Together with the two pictures in this post above, the eight photographs below are part of a New Year's resolution to "commit fully" to what I'm trying to do with my photography. Basically, I think that, if one wants to express something, one needs not to avoid being held back by what one thinks other people may want, or by a form of "exquisiteness" that a particular camera can achieve — in this case the M-Monochrom. So, in the instance of these images, I'm not after realism — B&W is not a realist medium in any case — but want an expressionist look. Now, these images are not yet a portfolio or an essay but only a selection some of which I may end up using (or not).
These pictures were all taken with the M-Monochrom and the Summicron-35 v4 lens and a yellow filter. Pak Nam Pran in Thailand is a fishing village half an hour south of the resort town of Hua Hin, itself two hours south of Bangkok.
Some stunning images over the last couple of pages. I am very tempted by the image quality that I am seeing from the Leica Monochrome...
Leica Q - PP in Photoshop and Lightroom. In retrospect I should have dialed down the polariser but still like the result it had on the clear winter skies.
Went geocaching today and found an abandoned house, someone trying to drive a forklift up an icy hill (unsuccessfully) and finally this. It was a weird trip. M9 + Summaron.
Something a bit different from me. I recently attended a presentation by a well known local photographer who specializes in old barns, houses, buildings, etc throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. His incredible work inspired me to make a short one hour drive South of Calgary near the town of Vulcan (real name). I had a lot of fun and will post more pics in the coming weeks. Froze my arse off though and I can (once again) attest that the M240 works fairly well at -28C.
Gary Clennan wrote:
Froze my arse off though and I can (once again) attest that the M240 works fairly well at -28C.
Gary, I get cold just looking at those photographs. The temperature here dropped from the high 70s (Fahrenheit) yesterday to the low 50s today, and I am freezing my arse off.
Those are some wonderful shots. Glad to know the 240 works at -28C, not that I would ever try it at that temperature.
The following photo doesn't add anything in illustrating the New Year's resolution mentioned in my last post above, although I was thinking of the reflexive concept of the rearview mirror reference to the photographer.
My two other New Year photo resolutions are, firstly, to move to a more reductive vision, which is leading me to using a 35mm or a 50mm lens — i.e., not shooting with the 21mm and 28mm lenses that I've used a lot. Maybe I'll just shoot with one lens for a while. I've been over the last few years influenced by Moriyama Daido and, in terms a reductive approach, am now thinking more about Ralph Gibson, but even more about Portuguese photographer Paulo Nozolino. I'm blown away by the idea that Nozolino, who only shoots B&W film, does not even have a website. Love it!
Secondly, I want to shoot more vertical (portrait mode) shots. Before I started shooting with a digital camera in 2006, some ⅓ to ½ of my "keepers" were in portrait mode. It seems that digital has pushed most people to shoot almost entirely in landscape mode because the image on the monitor is much larger when post-processing. For processing portrait mode images I'm now starting to flip then 90° to produce a larger view on the monitor.
BTW, the picture below is made with the Summilux-35 ASPH-FLE, while the eight ones above are with the Summicron-35 v4. I'm beginning to think that, for bright light, I prefer the Summicorn 35 v4 (both on the M9 and the M-Monochrom).
M-Monochrom | Summilux-35 ASPH-FLE | ISO 640 | f/5.6 | 1/4000 sec | Yellow filter Pak Nam Pran
pingflood wrote:
Went geocaching today and found an abandoned house, someone trying to drive a forklift up an icy hill (unsuccessfully) and finally this...
Hej, pingflood - perfect title for your photo: Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.
