Amusing myself while two young men do a professional job installing new air conditioning and heating for the house.

 

B. on a train to somewhere in Italy. 

One year, back in 1990,  B. and I took a vacation to Italy. We flew in and out of Milan and spent the better part of two weeks traveling by train to Venice, Parma, Siena, Luca, Verona, Bologna, Florence and Rome. It was a wonderful trip and it was at a time when nothing was crowded or overly touristed. No lines to get into museums. No crowds on the trains. No need to make reservations at any but the most famous of restaurants. It was a time before digital cameras. A wonderful time before cellular phones. And it was...unhurried. The dollar was strong. The late September to early October weather was about as perfect as one could imagine and my traveling companion was.... wonderful.

It was not our first or last trip to Italy. We'd traveled there several times before as a couple and I'd been in and out of Rome a number of times on business. But this was my first time with both spare time and enough money to really enjoy the experience. We had recently closed our ad agency and I was about four years into the second launch of a career as a photographer. B. was working for a large ad agency as an art director/designer.

Of course I brought along a camera. But since we weren't sending minute by minute updates to Facebook, Instagram or some other online venue speed and immediate sharing were nowhere on the menu. One could take any sort of camera one wanted, secure in the knowledge that the film would wait patiently until we got home and could process it in our own darkrooms. And then make prints. The one way we had of sharing images at the time. 

With that in mind, on this particular trip, I carried only one camera. It was a Hasselblad 500 C/M with a 120mm film back. I traveled with two lenses. One was a 50mm f4.0 and the other was a 100mm f3.5. I didn't really get along with the wider lens but I did come to very much appreciate the 100mm focal length on a big square hunk of film. It just seemed....right. I could have made do with an 80mm lens but really, the longer lens suited me fine. 

The film I shot was all Tri-X black and white film. And that's interesting to me now that we live in a world where everyone shoots raw and decides after the fact how they will proceed. Whether they'll stay in color or add a preset to change the look and feel of the image, or if they will make the leap to black and white ("monochrome" for the elite...). And if they decide to go into black and white how much "pop" and sizzle will they add? How will it look best on screen?

In 1990 those options didn't really exist. If you shot Tri-X the only way you were going to end up with a color print would have been to print the image on a paper with a nice, toothy finish and then get to work with Marshall's transparent oil paints to paint it yourself. More work than most people might be looking for...

 But what it really meant was that once you committed to shooting the black and white film you could put all the other choices out of your mind and just get on with it. If you really, really needed some color along the way you could slip into a camera store and buy a 12 exposure roll.... Maybe for tulips and such. But if you already packed dozens of rolls of Tri-X you were probably already mentally committed. The nice thing about film cameras, unlike dedicated monochrome digital cameras is that you could pretty much have it both ways. When needed.

I find, from looking at old contact sheets, that my style of shooting in the film days, as compared to current practice, is that I mostly shot only one or two frames of anything that I was interested in photographing. That's it. No waste of film. No waste of time. It was probably from two limitations: 12 frames on a 120mm roll of film (shooting square, as God intended....) followed by a time consuming unloading and reloading process as well as the actual cost of film and development. Both conspired to slow one down a bit in situations where there were no clients around to bill....

I tried to work without a meter back then. I had gotten pretty good at guessing/intuiting/taking a chaotic chance with my metering, bolstered with a cheat sheet that used to come packed with every roll of film. I'm referencing the "Sunny Sixteen" rule here. Exposure in full sun = f16  with the shutter speed set to the ASA/ISO number. For Tri-X I'd cheat a bit and over expose by 2/3rd of a stop making my default shutter speed 1/250th. Subtract a stop for sunlight diffused by high, thin clouds. Subtract two stops for overcast. Indoors? Florescent lights? Try 1/60th, wide open aperture, and say a little prayer to the film gods.

