The classic desert island question: Which lens?

It's easy for me to pick a focal length.  I choose 100mm or the 35mm equivalent.  On my old Hasselblad that meant the 180mm f4.  It's a lens I still miss even though I sold my copy nearly ten years ago.  On an Olympus 4:3rd's camera, like the e30, it's resolutely the 50mm Macro.  Or the equivalent focal length on my 35-100mm zoom.  I the Nikon system it's a toss up between the 105mm f2 DC lens and the old but incredible 105 2.5.  The lens I like on the Canon is the standard 100 f2.  But all of those choices are easy ones for me because I know I love the focal length.  I can't seem to get away from my need to cut away background and focus in on my subjects.  The real question is,  if I could only choose one (and my accountant tells me that after last year's business performance I might want to start making choices....) which one would I rescue from the sinking ship?  The easy answer is the Hasselblad 180.  But reality tells me that film is fading away from the market and, additionally, once the old V bodies are gone there will never be another camera system to use the same mount.  I'd like to cheat and choose a lens that will be usable with future cameras, if possible.

That narrows it down a bit.  I love the Olympus 50mm f2 and I think it may be the sharpest of the other lenses but......it's slow to focus and I'm waiting to see the future roadmap.  Will they make a version that focuses like lightning on a m4:3rd body?  That's what I'd love to see.  The lustre still hasn't worn off of my little Olympus Pens and I'm still totally fascinated by how attracted I am to the previewable nature of the EVF's.  That leaves me with the two big boys:  Canon and Nikon.  And I have to admit it would be a toss up.  If I chose Nikon I would go with the 105 2.5 because it doesn't have the weaselly "G" configuration and that means I could use it on just about any camera body out there with the right adapter.  I could stick it on a Nikon D3x for those clients who need relentless megapixels and I could stick it on the Pen EPL when I just want to have fun.

The plus for all the older, manual focus, Nikon lenses is how great they are when used as "cine" lenses.  The focus ring is more linear than that of AF lenses and allows one to do a good rack focus.  I can still use it on my old Nikon F, as well.

Edit: Monday April 29th.  2:03 PM.  I should have been more clear.  It is a desert Island (whatever that means) but it is not deserted.  There are a bevy of supermodels,  several chefs and a crew of attendants.  We were shipwrecked and you were able to swim ashore holding one lens out of the salt water.  All the necessary cameras (sans lenses) washed ashore in a Pelican Case.  A cargo plane previously crashed on the Island with cases and cases of fine wines and interesting foods.  Miraculously the refrigeration unit is still functioning and will continue for several years given the solar panels and storage batteries that were also on the plane.............add your own restrictions to the story as necessary.

The Canon 100 f2 is faster and the autofocus works well on most of their professional cameras.  Not so great for crossing over to m4:3rds.....

I was going to write off the Leica M lenses because of the paucity of bodies for digital but now, with all the adapters to m4:3rd I'm playing with those too.  While the 90 Apo Summicron may be the sharpest of all that alone makes it a bit less practical for me as a portrait lens.

Enough.  If you were constrained to shoot with one lens what would it be?  And what camera would you put it on?

To make this sensible let's disqualify all zoom lenses if your intention is their flexibility.  If you truly believe that a particular zoom (at a particular focal length) gives you just the right look then go ahead and tell me that.

Anybody game?

Your favorite shooting destination.

A balmy August day at Barton Springs Pool. Austin, Texas  2008.  sony r1 camera.


So, we're closing in on 200 posts.  Probably get there by the end of the week.  You guys know a lot about me but I know next to nothing about most of you.  I wish we could just sit around at Threadgill's bar or at the Mean Eyed Cat and have a drink and get synced up. But some of you live in India, some in Florida and other spots around the world.  But I think the one thing that gives me insight into other people is to hear where they would go to shoot if they weren't on assignment,  didn't have to pay for the airfare and didn't have to drag their families along.


If you'd like to let me (and 350 or so other people) know about a cool location you could always post it as a comment, appended to this blog.  I'd love to know about places that other people think are cool or powerful.  And I'd especially like to know about places that are fun to shoot.

