Been reading a book about Daido Moriyama's Street Photography and have already started to fall under the influence...

 

After reading the passages in the book, "How I Take Photographs." and also looking intently at his work in the book, I grabbed a camera and headed over to the UT campus area to take some of my own photographs. His aesthetic is very much about the quick snapshot and I pushed myself to see quicker and photograph quicker. 

It was a fun exercise. I also came to understand his idea that we can spend way too much time analyzing and dissecting snapshots and raising the anté around taking them. I see Garry Winogrand as the "American Moriyama" now. It's a liberating way of making images. 

Shot here with an ancient Leica SL 601 camera and the Voigtlander Ultron 40mm lens. 

The best images I think I've taken in many weeks. 

Making Generative A.I. Jealous for Decades to Come...

 

Actual analog portrait. 

Fighting back against the dark scourge of computer generated images by applying our own skill sets and imaginations to actual, non-virtual subjects might be the best way to fight back. That, and making nice prints. Have a friend who considers himself or herself a photographer but is spending all their time in their basement hitting "generate" and waiting for software to decide what the software would like to show them next? Well, censure them by taking them off your "freinds list," cancelling that coffee date,  and telling them how "disappointed" you are with their lapse in taste/judgement/ethics etc. Suggest that "real photographers" make their work with cameras, and real people, and real locations. Everything else is just a video game.

Programmers who scraped the web, stole "source" materials that never belonged to them and created tools to leverage their theft should be so ashamed of themselves. Content Criminals; for sure.

It's been almost a year now since consumers have been able to walk into a camera store and walk out with a new Fuji X100V. What's the deal?

 The Fuji X100V trended on TikTok last year and every influencer with a pulse rushed to talk up the camera and wear one as a fashion accessory. Or maybe the few columns I wrote about the camera back in 2021 fueled an explosion of demand, but whatever the reason the supply chain issues with this product should be long past by this time and the cameras should once again be widely available --- but they are not. Every major retailer is showing "backordered" on their websites. The used market is still a bit frantic with scummy extortionists asking upwards of $2,500 USD for a copy in decent shape. So now I'm becoming quite suspicious. 

My first thought is that someone did some deep data mining and predictive analysis with the assistance of A.I., predicted worldwide demand and leveraged their Crypto currency holdings to lock up the entire production output of X100V cameras in early 2022. Now hundreds of thousands of these precious cameras are locked up in a warehouse in Azerbaijan waiting for the apex of consumer desire to bubble over into a buying frenzy at which time the culprits will open an online storefront and sell the coveted camera by the  by the train car load for somewhere north of $2000-$2500 each. 

My second thought was that Fuji saw how quickly they were able to sell through their first two year's worth of inventory and is playing pretty much the same game. They sit back and blame the "supply chain" even though the processors used throughout the product line are largely identical. This gives them the breathing room and a consumer availability disconnection to buffer their next move. They'll "discontinue" the product and then when there is a global uproar of protest and bitter consumer angst they will bend to popular demand and "relaunch" the X100V, but at an increased price of $2295 per camera. They might, even now, be stuffing their warehouses to the gills in anticipation...

I can just imagine their new advertising campaign slogan: "Nearly as good as the Leica Q3 but only a third of the price." Followed by: "Get yours now before they disappear forever." Echoed in some markets by Ricoh's new slogan for the GR111x: "Not the camera you wanted but the camera you can get right now." 

Why would Fuji do this? Mostly to add about $600 of profit to each camera sold. And because they've done their historic business research which showed them that people were willing to pay premiums for Enron stock, a company with no intrinsic value, right up to the bitter end. At least a camera holds some physical, residual value...

This might backfire for Fuji. Leica could drop the price of their surplus supplies of Q2 cameras to $1995, dump em on the market and destroy any future demand for the X100v. But I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. 

Alternatively, maybe the group within Fuji that knew how to make the X100v were all lured away by that camera powerhouse, Ricoh, to work on the next generation of the Pentax APS-C DSLR. Yeah, that's probably it. 

Don't get me wrong, the X100v is a very decent camera and, in some hands can be quite a fun picture taking machine. But... a worldwide shortage based on inflamed demand? Driven by TikTok influencers? Perhaps this camera is just the "Chia Pet" or "Pet Rock" of our time, in the camera world.... but unlike those other products is one that requires actual manufacturing instead of just the procurement of.....rocks.

It would be nice if we could buy the X100Vs now. But having owned several I'd peg their real retail value at something closer to $1295. But I guess the cost of rare earth materials like "unobtainium" drives the pricing structure. You can't discount against demand.

The real danger for Fuji is that some company like Sony will wise up and get into the "rangefinder replica" game, come out with an equally "retro" product and snatch the market away from Fuji while Fuji has their eyes on other prizes.... like their "faux" medium format cameras. But that's a whole other story.

Can't wait to see if someone in some large, unnamed country famous for counterfeit products sees the pent up demand and starts flooding the world market with really good knock offs. 

