Day Sleepers - Cool Project

My Day Sleepers (NYC), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7

iso 800, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

 

I captured these guys sleeping on the subway in NYC. It's interesting to see people sleeping in public places, especially when they're not unfortunate homeless people.

 

I read an interesting piece on the Leica Camera Blog about Eric Leleu, a Frenchman who did an extensive project, photographing "day sleepers" in China. Interestingly, Eric used a Leica M6 for many years, and more recently a digital Leica M240, but in both cases with just one lens - a 35mm f1.4 Summilux.

 

(Click Here) to read the story on the Leica Camera Blog. Knowing he shot all of these with a 35mm wide angle impresses me. He had to get pretty close in many cases.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

What Was I Shooting a Year Ago? 35mm f1.4 Summilux Version 3

Jammin' Java, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v. 3 Lens

iso 1600, f1.7, 1/15 sec.

 

I was just thinking about the end of the winter season, and how excited I am to get outside again as the weather gets nice. That got me thinking about what I was shooting at this time a year ago.

 

Apparently, I was shooting my M9 and my most valuable Leica lens - the classic Summilux 35mm f1.4 version 3. At nearly wide open, this lens has character to spare. Sharp yet glowing. Love it.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Dreaming in Monochrom(e) - Japanese Lunch and Grocery Shopping With My Wife

I enjoy having Japanese food with my wife. Recently, we went to the (very) small area in Bethesda, Maryland for lunch and to visit the Japanese grocer. I shot these two images with my Leica M4-2, 35mm f1.4 Summilux, and Ilford Delta 3200 film.

 

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Summer Contra Dance at Glen Echo Park

The Folklife Society of Greater Washington (FSGW) hosts weekly dances at Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, Maryland. On this particular night, it was held in the old bumper car pavilion. I found out about the event because some of my friends from the band "The Hot Seats" were playing the tunes.

 

A beautiful evening with moderate temperatures brought out a nice crowd of dancers.

 

All of these images were captured with my Leica M9, mostly with my 35mm f1.4 Summilux, at iso 640. Many of them were made at f4, 1/15 of a second exposure, with fill in flash provided by my tiny Nikon SB30 strobe.

 

Sunday Night Contra Dance, by Reed A. George

 

The lighting was a real challenge, and flash was a must. I wanted to keep the iso at 640, so pushed the limit of handheld sharpness with 1/15 second exposures. The flash helped out with that as well. At f4, I had to preset my focus (usually at about 10-12 feet) and walk around the crowd until I saw the right scene develop at the right distance. Actually a pretty fun way to shoot, I think it worked out pretty well.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

A New Orleans Character

As you may know if you follow my blog, I love to meet and photograph interesting people when I travel. While returning from Audubon Park to the French Quarter on the streetcar in New Orleans, I met Tony:

 

Tony from New Orleans, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, 50mm Summilux f1.4 Lens

iso 200, f3.4, 1/750 sec.

 

Tony was dressed especially nicely, and his black hat and white bowtie really stood out. But, what started our conversation was the stack of (very) old books he was carrying. I asked about them, and Tony proceeded to tell me that he is currently writing a play about New Orleans and the Civil War. The books are family heirlooms, and he is using them to guide his research. On this day, he was on his way to see some remaining slave quarters somewhere near the Quarter.

 

Tony is a very nice guy, and the conversation really added to my travel experience. I only had one opportunity to shoot a couple of pictures of him, but feel that this one came out pretty good. The light was challenging, but I got it right for his skin tone, at the risk of blowing out the background. As it turns out, it's not too badly overexposed, and the streetcar pulling away in the background is perfect for my memory of the experience.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

The Plank Stompers

Some of my best music buddies are in a band called The Plank Stompers. They were nice enough to give me a couple of tries at a group shot last week.

 

The first try was in nice but direct sunlight, and didn't work out that well. My only real chance to beat the contrast was a small amount of fill flash, and I'm not satisfied with the result. We went at it again a little later, when the sun was going down. Much better. Here's my favorite:

The Plank Stompers, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v.3 Lens

iso 640, f9.5, 1/125 sec.

