So nice that I visited twice.

 

There is a famous open air market in the Italian neighborhood of Montreal. It's called, "Marché Jean - Talon. It was founded in 1933 and it's been in the business of providing a marketplace for fresh produce, artisan cheeses, spices, and other great food ever since. It's well worth a visit if you are planning a trip to Montreal. Especially if you are coming from a city with no real, non-corporate grocery venues.

B. and I first went to Jean-Talon back in November of 2019. It was chilly and far outside the tourist season. There were fewer vendors but it was still a superb place to discover fresh food. And it was a delight to photograph. This time, traveling solo, I was up early and at the market the second day of my trip. I went again on a Saturday morning. Both times I made the trip from the Old Town to the market via the Metro. Very quick and efficient!

On both visits I took only one camera and one lens. The camera was the Leica M240 and the lens was the Voigtlander 50mm APO. I'd had the M240 for less than two weeks and didn't have as many opportunities to practice with it before my trip as I would have liked but I'm still very happy with many of the images I was able to capture. 

I was intent on using the wider apertures on the lens and wanted to see just how well calibrated the rangefinder mechanism is. From the results I was able to get I can say that the RF is at least as well calibrated as I needed it to be. 

I watched several photographers take images at the market. The bad ones fell into two camps: the Sneaky Petes and the immovable traffic bumps. It was obvious to everyone that the "Sneaky Petes" didn't think that they would be at all welcome to take photographs. They glanced around furtively and tried to get their photos when no one was looking their way. And not just for people shots but also even for close ups of the products. Their whole process made photography seem just a bit dicey. Like cheating on a test and just knowing/fearing they'll get caught. I can see why some photographers think people are uncomfortable with being photographed. It seems to me that the furtive shooters bring that paranoia with them and then, unwittingly, maybe unintentionally, share it with the subjects of their "stolen" images.

I get that it can be intimidating to be in a new situation and experiencing a nervousness about what the rules of engagement might be. I think the rules are pretty clear. Act like a compassionate human. Smile. Say, "Bonjour" and photograph as though it's as natural to you as breathing. If someone indicates that they don't want to be photographed I think it's always, always best to honor their wishes and not try to steal a shot. If you treat people like friends they tend to respond in kind.

The second group of photographers are just people with cameras but with no situational awareness. They see something that they think might make a good snapshot, plant their feet solidly, not taking into consideration that they might be blocking traffic, impeding commerce, etc., bring their camera with (always) a wide ranging zoom on it up to their eye, and spend way too much time zooming, refocusing, reframing and piddling around. It makes me want to yell, "Just take the damn photo!" 

Some people are very tentative about operating cameras. If you only pull out a camera for vacations/holidays and don't practice with it at any other times you can count on being slow as a turtle when it comes to "catching a moment." 

There really are no cures for slow motion photographers who are oblivious of their surroundings. I watch them sometimes while pretending that I'm viewing a YouTube video of what not to do.

I try to find things I want to photograph, wait until there is no traffic to contend with and then lean in with a preset camera and try to get a good but quick composition. To engage quickly one must trust one's own sense of immediate recognition of a good photograph appearing in the finder and then pounce. Waiting generally doesn't make things any better. first impressions mostly work best. 

But really, there were very few of the photographers I described. Most people stepped up, aimed a phone at something interesting to them, snapped and moved on. I tried to emulate their speed and approach. The insouciance imbued by the phone as camera.

One other thing for manual exposure photographers to note is that in covered spaces with uniform lighting the light intensity doesn't change much from stall to stall. That basically means that you can set an exposure and maintain it until you notice a change in the light. Automatic meters can be all over the place but one quick meter reading using a spot meter and the back of your hand as a target might be the only reading you need for good, overall manual exposure. Try it. You might find your folder full of images to be much more consistent from frame to frame than if you depend on your camera's automatic calculations. Especially so in direct sun.

I spoke with everyone whose booth I photographed. Sometimes just a quick "hello" and a smile but sometimes I asked for more details, or just asked how their day was going. It breaks down walls in both directions.

After a couple hours of browsing and smelling and looking at great food I remembered that breakfast had been a long time ago. I went by one fruit vendors stand and bought pint of blackberries. I asked the vendor to rinse them off and he was happy to comply. I walked the periphery of the market, looking at murals and graffiti as I munched through the blackberries. Half an hour later I was still hungry and found a fresh fish marketer who has a side business of making things like fish and chips. Or fried shrimp and chips. 

