Every so often it's nice to unplug, pack a camera and some water and go out to revel in the endless fractals of nature. A day trip to Enchanted Rock...

 

This was my last photo of the day. I'd finished climbing the "rock" and I'd done the

five or six mile periphery loop around the park (some of which is described by the park service as "difficult" other parts, "challenging"). I was walking back to my car when I saw all of these people in red t-shirts coming up the trail. They had just climbed the rock. They were an ROTC group. I chatted with their leader for a minute. I said, "Now that the young folks are all warmed up it would be a good time to run the loop trail." He looked at me like I was crazy. I walked away thinking there are some things old 69 year olds do that young people don't.

I know it sounds impossible but I was getting a bit bored with life in Austin and needed a quick getaway. I decided it was time to go back to Enchanted Rock Wilderness Area and climb the rock. Maybe get in a long trail hike. Eat trail mix. Drink coffee on the summit. Get hot. Cool down. Get exhausted and then get a second wind when you realize you're halfway out and you need to get all the way back to where you started the hike. And the trip to the wilderness area is just a little over 1.75 hours from Austin.

Planning is good. Sometimes you can plan too much. I thought it was going to be hot yesterday so I packed three liters of water, an extra pair of socks, my trusty, small first aid kit, pocket knife, and even tossed a pair of Birkenstocks in the trunk of the car for aprés walk. We had a big storm overnight as a cool front blew in across the hill country and when I started out it was 68°. I thought I was in heaven.

It was dark outside at 5:30 but that's when my brain woke me up. I ate some breakfast and drank some coffee and then I followed my own pattern of being too prepared and meticulously checked and optimized the tire pressure in each tire of my car before setting out. I sometimes think that makes me special but then I realize that all of you have an electric tire pump in the trunks of your cars. Right?

Everything packed down into a Gitzo backpack that had been modified by taking out all of the Velcro, padded dividers. I thought about making a hat decision before leaving the HQ compound but looking in the back seat of the car revealed a dozen or so different hat choices so I decided to wait until I arrived. 

There was a stop in Fredericksburg for additional coffee and one of the most sublime almond croissants I have ever had. Amazing. And the drip coffee was in the top ten of cups I have had in the last year. A great way to greet the sunrise.

The road from Fredericksburg to the Rock is a twisty, wind-y, two lane road with lots and lots of nicely banked curves. I rarely get out of town with the (relatively) new car but seeing as how there was zero traffic on that 14 mile stretch I got to drive my car silly fast and feel the turbo-charger push me back into the driver's seat. Exhilarating to drive faster than you should. But best to do it when nobody is around. 

The park just opened when I got there so I hit the big rock first. It's the steepest climb and it's a treat to hit it on a morning with some cloud cover and 68° in the middle of June. As a photographer I have to say that it's anticlimactic to spend the half hour of steep grade climbing only to realize that the thing you want to photograph is actually the thing you are standing on, which limits good photographic options of the very thing you thought to photograph. 

So I hiked back down, took a look at the park map and headed for the trail head for the Loop trail. It goes around the big rock and also a giant secondary rock called Buzzard's Roost. The actual loop trail is "only" five miles but I like to add on Turkey Pass trail for another mile and a half because when you hit the summit of that trail you get great views of Enchanted Rock on one side and then Turkey Peak and Freshman Mountain on the other. These hikes are not for casual walkers or beginners, especially in the heat of Summer because they have lots of quick, steep elevations, the trails sometimes get lost in flood water, and they are not navigable by any sort of vehicle so if you get into dire trouble you'll either have to get yourself out or hope that you are light enough that the park rangers can extract you --- by hand. 

Add in various poisonous snakes, coyotes (watch your small children at all times) and plenty of skunks of you'll need to be vigilant while you huff and puff. Makes it all the more exciting!!! 

Add to the perils of wilderness hiking the fact that there is NO (zero, zilch) cellphone service in the park and you'll probably layer on an extra amount of caution. Oh, and no place to refill a water bottle either.