Let it rip.  Be our Google Earth! (Google Earth is a registered trademark...)

Thanks, Kirk

Why you shouldn't run your life like a business....

image of an actor portraying the famous Louisiana governor, Huey Long, for Zach Scott Theater.  Hasselblad 201f, 150mm 2.8 Zeiss lens.  


When I was young I never thought about money.  There was always enough.  Never too much.  Only rarely did I long for something I couldn't afford.  I was happy chasing beautiful women, eating euphorically great Tex Mex food and sleeping on a futon on the floor of my small downtown studio.  (Now we would call this a "live/work space").  I stayed in school at UT for nearly ten years if you count the teaching jobs.  And I certainly wasn't thinking about the money as I abandoned electrical engineering for English literature and then for photography.

What I was thinking about is how to make photographs.  And why to make photographs.  And how to enjoy my working life.  Even though it seems harder to make money in photography now I know that there is a flip side to that perception.  It may be that now I've had the inertia of hundreds or thousands of people in my life who either tell me directly or thru their actions that making money is vitally important, being a "smart" businessman is vitally important,  that dying rich is mission critical.  And for a moment I started giving in to the inertia.  I started to believe the upscale, white bread vision of the American Dream.

Thankfully, this blog, which generates no real money and sucks down hours of time delivered me a left handed gift in the guise of a reader who suggested that I run my business in a way that makes sense.  He read about the death of my favorite umbrella on yesterday's blog offering and took me to task for not taking an assistant with me everywhere.  No matter what the logistics of a shoot the entourage trumps my comfort and my "working methodology".  He went on to say that my belief in focusing on my portrait subject with all my conscious intention, and not being distracted by other people, and not letting my portrait subject be distracted by other people was "BS".  And I don't think he meant, "Bachelor of Science".  This is not meant to be a spiteful rejoinder to his well intentioned (I assume) post but as a paean to Hunter S. Thompson and the spirit of having fun in your own special way.  All fictional, of course.

So, according to the great, homogenized business plan of universal commercial photography a smart businessman would have an assistant at his side in every shoot.  Ready to lunge for falling light stands and take one for the team, when necessary.  To sweeten the pot I get the unalloyed joy of spending all my waking hours in the presence of said assistant.  They are to provide me chauffeur services when I get all noddy-offy.  And I'm sure I can look forward to hours of lively conversation about all sorts of things that twenty somethings are interested in during the endless dinners, lunches, breakfasts and coffee breaks we'll be taking together.  Sounds worse than dating and I've succeeded in avoiding that particular pleasure for over thirty years now.

But, indeed, this would be a smart business thing to do.  I can picture it now:  Yukio, all dressed in assistant black with tattoos , and I, are heading down farm to market road 123 in north Texas.  Yukio is at the wheel and is a picture of intensity.  The lines on the road whip by like the bullets in the Matrix.  Scenery? Screw the scenery! We're on fire.  I've got an iPhone in one hand and a laptop in the other.  I'm manically calling my clients every five minutes to check in.  When I'm not calling the clients I'm calling suppliers trying to bargain down their pricing to maximize our profit.  I'm on one call when the other phone rings.  It's my broker.  They need an answer right away.  Back to the first phone with my broker on hold and I'm speed dialing my attorney to make sure that the insider information I got from yesterday's client won't land me in hot water if I short a butt load of that client's stock before the closing bell.  We resolve that and I look over at Yukio.  She's in the zone.  We're making good time.  She's holding the Element right at 105 (mph).   At this rate we'll get paid for a travel day and a shooting day all in the same day.  To maximize profit.  Yukio hasn't slept in days.  I keep putting amphetamines in her coffee.  Makes her much more efficient.  And a much faster driver.

West coast should be awake now so I start dialing anyone who will listen to me.  The prices went up on a bunch of stuff I bought last week, some Canon stuff, and I haven't had it shipped to me yet but I'll probably sell it at a profit to some guy in LA who needs it bad and can't find the cool stuff in stock.  Is it wrong for me to screw the whole market and corner needed gear, selling it a week later at a much higher price?  Naw.  Gotta keep moving relentlessly forward.  Like a shark.  Or with Yukio, like a whole school of sharks.

