A Michael Johnston Update. Save that original link to his site on typepad. He's up and running currently and posting new content.

 https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

While he's struggling to get posts up he is persevering. And today, successful. Well, except as regards posting featured comments. 

He's also posting updates on the progress of his new site construction. So, go check it out. 

A random image as decoration for this post; just below:

From the Battle Sculpture Collection at the Blanton Museum in Austin, Texas. 

Taken with...a camera.

We pay a lot of lip service to the idea that we support art but do we really? Or do we (collectively) spend more time and a lot more $$$ streaming crap?

 

Artist at work.

If we write about gear on the blog people jump into the comments and take me to task for concentrating too much on the mechanics and not enough on the "art" of photography. At one level that's fair. I should write more about the art of the art. Like K.B. Dixon does in his book about photography, "Too True." But the problem seems to be that so many people who are enamored with photography lack the educational background that provides us with a commonality of information needed to share ideas about pure art. Though everyone assumes they are experts about technical parameters of camera equipment they frequently fail short when it comes to art history, photo history and the role of criticism.  I'm not going to make much of an argument today about gear versus art, as regards photography, but I would like to broach the subject of actually supporting art and art venues. 

As a point of reference the average U.S. family spends about $70 per month on streaming services. That's about $840 a year to stream mainstream programming, etc. But the average U.S. family that actually pays for a museum membership ( a tiny, tiny percentage of the general population) spends less than the equivalent of one month's video streaming charges on a year's worth of museum membership fees. About $65 per year. 

An interesting fact is that the majority of budgets for most museums goes to educational outreach which is mostly aimed at K-12 students. We talk a lot about supporting the arts but really, when it comes right down to it, those "classy" shows on Disney Plus and those "riveting" action movies seem to mostly take precedence. 

B. and I are members of the Blanton Museum and pay $100 a year for the privilege. It's a great museum. Not quite world class but an above average regional museum that brings in great traveling shows and wonderful off the beaten path exhibits. The same for UT's Harry Ransom Center. The same for the Art Institute of Chicago. The same for the Austin Contemporary Museum. And Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum (Thanks again for the groundbreaking original presentation of Richard Avedon's show, "In the American West"). We spend a lot more on museum memberships than we do on any combination of streaming services. Is there a direct, financial benefit to us for memberships? Only if we attend often instead of paying as we go. 

Are there intangible benefits? You bet. There is something completely different about seeing art face to face, well displayed, intelligently curated and highly accessible to our individual experience. Different than seeing small scale reproductions on a video screen. Or worse, on a phone screen. And quite often the act of curation provides us, the audience, with an introduction to an artist or their work that we might have never discovered on our own. 

But in addition to museum memberships there is the opportunity to support art in other ways. I recently got a note from a small, local museum that is hosting a show of an old friend's photographs starting January 2026. Most shows in museums are financially supported by philanthropists in the community so it's not unusual for a small organization to send out a request for individual show funding. I like the artist's work. I like the artist. He's got three kids in college. He's a life long artist. His show can use a financial boost to pay for things like framing, the logistics of artist talks, an opening reception. 

We decided to become supporting sponsors for his show to support his work and the work of a very accessible venue in the community. Our donation isn't much in the grand scheme of things but hopefully our early infusion will prod more people to support the show. But it feels good to know that in some small way we are helping make a really good show of photographic images, by a life long, dedicated artist, come to fruition. 

Maybe more concrete support of the arts should take pride of place in our plans over just arguing about some aspect of "Art" on web fora and blog commentary. It sure would be different...

Just a thought as B. and I head over to the Blanton Museum to savor the Baroque Art show this afternoon. 

Since we're talking about "art."

A moment at the Children's Museum. Just for the fun of it.

 

What's it like when an artist retires?

CFO. Calculates the return on vacationing...

I'm working on the last two jobs in the docket. For the year. Both of which follow one version of my interpretation of Murphy's Law. That clients who invite you in to make portraits of their key people, and who want to book right away, will then take a month or so to get back to you with their final selections. Yeah. About an hour apart two different clients for whom I did dozens and dozens of portrait sessions for over the course of a couple of days have now, nearly a month later, finally sent me the selections to retouch and composite. That's fine. These are the last two jobs I have to mess with for the rest of the year... Or longer.

