Solitude and my photography

When I think about my most favorite photography themed trip, I only have two categories, Solo trips and collaborations are my main two categories here.

Of those two categories though, solo trips are my favorite.

I do enjoy both types of trips, I am just more inclined to solo trips over trips involving others. I don’t know if this is a desire to enjoy the freedom associated with solo travel, if it is some sort of childhood learned behavior or that it might just be therapeutic whatever it is I just love solo photography.

In fact I love it so much that I almost never collaborate with others on any sort of project whether it be a video or photo shoot or even to just hang out as they say… This is partly because I grew up pretty much by myself and learned to enjoy solitude instead of hating it.

When you spend enough time alone, you come to learn the freedom it provides and you actually crave it. So for me, I will operate alone for the most part. Now this is not without its pitfalls either. You see, when you don’t collaborate with others your projects typically won’t grow past a certain point. If you are the kind of person who has big ambitions for your projects, then operating like me is probably not the best idea.

The standard recipe for success is pretty simple. Dont tell anyone your going out shooting and then go. Lol… I was only half joking here, if your serious then you will just go.

Another thing that is special about solo photography is that you can explore at a pace that is inconceivable by others. You can go as slow or as fast as you want and can even get into areas where multiple people just would not be feasible.

To be fair though, it is not without its pitfalls too. For some people, being alone with your thoughts is actually terrifying. So if you need interaction with others, then what I am doing here is not for you.

When I wander the streets with my camera, I am at peace. No one the make sure your not leaving behind or holding back. No judgement about equipment, it is just the process. If you have not found your zen activity then I recommend you start looking at what makes you really happy and focus on that.

I have been doing a lot of photowalks lately…

…and this is what I have figured out.

It is just plain fun to grab a camera, a spare battery and hit the streets to see what I can find to photograph. My weapon of choice is the Leica CL mirrorless camera with one of several lenses. Usually though, my Leica CL is wearing a Voigtlander 35mm Nokton or a TTArtisan 35mm f1.4, you never know which.

I really like the 50mm perspective of these lenses on a crop sensor camera like my Leica CL. If I use a full frame machine then Iwill usually opt for something in the 50 to 58mm range as well.

I will take my 28mm lenses for the occasional stroll, but my staples are the 50mm lenses. Shoot, I even have the Leica APO Summicron SL for my Leica SL2 mirrorless camera as well because I like them so much. That is an insane package to be just strolling around town with slung around your next…as well as heavy. Haha.

I have spent so long making YouTube content that I had actually forgotten how much fun it was to just go shoot. I will now get my camera and a battery or two and just hot the bricks. What I had to learn to do was to male a video about one every so often to share what I am doing with the viewers. I took a “sabbatical” the lasttwo years in the first part on the year so I could do this. It helped dramatically too with my wellbeing and my creativity.

This literally took me years if not decades to truly figure it out. That is a hard pill to swallow at times too. Looking back, things could have went a very different way had I followed my real passion instead of thinking I could be like Peter McKinnon… Live and learn I guess. Before Pete came along and made me think I could be this ultra successful YouTube personality, I did thingsthat other people said were what you should do. Like do street photography with wide glass and get close to people and stuff like that. That works for some people, but not me, I seem to have a real problem getting close to other people. Invading their personal space is such a red flag for me that I will just let the photo go before I attempt something like that. This made for some truly terrible photos just to be honest about it. Mostly, it made me not want to go out and shoot though… so my very first Nikon DSLR would sit in the closet for months at a time with me so much as looking at it. Who wants to goto a job and be stressed about that all day THEN make your hobby about “getting out of your comfort zone” and being stressed about that too?!? I almost gave up photography at one point because of this to be honest.

I finally found some joy when my daughter began competing in rock climber. She joined a team and they would go all over for these events and I got my camera out and started photographing these gatherings and realized that there was more to this hobby than just what others said is good photography. I found a lot of joy in capturing interesting angles of the climbers and going to the trouble of sharing the photos with the team when done. It was really rewarding to be honest.

Then I broke my ankle and at abouht the same time, Sierra “aged out” of the team and stopped attending the events as life got in the way. Well, I needed a new avenue to focus on and found it in my YouTube channel. I learned over the years that a good youtube content creator is not a good photographer, they are two very different things and I wandered down that rabbit hole for a while before realizing that it wasn’t going to work for me. Ultimately I found that I loved to go on photowalks and simply take pictures around me. This is where I am at now… just a guy with a camera out taking some pictures… and I hope you are too.

Thanks for following along on my ramblings here and I hope to hear from you soon!

Using the Micro Nikkor 55mm f3.5 lens on my Leica SL2 camera for general photography

When you think of a general purpose lens, your mind normally doesn’t wander to a macro lens.

I have found over the years that there are a couple of Nikkor lenses in this family that work really well for the task of general purpose photography lens and this is one of them. This particular copy is an Ai variant made somewhere in the late 1976 to early 1977 time frame so this lens is almost 50 years old and just look at the image quality it produces… Lens manufactures were on their A game at this point and Nikon was a force to be reckoned with in this area. This lens isn’t even their best macro lens either… That is something that to this day surprises me a little. It has an external aperture ring that is detented in whole stops…except the very first one where it goes from f3.5 to f4 for some reason… Who knows why they did this, but they did so it is there if you want to use it.

Minimum focus distance is a surprising 9 1/2” from the image plane. So this is right at 4.25 inches in front of the lens when mounted on my Leica SL2 camera. This also gives you a preproduction ratio of 1:2 on the image sensor, that is to say that if you have an object that is 1 inch across in reality, it will be 1/2 inch across the sensor. To get to 1:1 reproduction ratio you need help… The PK-3 extension ring will get you half that distance and to the true 1:1 reproduction ratio at minimum focus distance. All of this is conveniently engraved on the lens barrel for you should you need to look it up in the field… Also notice in these two images that the lens “pumps” air which means it has external focus movement, the lens grows and shrinks when you adjust focus, it is common belief that this is where dust gets into the lens from, when you open the lens fully to minimum focus distance the lens intakes a full charge of air and doesn’t have dust seals to prevent dust from entering the lens mechanism, so you get a little internal dust…

One last thing to note about this focus mechanism is that the reason I like using these lenses for general purpose photography like travel and such is that as you can see in the above photo, the focus throw from infinity to less than 1 meter is short, so focus is fast with this lens. It also has a range focus scale, but since it is 55mm, the scale is rather small and not easy to use, it will give you rough numbers to work with but that is all.

Enough with all this tech talk, let’s take it for a spin and see what the photos look like on my Leica SL2 mirrorless camera since it has IBIS on the sensor and I can hand hold photos at unheard of shutter speeds with it.

First thing I notice when using this lens is how good it feels in the hand. The location and feel of the controls are literally in the perfect location.