The rewards? The positive benefit of nature's never ending fractal show, some great exercise, interesting and beautiful views, and a chance to tell your friends that you survived. While the trail up and down the rock was crowded by the middle of the morning (a climb also rated by the rangers as "challenging") I ran into only five people on the entire loop trail ( which is labeled by the rangers as "difficult"). It's nice to be alone in nature but hiking experts would be quick to tell you NOT to hike alone and to always tell someone where you are going and when you expect to get back.

The soft cloud cover stayed over me for about half of my time there. I spent an hour on and around the big rock and three+ hours on the various trails and by the time I got back to the VSL all terrain vehicle I was properly knackered. Ready for a fun 14 mile drive to Fredericksburg, and just lackadaisical about the rest of the return trip home. 

It was nice to be totally unplugged for the whole time out. I guess if I had an iPhone 16 Pro and was faced with an emergency I could have used the satellite feature to call for help but...what is the fun or challenge in that? 

Also, interestingly, trail mix tastes better when consumed on an actual trail. Just an FYI. 

I meant to use my new(ish) Leica DLUX8 for the hike and I packed it into the backpack but at the last minute I decided to take along the Leica M240 M-E, the one with the gray metal finish, and the 50mm APO lens for it and I ended up using that combination for everything. The DLUX never got out of the backpack. 

When I got back to the city I got a call from the dermatologist's office to schedule my upcoming surgery. I'll probably be out of the pool from July 1st to the 15th so the sutures can mend and do their thing. It will be torture to be sidelined for so long but perhaps larding in a couple more big hikes near the rock will take the sting out of the enforced swim break. We'll see. 

Captions below for bits and pieces.

Lesser hills. The "rock" itself has an elevation gain of 423 feet and sits about 1,850 feet above sea level.

near mid-frame, that's not a dust spot, it's a buzzard, just looking for unprepared hikers....

In all the years I've come to hike in Enchanted Rock I've never seen it as green.

There have been three major storms rolling through in the last three weeks. 

One storm during the early morning yesterday left behind two plus inches of rain and flooded the trail completely in a couple of locations. Crossing meant wading through knee high rapids. The water rises quickly. And wading through stuff? That's where the extra socks come in handy...

Buzzard's Roost.

This was where the trail should continue. It does, if you are ready to wade across at three different points. Be sure not to drop your Leica....

I added a third trail at the end and it had a nice crossing area that the others lacked...

Granite as far as the eye can see. 

I like this little cave in the rocks. When I got here, about a third the way into the loop trail, there were two hikers standing back fifty feet or so and watching the entrance. They had just seen two coyotes slink in to hide out from...us. Lots of deer tracks around as well but I didn't see any, in person. 

They hide well.

A nice, comfortable trail to scramble over. 

Since I started early I was able to get back to Austin before the late afternoon rush hour reached its daily, fevered pitch. I love being out in the wilderness. I love using all those walking muscles and I love the way my car drives when I push it. Now I'm back just moving money around and trying to figure out when to apply for Social Security. I'll be 70 in the Fall. I think it's about time to get it worked out.

The fresh, dry Birkenstocks were a treat. Couldn't wait to get out of the wet hiking shoes and the socks. Planning ahead can provide benefits.

Hope you had a fun, happy day. Can't wait to get back to the Rock. 

Now it's Monday and I got to play with the compact, mini-cam all day long. Leica D-LUX8 photos.

When it gets really hot and uncomfortable outside the idea of carrying a big camera and a heavy lens starts to sound more and more... masochistic. Better on the days when it's over 100° to carry along the smallest camera you own. Something just a bit bigger and more capable than a phone.

