busting away from shallow depth of field and trying to get more detail in the frame.
It's something I thought I'd try.
It was raining earlier this morning but when I got out for a walk with an SL and a 35mm lens the sun had burst through the clouds and the high temperature for the day was around 72°
Too hot for the light jacket I brought with me.
I worked mostly at f8 - f11 today. Manual exposure. Riding the shutter speed dial.
ISO set at 400. I found myself liking the lens but wishing it had a non-focus-by-wire manual focus capability because at f11 it could certainly be a candidate for hyperfocal focusing.
Or guess focusing. Or, as has become common use: "zone focusing."
Then I realized that the SL will show you exactly the point of focus numerically in the window on the top panel of the camera, as well as the minimum distance and maximum distances that will be in acceptable focus. I tried it at ten feet and it worked!!! You put a slight pressure on the shutter
release while you manually focus the lens. You can see a digital read out right in
front of your eyes. And it works.
Now...back to the studio for more work on two upcoming portraits. Gotta get dialed back in.
This is a Jpeg right out of the camera. I darkened it a bit. This is how my SL sees daylight
monochrome. I like it.
Dear God, I hate pick-up trucks. Will you please destroy them all in the upcoming
apocalypse? That would be nice. Anything you can do sooner, specifically to
pick-up trucks, would be welcome....
A funny sign on a bench out in front of a tattoo studio.
Really? Maybe not...
When an ADA ramp is the most interesting thing to photograph on a given
day it might be time to take a break from downtown and find a new
extension to my photographic hobby....
Last night I met Tom. He owns Bergen Camera in New Jersey.
His store is a huge Leica dealer. Their showroom is a stone's
throw from Leica's North American H.Q.
He was really interesting because his first passion isn't Leica
cameras it's collecting fine art photography. And shooting
photographs.
My Austin friend, David, showed up at the same party.
He was sporting a Leica Q2 "Ghost" edition camera
and had a small flash on the top. I looked at his "party pix."
Flash and camera worked flawlessly together.
Imagine that. Using what most consider a "collector's item" Leica as
a daily carry camera and banging away at a party with it.
Not all Leica Ghost owners are collectors or dentists....
David is quite an accomplished film maker but since
I'm not his agent I won't bother mentioning anything else...
I've been surprised that Leica doesn't promote the outdoor flash advantages of the leaf shutter on the Q. I'm curious what brand of "small flash" your friend used with his Q. The Leica branded units are very expensive. Any chance you would demonstrate some synched-sunlight/flash photos shot with your Q2?
ReplyDeleteThank you!
David
Hi David, I'll find out about my friend's flash. And doing some sync with the Q2 is definitely on my list.
ReplyDeleteI put some of my serious art photography on the market recently, if you want to send Tom a link, little books at the moment, I was thinking about branching out into prints, I've been wondering where the collectors hang out online, it's all corralled at commutergraphics.co.uk at present.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the Leica Flash Unit for D-Lux (Typ 109) & D-Lux 7 will work on the Q2. For only $75, if all you need is a little fill flash every now and then this might be the ticket.
ReplyDeleteGregg Toland used "deep focus " on Citizen Kane. This allows the audience to discover things in the background. Some of today's movie makers think that the audience is so stupid that they can't handle "deep focus."
ReplyDeleteDang. Re: "the SL will show you exactly the point of focus numerically in the window on the top panel of the camera, as well as the minimum distance and maximum distances that will be in acceptable focus." I was shooting landscapes with the "old" Pen F with in manual focus just yesterday wondering why camera makers didn't do this or simply give me a button-assignable hyper-focus function. Seems like the camera already knows all the pieces of the equation.
ReplyDeleteI bought my Q2 in March 2019 from Bergen Camera, my 45-min drive "local" camera store. That was my gateway drug into the Leica world. My bank account is not happy...though I am! Thanks, Tom!
ReplyDeleteWe have tons of pickups in Santa Monica. We call our pickup owners "urban rednecks."
ReplyDelete