APhotoContributor

my friend leo.

I’m not going to go to the blog and see the last time I updated.  I’m betting it’s been at least two years.  Audiences require daily content; I don’t have time for that.  There’s a huge difference writing about photography playing to an audience than actually making photos for clients. 

I prefer to post on IG.  It’s so easy.  You don’t really have to reply to comments; you just tap to like.  One of the reasons I stopped blogging or posting on dA is that I couldn’t keep up with the comments.  Blogging was a hobby; shooting for me is not.  Not being able to comment back and look like a jerk got old.  On dA I could get 1000 comments a week on journal or photo posts.  That’s full-time job to keep up.

Would I be remiss if I didn’t say I missed photoblogging?  For sure-ish.  Making my living, though, from affiliate sales and hot linking makes me sick to my stomach.  Time is time.  I get more inspired by looking at my feed on IG.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  Being inspired by photography and not being inspired by “new gear” (ironic this post is about a new camera)?  Instead of chasing gear I think someone who truly wants to be a better photographer would just pick a platform and commit to shooting instead of commenting on some blog.  How does that make you a better photographer?  It doesn’t.  

But I'll bet it makes you a "super commenter." The only blogs with really high rates of clicks are those that talk about gear.  I know that personally:  Anytime I just posted about gear the views went though the roof.  Most of the people I know who make photos for a living rarely change their gear.  I think that’s left for IT weekend warrior-types who tend to post the most on the “gear review sites.”  

I still shoot D4’s, D800/810’s, Leica for 35mm film, Contax for medium format film and medium format digital — I’ve shot these same platforms for years and 10’s of TB’s for clients.

I moved from the Fujifilm X-Pro1 to the X-T1 because I liked the way it focused and wrote to cards faster.  Never really got into the X100/s/t because I don’t like being forced into a focal length.  I have an iPhone for that.

Recently, I did some drive/RAID maintenance and saw that I’d shot about 18 TB of Fuji files over the course of a few years.  The more and more I shot the X-T1 I really liked the fact I didn’t need some heavy mirror box to make photos.  Sometimes I’d just bring one as an ambient body while still having the D4-beast on another shoulder.  Wanna guess which shoulder hurt more after four or five hours of shooting?

For some assignments where I wasn’t expected to use flash I’d just take a few X-T1’s.  There hasn’t been one client or publication yet who’s said the deliverables were “too small” or not “high-quality enough.”  I did hear a couple times “Is that little thing good enough?”  They don’t realize that it’s about the same as the D4 file size-wise.  It’s not their job to know that.  When clients were surprised that they’d see images appear as a text on their phone all I heard was, “Our social media team loves that you can get us photos almost immediately.”  Couldn’t do that with the Nikons.  
Can't wait for the X-Pro2 to work with the app.

My shoulders appreciate it so much when I leave the "mirror boxes" at home.  Slinging two D4’s is torture now that I’m used to having one and sometimes two Fuji’s for a gig.  When I was first checking out the X-Pro1 what I really wanted was something to replace my Leica M9’s.  I know I know I know:  It’s heresy to suggest anyone could make any real photo with anything less than a Summilux or Summicron.   After using the X-Pro1 for a while I got used to the autofocus.  I still think most people don't know how to use AF properly.  Fujifilm engineers made it better and better with subsequent firmware upgrades.  I don’t really remember Leica doing anything like that except to try and correct numerous problems with their platforms not to mention sensor glass that liked to crack.  To be honest, I didn’t even really pay attention to what Nikon did with their firmware upgrades because they usually nail it right out of the gate.  

Getting better and better with both hardware and software tends to happen when you have beta-testers who are actually guys who work with their gear and not just fawn about it on forums.
  
I haven’t been blown away by a camera since the X-T1.  Yeah, cool, I can put two XQD’s in the new D5 but I probably won’t be buying D5’s.  12 frames per second.  Don’t do much sports so that aspect doesn’t matter much.  I get the shot in three frames.  Six and a half grand for a camera body just seems so stupid when one considers that’s almost approaching the glorious world of medium format digital.  I'd be surprised if they actually sold a lot-a lot.  Hopefully, Fuji gets "voice tagging" integrated before my D4's die.

