventory re-united. All good and all happy.

Added: Just heard from the guys at the Leica Store in Miami. The tariffs are about to bite. LSM sent a note that prices will be heading north on May 1st. And that includes prices on anything coming into inventory after the 1st; even if it was pre-paid. That includes special orders, et al. 

Leica obviously isn't the only company to respond to the tariffs. Pretty much everything in the photography world is about to get at least 10% more expensive for USA photographers. Many of you won't feel the sting but for us hard working, low paid professionals it will probably feel less than optimal. More painful. Couple it with the precipitous drop in the value of the dollar compared to other currencies and you can see that we're heading in a direction that will eventually make almost every camera buyer here uncomfortable. 

Remedy? Prepare to be happier than ever with the gear you already have!!! Feeling smart that I spent the last four or five years over-buying Leica stuff.... 

So...how's the black and white ( or Monochrome) out of the tiny Leica? Let's see.

 

I am not an "infinite shades of gray -- zones and tones" black and white shooter. I like some contrast. Lots of contrast. When shooting "grayscale" I like to use the Leica cameras in the Monochrome HC mode. With "HC" standing for high contrast. This also mean that I use the camera in its Jpeg mode when doing so. Sometimes I go nuts and increase the already increased contrast. Just enough to pop wildly but not quite enough to actually cut your eye. 

Here are Jpeg images from the DLUX8. You don't have to like them. You get to choose your own adventure. But this is the way I like them. And, I mostly do this for an audience of one. Me. 

Go out and shoot some. Show us. That's all.

The cliche brick wall test. Passes with flying colors.

The textured wall test, with melting clock a la Dali. 

Passes with ease.

 Looking back from the entrance of the Hilton hotel next to the Convention Center.

Now closed for three years for expansion and remodeling. 

Maybe skip holding your big show here for a while longer...

Reverso Grandé.

Large swaths around the convention center are now fenced off. 

Not sure how the convention hotels feel about losing the town's biggest

conference venue for a long time.... And, didn't we just pay for this 

building complex 20 years ago????

Reflected light on old concrete.

This vacant lot used to be a Mexican Restaurant. Someone tore it all down the week I was out of town. That was fast!!!

In Santa Fe I heard from Porsche owners that they might not own the most reliable cars.

And that something as simple as an oil change can take months to schedule and cost

as much as a nice camera lens.

Prepare for a Mannequin Intermission.

All done.

Long gray tones for the traditionalists. 

First steps of the walk. 

I like the look. I like the camera. 

Mid-Day Walk with the smallest Leica.

Window washers on Sixth Street. 

My brother is not handy with technology or technical devices. He's spent the last 45+ years as a Latin and Greek teacher. To the best of my knowledge he's never owned a camera; his wife tends to take charge of their family's photo documentation needs. But if he ever called to ask me about buying a camera that is easy to use and makes great images I'd have to point him toward the Leica D-Lux8. I'll assume that he would use the full automatic modes and only work in Jpeg but I'm pretty sure the camera would serve him well. 

I've had the camera for a week and a half and I'm edging towards 3,000 exposures. That's a bare minimum from which to start extrapolating a final opinion about the camera as a work tool but it's looking very, very good. I wonder if, after the tariff embroglio, Leica will resume sending this particular product into the USA. It is, after all, made in China. And it will be sad if the small number that have made it here already is the bulk of what we'll actually get; over time. 

Sadly, seeing that it is out of stock everywhere, I will have to put mine on the market. I'm only asking $5,000 and that includes the box and all of the accessories. Ready to transact when you are. One caveat. I can only accept Euros. The dollar has lost 9% of its value in the last month and a half. I'd be taking a bath to accept anything less.... below are samples from my particular camera. 

Why am I selling so cheap? Well, I want to have the money ready to go when a USA company launches a far, far superior line of camera products compared to anything currently on the market. Next month? 

An American car. Everyone is my neighborhood is rushing to buy one right away!!!

Another fine project for the citizens of Austin to navigate around...

 

Messing around with files on a beautiful Sunday afternoon when I should be out enjoying the sunshine. Some old favorites. All from the ancient past we now refer to as "the film days."

This photo by Alan Pogue

And, for the record, I have never voted republican. Even when back when the party was just a little bit evil...

 

Random Thoughts and Photo Selections. 04-19-2025

 

First on. First off. With cameras.

Camera: Leica DLUX8

An upgrade. Camera and Flights.

Seaholm Power Plant as Art Object. 

one frame with two looks. Q2.