Another thing I noticed was that it is sharp, like incredibly sharp. To this point, it makes sense that is would be this good due to the design intent of the lens but it has a really nice general purpose focus throw too. This lends itself to being a wonderful walk about lens. The following photos were shot on my Leica SL2 using this lens as a walkable lens. I have used another Nikon macro lens before in this same capacity, the 60mm Micro Nikkor once lived on my D810 as a general purpose lens. It works flawlessly in this capacity.

In the above photo you can see what I love about a camera with stabilization in it. The camera sensor is rock steady so I can capture shutter speeds like in the photo above where I was running something like 1/30 second and some of my water blur shots were 1/4 second!!! Like the one below is a 1/4 second handheld exposure and if you will look, the rocks are crisp and the water has a really nice blur to in. This is at f32 as well so there will be some diffraction in the image from that but all in all, it looks really nice.

Below is a crop from this image. As you can see, the spider webs are even visible and this is handheld no less! As long as you have some decent light this combination is really nice. When you move to a mirrorless camera body that has IBIS on the sensor, it unlocks so many possibilities with lens / camera combinations. I dont know why hobbyists dont see this sooner but a lot dont.

So in conclusion, I highly recommend this little guy if you need a macro lens on occasion and want a nice general purpose lens the rest of the time. The f3.5 maximum aperture also allows the glass to be smaller and lighter as well. This is also a huge perk to everyone except those people who shoot with big glass… until next time, get your camera out and take a picture with it!

The Hanimex 28mm f2.8 lens is a really interesting little lens...

Sometimes I just throw the dice on a vintage lens and occasionally it comes out really good and sometimes it is a dud…this time it is a winner.

I went to Ashville NC on a small trip recently and on this trip I was doing photography. Well, when it is a photography trip I always make it a point to go to Ball Photo and just “go shopping” for something interesting. They have SO much vintage gear to choose from that it is almost overwhelming to be honest. It is not for the feint of heart to be honest about it. But today found me at Ball Photo and while there I started looking for some glass to pick out… Well I found some.

We all know how much I love to shoot with vintage glass and I am always on the hunt for a new lens to play with. I have Leica glass for the Leica SL2 and use it quite often but I still really enjoy adapting some older lens to the camera and then seeing what I can get with this lens and camera combination when I go out with it. It is almost a challenge to see if I can come away with something good using this old lens… What generally happens is that I slowly build a collection of lenses that I REALLY love to use and I am starting to collect a full set of these lenses. Some examples would be the 28mm f3.5 Asahi Optical M42 mount lens that I keep in the camera bag, this lens is literally one of my favorite lenses of all time for some reason. I just love the results I get with it on the Leica SL2 camera. Well today finds me using a lens that is 2/3 of s top faster and a little bigger too.

The Hanimex 28mm f2.8 is a well made lens with the whole thing made of metal (probably brass from the way it feels but it could be anodized aluminum too I really am not sure) and has some really nice accents like the little silver bands around the focus ring which also has a faux leather appearance but I am almost certain is rubber. The range focus scale is graduated for every aperture marked (sans f4 for some reason) on the aperture ring, which is a nice touch for street photography. The detent clicks on the aperture ring are nice and pronounced as well as solid, no mushy aperture detents on this lens! All in all, it is a great little lens by design engineering standards. It is even a well designed attachment scheme as well with the M42 mount as it is easily adapted to about all mirrorless cameras on the market.

Many people also don’t realize that the M42 adapter can be adjusted to get the lens top dead center of the adapter too. There are three tiny set screws on the adapter that hold the threaded ring in place on the lens adapter to adjust this. To make this adjustment is simple, just screw the lens into the mount till it seats and snug it well so it wont work loose while in use. Next get the Allen key that came with the adapter and loosen the three set screws till the lens can spin in the mount and simply turn the lens till the center mark is top dead center of the adapter and then push in on the mount while tightening the set screws back down to make it hold the ring again and your done. It is that simple. Mine is slightly off center here and I have simple been too lazy to adjust it as it is close enough for me to be able to get out and shoot anyway. I don’t normally worry about it too much as once you set the adapter once, then all the lenses will time up and you don’t have to mess with it again. Installing lenses over the years on this adapter and tightening them has slipped the timing a little and this is why it is slightly off center. Once again, it is no big deal to me and i just go out and shoot…

So the first official outing with this lens was to go to the mall in Chattanooga TN with it and capture some Christmas spirit with it…on black Friday no less.

Well to be quite honest, it performed wonderfully. Now to be fair, the camera does have IBIS in it and this allows me to shoot at pretty slow shutter speeds without the need for a tripod. As long as you go into the camera settings and tell the camera it is a 28mm lens, the camera can compensate for movement really well allowing for incredibly slow shutter speeds like the last photo in this string from the mall where it was 1/10 of a second…hand held. Most of the other photos are shot at 1/250 second to freeze the people so that I can show the current clothing styles as well as the general appearance of the mall in 2023.

All in all, the Hanimex performed extremely well in this role. The images are sharp and the colors are easily adjusted in post processing to give any look you want. It also doesn’t hurt to have that Leica “look” from the camera processing the colors before saving the RAW file too, Leica does something special with their processing to give the colors a look that is unique to Leica cameras. It is hard to explain, but it is a thing.

In the next photos I didn’t show all the images as they just reflect what it is like to shoot indoors where there is controlled light and no sun to deal with. The following photos show what happens when you have the sun shining on the front element.

Above is the same photo as the one right under this text except that I shaded the lens from the sun. This lens cant handle the sun shining on it from any angle without showing you that it was happening with some sort of sun flare in the image. In the below image there is geometric artifacts as well as a overall glare from the sun.

In the below photo you can also see the geometric glare in the center of frame, this could be used to your advantage in some applications like vintage style portraits where you position the subject to where the flare adds to the aesthetic of the image. Here the flare doesn’t do that though and is more of a nuisance that anything else. So this is something to keep in mind when using vintage glass, you will run into these kinds of problems from time to time like the older generation has to do…lol.

Lastly, can you make portraits with the 28mm lens? The answer is yes, you can as long as you are careful with the composition and keep the subject centered like I did here. The 28mm lens can distort toward the edges so it is imperative to keep the person in the center of the photo as much as humanly possible if you want the image to turn out like anything you want at all. Maria was gracious and allowed me to make her portrait at the mall using one of the advertising lights as a “studio light” to give us nice diffused side light and I think the image turned out really well for a 60 year old lens with improvised lighting.

As well as this blog post, I also have a video sharing some of these points and showing more of the old Sitton’s mill location should you want to go check that out at the link below.