I've gone to my website and removed all the contact information that lived there. Sure, it was there so that potential clients who wanted to find me and get in touch could. But what the website contact page has mostly done since it was uploaded in 2017 was provide a rich target for spammers to daily deliver dozens or even hundreds of unwanted emails and texts. And in those past eight years the vast majority of clients who did get in touch were already clients and already knew my phone number and email address. 

By jettisoning contact information I've been able to leave up a convenient website that works as a ready portfolio, keep my email addresses functioning and hopefully, with some other behind the scenes machinations, will also declutter a few mailboxes and text reservoirs. If someone doesn't know how to get in touch with me already I'm pretty sure I'm not the photographer for them. 

I've winnowed down the work load by not doing any marketing or advertising to speak of for about two years now. It's a nice glide path away from commerce but it comes with the burden of now having to both self-assign fun work and also self-finance that fun work. And I'm fine with that. 

This basically means that the times which I will have to skip swim workouts or fun lunches to accommodate client schedules is quickly approaching zero. There's still a lot to get done. Archiving of sorts. Filling last minute I.P. requests from nervous clients. And the mental exercise of changing direction after 40+ years locked into a strange commercial/capitalist paradigm. Also, flipping the switch that converts priorities from saving for the future to dipping into those savings. Thank goodness my spouse/CFO is brilliant. 

today's schedule: I hit the pool at 7:45 this morning, did a long distance warm-up and then swam with my masters group under the watchful and critical eye of coach Jenn. She's just back from a trip with her husband where they participated in a competitive swim race across the Bosphorus at Istanbul. Today we worked on all four strokes nearly equally. Going from butterfly to backstroke to breaststroke to freestyle with individually medley swims (all four strokes continuously) between each set.  If you haven't tried swimming a 400 IM and think you are in exquisite shape you might want to revisit your fitness plan. That first one hundred butterfly in the IM, at the end of a long workout, is killer. (But not literally...). 

. ...they make it look so easy at the Olympics...

After a quick shower, I ate an apple I'd brought along with me and drove over to my favorite car wash. There's a reason I drove halfway across town to the car wash. It's because my physician has his office a couple blocks away. 

I wanted to wash the car to get all the road dust and tar smoke off the paint; the result of my failed photo foray to Pedernales Falls State Park on Tuesday... I also needed to vacuum up the leaves off the floor mats. The mats are black and show up everything. I must confess that I did have fun driving out and around the wide open parts of the Hill Country on Tuesday. It's been a while since I channeled my teenaged alter-ego and drove my car too fast. I figure it's okay to redline every once in a while if there are no other vehicles for as far as the eye can see. Besides, I've been so well behaved for so long.... it's nice sometimes to cut loose. Four lanes. No cars in sight. Vroom.

After I washed the car I presented myself at my doctor's office to get a flu shot. I'd emailed earlier in the week to confirm that they'd gotten the more vicious and powerful version for seniors. Almost guaranteed to elicit some sort of side effects (not presently felt). My doctor runs a concierge practice. I pay him quarterly for an "all you can bear" access to top flight health care. But other than being able to set my own time for shots and vaccines my general health has thus far made my ten year relationship with the concierge practice less profitable for me than him.  He is, however, a great source of referrals. Loved my Mohs surgeon. 

I had to wait two minutes in the empty waiting room before being collected by the practice RN. I was going to be miffed about the delay but decided to let it go (just kidding). Maybe my watch was running fast... I walked down the hall with the RN to an exam room where she took my blood pressure and other vitals. Then she gently and deftly injected the vaccine and placed a Pokemon bandage on the injection site. She knows my taste in bandaids.

Since it's a concierge practice there is no paperwork for me to fill out and no insurance nonsense to deal with. I keep my doctor current with an email or two after I've seen a specialist --- he's already got the baseline. The front desk person made me a cappuccino to go and offered me snacks. I took the coffee but resisted the urge to eat a granola bar.

I was hungry though so I headed back to my neck of the woods, drove past my street and headed to TacoDeli for a couple of bacon, egg and cheese breakfast tacos. Yum. Then, with a happy stomach, I turned the car around and drove back home. 