I'm reasonably sure most of my readers are better travelers than me. I have to admit that I have some degree of what I call "travel anxiety." I pack and re-pack leading up to my departure on business trips. I check my documents, boarding passes and tickets often. Too often.  I have lots of trouble sleeping the night before the beginning of a trip. I worry almost incessantly about being able to bring my small case filled with cameras on board flights with me. I arrive at the airport 2.5 hours before my domestic flights. When it comes to air travel I am a firm believer in "Murphy's Law." 

But I think I come by this anxiety honestly. I was once delayed in Austin the day of an important job when the plane we were to fly on to San Francisco had an "issue." Raw sewage overflowed from the first class toilets down the aisle of the aircraft. When the airline finally replaced the plane we were six hours late getting into our destination. I rushed into a hotel conference ballroom with just a few minutes to take photos of a famous speaker, writer. Pretty much my whole reason for being there... The client was not sympathetic. 

Once we crash landed during a blizzard coming into St. Petersburg, Russia in the month of February. No one was injured but the front nose of the plane was a disaster. I've been on many flights with various mammoth delays. The worst being a poorly routed flight from Lisbon to London to Chicago to Austin that ended up taking a total of 36 hours in a 747 with many smelly passengers (not their faults...they didn't start out that way) because of multiple delays and an overnight stay with about ten thousand people sleeping on their luggage in a snowed in Chicago airport. I finally got into Austin just in time to take my 3 year old child to the circus. After 40+ hours of no sleep I briefly fell asleep in my seat while elephants paraded below. 

I got the last ticket on a flight to Rome back when airlines allowed smoking on the airplanes. My ticket was in the back of the plane. In the midst of chain smoking Europeans from various countries. I often fret that I lost a year of my lung capacity on that one adventure. 

Also, I've been the (hopefully) unintentional victim of many airlines' poor understanding of how long it takes to get from one terminal to another and one gate to another for connecting flights. A sweaty run through a crowded terminal with a 20 pound bag of cameras bouncing over one shoulder is so much fun. You should try it next time you are bored. 

My experiences have shaped my psyche when it comes to flying. I dread the whole sordid experience  when it's for work. I happily tolerate most logistical dysfunction when I'm traveling for pleasure. 

But, at least this week, all my airline experiences were very good. I have TSA Pre-Check. I have Global Entry. I flew all four legs of my journey in First Class (the benevolence of a long time client). And I was doled out just enough privilege to speed through security, board at a leisurely pace, and not have to take off my belt or my shoes. Or to disgorge my laptop from my bag while strolling through the scanners.

I with I could fly that way on every trip. But it's hit and miss. Sometimes you've accrued the miles for an upgrade. Or you bought just enough Leicas with your affiliated credit card to get the points. Or a client likes you and wants you to arrive fresh and happy for their project. Whatever the reason, I'll take it. 

Worst flight ever? That would be on a military C130 Hercules prop plane from Incirlik Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey to Wiesbaden, Germany. Bouncy, really late, super loud and the only time I've ever been air sick. But that's a story for another time. I guess. 

I am currently loving small cameras. Love the Q2. I'd hate to go to work without one in the bag. And now I'm in a new small camera romance with the Leica D-Lux 8. So much photo power in such a diminutive package. 

I have a fantasy which I will try to make happen soon. It's to fly someplace I want to photograph just for me, like Rome, with only a very small camera bag. One or two cameras. No accessories. A pack of gum and a passport. No checked luggage. No other carry-on. I would land in the city, go to my hotel and check in, and then go out and buy clothes at nearby shops. Buying new clothes as needed. Making liberal use of hotel laundry services. And then, at the end of a glorious time making photographs, I would have the hotel box up the freshly cleaned clothes and ship them to me back in Austin. Flying unfettered by any luggage. Nothing to check and nothing to drag around airports. I know, it's an indulgent fantasy but it's something I think about every time I have to (or get to) fly somewhere. Working on the concept. ..

Post Processing. The plumbing of photography.

 

Adobe Building in Santa Fe. Pretentious Plate #1

Camera: Leica DLUX 8

It's funny to think about but for most event projects it takes a lot more time to post process the images that it does to actually shoot the photos in the first place. At least it does for me. I can't automate everything so a lot of frames get individualized attention. I'm always trying to get the skin color on the faces of people who play too much golf without sunscreen to look good. We usually start out with a huge magenta and red cast and work our way back to whatever constitutes a good approximation of normal. I haven't really found a great way to automate that process with presets as everyone's complexion seems different and we'll end up tweaking the file in the end. 