Not only that but it’s only 20mp.  I mean I guess it’s a game of give and take when you’re designing a camera but still having a noisy mirror flopping up and down and all of that extra unnecessary weight just doesn’t seem to go the way the camera industry is going.  Yeah, I know:  It’s full frame.  These days who cares.  There hasn’t been one client who’s ever said, “Yeah, but can you shoot a full frame camera, please.”  Not one.  I’ve never had a deliverable rejected because the file wasn’t good enough or a client having said, "I was really hoping for that full-frame look."  Not once.

That’s not to say I would have liked to have had “a bit more file” to work with when shooting the X-T1.  Well, I may not have gotten the replacement to my X-T1’s but I’ve been shooting the X-Pro2 (codenamed “Leo”) for the past few months.  The first thing I noticed was it was so much “snappier.”  The focus was just crisp and super-accurate.  I’m not saying the X-T1 isn't good I’m just saying this is better.  Files processed through the X-Pro2's image engine were amazingly fast — at least two times faster and probably faster than that.  Whatever this new Sony sensor is doing it’s doing it much faster than the X-T1 does  and exponentially faster than the old venerable X-Pro1.

I asked why this sensor was better and was told that its architecture stems from conductivity using copper instead of aluminum giving it much more speed.  That speed isn’t just limited to recording the image but the readout speed, which effects the EVF refresh rate, AF speed and all sensor functions.  Because the internal architecture is based upon copper the general thickness of the sensor is greatly reduced the gaps between the pixels all but disappears.  All of those aspects are hard to quantify as an end-user but I saw way less noise in the mids and shadows.  Fuji confirmed that this new sensor has reduced noise as well.

The 64gb SDHC Class 3 UHS-II prototype Samsung memory cards along with the 16gb SDHC Class 3 UHS-II Toshiba cards I was using with the X-T1’s write so incredibly quickly.  I never hit the end of my buffer.  Then again, I rarely hit it with the D4’s, sometimes hit it with my D800/810’s.  

I’m not sure what the throughput on the Samsung cards was but I know the Toshiba’s were 260/240 mb/s.  Much faster than the dinosaur workhorse CF cards and on par with the XQD’s I put in the D4’s.  Why live in the past by using old CF cards when there’s new technology available? 


It’s also got two card slots one being for the UHS-II cards and the second for normal SD cards whatever those are because I don’t use them.  I know people love to put RAW files on one card and cooked JPG’s in another or write sequentially but I don’t really see why people really want to do that.  Whatever.  If it helps your workflow, all good.  I normally have a TB of card space on hand so it’s never really been an issue.  Not only that but I rarely touch my workflow as I have editors who handle it.

One thing I love about using SDHC Class 3 UHS-II and XQD’s for that matter in the D4’s is that they also download A LOT quicker.  Any amount of time I don't have to be editing photos or waiting to edit photos is a good thing.

Fuji added a cool little joystick on the back to select the area you want to use for AF.  Love this feature because it’s one of the things I love about my Nikon’s.

  Although I normally have “Single Point AF” selected for 90% of what I do, the “Zone AF” worked exceptionally well with little spaniels running at me.  Unsure how it’d do for sports but at least the target would be bigger than a “little dog.”

Single Point AF is extremely snappy and focuses on just about anything I pointed it at.  Where my Nikon’s contrast detection would hunt this little camera just locked and let me get the shot I wanted.

I noticed that the XF 35/2.0 seemed to be extra-snappy. Dunno why but that lens was on the body most of the time -- you'll see below.  I tend to use the XF 23/1.4 the most.  Really enjoyed that XF 35/2.0 as it seemed very Summicron-like to me.  

The menu system on the body has been fully revamped and much more intuitive to me.  Before I just “got used to where everything lived” but with the X-Pro2 the moment I launched the menu I figured out where everything was almost immediately except for formatting.  

Since this is the X-Pro2, there’s that rangefinder-ish window that allows you to see your photo optically as well as the lovely EVF.  I’ve gotten so used to the EVF using the X-T1 to make 100’s of thousands of frames that it’s something I really like and it's the mode I use the most.  The EVF on the X-Pro2 is even better.  Fuji explained to me that the OLED EVF is .48” with 2.36M dots vs. the one in the X-T1 which is .5” and 2.36M dots.  It’s also a much newer generation screen with a big feature that in its high performance mode it runs at 85fps rather than the 56fps refresh rate we find in the X-T1.

