Making the best of a horrible gear decision today. Just tragic.

There is something about the way the Sigma fp makes photos that keeps me circling back to that camera and trying to press it into just about every kind of work. Occasionally my ego gets the best of me and I'll pick up the camera in its most naked form (no EVF, no chimney finder), combine it with a stupidly mismatched lens, like a Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton Classic, and head out into brilliant early afternoon sunlight to try to make photographs. 

Why is the lens stupid? Well it's not really. It's a good lens, as you can see for yourself, but since I can barely make out what's on the rear LCD of the chosen "camera of the day" in the bright sunlight, even with the LCD brightness turned all the way up, it would have made a lot more sense to choose an autofocus lens. That would have given me a fighting chance of at least getting things in sharp focus. Add to the hurt caused by my thoughtless choice of lenses,  where focus is involved, is the additional burden of not having an automatic stop down aperture to work with. You have to focus at your taking aperture. When manual focusing I'm basically trying to zoom way into a frame to check focus on a camera with no image stabilization. The 25X magnified part of the frame sure bounces around when you try to discern sharp focus.... And 100° heat with long walks is hardly a recipe for a super stable hold on the camera. I can attest to that. 

But in its own way the walk through the UT campus area (actually the part just across the street from the campus  proper) with a horribly mis-sorted photo kit was a bit fun. If nothing else it proves that even with an inappropriate tool set you can still make acceptable images --- if you are willing to put the work in. 

After I finished up the tromp through the mass of students and their parents here to move their children into the kids' new digs for a new Fall semester I got back to the office and looked through the take. Some good stuff. Mostly props should go to the camera and lens which worked hard together to make me a look a bit less... fallible. Okay Greg H. the EVF is now officially on my shopping list and... I might need to pick up an fpL. Just for fun. 

Lunch with B. at one of our favorite sandwich shops. Funny how much ice tea you can drink after a spirited walkabout in the torrid landscape. 

My favorite local chain of ramen restaurants, Tatsu-Ya Ramen just opened a new store right on the "Drag" across from the UT campus. Now I have a destination this Fall for good, hot snacks and lunches when I am out and about. Nice find. Good food. Fun people. 

The Sigma fp is sinisterly good at grabbing the color red. Just so nice.

Good name for a boutique "convenience store." 

Mural art on the walls outside "the Hole in the Wall." A nightclub that was there fifty years ago

when I was "at University" and is still going strong. Nice that somethings adapt but don't wholesale change. 

Balloon decor is all the rage at all the UT sorority houses this fall. Lots of pink...

So. Advice. 

Maybe take a camera with a nice EVF along with you if you are shooting in full sun.

And if you absolutely have to shoot without an EVF maybe try to use an AF lens so

you don't have to squint, get pissed off and then just wing it for focusing.

maybe wait for a cooler day in Fall to  traipse around looking for images.

That's all I've got.

Oh...and if you go to Thundercloud Subs for lunch you might want to try the "Lady Bird" sandwich. I get mine on a whole wheat bun. It's chicken salad, a thick layer of guacamole, a generous layer of jalapeño slices, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and "Thunder Sauce." Order the large and then skip dinner later. It's really good. 

 

Thoughts about the role of critics revisited in a post from 15 years ago....

 https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/03/vital-role-of-critics-and-ongoing.html

A store on the drag near the UT campus. Sigma fp + Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton Classic. A horrible combination for shooting in full sun. Without an EVF.....

Do I still like and use the Leica 24-90mm lens? Yep.

When shooting outdoors for clients on hot, Texas, Summer days one can have the best of intentions to bring out the "big guns." To pack the camera bags full of various, glorious prime lenses, a brace of big camera bodies and zoom lenses galore. But the heat and the weight will soon suck out all of your creative energy and leave your best intentions dehydrated and half fried. Better to simplify anywhere you can... The less you carry the further (and faster) you can go.

Two weeks ago we were on a shoot at a real estate development in far Southeast Austin. No cloud cover and, since the development is still in early days the shade trees weren't fully grown yet. I brought too much gear but left most of it in the trunk of the car for some unintended, spa-like, heat treatments. What I ended up doing as my heat management/image management strategy was to pick one great camera body and one flexible and magnificent zoom lens, leaving everything else behind. It was a good solution.

The camera and lens fit just right in a white canvas camera bag I wore cross body. Mostly in front of me. I could reach down and grab the camera/lens combination when I was ready to photograph and drop it back into the white bag as soon as I was ready to move on to the next shot or the next location. 

The entire shoot was outdoors. By 2pm you could see the tar bubbling on the side of the roads. We were drinking water continuously. You could feel the radiant heat bouncing up from the roads, trails and sidewalks in the same way I used to feel the heat off the griddle when I worked my way into the profession by supplementing my income as a short order fry cook in a diner. Fun times. Sweaty times. Never thought I'd do a heat bath for work at 69 years of age... But the miraculous thing is that it was still fun. And the pared down kit make the day manageable. 

The camera of choice was a Leica SL2. I have a pair so I always have an identical back-up when I use one of the them. The camera has 47.5 megapixels of resolution and a very wide dynamic range when used at its native ISO. The EVF is glorious. And I've accrued a bucket of batteries for these cameras which means I never have battery anxiety which is like range anxiety with electric powered cars. 