We stop at a small gas station in Armpit, Texas to scrounge up Red Bulls and No Doze.  I notice Yukio shaking violently and think this can't be a good thing.  When she heads to the restroom I start dialing replacement assistants just in case.  Yukio comes back looking refreshed and starts crying when I offer to drive for a while.  She's out cold on an equipment case in the back, seconds later.

I stop a bit later with the intention of running into a Starbuck's for a quad shot latte and I wonder if I should wake Yukio.  Who am I kidding? It's been so long since I've carried my own coffee to the car I wouldn't know how to do it.  And I'm not very good with the lids on top either.

We stop in Texarkana where I've agreed to do an evening shoot in return for a slightly higher fee.  Yukio and I sleep walk through this one.  You gotta hand it to the assisting school the Yuk-ster attended.  She can dive for a falling light stand like no one I've seen.  I have her set up ten or so lights to impress the client and, at the end of the evening when I get bored I randomly knock them over to see just how many Yukio can handle under pressure.  Haven't lost one in months.

My turn to nap in the car while we drive on toward Dallas.  I wake up to find that we're somewhere west of El Paso and the engine is on fire.  I leave it all to Yukio while I sun bathe next to the interstate to build up my reserves of vitamin D.  Don't know how she pulled it off but apparently we've (she's) loaded all of the gear into a minivan that she commandeered at gunpoint and we're racing off to catch up with Dallas. We toss a couple cans of Red Bull to the elderly couple whose minivan we're borrowing so they don't get too dehydrated while walking across the desert.

I'm bored with the music I brought along on my cheap MP3 player (can't buy an iPod.  Not a sound biz decision) and I pout for a few minutes till I remember that I have an assistant in tow and I force her at gunpoint to start singing Beatles tunes for me while I cold call on the phone and look over some spread sheets I got from my business coach.  Real estate, baby.  All counterintuitive.

We make it to our location with minutes to spare and I watch with awe as Yukio loads the equipment cart high.  It would be easier on her if I could make up my mind but, because of the perilous nature of my business I require her to bring all four brands of lights I worship,  and three brands of cameras into each location so I can decide based on the spiritual vibes of the space.  What's six hundred pounds between friends.  No, scratch that.  Between employer and freelance contractor, uncovered by insurance or tax withholding.  Magnanimous photographer that I am I do hold the elevator door so that it doesn't crunch that bag of my favorite lenses.

It's a portrait shot and we've done thousands of these before but for the life of me I just can't make up my mind.  Six lights?  Ten lights?  Double backgrounds?  I leave vague instructions for my assistant and wander off to find the client and some coffee.  My client is a bit concerned because she's sure we discussed the exact lighting set up on the phone and in e-mails.  She even produces drawings of the intended shots which she claims to have sent me weeks ago.  I do what any self-respecting photographer might do.  I blame Yukio.  I dress her down right there in front of client and camera.  She doesn't mind, she knows that every once in a while everyone has to take one for the team.  As long as it's not me.  I gobble down a few Xanax to offset the coffee jitters.  Thank God for chemistry.

I'm on the phone with another client and Yukio is skimming Craig's List looking for a new job when the CEO of the company we're working for comes in.  He's ready to be photographed and he's like a beige bowling ball with a shiny, sweaty complexion.  No problem, Yukio will take care of that in a heartbeat. She's the Swiss Army Knife (TM) of assistants.  Ready to powder a "glistener" in a heartbeat.
Thank God I've got an assistant in the room because I haven't got a clue which direction we're shooting in.  All looks and feels the same to me.  She gets me lined up and ready.  Focuses the camera and sets the exposure.  We shoot.  She stands behind me making faces and twitches, staring at the client to get his attention.  We have a strict rule:  the client should never directly engage the camera.  It's the assistant's duty to distract them into a more natural pose and expression.