Along with the EVF one of the things you’ll notice first is the larger monitor on the X-Pro2. Instead of 1.04M pixels this one is 1.62M pixels.  Does it tilt?  No.  Would I prefer that it did?  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.  I get why it doesn't, though.

No, there’s not 4K video.  That really doesn’t bother me because I don’t use this platform for video.  When I shoot video I use D800/810’s.  I’d like to experiment more often with the Fujifilm platform for video, though.  It does have 60p at 1080, though, which is a nice tool to have.  Would love to see a poll of how many people have actually edited 4k video, though.

  Like the X-T1 it has electronic shutter up to 1/32,000th of a second which means I don’t have to carry ND filters as much as I have in the past.  Another lovely thing with the electronic shutter is that it’s totally silent (if you turn off the sounds, of course), which allows me to shoot on set without a camera condom AKA “a blimp.”  I’ve now seen three other guys “lose the blimp” because technology is your friend and you don’t need to shoot like it’s 10 or 15 years ago. I'd hate to be in the blimp business.


Leicas aren’t even this quiet.  I do tend, however, when silence isn’t a total issue to use the mechanical shutter because I’m old and I like the positive feedback of hearing a frame recorded.  And for shooting street this camera feels sneakier to me than the X-T1 does.

Living in sunny California I normally shoot when it’s nice outside.  It’s always nice out.  We get the occasional rain but that doesn’t happen very often.  Except for now at least thanks to our friend “El Nino.”  No, I’m not looking up the tilde version of the “n.”  I would expect a camera to work well in nice weather.  

I was able to shoot an assignment with some cattle ranchers in Northern California in the middle of December of 2015.  Driving toward the ranch from my hotel in the tiny little town I watched the temp gauge in my truck start out at 32F (0C) ... then ... 22F (-5C)  … then 18F (-7C) … then 14F (-10F) and then 8F (-13C) when I got to the ranch.  Since I’d never used this camera in these kinds of environments, I was a little apprehensive.  Not only … it’s a prototype as well.  It’s close to production but it’s not production.  The firmware was pre-production as well.  I was used to my Nikons and Canons (back in the day when I was forced to shoot Canon) not being very happy in similar conditions when I shot as an official Sundance Film Festival photographer in the winter ... in the Utah mountains. 

I expected the battery to drain faster because of the frigid temps as it did.  I didn’t get as many frames as I would have on a temperate day but this little camera performed as well as anything I’ve ever shot in the same conditions.  It kept going and going.  Instead of perhaps 230 frames per battery I got about 200.

Interestingly, when I got off one of the horses I didn’t look down — trying to make sure I didn’t drop any gear — and inadvertently stepped in a hole that was full of slushy sloppy muddy cold-ass water with my right leg up to about my calf.  I’d shot for about 10 minutes.  I think it had warmed up to 14F (-10C).  When I told one of the ranchers/cowboys that “I couldn’t really feel my foot” his response was “Have a donut.  You’ll live.”  I think that glazed raised was really what helped. ;)

Being on both a horse and riding shotgun in a 4-wheel drive Kawasaki Mule keeping a hold of the camera wasn’t as much of a challenge because the new X-Pro2 has a handgrip-thingy built into the body.  So happy I didn’t drop/break any gear on this gig.  We rode all over a certain portion of the 12,000 acres which had obstacles everywhere. Yes, I know how to ride a horse.  I didn’t just jump on one blindly.

  That said, yes, I was sore for the next day.  

What else?  Film simulation mode!  I love the “classic chrome” setting.  It reminds me of Leica M9 files, which I thought were some of the loveliest to come out of a digital camera (under 640 iso, of course).  The “Acros” setting was also very nice for monochrome but I almost never shoot monochrome JPG files.  I like to use VSCO vis-a-via Lightroom or my own settings in PS CC and Capture One.