Thanks and if you are into vintage glass, this is a keeper in my book and for pennies too, so with that, get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

Discussing my Leica SL2 and a Yashica 28mm on a photowalk in Chattanooga TN

Well, I have finally made time to go take photos again and to be honest about it, I wanted to let it cool off a little too. Well, it is nicer weather now and I am starting to get out and look for photo opportunities again. I have a few I am looking into but for right now, it is still a good ole case of urban photography that I so love to do.

Today we find me in Chattanooga yet again and this time I am setup on a side street off of Main street called Rossville Avenue and this road has some really neat old buildings on it, some of which I have photographed in the past but I like to get photos of them as I go along to show how they change with time. I get parked and pay for one hour of parking so I have to make it count. Putting a little pressure on myself to come away with SOMETHING of value in this time allotment.,,

My first stop is the Hamilton Parts Distributors building that has been NOT a parts distributor for quite some time as of this point…2023. The building is really starting to show its age too with numerous windows bricked up on the sides as well as the front giving it a sort of dystopian imbalanced look. This could be a set right out of a movie or something. I took several photos from different angles today and some look better than others. I really like the front door and the corner that I get today for some reason… Here they are, what do you think?

I love how the building still has remnants of the signage that was painted on it some time in the past too. Also look at the foundation material, today it is all either poured concrete or cement blocks and has been for many decades, so I am going to speculate this is pre-war construction meaning before World War 2, due to these limestone foundation stones that look like they were repurposed from another construction site that existed before this building did. I have evidence of these cut stones going back to the mid 19th century so I know these are probably something left over either from a fire or was just cast off and the people that built this building saw a chance to save a few dollars on this part of the construction. Also notice that they didn’t seem to think that these stones were very appealing as they hid them behind a mortar stucco finish as seen in the front door photo.

My next stop was right next door at Zarzours Cafe.

This cafe has been in business for over 100 years, Yeah, you read that right…a century and as you see on the sign. It is closing in less than a month. I have never eaten here either. I will change that in the next few days. I have to be able to say that I sat at their café and enjoyed the fine cuisine they had to offer for a century! How could I let that slide???

Back to the walk at hand. I took a couple of photos of the restaurant and parking area and headed on down the street.

The next stop was at the Koch Foods Processing plant. This is one of two processing plants inside the city that I am aware of. These have been here for decades too so they are pretty much fixtures of the city at this point. One is on Broad street and the other is here on Rossville Ave. It being such an iconic location coupled with the skyline containing Lookout Mtn as well makes for a cool photo to me.

After the chicken plant, I made my way over to Main street and did a little photography on Main as well. Main usually has something really colorful as well as interesting too, this is why I usually always make my way over and look around for a little while at a minimum…

These two photos just go to show what all can be found on Main street even when it is not having some sort of special event. All it takes is a little creativity and time of your part to come away with some interesting photos. Now you might be thinking these are not interesting photos, and you will be right as the photo interest rate will vary from person to person, but I found that these to be quite interesting so I am sharing them with you…lol. The difference between the two photo primarily is the shutter speed as one is really slow to blur the truck and the other is faster so it will capture the whole construction scene with out any motion blur on my part.

Well, this is going to be a wrap for the post, I hope you enjoyed following along and if you would like to watch a video of this trip, just click on the link below. Thank you for you time and get your camera out!

Chasing the light...

Ok, this is going to be a short and sweet kind of post. I normally make YouTube videos about things that involve lots of images playing past the viewer and just lay some music over it to more or less inspire the viewer to do what I say at the end…”Get your camera out and go take a picture with it”

Never before has this been a truer statement than today. But we need to ask ourselves an important question…what do we like to shoot?

With world events being what they are and how the physical world around us is changing constantly as time goes on, I am not ready to just let it pass me by without documenting some of it as I go. Armed with this knowledge, I look for two things to photograph, things that will be gone soon or interesting light. That is what drew me to the photo above of the couple painting down by the river by iPhone light. The light was just too good to pass up.

You see, I am not what I would call an artist. I don’t think my photography is that noteworthy. Once I am gone, maybe someone will find these hard drives and then will think they are filled with the coolest photos and video the world has ever seen, just not today. That being said, I do think that I am a decent documentary photographer and that as time goes on I get better with it.

Things I normally photograph will be buildings that are gone now, that I could tell somehow that were probably headed for the wrecking ball or like the series below where I photo-documented the construction of the Kinley hotel and how there is a Coca-cola sign that is now hidden from view between the buildings because of the hotel. For me this is the sort of thing that is simply fascinating for some reason.

As an added bonus in these photos there is also another piece of history that undergoes a change as well. If you will notice that the sign on the corner for the ADAMS building appears in the last 4 photos where I thought to go across the street and get the image. This sign survives into the renovation and it restored and back in place at the end. The ADAMS building no longer exists but the sign somehow survives into the current day…

Another aspect of my photography is more artistic where I will shoot at night to capture interesting light in different areas of the city, where ever that might be. I have began to look for movie marques in the town square of small towns and get them lit up at night.

But the real thing I have started to do it just take photos. Things that happen around me like the photo here of the smoke from local wildfires because it hasn’t rained in something like 2 or 3 months at this point.

These next two photos were not taken on the same night, but were captured about 1/4 mile of each other. One is the river front and I just liked the way the light fell that night on the water as well as the light spill from the street lights across the river and the color of the sunset all just came together for a great photo. The next one is simply a photo of a couple of buildings on Market and 5th street. The signage and the lights just made for a cool photo to me so I stopped for a second and grabbed a few images of it at varying exposure levels so I could get the lit signs to expose properly as well as the rest of the stuff. It is just a cool photo to me.

If you have not figured it out yet, I want you to start taking a long hard look at what it is that you enjoy photographing. i mean REALLY boil it down to the simplest components. For me it was the two things I just mentioned, for you it might be saturated colors or people waving at you or blur in your photo. The point is, don’t just generalize your answer, the only person you hurt in this event is yourself if you are not 100% truthful.

If you like to watch videos too, here is the video I did on the same subject.

So ask yourself what it is that you like and then go out and make photos of that AND don’t let yourself fall into the trap of not being able to change this with time. I started out wanting to shoot urban decay only, but it turned out that was not the root of what I like to shoot, but it led me to it. Anyway, with that said, get your camera out and go take a picture with it!

How shooting with Zeiss Ikon Contina made me realize I am spoiled...

When I started out on my own in photography it was already the 90s so I really didn’t know how good things were at the time since I got a second hand Yashica SLR that was manual focus, but had Program mode for exposure control.

Once I got that camera it was a whole new world of photography since up to that point I had only owned the little “point and shoot” cameras that you could get for about 40$ at the time. Turns out those simple little cameras were a god send in technology compared to just a couple of decades earlier where we had cameras like the Zeiss Ikon Contina.

