The Visual Science Lab : 08 May 2016

5.14.2016

The Visual Science Lab is on vacation. Kirk ran out of interesting things to write about.

Much as I love writing about photography and cameras I find myself

at a pausing point and need to figure out where photography is

heading; and me with it. The field feels likes it's just become so diffuse and ubiquitous

that it defies all of the logic, arguments, entrenched history and presumptions

we used to carry around and hash out in blogs.

Just taking some downtime to concentrate on the ongoing process of making art.

Christopher Robin said it best,

"GON OUT

BACKSON

BISY

BACKSON

C.R."

Check back in a week or two...

5.13.2016

Images from my coverage of the Keller Williams RED DAY event. Shot with the three different Sony sensor format cameras. And a small smattering of lenses. Click to enlarge.

A7R2 w/24-70mm

A subset of the KW in-house video crew.

I have written, yesterday and today, tangentially, about my photo assignment to document a day of community service by a company. With permission to use some of the images from the shoot in hand I thought I would show a range of shots taken over the course of the day, along with some camera information; just to give an idea of the scope of the project. Plus it's always fun (at least I think it is) to see what the real versus imagined differences are between cameras. Different end targets will demand different levels of quality but...if you click on these images and look at the bigger versions at least you will see what the three different cameras look like at 2200 pixels wide on the long end.

The client was real estate company, Keller Williams. Here's how their company describes yesterday's event: "Inaugurated in 2009, RED Day (Renew, Energize and Donate) is Keller Williams Realty’s annual, company-wide day of community service. Keller Williams associates are asked to “give where they live” and dedicate a day to renewing and energizing the communities they serve."

To recap: There were about 200 volunteers (here in Austin; thousands more across the country) doing things as diverse as fixing up a playground, reading and recording books onto video for hospital bound kids, painting and repairing schools; donating, labeling and shelving books for school libraries, reading to elementary school classes and even putting on a comedy/drama (with five live shows) for the entire third grade of an elementary school. My role was to be a visual documentarian of the day. To do that I used three different cameras and two different, interchangeable lenses. The cameras were: The RX10iii, the a6300 and the A7R2; all current Sony products. The lenses were the Zeiss 24/70mm f4.0 and the Sony 18-105mm f4.0 G lens. The fixed lens on the RX10iii covers angles of view corresponding to 24mm-600mm (yummy!).

A7R2 w/24-70mm

Chris, the CEO, reading for the camera.

A7R2 w/24-70mm @1250 ISO

Checking in books and labeling them.

A7R2 in crop mode @5000 ISO

The "Hero" of the school plays!

A7R2 in crop mode @1600 ISO

A quick look at the corporate messaging.

A7R2 in crop mode @5000 ISO

The dramatic comedy team at Perez Elementary School.

A6300 + 18-105 @2000 ISO

CEO being interviewed by local media.

A6300 + 18-105 @2000 ISO

Pre-kickoff orientation meeting (with real breakfast tacos).

A6300 + 18-105 @2000 ISO

A7R2+24/70mm @ 1600

One of the youngest volunteers sorting books at BookSpring

A7R2+24/70mm @ 1600

A6300+18/105mm @4000 ISO

RX10iii.

Fixing up the playground at an early childhood development center.

RX10iii.

RX10iii. @ISO 2000

Back to the drama at Perez Elementary.

RX10iii. @ISO 2000

The angst of possibly having to cancel Summer vacation.

RX10iii. @ISO 2000

RX10iii. @ISO 4000

At the breakfast launch. Me just showing off the AWB and ISO 4000 performance (under insanely mixed lighting---) with the RX10iii.

A7R2+24/70mm ISO 800

I've never yet met a photographer who looked forward to making group shots.

The A7R2 did nicely for me. It's a tight squeeze but no one is puffing out at the corners....

These kinds of jobs require me to mix with CEOs and other corporate people, become one with the bigger corporate team, and also get by to a number of schools, and other institutions, and to do it without drawing too much attention to myself. I want to make everyone comfortable and happy in front of the camera; at least as much as is possible. The rest of the time I want to hide behind my cloak of invisibility which is most easily done by being right in the middle of things.

I had an absolute blast. While the RX10iii can't match the other two cameras for high ISO it does quite well in the lower ranges and I'd be comfortable using it in jobs like this all the way out to 1600. If your final target is the web you can get away with higher ISOs but you can't always go to 100% magnifications and not see some real noise reduction going on. I set the camera to High Iso Noise Reduction: Standard because I knew the images would look fine for my client's intended use (web P.R.---team building). In fact, the images from the smallest sensor camera might have looked better if I had turned down the noise reduction and dealt with it in post, but the only people who will notice that difference are other photographers peeking too closely behind the curtain.

Remember, you can click the images to see them larger.

A reposting of my blog on camera bags from 2012. Still apt.

5.18.2012

Who cares about camera bags? Well....I do.

This is an old, Domke Little Bit Bigger camera bag.

