the weather improves, the attitude improves

May 28, 2024

the weather improves, the attitude improves

Austin has been socked in with lots of ozone, outrageous heat indexes and a nasty pressure dome overhead. The days haven't been cloudy so much as covered with a pale, overarching fog or smog of bad air. Everyone was starting to feel... unhappy. Grouchy. Dispirited. And then this morning it changed.

Frank and I were sitting outside at my favorite, neighborhood coffee house, nursing paper cups of drip coffee and talking about life in general. All of a sudden the skies to the North and West got darker and the wind picked up in gusts. After a few exploratory gusts nature slid in a wave of fresh, cool, drier air and we both instantly felt more alert and alive. It was a good start to what turned out to be the most pleasant day of the last week. Maybe a week and a half.

We finished up our coffee conversation with a sudden inspiration for a new camera accessory business but I'm not sure we're ready to go public with it yet. If we get the enterprise off the ground you'll hear about it here first...

I headed home to put the final touches on some studio portrait lighting for tomorrow afternoon and I answered an email about a day of photography next week for a reconstituted law firm that needs to relaunch with an all new website. The web designers are out of New Jersey. The law firm is here. I've never worked with the agency before but the managing partner of the law firm and I have a history of working together that goes back at least a decade. He's a really good guy! So, of course I told the agency folks, as nicely as I could, that I would take the job on the condition that I bypass their accounting and estimate, bill and get paid directly by the client. Nice as people in New Jersey may be I just have lost my tolerance for spending valuable time doing anything creative and then having to monkey around to get paid...especially by "long distance, first time" clients I've never met in person.

As more and more law firms request photo projects on their locations I'm revisiting the lighting techniques I talked about in my first book; the book about lighting everything with small, battery powered flashes instead of bigger mono-lights or pack-and-head flash set ups. If I can't fit the lighting I want to use, along with the cameras and lenses, into one Think Tank Airport Advantage XT roller case then it's not the job for me. I'll pass it along...

Two cameras, two lenses, four flashes, three stands and a couple umbrellas and we should be good to go for just about anything. And with the Leica Q2 as one of the two cameras in the case I've got the ability to leverage a leaf shutter in order to match interior stuff with exterior daylight stuff, without excessive brain work stuff.

I made linguini pasta with EVOO, parsley, basil, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes for lunch. Made a handful of fresh, organic blackberries a dessert and then headed out to enjoy this break in the miserable weather. I'm working my way backwards through cameras right now so I grabbed a Leica CL (digital) and the 56mm f1.4 Sigma lens, shoved an extra battery into my pocket and headed off on an adventure.

You know how, when you get a new car, every dusty day and every pollen drop from big trees seems to dapple your car's exterior with....crap? I took the new car to my favorite, local gas station and ran it through the car wash. I splashed out for the deluxe menu selection, "the works". The car once again looks brand new.

I didn't see much of interest on my walk but I did remember why I liked the Leica CL so much. It's relatively small and light, the finder is very, very nice, and the 24 megapixel, APS-C raw files are filled with detail. When paired with the 56mm (85mm equivalent) Sigma lens it's a massively fun camera to shoot. Might just have to press the mini-system into service on the two upcoming shoots.

The month of June is shaping up to be more like a work month than a full retirement month. I'm mostly booking work, on location, across one legal association, one legal liability insurance company, and two law practices. It's all turning back into a job. At least for the coming month. I've tried to push people away with high prices and capricious demands (No Red M&Ms!!!) but they all seem unfazed. I'm trying to look at this temporary bump in activity as part of the long term glide path toward eventual work freedom... But please! No jobs before 10 a.m. There has to be time for swim practice and post swim coffee!

All the photos here were taken with the CL and the Sigma 56. Nothing spectacular but it's nice to see how well corrected the lens is and how well the cropped frame camera takes advantage of the lens performance. You could do serious work with this combination. And I always seem to forget that if I need a longer focal length for this system I've got a drawer of L mount lenses that work seamlessly on the camera as well. The Sigma 90mm makes a really nice 135mm style headshot lens and it's wickedly sharp too.

People in Austin are really leaning into trying to profit from the film industry,

such as it is in central Texas.

I'd never seen signs before advertising the availability of a downtown parking lot, right on Congress Ave. as being available for movie rentals. Now I have. Okay.