The SLR, being semi-automatic in nature, was like giving a driver of racecars his first stick shift car after driving automatics. It was a level of control that was hard to understand at first but soon became something that I looked forward to. This was because the rest of the exposure was being handled by the camera and I could easily confirm focus on the SLR as I was literally looking through the “taking lens” when focusing.

You see, the Zeiss Ikon Contina has none of these things. It doesn’t do anything for you automatically…at all. Here is the operational sequence to take a photo…

  1. Find the scene you want to shoot.

  2. Meter the light in the scene with the light meter.

  3. Set the aperture based on film ISO.

  4. Set the shutter speed also based on film ISO.

  5. Guess the focus distance and set it on the lens.

  6. Second guess yourself on focal distance and do it again…

  7. Fire the frame and advance the film.

  8. Repeat…at least once since you probably missed focus.

Notice how you have to guess the focus. That is because there is no way to visually confirm it other than looking at the numeric distance numbers on the lens and hoping you are good at range estimation. You literally have to rely on the range focus system and shoot stopped down if you really need the photo to be in focus, that is the only real way of getting it…well that and a tape measure…

Oh and that is a cold shoe on the top, not a coupled hot shoe so you have to use a sync cable that connects to the front of the camera to fire a flash module and I am not sure that is even a thing anymore…

The technology has advanced so much that we are to the point now where the camera has to focus PERFECTLY on the nearest eye of a moving subject…and that subject doesn’t even have to be a human either. On top of that we now expect the CAMERA to follow that subject while it and maybe even ourselves are moving and maintain that perfect focus as well! Isn’t it amazing how far the technology has evolved in less than the period of my mother’s lifetime?

So when I came into possession of the Contina, I was in Winchester England and didn’t know if it worked properly or not so I sent it home with my daughter as she was traveling home sooner. Once back home I proceeded to search out a reputable camera repair shop and sent the machine up to them for a full service. This also took a while so I finally get the camera back and take it out for its maiden voyage with me to shoot a roll and see what the lens could produce. This was also to test for light leaks to make sure it didn’t need light seals either, so in that vain, I shot the first roll then had it developed and scanned so I could check for light leaks. To be honest, I really liked the scans and that is what I used here and in the video as well.

Well, I was impressed to be quite honest about it . To lack any semblance of automation, this little camera came away with a surprisingly high number of keepers in my book. Now, I am not talking about Pulitzer prize winning “keepers” but rather properly focused and exposed photos. I did use my handheld light meter a lot that day, making adjustments to the camera as I went along to keep the exposure where I hoped it would make good photos.

I did have 400 speed Ilford HP5 in the camera so the maxed out shutter speed of 1/300 second was my only real choice when the sun was out fully. I then ran the aperture all the way down to make up for it so the images would be close to correctly exposed. I figured out once I got the camera back from service that it was designed for film from an era where there was no 400 speed film…yet.

Anyway, after spending the day with this camera I learned what it meant to be spoiled by the technology that we have today. It is akin to them getting this camera back then and the people doing wet plate talking about how good the new people have it. LOL. There really isnt anything new under the sun… Well, I still enjoy the little camera and I take it out on occasion for some “me” time where I will be by myself and just immerse myself into the activity of shooting with little camera.

Link to video on YouTube as well.

A day out with Aaron in Chattanooga

It was time.

We have not gathered to shoot photos in quite some time now so Aaron found there was a beard competition happening in Chattanooga and decided to make his way down for it.

When he arrived we spent the evening playing with stuff (his new Z8 in particular) and catching up. But then it was off to bed so we could get up and start our big day of photography.

The next morning comes around and we down some coffee and make a plan to meet up about lunchtime as I had to go to our Church’s Association as a delegate. Seems I made a mistake and assumed I didn’t need to go… lol, I see what that got me. Anyway, I really enjoy Association so it wasn’t like a chore, it meant changing plans a little from the original plans for the day.

So after I finish with business at association, I head over to the Harley Davidson dealership which is where the beard competition is being held. There I find Aaron is short order and it is really crowded. He basically tells me to get my camera out and take a picture with it so I sheepishly do as I am told.

You see I am not very aggressive with my photography especially when it involves people. I will ask at times but most of the time, this is why I don’t shoot aggressive street stuff. So now I am starting to get some photos and it is exactly as he mentioned. People happy to get their photos captured are everywhere. Like this fellow below, he was more than happy to pose for me. I will be honest, this kind of event is the perfect thing to break down your personal barriers to shooting photos of people you don’t know.

Even the girls got in on the fun!

Well the beard competition winds down about 3 or so in the afternoon and we decide to rearrange the rest of the day to shoot some street photography in downtown and also to go have supper at a great Italian restaurant later on.

The streets of Chattanooga were busier than usual with it being a holiday weekend but it still wasnt really bad where we went for our walk.

We found this mural with the light reflecting from the building across the alley and it was just something you couldn’t pass up.

We started on Main Street and then headed down Market Street to about 7th where we turned over to Broad Street and then back towards Main eventually diverting over to Cowart street before arriving at the truck.

So now you have the route, let see what we got. I kept joking about channeling my inner Eggleston as I would take photos of the mundane. Another thing I have learned is my Leica wants to shoot about 2/3 stop over exposed compared to my friends Nikon cameras. I kept -2/3 stop exposure compensation dialed in the whole time. I did this to keep the sky from being blown out as the shadows would be dark due to the bright afternoon sun. I will dig into the setup on my camera more to see if I can find out why it is doing that.

Along the way we saw a lot of cool stuff to photograph, like in the images below where it is different light so the images come out different from my usual time of day. With the light further over to the west we kept getting these awesome light spill shots like the one below of the old Rone Regency Jewelers location. This location will be sorely missed by me when they finally do something with this building. I love the gritty nature of the old signage and it wasn’t long ago that the windows were not boarded up so you could actually see inside the store. Even so, the black painted plywood makes a nice contrast to the lighter color of the upper section of the building bringing balance to the image.

We also found a few people to photograph as well. It was not quite as busy as I had figured it would be for a holiday weekend in the downtown area, but there were a few people out and about and I was able to grab a few photos of them. The Leica SL2 is a great camera for this kind of photography as it makes stunning portraits as well as makes for a wonderful, albeit heavy, street camera.

All in all we had a great time and then even got to go eat wonderful Italian cuisine later too. What more could you ask for? Well, there is one more thing I could ask for…

Lightroom Classic… I did it, I went over to the dark side and installed Lightroom back on my system again. It has the power to edit like I need finally and I kept running into problems that Exposure couldn’t easily solve for me so it was time to upgrade…or move over laterally to or what ever you call it…So going forward, I will be learning how to use Lightroom to edit my photos…wish me luck.

If you want to see more abotu this day, I made a vlog cideo about the photowalk portion of the day and it can be watched here.

