Up early, with a twist.

GTX Photo Fest.

6 a.m. is when I usually get up, but my normal routine includes downing a travel mug of coffee and computer time until 8-ish.

Not so today. I had to be out the door by 7:30 a.m.

Today was the 1st (and hopefully annual) Georgetown Photo Festival.

But let me back up a minute.

I decided to take only my TtV rig with me today.

It’d been a while since I shot Through the Viewfinder and I thought this event would be a perfect fit. Last night I spent a good two hours getting my gear ready – charging batteries, checking camera settings, clearing and formatting the CF card in the ol’ Pentax *ist D – so it’d be a grab-and-go kind of thing after morning coffee and such.

I was ready. And everything worked out perfectly. Wake up. Coffee. Shower. Go.

Georgetown, TX is up the road about 17 minutes, if the traffic signal gods are on my side.

I got to the town square about 10 minutes early and could see folks gathering on the east side of the courthouse. A photostroll was planned for 8-10 a.m.

The morning air was around 46º with a slight breeze out of the north. Brrr. I wore a hoody sweatshirt. Seemed enough. Really wasn’t.

I mingled with people I know from PhotwalksATX, said hello to David Valdez (one of the event organizers), then joined in as everyone congregated on the courthouse steps for a group shot.

I started walking around, and promptly lost the folks partaking in the photostroll. I kept moving and in the span of an hour I’d made about 60 TtV shots. That’s when the 4 AA batteries in the *ist D decided to go dead. Bummer.

I went back to the Escape, looking for the other set of batteries I’d packed. Sadly, they weren’t in the bag. So, I put the TtV rig back in the camera bag and locked up the truck. Then I pulled out my iPhone and headed back into the fray using the Blackie app.

After another half-hour of walking around it was getting close to 10 a.m. and my toes were cold. So I headed back to the truck and drove home.

Yup. You know where this is going… maybe I *should’ve* brought another camera. Lesson learned. Next time bring a back-up camera. Maybe two.

I got around 2 dozen decent shots in all. Here are a few of my faves…

Jebediah

mach 1

David

Edsel hoody

Shelby

Cruisers

Old Ford

Gull wings

Super 88

WILCO Courthouse

Meats

T-Bird taillight

NSX

Overland

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Small wonder.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is one of the smaller cameras in my collection, but its size doesn’t mean it’s a slouch.

A cool little shooter, I’ve been using the LX5 since April 2011.

It has a Leica Vario-Summicron lens, ƒ2.0, a max shutter speed of 1/4000 second, with 24-90mm zoom. At 10 megapixels, and an ISO range of 80-12800, the camera does well in low light.

The camera has a rubber grip on the right-hand side, with just enough of a presence to make holding the LX5 easy and comfortable. Looks nice, too.

At the top of the lens barrel there’s an aspect selector for 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9. On the side of the lens barrel is a switch for auto, macro and manual focus.

The zoom is a lever incorporated into the shutter, with the camera mode dial slightly behind and to the left. There’s a small chrome switch for powering on-off far right on the top of the LX5.

I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.

The rear display is a roomy 2″ x 3″, but I added the external DMW-LVF1 viewfinder and, even though the LVF1 display is smallish, it works nicely. I especially like that it can be flipped up for low-angle shots. Along with a diopter adjustment, there’s a small, yet convenient button located on the side of the LVF1 for manually switching between the rear display and the external viewfinder.

The control ring and function buttons on the back of the camera are arranged neatly on the right side of the body. There’s a thumb wheel just above them. Handy for changing aperture size and exposure compensation with a simple press or rotate.

The LX5 has a pop-up flash, activated by a small switch, on the left side of the top of the body.

I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is a nice, tight little package that’s a joy to use.

A few samples.

Gerber Daisy

Red Rule

Wet Red Gerber Daisy

Evening sky

58

Pale pink rose

Purslane

3 shutters

Handles

Flower ball

Green leaf

Skull

Little Red Flower

Hairy

Boom.

