The Visual Science Lab
Dumb stuff we do after watching too many lens reviews... Or, is lens buying really a practical way to deal with boredom?
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I'll spend it being on my best behavior. So here's one for you....
Photos from several walks. Captions where necessary.
I'm almost always concerned about getting the color right. Not necessarily "accurate" but subjectively right. It has to make me happy.
I went out for a walk with a favorite old camera and very useful lens. I met a very attractive woman in front of Jo's Coffee...
Now that everything has been photographed do we start over again? Or quit? Or continue to muddle our way through?
I'm so glad there are people who buy new Leicas. I look forward to acquiring their older cameras just as soon as they sell them or trade them in...
Cheap expensive cameras and expensive cheap lenses. Shooting at night with a fun combo.
Streamlining life.
All of a sudden I became interesting in seeing how well the EV-2 EVF finder for the Leica M240 works. What better way that testing it in practice?
So. Kirk. How do you like that new Thypoch Ksana 21mm f3.5 M mount lens you picked up last week? Is it good?
OT: Pearls unclutched. Happiness and good weather return. An old 21mm lens accompanies me to swim practice.
January 31, 2026.
Blog Note: I bought a lens from B&H on the 22nd. Now, a week and a day later I am still waiting for Federal Express to get their shit together and get the product to me...
I really like the Voigtlander 50mm APO-Lanthar lens...but I now believe that the 35mm APO-Lanthar lens is even better.
January 30, 2026.
Scanning from old slides. Feeling the photo universe grapple with oncoming entropy.
The roads are still icy and treacherous. The scanning of old slides continues...
Too cold and slick to go out. A perfect afternoon for scanning old slides from earlier life.
Do you want to see and read about the opening of Will's "WET DOGS" show? My friend, ATMTX, was there with camera in hand and a very nice perspective..
An update from the city whose inhabitants were voted: Most likely to sleep in when the weather turns bad.
Will van Overbeek's "WET DOGS" show reception has changed. The start time moves up one hour to 3 pm and ends at 5 pm. Safer and just as much fun.
Yeah. It's supposed to get really cold starting Saturday night. Maybe as low as 18°. Sadly, swim practice for Saturday and Sunday as already been cancelled. Wimps!
The "Wet Dog Show" is coming!!! If you are in Austin on Saturday afternoon/evening you might want to drop by the opening and see some real, printed art.
"Behind Every Successful Person is a Substantial Amount of Coffee..." - From a calendar someone gave me as a gift last year.
Epiphanies abound. I uploaded some scans yesterday and it reminded me of how I used to love to photograph. Today was about going backwards.
Recovery from Kidney Stone trauma now complete. Happiness returns. The desire to photograph re-emerges. Stars align.
Hazy Proof of Life. This afternoon on South Congress Ave. The guys at Jo's Coffee are perceptive. They comped my coffee today...
A republishing of an old favorite that always reminds me where the path of happiness lies and how far off it I may be at any moment.
Always looking for silver linings. Always.
Where the heck has Kirk been? I'll tell you. He got stoned. Kidney Stoned. Now an ongoing project.
Afradet. Early LED experiment. It seemed to have worked.
Embracing our irrelevance. One person's take on the "demise" of popular photography...
Some images I made with the Leica DLUX 8 with the focus switch set for macro. You can still focus on things further away but you can get closer with the switch enabled.
One of my favorite posts ever. From all the way back in 2010. A "reprint".
Having fun with the Carl Zeiss 85mm f4 lens. Small and light. Sharp and optically near perfect. No other news that's relevant.
Newly arrived at the office. A new lens to play around with.
Reprint from 2016: Daily Practice is a good thing for swimming, playing the piano and making art with a camera. Familiarity engenders comfortable knowledge.
New Year. New Light(s). Fun with Continuous Lighting...
This is a self-paced blog post. It's New Year's Day so I'm bailing on writing stuff. Nothing happened worth sharing. Just basic happiness and walking around with cameras. Make up your own captions if you'd like...