 

 

I've gotten a few more requests for whole band promo shots recently. I need to work on the techniques for getting this right. A little practice with the Plank Stompers helped me in that respect. I hope they'll find the pictures useful.

 

The Plank Stompers play a great down-home mix of bluegrass, folk, and space groove.

 

(Click Here) to find out more about them.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Dwayne Brooke of The Woodshedders

I had the pleasure of attending just a couple of hours of the Loudoun Bluegrass Festival last Saturday. The main event that I made it to was Dwayne Brooke's "Gypsy Jazz Jam." Dwayne is a friend of mine, a creative force, and guitarist/vocalist/songwriter for The Woodshedders.

 

(Click Here) to get to know The Woodshedders.

 

Well, it was a slightly rainy, overcast day, perfect for portraiture. Looking around outside the barns of the Loudoun Fairgrounds where the festival was held, I saw this incredible tree with a carpet of fallen blossoms at its base. As soon as Dwayne was done with the jam, I asked if he'd let me shoot a few photos of him there. Here's an example:

 

Dwayne Brooke, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v. 3 Lens

iso 400, f2.4, 1/250 sec.

 

Normally, I would shoot a longer lens for a portrait. In this case, I wanted a lot of environment in the shot, specifically the tree and fallen blossoms. So, I chose the Summilux 35mm. I attempted to reflect some light into Dwayne's area with some reflective panels designed for keeping your car cool (windshield shades). There just wasn't much to reflect, and I didn't have an assistant to hold them. I would have used a little bit of flash for that purpose, but don't you know my Nikon SB-30 flash battery died during the jam session?

 

(Click Here) to see the full set of several shots I made.

 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with these. As usual, there are things I'd do to improve them next time. That's why photography continues to be fun and challenging for me.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Dreaming in Monochrom(e) - Mink's Miracle Medicine Show

My friends Rudy, Melissa, and Erik, former members of the band Acoustic Burgoo, came together to play a show under Melissa's new band name, Mink. The show was at Cristina's Cafe in Strasburg, Virginia.

 

(Click Here) to find Cristina's. If you're ever passing through Strasburg, stop in for a "Sexi Mexi Combo!"

 

I shot the show with my "Dreaming in Monochrom(e)" camera, the Leica M4-2, and my new favorite black and white film approach, using Ilford Delta 3200 exposed at iso 1600, and processed by The Darkroom.

(Click Here) to learn about The Darkroom, the best film processing service I've ever used.

 

Melissa Finishing Up the Set List, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

I shot with two lenses, the Zeiss C-Sonnar 50mm f1.5, which is a modern remake of the classic Sonnar design, with the latest materials, technologies, and optical coatings. The second lens was my Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 version 3, from the 1970s.

 

Mink and Friends, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

This was a very laid back show, which is sometimes nice. I got to hang out with my friends, have some excellent Mexican food, and move around and shoot as much as I liked.

 

Erik Burnham, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

We saw various combinations of the three performers, and when not playing on stage, Erik stayed busy playing off-stage, dancing with our lovely waitress (whose name I didn't get, sorry!).

 

Dance, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

Rudy B. and Erik, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

Erik and Rudy are in another band, The Plank Stompers. You'll see images from my frequent attendance at their shows as well here at DMC-365.blogspot.com. The shot below is from behind them on stage. That's Britt in the audience (with the beard).

 

 

Mink and Friends, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

Here is a shot that took advantage of the stage lights to play with some internal reflections and unpredictable properties of optics. Chance rather than design, I like how it turned out.

Erik and Rudy, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

I think I have a style for many of my concert images now, at least the ones I want to shoot in monochrome.

 

I'm in the process of testing a new color film (CineStill), to see if it can be an equally satisfying solution for color. I shot two 36 exposure rolls of it last night at a house concert; we'll see how that turns out in a week or so.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

The Plank Stompers - Leica M9, Summilux 35mm, Emulating Ilford Delta 3200

 

The Plank Stompers, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v.3 Lens

iso 1600, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

I think this shot of my friends' band, The Plank Stompers, really shows the character of the older 35mm Summilux lens. It's simultaneously sharp (look at the eyeglasses) and dreamy.

