What Goes On Behind the Monuments

I figured I should post a little humor on April Fool's Day.

 

My friends and I frequently find ourselves photographing around the monuments at the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Lincoln Memorial is a very common stop, and my comrades have worked on their own projects there, including photographing tourists taking "selfies" there.

 

The last time we went, I put my new Nikkor Series E 100mm f2.8 lens on my Nikon Df and decided to shoot the back and sides of the Lincoln Memorial, from ground level. Here is a triptych of images that I got, all within five minutes or so of shooting.

 

Scenes Behind the Memorial, by Reed A. George

 

A little hard to see the people at this scale? Take a look at the insets below to see what was going on in each corresponding frame above.

 

What's Really Going On, by Reed A. George

 

I think in all three cases (certainly the last), my subjects knew they were being photographed. I appreciate all of their good humor!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Whole Lotta Leica - April's 50mm f2 Summicron Collapsible - in South Florida at the LHSA Spring Shoot!

I'm currently at the LHSA (International Leica Society) Spring Shoot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - held April 18-20, 2013.

 

(Click Here) to read about LHSA. It's a wonderful group of real Leica experts, who also happen to be a lot of fun. Membership includes access to the excellent magazine Viewfinder, meetings in exciting places (Fort Lauderdale this spring, San Francisco in the fall), some amazing raffles for high end Leica equipment, and much more.

 

I'm operating with my iPad only on this trip, so the few pictures in this post are unedited jpegs, straight from the camera. They were all shot with the Summicron collapsible 50mm f2 lens that I selected for my Whole Lotta Leica series lens for April.

 

(Click Here) to read about this special lens.

 

Los Olas Cleaning Crew, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, 50mm f2 Summicron Collapsible

 

I shot this image on my way back to the hotel from Starbucks this morning. I knew that I liked the way the water pouring down looked, but didn't catch it the first time. I waited a few minutes while they soaped and scrubbed, and were finally ready for another water rinse. I also popped on my little Nikon SB30 flash to fill in the backlighting a little.

 

Bow Reflections on New River, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summicron Collapsible 50mm f2

 

What I like about this shot is how the ripples in the water surface are reflected in the bright metal bow plate of the boat.

 

 

Villa Vizcaya Gardens, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summicron Collapsible 50mm f2

 

Our outing today began at Villa Vizcaya, home to industrialist James Deering from 1916-1925. I need to work with this image, but what I like is the double framing of a beautiful girl in a blue gown at the gates at the far end. At this size, she looks tiny. I'm hoping it will look good enlarged.

 

We also visited the new Leica store in Miami, and received a nice presentation on the new Leica M camera. Quite impressive.

 

The meeting also offers "Leica on Loan," where Leica loans out cameras and lenses for us to test on our daily shoots. Today I got the Leica Summicron 28mm f2. I shot it on a film Leica, my M4-2, so we'll have to wait until the film is processed to see how that went. I just looked it up and discovered that's a $4,200 lens! I'd better lock that in the hotel safe tonight... If you want your own, please buy it at the link below :)... As if.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

April's Whole Lotta Leica Lens - the Summicron 5cm f2 Collapsible LTM "Radioactive" Lens

 

Leica Summicron 5cm f2 Collapsible Lens

 

This month, I am choosing the Summicron 5cm f2 collapsible lens as my Whole Lotta Leica selection. I will pair it up with my Leica M9 for the month and share the results with you here.

 

The Summicron 50mm has been a benchmark lens for Leica (and for comparisons from other manufacturers) since it was first introduced around 1955. The first version (shown here) was a collapsible lens. Originally made in Leica Thread Mount (LTM), the collapsible was also made in Leica M mount. Mine is an LTM lens.

 

The collapsible Summicron was an evolutionary step up from the previous Summitar 5cm f2 collapsible, which remains a favorite of vintage Leica shooters.

 

Mine happens to be an early unit (serial no. 994,XXX), which is classifed as having radioactive glass. There is some disagreement about the meaning of this, but here's a quote from Brian Sweeney, a lens expert with a lot of credibilty:

 

 

"Brian Sweeney

04-27-2010, 03:48

The original Summicrons use Thorium Glass and they are radioactive. I own two of them. Summicrons with SN after 105xxxx do not use radioactive glass.

 

The original prototype Summicrons were marked as Summitars, and had the asterisk (or star) next to the name. I have only seen photographs.

 

http://www.imx.nl/photo/leica/lenses/lenses/page92.html

 

The Summar is a double-gauss, 6 elements in four groups, 1-2-2-1 configuration. The Summitar and earlier Summicrons are evolutions of it, 7 elements in 5 groups. The type 2 Rigid Summicron (black, the 70s version) was 6 elements in 5 groups. The modern Summicron went back to the 1-2-2-1 configuration."

 

 

If you're interested, you can (click here) to read more about thorium glass, contaminated lanthanum glass, and whether or not the radioactive glass will fog film (it won't at normal distances).

 

The glass in these lenses is normally yellowed. Some people think it makes these lenses better for black and white shooting. I know it's common to use a yellow filter to increase contrast in blue skies. Or maybe the yellow is worse for color photography?

 

In any case, mine is in gorgeous condition. It is rare to find one without cleaning marks. I got lucky.

 

(Click Here) to read a nice summary of the different versions of the Leica Summicron 50mm lenses on antiquecameras.net

 

The International Leica Society (aka LHSA) is having their Spring Shoot in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on April 17-20. I'll be taking the Summicron collapsible along for the trip.

 

By the way, if you aren't a member of LHSA, I highly recommend it. It's a great group. Even though it formerly had "historical" in its name, the LHSA comprises a wide variety of members with experience ranging from the earliest vintage models through the latest digital Leicas. This is not a group stuck in time. In fact, at my first LHSA event, I took a great workshop on high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. That's not an old technology.

 

In addition to their Spring Shoot and annual meeting, the LHSA holds an annual raffle where they give away extremely expensive and wonderful cameras, and they publish a great journal, known as the Viewfinder. They also offer an electronic membership, where the Viewfinder is delivered as a pdf. Wonderful. No clogging up the mailbox with a paper magazine.

 

So, check out the LHSA:

 

(Click Here) and join!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com