Just as we're about to pull off the perfect shot the power in the building goes off.  Not a problem,  the crafty and enterprising Y pulls a contraption that looks like an exercise bike out of one of our cases and sets it up.  On either side of the back wheel is a heavy grey casing that looks a lot like a car generator.  She plugs the power packs into the contraption then gets on the bicycle seat and starts peddling like Lance Armstrong running from the French.  She's sweating buckets but the packs are back up and recycling.  We finish shooting the CEO and as the last frame gets saved to the CF card my assistant falls to the floor, insensate.  She's inarticulate for a while.  Then we dowse her with a bucket of cold water and she comes to.  Just in time,  there's packing to be done and a bucket's worth of cold water to sponge up off the client's floor.

Looking back, we've billed three shooting days and two travel days in the space of two 24 hour days.  I wonder if I could be more efficient with a second assistant.  Seems counter productive but both Madonna and Oprah have larger entourages and they are far wealthier than me.  Seems like it's worth a shot.  Can I keep up this pace?  Will Pfizer and Sandofi keep making interesting chemicals?  Will the coffee run out?

Then,  I wake up with a start from this bad dream and realize that the assistant thing is an acquired taste.  And every photographer has a different comfort zone within which to work.  I don't mind coming early to set up.  I don't mind having dinner alone.  I'm okay handling most stuff. I don't have an iPhone.  I cherish my time writing and thinking.  I think I'll leave things just the way they are.  In the days of digital assistants are for big productions, or complex stuff.

Now,  when  it comes to post processing, Yukio and I handle it so well we've already post processed the stuff we're going to shoot next year.

To bring the whole blog back around to the beginning I have an observation to make:  When I actively think about doing things to make money stuff rarely  works out.  I do my due diligence. I send contracts. I follow up.  But when I focus on money as the reward everything always goes south.  When I enjoy the process or the challenge, when I love what I do, the money rolls in.  The more I desire the less I get.  The less I desire the more I get.  So, by that logic, if I desire nothing I'll get it all.  Whatever.  I just like the feel of a camera in my hand and a project in front of me.

Business note:  The IRS is busy redefining contract workers, employer obligations and YOUR tax obligations to contractors whom they may (almost certainly) classify as regular workers.  They (assistants) do work under your direction, with your tools and all the stuff that serves as a litmus test for who is an employee. If you think that freelance assistants are vital to your business you owe it to yourself to check with an attorney who is very familiar with payroll issues so that you don't wind up getting a big, unintended consequence in the pursuit of photographic business practices from the film days.......

Another day in photography. The death of my original Photek Softlighter...sigh.

nothing to do with today's adventure but continuing in my series of early Rene Zellweger images.  This taken back in 1991 with an EOS-1 camera (the original) and the totally cool but largely overlooked 135mm soft focus lens, also from Canon.  This is a scan from one of my favorite prints but you can see some spots where I neglected to spotone.  Life moves fast.  Spotting moves slow.


Zang.  My alarm clock on my phone starts ringing at 5:45 am.  I am deeply unhappy to ever be up at this hour but for the sake of a good client I persevere.  In the shower I'm thinking about the schedule for the day.  I start out in Texarkana taking a group portrait and then individual portraits.  On this project I'm shooting a formal portrait against a very  fun, light grey (almost metallic) seamless background using a big soft light and a reflector.  Then I take the subject down the hall to a really wonderful library room and use the soft, diffuse light coming through the windows to make an available light, environmental portrait.  I'm using a 100 mm f2 lens for these and I love the soft yet hard look of available light.  Whatever.  The client will have a selection of images both ways of every person we shoot.  I'll set up from 8am till 9am and then spend a half hour trying to do some really nice interior architecture shots.  The company I'm working for has exquisite offices in every city I've been in.  I make it to the offices early and start scouting.  Fun to scout when no one is there as their consciousness doesn't flood the space and skew what I feel when I look at a room.

Funny, but I really think that to be a good portrait photographer you really have to be attuned to a person's emotional energy.  You have to sense the sensitive points to avoid and ferret out the things that bring energy and joy to a sitter.  The more empathetic you are the more you'll be able to distill from the collaborative dance of a portrait sitting.  Some people open right up.  Some require careful handling.  But it's a double edge sword for a photographer because when you are really in tune with other people their thoughts and emotions have a way of impinging on your thoughts and emotions.  An art director in tow changes the energy of a shoot by changing the way you might selection a position within a room.  You have to leave space for their collaboration and this diminishes your insight driven choices by dint of the shared vision and shared responsibility.  Anyway, there was no one in the offices except for me and the housekeeper and I was able to feel my way through the space and try to connect to areas of interest to me.