 

I shot this with my digital Leica M9, and emulated the look of Ilford Delta 3200 film as described (here).

 

I am really enjoying this look to my live music images.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Emulating Delta 3200 Film Look in Lightroom

I've been shooting real Ilford Delta 3200 film in my Leica M4-2 recently. I've been using it at live music events, and really like the look, especially shooting it at iso 1600 and developing it normally (at thedarkroom.com).

 

I've been interested in emulating that look with digital files, specifically with shots from my Leica M9, shot at iso 1600. Now that my M9 is back from Leica Service, I will likely carry the M9 and M4-2 together to some shows.

 

First, I decided to try the preset in Nik software's SilverEfex Pro. I didn't find it to be particularly comparable to my film results. So, I decided to work through adjustments in Lightroom 5 until I got something closer and save them as presets. I've now done that. Here's an example of a shot made with the M9 (at iso 200 in this case). The first version is what I would normally do to process this type of image from the M9 in black and white. The second is done using my Delta 3200 presets.

 

Charlie - "Normal" versus "Delta 3200" Versions, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v.3 Lens

iso 200, f1.4, 1/125 sec.

 

For this particular shot, I strongly prefer the "Delta 3200" version.

 

I made two separate presets. Here are the adjustments I made in each.

 

Preset #1 - Delta 3200 Contrast Settings 

Contrast = +38

Clarity = +18

Preset #2 - Delta 3200 Grain and Sharpening Settings

Sharpening Amount +2

Sharpening Radius 0.7

Sharpening Detail 25

Sharpening Masking 0

NR Luminance 26

NR Detail 50

NR Contrast 0

Grain Amount 60

Grain Size 17

Roughness 94

 

I find it very interesting that adding this amount of grain and removing gray levels (in the form of increased contrast) can actually improve some images.

 

I hope others find the settings useful.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Another Simple Post - I Love Umbrellas

Image Source: http://hillofcarnation.blogspot.com/2013/12/blog-post_8458.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HillOfCarnation+%28Hill+of+Carnation%29

 

I ran across this beautiful image on "Hill of Carnation" - a Japanese blog. It says so much about contemporary Japanese lifestyle.

 

(Click Here) to see the blog.

 

Here's one of my rain/umbrella pics from my latest trip to Japan. I don't know why, but I find umbrellas so photogenic.

 

Rain in Nihonbashi, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f2.4, 1/45 sec.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Revisiting Japan Pictures - Six Months Later

I have the great fortune of visiting Japan often, usually every spring. This year we went in late March, and had a wonderful time, as usual. My wife's cousin, Yoshiko, is a highly-experience guide focusing on the Kyoto area, one of Japan's most historic places. Yoshiko and I spent a half-day walking around Kyoto for a photo tour. It was not the best weather, and in fact rained quite hard. I carried my Leica M9 and 35mm f1.4 Summilux.

 

(Click Here) to read about the Summilux, or use the tab at the top of this page to see all of my Whole Lotta Leica posts, including results posts for this lens.

 

To be honest, I was not very pleased with my own photographic results. Yoshiko took me to some amazing places, and weather is no reason to fail to bring back excellent images. I remember looking through them and thinking that I just had not hit the mark on that day.

 

I decided to go back through those images, and see if I'd missed anything. Here are two shots that I now quite like:

 

Gion Crossing, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f6.7, 1/90 sec.

 

 

Gion, in Kyoto, is the most famous geisha district in Japan. What I really like about the shot above are the secondary elements (the two ladies in kimono sharing an umbrella are the primary element). I love how the ladies across the street are turning to look at them. The Japanese have a fascination with their past and culture, even if many of them no longer practice any aspects of it regularly. They are always interested to see someone who is. The other element I like is the painting of a geisha on the wall to the left of those ladies. It was an announcement for an event, and adds another nice touch of historic Japanese imagery.

 

Here's another that caught my eye:

 

Noren, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f6.7, 1/90 sec.

 

 

I always love the graphic arts in Japan. For example, restaurants frequently hang "noren," decorative curtains, in their doorways. In this shot, you see the purple noren dominating nearly half of the image, and the semi-line of red paper lanterns pulling you further into the picture. The person looking out between the second and third lantern really adds a nice finishing element in my opinion.

