Lion and Dragon Dancers - Leica IIIG Film Shots

Here are some images of the lion and dragon dancers from the Chinese New Year celebration in DC this year. All were shot with my Leica IIIG rangefinder and 50mm f2 Summicron collapsible, on Ilford HP5+ film.

 

And here's my favorite:

 

 

I absolutely love using the IIIG. The viewfinder is wonderful. Focusing is a bit of a pain, but works. The early Summicron really performs.

 

Burning through that 100' of HP5+!

 

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A Shot I Like from Chinese New Year

 

Noodle Shop Spectators, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIG, 50mm f2 Summicron Collapsible

Ilford HP5 Film, Developed for 7 1/2 mins. in D-76

 

The Chinese New Year parade in Washington, DC had much lower attendance in 2015 than last year. I managed to shoot a 36 exposure roll of Ilford HP5, but really spent as much time talking and having lunch with my friend, Charlie, as I did shooting. This is the noodle shop we decided on, where the chef is making noodles by hand in the front window. You can see the ducks hanging on the right.

 

We both had a nice bowl of roasted duck noodle soup, and then stopped at the Chinese bakery next door for a pastry.

 

I do have some more images from this roll of film to share, but this one is one of my favorites.

 

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Going Out in the Weather for Chinese New Year

The weather outside is horrible. Yesterday, we got several inches of snow, followed by some freezing rain. Today, it's warming up, but the roads are still questionable.

 

But, I have cabin fever. With a new DMC-LX100 having arrived, I'm packing it up, along with my trusty Leica IIIG (loaded with black and white HP5+ film), and meeting my friend Charlie for the drive into DC. We'll attend the Chinese New Year celebration there. Here's a shot I made there last year:

 

(Click Here) to read a post on the Leica blog about this subject. The images embedded in the text aren't much to look at, but the gallery at the top of the post, especially those images by Su Li, are.

 

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Quick Report on Leica Store Event and Regional LHSA Meetup

I have been pretty active in the LHSA (International Leica Society) over the past year or so. One of the most rewarding things I've done is to schedule local meetups for LHSA members, roughly quarterly. These get a small yet dedicated attendance, and are always interesting.

 

(Click Here) to learn about and join LHSA.

 

For the most recent meeting, I decided to coordinate with the Washington DC Leica Store's photowalk event at DC's Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown. A large group of Leica users met for the Chinese New Year parade, a mix of LHSA members and non-members.

 

(Click Here) to go to the DC Leica Store's home page. They have a beautiful store, and regularly host interesting events for Leica users.

 

We borrowed someone's camera and grabbed a nice Leica user group shot:

 

 

Since my M9 was in for service, I decided to shoot all film for this event. I brought my lovely M3 double stroke with 50mm Summicron f2 version 3 lens attached, and, stretching the Leica definition, my Zeiss SW body and Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 lens.

 

I had a first-ever experience during this event. My M3's film advance mechanism jammed on me, preventing me from using it after about 15 exposures. I'd never experienced a mechanical problem with a Leica camera. Not to worry, it's already back from Youxin Ye, who quickly serviced it at no cost, since I had bought the camera from him last year.

 

Need Leica film camera service? Get in touch with Youxin. He does a great job and has my full recommendation.

 

(Click Here) to go to Youxin's home page.

 

Since we were meeting the very next week to share results at the Leica Store, I make the mistake of taking my film to one of the only local drugstores who still process film. Their processor must have needed service; the color came out just ridiculously bad, and in an unpredictable way. It seems that some frames were okay, others were almost completely devoid of red tones (you don't want to lose your reds in a Chinese New Year image), with a cyan tone. So, I had to work pretty hard in Lightroom to come up with a few images worth sharing.

 

NOTE: None of this would have been a problem if I'd used my regular processing solution, The Darkroom. I've used their mail-in service many, many times, and never had a single issue.

 

(Click Here) to look into The Darkroom's first-rate film processing service.

 

So, after overcoming a few challenges, here are the images I decided to share at the DC Leica Store:

 

 

 

 

 

We had our regional LHSA meetup at the National Portrait Gallery, just down the street from the Leica Store, before heading there to share images.

 

It was actually a lot of fun shooting the Zeiss SW and Biogon 25mm wide angle lens. It required getting very close, but I like the feel of the images.

 

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DC Area Photographers - Chinese New Year Walk, Sponsored by Leica Store DC

Chinese New Year, DC, by Reed A. George

Leica M8, Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 Lens

iso 320, f8, 1/125 sec.

 

 

After living in San Francisco, I must admit that Washington DC's Chinatown is a bit underwhelming. However, on the Chinese New Year celebration, it does liven up quite well. Tomorrow (Sunday, Feb 2), the DC Leica Store is hosting a photo walk at 12:45PM.

 

(Click Here) to get the details from the Leica Store Event page.

 

I'm planning to meet several of my friends there for the walk. One week later (Sunday, Feb 9), we're planning to have a local LHSA (International Leica Society) meetup and then head over to the Leica Store to see and share photographic results from the walk

 

If you're in the area (whether you're a Leica user or LHSA member or not), come join us for some fun!