I took about 1,500 photos over the course of this last week's project in Santa Fe. Nearly every single frame had a person or people in it. Since I was not working as a photojournalist I wasn't duty bound to keep my hands off the Lightroom buttons provided specifically to help people look just a bit better than they might have in the moment. I'm sure everyone I photograph is inherently beautiful. I'm equally sure that long days, longer evenings, and maybe a shot or two too many of Kentucky Bourbon might have impaired the overall presentation of some folks, in the moment. These people might need some post production help to reassemble their usual good looks...

When I'm working on a multi-day project I try to stay focused on "file preservation." I don't erase bad photos from a memory card while in process. If I'm using single card slot cameras I try to download files to both a laptop SSD and an external SSD during every break. And I try not to ever re-format a card until I get back home and get all the images backed up on the official office computer as well. Since I hate to take chances I also put all the files from the conference onto a 256GB memory stick and packed it into the case that's traveling home on a truck. I guess I was being paranoid about the possible gamma rays at altitude when flying.

When I get home the first thing I do is fire up Lightroom Classic and start the edit and import process. Just for reference, when I say "edit" in the context of photography I don't mean color correction or sharpening or anything like that. Those are processing steps. When I use the words "edit" or "editing" in conjunction with importing files what I'm talking about is a "yea" or "nay" about a photos inclusion or removal from the process. . Edit means the file either passes inspection and is imported or it sucks and is cast out, never to be seen again. Edit = chosen or rejected. It's easy to do in Lightroom. When the import menu opens all the images have check marks under them while in the "Library" mode. I click "uncheck all". Then I go file by file and the ones I like get a check mark while the ones I don't want don't get a check mark. Some people use a "starred" rating method but I'm more binary. In or out. No middle ground. 

When the edit is figured out the importing into a catalog begins. If you are organized and believe in leaving behind a legacy for other people to pick through later you might consider adding metadata to your images. I usually just put in copyright info and move on. I "copy" while importing and Adobe kindly gives me the option to make and additional copy of the files in a second location. One set goes on one drive and is also backed up on a second drive.

When I start post processing in the "Develop" mode I tend to keep a reference color portrait image open in a window on my monitor so I have a more objective reference than my own memory as to what constitutes "pleasing color" in a portrait. At a glance I can tell if my eyes and color awareness are starting to drift. The reference portrait brings me back to a somewhat rational thought process regarding what humans look like. 

I started the post processing (color, cropping, contrast, repair) yesterday morning. I worked on and off with the files for most of yesterday; up until dinner time. I resumed the process after swim practice this morning. I took breaks whenever the cup of coffee got cold. I have now finished with the fine-tuning and  retouching and have exported my event files as large, low compression Jpeg files. It's 1:07 in the afternoon. After lunch with family I'll upload two different folders to Smugmug.com for my client's convenience. If they need stuff while on the run they can easily download individual files. I'll send along a complete folder for each day. Once everyone is back from their breaks (post event recovery) I'll send along all the images in both folders via WeTransfer.com. I might also call my client and arrange to meet for coffee and hand over a physical memory stick at that time. Face time is always fun.

For me the project is complete. The last thing left to do is to send over an invoice and fuss with my internal accounting. 

I missed swimming during the week. I hate to miss more than a day or two in any given week. When I got back in the water this morning I could feel the deprivation. In the awkward feel of the strokes, the extra effort required to go fast, and the fatigue that comes from working late and traveling on planes. But damn! It sure was great to be back in the water and moving with focused attention at the break of dawn today. Keeps me feeling young....

That's all I've got in the moment. 

Post Project Observations. Which gear got the most use and why.

 

Hand held self portrait in meager light. Look at the detail on the glasses and the textured covering for the camera. Is it sharp enough? Or...maybe it's too sharp?

I think it's just right...

It was 10:50 pm when I walked through the front door of the house last night. I was tired but still wound up and happy about the way my week went and how well the conference unfolded. As I was unwinding with a cup of mint chocolate chip ice cream I was thinking about how over prepared I was; gear wise, for what was a straightforward and uncomplicated three days of photography. But then again, old habits die hard. If you want the "too long/didn't read" for this one I can sum it up like this: Pack once, open the cases, take half the stuff you've packed out and re-close the cases. 

