Made in Spain

This summer of 2014 I was in Spain, family and all, with a group of undergraduate students from my university.  Needless to say, I took a film body.  Again, needless to say, it was not any other Leica but the one this blog was started for: my M4-2 (and its inseparable companion, the Hexanon 35mm f2 lens). 

Here are some of the results from Madrid.

Plaza Mayor, weekly market

Custom-Made Poem, made by artist at the famous El Rastro, in Madrid.

Antique vendor in El Rastro

I just liked the textures under the intense sun in Madrid.

The lady on the bicycle saw me prefocus from a distance and smiled.

Plaza Isabel II at night (I think this was done with the lens wide open and at 1/50th or 1/30th of a second).

Light in Spain offers never ending opportunities.  Here's what I saw in Toledo during my stay.

Light leaking from a corner...

Light drawing boundaries between wall and ground.

The few times it seems to be uniform or even, one has to move fast...

It also creates beautiful effects... every day.

And I learned that nothing says "light" louder than pleasant shadows.

And nothing says weird better than shadows too!

A farewell to Toledo: night in the Plaza de Zocodover.

So, even though I'm slightly dissappointed (frankly, I expected better from myself), all in all, it could have been worse.  I learned something from this: not to repeat myself.  I don't know how many times I took the same photograph (the canopy over the street), but then... it's such a pleasant experience to do it that I may end up doing it again... and you, my brethren, my reader, will be glad to waive your finger at me and say "I told you so..."

Until then, thanks for your patience and have a very merry Christmas!

New Friend

New friend, just joined the ranks.  It's a Leica M2, anodized black (it was made in chrome silver), and in a more or less good shape.

The top looks a bit chipped.  I have repaired some of the finish with a permanent black marker, but this camera will definitely need a better, professional black paint job.

Here is the front; notice the two small screws next to the viewfinder window.  They're not original of the camera.  Let's hope it's not a banged up job of rangefinder replacement or some such thing...

By the way, these photos are not mine; the seller, Ken Hansen, took them and used them in the eBay auction in which I bid and won this camera. 

However, the camera isn't too bad of a picture taker.  I put a nice Zeiss Biogon 35mm lens on it, and then loaded it with some B&W film (which I haven't developed yet).  Later, I also used some color film with it, and here are some of the results.

Violin practice: part of our daily routine here in DeKalb.

My in-laws backyard.

The Chicago Apollo Choir, singing in front of the Art Institute, right after Thanksgiving.

Skater at Millennium Park (prefocused shot, exposure at 1/250, f4, on ISO 400 Kodak color film)

For the moment, I've yet to scan some of my film "production."  I just don't feel like scanning... because I'm afraid it's going to take forever and I won't be happy with the process or the results.  But I must try, sooner or later, and it's not like I don't have negatives...

Some time soon, this camera will leave for the Leica Spa in Oregon, WI, with Don Goldberg.  I want him to repair it or at least check it before I send it to Youxin Ye in March 2015, for its paint job.  In the meanwhile, I'll keep you guys posted!

Corners

I am not gone again, taking an three-year leave...  I'm actually busy developing film that I exposed in all of my Leicas.  I have run a number of rolls through my Ilfosol soup, but haven't scanned any yet because all the negatives are terribly curved. 

All in all, I didn't want to neglect this blog for long, so, given the response to the tilted framing question, here goes one more: let's do corners.  Here are some that I like, all made with my M4-2 and Konica Hexanon 35mm f2.

Ellwood Mansion's roof meets the blue skies of DeKalb.

Street near the main square in Woodstock, IL.

Funky mailbox at home in Prospect Street, DeKalb.

Chevrolet 1952 that used to be parked in front of a house in Lacas Street, DeKalb.  Its driveway mate was another Chevy '52, identical color and model, with the licence plate L17 9487. 

Stairs inside the Art Institute main entrance. 

And, speaking of entrances, here's a quinceañera, being photographed right in front of the Art Institute entrance on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 

These are all corners, in one way or another.  Corners are meeting points, spaces of confluence, something begins and something ends in corners; hence the roof lines (all straight) against the capricious, irregular pattern of the clouds, the corner at the end of the tilted street view in Woodstock, which is not the same corner (but a corner nonetheless) as the one with the pot mailbox.  These corners led me to think about corners of things, like the Chevy corner, made in 1952 and never driven again after some point.  Then, what do we make of all the corners in the stairs inside the Art Institute, or the corner turned by the girl who just turned 15, who is "cornered" by the photographer into posing strangely sensual, next to a lamp post?

What do you think?

Possibly more corners next time... that, or some camera porn! 