If I'd taken a meter it would have been a Sekonic 398A which you can still purchase brand new. It's an incident meter (NOT a flash meter!!!) that works well and doesn't need batteries to operate. Here's one:

Sekonic 398  But even without a meter most of my shots were within the range to be printable. It's not rocket surgery....or brain science. 

I came home from that two week trip with about 50 rolls of exposed film. That's about 600 frames. Or about what I would shoot in one afternoon now at Eeyore's Birthday Party. Amazing how our approach to getting the images changes over time. New tools, new approaches. 

The beauty of a well shot, well developed, medium format ("real" medium format!!!) Tri-X negative is that one can print it very large. I have dozens and dozens of framed 20 by 20 inch black and white prints around the studio that are superior to black and white images I can make with a Leica SL2 camera, if I'm intent on blowing the results up to the same size...

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So far, the AC installation is going well. From what I can tell. The guys obviously know what they are doing. The units look cool and modern. Not sure I'll be able to make the aesthetic transition from having an old, analog, mercury thermostat to having a new digital thermostat. I hope there will be an owner's manual included. I can't wait until the install is complete so I can rev up the system and see how cold I can make the house. Perhaps I'll take a note from President Richard Nixon who was (in)famous for turning down the White House air conditioning as low as it would go so he could have a fire in the fireplace in the middle of the Summer. Keeping in style with the snifter of brandy and what not.

Maybe I'll just settle for one night at 68°...

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Swimming is going well. I'm trying to log as many swims as I can between now and next Tuesday. That's when I go in to have my face gouged with sharp knives I mean that's when I go in for Mohs surgery for a touch of skin cancer... I won't be in the pool for at least 10 days after that. One waggish friend who is now officially tired of hearing me whine about my enforced time out from the pool suggested that I could tape a plastic bag over my head, sealed with waterproof tape, and that would allow me to get back in the pool without getting the stitches wet... I think you can see the flaw in that plan...

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If you enjoy reading the blog drop a note and let me know. I live for the ego boost.

Coffee is always appropriate. And might be medicinal...

How much is a new AC unit and heater? 

About two Leica M11s. And maybe an extra battery or two.

Sigh.....

I find it funny that my old EP-2 used the same EVF finder that I now use 

on the Leica M240 rangefinder cameras. Timeless digital accessories.

Though I wish it had three times the resolution....

there is no tempo today. Just chill time. 

Taking a coffee break at Jo's with my friend, David. He's quick with a camera. My friends tell me that this is how I usually look to them; coffee in one hand, face partially obscured...

KT

© David Ingram. Austin, Texas. Taking a breather from photographing over on South Congress Ave.  

Scanning more images from the original black and white film.

 

Lou. 

Hot, Sultry, Sunday Afternoon "Street" Photography. One camera. One lens.

Helping tourist decipher the menu at a window shop that sells matcha drinks.

A hot day to be out mid-afternoon for any reason. But if I have to have a reason I guess I'll default to the unquenchable desire to photograph. And I'll add to that the thrill of seeing just who is crazy enough or brave enough to show up too.

After a long swim in cool water and a hearty breakfast at home I grabbed the Leica SL2-S and the (wonderful --- especially when considering the price!) TTArtisan 75mm f2.0 lens and headed over to South Congress Ave. to morph myself into a "tourist in my own town." I felt scruffy today. I was wearing pants with paint stains on them from an earlier attempt to make a painting. I wore a dark, long sleeve t-shirt, the makers of which advertise it as an SPF 30 sun barrier. Hmmm. Didn't know wardrobe items could actually have SPF ratings.... I haven't shaved in days. My floppy hat was clearly anti-fashionable. And I still have a healing, scabbed over wound on my face from a recent biopsy. Obviously I wasn't presenting an "A" game. But that seemed fine with me since everyone on the street tended to ignore me 100%. 

I dropped by Jo's Coffee to grab an iced coffee and to watch a crowd two step to live music on the back patio. Jo's is entirely open air so there's no air conditioning but there is shade. Still, dancing with passion in a humid 100+ degrees seems.....brave to me. I didn't dance but I did take photographs. And nobody cared.