Youtube link to vlog

The Sigma 90mm f2.8 DG DN Telephoto Lens Review

This is the second of two Sigma lens reviews I have done recently and this lens is no slouch either. The 90mm f2.8 DG DN Sigma lens is a very well made little prime lens and this particular copy is for the L mount for Leica and Panasonic cameras. I am sure Sigma makes this lens for other lens mounts as well, but I dont have that list with me so I cant speculate past that.

In the photo below you can see how small the lens actually is. The lens hood takes up almost as much space as the lens itself. That is crazy! With the all metal construction and well made optical formula, this lens is also punching up as they say.

Some notable differences between the Sigma lens and my Leica counterparts are that the Sigma lens actually has an aperture ring on it that also has 1/3 stop detents. This is really nice as it allows manual aperture control to be basically mapped to a control surface that photogs are accustomed to using. If you want the usual camera control for the aperture, then simply turn the aperture ring to the “A” position and your ready to go. Ít couldn’t be simpler.

The next thing they did on the lens that I am not so sure I like yet is to put a switch to choose between manual and automatic focus. The Leica lenses use a software control to do this and it is pretty simple to implement and once you get used to doing it that way it really is a good system. There are less openings in the lens to let water in and the control is right they with the various auto focus modes all in one spot. The Sigma system has you choose manual or auto on thr lens and then if you choose auto, you have to further goto the software and choose the automatic mode you want. It makes choosing autofocus a two step affair. This is probably just a user issue where I lack practice with the lens, but this seems a little clumsy compared to the Leica process. It is possible that Leica didn’t share all the tech needed to make this happen, I don’t know, but like I said I am on the fence on this one.

Lastly is image quality. The Sigma has it. It produces sharp, distortion free images with good color and exposure. What more can I say here? It really is amazing what you get for the price. These lenses can run with the big boys, in my opinion, just fine. If you pixel peep deep enough you might find fault in them, but only photographers do that. The normal person never digs into the corners or zooms into 500% on a photo so I am not going to rate this lens like that either. The photos look wonderful…just look at the ones below.

So in conclusion, if you want great glass at a fraction of the cost of Leica, these lenses are just the ticket. Sigma has done a complete 180 from the last time I used one over a decade ago and that makes me happy. Now get your camera out and go take a picture with it.

The Sigma 65mm f2.0 L mount lens review

So a good friend loaned me his lens. One of my subscribers that I have grown to know over the years offered to send me a couple of his Sigma lenses and let me use them for a while as review samples for you guys.

I really appreciate your offer Hassan and look forward to the day when we finally get to link up and go out on a photowalk together!

Hassan packed up two of his beautiful Sigma primes and sent them up for a look. He sent his 65mm f2 DG DN and his 90mm f2.8 DG DN. Both of these are in Leica’s L mount as Hassan has a Panasonic Lumix camera that is also in L mount due to the L mount alliance between Leica, Sigma and Panasonic.

The first impression of this lens is the darn thing is tiny. This lens is really small, this is awesome as it means it makes the system really compact. The next thing I noticed right away is how nice the build is, all metal construction for the major parts, including the lens hood from what I can tell. Really nice fitment of the lens components so there really is no play in the mating parts. Parts designed to move, like the aperture ring, move only in the direction they are designed to move in. The machine work and fitment is nicely executed from what I can tell.

The next thing I noticed is how fast the focus works, just understand this…it is fast. How fast? Well, it is fast enough to get the shot for me. it is not as fast as my native Leica glass, but it is plenty fast enough for my personal use. I don’t have a way to measure the focus speed, but it works great and I have no complaints about it.

It was even great at shooting panning blur photos of the passing bicycle riders in Coolidge Park.

So I took it out for a photo walk or two while I had it and to be honest, I think it is 98% of my Leica glass in every conceivable way. It is so close that you would not be able to tell if I showed you two photos and had you tell me which one came from which lens and why you think your answer is right. It is just that good. The images are laser sharp. The rendering is wonderful too. It is just a great lens all around.

Another thing I want to mention here is that the interaction with the lens is different than my Leica glass. Sigma approaches the aperture and the manual focus modes differently that Leica. I will be honest here, I kinda like the Sigma approach to aperture better too. The Leica lens is all software controlled, there are no external controls on Leica L mount glass except for the focus ring, so you use the camera’s controls to adjust everything. On the Sigma, the aperture control is on the lens, which is nice in my opinion. It has aperture choices in 1/3 stop clicks from f2 to f22 and then you can roll the aperture ring around to “A” for auto mode and the camera now has full control of the aperture just like the SL primes.

The other thing that Sigma does is something I am on the fence about. The manual focus is a switch selection on the lens itself. I dont know why they chose this way to control this function and to be honest, it is not my favorite way of doing this function. It might be that Leica’s firmware prevents Sigma from exploiting manual focus without it. I really don’t know why, but the focus ring is an encoder design which means it is not mechanically connected to the focus helicoid in the lens. One would think this would be how it would be designed if there was a mechanical switch separating the two modes. All that to say my thoughts of this lens are that it is a great lens, especially for the money and you can get them about anywhere. Well done Sigma, well done.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on the Sigma 65mm f2 DG DN lens that Hassan loaned me for my Leica SL2. It has been an adventure for me.

Sometimes, when I go for a photowalk, I don’t want to be a loner…

When I go out to shoot photos I normally go alone as it fits my time table perfectly and I dont have to do any coordination with anyone else. I just grab my kit and go. Well, today is different.

So on this day I linked up with Tim Childers at Mean Mug coffee on Main street in Chattanooga TN and started out with a cup of coffee and some chatting about our youtube channels. Then it was off to find interesting photos and explore some of the old industrial part of the city.

We begin by making our way down to the old foundry turned farmers market. On the way I noticed some interesting stuff at a local processing plant before getting to the farmers market. After grabbing a couple of shots there we headed over to the market space and make some photos of the skate park.

The skate park was basically abandoned so once we worked the scene over as best we could we decided to head over towards the river. From the skate park we make our way to the riverfront industrial area where we grab some photos occasionally while walking down to the aquarium. This is a unique are as it is being converted to modern condominiums and there is a huge development project slated later to construct a park and such as well.

Once we got downtown, we decided to get out of the heat for a little while and grab some lunch at Taco Mac before making our way back to our cars on Main Street. The longer we walked, the hotter it got on this day and by the time we got to Taco Mac I was soaked. We stayed there till I dried out and then went back out in it for more. Haha. Market street has a fair bit of shade fortunately so we was able to avoid most of the sun while heading back to the car.

Some notable stops along the way for me were the intersection of Main and MLK, the HWY 27 bridge, the skate park and the processing plant for me. I hope you enjoyed this little AAR about our photowalk and if you haven’t done it yet, go check out both of our videos from this day at the links below.

Links to both videos are here:

David Saylors Photowalk VLOG

Tim Childers Photowalk VLOG

Also, wanted to thank you for following my blog as well as my videos, It means the world to me.

