OT: Kirk Acknowledges that he will never compete at the Olympics. But he sure gets to spend a lot of time in the pool. And with wonderful people.

I wrote about retiring and mentioned that my schedule will be open enough to get in a lot of swims without worrying about scheduling conflicts. A commenter wrote to tell me I would not go to swim/compete at the Olympics. Having 69 years of life experience and a healthy dose of higher education I kind of figured that out on my own. But here's a little secret: Most masters swimmers don't show up for daily practice because their goals include getting a gold medal at the Olympics. They do it for social connection. For health benefits. To enjoy healthy competition. To maintain optimum body weight. To maintain muscle mass as they age. To maintain a healthy blood pressure. To stave off cardiac events. To put off hip and knee replacements. Because pushing off the wall in a great streamline is the closest most people will ever come to flying without an airplane. To continue wearing the pants bought in college. Because they are 35% less likely to die of all causes compared with the general population in the same age demographic. Because they get to hang around the pool in a swim suit. Because the people they swim with are in better shape, are happier and more attractive than the general population. Because it's fun not to be at work first thing in the morning. And because swimming helps one sleep better. Add that all together and I think swimming every morning is a better deal than winning once at one Olympic Games. 

Most older men who take up golf in retirement die within 18 months. And in those 18 months they have to spend a lot of time with other retired men in bad outfits. That sounds like a really sucky bargain to me. Exercise? In an electric cart? In Major League baseball games the average three hour game has ONLY 8.5 minutes of actual play. And that's an "athletic" pursuit? Amazing what the public will buy...

If you go to a one hour swim practice I'm pretty sure you'll get 58+ minutes of active, aerobic, and some anaerobic, exercise. A tremendous bargain compared to just about anything else  you can do. 

Or you could just play pickle ball and keep an orthopedic surgeon on retainer. Just saying. 

Kids who swim make better grades. Have more discipline and don't mess up as much as non-swimming kids. Among college athletes they have higher academic achievement. 

B. Already water safe at 2.5.

Prince Rainier Memorial Pool in Monte Carlo. A nice pool in which to do laps.

Tyler is a masters swimmer at Longhorn Aquatics. UT.

Young B. At workout. Still swims now at 29. Still in great shape.

Early habits pay off. 

Rip Esselstyn. He recently set a world record in the 200-meter backstroke for the 55-59 age group in 2019 at age 56.  Yeah. He swims on my masters team. He's 62 now. Still looks the same.

The WHAC USMS swimming pool. Clean water, fast swimming.

UT Swim Center. USMS Nationals

B. Post workout. Better appetite.

Shawn Jordan. Gold medal winner at both the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Yeah. He swims with my masters team. 

I might never go to the Olympics. 

I get my rewards every morning at 8.

And for the rest of the day...

 

It's Saturday Afternoon. I'm ordering watches on Amazon. Also trying to decide which ONE camera and ONE lens to take to Chicago next week.

  Portrait of B. from the past. Original camera: Pentax 67. Lens: 150mm Pentax. 

This is a throw back edition to Swiss Watchmaker's 1955, 50 Fathom Dive Watch series. Hand made by Blancpain in Switzerland. It's a company that has been making very, very limited edition dive watches for a small but extremely affluent market of watch lovers. Established in the 1700s. The cost of this watch is $19,500. With a black nylon watch band. It's a very pretty watch; I only wish they made a version without a date window...

I still doubt I'll ever spend anywhere near that amount on a watch...

But, kind and generous readers...I do have a birthday coming up....

But...

Maybe the watch below makes more sense >

This is a Watchdives dive watch currently being made and marketed as an homage to the line of Blancpain watches represented up above. This watch is available with a glass crystal or with a sapphire crystal. Available in stainless steel case for the glass variant and in titanium for 

the sapphire crystal variant. 

It uses a popular and proven Seiko automatic movement, has a screw down crown and is waterproof to 300 meters. It also features a black, nylon wrist strap. It sells for between $119 - $139 on Amazon.com.

At the end of July this year I ordered one of the models with the stainless steel case and the glass crystal. I've worn it every day since. In the pool for an hour workout per day and, after letting the strap dry, for the rest of the day. I take it off at night. Otherwise the lume would keep me awake. While it keeps accurate time and hasn't needed to be rewound it is hand-wind-able. Not all modern automatic movements are hand-wind-able. It's a feature I value. 

