Daily Practice.

When I need to tighten up my photo techniques I reach for an M rangefinder.

It isn't quite as easy as the big mirrorless cams or the tiny compacts.

You have to pay attention. Lots of attention.

I felt lazy yesterday. And the allergies (Austin is famous for them--and their intensity) had my sinuses buzzing. I spent some time re-reading "The Great Gatsby" (a great re-visiting for our current times) and when I couldn't stand the physical inaction anymore I gave up comfortable sloth on a comfy chair for a walk down South Congress Avenue. Partly to get out of the house and mostly to look at stuff and try to get better at photography while using a rangefinder camera. Plus, I fear I put on one extra pound in Santa Fe (Thank you, Pasqual's....) and thought now would be a good time to walk it off. I try to keep my weight right at 160 pounds. It's a good weight for swimming and if I can maintain it then I can still wear pants I bought back in college...that's a bonus.

Working with a rangefinder camera (a true rangefinder camera) is different than working with a mirrorless, EVF camera. The edges of the frame are less certain. With older cameras, like the ones I own, the exposure metering is a bit less precise, and the files have less dynamic range so saving an image I screw up while shooting is, at best, iffy. Also, the immediate feedback loop is less valuable since the older rear screens are hardly state of the art...

I tend to go out with only one lens at a time when the photography is for me and not for a client. My usual preference is to use a 50mm lens though I am trying to get more comfortable with 35mm and 28mm lenses. It takes time. At least for me it does.

I've played around with lots of Leica M series rangefinder cameras, both digital and film. I seem to have settled on the M240 cameras because they are accessible, price wise, have all the features I want and have a battery (and battery life) that seems to last forever. I've stopped even thinking about grabbing a second battery to put in my pocket when I go out because I can be shooting for hours and still come back with an 85-90% charge left on the in-camera battery. It's comforting. It feels the way battery usage felt in the film days. It's one less variable to consider. One fewer line on the mental checklist. 

When I went out to shoot I selected one of my favorite M series 50mm lenses. It's the Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Planar ZM version. Being made for rangefinder cameras it's small, doesn't draw attention to itself but at the same time feels dense and well made. Even wide open the lens is sharp and contrasty. Many users find it's a bit too contrasty; almost brittle. But my sloppy handheld technique, for all of its faults does a good job at taking the hard edge off the images. I have used both this 50mm lens and also the Voigtlander 50mm APO Lanthar lens on SL2 cameras, via adapters. I tested them both with the big camera mounted on a tripod and both lenses, even at f2.0, are just superb. If they have a flaw it's the same flaw you see on most M lenses from 21mm to 50mm and that's vignetting. It's not "out of control" but the darkening of the corners when using the lenses wide open is there.

A week or so ago I spent several days embedded in a large group of bankers and finance people doing what I've done for decades. Taking candid and posed photographs of many, many people in a short amount of time. Making friends quickly. I really enjoy being in the middle of large groups of like minded folks and being at a conference confers permission to get in close and take photographs without worrying about how someone is going to feel if I temporarily violate their personal space by a smidgen. It's also great practice for focusing quickly, framing even quicker, and making good use of flash. 

When I was doing jobs like this; conferences, etc. all the time it felt natural and easy to work through a crowd and make portraits and group photos. But since I've initiated the "glide path" to commercial retirement these sorts of shoots are only getting done for the clients I always loved working with the most. So we're down to doing this sort of work only five or ten times a years. If that. And what that means goes back to the idea of consistent practice making work easier. When I am "out of practice" it takes a bit of time to warm up and get into a productive groove. 

At the other side, after working an event for a couple of days non-stop, I find that I need more time to wind down afterwards. So, when I went out shooting for myself yesterday I wasn't looking for fast moving subjects, interesting people and quickly forming (and dissolving) photo opportunities. 

I wanted the camera in my hands but I wanted to set a pace that felt like "vacation." A slow and comfortable ramble rather than a frantic Easter Egg Hunt. I've gotten comfortable using Auto-ISO with the rangefinder M240 cameras. I protect the highlights by shooting with the exposure compensation set to minus two thirds of a stop. I set the shutter speed to 1/500th outdoors and 1/60th indoors and usually work around f5.6 for outdoors and f2.0 for indoors. Then I let the camera decide how it wants to handle metering. There is one flaw with this method and the above mentioned camera. The M240 doesn't have an electronic shutter option so one is limited to 1/4,000th of a second as the fastest shutter speed. It's also limited to a low ISO of 200 -- not 100 or 50.  If it's bright sun outside and I want to shoot at f5.6 I'll often run out of low ISO too quickly. Stuff gets overexposed. When that happens I'll move to 1/1,000th and above and also adjust the aperture to get even more wiggle room. There's always f8 in a pinch.

I know the merchants at the hat store and the boot stores don't mind if I come in and make photographs of their products but I always ask anyway. No one has ever said, "No." And it takes away the fear that you'll be snapping away only to be stopped by an angry shopkeeper. It's a way of keeping focus on the photography instead of worrying about "getting caught." Permission goes a long way to make taking the photos more fun...

Walking up and down one of the prime shopping streets in the S.W. is fun and reminds me that not everyone is broke and suffering. Some people can afford whatever they want. And the crowds buying $300 cowboy hats and $1,000 boots on a Saturday and Sunday can be amazing. Often, I'll also sit at Jo's Coffee and watch the parade of young men loudly show off their prize, new cars. Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and various Japanese hot rods. I'll spy a new Porsche GTS 111 and wonder how the twenty-something driver can afford the six figure price tag that comes with the car. And I wonder even more at their willingness to spend a fortune on insurance. But whatever makes them happy...

One funny thing, though. When I drag around a big Leica SL2 and a cool lens I never get a second glance, much less a comment. But when carrying around an old M digital camera I get stopped at least once or twice on every urban walk by people who want to know whether the camera is film or digital. 

It's certainly got a look of its own. 

The walk was good and fun. People out shopping always look happier to me than people heading in to work. As I have gotten older with hair that skipped gray and went straight to white, I sense that people have become more benevolent and courteous to me, and my camera. I'm sure they posit that I can't be serious. Or at all dangerous. I must be a retired dude strolling through the street in full tourist mode. And that's more than fine. Any reduction of process fiction is welcome. 

Gliding through the streets with a camera and no agenda, no goal, and no time schedule is refreshing. Even more so after a big event where I needed to be "on" for hours at a time. I like both sides of the coin. I guess I'm just lucky that way....

What am I reading right now? I finished "The Great Gatsby". It was short and fun. It stands up well. I'm now on to a re-read of "The Sun Also Rises" and enjoying Hemmingway's brisk writing style all over again. Next up is "Death in the Afternoon." There's something about 2025 that has me dredging up old classics. The early 20th century certainly sounded like it could be fun ---- if you were rich and carefree.

Do you like poetry? Some only read non-fiction but I think not appreciating poetry is akin to a vitamin deficiency that gives one literature scurvy. If you like poetry you might like the latest book of poems by Billy Collins. It's wonderful. Just sayin.