Nikon Zf Full Frame Concept Camera Rumor Discussion

Well here we are. Talking about fictitious cameras again… lol.

Of course this is my satire photo I cobbled together for a concept, I kind of like the aesthetic though.

When I heard this rumor I thought about it and dismissed it almost immediately, but then I started thinking about it more and more and came to realize that I would really like a camera like the rumored Nikon Zf mirrorless retro camera. Let’s take a walk down “Wishful Lane” and cobble together the main features I would like to see in such a camera.

David Saylors Nikon Zf Full Frame Rumor Street Photography Camera Livestream

Link to video on youtube

First off we need to establish something, Nikon is no newcomer to the retro camera space, if anything they are a leader in this space in my opinion. You see, they have already tried this several years ago. The Nikon Df was a full frame DSLR retro styled camera that first came out in late 2013. Here is the problem with the Df, it was ahead of its time. The Df came out at the height of the DSLR period in camera history and nobody wanted to go back in time to the cameras that looked like that… yet. To say it simpler, nobody wanted it…

Reference photo scraped from the internet courtesy of B&H Photo.

The Nikon Df was a really cool camera too, sporting a full frame sensor in a stylish retro body. It was simply just too soon. Fast forward to mid 2017 and Fujifilm launches arguably their most important camera to date…the XT3. Sure the XT1 and XT2 had done fairly well, but this camera propelled them into the Street, Reportage, Lifestyle camera space like a rocket. Everybody had an XT3 at one point, shoot I even used one for several years. It is a great camera.

Another image scraped from the internet for reference.

Fuji had been chumming the waters for several years at this point in the street photography niche and a strong marketing campaign combined with a period in time when youtubers were the main game in town for getting the word out and the XT3 took over this game…for a time. The point had been finally made that the photography world was in fact ready for a retro styled camera.

Next in this story came the Zf-c from Nikon, this little power house of a camera was basically a test run, in my opinion, to see if Nikon had enough market segment clout to pull users from Fujifilm, Olympus and Leica over to their court. They even released it with a retro styled 28mm lens to go with it. Pure genious in my opinion as the 28mm f2.8 Ai-s was one of their best lenses ever made. This has to be the most blatant shot across the bow of Fujifilm in the company’s history… Just look at the two cameras in the comparison below.

Sceen capture from Cameradecision.com, a website that will allow you to compare many cameras.

I grabbed this image above from CameraDecision.com as it has the measurements to show how close they actually are in physical size and appearance. Just look at it and then try to tell me with a straight face this wasn’t a test shot at improving Nikon's street photography market share…lol

You know what though, it worked. Zfc sales soared and the cameras flew off the shelves. People loved the tiny little camera but it wasn’t without its shortcomings. These shortcomings will be what is fixed in the Zf if I am right… You see Leica has already figured it out. The dropped the CL from their lineup entirly due to the fact that people that want crop sensor street cameras simply buy the Fujifilm machines. Fujifilm owns this market outright now. It is common knowledge that if you shoot crop sensor street photos it is probably on a Fuji… So Leica simply leaned into their full frame machines and focused on them more, this proved to be the right move for them too. Nikon is also starting to see this in my opinion and the Zf will be the camera that they use to show it.

The things I am lookng for in the Zf that will make me choose it will be:

  1. 24Mp full frame, stacked, BSI sensor - Low light is what I am wanting here.

  2. IBIS - slow shutter speeds are so much easier with good stabilization.

  3. The same battery as the other full frame machines.

  4. Dual card slots - not a deal breaker but overflow is nice.

  5. High quality EVF - A hi-res EVF is important to me.

  6. Released with a set of fast primes like 28mm, 35mm, & 50mm.

  7. A tilting screen is a must. A side swinging (flip out) design is not important though.

  8. Shutterless design like the Z8 & Z9

  9. Weather resistant in the rain.

You will notice that video is not on this list. That is because I don’t think this camera will be used by video enthusiasts and good video specs will not really matter. Sure, give it 4K 30p or some such if you want. That way you can capture the occasional B roll clip of shoot off of a tripod or what have you, but 90 percent of the people that will choose this camera will be choosing it for the stills experience.

I think that if they lean into the stills side of the game on this machine and integrate the external controls from something like an F3, that they will have a solid winner on their hands. I know I would love to have one. I bought the XT3 back in the day because Nikon didn’t have what I wanted. The Zfc was a near miss for me, I almost bought one when my buddy Phil Thach did, but I was able to keep my resolve to hold out for the full frame version…lol.

You see, I already have a crop sensor street camera with my Leica CL, so I just didn’t see the point in another crop sensor machine that didn’t have IBIS. If I buy another APS-c camera it will have IBIS. The tech is there, just look at the Fujiifilm XH2 for instance. The IBIS makes a big difference for me in that I like to shoot with fairly slow shutter speeds to capture motion blur and in low light or even at night. This is why I want the 24MP sensor, the larger photo-sites will make noise control a lot easier for the processor. Also killing shadow noise at the same time. Another point that needs expanding is that I like the EVF in my Leica cameras as I use glasses and with the EVF I can see the camera display7 information as well as the scene exposure and I can focus it to be able to not need to use my glasses. This matters in that if I looked through my glasses, I have to press the lens against the rubber eye cup and this usually has skin oils on it which in turn makes my glasses useless… Hence the reason for being able to focus the viewfinder to my un-aided eye. I simply look directly into the EVF and I can see everything, including image review if needed. I have grown to NEED a good EVF at this point instead of wanting it.

What do you think would make the perfect retro styled camera? Let me know in the comments below!

Test driving the Leica Q2...sorta.

If you want to see more photos and some more discussion on the idea, follow this link to the video where I do this walk. Other wise, read on friend!

I went for a little stroll in downtown Chattanooga and decided that on this photowalk that I wanted to simulate the Leica Q2 to see if i really wanted on. Photography is a funny thing, some photographers will buy one camera and use it all their life and others will change out lenses and camera bodies numerous times.

My simulated Leica Q2 for the day.

I am a little of both as I love to play with new gear as well as use gear that has become my favorite kit so to speak. Well, I have the Leica SL2 and I also have a nice little Asahi optical 28mm prime lens that I have an adapter for so I figured I would put this together and see if the shooting experience would be close enough to the Q2 to give me an idea of what it would be like without having to spend 6000$ on it.

I really love those Leica colors for some reason, maybe it is a bias I have towards the brand but to me the images just seem more rich in color. I really love how they turned out though and the idea of the Q2 is a great one for a general street camera. The high megapixel sensor combined with the 28mm lens is a potent street combination as you can see below where I shot the image as a candid just in passing and was able to adjust the composition later in post to get what I was looking for.