It's New Year's Eve. Time for retrospection...
I had lunch with an old friend recently. To say he is currently into Leicas is a supreme understatement. He picked up this one last quarter.
The studio gear inventory takes a hit. Yet again.
OT: I did buy myself something special for Christmas. In fact, I bought twelve copies.
A few years back, when I bought two Leica CL digital cameras (which are APS-C format!), I also bought an odd lens. The TTArtisan APS-C 50mm f0.95. Yesterday I took it out for a re-familiarization run.
Well, Here we are on the 27th of December and for the first time in memory I did NOT buy myself a camera or lens for Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. In fact, the last camera I bought was the DLUX8 back in mid-Summer. What happened?
It's the 23rd of December and I'm looking back at 2025. An interesting year of big changes for me.
One hand behind his back.
B. Somewhere in Europe. At some time in the past.
I almost bought a Leica M246 Monochrome camera this morning. But after I saw some conversions from color to black and white, from the little compact DLUX8 I changed my mind...
It's been a while. Heading into the holidays and spending time organizing family stuff. But never too busy to pass up some photography outings.
Playing around with a camera, a warm jacket, a fun lens and a neighborhood full of people having...fun.
VSL Blog hits 37,000,000 direct page views. Here's a favorite post From 2019 that floated into the stats this morning. I still believe just about every word.
I took my monochrome camera out for a spin this afternoon. It was interesting. It reminded me why I like color stuff now....so much.
Getting in the steps. Appreciating the Q2. Chilling out for the holidays.
It was a chilly evening. I had one small camera to keep me company as I walked down the darkening street. And all of a sudden....
Hanging out with photographers and bikers and shooting in black and white. (Glossary for elitists, black and white = monochrome).
And just a few more samples from that inexpensive but good TTArtisan 75mm f2 (L mount version).
The "Cousin Eddie" travel trailer. Perfect for landscape photographers who don't want to flaunt their wealth...
Since I'm on a roll I thought I'd continue with yet another 75mm lens. Also of Chinese manufacture. Also really good.
Okay. That's enough of a break. Time to get back to the keyboard. Talking about a cheap 75mm f2.0 lens today...
One more time for this post from the archives. Portugal, Lisbon, the trade show....
Having a blast taking photographs. Taking some time off from blogging to focus entirely on camera work. Comments off for now but the full archive of articles and photos remains accessible.
David Ingram's photo of Me with very, very shallow depth of field...
Funny stuff you can read on the web.
A repost of an old favorite with 100+ street shots...
Getting close is one thing but having the idea is more to the point.
"It is always the instantaneous reaction to oneself that produces a photograph." -Robert Frank
Old Lens Performs Well. Plus.... the re-purchase of an old favorite lens which I sold to buy a lens that weighs a lo
Interior, antique inter urban suburbia. It's a thing.
A bright red hose. Or a very long, very skinny red snake.
Reflection removal tool in Lightroom. It works.
Reading around the web today. New and unusual revelations.
THIS POST MAY BE "OFF TOPIC" FOR YOU BUT IT'S RIGHT ON TARGET FOR ME AND I'M CELEBRATING IT.
Winding down the inventory. Kinda fun to see white space instead of black, Codura nylon cases of stuff everywhere.
Several things to discuss today. The small, "cheap" Leica DLUX8, the "delete reflections" feature in Adobe's latest rev of Lightroom Classic, and David's Ice Light.
Portrait. In the studio.
I read an article which said (paraphrasing) that to be happier one should be smaller.
Fun with color.
I almost bought yet another lens today. I still might follow through. It's such a nice idea for a lens.... Or lenses.
Austin, Texas Autumn Skies.
In an age in which privacy is important we have come to appreciate mannequins. Mannequin Photo Workshop coming soon!!! (Not really....).
Yesterday I played with a 90mm lens and the idea of black and white imaging. How to find the tones I like. Not the ones in the textbook..
