A few years back there was a magazine in Austin called, Texas Life. It was a bold upstart that intended to go toe to toe with the heavyweights like, Texas Monthly. They ran out of money and in a matter of months were gone. But while they were rolling we did a lot of photography for them. At one point we did a fashion-y piece about the outdoor life in central Texas. Fishing, hiking, taking a long swims in cool streams...that kind of thing.
I photographed these two models using my favorite camera and lens of the moment. A Leica R8 with a 180mm Elmarit Lens. These are from e-6 slides scanned on the Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner. It's a different look...
The Leica R series cameas and lenses never got the press that the M series does. Probably the more conservative and traditional body put it directly in competition with the much less expensive Canon and Nikon flagships. Kinda tough to justify spending twice as much for the tool...unless they are better.
The Leica R series cameas and lenses never got the press that the M series does. Probably the more conservative and traditional body put it directly in competition with the much less expensive Canon and Nikon flagships. Kinda tough to justify spending twice as much for the tool...unless they are better.
9 comments:
Forgot to mention that we were using the natural light on location with no modifications. Just thought you'd like to know.
I really like the 3rd shot of the couple. Beautiful lighting.
I never looked closely at the Leica slr, but our local camera shop (back in the '70s) carried the Contax RTS that I use to lust after.
But...being easily twice as much as a nikon, I bought the Pentax MX, then the Nikon FM w/ md-12 instead.
Beautiful colors! Kodachrome?
E-6 was the ektachrome process if I remember right.
Kirk you are getting me motivated to get one of these Epsom scanners to scan in some of my Hasselblad chromes and negatives. I had been thinking about it for a long time but wasn't sure if the quality would be good enough without spending at least $750 on the v750.
I may spring for the v600 based on your successes with it. But first I need to get me one of those OMD E-5s. Got one located just need to get the cash together before it's gone.
Though in all fairness, the R8 and R9 were far from conventional and conservative bodies (unlike the rest of the "R" line) !!
Don't understand your point either Damen if I'm honest. :-)
The R8/9 is about as conventional as it gets I'd say for a MF SLR. The shape of the body is a bit different granted. Did you mean the addition of using one with the DMR attached maybe?
I sure know I miss my R8, the 50mm R Summicron mounted on that is every bit as good as it's M counterpart in my opinion. Why did I ever sell it? It was a heavy lump admitted,you could beat someone half to death with an R8!
Nice photos, but as a Texan who fly-fishes (bluegill on a 4wt is a blast) I don't get the fashion-y thing. Fish don't care if you are wearing a shirt from Patagonia and waders from Simms, or old bluejeans and a t-shirt. Sort of like the way some flies and lures are made to catch fishermen (their wallets) rather than fish. :-)
Mike, I think fishing is boring. Much more interesting to take photos of models in clean clothes.
Ah yes - I was referring primarily to the infamous "Hunchback of Notre-Dame" styling (the lowest drag coefficient of any Leica SLR as tested in Porshe's wind tunnels and along the Nurbigring), which wasn't conventional and conservative to my way of thinking. The ability to use film as well as digital was certainly unique in a non-medium format camera. Probably the fact that I was even thinking primarily of the styling proves my point to be wrong, as even that was probably more "revolutionary ... for a Leica" than anything else.
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