I pursued a lazy and sybaritic day today. I walked the hills of the neighborhood with B. for a good hour and then I fired up the VSL staff car and headed over to my favorite car wash to spray away a couple of weeks of accumulated grime and random bird droppings. I used the foaming brush, then the high pressure soap spray, then the high pressure rinse. Then the spot free rinse. And for a couple hours, at least, I had a relatively sparkly and teutonic-ly clean car. Since it was already hot outside I did spray the high pressure rinse water up into the air every once in a while so I could walk through the mist and cool down. 

Task #1 completed I headed over to the First Light book store to see if they had any depth in their collection of Billy Collins poetry collections. They have the current book but I've already purchased that one. I was inspired to look for more Billy Collin's books of poetry because B. and I had lunch on Saturday at the New World Deli, which is next to the Livra Bookstore (collectibles. very, very good stuff. Now saving up for the very limited edition "Dior" by Richard Avedon. Slip case and all...). After lunch we browsed and B. found a signed copy of Collins's "Nine Horses" which I promptly bought. It's wonderful. 

I didn't find what I was looking for at First Light but I did buy yet another of the slender, Japanese, fine point pens the shop stocks, and a little notebook to accompany it. I had in mind taking the pair next door to Bureau de Poste as a distraction (doodling, brief observations, etc.) while having breakfast. So I did.

I ordered the egg, bacon and cheese sandwich on a freshly made biscuit ( too good to be healthy !!!) and a cup of drip coffee. And I spent my time eating slowly, drinking even more slowly, and listening to marketing people at the next table (three very beautiful young women) talk seriously while glancing over and over again at their individual laptops as they figured out how to sell more Texas seafood via "public information" outreach on the web. They obviously have some part of the Texas Ag. Dept. account to work on and it seems pretty obvious that this dept. relates directly to....seafood. 

I found it funny that each of the participants came equipped with Yeti water bottles which sat on the table next to the laptops. The Yeti-s got more attention than the coffee drinks but I think the coffee drinks were just purchased to assuage the trio's implied guilt for Bogarting a comfortable table in the chilly air conditioned dining room. The egg sandwich was superb. A gustatory triumph. 

After car washing, book searching and a very late breakfast I dropped back by VSL headquarters to change cameras. I tossed the Leica M 240 M-E onto a chair and grabbed the D-LUX 8 from its perch. Said "Hi" to B. and then headed over to South Congress to take a stroll in the growing heat. Mondays are always "people quiet" on South Congress Ave. One restaurant doesn't even open on Mondays. Most of the retailers have "done the math" and stay open because the accounting breaks in their favor. Even if only by a little bit.

I walked for a while until the heat became uncomfortable and then I ducked into Jo's Coffee and, for the first time ever, ordered an iced coffee. Just the right thing to cool one down mid-walk. Delicious. Zippy. And, to placate my French and Canadian readers, I sat nearly motionless and endeavored to "enjoy" my coffee without ambulation. I hope this makes them happy....

And now, back to the office to see what the images look like from the Lilliputian camera. I was experimenting with intentionally using the widest focal length settings where possible and also leaning on smaller apertures for less of that soul sucking bokeh everyone seemed to lust for five years ago...Oh, and I added some color saturation --- just for fun. Modernity. It's all over the map.

Here's what I got: 

No clue what Fable is selling. Wait. I'll check Google...

Okay. See if you can make heads or tails of this:

https://fable.co/

Close and wide. 

Now very gun shy about hat buying. I'd hat to look dorky.

I'm wondering if my hat consultant, J.C. would approve of this one 

for casual wear? Just asking for a friend....

Chair-itable?

A very large umbrella for a very, very large tropical themed cocktail?

Old guys drinking coffee in the heat with a dog. Jo's. Of course. 

Not just for retired people in Florida anymore!

Will people migrate from Pickle Ball to Shuffleboard? 

I think so.....

furniture for aprés swim. At the Austin Motel. 

Didn't feel the urge to give it a try. Not today...

This is Joann's restaurant's outside patio. I'm presuming the flock of 

owls is there to dissuade the grackles from their usual customer vexing 

hijinks. Or maybe the owner is just a big fan of ceramic owls...