Although I was provided with an advanced version of Silky Pix, I never used it so I’ve actually never even seen a RAW from the X-Pro2.  I’m set in my ways and prefer to process RAW files with Capture One or if I have to I’ll use Lightroom.  Given that I was very conscientious of how my highlights were coming out given the exposures I chose.  Surprisingly, there’s pretty good latitude in the cooked JPG files coming out of the X-Pro2.  That said, I’m looking forward to seeing what RAW’s look like!

In the few months I’ve used Leo I’ve fallen in love with it.  If you’re upgrading from an X-Pro1, you’re definitely going to love what you’re going to get in the X-Pro2!  I have no doubt.  Given what they’ve done with the first Fujifilm digital camera that the world fell in love with they did an incredible job.  It even feels better in my hands.

ISO performance is as good as I expected.  I RARELY go over 6400 with any platform.  I mean I guess there's a need but I've never really seen any examples that are of those stratospheric speeds that a desk editor would ever accept.  Dynamic range is lovely as well.  I was told to put the dynamic range on auto, though, a while back and it seems to work just as well on the X-Pro2 as it does on the X-T1.

Don't get me wrong:  ISO is important.  My first digital camera, the Nikon D1, is fresh in my mind (15 years ago?) with its horrible dynamic range and ISO performance.  What I really want, though, is a camera that is as comfortable for me doing street and going straight into an paid assignment.  The M9 was cool until you got past ISO 400.  The X-Pro1 was a bit slow for work.  The X-T1 did both very well ... as ... does ... this little beast.  It's so damn snappy.  Focus locks whether I've got a 23/1.4 or even the 50-150/2.8 (even with the 1.4x converter), which is used as recently as this past weekend.

Although I’m not sure what the X-T2 will feature, given what I’m seeing with this camera, I can’t wait to see!  I know I hope that it includes the ability to “voice tag” so my editors can listen to the tags to speed up their workflow.  Did I mention voice tagging already as a friend at the AP also mentioned to me today?

In addition to “voice tagging” I’m also looking forward to a competitive on-camera flash solution from Fuji.  When that happens I’m pretty sure that I’ll be saying goodbye to mirror box cameras for the majority of my work.

  In most of my prior blog posts I interlaced photographs into the text.  This time I decided to put them all at the end…

Los Angeles - After I got it out of the box and wanted to see it work. :)  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8

Los Angeles - Then I picked on the dogs. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

The Los Angeles - The dog before doesn't really like to look at cameras.  This guy doesn't care.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Los Angeles - 'tis (was) the season -- everyone is always so happy.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Bishop - Almost. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 35/2

Round Valley - It's as cold as it looks.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 35/2

Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

I was more just hoping I didn't fall off with all of my gear ... and a prototype named Leo.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

12,000 acres at the foot of the beautiful Sierras.  Fujifilm X-Pro 2 and XF50-140/2.8

Not only was I cold but I was dusty as hell, too. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8

Works with cattle every single day. "Cows don't know it's Christmas."  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

I remember having gone to a country bar once and seeing a guy with spurs.  I asked him, "What kind of horse do you have?"  He told me to f*ck off.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

I think even they were cold.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Hasn't run for a couple decades-ish.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Their winter home. It's 15 degrees warmer up here ... or wherever we were.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Works harder than 99% of the people I know.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Round Valley - Absolutely love this area of California - Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF 23/1.4

Bishop - Later that day. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Los Angeles - Dinner by LED.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

St. Louis - Afternoon tea.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Agoura Hills - I asked him if that's the way he really felt and he said, "They should stay in Williamsburg." Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Los Angeles - We used to have to wait a week after going to Fotomat but now it's instant.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Los Angeles - Finally, it rains.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2.0

Los Angeles - Hula girl in an old VW van. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Beverly Hills - Window shopping.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Downtown Los Angeles - Surveying the new Broad museum. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Los Angeles - Pretty princess. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF16/1.4

Downtown Los Angeles - Caught in nice light.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35/2

Downtown Los Angeles - Contemplation over a drink at happy hour. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF23/1.4

Santa Anita Race Track - Opening day.  Homie was rocking an M6, too. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF23/1.4

Los Angeles - Coquettish daughter. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF23/1.4

Santa Anita Race Track - He acted like an alien.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF23/1.4

Downtown Los Angeles - "Yo, you should get some of those to shoot street, man."  "Nah, I just try to blend."  And he does.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF23/1.4