When I walked into the office I saw the two emails from the two clients who had been delinquent with the image selections. I sent a brief "thank you" note to each and let them know when I could effect delivery. Then I got to work editing my current website to take off all my contact information. I also checked on travel plans both domestic and international. Two trips upcoming. All good. 

I handed off all the microphones and mixers I'd accumulated over the last ten years to a videographer whose work I admire. The office felt lighter.  I hope never to work on a video project or film project again unless it is as the still  photographer. 

I'm feeling a bit unleashed. For the first time in a long time I have no real, fixed schedule (other than six days a week of 8 a.m. swim practice), I have no debt. I have no obligations other than the classic domestic ones. I have no worries about how to make the ends meet. The kid is launched. The parents gone. Now I just have to make sense of how I got myself into this "predicament."

Ah well. It could be worse. 

PSA: don't smoke! It will kill your 100 fly times at the pool...

That's all I've got for today. Now out looking for a perfect dessert for after dinner...

 

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Kirk goes all "Thomas Heaton" and makes landscape photographs. Daft? Like a bloody fox. Brilliant!!! Blimey.

 

I was ready to get out of the center of the city so I decided to get rid of my really nice, fast, comfy, sporty sedan and dump a year's worth of fee income into a bloody good van. Which I then spent months and untold riches into finishing it out as a traveling, three star hotel on wheels. But without a shower, a toilet, room service, or housekeeping services. Or much space. That's okay because I'm thrilled to be able to travel on my own steam to far off places and then sleep in my new van because desolate parts of Texas are so incredibly safe. A quick jaunt to the Sonora Desert? This way I can wake up in the morning, pee on the big patch of poison ivy I accidentally parked in, chew on some nearby tree bark and then use up some of the van's battery juice boiling water on my mini-burner for a spot of tea. I perform gymnastics getting dressed in the tiny space. I should have just gone to bed in my clothes but it was just a teensy bit warm last night and sweating through one's nice clothes on a 95° night, in a metal box is less than comfortable. 

Although the van works most of the time it can be temperamental and make atrocious noises, and sometimes rattle,  but a few thousand quid in repairs later and then "Bob's your Uncle!" (Whatever the hell that means...). 

So, on the road. Getting away from the stress of the city and putting some good kilometers between me and the ol' ball and chain, and the bill collectors, and the people who want to give me free broken cameras that they found in the Goodwill resale shop. Offering them up like they are gold. And the hordes of street photographers who don't get the magic and majesty of Landscape photography. the thing I love more than anything else in the world. 

I loaded up the van with the basic essentials. Some beans, some haggis, some treacle, bangers of course, and a good supply of Guiness Stout. I don't really like Guiness but since the van's refrigerator has done a runner I buy it and drink it because it doesn't want to be served cold. Right? Oh, and some biscuits to have with tea. 

Then it's on to the basics of camera inventory. Of course we'll bring the 8x10 view camera and some film holders to match. And the medium format camera of the week. And, of course, something very Sony. Or a lot Sony. Mostly Sony. And a tripod that works for everything. And lots of stuff from Peak Design.

I've packed layers and layers of down filled clothing and fleece stuff. And technical under garments. And funny hats. Like the hats Justin Mott wears --- only warmer. 

Now it's September 9th and I'm geared up and ready for my big landscape adventure. Ready to drive through slush and snow, heavy winds and those thunderstorms that come racing through the....heather? I might freeze to death in the van over night but it might be worth it if I can get the composition right just as the last good light of the day fades to night. Right? And then? Biscuits and tea. Maybe with a touch of jam stirred in to cut the vile taste of Earl Grey tea... I can already imagine the melody of the sleet slamming it's peppy cadence on the roof of the van once I get it parked at low tide somewhere...close to the shore...

But then it dawned on me that the exhaustive trip I had in mind was just a short ramble over to Pedernales Falls State Park. A short 40 minute drive from my house in West Austin. And I'd mostly want to leave after a hearty breakfast at home. And I'd arrive there around noon, hike to the spot that I was thinking of, walk around for an hour or so, take some photos and then, when the heat gets to be too much, maybe just head back home, ring up my favorite restaurant to make some evening reservations and be done with the whole undertaking. Yeah. That sounds better. And cheaper. And easier. And then I won't have to give up a fast car for a top heavy van loaded with bedding and weird wiring. And awkward smells...