Something blue. 

My take on the DLUX 8? Pretty much the perfect carry around 

camera for a hot, sweaty day. Love the EVF. It's really, really good.

Wish the diopter wheel had a firmer detent. The friction between my shirt and the wheel always seems to change the setting. Frustrating. Gaff Tape to the rescue? 

 

Hanging out with famous people. Orbiting, not in the orbit.

 

Over the course of my career I've gotten close access to a number of "famous" people. I was asked by Andy Roddick to photograph a fund-raiser he held at the Four Seasons Hotel here in Austin for his foundation. His friend, Sir Elton John was the main draw for the event. He did a one person set on a grand piano for a packed house in the hotel's main ballroom. But before the concert I spent a couple hours in the green room photographing various combinations of Andy's family with Elton John. Having grown up (high school) listening to "Madman Across the Water" and "Tiny Dancer" the experience of just hanging out with him and a small, intimate group including Andy Roddick and his family members was exhilarating. The image above is from the dinner before the concert. 

There's a back story that involves politics and a Texas Governor but I won't go into that here. 

Since George W. Bush's press secretary, Karen Hughes, lived right across the street from us I had ample opportunities to photograph George Jr. both as Texas Governor and then as president. But I only got to work with his father, President George H.W. Bush on two occasions; both times at a request from Dell, Inc. Once was at a conference outside of Scottsdale, AZ. where I had to set up lights in a vast museum space and then photograph the former President with about 110 V.I.Ps; all lined up waiting their turn to participate in a one-on-one photo session with President Bush. 

He arrived on set about 15 minutes early and we were surprised to find that we were both wearing the identical model of suit, (his bigger than mine as he's taller) in the same color, and from the same clothing store. We chatted and game planned our shoot together and he was amazingly cordial. He helped me stay calm. This was in the film days and I'd need to be reloading a 35mm camera at least twice as we worked through our line of folks waiting their turn (no assistant for this shoot). He was so good at the reception line photo stuff. He could tell when I needed to re-load and would keep the conversation going with whoever was with him at the time. I would nod when I was ready and he'd send off that person and welcome the next one. Together we nailed all of the shots.

I got seated at a staff table in the back of the room during his speech but was able to get up and move around the dining room to get photos of him speaking. It was a really nice event and I came away liking him, as a person. 

The image above was from a different event here in Austin. Former president Bush had spoken to a group of Dell's top customers at a meeting of about 100 people and then there was a scheduled private gathering with just Mr. Bush, Michael Dell and four or five of the senior officers from Dell. The informal reception was held in the penthouse suite on the top floor of the Barton Creek Conference Center. President Bush and I came up in the elevator (with a Secret Service team) while Mr. Dell gave a final speech to the clients downstairs. At one point I was there with Mr. Bush, his security people and a bartender from the conference center. Mr. Bush and I struck up a conversation and he invited me to have a glass of wine. In his opinion, a very good Sauvignon Blanc. I thanked him but told him that if Michael Dell walked in and I had a glass of wine in my hand it might be the last time I'd be invited back to work for his company.... 

I was there through the hour long reception. A lively give and take. And I came away impressed with the former president. A wonderful guy. 

Just two events that allowed me to be on the periphery of really, really interesting, world famous people. And so happy to have the photographs as a momento. Photography opened many doors for me. But it's important not to stub your toes walking in.

I met Jana when I was working on the LED book. It was all the way back in 2010.

I met Jana online. It was through a casting call. I didn't know if we would be a good fit to work together and I'm sure she felt the same way. A simple solution was to hire her for a couple hours on a weekend, shoot some images around downtown, and get to know each other. It would also give me time to describe what we were looking for in the book, in more detail. 

Jana was a student at UT Austin at the time. I was a 54 year old photographer looking for a model. That's an odd dynamic unless you are going through an agency. 