The SL2-S is a very nice camera. I use it when I want to shoot raw files but I don't want the huge files I get from the two SL2 cameras. The SL2-S is about half the resolution so it's already got huge files. Since I'm mostly sharing my tourist shots on the web anything more is dreadful overkill. 

The star of the shooting foray was definitely the 75mm f2.0 lens. From wide open to about f11 it's just amazing. It loves the camera and vice versa.

I left the scene when I sensed that an abrupt and stealthy but strong rain shower was heading our way. You know how you can just smell the rain coming in the air? It was like that. By the time I got back to my parked car I could feel the first drops come splashing down and a quick wind joined in to drop the temperatures, for a while, by nearly 20 degrees. I pointed the car homeward and was happy. The timing was good. I still had cleaning the guest bathroom on my list of self-appointed chores. (and if you believe that I'm the one appointing household chores I've got a magic camera to sell you.....). 

I love the image just below a lot. The woman taking a picture with her cellphone is so well put together and seemed impervious to the heat and humidity. She was .... graceful both in appearance and in the way she moved. It was pleasant to see in a crowd of too tight spandex tights and awkwardly unflattering t-shirts. 

I love to see people dressed up to go out. And dressed appropriately for the occasion.

I wish I'd done a better job on myself today. Love the combination of the dress pattern and the boots on the woman in the middle. And was surprised to see the green sun umbrella as a match for the 

predominant green flourishes on the woman's dress, on the left.

Ah. One of the timeless lures, casting for thirsty tourists on a blazing hot day...

back home. Bathroom cleaned and polished. Now considering which Sauvignon Blanc to have with dinner this evening. Seems like good call. I might even be gauche and put an ice cube in my wine glass. It's that hot now, in the late afternoon. 

 

A Favorite Photograph of my All Time Favorite Muse... B.

 Just looking through old negatives and realizing why I chose to become a photographer.... 

.... it was all about the privilege of proximity to beauty.

There are days when, even if it's too hot, all I want to do is walk around with a camera and take photographs. Not on a schedule and not for any specific reason. Just to see what I can see.

 

Once in a while I'll wake up and think to myself that I don't really want to go to swim practice today. When I was younger I was more strict with myself and I would go anyway. But on Wednesday last week I woke up not thinking about a wet workout but about really getting to know the Leica Q2 better. And there's generally only one way to get to know a camera better; that's to charge up a battery, insert a good memory card, format and head for the car. Lately I've been obsessed with the idea that the Q2 is the perfect 35mm camera. Really perfect for that focal length. 

If you find yourself shooting Jpegs, which I do more and more, then setting the camera to work in a specific focal length sets the stage for shooting that way more organically. Sure, you can shoot in raw and even with the camera set to show 35mm frame lines you still have the option, the fallback plan, of shooting to the frame lines in the moment but keeping the potential of choosing that old 28mm frame after the fact. In post.

In my early years as a photographer I spent a lot of time shooting with various Canon and Leica rangefinder cameras. One of the charms of most rangefinder cameras is the fact that, with medium focal length lenses (35 &50mm) you get to see what's beyond the presented frame lines. You can compose and then see what you might be missing in your composition because the subject is sitting there just past the frame lines.  Just on the other side. And seeing something that might make a better photo if it was included is a very good thing. 

When I have a Q2 set in Jpeg to take 35mm frames I get to see what's in the rest of the finder image. What's outside the demarcation of the frame lines. What might have potential for additional inclusion. I am incapable uncomfortable not interested in shooting ultra wide and then cropping afterwards. I am not gifted with the desire to think of an image in my mind, shoot it surrounded by unneeded clutter with the idea of cropping it later exactly as I saw it in the moment. And if you really believe that this is how you work best you are deluding yourself. Or you have way too much time on your hands while contemplating the taking of photos....