 

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Following Up On Tips for Shooting Strangers - Wait For It!

Yesterday, I wrote about a post on Digital Photography School's site which gave 8 tips for photographing strangers.

 

One of the hardest practices for me to learn was to take my time and get the right shot, once I'd gotten over the barrier of talking to someone and getting permission to take their portrait. As I mentioned yesterday, many times I used to walk away thinking "If only I'd move a little to the right (or left)." or "I should've bracketed the exposure."

 

Well, I am learning to take my time and wait for the image I want. Here's a recent example. I was in San Francisco, walking around Chinatown with my Leica M6 and Summicron 50mm f2, when I saw this little girl and the woman I guessed to be her grandmother. I rather bravely walked up to them, and asked the older lady if I could take their picture. She smiled, which I took as a yes. As I put the camera to my eye, the little girl figured out what was happening and did this:

 

Oh, No! Not What I Wanted!, by Reed A. George

Leica M6, Summicron 50mm f2 (v.3) Lens, Kodak iso 400 Color Print Film

 

I felt it right on the spot - what a horrible shot I've just made. This is cheesing for the camera of the very worst type. The forced smile turned this sweet little girl's face into an image of stress and tension for me. But, I WAITED. As soon as she heard the shutter click, the little girl relaxed and gave me this:

 

Here's What I Saw in the First Place, by Reed A. George

Leica M6, Summicron 50mm f2 (v.3) Lens, Kodak iso 400 Color Print Film

 

This is what I saw in the little girl's face that drew me to photograph them in the first place.

 

One more note - on asking versus just shooting. Another thing that really drew me to this pair was how the older lady was looking into the face of the little girl (like in the top shot). I really wanted to catch that interaction between them, but while they were looking natural and not posing for the camera. I think you can probably see that in both pictures, on the right side, there are men watching me, rather protective of what I'm photographing. This prevented me from taking the candid that I hoped to get. So, asking directly at least got me the shot. If the situation didn't have this tension, I would have shot a candid first, and maybe then asked permission for a follow-up shot like I got.

 

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Chinatown Sky, San Francisco

Chinatown Sky, by Reed A. George

Leica M6, Kodak 400 Color Print Film

 

I have always been attracted to the Chinese lanterns and dragon-design lightposts in San Francisco's Chinatown. In this shot, the clouds against the bright blue sky, boxed-in by the building roofs, provide a nice backdrop for them. The diagonal line of the lanterns also works for me.

 

This is a low resolution scan that I downloaded from The Darkroom's online site. I added some saturation in the lanterns, and darkened up the shadows under the roof eaves, and added the frame in Snapseed. I may do some more work with this image when the negatives arrive in the mail next week. I'm sure it will look somewhat different if I scan it at home and post process with Lightroom.

 

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Chinatown San Francisco - Leica M9 and Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 - Whole Lotta Leica

In October, I traveled to San Francisco for the annual meeting of the LHSA (International Leica Society). One of our events was an evening photo tour of Chinatown. All of these shots were made with my Leica M9 and my Whole Lotta Leica lens for October, the venerable Summicron 50mm f2 (version 3).

 

Pre-Tour Briefing, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f2.8, 1/125 sec.

 

There was enough interest that we split the group into two, and headed out on the short walk from the Marines Memorial, host hotel for our meeting.

 

I have an affinity for Asian culture. You'll see that when I visit a major city, I usually end up in Chinatown. Stayed tuned for a future post of NYC's Chinatown, for example.

 

One of the things I always enjoy is seeing signs written in the native language of the immigrants who live there. To me it means I'm really visiting where these people from a very different culture actually live, not just cook for and sell to Westerners.

 

Native Language, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f2.8, 1/60 sec.

Straightening the Sign, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f4.8, 1/350 sec.

Of course, there are plenty of signs and advertisements aimed at welcoming non-Chinese guests to the area:

 

Chinatown Mural, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f3.4, 1/125 sec.

 

If you've read my post about tea-tasting at Ten Ren's in Chinatown, here's the back of the tea shop, replete with graffiti:

 

Ten Ren's by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f2.8, 1/125 sec.

 

Far more interesting to me than the signs, however, are the people. Here's a sampling of how I see the people of Chinatown, part of and separate from their city environment.

 

Through the Shop Window, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f2.8, 1/125 sec.

 

Twins, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 400, f3.4, 1/125 sec.

 

Fishmonger, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 640, f2.4, 1/125 sec.

 

Our tour went into the dusk. As the lights come on in Chinatown, the feeling completely changes. I need to work on a night time series in Chinatown at some point, maybe my next visit to San Francisco. I hope that trip comes soon.

 

Chinatown Lights Up, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v.3 Lens

iso 640, f2, 1/125 sec.

As you can see, I decided to shoot with one lens and one camera on this tour, to minimize the need to fiddle with gear. That worked out pretty well for me. There is so much you can do with a rangefinder like the M9 and a fast 50mm lens like the Summicron. The lens is unmatched in my collection.

 

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