Texas. Wow. This place is crazy, and I love it.

It's also tough photographing new places!

This is Kurt shooting near Marfa, Texas. I have no idea where we were… the sunset was happening and we just pulled over!

If it wasn’t for my man Kurt Johnson, I’d probably be doing photography in my back yard the rest of my life. However, Kurt won a project in Texas, and as part of the Kurt Johnson Photography team, we’ll be in Texas quite a bit this year.

If you know me, you know Nebraska is my home. I’ve taken hundreds of thousands of photos in the past 25 years in the Cornhusker state, and I think I could probably go anywhere there and find “good” photos… perhaps stuff other photographers might gloss over as they run to find shiny new things.

And that’s what I feel like right now, this morning as I write this in Marfa, Texas - my eyes are feasting on all this newness, and it’s difficult for my brain to figure out how to make it all make sense visually.

Take the sunset as an example. I’ve photographed a lot of sunsets… but never in Texas! Even something as simple as a sunset had me stumped just a bit.

I was standing in the middle of the highway (it was not a good idea to do this - the road was way busier than I thought it would be), and I was seriously confused about how to deal with the mountains.

There are layers of mountains in this scene… but I wasn’t able to successfully translate those layers for the viewer.

The following scene you can see me trying to bring some of those “layers” out… and it just doesn’t work too well:

This was another try to make those “layers” come out.. eh. Whatever. I just took these last night, so I still need to work on these.

Luckily, I still know how to take “moody” shots no matter what:

This is the reverse side of the highway - so the sunset’s light was illuminating these clouds.

TEXAS IS A WONDERLAND OF ABANDONMENT!

Sorry for the ALL-CAPS treatment there, but man.. west Texas is a wild place. I guess it’s the nature of the oil industry built on the Permian Basin.

At first, we stopped quite a bit to get abandoned photographs (not for the “main” project - just for fun).

Is this a school? There were NO locals in town to ask!

One of the top few abandoned churches I’ve been to.

However, as we lost more and more hours, we realized we had to ignore most of the abandoned stuff to get to the pretty scenes!

600-MILLIMETERS OF AWESOME!

The older I get, the more I’m becoming aware of the fragility of my entire mind and body. For too many years I’ve ignored my well-being, and this year I’m finally trying to take better care of myself (probably because America is literally falling apart, and I have to focus on things I can control).

Basically, I’m falling apart.

So last week when I went to photograph some birds, I brought along my Nikon Z8 and 180-600mm lens with the 1.4 teleconverter (a teleconverter multiplies the focal length of the lens at the cost of losing some light and sometimes quality).

This combination is just awesome. I get 45 megapixels in every frame, and even with the 1.4 TC, the photos are stunning.

However… my right arm is about to fall the F$%K off, and the pain from rotating the camera/lens up to my face is pretty bad.

It’s so stupid. After a lifetime of being “big and strong” I’m just at the point in my life where I need to take care of myself.

So… since I am the main “wildlife” photographer at KJP (Kurt Johnson Photography), I still needed something to get more wildlife.

So… enter Micro Four-Thirds and the 300mm f/4 Pro from Om-System.

It’s small… light… and totally freaking amazing.

These super-telephoto lenses compress things so well!

This might be my favorite shot of Pelicans ever. I’ve only photographed them a few times though - so yeah.

Also, how do these birds not just slam into each other?

These are BIRDS! Lots and lots of them.

The lens is awesome, but there’s a huge learning curve. It’s locked at 600mm (on Micro Four-Thirds, you double the focal length), and I’ve never had a long prime like that before.

With the 180-600 I could zoom “out” to find the bird, then zoom in to get a close shot.

Honestly, I missed 90% or more of my shots of birds in flight because I couldn’t “find” them in the sky at 600mm.

It’s a reminder that there’s always new stuff to learn!

Also, I’m thankful for a smaller, but super awesome lens.

Image Quality Versus My Old-Ass-Body

I’m very likely going to abandon my Fujifilm GFX system completely.

It’s heavy, cumbersome, and not very versatile… but the image quality is out-of-this world.

Embarrassing as it is to admit - I just don’t want to live in more pain for the rest of my life.

Like many young men, I wasn’t kind to my body. I worked in a warehouse for many years, and I was a tough guy. I’d pick up entire dressers on my back to move it to another location. Why? Because I was young and invincible.

I wish I could talk with my younger self - but you know how that would go. I’d never listen.

So fast forward to today, and I’m at a crossroads with my gear.

GFX is unmatched in image quality - but the gear just sucks to drag all over. And you need a ton of lenses with GFX since each lens is not very versatile.

With Micro Four-thirds, I’m cutting weight by a lot, but I’m also stuck at 20-25 megapixels.

Gratitude is Everything

Finally, the word of the year for me: struggle.

I’m struggling with a lot (mostly self-generated madness), so being grateful is everything.

Thanks for being here. Truly - thank you.

I don’t say it enough - but having you here matters. I’ve had a few of you reach out and ask how I was doing - man… that’s awesome.

Faith in humanity is something I don’t have right now - but you’re helping me get my feet back.

Thank you.

Also - I’m thankful for these amazing, stunningly awesome humans:

This crazy cat:

Bernie FREAKING Sanders:

And this guy right here - Kurt Johnson.