Days in the life of Snowy (aka Snowy World Tour)
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Well, was back out on the streets again, certainly a little more cocky than I should have been. Crawl Walk Run. For at least an hour I was shooting 100% manual, other than ISO. Turns out it was too bright for even the minimum ISO, so for the 2 shots where I actually asked people for their photo (more for focus practice), both were totally washed out. Back to auto shutter speed for me for the moment. I am slowly getting the zone-metering down, 2 or 3 of the shots below were shot without any focus, based on the idea that I'd locked the distance/zone in.
A lot further to go, still getting there. Need to keep my head in the game and keep with the 35mm, getting distracted with the idea that I'd get more candid shots if I moved to 75 or 90mm. On the other side I'd lose most other forms of shots I take, so need to keep on the 35.
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cool, didn't know you had the Leica buddy @Snowy great shit, no matter what! the actual way to look at situations is what it's all about…no matter what camera/lens! looks like you're having that as well as the right gear to capture it!
great work so far buddy!@finn666 if this tells you anything about the Ricoh, Jesse Lirola is picking one up and I know you like his work.
well that def. tells me enough mate @derivative666, thanks!
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Great eye for detail Wade, very nice.
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Sushi Train for lunch and a bit more location scouting. Taking photos at an airport this close to a plane being shot down was probably not my finest moment. Had 3 security guards keeping watch on me, the 3rd of which moved me along as I was packing up. Was on public/legal grounds, but doesn't mean the rent-a-cops won't go me. Over the years I've been moved along from many many places for taking photos. From national monuments, to oil refinery car parks.
(this is meant to feel a little off)
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Sushi Train for lunch and a bit more location scouting. Taking photos at an airport this close to a plane being shot down was probably not my finest moment. Had 3 security guards keeping watch on me, the 3rd of which moved me along as I was packing up. Was on public/legal grounds, but doesn't mean the rent-a-cops won't go me. Over the years I've been moved along from many many places for taking photos. From national monuments, to oil refinery car parks.
well thanks to all these incidents happening nowadays, photographers doing real photography for a hobby and such are being treated as some sort of terrorist now. people tend to get all suspicious thinking that we are scouting our next target.
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Today was spent getting things in order for Mrs Snowy. Between that and traffic, today was pretty much so a write off. Neck has been really stiff, unexpectedly, for the past few days as well; kind of annoying.
Found some time around dusk to get out.
Unsure as to tomorrow's plans. Swim is about the only certainty
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Sat down by the water today, listening to philosophy lectures, and catching up on some reading.
This guy is a mega baller, fairly sure he either owned the boat, or the apartment across from it or both over-hearing his conversations.
Flat Iron, Sydney style (snapped in car on way home)
These chips are far better than they sound. Generally only avaliable in Japan AFAIK, found a stockist last night in the CBD, not cheap, but so good.
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Text time. So almost a month with the camera and I think I'm slowly starting to understand how to operate it. The freedom of a range finder is really nice, and is something that I feel gives more control, but less hassle/guessing. I know what/where will be in focus before the trigger is pulled.
The other side of street shots using zone metering seems to also be coming along. Still taking a while to see the 35mm frame in my head when pressing the button am now getting around 10-20% hits full candid (like above 3 sets of people).
Starting to feel like the Leica is the right system for my style.
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Pics are looking great Snowy.
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@Finn666 from what I recall from when we were chatting over a year ago you've shot 50mm for a long period of time also. I know I can always drop a 50mm on and will have no issues learning how to shoot it. The reason why I went 35mm in the end was to enable more building/people in front of building style shots. 50mm is just too close for that; you always chop part of a building off in a normal street. With 35mm I can always crop the shot afterwards, if I start too close, I can never get it back. Zooms, my Canon 24-70mm L is a beast of a lens, and it basically never comes of the 6D, but it's just so heavy, not good for travel or street, which is what I'm re-learning for. The Ricoh you're looking at will make a great travel camera for sure.
@Hereforthebeer ; thanks.
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Bit of a mixed bag this weekend. Was struggling to pick the camera up. Thankfully the Leica is easy to just have out/about than an SLR, but still found myself in the mood of not wanting to capture what I was seeing when it was out, and composing images when I'd put it away. This kind of 'mental game' can really do my head in with photography. Depending on how bad it gets I can put a camera down for literally years, and have done so 4x previously over the last 16 or so years. The Leica does help; the less clinicality and more present form of shooting due to the RF engages me differently once the camera is in front of my eye.
Technically I feel like I'm starting to get pretty close to where I was before changing systems. Biggest limitation in that regard is I'm still taking the same composition/framing as I was in an SLR for the most part. When I'm not, I'm placing my conceptions of what a Leica Photo should be like ahead of taking a photo with a Leica. Candid street shots, I'm getting the hang of, focus I've got, shutter speed still alluding me a bit, but the direction is good also.
Mixed bag, as I said.
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Adjusting the color balance over the week from custom to day, seems to have given me the color palette I was trying to get which is great. I'm constantly impressed by how sharp the lens is at low apertures (the cactus is @ f3.4) and how lovely the bokeh is. It's random shots like today's that make me happy that I gave myself the opportunity to really learn Leica and get my head around it. It is different, and I'm still a long way sure as to what I'll get out of it before pressing the button, however, I like how it does it's thing. Having taking the SLR out about an hour before hand for a few shots, my faith continues to be renewed in Leica.
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Love your pics, Snowy. Some, to me, have decidedly an Edward Hopper sort of quality, a quite melancholy beauty not free of elements of decay. But hey, I love hard decay in denim, too!
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^Thanks! I'm still trying to 'shake up' my eye a bit and go for less rigidity in my shots. evolution/decay in the world is something that catches my eye. I try see out-of-place-ness and discordant shots; hard to see what is either naturally invisible or feels difficult to see. Raises the question of "what's so special about that photo?" The answer is nothing, which is by design, which leads to the question to what is going about, why is this on display. That is the question I am trying to ask and answer in the shot. A slower kind of photography based on every day normal observation. The ordinary, even decayed, that is truly special.