 

So, maybe I did a little better than I initially thought. I find that I sometimes need to take a good long time to let my expectations for a particular shoot or event fade before I can fairly judge my own results. I was not able, due to my own limitations, to get the shots I expected on that day, even though I was presented with a rare opportunity and an expert guide. As I'm learning through other pursuits in life, expectations can be expensive; Buddha says they're the root of suffering. Once I get past expectations, I can usually find beauty.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Leica at The White House!

I recently nominated my friend and colleague, Jason Osborne, for a White House science award known as Champions of Change: Citizen Science. Guess what? He won! And, I got an invitation to accompany him to The White House in Washington, DC to receive his award.

 

The White House, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 160, f16, 1/125 sec.

 

Okay. The event was at The White House, not in The White House. It was actually held inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), adjacent to The White House. A massive, imposing structure, EEOB is full of history and executive presence.

 

EEOB, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 160, f11, 1/180 sec.

 

Stairway, EEOB, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

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

 

 

The event was moderated by Joe Palca, Science Desk Correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). Philip Rubin, Principal Assistant Director for Science, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Ellen McCallie, Program Director for informal Science Education, National Science Foundation (NSF) gave brief talks about the importance and wonder of "Citizen Science," which is a new breed of science, where citizens (both ordinary and extraordinary, but not necessarily career scientists) contribute to scientific discovery and advancement, and gain science education through participating in real science projects.

 

Jason won the award because of the citizen science program that he and partner-in-crime Aaron Alford (co-founders of a non-profit called Paleo Quest) developed to involve the public in discovery and description of micro fossils. The program is called SharkFinder. (Click Here) to read about Paleo Quest and SharkFinder.

 

Jason's Talk, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f2.8, 1/180 sec.

 

After each awardee made a short presentation, there was a panel discussion, addressing questions on citizen science from the audience.

Panel, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Elmarit 90mm f2.8 Lens

iso 640, f3.4, 1/180 sec.

 

Jason at The White House, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Elmarit 90mm f2.8 Lens

iso 640, f4, 1/180 sec.

 

This was an incredible opportunity for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the event, and consider it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to photograph at The White House. I'm also extremely proud of Jason, Aaron, and Paleo Quest for their success - all the result of hard work and concentration on the importance of science and education.

 

For more information on the Champions of Change program, (Click Here).

 

I decided to shoot my Leica M9 at this event, knowing that I'd want a fast lens, quiet operation, and likely no flash. I settled on the Summilux 35 because of the fast f1.4 aperture, and the 90mm Elmarit f2.8 for longer shots. I did not want to be fiddling with lens changes during the event, so I kept it to these two lenses. I'll admit that I was tempted to shoot a Nikon DSLR and zoom, which would have worked fine as well. As it was, I felt that my work was unobtrusive, and I'm pleased with the results overall.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Whole Lotta Leica Results - March's Summilux 35mm f1.4 in Black and White!

 

Kodaiji After Dark, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f1.7, 1/15 sec.

 

I've already posted some night street shots taken with March's Whole Lotta Leica lens, the Summilux 35mm f1.4 lens. Here's one more night shot (above), or at least it was after sunset. I love the repeated patterns and lines in this shot.

 

I've been manually entering my lenses into the M9, so it can work its magic on vignette corrections, etc. I'm not sure what happened here, but the image data says I'm using a 35mm Summicron, rather than the Summilux. Therefore, I'm not sure about the f-stop information. I've got to look into that.

 

Here is another low light image (below), this time taken from a moving subway train.

 

Entering the Tunnel, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f5.6, 1/4 sec.

 

The shot above could have been made with just about any 35mm lens. I decided that I wanted the motion blur caused by the train movement, set the shutter speed at 1/4 second, and then found the right aperture, which happened to be f5.6. I took several images like this but this is my favorite.

 

Ochanoyu, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f1.4, 1/30 sec.

 

The shot above shows the dreamy quality of the Summilux wide open (or nearly so). Again, due to the lens id issue, I'm not sure exactly what f-stop I used. If I remember correctly, it was f1.4. The lady in front's face and the tea cup are quite sharp, but everything else is smooth and creamy.