On the scheduled day Jana showed up with a friend in tow. Another student from UT. A very pleasant and capable looking woman. Having the "chaperone" there put everyone at ease. We spent a couple of hours walking through downtown photographing and then we put together a quick, fun shoot in a coffee shop that's no longer there on Congress Ave. The images were great and by the end of the day Jana felt comfortable saying, "yes" to the project. And that's great because we were able to use images of her throughout the book to illustrate technical stuff. 

It's important to say that she was paid standard fees for every day that we worked together. No favors asked. Most of the time we were joined on shoots by my long time assistant, Amy. It was a comfortable crew. 

On our first shoot I showed up with my typical one camera and one lens inventory of gear. No flashes. No modifiers or reflectors. I knew we'd find more than enough open shade in which to make flattering images. The camera was a Canon 5D mk2 and the lens was Canon's very nice EF 100mm f2.0. 

This is a random image shot in an alley way between two buildings. A nice, bright, late afternoon alley way next to a chic, high rise residential tower. Not a gloomy, bleak looking alley from a dystopian movie set. 

It was just another day in the flow of a photography career. Putting books together is like planning a couple dozen days of shoots based around stuff that I wrote down in chapters. Illustrating concepts to accompany the writing was a primary way of selling books. 

That book is now quite dated. Progress in LED lighting technology advanced at an amazing pace over the last 15 years. And LEDs are so ubiquitous now that revising the book doesn't make any sense at all. But I'm happy to say that the images Jana and I made together still look good. 

She is now a very successful advertising executive. Last time we spoke she was in NYC. But I think she was heading to the west coast. You meet the most fun people sometimes when you have a project that needs humans. 

It's Friday Afternoon. At the end of most days I select a few images I've made over the years to spend a few minutes with. And I remember that the hardest part of making portraits is the part where you get started. Where you have to make the effort to create.

 

Amy.

There are some people who have been blessed with faces that conform to cultural ideas of beauty and proportion. And there are some people who've been gifted with beautiful and alluring eyes. The work of a photographer is to learn how to put a collaboration into motion to capture these affects and then get out of the way. The biggest mistake I see from people who would like to be portrait artists is their impulse to rush. To rush through a sitting because they think they may be inconveniencing the sitter. Or because they've been misinformed by "experts" that there are lighting and camera formulas which are the secret to success and, that once they've mastered these techniques they are more or less assured of a successful outcome. 

Then there is the mistaken idea, spread everywhere, that if you can't get a great image in the first dozen or so frames you'll never be able to achieve a good photograph in a session. 

In my experience the default to formula and the press toward time efficiency are an effective way to turn what could have been a great portrait into just another literal documentation. A photograph which lacks the invitation to linger and really examine a face. By not taking the time to know the sitter and engage them in a meaningful and sincere collaboration one robs the audience of the chance to fall in love with the subject. To truly come away with an honest sense of the person in the frame. All surface and no depth.

When Amy came to the studio she was in the company of one of her best friends, Renae. Renae was my assistant at the time and we'd worked together for several years by that point. Amy was comfortable because Renae was comfortable. There was a triangle of trust. There was a shared objective of creating a picture of Amy that was both beautiful but also signaled a real rapport. 

I was working with a medium format camera that day. Shooting in the square. I shot some Polaroids and shared them with Amy. We talked. Renae headed into the office to do some work on her computer. Amy and I worked through a session and shot about ten rolls of 120 film. We both sensed what was working and what wasn't and kept moving in the right direction until we hit a high point, which we both could feel, and then we shot a final, gratuitous roll of film (just to make sure) and we were done with that sitting. 

In my mind this result (above) is an authentic and engaging photograph/portrait of a strong, calm person who was comfortable with herself. 