I see a lot of super crappy camera bags out and about. What the heck are you people thinking? Seeing a huge, ballistic nylon, super-size-me bag that looks like a black shipping box rigidly swinging from a strap that has a death grip on your shoulder tells me that you didn't think that bag purchase through all the way. I know, I know, you're an engineer and you read the tests and selected a bag for maximum gear safety. Your brand X behemoth bag can protect the contents at drops that accelerate to 20 g's. It's bullet proof and has dedicated compartments for everything from your micro-fiber cleaning cloth to your 18-500mm zoom and your GPS something or other, and your flashlight and your cellphone(s), and your MP3 player and a few books on lighting and a couple of sandwiches and a six pack of lite beer. Swinging the "big bags" through an unsuspecting crowd won't win you many friends. In term of coolness the giant, semi-rigid, b-nylon bags are the comb-overs of camera bags. Better to just carry everything in a paper bag from the grocery store.

You want something better out of life than to own the U-Haul of camera bags. I've looked at almost every bag on the market over the last thirty years and I've bought dozens of them. Maybe more. I had a brief romance with a minimalist Leica canvas camera bag but it just wasn't the right size. I still have three of them hanging on a door in the studio, in various sizes. Tamracs are the Pontiac Firebirds of camera bags. Too bulky and inefficient. The interior size is minute on most of them compared to the exterior dimensions. Ditto the Lowes and the Katas. In fact, all of the bags that are constructed of dense, rigid foam, covered with ballistic nylon are heavy on "protection" (as if it mattered) and light on comfort and usability. And as stylish as a leisure suit.

You want a bag with give. You want a bag that ages gracefully. You want a bag that's underwhelming and personable. And, most importantly, you want a back that wraps itself around you like an affectionate lover.

In the end, if you are a professional photographer who carries his own cameras onto commercial locations, or in the service of art, or you just want to look like one, you can't really carry anything but a Domke cotton canvas bag. The size is really up to you but good taste dictates that you select one that's just big enough for whatever you have planned, photographically, for the day.

If you are shooting with micro four thirds cameras and lenses you certainly don't need anything bigger than the original, F2 bag. If you shoot with APS or full frame cameras you don't need anything more ample than the Little Bit Bigger Bag in the photo above. If you get one of the Little Bit Bigger Bags and you come back whining that you've run out of space you are wrong. You just tried to put too much worthless stuff in the bag.

Let's get straight about one thing: A camera bag is not a "storage solution" and a photo shoot is not an automatic opportunity to bring every last piece of photo-crap along when you leave the house. Tobacco colored filters? Really? If you've done your due diligence and practiced your craft over and over again you should know which two zoom lenses you really need to shoot with or, alternatively, which three primes you need to pack for the day. If you're shooting unhurried and close to home do you really need a back up camera? I didn't think so. An extra battery or two? Sure. Wanna pack even lighter? Leave the cellphone at home and concentrate on shooting.

But back to my point. The small Domke bag (the f2) and the Little Bit Bigger Bag are both made out of cotton canvas. Over time (if you use it) it gets softer and softer. Comfortable to the touch. The bag is made to smush when there's not a lot in it. It kind of wraps around your hip instead of gouging rigidly into it. The smaller bag should always be bought in the dark brown color. It's stealthy and visually appealing in its simplicity and grace. In the large bag your really only have the choice between a very, very light tan and a deep black. I have them both. Just get the black. Over time it will fade like the corners of an enameled Leica M3, showing the equivalent of camera brassing that says, "My camera bag earned this soft, weathered finish from time in the field."

My Bigger Bag is perfect for what I do. I can comfortably fit in two big camera bodies and four lenses, plus a flash. The front pockets are reserved for camera batteries and memory cards. The end pockets for flash batteries and off camera flash cables. The back pocket? You get to use it any way you want. It will accept my 13 inch laptop but it's stupid to carry a laptop around if you're going out to shoot. If your camera bag feels heavy it's either not well made or you put too much stuff inside. See above.

Big, dumb bags are insidious. They aren't really scalable because they are more rigid than the unstructured canvas bags. Human nature (which you can't resist even though you say you can) impels you to fill every pocket; every nook and cranny. And the fat bag throws off your normally graceful gait. The more you carry the harder it is to be creative. It's a known law of the photographic universe.

I started out with a Domke F2 (original) bag in brown. I still have it after nearly 20 years. A short time later I got the bigger bag because I was doing a lot of airline travel and the bag, with my two shooting cameras and four lenses, and necessary junk would all fit under the seat in front of me. It still will, even with all the TSA'ing and downsizing.

The black, bigger bag has been with me through a blizzard in St. Petersburg, a junket to Monte Carlo, a torrential downpour in Seattle and just about everywhere else. It won't protect gear from rank stupidity and will punish you until you learn to be vigilant in caring for your gear. But it will make you a better photographer because it will carry your stuff gracefully and call less attention to you than more unyielding baggage. In a way, all baggage is part of a balancing act. Too much means you're not selective enough. Being prepared is one thing, carrying your whole inventory on your shoulder is just crazy.

