September Field Notes
The second the calendar flips to September I am ready for autumn. Hot cider, apple crisp, football Sundays (and Mondays and Thursdays)…but the reality of living in the mid-Atlantic is that most of the month is still very much summer. But while it might still be warm enough to kayak multiple days a week right now, and my kids are still wearing shorts every day, the tips of my tallest maple tree are starting to turn red, a sure sign that it will feel like autumn any minute. Those Autumn leaves mean only one thing from a photography perspective- more macro photographs, more misty morning, and my favorite season of photographing my own family: sports, back to school portraits, senior photos for my favorite nephew (don't worry, I only have one).
In My Camera Bag
I teased a new camera lens in last month's field notes and now that I've had time to use it I'm ready to declare that the Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100mm my favorite macro lens of any camera system I have owned. I was a bit concerned that with that APO designation this lens would be a bit too clinical to make a good portrait lens. It’s a bit easier to justify the price tag of a good 100mm macro if it works for portraits also, and I'm really happy with this lens for both (and any other medium-telephoto work). That 100mm focal length is a good portrait length, but too often when a lens is created for maximum macro sharpness, it doesn't quite have the quality I'm looking for in a portrait lens. The Fujifilm 80mm (120mm full frame) macro is a great example of this- it's a great lens, and I absolutely love it for macro, but it's so much sharper and cleaner than the Fujifilm 90mm lens that I ended up keeping the 90 for portrait work even though I had intended to trade it in when I bought the 80. The Leica sits in this sweet spot, and it is a great addition to my SL system.
On my Desk
At this time of year I spend very little time working at my desk and a whole lot of time working from the car or the bleachers while my kids are at practices/events/activities. But because I live in the middle of nowhere and my kids like to be outside in the mountains, internet service when working remotely can be a bit hit or miss. Hot- spotting from my phone is great, but only if my phone, which runs on Verizon, has enough reception to actually get a decent connection. Awhile back I picked up a T-mobile hot spot since T-mobile tends to have coverage in those more remote areas where Verizon doesn't and between the two carriers I can work pretty much anywhere. It's not a separate phone, just a little passport size device that gives me an internet connection from which I can hot-spot my devices. And it's great, I have no complaints. But this month I realized that the Iphone's ability for dual sim cards means that I can have plans with multiple carriers on the same cell phone. I swapped my hot spot for second cell plan that also runs on T-mobile and now I can hot-spot straight from my phone, wherever I am, no separate device needed.
Watching
If you have read my field notes for any length of time then you know I'm a big fan of Daniel Gregory and his work (and podcast). He had a great zoom course last month on getting out of a creative rut as a photographer. It was full of practical advice, and mini projects and it's well worth the watch. The replay link is available here.
Reading
I am a huge fan of surprise book-mail. Usually the surprise comes in the form of pre-ordering a book and then forgetting about it until I receive the package in the mail months later. But this month my surprise book mail came, not in the form of my own forgetful memory, but from a friend who delighted me with a package containing The Art of Street Photography By Sean Tucker and Joshua Jackson and her own book of years' worth of canine-centric street photography. The two books have made for many delightful evenings of reading (and enjoying photographs) ever since.
Photographing
The fun thing about a macro lens is that you don't need big, dramatically beautiful scenery to get a good picture. Focusing (see what I did there) on the little things means you can photograph anywhere. My youngest decided to try his hand at macro this month too, so he has been using my old Fujifilm X-T5 with the 80mm macro, while I've been testing out the Leica.
Working on
I am eternally behind in editing images, which is probably not helped by the fact that I am a serial trip planner (always planning the next one before the current one is finished) and the fact that I have children who need to be fed and also learn stuff. But I have been (mostly) productively using their evening sports practices to try to catch up on some editing, and thankfully a zoom with a friend was good incentive to finish editing some of my street images from Tokyo. I am also knee deep in trip planning right now…A trip that is going to fulfill multiple items on multiple kids bucket lists but is taking more than an ordinary level of planning. It will all be worth it soon enough and there will be lots of pictures and details to come.
And with that I’m going call it a wrap on September. As always there are no affiliate links on this site except Bookshop.org links, and the proceeds of those are donated to non-profits related to children and the arts. Photographs below are all taken with the Leica 100mm macro, but please note these are personal images not “test shots” so don’t judge the overall sharpness of the lens from these, I like a dreamy macro and in some cases was experiment with shooting wide and soft- in other words, it’s the photographer not the lens.