Las Vegas - Or how I spent my New Year's Eve weekend.  Vegas.  For the umteenth time.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF90/2

Las Vegas - Nicki Minaj and I'm still trying to figure out how she's talented.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8+1.4 converter

Las Vegas - She doesn't look anyone in their eyes.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8+1.4 converter

Las Vegas - Quiet moment in chaos. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF16/1.4

Las Vegas - Chris Brown before he allegedly smacked someone else.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF16/1.4

Las Vegas - He's very proud of his "talent."  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8+1.4 converter

Las Vegas - Some people pay huge $$$ for the privilege.  I look out into the crowd and see hell.  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF10-24/4

Las Vegas - Next up was The Weeknd.  He definitely had a semblance of talent.  Crowd loved him. Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF16/1.4 converter

Las Vegas - Surprised that the X-Pro2 focused better than my D800.  I'm also surprised that so many people think mobile phones are going to provide great photos and video.  People don't just enjoy concerts anymore?  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF50-140/2.8+1.4 converter

***All Photos ©2015/2016 Chris Weeks***

Digital Kool-Aid.

Let’s see … I know I’m many months late with my impressions of the Fuji X-Pro 1.  I’m sure there were “reviews” before the camera was even released.  Even if there weren’t I’m sure there were thoughts – probably numbering in the thousands – on forum sites.  Quite honestly, I didn’t read any of them.

Then again, I never really do.  How is the experience of a retired engineer or a forum-whore-turned-blogger going to help me?  They’re not.

I got the chance to play with the X100 when I was in Berlin last summer.  Loved how quiet it was.  I wasn’t, however, so happy with its AF focusing ability.  It hunted like the old Nikon AF stuff I shot back in the day with D-series lenses.  It wasn’t quite the same but it hunted.  In daylight it seemed fine but I wanted more than fine.  I compared – at the time – everything AF to the way my Canons performed.  Now, since I’m shooting Nikon digital, I compare everything to that.  And that’s pretty spectacular.

Interestingly I was having “issues” with my digital rangefinder, the venerable yet outdated M9.  There was a time when the M9 was my ambient light body as an accoutrement to the Canons I was using.  For some reason the SD cards would lock up.  I’d get that annoying red “writing light” more than I cared to see it.  Anyone that knows me knows it wasn’t because I was reaching the end of the buffer either.  It’s one thing to happen when you’re shooting for yourself but I also shot that camera system for clients, too.  If it weren’t for clients, I wouldn’t be able to make as many personal photographs.  Each is important yet when someone’s paying you to shoot your equipment must work 100% of the time.

With the M9 that wasn’t exactly the case.  I’m not an M9 hater.  I’m not a Leica hater.  I just think they’ve done boneheaded marketing moves but I still like the company.  I mean … I was one of the original beta-testers of the M9 when it was the P864.  I know I’ve made almost as many frames with that camera system as anyone on the planet.  That folder has in excess of 100,000 photos in it.  Personal street, stuff I shot at the request of engineers on the original design … and work stuff.  The M9’s that went through my hands saw everything from street photos all over the world to Metalica to The Prince and Princess’ visit to California last year.  Speaking of which I was overjoyed that the M9 worked flawlessly on that assignment. 

It tended to do that when the light was good.  When ambient (good CRI only) was 800 or higher and you were about halfway on a battery you’d get banding.  Ya’ know … and even though they released firmware update after firmware update the response I got was “use older cards with it.”  Nikon and Canon have never told me that.  Then again, working photographers DEPEND on their cameras and most who shoot with Leica are more concerned that the strap matches their bespoke jacket and hat. ;)

Last summer my love affair with Leica digital ended.  I started shooting my daytime street photography with my MP almost exclusively.  The lab was happy.  Now, though, the lab is sad because I’m souping my workflow.  From USD22.00/roll to under a dollar.  Way under a dollar.  Forgot how much I loved doing my own analog workflow.

Besides … when I push the release on the MP I know I am making a photo and not possibly doing a battery-pull-reset on the M9 and losing a frame (s) I liked.  I know some – and I used to say in the past – that digital street is heresy.  Well, it’s not.  It’s just different.  I know it’s different for me.  I missed having the ability to reliably shoot a digital rangefinder-ish camera.  That was until this Spring.  I got my hands on the Fuji X-Pro 1.  My only memory of shooting anything Fuji – besides their lovely black and white and E6 film – was the X100.