But the star of the show is usually the lens and that was certainly the case in this instance. While the Leica 24-90mm lens is hefty and big it's also a tour de force of optical engineering. Here is what Leica writes about it: 

"Construction Details:

Of the 18 elements in six moving groups, four are aspherical lens elements and 11 are elements made from glasses with anomalous partial dispersion for the correction of chromatic aberrations. Only one very light element is moved for focusing.  Very fast, almost-silent, precise focusing is enabled by a specially developed drive concept comprising a stepping motor and linear positioning. This means that the overall length of the lens does not change during focusing.”

Essentially it's a near flawless zoom lens that covers the full range of focal lengths I would normally use on just about any job. The lens also has built-in image stabilization which is great on bodies like the first generation of Leica SL cameras and my little Sigma fp, both of which are bereft of in-body image stabilization. The lens adds its own. It's also highly weather resistant as is the Leica SL2 body.
It was the perfect combination of tools for a challenging environment. Those, and a really good hat.

Dang sharp...even wide open.... although the chances of using it outdoors at f2.8 were ... limited. As in "none." 

Do I still like and use the Leica 24-90mm f2.8-4.0 Aspheric? On just about every commercial job I've undertaken since I bought the lens five years ago. It's big and heavy but it makes up for those drawbacks by being the best performing zoom, optically, that I have ever used. And that's cool. 

The lens is still in the current line up from Leica. When I bought mine, new, it was just over $4800 USD. The current price for a new one is a little over $6300. Amazing. 

 

No copy and no captions. Just images. Taking a break from typing to make more coffee...

 

Last week's photo job was fun. Here's a sample...

Scott Bader-Saye, dean and president of Seminary of the Southwest.

 

I know. I know. I should just retire and get it over with... But I'm still having fun working with nice people and doing jobs like the one we did last week. I did 15 portrait sessions last Thursday and when I get back all the selections I'll spend the better part of a day retouching and melding the portraits into various backgrounds to see what works. 

I like photographing happy people. 

medical note: Had my follow up visit with the Mohs surgeon/dermatologist this morning. Everything looks great. No stressful revelations. No waiting in the "waiting room" and no budget surprises. In fact, the business side of this whole procedure has been pretty much flawless. And that's a stress reducer in and of itself. 

She did such a good job on my face that.... I know this sounds unbelievable.... I'm even more handsome than before! (For the linear thinkers in the audience: I was kidding. It's a joke...).

Changing of the guard for in house coffee.... Something new and very much off topic. At least it's OT if you were looking for imaging content...

 

When I last visited Montreal I stayed in a wonderful hotel in the middle of the old town. It is called, the Hotel Gault. There were many things I liked about this small and out of the way hotel. The proximity to a lot of interesting areas of Montreal in which to photograph. The modern finish out and amenities of the rooms. The fact that a Leica store is within easy walking distance. But for this post I have to call out that there was a Nespresso coffee machine in my room. While I have always been enamored of pour overs and drip coffee my week of solo photographing there, and the close proximity to a wide range of espresso based coffees which could be brewed in minutes, caused me to at least appreciate the dark roast culture that so many Europeans swear by. A good espresso shot can be quite a nice thing upon waking and prepping for a day of walking around with a camera and a couple of lenses. 

I forgot about my good experiences with the hotel's Nespresso machine and the little coffee capsules until this past week when I was suddenly and unexpectedly gifted my very own Nespresso Vertuo machine and an assortment of different types of coffee capsules for the same. Now I'm having a sea change about espresso-based coffees and am currently having as much fun experimenting with different types, roasts, sizes and flavors as I would have on taking delivery of Leica lenses. The machine is simple to use and so far, quite reliable. 

Today I took delivery of 20 "Double Espresso Dolce" Vertuo capsules directly from Nespresso. The capsules are constructed of aluminum which the company claims keeps the coffee fresher. The capsules are edge coded and tell the machine exactly what they are and how they need to be brewed. They also sent along several pre-labeled and pre-paid bags that I can put the used capsules into and send them back to the company. According to the website all I have to do is drop off the sealed bags at any UPS store and they'll take care of the rest. The company will recycle the aluminum and compost the spent coffee grounds. That means there is no cost to me on the backend. And hopefully some relief for the landfills.

Right now I'm in the honeymoon stage with the new machine and the new universe of coffees. Who knows when or if the thrill will wear off?

At first I thought the capsules were expensive at around $1.25 to $1.50 per but I started thinking about how much I currently pay for a basic cup of coffee or cappuccino at a local shop. The "base" cost is about $4.50 to $5.00 per cup but I have to add to that the expected tip for the barista which is usually a dollar on top of the base price. So, averaging it out I've been paying about $5.50 for a cup of coffee. And the quality can be a bit variable. So each time I brew via the machine at home I'm "saving" about four dollars. Seems like a good thing. 

But frankly, since I was already paying for coffee and didn't mind doing so it's not the dollar savings that appeals to me the most; it's really the combination of a good quality cup of coffee and the three minute convenience of the machine. Add to that is the charm of being able to select exactly what kind of coffee you want in the moment. 

None of this is earthshaking news. Not relevant to most people's lives. But I had that fun, close-up image of a hand holding a coffee cup and I thought it would be nice to use it here. 

That's all I know about my new Vertuo machine. I don't intend to learn anything else about the machines, the company or the nuts and bolts of it all. I'm happy when machines work and I'm even happier when coffee tastes good. I've already discovered a breakfast coffee capsule I like that brews a 7.7 ounce coffee as well as the aforementioned Double Espresso Dolce that's a fun booster of energy in the afternoons. 

thanks. 

One of the best ways to find and take fun photographs. And get good exercise. And lose weight. And see stuff.....

 

A brief romance with the Panasonic GH6.