These are just suggestions. If you're as headstrong as I am you'll go out and buy whatever the hell you think is right. But I'm here to tell you that when I've met the best and the brightest, the superstars, the Rollingstones and Beatles of photography, every damn one of them is hauling their carefully selected camera gear around with them in a Domke canvas bag. Not some high tech monstrosity of a bag. And certainly nothing in bright colors or attached to a cutesy name. You've been informed. No one can force you to have good taste. But if you are in the market for a great camera bag I suggest you try one of the Domkes.

full disclosure. I own too many Domke bags but, it can't bear to let any of them go. I don't own Tiffen or Domke stock and no one gives them to me for free. The article is not meant to be mean or serious. If it comes off that way I either wrote it wrong or you read it wrong. And, true fact, Duane Michals actually did carry his cameras to several photo shoots in New York City in a Shopping bag from a department store. Really.

Love the bag? Buy the book.

Kirk's Amazon Author's Page

Friday came so quickly this week. Lots of work and lots of pre-production for next week.

A Fringe Benefit of Being a Photographer: Better Family Portraits.

I saw a statistic today that 85% of the people who work are not happy with their jobs and feel disengaged. That stunned me. I figured that at least 50% of the people in the workplace were fairly happy with their working situation. I read this piece of news as I was sitting in my office at 6 am sending along eight links of 2 gigabytes each to a client I worked for yesterday. To say I had fun yesterday would diminish the sheer pleasure I had in pursuing the same career I've worked at for the last three decades. This photography stuff is just plain fun.

I mean, think about it. My "boss" (me) bought me four new cameras this quarter ,and as many new lenses, and he consulted with me at every single step of the selection process. I don't have "office mates" so there's no one to annoy me with silly stuff and stupid ringtones, and no one to keep track of how I choose to spend my time. The business seems happy to try and schedule my appointments around mission critical commitments like: swim practice and long lunches. The pay is good and the meetings with staff (zero attending) are very, very short and to the point.

But the most fun part of the job is to continually do new and different stuff for a wide range of clients. Yesterday was a blast. A client hired me for the day to shoot a community service initiative and, while I am committed to creating images that work hard for them, I also saw the day as a perfect opportunity to test three new cameras.

I love working for clients who are comfortable letting me figure out what's needed photography-wise and how to do the job. No one had an extensive and anal shot list. Just a few sentences in an e-mail with some general guidance. No one tracked my progress, and no one offered course corrections or in the field critiques. My essential task was to make the clients look good while they made themselves look good in the community.

But that was yesterday and not all jobs are so much fun, right? Well..... the day before I had a portrait session in my small studio in West Austin. I got to decide just how I wanted to play with lighting design and spent time evaluating the various merits of Profoto versus Elinchrom versus Photogenic flashes. Did I like the big Octabank better than a smaller softbox? How would I light the background? Would I include a hair light?

When my subject showed up I got to meet an interesting person who had moved from a career as a doctor to a career as a CEO of a large holding company. He came to the studio alone, without an entourage, which meant we could chat about anything we wanted to for as long as we wanted to. We talked about his businesses and then we talked about our kids. What could have been a 30 minute session stretched into an hour of me getting to look into a business I wasn't aware of, guided by the CEO of the entire enterprise. We had a fun time. The photographs looked great. I made a new connection into a different industry. And I got to practice using the Eye AF button on a new camera.

I did a few more portraits for people from vastly different companies in the afternoon. I guess it was officially studio portrait day. Each person who graced the small studio space yesterday had clocked enough years and miles in their respective industries to also have great stories to tell. And I was interested in each one. It's a constant learning process. Each subject adding more to the sum of what I might know.

The day before I packed up all the necessary gear and went on location to make portraits of eight people. I used to dread working on location because I never knew what sort of room I'd end up in. Would the ceilings be high enough to accommodate lights? Would there be blinds on the windows? Would the space have enough linear run to let me put the background out of focus? Would there be coffee? Would it be good? I kid about the coffee but location work is always a challenge only now it's a challenge that I view more like a technical puzzle to be solved. I no longer worry about things that are out of my control but I make sure I've got what I need to control what I can. (Like the keyboard bench...).

I'd like to think that whatever career I choose in the future would be as much fun. If I move more intentionally into video production the same basic fun stuff remains: meeting new people, learning about new industries, and solving technical puzzles (multiplied by 3X). If I choose to concentrate on writing then I'll have to put myself out into the world in some way to have new experiences to write about. By the same token, if I went into sales I'd have the chance to meet an all new species of customers.

I'm feeling in a bit of a celebratory mood today for a number of reasons. My decision to shoot with Sony cameras is panning out (well). My kid is coming home from college for the Summer this evening. My clients keep delivering fun projects to me and following up with checks. But mostly I am celebrating being able to enjoy what I do so much that I can't imagine doing anything else. It's almost like being a photographer in this day and age, and in this culture, is a strange but compelling privilege.

Next week is all about video. I can hardly wait.