Christmas Season Approaches. Back to the Theatre for a fun dress rehearsal on Tuesday.
Last photographs of the day. Over on South Congress Ave. Racks of "Love Locks."
Maybe the perfect height for a photographer to be invisible while working is about five feet, eight inches tall. The big, brooding, overly tall seem to have more problems blending in and avoiding unpleasant confrontations. Maybe try not to look so... big?
How many feet to Jo's Coffee? Just two...
As I was recuperating this week I had a crazy thought. What if people who wrote long paeans to old lenses (and new ones) and how glorious they were (and are) routinely supplied photographs taken with those lenses to prove their assertions of optical magic? Wouldn't that me cool?
Try not to let paranoia interfere with your photography. And if you step over the line and get called out for it maybe think twice before reflexively rushing to use your long-tenured sense of entitlement to fix something you created. Too many photographers seem too quick to play the victim card.
I have survived. All systems heading in the right direction. Two weeks till launch and counting down.
An Afternoon at the Texas Book Festival. People looked at books. People signed books. Some people bought books.
Revised scheduling for November.
What does that 24mm-e look like on the DLUX8? And why do I like wide angles on smaller sensor cameras better? Unknown...
The latest book of Richard Avedon photograph just dropped and it's really good. A show of the work to follow starting in February in Montreal.
When are purple boots not appropriate??? Yikes!
The Most Fun Store on the main drag in Fredericksburg, Texas has to be Rustlin Rob's Hot Sauce Room. Amazing but dangerous.
Impromptu Road Trip to Fredericksburg.
Changing one's trajectory is like moving a skyscraper. It's hard work; seemingly impossible (without dynamite) and more than a little mental "elbow grease."
Playing around with the "Dynamic Monochrome" setting in the S5's "filter" menu. It's nice and contrasty. Just the way I usually like black and white...
Looking up the driveway after the rain.
Discovery in a desk drawer. Not a bad camera. Not a bad lens. And the five batteries hold full charges. Nice.
A walk through South Congress Avenue in the middle of Austin. Still practicing with that new (to me) Leica 35-70mm zoom. Basically a 50mm lens that's willing to be flexible...
Out for Ice Cream on Halloween Afternoon...
Fun little cameras and their facility for traveling light.
Just something fun I saw when I was over at the UT Campus today...
Fun photos from an itty-bitty camera. Dinner party.
Night time images. Daytime editing.
Not sure why but I really like this photograph. Taken late at night through a store window. A 50mm lens. An older rangefinder body. But wow! The detail is just right...
A Nighttime walk down a mostly deserted South Congress Avenue. Old camera in hand. No IBIS. No super sensor ISOs. No game plan. Just a walk, alone, at night
Mannequins for Bryan from the South Pacific; by request.
Fun with portraits. All manner of cameras. Mostly just for fun. Also, why didn't anyone tell me about the Avedon show coming up in Montreal?
The last photo walk before 70. It's all a matter of perception.
Just some odds and ends I keep coming across. From the "life of a working photographer."
The introduction of Leica's new M EV-1 clicked something in my brain. The realization that I have two EVFs for the M240 cameras and I don't think I used them except to test them when I first got them. The EV-1 inspired me to take another look at "old" tech.
A photo from the ancient Leica CL. The non-digital one. From about 1980. Maybe 1979. Who took accurate notes back then? Not me.
As Predicted, Leica drops a whole new camera (kinda). Let the feeding frenzy begin!!! Will I buy one? Probably not...
The New Lens is a Keeper. Pairs nicely with the existing cameras...
Food photos. New lens arrives. Perfect weather: finally. And...great morning swim.
We're past the middle of October. Things are proceeding as planned.
Urban Landscapes on a Sunday Afternoon. Austin. Q2. Shot as black and whites in the camera. Jpeg all the way!!
Having fun looking through images taken with different cameras and different sensor formats. All are fun.
Still putting the digital Leica CL and the Sigma Contemporary 56mm f1.4 lens through their paces. Getting comfortable again with a "cropped" frame.