When I kept a darkroom in the studio just east of downtown I used to print most of the portraits I took as large black and white prints. Usually 16x20 or larger. Always on double weight papers. At one point an art director asked me to do some hand colored prints of subjects I'd shot in black and white for an ad campaign for a national bank chain. I bought a lot of sets of Marshall's Oil Paints and set about learning the ins and out of hand coloring ( use Kodak's Ektalure G surface paper -- perfect for hand painting --- sadly, no longer available). We weren't looking for expressionistic hand coloring for the bank job. Just subtle introductions of transparent paint over faces, neckties and other color friendly targets within the frames. Later, for my own projects, I started getting very loose, less constrained, with my applications of color. The image just above was shot with a 180mm Elmar-R lens on a Leicaflex SL2 

( the film camera, not the recent, digital camera) loaded with Agfapan black and white film. 

We were out in the Hill Country in the middle of August shooting for a magazine spread (New Texas Magazine) that would run the Fall. My model was sitting on a large, long, shaded back porch in the late afternoon. We'd wrapped for the day or I would have been photographing on color transparency film. When I got back to the darkroom I made a large print on black and white paper. It was okay but it didn't knock my socks off. It needed something more. So I started playing around with some of the Marshall's transparent oil paints and didn't hold back on saturation or even odd brush strokes. It's a photo I tend now to look at nearly every year at the start of Summer. A nod to the shift into hot Texas weather. 

I pulled the original print out this morning and tacked it to the wall near my desk. It's a reminder for me to play more and be serious less.

About fifteen years ago I bought some pre-stretched canvases and did a bunch of paintings of coffee cups, donuts, pastries and whatnot; even making some paintings of coffee cups in fields of wild flowers. Once I had a dozen 30x40 inch canvases I asked my favorite coffee shop if I could hang the paintings as a show in their store. The loved the idea. They loved the paintings. It was fun to sit at the coffee shop in the morning as office workers dropped by and waited in line to get their to-go coffee to drink during their commutes. I loved watching their reactions to the paintings.  

Occasionally one gets the desire to do art outside their usual lane. Make paintings. Write  poems. Write a novel. Sing. All the arts reinforce each other and trying new things progressively lowers our fear of....trying new things. 

The images just above and just below are of Fadya. I met her when my friend, Greg, cast her in an advertising campaign for a natural gas company. She was one of a half dozen talents we used in the campaign. Each model was featured solo in an ad. At the time Fadya was a university student. We've kept in touch. Years later I ran into her at a local Starbucks. We'd both swung by to grab some caffeine and were both delighted to see each other. I suggested that she drop by the studio when she had time and we'd do a few photos. 

She came over a couple of weeks later. B., Fadya and I had tea in the house and then Fadya and I walked the twenty feet over to the studio to play around with light and poses. 

I was already into using LED lights at the time and I was also deep into the micro four thirds camera format. The camera was set to the square aspect ratio and I shot in color; in raw. I converted the images to black and white in post production. And I've loved the results ever since. When shown in small sizes, like here on the web, I believe that nothing is lost to the smaller format. 

Fadya is now a very successful psychologist practicing here in Austin. I like to think that next time I run into her at a coffee shop she'll want to do another round of photographs. It's always a nice chance to catch up. We spent a couple hours chatting, photographing, changing the lighting and photographing some more. It's not fun to rush through a session. Especially if you finish and then realize that speed was NOT of the essence and that you lost out by letting that fussy part of your brain convince you that you had to hurry.

Selena. 

As long as I've known Selena she's been a musician. In the last ten years her career has taken off. Recording contracts. Bigger and bigger gigs. More famous. 

I asked Selena to work with me as a model for some of the lighting examples in one of my books. We were showing how to work in ambient light with small, portable LED fixtures. I liked the look above but I like the expression below even more. Shot during my brief Canon camera phase. 

And that's what I'm looking at now, before supper. And it's fun to remember the people who make the other half of the collaboration so comfortable. 

Portrait made with a mix of window light and continuous lighting instruments.

taking time to revisit lighting. It's so much more fun for me than just depending on existing light.