Totally off topic. Self indulgent. Repetitive?

 

Well, it's Monday but it's also Labor Day. We usually don't have swim workouts on Monday's at our primary pool but since it's a holiday one of our coaches decided to offer the WHAC Masters group a nice, long, Labor Day morning workout. She combined our usual 7 am hardcore group and our 8 am semi-hardcore group together and extended the workout from one hour to one and a half hours. 

The workout started at 8 am but I was up at 7 making coffee and eating some trail mix. Brushing those teeth and shaving my face. Being extra careful around the area on my face with the scars from the recent surgery. Covering myself with SPF 50 water resistant sunscreen. Doing the first push ups of the day. Listening to the Chris Issac's classic, "Wicked Game" and choosing just the right pair of Birkenstocks to wear to coffee after practice. 

I hit the pool at 7:55 and we sorted out who would be in which lane with whom. When mixing two different groups of workout participants there are weird overlaps where one lane my be faster at the first workout but the territorial imperative slides in and those folks want to stay put even if the later group users have different, slower paces but also want to end up in their usual lane. The same lane. Whatever.

I swam with Ken and Lisa this morning. They usually swim at the early practice. I'd never swum with them before but I'm nothing if not flexible so I hopped in. They are both a bit faster than me but since we do sets and we do them on timed intervals it just means that I can keep up with them if I get a bit less rest than they do. It was an absolutely smooth lane share. Of course we all swim circles. You have to in a pool that has, on average, four or five swimmers in a lane. 

We swam straight through from 8 to 9:30. The total yardage was about 4500. Roughly three miles. Mixing up competitive strokes. Not a bad way to start the day if your goal is to stay in shape and to be fully engaged. No chatter in our lane. Just moving along on one side or other of the black line on the bottom of the pool.  Generally, for me, I get five seconds on the wall between 100s. At 69 I've been doing this for nearly 63 years. Muscle memory comes into play so it's probably important to make each stroke align with good technique. Why practice something incorrectly over and over again? What's that old saying about insanity?

After workout and a shower I met my friend and former assistant, Anne, at the Whole Foods flagship store to catch up on life's endless events. Now I'm back home, my towel and suit are hung up. I ate a sandwich. Drank ever more water and settled in to write a blog that few people will read because it's not about photography it's about swimming... Ah well. 

One of my many "happy places" in Austin... going on thirty years of masters workouts in this particular pool. Routine is comforting and efficient. Hard to quit something that's so much fun... so I won't.

118/70

56

I need a few new pairs of goggles...

What camera and lens am I using for portraits these days? Any issues pop up?

 

When I shoot portraits in the studio I almost always use a tripod. Really. Can't stand handholding a camera  for work in the studio if a tripod is available. Why? Mostly because I want to lock in a composition and sometimes it's important to put a bit of "air" around the shoulders of a subject in case I need to composite the subject into something else. Another background? Too close to the shoulders handheld and eventually I find the expression I want is on the frame where one shoulder or the other is cut off. Not fun if you need a clean and believable composite. Yes, you can always reconstruct the missing shoulder in post but....what a pain in the butt.

If I'm on a tripod I don't need or want image stabilization so I turn it off. That means I can use older cameras that don't have built-in image stabilization. Like the Leica SL. 

And there's something about the sensor (not a Sony!) and the in-camera color science in the original SL that I like very much. Even more so than newer SL2 variants. I can't explain why I like the SL imaging so much but it just seems like Leica got the first one out of the gate mostly perfect. And, I like working with 24 megapixel raw files better than 47.5 or 60 megapixel files. Usually the extra resolution is not only unnecessary but also a time waster in post. 

I had been using the SL in combination with the Sigma 90mm Contemporary lens and also with the big, Leica 24-90mm zoom lens. But a few weeks ago I impulse purchased the TTArtisan 75mm f2.0 AF lens for L mount. Don't fret, it was cheap.  The TTA 75mm is more mellow than the other two lenses which works with the majority of photographs I do. Maybe too much hard detail isn't a wonderful thing for every photograph. Especially of faces. I also find that I like the wider field of view for a lot of portraiture these days since the formalist days of "heads and shoulder" or tight "headshot" portraits are mostly behind us.  A bit of "air" around our subjects seems to be a more contemporary stylistic choice now. 

