Tag Archives: Leica M9

A Kids Perspective

August 3, 2011 Gage Caudell 4 Comments

Recently a friend of Serenity’s (my wife) inquired if I would be willing to take a few family pictures. As much as I enjoy taking pictures, this is still out of my comfort zone. I don’t envy portrait photographers, there are many things that go into making a great family picture. For one, you need great lighting and no shadows. Second, you have to have your subjects position just right so that a proper exposure can be obtained. Last, trying to coordinate all subjects to look and smile at the camera all at the same time can be especially difficult when dealing with small kids.

The picture below was shot through the opening in the back of a chair. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but I think it’s what made the shot. It allowed for me to frame my subjects and also allowed for some candidness. As you can see, there was no issue in getting their attention.

People, Portraits, Rangefinder

Our Future @ 8 Weeks

July 28, 2011 Gage Caudell 1 Comment

Watching a new born grow is simply amazing. Our daughter as of yesterday is 10 weeks old. I can’t believe how fast it has went. In such a short time she has almost doubled her weight, grown more than 3 inches, and went from sleeping and staring into space, to someone who has a wonderful personality and enjoys to smile, giggle, and show her admiration for her parents (especially mom).

Today’s post is a continuation of my “Our Future” series. My wife was unsure if she would even cooperate for the pose. For the first time she was awake for the shot and clearly, didn’t have any problem posing for dad.

P.S. A friend of mine from San Diego, Elijah Nicolas has a blog (you can see it here) and recently posted a great commercial Google created promoting gmail. The commercial shows a father creating a gmail account for his newborn and writes to it frequently so that she can have a journal of her early years. Please watch below (it reminds me of what my wife and I are doing with taking frequent pictures).

B & W, Landscape, Leica M9, Railroads, Rangefinder, Travel

The Crossing

July 24, 2011 Gage Caudell 5 Comments

The Leica M9 is not only known for its great color pics, it’s probably better known for its black and white images. I have to admit, the M9 does a phenomenal job of creating black and white pics. It’s hard to describe what it is but the M9 just has that extra touch when creating these type of images. I don’t routinely shoot in black and white while using the camera. I shoot in raw (uncompressed picture format) and then edit it with Niks Software Silver Efex Pro 2. If you like monochrome images, this is the software to purchase. I have owned just the aperture plugin and now own the Photoshop CS5 plugin and prefer having the Photoshop plugin because it just makes a new layer instead of altering the original pic like it does in Aperture.

Soon after purchasing my black M9 (I have not moved on to the M9-P) I traveled to Cleveland for a conference and on my way home I stopped and shot a few pics. This pic, originally in color was edited in Silver Efex Pro 2. Let me know what you think?

B & W, Cars, Rangefinder

Old Interior

July 16, 2011 Gage Caudell 1 Comment

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.

B & W, City, HDR, Landscape, Leica M9, Rangefinder, Urban Street

Old Xavier Church

July 14, 2011 Gage Caudell 2 Comments

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography has gained a lot of interest in photography. HDR Photography is where you take multiple exposures of a image and then stack them on top of one another to create one picture. By doing this you create an image that often times is very similar to what our eyes see. Most digital cameras can do this by using the auto bracketing function. For best results you need to use at least 3 exposures. If you are shooting in very bright or low light then you often times need to use 5, 7, or 9 exposures. Unfortunately, you typically need a semi-pro or pro dSLR to do this.

After you take the pictures, you then need software to stack the pictures on one another. The best way I’ve found is using Photomatix or you can use Photoshop CS 5. If you want to see some great HDR pictures you need to check out Trey Ratcliff at Stuck in Customs. He does phenomenal work and has many tutorials.

My wife grew up outside a very small town in Southern Illinois called St. Francisville (well known for the scariest bridge to cross in Southern Illinois/Indiana). In March, we were there for my wife’s baby shower. There is a very old Catholic church that sits down town. I decided to take a 7 exposure HDR pic using my Leica M9. Most of the time when shooting in HDR you want to create a color image, I think in this case monochrome works very well.

People, Portraits, Rangefinder

Mother’s Love

July 12, 2011 Gage Caudell 3 Comments

Lately, with work I have not had much time to write or upload pictures to my blog. I’m not going to complain because I enjoy working and most of all enjoy helping others.

I don’t like taking “canned” pictures. I prefer when my subjects are not looking into the camera and focusing on whatever task at hand. Personally, I think this makes the moment much more memorable and can often allow the viewer to imagine what the subject is feeling or remind them of a similar time. Also, I enjoy capturing many of these moments in monochrome. Again, I think this adds a much more memorable, and long lasting touch.

Below is a picture of my beautiful wife and now 8 week old girl. You can see enjoyment in my wife’s eyes when looking down at her cherished little one. Even though you can’t see my daughters face, you can imagine that she is showing affection back to her mother. I think the monochrome and vignetting assist in this “real life” portrayal.

Barns, Landscape, Rangefinder, Urban Street

Red Door

July 7, 2011 Gage Caudell 4 Comments

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.

B & W, Landscape, Railroads, Rangefinder

Abandoned Crossing

July 5, 2011 Gage Caudell 1 Comment

If you haven’t noticed I have an interest in railroad tracks. Probably, most photographers do. I think a lot of it has to do with the rust, age, and symmetry of these structures. They often, can make a boring landscape interesting. I also like taking pics of railroad signs. This one was taken on a small dirt road. As you can probably tell, it was not often used therefore there was no need to change the sign.

People, Portraits, Rangefinder

Our Future @ 4 weeks

July 1, 2011 Gage Caudell 1 Comment

One of my first posts on this site was titled “Our Future”. Another photographer recommended trying to take the same picture monthly (eventually putting clothes on her) so that we can watch her grow. Definitely, at one month she has filled out, in comparison to her original pic. She has a lot of room to grow before she even comes close to filling the couch cushion, let alone the length of our couch.

Click on the picture to see a larger version and also see a comparison shot.

Have a Happy 4th of July weekend everybody!!!

B & W, Leica 35mm summilux fle, People, Rangefinder

“Bokeh”

June 24, 2011 Gage Caudell

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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