When I first looked at the initial frames I thought “gone is the nicely rendered CCD colour images from the Kodak sensor.”  They weren’t exactly gone because the Fuji looks different than my Canon and Nikon files.  Not worse.  Different.  They were, again, different than what the M9 produces but … not worse of better.  They’re just different.  And I grew to love those files!  Still do!

Admittedly, most of the colour files from the X-Pro 1 become monochromes via Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.  That was one of the things I credit the M9 with:  It got me used to and enjoying street moments in colour.  I like having the option.  Besides … if I showed up to a shoot and told a client, “This camera only does black and white images” I think they’d look at me funny and tell me to use one of the others.  Never quite understood the Leica mM as it’s a solution to a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. 

Unless you’re rich and want the newest fetish in camera wear.  Or, of course, that you really enjoy monochrome HDR images.  You’d be an mM-man.  I have no doubt they’ll sell every single one they make, though.  Funny thing is I know more kids with Canon digital Rebels doing better work than 99% of the guys wearing a Leica.

I found that I enjoyed looking at X-Pro 1 images and making them monochromes in post just as much as the files I saw from the M9.  They were just different.

It always struck me odd that I would use a seven grand camera and have to manually focus it.  Even though the X-Pro 1 was “challenged” in certain light to grab AF on a subject I found that it liked certain areas better than others.  I also found if I used the EVF in the viewfinder it seemed to focus much quicker.  I’m sure if you used this camera for a few days and didn’t know how to work it you’d be a bit frustrated.  Cameras don’t frustrate me.  I just learn their weak points and strong points and use them to the best of their ability.

I got pretty good with the X-Pro 1.

Never had a problem writing to any SD card either!  Old cards.  Newer cards.  The little-ish Fuji wrote to them all (I use only Sandisk cards of the SD or CF variety but use Sony QXD cards in the D4) without the complaint of a batter-pull reset.  In fact, I’ve never had to pull the battery on the X-Pro 1 to stop it from doing something I didn’t want it do.  I heard people say they didn’t like the menus on the X-Pro 1.  I get through them just fine.  Their RAW conversion program is another story altogether, though.  Saw it once and never launched it again.

In the back of my mind I always said, “Oh, but your favourite glass, man:  it’s not gonna look the same.”  My go-to lens on my Leicas is the 1.4/35 Summilux-M.  With film I rarely go above 800.  Funny that with the M9 one couldn’t go over 800 if they wanted useable photos.  The closest lens on the Fuji system was the 18mm f/2.0 XF R.  A stop faster than what I normally use for the ambient body.  Having the ability to shoot the X-Pro 1 at 3200 and 6400 ISO made that extra stop irrelevant.  I could actually shoot in situations I would have just put the M9 back in the bag and forgot about it.  

I found that the 18mm f/2.0 XF R was faster focusing than the 35mm f/1.4 XF R.  Could have been just me but seemed that way.  Both of these lenses are fantastic.  Are they less expensive than the Leicas?  Totally.  They performed every time I asked them to.  The results are beautiful.

It seems Fuji has a pretty good idea how to make excellent lenses.  Are they excellent?  Well … for someone that actually uses them for work … they perform amazing.  I’m not an MTF-freak.  Both the Fuji 18 (about 28mm in full-frame parlance) and the 35 (about 50mm in full-frame) are in my opinion spectacular.  When one factors in the cost associated with them and contrasting them with Leica lenses the difference is staggering.  Is the performance difference staggering?  Well … Fuji’s are AF and the Leicas will probably never be AF.  Ya’ know …. Even though it’s 2012.  Shoot a jumping puppy with an MF Leica digital and see if you can get what you want. 

I heard a quote from Leica back in the day, “We’re not interested in AF:  Our customers know how to focus.”  Think that’s bitten then in the ass to tell you truth.  Leica digital’s footprint on the digital photography landscape is pretty small in terms of users.  I don’t think they’ve ever wanted mainstream acceptance.  They want customers who want to take pictures in Cuba. 

