Yep. It's Summer in Austin. But I woke up this morning to lots of rain, thunder and lightning.

 

Lifeguard on duty at Barton Springs Pool. One eighth of a mile of cold, flowing Spring water. Clean enough to drink. The mayor of Paris must be soooo jealous.

I'm putting together a small kit for a quick bit of out-of-town photography. Nothing that requires lighting or long lenses. But it's always fun to sort out a fun collection of toys I mean professional gear to take on the road. I've narrowed down my kit to two black M240 Leicas, a Voigtlander 75mm, Voigtlander 50mm and the Carl Zeiss 28mm. EVF for use with the 28mm. A 256 GB SD card in each.  A couple extra batteries. And that's it. They all fit into one small Domke bag and it's a relatively lightweight package to carry around all day long. 

Fun to put together kits for various projects. Gone are the days when everything got shoved into that one system of big camera bodies and big zoom lenses that were kept company by big flashes and stout light stands. And pressed into service for .... everything.

Many years ago I wrote a piece about how I would change my selection of cameras if I didn't need specific capabilities for client work. I'm revisiting that thought bubble today. Over the course of my career so much has changed re: cameras and lighting. 

In the earliest days we worked mostly in the studio and nearly always with only two types of cameras: The 4x5  inch, monorail view camera with three lenses ( 90mm, 150mm, 240mm ) and a nice Polaroid back. A fully manual, mechanical Hasselblad 500 C/M with a 50mm, 80mm, 105mm and a 150mm. Even on out of the studio jobs like events and environmental portraits we usually used only medium format cameras. The majority of studio work was done on 4x5 which was also the most requested format by clients. We also worked daily with really big electronic flash systems. 2,000 watt second boxes were the basic standard.

It was only in the second half of the 1990s that we started to transition away from large format and add more and more 35mm capabilities. 35mm took over in the event space and MF took over in the studio space. I read so many comments on so many sites where the commenter is smug and proud for having only bought one camera decades ago and stating that no one really needs anything more. I generally just shake my head at the naivety, and the lack of their understanding of the business of photography, and move on. 

In my mind that's the same as saying "I bought one pair of underwear when I graduated from college and that's all I've ever needed over the last 30 years..." 

In the time leading up to 2020 and the world wide lock down I was ramping up to serve not only the still photography market with all of its changes but also the then burgeoning video market. Nearly every video shoot I did, either by myself or in conjunction with partners, required at least three shooting cameras for the style we wanted to work in. It required purchasing more stuff. More memory cards, more batteries, more tripods, more monitors. 

In the still photography space we were adding higher resolution cameras like the Panasonic S1R and the Leica SL2 for a market we foresaw as being important for continued business success as we added some bigger trade show clients and some international clients that still had a foot in printed (non-digital screen) brochures and point of purchase advertising. Of course most of this died on the vine during Covid. And my focus changed as well. 

Now the idea of leaving the house to make photographs has, for the commercial side, become a game of trying to pack down to the tiniest possible kit and still be able to do the work clients expect. I'm coming to realize that my previous mentality was all about problem proofing every step of an assignment. Having redundant tools just in case. Having extra lights in case we wanted to work "old school" and have every office down a long hallway lit up just right to bolster the look of a portrait in the foreground. Sometimes experience and proficiency in an older method of working can act as an impediment to moving forward. To trying new tools. Yes...including Neural Filters and even Generative A.I. 

That's all in the service of doing paid work but for my personal work I've broken from the typical idea of pressing my optimum "work" cameras into "personal" photography. While a Leica SL with a big Leica lens on the front is a wonderful and highly productive tool for making good commercial work it's less than perfect for all those many times I might want to walk around and take less controlled photos. 

I've settled on these M series cameras as the tools for my own work. They don't usually sit on tripods. I rarely, if ever, use them with flash, I'm not particularly anxious to get more lenses for the system, given the limitations of the rangefinder and viewing system when using very wide or very long lenses. I've settled on mostly normal lenses. 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm. And truth be told I still mostly hew to the 50mm. 

If I want to narrow down the kit just to one camera and one lens. No bag. No extras. Not even an extra battery. I have one M Leica that is perfect. It's the M240 M-E which was a late launched version with an updated buffer, a much better rear screen (actually good enough to judge color on!) and an "Anthracite" finish that looks like industrial steel. The rangefinder optics, being very recent and pretty much unused by the collector who snapped the camera up in the first place, is pristine and a delight to use. Especially with 50mm lenses. 

I have two 50mm lenses and both are excellent. One is the Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0. The other is the Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 APO lens. While the Zeiss is smaller and a brilliant lens I tend to always reach for the Voigtlander. It's just enough bigger to make handling more comfortable and, wide open, it's so nicely sharp and contrasty that I smile every time I open a file. 

Office burning down and only able to save one camera and one lens? Of course it would be the M240 M-E and the 50mm VM. Every time. 

The freeing thing about turning down most work and gliding towards retirement is the lack of concern about which gear to actually use. I'm trusting battery powered flashes more and more. Trusting even smaller format cameras like the APS-C Leica CLs (so cute!) and not so worried about keeping up with the latest and greatest new gear. 

A single camera and a 50mm. Who would have thought it? Perfect for making personal art. 

Thunder and lightning cancelled the morning swim. Now considering adding a back up Olympic pool to the kit. Just for those days....