I swam at noon today. Crystal blue skies and mid-80's. A perfect day to shirk all responsibility, ignore all clients and get in a good swim. Jane was coaching and so the workout was thoughtful and interesting. Descending sets of sprint 50 yard swims interspersed with cruising speed pull sets. Go hard for a set of 50s and then chillax with a set of 150 yard pulls. Nice. (I will be packing my goggles and Speedo jammer suit so I can get in a few swims up north...)
Made me hungry by the end of the hour long workout so I indulged in a guilty pleasure: Jason's Deli makes a Tuna Muffaletta. They call it a Tuna-Letta. It's on the same crunchy bun but instead of the usual, New Orleans inspired, ham, cheese and tapenade it's stuff with tuna, hardboiled eggs, spinach and, well, an olive tapenade. I think it's delicious. Big sandwich, chips, sparkling water and a free ice cream for a whopping $6.81.
Then I got on to my important job for the day --- deciding which camera and lens to drag along with me to go visit the younger Mr. Tuck in Saratoga Springs. I leaned heavily towards the original Sony a6000 for its "uncluttered-ness" along with the Sigma 30mm DN for its "damn that thing is sharp!-ness" But in the end I think I've decided to take the Sony A7ii and the Zeiss 24-70mm f4.0 with me instead. I like the lens range, the light weight of the lens and the old school look and feel of the body.
When I visit colleges it always takes me back on the nostalgia express to the time when I first got interested in taking pictures. The A7ii is really my only pure nostalgia camera these days just because it is frankly uninteresting and not remarkable. This way, if I get a good photograph over the weekend my family and friends might be more inclined to give me some credit instead of chalking it up to some idea of the "magical" camera that can do no schlock.
That's my plan this hour. I hope not to change my mind at the last minute because I don't have the time to crank out another blog post today. Tomorrow? Maybe. We'll see....
on another note: I frequently write about the work I do for Zach Theatre and I thought I would show you one way in which they use my photographs. The link below goes to a web version of an e-mail they just sent out to their subscriber base. It touts the latest two shows and asks for ticket purchases for an upcoming show (Santaland Diaries). I like their approach but be aware that this is only one tool in the box. They also run print advertising, do direct mail, make point of purchase posters and run radio and TV (with my images embedded in the video). It shows me an effective use of the content. I like it. Click the link to see:
Here is one way in which Zach Theatre Uses my Photography. click to see
6 comments:
Kirk,
The A7ii and "normal" zoom seems like a good combination if you do any sightseeing on your trip.
Fred
Wow to the Zach Theater photos, even more so when I visited kirktuck.com for the first time. Truly exemplary, without exception. I was struck by the way you pour yourself into the work to show your clients at their best. The recent discussion of gear vs art finds its resolution here. Thank you for making photos that we can aspire to, to bring out the best in ourselves.
Jason's Deli. When I am back in Austin I usually meet my old, old buddy from UT and work days there for a long lunch. Or several years ago, sometimes Triumph Cafe. We would usually meet there after the lunch rush and several times Kinky Friedman came in for lunch while we were there during those quiet, slow hours.
By the way, I see that gear talk has returned to the blog. :-) No matter how much we love photography we all end up thinking about gear sometimes too.
HR. The gear talk hiatus begins on the first of November. Not the 12th of October.... Just FYI.
Hi Kirk,
I bought a fuji x-pro 1 because it was closing out and cheap at 685 Euros with a body and two lenses. I sold one lens and all of my remaining Pentax gear and bought the Fuji 16-55 f2.8, a heavy but lovely optic, so I could take photographs of my Dad just before he died. I since used it much more enjoyably on vacation in Portugal. I totally get why you'd take a lens of that focal range.
Fall has arrived late this year so you may have some color to see depending on when you are here. It was a bit of a hunt to find some in downtown Saratoga Saturday for my shoot, though if you head a little north you'll find that the mountains have basically said "warm weather be damned, it's past time to have fall, lets do this".
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