The "quiet" photographs are harder to show well on the web. But I really like them best.

 

I love this restaurant window. There are a lot of layers to the photograph. The wine bottles and the little credit card machines in the foreground. The deep interior of the restaurant on the right side of the frame; behind the bottles. The women on the left seemingly caught in the middle of conversation. And the reflection of the photographer at the top left of the frame. 

Capturing situations like this in the soft, evening light isn't as gripping as weird poses, intense saturation, inarticulate lighting or half naked young adults but I think it speaks to the quiet rhythm of life. 

A quick shot with a Leica Q2.

Each of these has lots of detail and delicate colors. Try to look at them on a big screen, if possible.

Thanks!  Kirk

I'm pretty sure I was supposed to photograph all of these spaces with a wide angle lens. So I used the Q2.

When I travel by myself for the singular pleasure of taking photographs for no good reason I always try to put together a "wish list" or "tentative agenda" for each day. I rarely put more that five things on my list but I'm generally happy if I get around to actually completing three. Sometimes the first thing on your list turns out to be a gold mine of fun and visual stimulation and in those cases I think you'd be a bit insane to want to abandon that and compulsively move on with your check list. 

The list is more a motivational device meant to move you from that quiet moment of enjoying a just delivered latté from the balcony of your hotel room out onto the streets and, if you are in a hurry, into the Metro. My list for one day in Montreal might include: 1. Marché Jean-Talon. 2. Climb up Mt. Royale. 3, Go to the big plaza called The Esplanade. (It's a vast outdoor space that connects all of Place des Arts' show venues at the Quartier des Spectacles. It's an immense public gathering space at the heart of the Quartier des spectacles).  4. See all the Metro stations. 5. Have dinner at Au Pied de Cochon (I skipped the "duck in a can" and ordered the pork shank....).

But the understanding is that I'm not wed and bound to go to all of the spots on the list. They are by way of suggestions. One that particular day I did the first two things on the list and then went totally off script and explored neighborhoods. But the list was there if I came up short.

I did go out one day to see Metro stations. I was inspired by a young YouTuber/Photographer named Yvonne Hanson who went around to see which Metro stations she thought were most architecturally interesting. Seemed like a good project to me so I gave it a try. Since the entirety of a morning would be spent traveling through tunnels, corridors and medium sized stations I thought I'd ditch the M240 and depend solely on the Q2 for the morning. It was a good choice. I guess "wide" is generally a good choice for the interior spaces of industrial locations. 

Since the whole Metro/Mass transportation thing is mostly novel and unknown to Central Texans, who are near wholly dependent on their cars and trucks I didn't have a real handle on how to shoot this particular topic so I did what photographers everywhere do; I winged. 

Traveling around with just the Q2 is really freeing. The 28mm takes some getting used to but it's a sweet lens and sharp everywhere. With a nearly 50 megapixel sensor and the crop lines for 35mm, 50mm and even 75mm you can punch in and see how your composition will look and then, in post your can crop down to the exact parameters you saw initially in the finder. Sure, cropping to the 15 megapixels of the 50mm frame or the 7.5 megapixels of the 75mm frame isn't going to be optimal for the making of large prints but for web use, and when under composition duress, it's nice to have options --- or at least guides. Optical "training wheels?"

I've been on Metros in Rome, Paris, Berlin, London and NYC and I think Montreal has the very best system. No trash, no graffiti, no bad smells, no pushy crowds and very helpful staff. Every ride was perfect. I will admit I don't think I'll ever sneak shots of people in the train cars. Doesn't seem fair. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Not my cup of cappuccino. 

The Q2 and the M240 with the 50mm make a nice combo. Just wish they both took the same battery type. That would be so cool. 

Several people asked me just how sharp the Voigtlander 50mm APO-Lanthar is when used at its close focusing distance on an M series camera....

 

I posted a visual response. The TL:DR?  It's more than sharp enough for me....

Voigtlander 50mm APO-Lanthar, handheld on a Leica M240, close in. The lens is one of my absolute favorites and was my most used lens on my recent photo adventure in Canada.

My final summation?   I'd buy it again. And again.

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. 

 

Montreal has everything. Even mannequins....

Seen in the Old Town...

A "Poor Man's" Leica Monochrom. Canadian adventures in black and white. Oops! I meant Monochrome.... (someone asked....).

 

the artist at work. Does the Intercontinental Hotel have nice restrooms?

Indeed they do. 

After getting my fabulous diploma certifying that I had indeed graduated from the University of Texas at Austin I threw away all the valuable knowledge I had gained over my seven long years of disciplined studies in several fields and became.....a photographer. Believe me. That had never been my plan.