Yep. that's the ticket. Forget the van. Forget the sleet and snow. Forget the icebergs sliding precariously across a mountain road in eternal night. 

Home in time for the prix fixe dinner at Chez Extravaganta. Can't wait. Oh, and here is another attempt trying my hand at Landscape photography. Doesn't work for me. But I'll keep trying. Please buy my prints and my books and follow me on .... oh, never mind...

The color version.

the black and white monochrome version.

Variation.

indecision.

Collage or hodge-podge?

Huge dust bunnies? Nah, aircraft warning buoys.

the "Terry Richardson" version. 

the Garry Winogrand version. 

the Stephen Shore version. 

The Robert Adams "study." 

kirk makes a valiant attempt to do a vertical photo. 

Got my "S" curve working. Magic. I smell a limited edition calendar in the works....

The sad camera that was forced to participate? The gun metal version of the Leica M240 (m-e). And everyone's favorite landscape lens... a 50mm f1.4 rangefinder lens... thypochke = the Russian version. 

It's Tuesday. I'm thinking about attending the LSI (Leica Society International) meeting in Montreal October 23,24, & 25th. Who is going?

 

photographer with Leica TL2 camera. At the W Hotel

The LSI grew out of the original organization called, The Leica Historical Society of America. Going international pretty much made the original name a bit... obsolete. I attended the LHSA meeting as a guest of LHSA back in 2000, when it was held in San Antonio, Texas. That was resolutely and firmly in the film days for Leica. 

A year earlier I had written a long piece about the Leica M6 system for Photo.net. The article got millions a millions of page views and hundreds of sometimes heated and confrontational comments. It got Leica's attention. One of the main speakers at that year's meeting was the famous rock-n-roll/music photographer, Jim Marshall. He and I spent some fun hours at the bar at the Gunter Hotel one afternoon. He was beyond interesting, and hilarious once we got going. 

I'm thinking about attending the meeting in Montreal for three reasons. Maybe four reasons. First of all I wanted to go to Montreal in October anyway and had been lazily planning a trip there long before I got news about the LSI meeting. Second, my friend and fellow Leica enthusiast, ATMTX is already on board with the meeting and made his arrangements a while back --- before I was even aware of the event. Third, a photographer whose YouTube channel I follow, Gajan Balal, will be one of the speakers and I'd love to listen to his commentary. And finally, four: There is always a tech component to these shows with new product announcements and showcases. And if history repeats, there is a marketplace appended to the show filled with used Leica products and knowledgable vendors. 

If a bunch of VSL readers are headed there for the LSI show it might be a fun idea to schedule a casual coffee meeting on one of the mornings, pre-show opening. Or not.

On the other hand I'm not much of a joiner and might just head to Montreal for no other good reason than to walk around aimlessly with a Leica "X" in hand and make pretty pictures while taking advantage of great hotel rates. I'm most likely going one way or another.

Swim news. In previous years, when I have gotten a flu shot or Covid vaccine, the following days have usually been...uncomfortable. Sore arm. Headaches. General bleariness. And some low energy swims. But not this time. While my right shoulder is a bit sore I'm generally pretty good shape. I woke early, ate an early breakfast (a couple hours before my 8 a.m. swim) headed to the pool early. The outside temp, according to my car's electronics, was a wondrous 63°. Even better, the water temp was a perfect 78°. 

I swam with Dan this morning. He's a former college swimmer who is younger than me by a decade. He's fast! But he's fun to swim with. And accommodating about intervals. They have to be just long enough for me to make them! Coach Jenn put up a complicated and challenging set of distances with ever shortening intervals. I was mostly out of breath for the better part of an hour... The things we do to maintain those glistening, Adonis-like bodies...

Travel. Now tossing an M Leica in the Subaru Legacy Sport and heading West towards Fredericksburg, Texas. Just for the heck of it. A nice, sunny day on which to walk around and photograph somewhere different. But still thinking about the LSI thing. I'm at a cautious maybe right now.

Hope everyone is happy and having fun today.