I love to bring the camera up to my eye and look into the bright line frame and see a composition that I like. And then, if needed, fine tune it just prior to the moment of capture. I always have the option of cropping into the 35mm frame but I don't have the option of de-cropping to a wider composition. And not having that option is actually comforting.

Some might say that I'm wasting resolution by setting an "in camera" crop instead of using the full frame that I paid for. I disagree. When a Q2 frame is cropped to 35mm, whether in the camera or in post, one still ends up with a 30 megapixel file and, for most work we do this is more than enough resolution. Need more? Start with a Q3 file and set your camera to crop the frame into a 35mm angle of view. You'll end up with nearly as much resolution as you would if you were shooting a 42+ megapixel camera. More usually isn't better. More is usually just more.

I usually park in the same place and walk variations of the same route. It's easy that way. And my end point is near both a favorite restaurant and a favorite coffee shop so it's very logistical. I wear comfortable shoes. I've been wearing long sleeve pullover shirts from REI that claim to have a 30 SPF equivalent UV resistance and also wick moisture ( aka: sweat) effectively which keeps me cooler than the times when I wear cotton shirts in the hot weather. I have three of them. They are all the same color. They are light gray. I usually wear a medium size shirt but I buy these in a large size because I believe that looser clothing is more comfortable in the heat. When I find a particularly good piece of clothing I tend to buy at least three identical items. I have found over the years that as soon as I find a shirt or a pair of pants or shoes that I really like the manufacturer changes the sizing, the style, the materials or the quality and I am saddened by my perception of loss. Loss of access to something I find valuable. 

The week following the coming week will be the second time I have surgery for a pesky cancer on my face. It's the result of a life time of aquatics, outside, in Texas with insufficient sunscreen. I get it. And part of my penance now is being sentenced to wearing very, very dorky hats which cover my head, the tops of my ears and, with their wide and floppy brims, my face. There's no way around it; they look dorky. Doesn't matter if you spend $400 on a hat or $25 on a hat, if it's effective at blocking the max sunlight it will look dorky. Dad-like. Overly practical. But lordy, lordy, I love a great bucket hat...(not). 

I walk pretty briskly. Not on purpose but mostly because I don't see anything worth photographing and I'm anxious to walk ahead and see, immediately, what's around the next corner. What's the next trigger for the photo gland in my brain. 

When I'm walking in dangerous heat I try to limit myself to just a couple of hours before heading home. Three or four miles with lots of short stops to look through the camera and see if what I've stopped to look at has merit as a photography subject. Once I feel hot, thirsty or bored it's time to pack it in and move on. Time to test the immediacy of the air conditioning in the car and time to find the right spot for a big iced coffee. The endpoint for the walk. 

Out of habit I always take a second battery. Lately I've noticed that the combination of the Q2 and the newer SCL-6 battery means I very seldom whittle down the power in the battery to anywhere close to one half. I might play it more dangerously and head out sometime with just the battery in the camera. With 256 GB memory cards I never take a spare with me unless someone is paying me to work. It's just so rare to have a contemporary, premium SD card fail... (Now having jinxed myself.... gulp!). 

I have the idea lately that once I have surgery on my currently movie star quality face I'll be required to spend at least 10 days out of the pool. I won't miss the routine but I will miss the fitness benefits. Ten days away and you feel like you are starting over from scratch when you come back. Because of this I'm walking even more than usual with the idea of starting at the cool part of the morning and getting in more miles during the swim hiatus. That, and ramping up the strength training. As one of my trainers says, "If you can do as many pushups as your age you can consider yourself out of shape..." Very strained logic. As a 25 year old I could push through that without missing a beat. At 69 it's a daunting task. But since I'll have nothing better to do....

Speaking of better stuff to do I have been inviting friends of all ages and genders over to the studio to have their portraits taken. All in black and white. I've cleaned the place up and I'm in the process of "death cleaning" the studio so it has more room and a lot less clutter. I have a big octa-bank (120 cm) set up and either a white or a black background (mood dependent). The only other addition is a hunk of white foamcore to provide opposite side fill. I don't want people to linger after I've photographed them so I concoct some excuse in advance for why we are "time limited." I see most of these folks enough so that we don't have a lot of catching up to do. 