This photo was shot about 10 feet away and with the 28mm on a full frame sensor it looks MUCH further away. But through the power of cropping… I can make it take on a couple of different looks as you can see below.

This is a 12 megapixel crop of the original image.

This is a 16 megapixel crop of the original image.

As you can see I can get two very different feeling images from this single frame. That is kinda powerful to be honest. I mean, you can change the entire dynamic of the image with a simple crop. That is actually liberating to be honest. I mean just look at the two again. One has this lonly, almost bleak feeling to it while the other has a warmer almost restful feel to it. That is really cool to me. So this is a perk of the Leica Q2 in my book.

So what else comes with the Q2 that I didnt have today? Well, autofocus is one, another is larger aperture. This lens is f3.5 which is two full stops slower than the lens on the Q2. This would matter more in low light as I was shooting most of this day at f11 to reduce the need to adjust focus. Range focus at f11 on a 28mm prime is basically 4 feet (1.3 meters) to infinitiy. So it literally was point the camera, press the shutter and the image was in focus. But if I wanted to shoot indoors or in the evening, the f1.7 aperture would be nice to have to keep my ISO down some or be able to raise the shutter speed a little to freeze action better.

What I really liked about the 28mm was that it made me interact with the people more. The photo above is a great example of this, these two guys were walking by and I just asked them if I could grab a quick photo, they were stoked and so was I. This is honestly a problem I have that I am working to get past. I don’t like bothering people and will walk by potentially great photos simply because I don’t want to bother them. The 28mm forces you to get closer if you want the detail in the photos so I have to get closer to do that. So I think honestly, this is going to have be a perk of the 28mm Summilux lens after all…

All in all, this kit performed really well for me and I think the Leica Q2 would perform equally as well. BUT I do really like the ergonomics of the SL family of camera bodies so for me I will keep my SL2 and use a 28mm lens when I want to have the Q2 experience in a camera. So until next time, get your camera out and go take a photo with it.

Just capturing everyday life…

When I decided to take some time away from youtube and just explore my photography, I didnt know how much fun it would be to just take the camera and an extra battery. It blew my mind to be honest.

Still I found myself starting to look for more interesting photos when I am out and about these days. Something else I have really come to realize is that you cant get the photo if you dont go out with your camera.

Here is an example of what I mean by getting out and shooting more. You are not going to be where the action is if you dont get out and shoot. Just being out in the field greatly increases your chances of getting a photo. That being said, I am the worlds worst at failing to get the shot. I got the one about due to range focus being set on the lens so I didnt need to even bring the camera to my eye. I literally saw it unfolding and just raised the camera and snapped the frame. It is also heavily cropped too so I can get the composition I wanted. That is a luxury of the 47mp sensor on the Leica SL2 that I was using that day, it gives you options.

Here we have a photo I have taken a couple of times now. Every year our hometown has an event in this park and the kids play in the creek is flagrant defiance of the posted sign. It is such a cliche photo that I can’t pass it up. Obvious civil disobedience to signage if a fun photo so if you see one of these scenarios just get your camera out and take the picture. You just might like what you end up with.

Here we have a scene of “small town Americana” that I thought was kinda interesting. These little carnival foodie trucks are a common sight in rural America and I wanted to capture that essence if possible. I am not sure if I was successful but to me it is a cool photo.

Here I found something interesting when I went to Cloudland Canyon State Park to setup a POTA activation the other morning. A cloud inversion isnt real common until the fall, but conditions were apparently just right. So I grabbed a photo before turning on the radio and now I have this photo.

Here is the last photo I want to talk about. This was a quickie iPhone capture that I saw and just had to get right quick. Use what you have and get the photo, that is the rule of the day. I have come to learn that when you get something like this in your head just go take the photo and be done with it, it will gnaw at you forever if you dont. I think some of the best photos, street or otherwise, come from just capturing everyday life. What do you think?

Prime lens primer

So you have never used a prime lens before… well let’s change that.

Leica CL with the TTArtisan 35mm f0.95 APS-C prime lens

A prime lens is like a window into another world of photography. They can be had in much larger apertures than zooms usually, they are smaller under most circumstances, and if you get vintage ones…they can produce very unique results.

Another thing that prime lenses are good for is they teach you to compose based on the environment. You have to work within the confines of the focal length which means you will have to either move closer or further away to “zoom” with your feet to get your composition. Sometimes this means not getting a certain shot at all because you would have to stand in the middle of a river to get the composition or something like that. But I rarely run into this problem and once I start seeing in focal length it seems I filter out these problems subconsciously anyway.

Leica CL with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 APS-C lens.

You will also learn to see in your chosen focal length over time as well. That is, once you shoot a while with just one focal length… You hear street photographers talk about the 28 or the 35 and they know what the photo is going to look like based on experience.

I will be honest here, it is really liberating to have such a small and potent setup when I run prime lenses. Zoom lenses give you versatility, but I see people that use zoom lenses still carrying a camera bag. This seems overly redundant to me, I use the one lens all day and get out in the environment, but I am not everyone. Some people prefer to have all the options on hand so they can setup and shoot whatever comes their way I guess. Maybe they have missed a opportunity in the past while using a prime and now want the versatility of a zoom to give them better odds in the future should that happen again, I don’t know. Those are some of the speculations I have had, but for me, I just like having something dedicated like the prime brings to the table.

Zoom lenses do serve a purpose though, they are the work horses of the professional photography world. Giving the professional the ability to change focal lengths instantly on demand to fulfill the job at hand. Primes force the professional to move around a lot more to build the composition that the zoom makes short work of. This is important when you are on a clock. Anything that saves time also saves money so zooms have their uses.

So what makes a prime appealing over a zoom? That large aperture and the small size are some of the magic that the zoom lens lacks.

Lenses like the one above with it’s f0.95 maximum aperture can create an effect that nothing else can produce. The “Bokeh” or blurred out background is something that large apertures are well known for. The portrait below is a prime example of the feature. The background was probably 15 feet behind him when I shot this photo.

Primes lenses come into their own when it comes to vintage lenses too. This is where I have found my passion. The old Pentax glass along with the Nikon and early Canon stuff is all phenomenal. I do have some early Leica stuff but the Pentax / Asahi branded glass is just awesome. I also will try about anything to see what the photos are like as well. I have even adapted some glass that should not be able to be adapted like some Argus lenses. I documented that process on my YouTube channel if you want to see how I was able to make that work. Argus had a unusual way to drive the focus on the lens and it posed a challenge to get it to work.

One of my favorite vintage lens brands is Pentax and the Asahi Optical company.

With the advent of the mirrorless camera, we now have a flange distance that is conducive to adapting these vintage lenses to our cameras easily and the electronics in the camera make using these lenses even easier than ever as well. Things like focus magnification and focus peaking as well as exposure preview to see how the image will look before you press the shutter are great for coupling vintage primes to your new shiny mirrorless camera. Some even allow image stabilization via sensor stabilization so you even get that feature with vintage glass sometimes.