Tilted frame

Even if I have a 35mm eternally attached to most of my camera bodies (my two M5s have it, and so do my M4 and M4-2, and one of my M6TTL), not always am I able to "take it all" in the frame.  Some times I have the need to tilt the camera in order to capture what I want within the frame.

All these photographs were made with my Konica Hexanon lens, with the exception of the 4th and 5th, in which I used a Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f2.
I do like the tilting of the frame; to me, it shows a slightly different view, less conventional, a bit quirky.  Hence, I do it often, and sometimes even in vertical.  If I find the ones I have in mind, I'll post them.  In the meanwhile, let me know if you have done this, when and why.

Sometimes I use color film

Sometimes I use color film.  My favorite is Kodak Max 400.  I simply like the greens and blues it yields.  I've tried other brands (Fuji, Konica, old Ferrania) and I always returned to the big K. 

Here is the reason.

My favorite corner: Thornbrook Road meets Park St.  There's something with that fire hydrant that draws me in all the time.

The corner of State street and another street in Sycamore, IL, at night.

Still Hall in Northern Illinois University, with a very appropriate sign next to the Photographer Huskie.

Sunset, as it's seen from Thornbrook Road.  Given that this is film, I knew I'd get the orangey tones in the sky (which is where I metered, by the way).

One small variant in all these shots (in addition to the fact that they all were made in February 2014) is that I used a different focal length—which only means new lens: a Cosina Voigtländer Ultron 28mm f2.  Do I like it?  I do, but I keep it on a (new) Leica M4-P body because it has the correct framelines for it.  In this camera, I had to guess a lot, hence the absence of "excentric" (not aligned in the center) subjects.

Film crisis

Some early work with the M4-2...  All of them were made in Chicago, on December 2012, on Kodak BW400CN film, now discontinued, and with my Konica Hexanon 35mm lens. 

And this circumstance throws me the proverbial wrench; I had not bothered to develop and scan film for the longest time because of the existence of chromogenic film and thanks to 1-hour developing.  Why would anyone get in trouble developing when they do it at the drug store?

Well... Not only Kodak stopped making this film, but also my local drug store stopped working on film.  Sure, they will send the occasional roll out, but won't return the negatives and that's not what I want.  Hence, I was forced to return to my developing days, and I placed an order for Ilfosol 3, Ilford quick fix, Heico wash aid... and some Agfa APX stuff (yep, it's still around at B&H).  Let's see how things work out.  Looks like I'm going to spend a nice winter, developing and scanning some of my backlog.  

In the meanwhile, here are some images from a trip to the big city... 

Next time, framing, tilting, composition... What's your take?

How did I learn to like the 50mm lens?

The answer is easy: when I had to pair it with a new body: an M4.

I was interested in playing with a Leica M4, but the real one, the one that came out before the M4-2.  I was lucky to find one in decent shape... but didn't have the cash for another 35mm lens (which is my favorite focal length), so I took out the bag my very underused 50mm Summicron and attached it to this new body.

It was a revelation...

Here's the proof:

This is Washington Street, in Naperville, at Christmas time (1/60th, f2)

My son on a Santa Claus lap (1/15th, f2).  He got some candy...

This is Washington Street, but in Chicago (1/60th, f2)

Art Institute lion, from Chicago (1/1000th, f8-11)

I must admit now that this same M4 body has been equipped with a nice Zeiss 35mm f2 lens (in silver), and that I fell for another Zeiss lens of the same type but in black, currently attached to my M4-2.  The Summicron will return to the M4, of course.  I learned to like it, but right now... I'm having second helpings and indulging in my use of the 35mm focal length.

What's your favorite focal length?  Do you feel that it's the only creative avenue for you?  Have you "forced" yourself to use something different... just to stretch your creative muscle?

Sound off in the comments!

After a long absence...

It's been so long... and I don't want to look it up, because it's slightly embarrassing to have abandoned this blog for so long.  In any event, having these amateurish photographs stolen made me angry and blew the wind off my sails so bad that I simply didn't even want to look at this blog or share them again... ever.

But here I am anyway.  Readers or not, this will be an active blog, just the way I wanted it to be in the past.

In the meanwhile, let's get to the images:

This image is Miller St in DeKalb, IL, in early January, after a very snowy night.  Of course, I used my M4-2 and Hexanon 35 f2 lens, and Ilford XP2.

Possibly that same day, this fountain in Huntley Park, looked attractive enough to deserve a shot.

Tree shadow in my neighborhood.  I gave a two or three-stop compensation exposure (from f11 to f4), for this shot.