Formula One Car Racing Sucks So Bad. And Somehow We've Been The Victims of it for Years Now in Austin. Just Another Way to Suck Money out of City and Citizen Coffers to Engorge the Rich... Sad.
An Odd Sign Seen on South Congress Avenue Today...
Leica's digital nod to their original 35mm cameras. Yeah. It's the CL...
Unexpectedly unmotivated to photograph... anything.
I took a black and white camera with me to Chicago...I just had to take the color out of the files before I realized it. Make that two black and white cameras...
Sunday Afternoon Portrait. My former assistant's daughter...
It's Saturday. It was 64° when I left the house for our swim workout. The water was perfect. The swimming was fun. Here's a reminder of a fun event coming up in Austin, Texas:
Going Old School and Reviewing a Lens that I Can't (Won't) get Rid Of. Right.
OT: A strategy for staying in good physical condition: Exercise More.
It was that kind of day. Adventures of an unsupervised photographer.
Sculpture in situ. Chicago Art Institute. Fun with focus.
Not sure this would have worked as well as a monochrome (black and white) image...
A random architectural detail from the Art Institute of Chicago.
According to James... There is no profound difference in image quality between competing brands. Included Leica SL, Sony and Canon. Here's how he came to this conclusion...
The Rumors about the Leica M EV-1 are arriving fast and furiously. Is it the next great thing in the M world or a wholesale betrayal by the brand?
I love that everyone is trying to save me money by suggesting I buy a used, five year old compact camera instead of the new Leica camera that I already own. Or that I should consider a Fuji and assorted lenses instead of the three Leica M series bodies and assorted lenses I already have in house. But....
I never consciously realized that every city has its own color palette. But there are colors I see in Austin and different colors I saw in Chicago.
Psychedelic Photo Journey in the depths of Chicago.
In front of the fountains in Millennium Park. Chicago. Two different crops. Q2.
Vacation Cam. As opposed to Travel Cam. Or "Serious" Cam.
Low clouds and tall buildings. Chicago.
I am back from Chicago. It was a nice, long weekend. I made photographs while following my art director wife from museum to museum.
Getting ready to travel for fun, with someone else, is always an anxiety sport for me.
On the way to the car from the museum. An art car.
Live.....It's Saturday Night!!! Can TV generate an authentic the goods for a great museum installation? When it's Lorne Michaels you can count on it.
An SL2 gets playful and goes full "monochrome". Just walking around on a weekday. Which lens? Gotta be the Voigtlander 50mm APO. Sweet combo.
OT: Kirk Acknowledges that he will never compete at the Olympics. But he sure gets to spend a lot of time in the pool. And with wonderful people.
It's Saturday Afternoon. I'm ordering watches on Amazon. Also trying to decide which ONE camera and ONE lens to take to Chicago next week.
Here is the latest from Michael Johnston, AKA: TheOnlinePhotographer. He sent this to me a few minutes ago via email. If you are a TOP reader you might find information you want. This re-use is MJ approved!
B. before he could even swim....
A favorite. B. The best person I can think of with whom to retire.
Guest Post by Henry White. What the heck is Kirk up to?
Gold watch? Or just another camera?
A favorite post from 2018. A busy and pivotal year for me. What is Happiness?
Backtracking a bit and reading Sally Mann's autobiography: "Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs" Which was published in 2016 but oddly, overlooked by me.
Finishing up an assignment that may be my last commercial work of the year. Or the decade. Or...whatever.
In other breaking news. I got the flu shot yesterday and ... no side effects. Important for photographers since you have to be able to move around, stand up and engage.
A Michael Johnston Update. Save that original link to his site on typepad. He's up and running currently and posting new content.
We pay a lot of lip service to the idea that we support art but do we really? Or do we (collectively) spend more time and a lot more $$$ streaming crap?
A moment at the Children's Museum. Just for the fun of it.
What's it like when an artist retires?