Sunny Avila, then Salamanca

From Toledo we made our way to Avila, via Madrid.  By train, Avila is a couple of hours away and on the way to Salamanca. It's a beautiful walled city, relatively untouched, but sophisticate enough to offer to a traveler bits of history, folklore and enjoyment.  We enjoyed a remarkably sunny weather, which helped created these images (again, Leica M4-P with an Elmarit 28mm f2.8).

Legs, sunny Plaza Mayor in Avila (cropped)

Selfie in the Plaza Mayor, Avila

At the Mercado in Avila

Bar hardware, street in Avila

Lady back from shopping and walking across the Plaza Mayor

Bar, near Plaza Mayor

Tourists in front of the Avila cathedral

 

 

Photo above... from a café in Salamanca that was next door to our hotel (this place served excellent food).  Not a whole lot in terms of privacy, but then, during the summer and eating at a restaurant terrace, privacy is rather hard to get. More with the same rig, but this time from the college town of Salamanca, some distance away from Avila and far more populous and active. 

ATM line in Salamanca. Almost only women...

Popular place for a bocadillo or snack: Viandas de Salamanca offers bocadillos de jamón, queso and both. Their answer to American fast food... but faster and better.

I am really happy this image turned out. So much that I may have posted it before. Dancers in Salamanca's Plaza Mayor.  In case you care, the exposure was 1/8 at f2.8 on Kenmere ISO film.

Young lady assessing her shopping choices in Salamanca

On the way to the river Tajo, one finds this corner that tends to create a dramatic contrast at almost any time of the day.  I wonder if this building existed in the Lazarillo's day...

Here we are for now.  If I don't find any more images from Spain, I promise to post something new, be it local (from DeKalb) or from any other trip.  Who knows, I still have a nice inventory of images from the M4-2 and its Hexanon. In the meantime, feel free to comment, share, gossip or guffaw. 

Spain through the wide angle

I am back from Spain, from surgery, from a long hiatus... and ready to post some photographs taken with my Leica M4-P, and an Elmarit 28mm f2.8, in Spain, during the summer of 2018 (quite a while ago!).

First of all, I must say I'm not much of a 28mm shooter.  It's too wide for my taste, and I find that I'm wasting a lot of the frame in every photograph.  Granted, I want some atmosphere in my photos, but I'm not entirely able to do what I want, and enjoy it, with this lens. 

See for yourselves...

 

Calle de la Trinidad

Locals in the Ayuntamiento Plaza

 

People in the Ayuntamiento Plaza

 

Texting while walking down Sto Tomé (with Konica 90mm f2.8 lens)

 

Shopping for souvenirs on Calle Sto Tomé

Girl and her family on street

 

Chispita, the dog, and her owner

 

Steps of the Iglesia de San Ildefonso

  

Performer in front of Alex Restaurant

Toledo cat (with a Konica 90mm f2.8 lens)

Of course, I will add more shots later, from other places I visited in this trip.  For now, these come from Toledo, during my first week.  Again, thanks to the light, a lot of these images were shot with very small aperture on relatively slow film (Kenmere ISO 100).  

Until the next upload!

Montmartre, Rive Gauche... neighborhoods or theme parks?

During the time I spent in Paris in 2017, I went to Montmartre, the quintessential Parisian neighborhood, home to renegades, artists, and renegade artists.  While I walked there (as much as I could, considering my impaired ankles) I wondered to what extent is the survival and identity of this area turned it into a kind of theme part about Paris in the 19th century.  Any ideas?  Take a look...

The carrousel that one meets upon exiting Abbesses, the metro station at the foot of the Montmartre hill.  It is, indeed, the Montmatre carrousel.

 

Poster store at the butte de Montmartre. 

Artist at work near the Place du Tertre.  He's not the only one in Montmatre.

Just as idealized as Montmartre is the Left Bank or Rive Gauche, with a number of spots that evoke (or rather scream) "Hey, this is an old place!"  From façades to cafés and park benches, there's an air of old things... But it is by no means something to dismiss. 

Gates of the Hotel de Ville. 

Street performer on the Ponte d'Arcole, a block away fron Nôtre Dame.  He's an unwilling prop in this strange museum... or just making a living?

Window corner of a building near the Ponte d'Arcole.  

Selfie takers at the Ponte d'Arcole, whose presence and attitudes only contribute to turn the place into a weird theme park... of sorts.

Now, both places have their very distinct areas and features.  Here's something from Montmartre.

People on the steps at the feet of Sacre Coeur.

One of the many stores and eateries in the windy streets around the basilique.  The "frogs"... 

Tables and a lone city hiker.

This air pervades the whole town... Is that the reason for its appeal?

Place de la République Dominicaine near Parc Monceau.  Those beautiful, impressive buildings exude old fashioned class...

This is the Café Courcelles, in the boulevard of the same name, at a place where two more streets meet.

The reason for the flags is that here, at the Passage des Ateliers, there's a flag making store (in addition to a wine bar and restaurant, and a few artists ateliers).