 

Finally, here's a shot taken in daylight. This was taken at the Kamo River in Kyoto, where people gather to enjoy the spring weather.

 

Jumping the Turtles, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 160, f9.5, 1/180 sec.

 

For the shot above, I decided to do the black and white conversion in Nik's Silverefexpro2. I have been looking for my own settings to emulate Tri-x (Kodak black and white 400 film) for some time, with no real success. For this shot, I used the built-in Tri-x setting in Silverefexpro2. I'm very pleased with the result. I like the line made by the upraised heads of the stone turtles, and the parallel lines of the stones the family is standing on and the stairway and stone wall at the river's edge. The little girl in mid-air between the stones finishes off the composition for me.

 

So, while I really do love the color rendition of my old Summilux 35, it also delivers quite well in black and white.

 

I hope you enjoy these images.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Whole Lotta Leica - March's Lens the Summilux 35mm f1.4 - Night Street Photography From Tokyo, Japan

I'm a little late finishing up March's Whole Lotta Leica results. Here are some images I shot with the Summilux 35mm f1.4 on the Leica M9 while I was in Tokyo at the end of March.

 

(Click Here) to read my post about the Summilux 35.

 

The f1.4 allowed me to shoot easily in the darkness. The weather was cold and rainy on our trip this year, but I didn't let that slow me down.

 

The first two are shots from my walk around the Monzennakacho area.

 

Fruit Market, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

Outside the Ramen Shop, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f1.7, 1/125 sec.

 

I also walked to Nihonbashi (literally "Japan Bridge"). The first bridge was constructed here in 1603. Nihonbashi has been an important merchant area since that time. The predecessor of Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market was first located at Nihonbashi. It's hard to believe, but people used to be able to see Mount Fuji from Nihonbashi; it is now completely covered by an overhead expressway.

 

Cherry Blossoms at Nihonbashi, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f1.4, 1/30 sec.

 

I always like to shoot pictures of people with umbrellas. I really like the transparent umbrellas that are popular in Tokyo. They allow me to capture people's faces, even when they're under an umbrella. Pretty cool.

 

Transparent Umbrella at Nihonbashi #1, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 640, f1.7, 1/45 sec.

Transparent Umbrella at Nihonbashi #2, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f2, 1/60 sec.

 

I already wrote about how I prefer 50mm lenses over 35mm in most cases. I know that a lot of people prefer 35mm for street photography, and I can appreciate why. I really enjoyed shooting with this lens for the month. The color rendition is really, really nice in my opinion, and the added depth of field over a 50mm lens helped immensely in night time shooting.

 

You may find it interesting that two different instructors for Leica Akademie workshops I've taken both recommend 35mm over 50mm for street shooting. At the recent LHSA Spring Shoot in Fort Lauderdale, I attended a street photography seminar with Leica's Justin Stailey. Based on his recommendation, I shot the 35mm Summilux the whole time. I'll post some of those images soon as well. I definitely have come to value this classic lens more through learning how to better use it.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Whole Lotta Leica - My First Day in Japan with the Summilux 35mm f1.4

Ramen Shop, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

 

I am writing at the end of my first full day in Japan. I will be home by the time this posts.

 

We arrived in Japan late last night, and today was a rest day. Tomorrow we're off for Kyoto on a 6:15AM train.

 

Today I went to Akihabara (Tokyo electronics district) to check out new cameras. The Fuji X20 really turns me on. I will likely end up with one of these as some point.

 

I also went to a few used camera stores in Ginza, to talk with them about the Leica Historical Society of America (LHSA), which is now the International Leica Society. I found a beautiful old Rolleiflex D, with a Planar f2.8 lens, which I fell in love with.

 

But, I didn't buy - either the X20 or the Rollei.

 

I did walk around the city and shoot a little today, both with my DMC-LX7 and with my M9.

 

It was raining this evening, and I spent some time shooting the wet streets and people in them. I really like the shot above as I was able to catch the person walking their bike right into the light emanating from the ramen shop on the right.

 

This shot is right out of the camera.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com