soundimageplus: leica m9

Showing posts with label leica m9. Show all posts

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Weather for editing

Sony NEX-5n 18-55mm

The weather has been terrible lately, grey skies, mist and drizzle. However I've got a lot of editing and uploading done. Tomorrow hopefully - SUN!

Leica M9 Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar

Sony NEX-5n Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Sony A77 30mm f/2.8 Macro

Sony NEX-5n 18-200mm

Sony NEX-5n 30mm f/2.8 Macro

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

So how did I end up with this? And keep going on about how good it is. And why did I sell the Leica M9 and my Nikons?? - Part 1

Sony NEX-5n 16mm, 30mm, 18-55mm, 55-210mm and 18-200mm lenses

Well lets get the Leica out of the way. I wrote recently that it was economically a disaster. Taking pictures with it didn't get me more sales, and when I worked out how much I'd spent on it and the lenses I use with it, the cost was about £1 every time I pressed the shutter. This was clearly ridiculous, and no matter how much I liked it (and I liked it a lot) it was going to have to earn its keep or else I'd sell it.

After thinking long and hard, I realised that I wouldn't be using it as much as I needed to get it to "earn its keep". No macro, no telephoto, no zoom, no AF and all those dust spots to constantly remove. I reluctantly decided to sell it, did so, and with my tax allowances, just about broke even. Its been a privilege to own a Leica, and I'm not ruling out buying another in the future, but I've freed up some of my equipment capital to try some other things out. I did feel a tinge of sadness when it went, but then its just another camera. (And if you believe that you'll believe anything!!)

Part Two tomorrow.

Monday, 17 October 2011

Steel Grey and Black Machine

Leica M9 Zeiss T* Planar 50mm f/2 Olympus E-PL2 Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 Summilux

All images - Leica M9 Zeiss 50mm f/2 Planar

Beautiful light, Leica M9 and a Zeiss 50mm lens. No matter how close I get files from other cameras to look like this, the M9 still has the edge. This is a camera set up to reproduce with the same characteristics as film. Digital Fuji Velvia is a good description.

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Back to normal

The week long "Indian Summer" has ended, the weather is back to normal for early October and I've returned home. It was however a remarkable few days with record-breaking temperatures for the time of year and I was able to photograph an area I hadn't visited before in wonderful light.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

As usual I walked miles and the picture count was around 2200. Virtually all are edited, captioned and keyworded and many are already for sale on library websites.

The majority were taken on my Nikons. D7000 and D5100. One of the reasons for using these cameras was the very fast turnaround I can get with the images. There is very little to do in terms of editing, there are no dust spots to remove and they come out of the camera with "punchy" colour.

By the end of the 10 days I was struggling with an aching back, but I was walking a lot every

day, so it was really to be expected.

Nikon D5100 55-200mm lens

Nikon D7000 55-300mm lens

With luck the next time I do this, I should be using a Sony NEX-7, and I'm really hoping that it will work as well as the Nikons while giving me less to carry.

I used the Leica M9 quite a lot too, though much less than the Nikons, keeping it for situations where I had more time to compose and shoot.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens

I was back to changing lenses, so there is quite an accumulation of dust spots. Its back to Calumet for a clean!

Nikon D7000 16-85mm lens

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

Nikon D7000 16-85mm lens

I'm now off to collect my Olympus 45mm f/1.8, which is apparently waiting for me at my local post office. So expect some camera porn and test shots in the garden fairly soon!

Sunday, 2 October 2011

Record breaking day

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

Yesterday it was 30 selsius + in parts of the UK. Hotter than Barcelona, Athens and Los Angeles! This on October 1st. well into autumn.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

It was a glorious day, with an almost still sea.

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

Leica M9 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

2011 has been a strange year, with a cold winter, warm sunny spring and autumn and a pretty mediocre summer. Not great for holidaymakers but its been a really good year for photography and I don't remember taking so many pictures in a single year before. And its not over yet. We are promised a spectacular autumn because of this hot spell, though there is another forecast that says we will get snow in a couple of weeks!!

The weather is a constant topic of conversation in the UK and we are somewhat obsessed with it. It does provide varied, yet unpredictable conditions for photography however, and fortunately I'm in a position to take advantage of that.

Saturday, 1 October 2011

The "Photo-Essay" and Stock Photography

Stock photography provides a good opportunity to put together a series of pictures to document a location. This gives potential buyers more choice and provides images that show what its like to visit a place. Too often I see pictures that are all shot from the same angle and give no sense of either the context or the detail.

This is Hurst Castle in Hampshire. An old fort located on the end of a sandspit. There are two forms of access, one is by walking along the top of the spit and the other by ferry from the local harbour. The following is a series of images I put together over a couple of days.