Now waiting on Panasonic to bring out their faux rangefinder version. It'll probably be full frame. Won't that be a market disrupter? Especially if it feature lens interchangeability.

Final thought. What if Fuji waits too long and the entire fickle market of trendy camera buyers moves on to Generative A.I. instead? I mean, if your computer can do the heavy lifting for you and then you get to claim credit for a "mix tape" of other people's work why even bother with the drudgery of camera ownership? Or even worse; having to learn how to make good photographs on your own?

Thoughts?

Why I like photographers. And what I am shortlisting, camera-wise, on my wish list.

 The camera in my hands is the Panasonic Lumix S5. It's a great, smaller, full frame camera. It takes all the lenses offered in the L mount system. It's been replaced by a newer model... The S5ii. If I were buying a camera right now, today, it would be the S5ii. But why?

Before I get into year another essay about a camera I thought I'd talk about the first section of my headline; "why I like photographers." 

First of all, let's get this out of the way... I tend to have a flawed writing style for conventional blogs. I use a lot of determinative sentences and my writing makes it seem like I'm constantly putting out unarguable, declarative statements of fact. Not that I really mean to. I'm always flexible enough to imagine: "What if the other guy is right?"

But over the years many folks have written in to let me know that just because I say something is so, with a firm clackety-clack, on the keyboard doesn't make it so. I guess I'll try to get over that but who knows if I ever will? It's not like I'm disposed to head out to some writer's workshop and reform my entire approach to my (non-profit) blog site... I'll just depend on the several world class writers that frequent VSL to give me a kind but firm swat on the typing hands when needed. 

I have a book that keeps popping up on my bedside table begging me to re-read one or more of its essays before I nod off to sleep. I've had the book for at least 15 years and when I first bought it I was put off by the writer's style of writing. It seemed to me to be overly fussy. Now I realize that what I took for "fussiness" was really a focus on making the words the writer had written present his thoughts in crystal clear exactness. Thoughts which are as opinionated in their own way as mine. At any rate the book has withstood my growth as a reader, my tendency to look for more sensational writing, my desire to cloud my brain with technical stuff instead of philosophy, and more than one emergency regarding spilled coffee. 

The book is entitled: Why People Photograph. It was written by an English major/professor turned photographer turned back again to a writer. And an able guide to thinking about photography in ways far different than I used to. The book was published in 1994 by Aperture. Its form is a series of essays about photography, writing, and art.

After swim practice this morning I remembered that after this afternoon's calming and benevolent cup of coffee I'd be down to the very bottom of the coffee supply in the house. Sure, we have a jar of instant somewhere but I've heard that it should just be used for emergencies. Even read somewhere that in a number of countries having to drink instant coffee is a routine punishment for petty crimes such as shoplifting or speeding. 

I figured it was time to head up the street and two blocks to the right to visit my local coffee shop and coffee roaster. They have a Columbian medium roast coffee that will bring tears to your eyes. Unless, of course, you've surpassed that level of coffee connoisseur-ship  and can now only drink Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee or perfectly roasted Kona. 

Sometimes, mostly in the mornings, the shop can get busy and there is a wait for one of the coffee professionals to get enough of a break in the action to head over and bundle coffee for me. So I take a book. That way I can look studious and I don't have to talk to anyone ---- if I don't want to. The book I've been re-reading is the above mentioned. 

I had a bit of a wait today. But it was worth it. For every twelve pounds of coffee one buys at Trianon Coffee one gets a free pound. Since I was buying coffee for myself and for my adult child, whom I have ruined for cheap coffee, I had time to read one essay while waiting and smelling the heady perfume of fresh coffee everywhere. Sad for people who only drink lattes and cappuccinos. The different blends are so much fun to try.

I nursed a small cup of Costa Rican coffee and turned to the first essay in the book, entitled: "Colleagues." 

And in a moment I came across something that Robert Adams wrote that seemed aimed directly at me today. Exactly at this point in my life. I'll copy it here:

     "I have to admit that there is another reason I like photographers -- they don't tempt me to envy. The profession is short on dignity. Nearly everyone has fallen down, been the target of condescension (the stereotypical image of a photographer being that of a mildly contemptible, self-indulgent dilettante( been harassed by security guards and dropped expensive equipment. Almost all photographers have incurred large expenses in the pursuit of tiny audiences, finding that the wonder they'd hoped to share is something few want to receive. Nothing is so clarifying, for instance, as to stand through the opening of an exhibition to which only officials have come.

     Experiences like that do encourage defiance, however. Why quite while you are losing?"

--Robert Adams. 

Bleak but, in a way, satisfying. No one gets out of this "gallery" alive so why not tilt at all the windmills you want to? And it speaks to a commonality between all artists, and I would assume, most writers...

Now. On to the ruminations about  cameras.