So, what's the catch about using the TTArtisans 75mm lens on an SL, an SL2-S or an SL-2? As far as I can tell there is only one fault and while it's not a "deal-killer" it's more of a nuisance for me. 

The issue I have is with the automatic lens profile setting the camera uses with this particular lens. And you should know that the profile comes with the lens, from TTA,  not the camera in this instance. When I look through the viewfinder of the camera and get the exposure just right, as I have done over and over again for the better part of five years now with other lenses, when I take the photograph the resulting review frame is about half a stop, maybe 2/3rds of a stop lighter. And when I open the file in Lightroom it is still...half a stop or more lighter.  

Which means it's half a stop lighter than I want the file to be which means more touch  points during processing and, if I miss on the wrong side of the exposure line I might even blow out some highlights, which I'm never happy about. 

I conjecture that the lens maker was trying to correct for vignetting while the lens is wide open, programmed in a correction and then didn't figure out how to back out of the correction as the user stopped the lens down past the point where physical vignetting was an issue. By lightening the frame overall, and with all emphasis on the vignette, they succeeded in messing up the accuracy of the exposure as set by visual confirmation in the finder by the user. 

If there was a way to turn off the lens profile setting in the camera for the lens I would gladly do that as I know quite well how to handle vignetting if it becomes an issue. But I can't. The menu item for lens profile accurately shows the TTArtisan 75mm f2.0 lens is selected but the entire selection is grayed out which means that there's no way to change the setting. Drat. And since vignetting is variable with distance and aperture setting the TTA setting supplied seems only accurate for the widest aperture at a specific distance. A coarse correction for a nuanced issue.

I like the lens enough to work around the issue by shooting a test frame and then adjusting exposure. Then working with a darker preview frame and double checking my work if I change aperture or distance. The lens does have a USB-C port so I'm hoping that there is a firmware update at some point. Sooner would be better than later. 

It's the same on the other SL2 variants as well. Oh heck. What do you really expect from an under $200 prime delivered in a metal lens body and with good optics? Compromises happen. If it really pissed me off I'd be using the little Voigtlander 75mm f1.9 M mount lens instead. The lack of communication between that lens and the cameras ensures that I can always dial in the corrections I want and they'll stay put. 

That's all I've got for you right now. The week ahead is lining up to be busy. Not with work but with lunches, coffees and meetings. And as a special Labor Day treat we actually have a coached workout on Monday morning (that's tomorrow if you are reading this on Sunday). It's from 8-9:30. My first meeting is over coffee at 10. Tight but do-able. Heads up. 

A Canadian mannequin and a bevy of the toniest mannequins I ever remember seeing... Boston. Of course.

 

Montreal ^

Boston. Below.

I love walking through town with a camera. There's always so much new stuff to see. Even if I've already seen it before...

 

I seem never to get tired of things. I've been partnered up with the same person for nearly 50 years and I still find her as engaging, sweet, compassionate and interesting as I did when we first met. It never occurs to me that I would ever be bored by the relationship...

It's the same thing with photography. I've shot well over a million frames over the last 52 years and yet every day that I step out of the house with a camera, a lens and a reasonable destination in mind I find all sorts of reasons to enjoy photography anew. Even when I go back to the same places over and over again. There's always something new. 

If it's not a new visual aspect it may be the chance encounter with an old friend, an unexpected intersection with an interesting person I've never met before. Or just the feel of a warm, weighty breeze across my face and hands as I walk down a familiar sidewalk with the camera swinging over my left shoulder on a fine strap. 

My friends call my continual focus on aspects of life and work, "discipline" but I call it "curiosity" and in some way, contentment. 

