Tag: Leica 50mm Summilux-M

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Want an apple?

Recently, my wife, our baby girl, and I drove to Madison Wisconsin to visit my sister and family.  My nephew Sage, who is a senior in high school asked if I would consider taking his senior pictures.  My comfort level for portrait photography has significantly improved and I decided I would be up for the challenge with the exception of one stipulation, I could be creative in the pictures I take.

I have to give credit for my wife for this one.  She thought a pic with Sage against a tree and an arrow above his head in the tree while going through an apple would be unique.  I would have to agree with her, these pics came out very well.

P.S.  The out of focus portions of both pictures is not created by post processing.  I was able to do this with my 50mm Summilux.

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Motion & Symmetry

Often, photographers are attempting to find symmetry or patterns within their environment that would be eye catching.  This picture is a great example.

I was standing in the airport waiting to get on one of the trains and noticed the adjacent train sitting there.  I noticed the ceiling tiles, train doors, windows, floor tiles, and even the trash can all had a similar linear pattern.  I felt this would be a great place to focus on the train and hope that a subject would walk through.  Fortunately, I got lucky.  This man carrying a piece of paper walked right where I wanted him.  I love that I caught him in mid stride because his front leg, back foot, upper torso, and paper all became symmetric with the environment.  By focusing on the train, I was able to blur the subject so the viewer could get a sense of motion.

 

 

 

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The Moment

This past week I’ve been in San Diego teaching. It’s always enjoying going to this meeting because I get the opportunity to assist in teaching future surgical podiatrists. Unlike some conferences I go to, where many of the participants are there to get their CME’s (continuing medical education), these participants (residents) are eager to learn and try to grasp as much information we can give to them. I also enjoy seeing colleagues of mine who are some of the best foot and ankle surgeons in the country.

Unfortunately, even though I get to travel for these meetings I typically don’t get much time to explore, thus there are not many picture opportunities. Fortunately, last year when flying to San Diego I happen to sit next to an airline pilot, Elijah Nicolas. He and I have very similar interests and I think we spent the entire 3 hours trying to one up each other in our knowledge of technology related stuff. Since then, we have kept in contact and I had the opportunity to meet up with him for dinner last night and a quick tour of some of the popular places in downtown San Diego. Elijah has a blog,elijahnicolas.com, if you have time please visit it. Thanks Elijah for a great time and good luck in your triathlon today.

Elijah drove me to Balboa Park to see if I could find any interesting picture opportunities. The area is very cultural and has many beautiful buildings and museums, hopefully I can return some day. As we were walking towards a large fountain in the park, a couple just happened to be standing there and both decided to show their affection for one another. It immediately made me think of my wife and daughter who I haven’t seen for 4 days. I can’t wait to get home and show both of them affection. Here is a picture of that “moment” I was speaking of.

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The Swamp

Here in northeast Indiana there are many nature preserves.  Probably the most well known is the ACRES Land Trust.  ACRES Land Trust is made up of many preserves throughout northeast Indiana.  All are free and have nice trails.

One after noon I drove to one of the preserves west of my home.  This preserve is mostly forest and swamp.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture any exciting shots (the foliage did not have much colors).  I took this one shot of of an isolated tree within one of the swamps.

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Part 2: Pics from Leica Akademie Workshop – Chicago

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.

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Leica Akademie: M9 Shooting Experience – Chicago

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).

 

 

 

 

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Old Interior

Last winter I visited the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Automobile Museum in Auburn, IN. It’s located at the original headquarters of the Auburn Automobile Company.  From the outside it looked like a good size building but I never imagined the amount of cars they had.  I’m not a motor head but enjoyed my time looking at their collection.  It’s definitely a place to visit if you enjoy looking at old cars.  I snapped many pics and thought this one in black & white with a little noise worked well.

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Red Door

Last fall a friend of mine asked for me to take a few family pics of them at a local park.  As I was leaving I came upon a large red barn.  The barn was sitting on a 7 foot stone block base.  The doors were weathered and really stood out because of the surrounding stone.  Here is one of those doors.

P.S.  Recently, I got invited to google+, a new social networking site by google.  I think most would agree there is a lot of potential.  You can see more about google+ here.  Also, you can find my google profile here.
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“Bokeh”

If you’re not familiar with Leica, you probably are not aware that they are well known for shooting at low apertures and creating bokeh.  Bokeh is the blur seen in photography or more specifically the quality of the blur.  Each Leica lens is known for there unique bokeh.  Yes, you will find this with almost all other cameras and lenses but many don’t have the quality seen in Leica lenses.  I’ve shot with many Canon dSLR’s and low aperture lenses and have never been impressed as much as I am with the Leica m-mount lenses.

If you would like to read more about “bokeh” I’ll forward you to Steve Huff’s website for an article written by Ashwin Rao’s titled “What is Bokeh?”

Below are a few examples of shots taken with my Leica 50mm Summilux and 35mm Summicron.

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Beautiful Day

A few weeks ago, I pulled up to our garage and I noticed this lonely daffodil in our landscaping.  Fortunately, it was a beautiful day with low lying clouds.  I was able to get just the right shot by laying on the ground.  What was most difficult was composing the shot without catching the side of my home and the neighbors.  This, shot even though not in focus has a great feel and out of all the other shots taken that day, this was my favorite.

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