Today I was ordering another couple sets of swim goggles, an extra (Panasonic) battery for the Leica DLUX8 and a few other odds and ends and in the shopping process the Amazon algorithms sent me a glance of the sister watch; the one with the titanium case and sapphire crystal. And coupled the ad presentation with a sale price. I immediately added the watch to my shopping cart. It's too good a value to pass up --- that is, if you like the look and feel of this watch. 

And the idea of waterproof to 300 meters.

And, bonus, no date window. Just utter face simplicity. $119. 

The watches are made in China but feature a Japanese, Seiko NH38 movement. 

It's a bargain. Sure beats the $19,500 price of the original model.

On to more important things. Which goggles did I get this time?

That's easy. Speedo mirrored Vanquisher 2.0 goggles. This will be my sixth or seventh pair. If you use them everyday they don't last much longer than about six months. The lenses, in fact all parts, are made of plastic which eventually fogs from prolonged contact with pool chemicals. And since they are plastic if you abuse them you can break the parts that hold the elastic head straps. If you break the strap lugs and don't have a back-up pair of goggles in your swim bag then workout is over until you can replace the broken goggles. I'm rotating an existing pair from their packaging in my bag to be my new daily users and adding the newly arriving goggles to be next in rotation. I have a bunch of flawed and foggy goggles in the trunk of the car. Just in case. For $25 per it's easy to "Be Prepared." 

I guess that's about it. Watches. Swimming. Am I forgetting something? Was it something about kale???

Oh yeah....the camera quandary. Which camera and lens to take along with me on my upcoming long weekend vacation with B. After much deliberation I've narrowed down the choices to either the Leica Q2 or the Leica DLUX8. Leaning toward the DLUX8 right now for its smaller size, lighter weight and an actual zoom range of 24-75mm (equivalent). It's a brilliant little camera and I just got a back-up, back-up battery for it. 

If I were out to do serious photography on the trip I'd lean toward the Q2. But I'm pretty much set on my role as a "tourist on a family vacation" instead of being a "dedicated and driven" photographer. I figure if the city seems really, really great, visually, I can always go back alone and dive into making photos. After all: "Lonely hunter, Better hunt." 

I am certain though about which watch I'll be taking.... 

Lots of posts. Don't read more than you can handle at one time. 

Here is the latest from Michael Johnston, AKA: TheOnlinePhotographer. He sent this to me a few minutes ago via email. If you are a TOP reader you might find information you want. This re-use is MJ approved!

 Time for an EXECUTIVE DECISION

The Online Photographer

22 minutes ago

I've decided what I have to do. It's becoming clear that the new site is not going to be ready for prime time by October 1, so...

The Online Photographer is moving here to Patreon temporarily. The URL is:

patreon.com/theonlinephotographer

But, TOP on Patreon will still be mostly free. It won't be just for paying customers. Naturally, I love it and appreciate it when people want to join for a few bucks a month, but I'm more comfortable when you can do it voluntarily. So, here on Patreon, you can either join as a paying supporter, join with a free account, or just come to this page and visit—most things will still be viewable that way. Hopefully people will become supporters because they want to, not because I'm coercing them by withholding most of the content. That's the way it's been up till now. Of course, a few things will be reserved just for supporters, because it's only fair. Supporters support me, after all.

How long will this last? Well, certainly until I get my groove back and settle into writing again. Maybe a couple of months. (That might turn into double that—just guessing.) As a way of taking the time pressure off of getting the new site up and running smoothly.

Dad's decision disk
Some people like making decisions early—"there, that's settled"—while others like leaving decisions until the last minute. I actually hate making decisions. Early-deciders think people like me are crazy, but there's an explanation for people who feel this way—it's that we dislike closure, because it shuts down possibilities and makes it harder to react and respond to new insights or new information. It's a version of what they call opportunity cost. When you decide on one course, you lose all the other possibilities. So people like us make decisions grudgingly and late and might still want to leave them open-ended even longer.

Just a personality kind of thing.

Decisiveness is good for certain pursuits—business, probably—but maybe not always; indecisiveness can hamper us in many cases, but in other circumstances it might be what saves the day. I could name examples of decisions reached rashly and too soon. Sometimes, people, or companies, or countries get cornered into having to accept a decision that's clearly wrong. (If I named those examples, it would hijack this discussion straightaway.)

My father's notion was that any decision is better than no decision. He was so frustrated with my indecisiveness that he came home from a trip once with a present, a brass medallion about three inches in diameter. One side was inset with red enamel and said "NO," and the other side was enameled green and said "YES." He told me that whenever I had a decision to make, I should flip it on to the carpet and go with whatever came up. 