So if you have not used prime lenses in the past, I implore you to get a simple one, like the 50mm f1.8 on full frame (affectionately named the “nifty fifty”) or it’s APS-C little brother, the 35mm f1.8 DX (Nikon uses the term DX for their APS-C cameras) and put it on your hobby camera and leave it there for a month. It will either make you hate primes or fall in love with them. For me I got the 35mm f1.8, installed it on my Nikon D7000 and left it for almost a year without removing it. I really loved that lens.

So until next time, get your camera out and go take some photos with it!

My loadout for flying with camera gear.

Traveling over the years to locations that require flying commercial has taught me a few things about what to take.

I once carried almost everything I owned when I traveled so I was sure to have whatever I needed for a certain photographic event. Well, with time comes wisdom… I have been adjusting the loadout and searching for the best solution as far as bags go and have finally found the perfect setup…FOR ME. You see, different people have different needs and your loadout will vary depending on your personal needs and wants.

When I traveled early on, I carried a large shoulder bag, very large mind you and a ton of kit in it. I had to fill it up you know! Lol.

Well after a couple of trips like that, I learned that I needed a different bag. So the giant Vanguard bag was retired and replaced with a Thinktank Airport International v2. This was a nice upgrade and allowed me to travel with more confidence in knowing my gear was protected better and it was also a roller bag! No more lugging that massive shoulder bag all over creation!!!

Well, I still use this bag from time to time, but only for roadtrips in my truck. The irony of this statement is not lost on me. I bought a literal aircraft carry own style, camera bag and now I dont even take it when I fly at all.

Thinktank Photo Airport International 2.0

So I learned the hard way something about marketing with this bag. Thinktank Photo will tell you, probably with an asterisk, that this bag will fit in standard overhead spaces. This isn’t so and I learned this the hard way on a trip coming home from Hawaii one year. On the last leg of our long journey, we boarded a small commuter jet and the overhead storage bins were just too small. This is when I got a VERY sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. You see, this meant I had to valet check this bag at this point. If you have never watched baggage handlers loading luggage then you dont know the horror movie I was imagining my expense and fragile camera gear was about to experience. They can be quite rough with check bags, we have had them arrive at baggage claim with wheels missing and such. So I tell the flight attendant my plight and she saves the day by stowing my roller bag of camera gear in what amounts to her broom closet. I almost cried in appreciation. That was the straw the broke the cameras back of roller bags for me.

Pictured here are the Peak Design Everyday Messenger bag and the Thinktank photo street walker backpack.

After the Airport International “incident”, I decided I needed to downsize my kit for multiple reasons. The main one being that I didn’t want to have to valet check my bag because it wouldn’t fit in the overhead bin.

The next reason is the most important though. I was tired of carrying gear I didn’t use or even need.

Taken with the Nikon Z50 handheld and using the kit lens.

So I decided to get something new and smaller. I chose something that had been on the market for just a short time at this point. I chose a Peak Design Everyday Messenger Bag. It is a wonderful way to carry camera gear for the most part with one exception. I cant really carry my big telephoto lens I use for wildlife. I tried it for a couple of years and at the time, I was using a large system consisting of a Nikon D810 with battery grip and the 200-500mm super zoom lens. This combination is very large and would leave me with room for just a couple of smaller lenses. It also came with another problem…pain. Single strap bags are great as long as they are not heavy, which is exactly what mine was at this point in time. So the search continues and I found another Thinktank Photo bag.

The next bag I chose was the Streetwalker v2. This is a smaller bag that is backpack style and is really comfortable. The single shoulder strap on the messenger bag would make my shoulder incredibly sore after just a couple of hours of carry. I tried this for a couple of years and paid the price. The streetwalker solved that problem in short order. It was at this point in my photography journey that I was finding smaller cameras like the Fuji XT3. I took this camera to Israel for a ten day trip and it was on this trip that my eyes were opened to carrying excessive equipment is wasteful. I took three lenses with me and only used one of them. Yes, I used the KIT LENS for the whole trip and it worked gloriously!!! All the while I was carrying around all this other crap and just getting back to the kibbutz tired every day.

Current travel load out, Z50, 500mm PF, 16-50mm Z Kit, and 10-20mm F mount Nikkor/FTZ adapter.

Well, I finally figured out that the smaller pack was the way to go, but it really didn’t have room for the big wildlife rig I liked to use… It also had one other critical shortcoming that I noticed from regular use. The pack opened to the top when unzipped. What this means is you take off the pack and lay the side that normally sits against your back, on the ground facing down to access the gear area. At this point, I was doing a great deal of photowalks and hikes to waterfalls and such and this caused lots of dirt on the back of my shirt… To say this was frustrating is an understatement but I carried on till…

Enter the Thinktank Photo Retrospective 15L. For my needs, this is as close to perfect for a camera bag as I have ever found. It opens from the back, the side against my body which means you lay to outside one the ground, keeping all the leaves, twigs and dirt off of my shirt. It is slightly larger (15 liters in size) so there is room for my wildlife kit. It is REALLY comfortable and it is made of stone washed canvas. So it has a nice look (it doesn’t look like a nylon camera bag) and has a great feel. This is a hallmark of Thinktank Photo from what I have seen. Their backpacks are very comfortable. So now that I have landed on the perfect camera bag after almost a decade of searching, I can now shift focus to the gear I put in it.

Taken with the Nikon Z50 with the FTZ Adapter and the 500mm PF Amount lens.

The gear loadout for my photography usually involves at least two bodies, three general purpose lenses and then my special purpose lenses and all the support gear too. Like a whole cleaning kit complete with blower bulb, dry wipes, wet wipes and solution and sensor swabs… way too many batteries, like I must have thought I was going to take 10,000 photos per day or something. I never needed most of this crap either. I mean almost none of it. What I had was a case of “fill’er up” syndrome. If there was bag space I felt compelled to put something in that space for some reason. This is a terrible way to operate if I must say. You end up tired, sore and resentful of the hobby as you brought all this kit for nothing.

The Nikon Z50 with kit lens makes for a powerful little general photography kit.

So this trip, the bag is scaled WAY back. I mean, there is room in the bag for stuff and nothing is in those pockets. This is a milestone for me, as I am a prepper at heart and want to cover every conceivable contingency under my normal mindset. To be honest, I probably brought at least one lens more than I will need and could have lightened the load some more there, but we will see. So my takeaway from all this is, your hobby is a journey and you will have to figure out your kit for that hobby as you go. For me, it is still an ongoing journey to be honest. Hopefully I can stop spending tons of money on it and just enjoy it. Let’s be realistic though, probably not…Lol.