Happy Friday Ya'll! I hope you're having a great week. This summer it has been hot! Many days with the heat index well into the 100's degrees Fahrenheit! So hot! As Matthew Broderick would say " Africa Hot"!  A Biloxi Blues reference. I guess I just aged myself. LOL So I have been spending a lot of time inside. Getting cabin fever. Today I just had to get out of the house. So I went for what I call Photography Therapy . Sometimes you just have to spend a hour or so away to clear your head. For me that's a hike in the woods in a state park near me. After a hour or so hiking in the woods doing a little photography on the way clears my head. There is something to be said about just concentrating on a photograph that takes
my mind off of everything else. Now I know I'm retired and don't have the pressures of the workers in the world with deadlines , expectations, traffic, and emails to answer but still can use some relief. Just concentrating on composure, exposure, shape, form all the concepts that go into a photo gets your creative juices flowing and all of your other troubles just go out the door. And really all you have to do is grab your camera and walk out the door. It's that simple. We get so connected to technology we forget what it's like not to be so connected. 

Today Forrest the Wonder Dog and I went for a little hike. We went to Cliffs of the Neuse State Park which is only about 10 miles from the house. Forrest has been stuck in the house too and he loves to go for a hike for all of the smells. So when I go for a hike he's usually with me which can make the photography tough. When I stop to take a photo he is sometimes pulling me wanting to get to the next place to sniff.  We left early to beat the really hot weather but I was soaking wet after a half an hour. It didn't matter I was out taking photos. Now do you need to walk in the woods like I did? Absolutely not. A photo walk in town would work just as well instead of photographing
trees and vistas you can shoot in town buildings , shops , people. You could even take a break at a coffee shop and enjoy the AC while sipping coffee and looking at your photo's.  Which I like to do also. But Forrest needed a walk today. The point is taking a walk and taking your camera with you. What do you need to bring?

Today on my Therapy walk I brought my travel camera my Sony A 6700. This is a crop sensor camera that I use when I'm traveling. I had a Sigma 18-50mm lens which is a 26-75mm full frame equivalent. On that lens I have a polarizer attached. I almost always have one attached to my lens to help eliminate or control reflections and to saturate colors. But sometimes I take my EDC (Every Day Carry) Camera. It's a Leica D-Lux 8 a Point and shoot with almost the same lens configuration but a 24 to 75mm full frame equivalent. With a polarizer on it. If I was doing a in town photowalk this is what I would use but wouldn't hesitate to take it on landscape type of stuff either. The point is have a dedicated camera with you that you really like to shoot. Something that you're comfortable with. Like an old friend. Not something that you're not used to and that you will struggle with settings and things. This will stress you out not relax you. Sometimes when I'm doing a in town photo walk I'll take a film camera like my 1968 Canon Canonet QL17 with no electronics on it at all. Just a light meter. Keeping it simple. It also keeps me from looking at the back of my camera to see what I got. So it's all about the process of taking the photo not the result. The act of taking the photo is Therapeutic. 

So where will you go for your next therapy session. A walk in the woods? Or maybe a walk to your favorite coffee shop. Either way photography is therapeutic! Until next week Get Out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Not bad thanks for asking. This week I'm making a big change. I'm upgrading my EDC (Every Day Carry) camera. As you know if you've been following me for a while my EDC camera is a Canon G7XII point and shoot that I bought in 2018. I originally bought it to carry with me when my wife and myself went to Washington DC and I didn't want to carry all my camera gear and just take the little point and shoot. I took it with me and really enjoyed shooting it and got some great shots. That's why it became my EDC in the first place. I have used it as a backup camera on photography trips and of course every day when I go somewhere. But lately like everything else my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. Using a camera without a viewfinder is really a deal breaker now. I really wanted a point and shoot with a viewfinder. Especially in conditions of bright light the back screen can be very hard to see clearly. And I'm old school and like using the viewfinder like I did in the film days. You can read all about the Canon G7XII camera at this link. What's your EDC 

So I started a hunt for a point and shoot that had a viewfinder. I also wanted a zoom lens not a fixed focal length lens. Now I could find cameras with viewfinders like the Fujifilm X100 series of camera's but they come with a fixed 35mm full frame equivalent. But all the ones that had a zoom lens did not have the view finder like I wanted. I did find some older Fujifilm camera's that came out in 2012 that had what I wanted. I looked them up on my usual used camera places and they were still expensive and they had some age on them. I found some Panasonic Lumix LX 100 series camera's that had a zoom lens and viewfinder but they were at 1400 dollars and they were 7 years old. If I'm going to spend that kind of money for a camera I want newer technology . Now Leica and Panasonic teamed up to make the LX 100 Panasonic cameras until 2022 and Leica would just rebrand them with their logo on them. They had Leica lenses on them. Panasonic decided not to make the LX 100's point and shoots anymore. Panasonic would have there name Lumix LX100 and Leica would have the D-Lux models with the Leica brand on them. But Leica decided to make another model after Panasonic backed out. But when they made theirs they put the Leica magic in it. They simplified all the buttons and dials to look like their famous Q and M models. They put their processor in it they also put their Menu and operating system in it to make a a unique Leica point and shoot. The Leica D-Lux 8.