We start early and finish right before lunch.  I've shot eight gigabytes.  The worst part of every photo shoot is the moment after you've shot the last image because you know that you'll spend the next half hour or so cleaning up, repacking, dragging your gear to the car and repacking the car.  There's an extra layer for me this morning...I have to navigate through road construction and detours and find my way back to Longview, Texas.  Google tells me that it's about two hours and nine minutes of driving time but I disagree.  With the additional construction on the roads it's closer to two hours and forty minutes.

I hit Longview around three pm.  I'll need to eat lunch and find my way to the regional airport before 4pm.  I'm not flying anywhere, I'm doing a bunch of photos of two jets.  I swing into a Whataburger.  Haven't been to one in a couple of years.  Did you know you can get whole wheat buns now?  The burger is okay.  It's just energy at this point.  I get my bearings and, with the help of a local person, find my way to the airport and to the private hanger I need.

The pilots are fun.  We move a Lear jet and a Citation jet around with a cool little tractor thing that's electric.  When we get them positioned just right in relation to each other I work em over with everything from a 20mm equivalent to a 105 equivalent.  Then we bring in the models and have them meeting on the tarmac and then working inside the Citation.  We don't fire up the engines so the plane's AC is not on and the cabin starts to heat up as the sun beats down.  Next up is a shot of four pilots with the planes in the background.  I decide to use my precious Profoto 600b battery powered light with a 60 inch Photek Softlighter 2 umbrella to fill in the guys' faces.  Swear to the photo gods (or at them): it was as calm as a Buddhist Priest on Prozac when I set the light and umbrella up.  I even clamped the strobe box to the stand for ballast.  But the 5 o'clock American Airlines flight taxied past us and I turned around to watch the light and stand rush to kiss the concrete in excruciating slow motion.

And here's what separates the pros from the ams:  I looked over my shoulder at the (potential) death of my favorite light, shrugged my shoulders and said to the client,  "Well, that's why I've got another one in the car."  We continued the shoot and didn't stop to deal with the stricken light until after the last frame was shot and the last model sent on his way.  The bad news?  The Softlighter 2 will have to be retired.  It's bent and bashed.  I'll save the diffuser.  Maybe even the black cover.  But now the back up will move to the number one position and I'll order a new back up when I get back to the studio.  The good news?  The umbrella acted as parachute and shock absorber for the precious light head.  No other damage was done.  Flash tube, pyrex cover and box are all in "like new" condition.  Lesson?  There is no lesson.  Sometimes crap happens and if you want to be in the business you need to know how to deal with it and move on.  And you always need a backup plan.

Once the planes were back in the hanger and the photo gear back in the Element I drove off to find another wonderful hotel in which to rest my weary bones.  By this point I had 12 gigs of data to catalog and back up on multiple drives.  Tomorrow I drive to Dallas (2 hours with the good graces of the travel gods) and stay at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas.  A much needed down day after three fast paced shooting and travel days.  Thurs. we head for the last lap with a full day booked in my client's incredibly modern Dallas offices.  Tomorrow morning I'll wake up in another $100 "Inn" (homogenized across the United States) figure out the "make your own waffle" bar and then move on.  I won't suffer through the weak, light brown coffee because the gods of travel have seen fit to reward me with a Starbucks just a block away.

Before I go to bed tonight I'm going to do a little memorial service to this particular Softlighter 2.  You see, this was my original.  I've had it for over a decade.  We've bonded over many a good and even a few bad assignments.  It's lovingly softened the light on a thousand faces.  It's always been graceful to set up and gracious to take down.  I can't remember when I've ever been as sad about the passing of a piece of gear as I am about this simple umbrella.  That in itself is a testimonial to the power of well thought out products.  Here I hang my head and stop.  Grief forbids me to add any more.

My monday went like clockwork. How's yours?

Didn't Rene Zellweger have fantastic legs when she was a student at UT?