The job followed the lines of a typical high end conference for a small audience. We had about 250 attendees and that included spouses. I've shot events like this for over forty years now. In the past; in the film days, there was no opportunity to instantly review images on the back of a camera. And in fast breaking situations (a line up of people to shake a former president's hand and, one by one, get their photo taken with him) the limitation of 36 exposures on a roll was very real. Time is money. Waiting around while a photographer changes film is not something event managers wanted to see. 

When I photographed George HW Bush shaking hands with with a line of 125 people at an aviation museum event in Arizona (client: Dell) I made sure to have four cameras loaded with film and outfitted with electronic flashes. When one roll hit the 36th exposure in a camera I put the camera down on a small table and picked up the next fully loaded camera. Again and again. 

The show I was doing in Santa Fe was essentially the same format of the show we did for the same client last year in San Antonio. We had cocktail receptions, this time on the roof of the hotel with the mountains east of Santa Fe in the background. We had general sessions with a series of speakers and several keynote presenters up on a stage. We needed good, clean, sharp images of each speaker --- mostly standing behind a podium --- and lots of images of the keynote speakers and special guests pacing back and forth across the stage. 

I'm probably not the fastest photographer so I tend to take a lot of frames to make sure that I get a range of good expressions out of each person presenting. It's harder than it seems; at least for me, to capture the composition I want and couple that with just the right look on the speakers' faces. No closed lips, no blinks, no awkward expression. I just try to catch each one as they are making a point and speaking. And trying to make the photographs reflect a look of grace and authority for each. I'll usually end up with 30 to 60 shots of each person who gets up on stage. Out of that number I'll generally end up with 8-10 good photos and 3-4 great shots. I'm playing a numbers game. 

And, of course, every shot we do during the general sessions is done without flash. That was hugely painful in the film days and the early, noisy days of digital but now seems more or less routine. Flash is startling and takes the audience out of the flow the speakers try to develop with them. So --- also, no unnecessary moving around. If you are working near the front of the room you want to wear black so as not to draw attention to yourself. My hair is now white. Now I wear a black cap to prevent my head from looking like a spotlight...

The tight podium shots are the only time I really needed a "traditional" full frame, professional, interchangeable lens camera. I need to use a long lens to get tight compositions of people huddled behind the podium. You may assume that I could just get closer and closer with a shorter lens but unless you are up on stage (never going to happen) the closer you get the steeper angle at which you have to aim up with your camera and lens and with a short or normal focal length, to get the comp  you want, you'd be looking up the speaker's nose. A 135 to about 200mm lens allows you to get back a bit, compress the image, and get a tight crop without drawing attention to yourself or getting unflattering angles on the subject. 

For these kinds of photos I packed a SL2-S and a Leica 135mm f2.8. I used it at 2.8 all the time. If you punch in on one of the frames you can count the pores inside the pores on a speaker's face; not that you'd want to...

In my old school habit I had to bring a back up for the camera and an alternative for the lens. I figured the way to go was to add the Leica 24-90mm for all the stuff I'd be photographing at the end of conference evening dinner, including a live auction and a musical performance. The 90mm end of the zoom would work in a pinch for podium and stage work if I cropped a bit....

I thought I should bring along another SL2,  just in case, and, if the zoom crapped out I thought to also bring along a 35mm, 50mm and 90mm set of primes.  You know, just in case. Add a couple of big Leica electronic flashes and batteries for all that and you are definitely toting around a lot of inventory. When I'm packing I'm always trying to cover all my bases to hedge against equipment failures. Having a back-up set of gear got hardwired into my brain over time. But in truth, out of hundreds and hundreds of jobs on remote locations, over years and years, I can only remember one or two gear failures. And about 50% of those failures happened in the film days. 

Many of my photographer friends kid me about using so many different cameras. They tell me that regardless of which camera I use in the moment the images look the same from camera to camera. This is, of course a ribbing of sorts by which they mean I'm kind of regimented in my use of cameras instead of being a "camera whisperer" who lets the individual camera's special charm and character show through. A documentarian instead of an artful interpreter... For event work I think that's how it should be. 

But still, I was over the top this time. In addition to the pair of big, heavy Leica SL2(x) cameras and their beefy attendant lenses, mountains of batteries and cables, rounded out by two stout flashes, I also packed a Q2 and the newest arrival; the D-Lux 8. Along with a 14inch MacBook Pro (M3), extra SSD drives and more cables. In fact, I packed so much that I sent one case ahead on the production truck.

And that was a case I never even opened. 