So far all of the photos have been done with the venerable Leica SL2. Mostly because I like the way it makes black and white files and it's got enough resolution so I can print big....if I want to. There are three lenses I've played with more than others. The Sigma 85mm f1.4, the Sigma 90mm f2.8, and the recently acquired TTArtisans 75mm f2.0. All, in their own way are good. 

Can't wait for Monday when we undertake the big air conditioner install at the house. So much fun.

Walking North on the pedestrian "side" bridge at First Street. 

A new construction at the Long Center for the performing arts.

Something for evening performances out on the lawn...

The Long Center. A public/private renovation happened about ten years ago.

It's a really nice space for concerts et al. And it looks so "jet age."

the now abandoned HQ of the Austin Lyric Opera. 

They've moved on. The building (mostly the valuable land under it..) is now for sale. 

I don't get the joke. I mean, who puts this on their car? Really?

And, by the way, see the hat? Dorky. 

Golf in the middle of town. Just South of Lady Bird Lake. 

Eccentric enough to make me want to take up golf....

The Good Kind. Nice and Cold. Not...Grabby. 

the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. Over Lady Bird Lake. Joining North and South Austin.

Gateway to a good, long walk with trails going East and West in a loop. 

Three different loop distances available. From 3 miles to 12 miles.

Bring your biggest water bottle in the Summer...

Down by the railroad tracks.

the beginning and end of most walks. 

The VSL Blog was offline for maintenance. We're back---- but on a more limited schedule. Photography is quickly becoming less and less interesting to write about...

It was interesting to read that this will be the first year in which over a trillion images will be uploaded to the web (See M.J.'s column from yesterday). 94% of which are either being done with cellphone cameras or created out of the ether by artificial intelligence. When you consider the dilution of individual photographic work it's beyond daunting. It's demoralizing and seems to make individual efforts like those of current VSL ramblings mostly pointless. 

In the first two thirds of VSL's tenure many of the posts were written about day-to-day jobs that I had undertaken. I discussed what the goals of the jobs were, how we planned them and what gear we used. I also included descriptions of the processes. Most popular of the posts seemed to be the one's where I wrote about photographing theatrical dress rehearsals for marketing. And what made those articles interesting had a lot to do with the evolution of digital cameras from noise rich solutions to, progressively, low noise champions. The upgrade to a new camera or a new camera system was more important than it might be today because one could see the progress of new sensors as we were able to shoot at higher and higher ISOs with relative impunity. Theater documentation was a small niche but it was interesting to the people considering upping their camera's game for low noise performance. And people look more fun in costumes and under stage lighting.

So much changed in my practice of photography back in 2020 when Covid hit. And when we started ramping back up it became apparent to me, and a large number of my peers, that the game had changed profoundly. Companies were reticent to spend the same kind of money they had before. Quick videos took over a lot of the heavy lifting in online advertising that had been the broad-based bread and butter of our photo industry. By 2023 A.I. was starting to make inroads in a way that was not unexpected. Ad agencies and typical end users of photography could use a phone photo as a template for a full on post production production and create their own work to use for clients. They were no longer constrained by usage fees, copyrights etc. 

I've spent a good part of the last two years backing away from the business of photography entirely. I still enjoy taking photographs but I am not longer as connected to the paradigm we worked under in the "old" days ( Pre-2020 ). Back then we were still pursuing the Boy Scout theory of the craft in which we owned a whole tool kit of different kinds of lighting, cameras and lenses. We owned specific stuff for specific kinds of projects and never thought that one set of gear could do everything generalist photographers might need. And in most cases we had duplicates or back-ups for each piece of vital gear. So while we might not use longer zooms for much else I did depend on them for theatrical production photographs--- live on the stage in front of me. And since we were committing to that practice we owned (at least) two. Always being sure to have a redundant back-up on hand. We were...Prepared.