I've been saying for a while, as have many other better and worse pundits, that all cameras are good enough for our purposes now. And by this we mean that current cameras which are in our use profiles, and have similar specifications, are easily better in their potential than in our actual use. But we're always on the prowl for that "perfect" compromise which we imagine will buy us super high performance, all the haptics any person could wish for and incredible "value" (cheap bastards!) all in one tidy and prestigious package. We further hope, that when finding this unicorn camera it can be wedded with equally good lenses, also offered at bargain prices. 

For the moment I think I've figured out which camera that might be for people like myself (maybe five years ago...) who want a wonderful photographic tool that is also equally gifted at making professional looking video. It's got to be the Panasonic Lumix S5mk2. (See that declarative sentence??? Just setting myself up for grief...). 

Gerald Undone, one of my favorite (video leaning) imaging machine reviewers (on Youtube) recently reviewed the camera here: Gerald's S5ii Review and basically/literally said that the S5ii might be the best value in a camera.... ever. If you go to his channel I think he also has a supplemental review up now of the S5iiX which is a more video-centric version of the same basic camera. I agree with everything he's said about the glorious little machine...

So, here, in this inexpensive camera, you get the same processor that Leica just designed into the new Q3 and which will probably drive the new Leica SL cameras when they arrive. It's a much faster and more potent image processor than existed in any previous Panasonic or Leica camera so it will drive the AF quicker, the frame read/write quicker, and potentially do a better job processing images at speed. And, since nearly every sensor in the camera world is a Sony the main differentiator between camera brands is the quality of their color science which is determined, in part, by sheer data throughput of the dedicated processors. The more data the camera can process the more control, detail and color discrimination it can apply to your files!!!

As I mentioned, the camera serves up lenses from the L mount alliance so you have, conveniently, a great range of world classes lenses to choose from which all should work seamlessly with this camera. Wanna make yourself happy and piss off just about everyone? Put a $5500 50mm APO Summicron lens on the from of your $2,000 Lumix camera and go out for a session. 

The camera has its own cooling fan so you will have no fears of it "Canon-ing" or "Sony-frying" and coming to an ignominious, thermally-driven, full stop just as your actor hits her mark in your video production. Or while standing in 104° desert heat waiting for the light to get perfect. It just won't go there. 

For you viewing sissys there is a swivel screen on the back. Yeah, I know it's easier to get those low angle shots and for that I'd prefer a one axis tilt screen instead. No one really, really needs a screen to swing out from the side. (Another one of those "all or nothing" sentences...sorry). 

The camera has two SD UHS11 slots, a big HDMI plug, lots of options for audio, etc. But at its most basic it's got everything I want in a straight up photographic camera including a state of the art sensor, incredibly good high ISO performance, wide dynamic range and a truly professional menu system. One that even a professional photographer can understand. Add in a more detailed EVF than its predecessor and PD-AF focusing and you're ready to go. 

Any downsides? No red dot (kidding, just kidding). Not that I can think of.  Maybe the 8 frames per second with full focusing is too slow for you.... funny to write that. Even funnier to think about the need for a thousand quick frames of a stationary object... 

I have too many cameras right now to think of buying one but it's on the radar and if I go off the rails sometime soon and get antsy to do a full scale sloughing of gear I might saunter over and pick one up. How could I go wrong. 

So, in the week that the Q3 hits my thoughts have been elsewhere. Why? Because I think for most of us the S5ii makes a hell of a lot more sense. Especially if you already own most of the Sigma i-Contemporary lens catalog and all in L mount configurations. Now I just need to figure out what my rationale is for buying one.

Or, I could turn to the next page in the Robert Adams book and feel smugly smarter and more comfortable with my role as a photographer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Adams_(photographer)

Yeah. He's a landscape photographer. So what?

Click through my links and buy a Lamborghini. 

Portrait of Fadya posted because I'm tired of seeing generative A.I. stuff. And I want to see "real" photographs...

 

Photography was a lot more fun when we really had to work at it to make it special. I loved the process of photographing Fadya. It was fun to arrange a session, sit and chat, take frames when the spirit moved us and to make as nice an image in post production as I could without "cheating." 

My tribute to Tina Turner. In video.

 I shot this video for inclusion in a fund-raising program for Zach Theatre back during the early days of Covid. I have always liked Tina Turner's performances and was saddened by her passing. 

enjoy: https://vimeo.com/462396471?share=copy

After lunch and a nap and walk around the lake I realized that I wanted to be in an airport in Europe and wanted to find a young woman to photograph there in the terminal...

 

So I hopped on a plane, flew for 13 hours, made one stop, ate bad baked chicken in economy class and finally arrived at my nondescript European airport. I was there for just a few seconds when a very attractive women in a demure, gray blouse walked up to me and asked me to take her photograph. I did so, realized that the goal of my trip had been attained and caught the next flight back to Austin where I post processed the image for my audience here.

OR.....

I opened the PS beta, typed in a few lines and hit "generate." And, without leaving my office got my "photo" of the young lady. Of course this new set of tools will have no effect whatsoever on commercial photography or, in fact, any part of the creative services industry. 

Anybody want to buy a box full of cameras and lenses?