I have friends who are always flying off to climb the next mountain, the next ski slope, the next Michelin starred restaurant, the next girlfriend or boyfriend, the next museum, and to crouch near the next live volcano. They never seem to slow down. 

On the other hand I have friends and relatives who are happiest sitting in their favorite comfortable chair, next to a luminous window, reading a wonderful book. And maybe having picked up the wonderful book for the second time, looking for a different feeling this time around. A different way to enjoy the same story. Reading till the light through the window fades into twilight and someone close by is calling them to the table for a dinner made from scratch and served under warm lights in a cozy dining room. A bottle of inexpensive but serviceable wine over on one corner. Fresh bread steaming from the oven. Like warm breath on a chilly day.

For me, there is an indescribable pleasure in just walking with a camera. Walking till the light falls and it's time to head home to my own dinner and my own cozy dining room and my ever interesting companion. 

And we share stories about what we saw during our time apart. Something as simple as describing really seeing the neon "Stetson" sign for the first time. Or maybe a short discussion of a hutch that she saw that might work "perfectly" just behind the sectional couch. For placing small lamps for reading, or half drunk glasses of something in a comfortable intermission from holding the cold glasses or hot mugs against our fingers. 

Not everything needs to be accompanied by the prickly rush of adrenaline and as the old saying goes, "There is nothing new. Just new ways of looking at it." 

A camera you know forwards and backwards is more like a pair of comfortable walking shoes than a complex and needy tool. Match it with a good lens and fair weather and you've got the makings of another really nice day.

The 50mm lens is always on the lookout for a good mannequin shot. And my favorite camera seems to love the color red.

 

One of those cloudy days in late August just before the weather goes insane and rain pours down. Nice time for a walk. From 105° to 91° in a matter of minutes. So fun.

I headed back out today to continue getting up to speed with the Thypoch Simera 50mm f1.4 lens. A lovely lens with a bit of vignetting tossed in for flavor. I have this idea that you need to mentally "break in" a new lens. It's never an automatic transition from one known lens to a new one in the mix. You have to handle the new one, play with it and look at the resulting files. So far I'm happy I bought it. 

I was out for an hour. When I started my walk from the car to the other end of the shopping strip it was sunny and 105 degrees. When I got back to the car less than an hour later the skies were dark gray, the winds had picked up, the rain clouds started randomly dropping big drops in a slow and erratic fashion and the air temperature dropped into the low 90s. The lens didn't care. It continued to work as I expected. 

B. and I made travel arrangements for a short, late September vacation today. 

Travel to most America cities is dirt cheap at the end of next month. 

We splurged on the hotel though.

More details to come? Maybe.... 

But the pressing question is...which camera and which lens to take along. Or should I just use my phone?

(kidding about the phone).

I donated $250 today to be a supporting sponsor for one of my best

friend's photography show that opens near the end of the year. 

More details on the show later.

Believe in the power of art? Invest in it.

 

Feeling unsafe and subject to the "female gaze" while out testing a new lens today. I should have brought my pepper spray...

I'm sure this happens to you all the time. You're sitting on a bench because you are too old and feeble to walk very far. You're playing with your camera to pass the time. You're hoping people will just leave you alone because you revel in your identity as an introvert. A loner intellectual. It's a hot day and the heat has already made you forget your Social Security number.  And then, when you least expect it young women harass you just because you're so damn good looking. Happens all the time. And I'm getting a little tired of being objectified. 

This sequence happened just a few hours ago over on South Congress Ave. I was photographing myself and my Leica camera in a mirror on an A frame in front of a shop. Then, out of the blue I wound up with yet another group of admirers. I tried to ignore them and keep on shooting but ..... they weren't having it. 

I walked on after jarring episode this but about a block later they accosted me again and asked me to take their photographs with the city of Austin in the background. With their own battered iPhone. 

And they'd recruited two more friends to share in the process. 

I guess what the smart people on the web say is true, it's hard to approach strangers on the street and ask for their photos. Especially when there is an age and gender difference.

Pepper spray?

Maybe it's the bucket hat that attracted them...