So the next time I had a decision to make, I flipped it on the carpet. It came up Yes. I stood there for a minute or two, staring at it contemplatively and pondering, then reached over and with my toe flipped it to the No side. Then I pondered a while longer, and flipped it back to Yes.... 

Laughing emoji goes here....

So that wasn't going to work. 

Anyway, this isn't really a decision either. But I'm overwhelmed and stressed out, and if I don't find a way to relieve the pressure, then these next ten days (the TypePad site will be gone forever on the 30th) will not be pleasant. Or productive: I don't deal with pressure well (never have), and I don't work effectively once the pressure gets too high. When you don't do things until you have to, sometimes it's good. It falls under the category of motivation. But when the pressure gets to be too much it turns into a net negative. 

Again, the new URL is patreon.com/theonlinephotographer. I'll point my domains there within the next few days. The old links will break on the 30th.

As an aside, I've gotten fascinated in the past week or so with videos showing boats navigating Florida inlets—Haulover Inlet, for one—which I never knew was a thing. (The internet is full of surprising things you new knew existed). Boats being buffeted and tossed by chaotic waves—it's like watching a metaphor.

I will be astonished if I don't lose half my audience in the next two weeks, so, if you stick with me through these choppy seas, you're really helping, and thanks. 

If you have any comments, please leave them over there. I'll leave comments turned on here for a few more days, but they'll disappear soon. 

Mike

B. before he could even swim....

 

A favorite. B. The best person I can think of with whom to retire.

At Sweetish Hill Restaurant in the mid-1980s.

Olympus Pen FT half frame camera. 40mm f1.4 Pen lens.

 

Guest Post by Henry White. What the heck is Kirk up to?

Another random photo of a very nice person...

 It's kind of weird. One minute KT is here pounding out post after post and the next minute he's M.I.A. I walked through the ten inch steel blast doors into the entry area for the Visual Science Lab headquarters and everything was dark. Except, of course, for the 30 foot wall of blinking front panels for the servers and the status lights on the plutonium powered, uninterruptible back-up power units. I turned off the layers of intruder alarms and went into the break room to fetch coffee. Usually by this time in the morning my boss has been in for hours, reeking of chlorine and sunscreen, and the coffee machine is always humming. Today? No such luck. The custom brewing mechanism was stone cold; untouched. The air conditioning still set at 50 degrees...

I started the coffee machine humming and walked over to KT's office door, did the retinal scan, the fingerprint scan and the voice scan, and entered the thirty digit code to get through the door. I looked carefully around on the floor to make sure I hadn't inadvertently triggered the automatic release on the black mamba cages by doing the alarm disarming out of sequence... Nope. I got it right and I'm still here to talk about it. 

No notes on the desk. No messages on the whiteboard that hangs on the wall. No text messages either. 

Perplexed I walked over to the underground garage to see if I could use my "Sherlock Holmes" brain to discover anything. While the Veyron, the McLarens and the Bentleys were all accounted for the Subaru was missing. Road trip? Always possible. I checked outside on the crash pad but there was nothing new, just the continuing car fire from the exploded lithium batteries on that EV we were considering...

I walked over to my much smaller office and settled in to see how the markets were opening everywhere when I finally got a message on my proprietary iWatch; the one Tim had made for our team as a "Thank You." It was a terse message. Brief. Not wordy. Almost sketchy. 

It said: "retired. out shooting portraits. sell the cameras and the lights when you get into the office. Give yourself a bonus. Ghost write a blog post for me. don't sell the three original SL cameras. They are special. No company will ever make that good a camera ever again. Also, have the mechanic check the O2 mixture on the Veyron, it hesitated a bit last night when I hit 165. That is all. Soldier on." 

I didn't know what to make of it. Usually his instructions are more detailed, more authoritative. 

But since I have been handed a project, here goes: 

Gosh. This is harder than it seems... daily inspiration? Almost inconceivable.

"FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD'S GREATEST CAMERA" 

It's not widely known outside of closely held circles but earlier this year a German company brought to market the world's greatest camera...ever. It's called the ....... wait! I'm getting an encrypted call on the KT dedicated burner phone. Ooops. I'm not allowed to divulge the new product just now. Yikes! That was a close call.