Whatever the answer, the city's charms remain unquestioned.  Perhaps it is always appealing because of its size, which seems adequate to human proportions and never overwhelms its visitors (no matter how large its museums and other places may be).  

In any case, as if it were necessary to say but I still want to add it, all the images above were made with a Leica M4, a Zeiss Biogon 35mm f2 lens, and a Sekonic L-208 meter in hand on Kenmere ISO 100 film (and, if not, Ilford FP4).

Cartagena in 2010 with a Leica M5

Back in 2010 I went to Cartagena, Colombia, to a conference, and brought back some six rolls of film with a number of images. Here are some of them...

At nights, life doesn't stop, and people get hungry and buy food from street vendors like this lady.

If I remember correctly, this spot is called Plaza Bolívar, and it's one of the many in which dancers of African music gather to display their skills. 

Another view of Plaza Bolívar.

During the day, right after the rain, the streets show a particular brightness... and the air is still as humid as a thick, damp towel.

The Plaza del Reloj is the gathering point for candy makers, some of whose production is weird but delicious and hard to describe. 

My Leica M5 performed great under the circumstances (hot and humid environment). I had a Nokton 35mm f1.4 lens, which together with Arista/Agfa ISO 400 worked wonders in low light.  However, it wasn't skimpy with details.  Look here...

I still have evidence of what this camera and film combination can do under the conditions I was (high temperatures and humidity). Considering the sudden changes it was subjected to every time we returned to our hotel or went to a restaurant (high air conditioned areas), this 1971 body turned to be resilient and tough... and still turned nice exposures. Right now, a few years later, I am concerned about its meter, but otherwise, the camera is still going strong.
 
Soon enough we'll see some more samples of Cartagena, and perhaps more from Toledo.  Let's see what happens first.  In the meantime, I must go back to work, but the photographic-gear stories never end! 

Leica M4-P

Even though it can be considered just another variation of the M4 model (along with the M4-2), the M4-P precedes the M6 (second metered Leica) by just a few years.  It was issued in 1980, and its appeal came from the fact that it included the framelines for a 28mm lens.  Previous bodies didn't have this feature, and photographers had to use external viewfinders in order to compose and frame photographs when using this particular focal length.

I bought one copy off the auction site for an incredibly affordable price because the seller erred on the side of sincerity, and the camera didn't sound too appealing to those not willing to compromise.  When it came, I was surprised at how well taken care it was.  Shortly afterwards I got another 28mm lens (mentioned below), and set out to shoot away.  Here are some results.

Corner of Wabash and Wells Streets, Chicago.  Lines... all over...

Corner of more lines, down Washington St (right past Wells).

Lamps inside the Chicago Lyric Opera. 

Then, we have these ones:

Aprés l'opera...

Shadows and bicycles in campus.

The Kishwaukee tree. 

I am fully aware that these are not breathtaking views, but they were all done with my M4-P and an Ultron 28mm f2.  I think these two are made for each other... even though very recently I split them.  Why?  I have a star-of-the-show Elmarit 28mm f2.8 eternally attached to one of my M6TTL bodies (which haven't seen much action ever since I got my unmetered ones), so it went to the M4-P.  I haven't exposed any film with this combination, but we'll find a way soon.  In the meanwhile, all for the sake of sharing images here instead of using any social media, have a ball looking at these ones and stay put.  I may have some surprise around the corner. 

A wider perspective

Sometimes it's easy to forget things... like other lenses.  So, this post is meant to remember them.  In this case, a nice, wide and fast lens I happen to have: a Voigtländer Ultron 28mm f2.  I had it with me on February 2014, when I went to Chicago and made these images with my Leica M4-2 and this lens. 

The first image is "The Zebra Zone."  A man crossing the street on Wabash Avenue, followed by "Under the L" (also in Wabash).  Then comes "The Downward Spiral," a photograph inside the Chicago Cultural Center, of the staircase near their main exhibition hall.  At the end, "Benches Horizon," a man sitting in the row of benches close to the walkway that goes from Millennium Park to the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Is there a substantial difference between a 28 and a 35?  I tend to shoot with the latter, it simply comes natural to me.  About 10 years ago I acquired a 28mm Elmarit, and used it occasionally when I went on trips, but never quite bonded with it.  When I got this one (which I really didn't need, but wanted a companion for an M4-P I purchased some time ago), I decided to challenge myself and "learn" to see the world through a wider perspective.  I think I managed to succeed... but only because I learned to get closer.  That's the odd quality of this focal length: at the same time you can get closer to your subjects, it still gives a lot of foreground and perspective.  In short, a "wider" closeness...  Strange?  Sure, it is, but you'll have to allow it this time. 

To think I was wearing a heavy coat when I took these photographs...

Coming soon, photos made with my M4-P.  And also coming soon: the arrival of a new Leica M4, and the return of the prodigal Leica M2, this time in black paint.  Of course, what really matters is the photographs one can make with tools like this one (taken by the seller of the camera):

See you soon!