I always thought so but this image from my San Marcos Street studio has nothing to do with today's blog.  It's just here to visually anchor the post......

I crawled out of bed this morning at a quarter till six in the morning.  Might be normal for a Dell Executive by not for this pampered Austin photographer.  But that was the core issue.  I wasn't in Austin, I was out on the road for a photo shoot.  So I spent the night in the Wingate by Wyndham hotel in exciting, downtown Longview, Texas.  I hit the lobby at 6 for a little breakfast and I knew we were close to Louisiana because biscuits and gravy were front and center on the complimentary breakfast "buffet".  I was on the road by 6:30 and in greater Daingerfield by 7:30.

The plan was to get a bunch of great exterior images of the client's building.  Actually, two buildings.  But when I got there the rain beat me to it.  It was pouring down so I sat in the car and listened to NPR.  What else could I do?  The rain lightened up and the client's people started arriving around 8:30 so I loaded up the cart and headed in to scout and set up.

Three things right off the bat.  Set up a seamless background and lighting set up for formal portraits that would match the lighting and the look that we established in the Austin offices on Weds.  We did that with the Elinchrom gear in the main conference room.  60 inch Softlighter as the main light and, for kicks, an Alien Bees ringlight on the background.  Fill light via a big reflector opposite the flash.  One room set and ready.  Gitzo tripod with camera and 100mm lens.

Second set up.  Our first shot of the day would be eleven people in one group.  I found a great stairway and a great place to put a light so the Profoto 600b with a Photek Softlighter went there.  I needed a little more light for the background behind the group so I pulled an old Metz 54 MZ3 out of the case and slapped on a radio trigger.  Same frequency as the one on the Profoto.  I set up a second Gitzo and tested the set up with the second camera.  On to the next task:

I needed to find a space in which to do environmental portraits with natural light.  I found what I was looking for in the firm's library.  Lots of space, a big skylight and some really pretty window light.  I marked the floor with tape so I'd know where to put the tripod when I broke down the set up for the group shot and moved gear around.  If we'd been in Austin I probably would have brought a third tripod and a third camera system so I could keep everything in place.  But out here I working naked.  Only two complete set ups and two camera systems.

So here's how the day was planned:  scout and get interior architecture shots from 8:00-9:00.  Set up three locations fromm 9-10.  Shoot the group photo at 10 am.  Then, for the rest of the day I'd take each designated person and shoot a formal portrait in the conference room, walk them upstairs to the library and take a cool environmental portrait and then release the subject, unharmed, back into the wild.

We got a little ahead, which was all for the best since the person who scheduled the day for me forgot to leave a bit of time for lunch.  At the end of the day I'd shot about 600 frames and logged in over 20 gigs of data. An hour to break it all down and then in the car to drive onward to Texarkana.  I didn't make a hotel reservation so when I hit the town I drove to the client's location and then looked around for a decent hospitality property close by.  I always bargain for rates when I walk in the door.  I struck gold at the Holiday Inn Express.  

Back to the routine.  Download the cards to the hard drive on the laptop.  Back em up to a portable, external hard drive.  Burn a DVD.  Rinse and repeat.  Walked across the hotel parking lot for what I thought would be a lonely dinner at an Outback Steakhouse only to be seated next to a couple of attorneys that I knew from my neighborhood in Austin.  What a small world we live in.  

Back here to work on a presentation for the Austin Photo Expo.  These things always sneak up on me.  Back in the hotel I was typing and had the TV on in the background.  Saw a commercial for adopting dogs from the shelter and immediately became incredibly homesick for my rescue dog, Tulip.  

Laid out new clothes, repacked, took the batteries off the charger and brushed my teeth.  Tomorrow I get up, do a shorter version of the same thing I did today and then head back to Longview to get photos of people working on a private jet.  Wish I had a private jet but that's one of the things you give up when you decide to become a photographer.  Not even Annie Leibovitz has a private jet.......

Tomorrow I'll spend another night in Longview and then head to Dallas for the last leg of the project.  So far the client is great, the files are nice and the deposit check (shame on you if you don't ask for one) has cleared the bank.  Life is good.