Update: A sigh of relief. While I was sitting in the titanium and kevlar lined conference room of the VSL HQ I finally heard from the boss. Seems I missed the recent blog post in which he more or less announced his retirement from commercial photography work. He swam early this morning, had Chip fire up the back-up Gulfstream (an older 5 series) and met an old friend for coffee at an undisclosed location about 760 miles from here. He should be back to write about his adventures sometime tomorrow; Sunday at the latest. 

An added note from him: "Move 100 million into Swiss Canton bonds. Stock in some more of that wonderful Parisienne Sourdough bread." 

Followed by: "Success! we've now cornered the market on Leica SL cameras. The 2015 era model. You may now announce that it is, without a doubt, the best consumer camera ever made. Make room in the warehouse for another shipment. And order another one of those darling DLUX8s." 

I did some more busy work. Archived some files. Tossed out several tons of transparencies and negatives that KT went through last week...and found wanting. Carefully polished the front and rear elements of a couple of those lenses we bought from the NSA GeoSpatial division (remounted for the SLs), and called it a day. 

Running a commercial photo business can be complex and daunting. On the other hand, why would anyone who had a choice pursue anything else? Baffling....

Now heading back home to prompt my favorite LLM app to write a series of detective novels. Easy pickings. Most of the content is already pre-scraped. 

Gold watch? Or just another camera?

 

I've made a conscious effort this year to reject all the work I no longer want to do and to say "goodbye" to clients who are less than big fun with which to work. This past week I finally hit an inflection point and started turning every "work opportunity" down. On Monday I finished the post production on the last commercial obligation I had in progress. I have added no new jobs to the calendar and have, instead, been lining up trips to fun locations. Next week I'll be in Chicago and in late October I'll be spending at least a week in Montreal (my all time favorite city in all of north America). 

It was scary to stop working for clients. Note that I said, "for clients" as I want to make the distinction that I won't stop taking photographs or undertaking challenging projects, but I won't be doing any more projects that have as their impetus commercial success. It's scary because for the first 30 or so years of being an "adult" and being the owner of my own business my attention to work, details, billing and investing was crucial to provide for my family. To buy houses, pay for the kid's college, save for retirement, pay taxes and buy food. 

A number of years ago I hit a point, financially, at which I could retire but was too anxious about the future to do so. Now I have no reservations about discontinuing the money making part of my life and concentrating on doing stuff either because it's the right thing to do or because it's fun. 

I have shifted gears, mentally. It took a lot of time but I think I've finally learned to be comfortable flipping the switch from saving money to spending money that I've saved. It's a harder lesson to learn than one might think. Many people with a higher than average net worth actually have difficulty spending in retirement and often leave this world with far more money at the end of retirement than they had at the beginning. Hence the popularity of books like Die With Zero. 

The goal of many people is to retire while they are still physically fit enough to enjoy themselves. To take trips that involve walking and other forms of mobility. But sadly a huge percentage of people over 60 arrive at retirement with one or two (or more) long term health issues. And a list of pharmaceutical prescriptions. Problems with joints. Problems with blood sugar. Problems walking or standing. And far less energy than they thought they'd have when they were young and chained to a desk.

One of the fortunate things about owning one's own business and having a commitment to a particular sport is that one's odds of hitting retirement with knees, hips and lower back fully functional and pain free are better than average. I've been a life long competitive swimmer and unless I was out of town on business it was rare for me to miss a day of masters swimming. If we had jobs with early start times I tended to adjust and go to earlier practices. For a while, during the first year of the Covid epidemic I was hitting the pool at 6 in the morning. There is even a masters practice here in Austin, at another club, which starts at 5:30 a.m. and I've hit that practice from time to time when a schedule conflict arose. 

I'm heading into my 70s (a little over a month away) weighing about five pounds more than I did when I was in college ( Or, At University, for our UK readers.... but I always want to ask: which university???) and with the same blood pressure, energy and daily discipline as well. My energy levels don't seem to have fallen and my mental acuity seems intact (critics might say the jury is still out...). As many coaches and swimmers have said: Swimming is the Fountain of Youth.

But more than that staying healthy and feeling young is undoubtedly a state of mind. A point of view. A philosophy of intention. 

Resigning, "Acting your age", taking it easy, deserving a rest, and all the rest of the bad platitudes and advice about how to "gracefully" give up are incredibly ageist and self-debilitating. Sure, you can give up, pad around the house in slippers and sip Sanka but it's a trap and an ever shrinking cycle of defeat.

I prefer to think of "retirement" as being the next stage of potential accomplishment. Fewer distractions. More resources. And a life time of training. 

Here we go.