Battlefield 1863.

I had a great time yesterday at Camp Mabry for Battleground 1863. I arrived early enough to wander over to the ‘camp’ and mingle with the soldiers before their 1 p.m. performance.

A friendly bunch, not a one of these guys were camera shy.

I stayed until around 1:45 p.m. and got to see and hear most of the presentation. Lots of blank gun fire and smoke, but I left before they started firing off the cannons.

Along with shooting up that roll of black and white 35mm film in the Argus, I managed to make a few digital shots, here are nine faves…

Troops

Drummer

Rifles

Marching

Black hat

Rifle barrel

Tent

Tassle

Red

Shitty.

Play. Play. Play.

This’ll be my first #ShittyCameraChallenge and I’m using the Argus 520 Focus Free 28mm camera – eBay $9.99 – loaded with a roll of Ilford 35mm XP2 Super 400/24 exposures that expired in February 2009.

I’m heading into Austin tomorrow morning for Battleground 1863 at Camp Mabry… perfect for this challenge.

Sunny *and* windy.

 

8th Annual Georgetown Airport Car & Vintage Plane Show.

I had a ton of rusty fun at the Georgetown Airport Car Show yesterday, but I should’ve worn a hat. My face got a little too much sun. It was windy, but warm.

I walked around with Dennis Isenberg, ran into Miguel Ortiz and his brother Geraldo, and talked with David Valdez about the March 16 GTX Photo Fest.

I also met Matthew Magruder, who was shooting and developing tintypes on site. Pretty cool.

Great show.

Wolfsburg

HOT ROD door brace

1960 Chevy pickup

V8 Ford

Rusty ’58 Chevy truck

Ram

Bel Air

4 Wheel Drive

Matt

Imperial

Westie

69 Chinese fighter

Green, Texas 1932

Pontiac

Ragtop Plymouth

Nineteen forty-one

A milestone of sorts.

Pink Rose – Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100

A metric ton of pictures.

The above photo is upload number 6,666 on Flickr. A weird little milestone, I’ll admit.

I joined Flickr on August 8, 2004. I have a pro account. It’s a great platform and I’ve enjoyed much success, made good friends, learned bunches, and experienced some amazing photography in those near fifteen years.

I follow 1, 676 people. I have 2,565 followers. I’m part of some 44 groups. My work has been featured on the Flickr blog a time or two.

I’m invested. I’m not going anywhere.

Here are 20 of my Top 200 images, all time views.

Red chair arm

Princess Ally

Rock you

Dandelion

Pink tutus

Peony

Toy Buddha

Doesn’t add up

Cowgirl boots

Wrought Iron Collage

Bow tie

Lucky Cat

Five Paper Lanterns

Tulips

Fucshia

Waiting for spring

Two Green Chairs

Smooch

Custom

Dahlia

Vintage camera ads.

Surprise finds.

I’ve been playing with art a bunch this winter. Paintings, collages, and even a little monotype. You can see my efforts on Instagram.

One of my fave resources for collage material is magazines.

There’s a store in Cedar Park that sells used books, and back in the corner of the store they have a set of shelves with all kinds of magazines. Mostly newer publications, but there’s a handful of cubbies with National Geographic mags, some dating back to the 1960s.

I picked up a few issues – a range of years – a coupla’ weeks ago, and while I was in my studio I started flipping through the 60s issues and noticed a few ads for cameras.

Pretty cool. Check ’em out…

Olympus Pen F – Vol. 126, No. 1 / June 1965

Hasselblad – National Geographic Vol. 128, No. 3 / September 1965

Kodak Instamatic 800 – National Geographic Vol. 126, No. 1 / July 1964

Olympus Pen – National Geographic Vol. 126, No. 1 / July 1964

Honeywell Pentax & Konica Auto-S – National Geographic Vol. 127 No. 6 / June 1965