I ordered the fish and chips which came in a brown paper bag. I found a picnic table and sat down to a feast. The fish was wonderful but the portion of French fries was big enough to feed five people. I prioritized the fish, grazed on fries and then, with about a pound of fried potatoes left in the bag I called it "lunch over." And, well stuffed, moved on. 

It's interesting to see things like the market when the weather is near perfect, the season is still comfortable and the Saturday morning crowds are strong. I would also love to come back in January and see how different the whole vibe and visual display is when the temperatures are bitter cold and there's ice and snow all around. 

January. Might be a good time for a follow up visit. I'm betting hotel rates are so low that they pay guests just to be there.... or close to it.

The M240 made me work for the photos. There is more friction there. It's different than the times I use AF cameras with total automation. You have to put in the discipline and pay attention to get stuff you want. 

Smile. Make friends. You'll make better photographs.

don't know why but I'm in love with this images of these carrots. I will be making a print to put somewhere. Someone actually thought about composition just for display. That's nice. 

Caution!!! It's easy to screw up with an optical rangefinder camera. You have to pay attention.

There are many wonderful advantages to using rangefinder cameras; cameras with optical viewfinders. They are quick to focus, very exacting at focusing wide angle lenses. They show you, with most normal lenses (down to about 35mm) what objects are outside the frame lines which allows one to anticipate a moment better. As in: "Oh. Look there's a nude bicyclist about to enter the frame from the left. Let's make sure to get her into the frame as well...."

Most rangefinder camera shutters have fast reaction times as well. But there are several gotchas that tend to snag the less attentive user. Or those who are new to the whole optical viewfinder thing. I own a handful of Leicas but only one is an optical rangefinder camera. The others work just like all the other mirrorless/EVF cameras on the market, complete with previews in the finders. I haven't shot with an optical rangefinder camera in well over a decade but with all my previous experience what could possibly go wrong?

Well....... let me count the ways.

The image at the top of the blog post is of three people in the Jean Talon market, shopping. I had previously been photographing some close ups of food. I pulled the camera up to my eye, momentarily forgetting that the finder would show a sharp image in front of me no matter where the focus was set. I would not be looking "through the lens" and was totally responsible for focusing. But since the finder image looked sharp, and I was rushing to get the shot, I just went ahead and snapped the image. And....it was perfectly focused for close up objects...but not the objects I wanted to be focused on. Lesson one is to always focus with the rangefinder or, alternately, use careful zone focusing. Don't rely on the sharpness of the optical finder for any sort of focus confirmation. Never. Don't. 

I wanted to include an image to showcase my second caution but I was too lazy to spend time making a black, featureless frame so you'll just have to work with me and imagine that just under this type is a black rectangle. Okay?

And it would be a black rectangle if you made the same mistake I did when shooting in Montreal from time to time. On my first shot of the day I would see something fun and exciting, bring the camera to my eye, focus carefully, and then take the shot. I'd hit the "chimping" button to see what I got only to be confronted by a dark LCD. Then it dawned on me that I'd seen this problem ten, twenty and thirty years ago. I had left the lens cap on the lens. The optical finder just shows me what's in front of the camera but not what's coming through the camera. The optical finder works even if the lens doesn't.

My advice? leave the lens cap in the hotel room or take it off and put it in your pocket as you step outside the door. It's actually kind of embarrassing to have worked professionally for 45 years as a commercial photographer, bragged about the fortune I've billed for my work, and then to have that kind and patient person I've asked to photograph remind me that my lens cap is still on the lens.....

Yes. Embarrassing.

This exquisite portrait of a Tim Horton's, extra large coffee cup (not mine) is a good way to illustrate my last point about the vagaries of rangefinder cameras. As above, when you set the lens on your camera to f2.0 and shoot up close the finder will still show everything in the frame as being sharp. You have no confirmation that the background will be rendered into a silky warm bath of bokeh until you stop and review the file you've already taken. 

By the same token if you comped the same scene and wanted everything in focus and set f16 as your aperture you still have no way to preview the actual effect, you can only check in after the fact to review it. 

The finder is neutral to issues of depth of focus and depth of field. It's all on all the time. 

Remembering these key issues will help you minimize your frustration. I wish I had written this and then read it before stepping out on day one of my trip and making each and every one of these common rangefinder camera mistakes. 

One good point for optical viewfinders = they'll keep you focused on your game or slap you down hard. 

Just sayin.