A few weeks ago we went to the Fort Wayne Taste of the Arts festival. For a small city, there were many vendors there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a whole lot worth taking pictures of. This picture was taken while walking through the crowd with my 28 summicron. Something caught their attention.
As I mentioned yesterday, I really enjoyed the Leica Akademie workshop and also meeting with the participants. Here are a few more pics taken during the workshop. The first one I was trying to focus in on the gal sitting but I think what makes the picture is actually the 3 people all trying to take pictures. The second pic was taken while waiting to cross the street. I usually wouldn’t find this interesting but I like how the crowd of people are so content in looking in different directions. The last pic was taken of a guy near our hotel street corner who was attempting to entertain the crowd with his multiple musical abilities.
This past Saturday I participated in the Leica Akademie M9 Shooting Experience Chicago. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve never met any other Leica users with the exception of speaking to Steve Huff, of Steve Huff Photo (the online Leica guru!). Simply put, the experience was wonderful and could not have expected a better instructor, Leica representative, and professional photographer to guide us through the workshop. What made the meeting even more pleasurable was interacting with the other participants.
Before the workshop started, I ran into Steve Huff of Steve Huff Photo. I frequent his site daily and have spoke to him via email a few times and felt he was a terrific guy and after meeting him, it confirmed it. He reviews many Leica products and other cameras, mostly rangefinders and micro 4/3’s. He does a phenomenal job and I have to give him credit for guiding me towards Leica.
The workshop started out by meeting the Leica representative Matt Butzow and the instructor Tom Smith. Next, Matt allowed us to pick a Leica lens to borrow (I wanted to get my hand on the noctilux but unfortunately someone got to it before me).
Next, Tom Smith spent the remaining morning going through the ins and outs of the Leica M9 system. All I can say is that I learned a tremendous amount and if you are new to Leica or rangefinders in general this is a must do class!
After lunch, Carlos Javier Ortiz presented on his work as a photojournalist and showed many of his ongoing projects. Some of these projects are listed on his website. He also showed us a current project that him and other photojournalist around the country are participating in. The project is called “Facing Change” (I don’t consider it politically motivated) and you can see pictures from the project here.
Next we went out and shot for about an hour. Like most participants I followed Tom around and he showed us his perspective in street photography and also taught us some invaluable camera tips.
Last, we came back and Tom showed us his typical workflow when downloading pics from his computer and uploading to Lightroom. I found this info useful, but I have to admit I’m a die hard Apple guy and use Aperture 3.0.
As stated above, I found the workshop a great learning experience and 100% worth the cost. I’ve heard rumor of maybe a 3 day Leica course in the future in Chicago, I will definitely be there.
If you are interested in Leica Akademie you can see upcoming events here.
P.S. I mentioned that we did go out and shoot for a while. Here are a few pics I took (more in the next few days) and you can go to Michael Sullivans flickr page to see pics he took (another Leica shooter at the course, great guy).