My goal at the time was to make images like the Life Magazine photographers of the 1950s and 1960s. Grainy, gray collages of detail layered over out of focus backgrounds with both a sharpness and a softness the intersection of which remains, to the this day, indescribable. Alas, it turned out that I was not a natural artist. I had to find my way through photography like I've found my way through nearly everything else in this life. By putting my shoulder to the grindstone and pushing relentlessly. I had (have?) no natural sense of composition and my ability to combine colors is almost laughably poor. Seems the only natural ability bestowed upon me by the fates, the gods or happenstance is the ability to doggedly pursue a task or a craft until I have achieved some measure of competency. And then to go on trying year after year to knock the rough edges off my skills. 

While some "artists" and "writers" seem to love to trot out and confess to all the bad decisions they've made in life; perhaps in order to forgive themselves for some innate sloth or infection of procrastination, I have no big dramas caused by poor analytical decision making to fall back on as fodder for the blog. Or to excuse my photography. I've never been divorced. Never fired from a job. Never bankrupt (still time though....). Never suffered from disease, obesity or addiction. In fact, from my point of view, it's been pretty much smooth sailing. 

I guess the smooth journey and a life as an eccentric artist are mutually exclusive. Perhaps I should take a workshop in eccentricity just to see if anything sticks. I always read stories of the tortured artists, or the painters and writers tormented by their own devils. I'm always fascinated by the dysfunction. While my big conundrums have revolved around questions like: which jobs to accept and which to turn down? Or, what to have for dinner? Or, is a rollover to a Roth IRA a good move in a down economy? (yes!). Or, should I bring home some flowers for B.? (the answer is always "yes"). 

by the same token....

Some people seem to have a natural ability to make great black and white images right out of whatever digital camera they may have in hand at the moment. I'm more plodding. More of an endless "trial and error" guy. But part of my mindset is that while I may not have a natural ability to conjure exactly the right tones on demand I can nearly always put my own super power of doggedly concentrating on trial and error until I have something just right. Or as just right as I can get it. And on every adventure I try to put aside some time just to experiment. To try to get closer to what the cool guys are able to do. 

I know that some are very successful shooting in color, in raw, and then using the majestic power of post production software to convert the images into glorious black and whites. I lack that talent. And, I like to see the images as they'll turn out by looking at the rear screen of the camera --- just to be sure I got something right.

I've tried the "black and white" settings on Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony and Leica cameras and there is a difference. I think most camera makers just default to the process of removing the color saturation to make a monochrome file. The Leicas I've used seem to alter the color filtering characteristics of the shot when set to black and white. It's like a head start. 

Some black and white aficionados seem to prefer an endless range of tones from "just subtly black" to the "vaguest hint of detail" highlights and mostly gray, gray, gray in between. Nice for 1960s, 1970s landscapes but not quite my cup of tea. Certainly not my cup of double espresso. I want "bite" in my black and white images. 

When I use any of my various Leica camera models for black and white I start by switching to Jpegs. You can set the camera to show black and white while shooting raw but when you get into the processing stage the image shows all the color. I want the image to maintain its original integrity all the way through. So I choose the least compressed Jpeg file setting. Then I engage the "black and white" setting in the profiles. 

I think the standard B&W profiles, in all cameras, are all too flat so I increase the contrast setting. In Leicas there are only three basic contrast settings: zero, +1 and +2. Of course you can always decrease contrast by the same amounts but who would want to do that??? I add the snap of +1. I find plus two to be over the top. 

If there's a lot of detail in the subject matter I also nudge the sharpness setting up to +1. I'll live just fine with the occasional halo. 

When I pull the files into Lightroom (my fave) the only big move I make to tweak the files is to move the clarity slider over to +20. This increases contrast in the mid-range, where files need it the most. If you are one of those "long tonal range" folks you'll likely want to ignore every single word of this working methodology. If you try it you might burn your eyes from the snap and happiness of the files. But I'm here to tell you that to my way of seeing photographs treated this way are much better for web use.

Flat, low contrast files always remind me of the early days of digital when people mistakenly tried using super-wide gamut profiles like ProPhotoRGB for web and inkjet print work with the faulty idea that any of the other profiles would just be throwing away huge parts of the color space. Nope, the smaller profiles better fit the final outputs. Too big a gamut made everything look flat, pale and muddy. 

I output everything as an sRGB file. It's more or less universal for web use. But it will change. It's not locked in forever. 

Here are some samples I shot one evening with the Leica M240 set up as I described.  And, yes, you can focus a rangefinder in low light. Maybe better than your cameras can AF. Just a thought.

Not in a museum but in the public spaces of the Underground City. RESU.

Along with a big, endless horizon pool.