Same with lights. Flashes for some work. Continuous light for video. LEDs for a hodge hodge of situations in which we wanted to use cool running continuous sources. And then support materials (lights and modifiers) for every permutation. There was a certain amount of churn in the gear as battery powered flashes got smaller and lighting solutions got better. LEDs improved by leaps and bounds from the time I wrote the original book about LED lighting. And, as we touched on above, camera performance kept improving. 

Now all of this redundancy and inventory for specific types of photography seems a bit pointless. Most of the projects we undertake are simple portraits or running documentation of processes or events that can be handled by any number of inexpensive cameras and a small selection of lenses. As clients clamor for more and more "authenticity" we have come to understand that authenticity really means less polish, more available light, and a general disregard for noise in an image. Gone are the days when we did lots of day long, week long or month long projects like annual reports which required a big hunk of planning and logistics as well as travel and days spent working to shot lists of things that art directors might want to include in the final brochure. The kinds of jobs I now get are more along the lines of a law firm or medical practice asking me to photograph one subject and sometimes get fancy and drop in backgrounds that we might shoot separately. The most recent job done for an oral surgery practice was done completely with a basic, full frame camera and one 50mm lens. Most are jobs that could be done in several hours...

But doing easy-to-produce jobs like these is hardly the material for exciting writing and riveting reading. And I can only walk through Austin looking for good coffee and different images for so long before it becomes old hat for everyone. The push back on mannequins is already disheartening...

While some bloggers need to keep writing, and pretending that this is all fun and vital work, to make a living I've never depended on the blog for any income. Or future jobs. But I can't think of any of my art director/ad agency friends even read the blog --- although they all like to see work on Instagram --- for the moment.

What exciting thing did I do today? I went to swim practice and then came back home to deal with the death of our home's central air conditioning. It's fixed for the moment but I decided to go ahead and drop $15K on a new system (includes the heater...) since the old one is going on 20 years of service and that's a long and rewarding tenure for an air conditioner in Texas. The $15K didn't come from affiliate income or Patreon members, I wrote a check for it. (Yes my UK readers! People still take personal checks. For cars and air conditioners. Amazing!!!). No big excitement. No thrills or spills. After the current AC got a few bits of maintenance today I feel like it will keep running until Monday. If not, I have an office just 12 feet from the house that's well air conditioned as a .... back-up. Or maybe it will be time for a stay-cation at one of the glorious hotels...

With nothing fun or exciting to work on and write about, and nothing really happening on the streets of Austin in the dead of Summer, and my general laziness, it seems rather silly to continue trying to find reasons to keep blogging on an earnest and every day schedule. 

I have surgery for the cancer on my face scheduled for July 1st. I have several trips planned for post suture removal and general scar recovery. I have way too many cameras begging me for attention. And I'm unsure that there is even an audience for the kind of work I'll want to do on my travels. 

I think we'll just coast for a while and see what happens. Usually I like to be binary and when I decide I am finished with something I shut it down and walk away to start something else. But many of my readers let me know that they value the archive that exists here. Out of 6053 blog posts I do get things right every once in a while. So I'll leave the blog as it is for now and maintain the right to come back on my own schedule and add things as I see fit. Check in and see what's new when you have a chance but be forewarned that the days of a post or two a day are coming to an end. Jeez. I'm gonna to be 70 in the Fall. I've got some other priorities to get to. 

The blog is here if you want to re-read some old stuff. There might be new stuff from time to time. That's all I've got for you today. 

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And no! I won't be documenting the air conditioning install or writing about it. That's just boring. I'll have an assistant here to shepherd the project through but I'll be out having a fun lunch somewhere and hitting a gallery or two. I expect to come back home to a chilly house served by a more efficient and "green" unit. 

Bored just writing about air conditioners. And heaters. And installations. Now heading out to give one of the rangefinder cameras some love...