But at least I didn't bring tripods, light stands and extra lights!

When I photographed the welcome reception, which was in sunlight near the end of the day, I thought it might be fun to try out the little D-Lux 8 and the tiny flash that comes packaged with it. The reception ran for an hour and a half so there was no rush to get stuff done quickly. I reasoned that if the small camera and flash weren't up to the task I would have plenty of time to change gears and pull the Q2 or the SL2-S out of the bag I had staged off to one side and to get on with the job. But from the first shot I realized that the pixie-sized flash and camera worked really well in concert. I shot the entire reception with that set up. It was a wonderful feeling to have such a light burden to carry around. I thought the flash would draw a lot of energy from the camera battery and so I came armed with multiple spare batteries. I needn't have worried as the original battery was still going strong by the end of that first event. 

The flash, camera's leaf shutter, and auto-ISO worked well together and allowed for fill flash in sunny conditions. Amazing to me from such a small flash. But I was working close to the subjects and shooting mostly at wider apertures. Like f4 and f5.6.

The next morning I photographed every podium shot with the SL2-S + 135 and the images were as good as ever. I used the D-Lux 8 for wide stage shots ( in the range of 24-75mm) and again the camera worked well. Trail and error is a lot of fun when it works. As I got more and more comfortable with the little camera I used it for more and more of the coverage; including a lot of available light work at ISOs like 1600 and even 3200. When I got into that higher ISO range I made sure to shoot in DNG + Jpeg so I could take advantage of Lightroom's A.I. DeNoise feature; just in case. Only available for raw files. That worked well too. 

On one afternoon I accompanied a group to a famous pottery collector's house about 35 minutes out of town; between Santa Fe and Los Alamos. The house is one of the oldest houses in N. America and its existence spans (so far) 600 years. Every square inch of the house was filled with exquisite Navajo pottery, paintings, dioramas, textiles and sculptures. Using the D-Lux 8 with the lens set to f1.7-f2.8 I did all of the afternoon's photographic documentation of the collector, the attendees and the artwork with the little, image stabilized camera (no flash) and was very pleased with the results. 

Now I believe I can do just about any event like this with a much smaller footprint of cameras. One of the little D-Lux 8s, One SL2-s, one zoom. Each backing up the other. I'm almost at the point where I can see all the flash work being done with the tiny flash, included, and perhaps one of the little Godox flashes I wrote about sometime last week. No more big equipment cases. No more travel headaches. Just fun stuff. 

For anything but demanding, large prints we've reached a point at which, at least for straightforward event work, where the smile you wear on your face is more important than the camera you wear over your shoulder. 

I have worked for this large banking company at six or seven similar events over the last eight years. Not once has anyone criticized or disparaged any of a wide range of cameras I've used. And no one mentioned it at all this year when I brought out the smallest camera I've ever worked with on an event job. All the clients care about is that you fit in socially with their people (important, for sure, over the course of a three day event) and that you deliver well exposed images mostly of happy people and their interesting surroundings. That's it. 

I did get feedback from the event manager, and the crowd in general, each morning. When the event attendees came in for breakfast (God, I love bacon! Special rare treat) there were two large screens playing images from the previous day's events. Frankly I have never had so many people come up and tell me how much they enjoyed the photographs being projected. No big editing, and no special sauce. The people responded not to some technical point but to the content and the overall quality and detail of the files. 

How do I know they were genuinely pleased? The client booked me again for next year's event and added me to a second event this fall for which they'd never previously included a photographer. I'm guessing that if they are booking up to a year in advance, paying for travel and hotel, and then paying a premium price for photographic services, I can take all that as a good review. The camera just flat out worked. 

The only glitch for the entire trip was what passed for coffee at the hotel. To call it "hot swill" would be to insult swill. It was worse than bad it just lacked any taste, depth character or ability to induce any pleasure. Fortunately there is a place called "Henry and the Fish" just a block away that makes great coffee and fresh, yummy baked goods. I visited there first thing in the morning for a big cup of coffee and carried it back to the hotel ballroom to have with my breakfast. Life is too short to drink bad coffee. Really.

Maybe on the next trip out the camera choice will be just a set of D-Lux 8 cameras. Still gotta have back-up... Just not so much and so big. Commercial photography is changing much more rapidly than most people understand. Or in many cases, faster than photographers are willing to admit.

They don't teach students most of this in college. Unless it's the college of hard knocks. Amazed that people who don't do photography as a job have the temerity to write about the field in spite of their painful lack of data...