Now if you've been a photographer for a time you know Leica brand is known for its unmatched quality in camera's and lenses since the early 20th century .  Leica is mostly known for journalism and street photography. With premium quality come premium prices. For a Q  or M body you can pay up to 6000 dollars. They do make SLRs but are most famous for range finder type of cameras. Leica lenses can be thousands of dollars. The company have a cult following much like Harley Davison, Apple, and Pepsi or Coke. When people like these companies they are loyal to the company.  Owing one of these camera's since they are really niche camera's is only a dream for most. I am one of them. The Leica D-Lux 8 is the entry camera into the Leica brand. Kind of the gateway drug,  relatively cheap compared to their other cameras. This is the camera that I was looking at and I decided to sell my beloved Canon G7XII and a lens that I don't use anymore to pay for this camera. I got more for my Canon G7X than what I paid for it when I got it new. That's how much in demand it is. So using MPB the used camera company I did the trade so now I'm going to be a Leica owner! LOL

Let me give you some specs of this camera. I'll do another in-depth look at the camera in a later blog. This camera has a 24 to 75 mm full frame equivalent lens with a f/1.7-2.8 Maximum aperture Leica Summilux lens. So a very sharp lens. It has a 21megapixle micro 4/3 sensor . The sensor is bigger than the one on the Canon EDC I've been using. It has a modern EVF (Electronic View Finder) and a nice screen on the back. Leica's operating and Menu system and processor. It is shaped like the traditional Leicas and is called a "Baby Q". So it's pretty Sexy looking ! For a camera that is. It's a simple looking camera with an aperture ring on the lens, shutter speed dial on top and some programable buttons and knobs. My Canon didn't have any buttons or knobs that could be customized you got what you got. It Leica is very minimalist old school looking which I really like. It has been a very popular camera and is currently on backorder almost everywhere. It came out in 2024 so only a couple of years old. 

I haven't received it yet but maybe by the time this blog comes out I will have it in hand. After I shoot it a while I'll give you a full detailed review on the Leica D-Lux 8. Until then get out and shoot! I will be!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Ya'll ! Happy Friday! Hope your week has been going well. Mine not too bad. It's been hot so I'm staying in and writing trying to get ahead of the curve so when the weather does get nice I don't have to worry about writing blogs just shooting. In this blog I want to talk about a photo shoot my camera club did in Fayetteville NC. This was also a very hot day but we survived. I have shot in Fayetteville quite a bit as I've worked there for 10 years commuting back and forth from where I live. Fayetteville is a rather large town in the sand hills of North Carolina. It is flat and spread out by the Cape Fear River that runs by the town. It always seems to be 2 or 3 degrees hotter here than everywhere else in North Carolina. Don't know why but it is. It's the home of Fort Bragg the largest military installation in the US. Also Pope Army Airfield is also attached to Fort Bragg. So there is a big military presence here. Which I like being retired military myself. This was the first time that our club GAPC (Goldsboro Area Photography Club) has visited Fayetteville. We usually pick someone to be the outing lead. This person is responsible for organizing the shoot .  The where , when and most important where are we going to eat aspect of the shoot. I must say the lead of this shoot did a good job of getting everything ready for us. Way to go Jean! 

Our day started at 9am at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful venue that I have never been to before but have seen in passing as I was going too and fro in my travels to Fayetteville. This venue is very nice and beautiful and is used also for weddings and functions . I think I was invited to a wedding there once that I did not attend. There is a fee to get in but I think it is well worth the price of admission. Which I think was 12 or so dollars. I got a discount for being prior military. Although we went in end of June there were still lots of flowers and things to see. But I bet it is gorgeous in the springtime. We spent a few hours shooting here and it started to get hot. I would recommend getting a map that you can download to your phone before you head out because you can get turned around .  They have lots of trails and neat things to see like artwork. There is a gift shop there with all kind of things to get. Then it was off to our next stop.

Our next stop was to Hay street. It's located in the old part of town. It's filled with shops and cool coffee shops and pubs. At the end of the street is the Market House that was once a place where slaves were bought and sold. Iconic to Fayetteville but also controversial as you can imagine. Lots of cool stuff to shoot here. There a murals, the shops , people and just a lot of coolness. We shot here for maybe 45 minutes and then it was time for Lunch. We ate at a bar and grill and the food like it always is in these places was very good. And it was air conditioned! Another plus. It was starting to get really hot outside.  While we were there we decided to do something inside to stay out of the heat and headed to the Special Operations Museum. 

The Special Operations Museum is a very nice museum and takes you through all of the different conflicts from WWI all the way to the present. A very cool museum and very interesting. Especially the conflicts that others and I were a part of. It brought back lots of memories and stuff I had forgot about. The museum was free to visit and a must see if you're visiting Fayetteville for the first time. After the museum it was around 1pm and we decided to call it a day. Robert and I decided to head to Fort Bragg and visit the PX there where we spent some of Roberts money. (One of my Favorite Pastimes) and then headed home. All in all it was a great trip.

So if you're looking for something to do on a Saturday Fayetteville NC wouldn't be a bad choice. Until Next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link