Another thing it seems to me is that Fuji designed a digital rangefinder-ish camera from the ground up instead of trying to appease a group of Leica owners who are older than those sitting on the Supreme Court.  I think that Leica used to think of the photographer first before they became a lifestyle brand but I guarantee Fuji thought of the photographer first.  You can tell by using the X-Pro 1.

I’m done with any digital system that isn’t AF.  Digital should be AF.  Why the hell would anyone want an MF-only digital camera in 2012?  Not only that but when the M9 develops new problems and Leica starts to consider it a “legacy system” I have no doubt they’ll try to just up-sell the customer to their newest model instead of fixing it.  I was genuinely concerned that my M9 would end up a paperweight instead of a viable camera.  That’s one of the reasons I sold it.  I'm not interested in mounting my Leica glass on the X-Pro 1 either unless it's the 2.0/75 Sumicron-M perhaps for tight portrait work.

I’ve gotten literally a hundred emails from guys who ditched their M9’s, bought the X-Pro 1 and have never looked back.  A Leica and “passion for the perfect picture” doesn’t mean you’re going to make great photos.  A camera is a tool.  The photographer makes the photos.  The camera just records what he/she saw.  The X-Pro 1 does that exceptionally well.

Another thing that used piss me off about the M9 is the shutter sound.  An MP it definitely is NOT.  The X-Pro 1 is a whisper compared to the M9.  I like being as inconspicuous with my camera as possible.  The Fuji may be a bit bigger but … it’s way more silent.  The Fuji is way lighter, though.  Does lighter make it more prone to break?  No way.  So far the X-Pro 1 has fallen from the backseat of a car to the ground (2 feet), knocked off my shoulder by the gf (about 3.25 feet to concrete) and a couple feet to a wooden floor.  It's still making fabulous frames and hasn't complained.  It's also been knocked into door jams.  Not on purpose, of course.  I can tell you that when you knock a Leica hard it's going in for an RF adjustment. 

I’d spent more than a few months with the X-Pro 1, gotten used to its AF quirks and still loved what I was seeing.  Then … the engineers did the 2.0 firmware upgrade.  They unleashed a beast.  Fuji makes you update camera firmware AND lens firmware.  Whatever the hell they did made the AF really really good.  I mean … almost great.  I switch back and forth between the optical viewfinder and the EVF and find that they both perform way better than before.  The files write to the cards faster.  I was used to Leica updates and being wholly underwhelmed. 

This update was OVERwhelming.  So nice to see a company actually care about people who want to make beautiful photos instead of appeasing people who wear a camera.

The wake-up time has drastically improved as well.

I couldn’t be happier shooting the X-Pro 1.  When I just “grab and camera” and go I either get the X-Pro 1 or the MP … or lately a Nikon F100 with the 2.0D/35.  If I’m purposefully going to make street photographs I use both the MP and the X-Pro 1.  One of the bodies is normally in my bag, though.  They are nice accoutrements to each other.  Both wholly different but … they’re both amazing in their own ways.

I couldn’t have been happier exiting from the Leica digital upgrade path.  Spending 7K every time they upgraded their lagging technology wasn’t something I was interested in doing.  I’m a photographer; I’m not a fanboy; I’m not into looking like I’m a discerning picture taker.  I was in a Sur La Table in L.A. one day and a check-out clerk seeing the MP says, “Nice camera.  Do you actually use it or carry to be cool.”

I told him he probably had outdated headshots and wasn’t getting the commercial work he hoped for and that he was arrogant.

Seeing the look on his face made me also think he was probably “an improv guy” and was improvising with me in a jocular way. I doubt he’ll do that to another customer.

Honestly, I don’t care if it’s a Leica or a Fuji on my shoulder when I want to make photos.  I make photos because it’s one of the reasons I live not just because I want to look cool wearing a Leica as the king of dilettantes likes to say.

I just want to make the photo I want to make when I push the button.  The X-Pro 1  allows me to do that every single damn time.  Not to mention really silently!  I have more confidence picking up the X-Pro 1  more than I ever did when I wanted to make a photo with the M9.

I’m done drinking Leica’s digital Kool-Aid.  From what I’m hearing so are a lot of others.  Their work isn’t suffering whatsoever.  Neither is mine.

Bravo, Fuji, Bravo!  You guys really went above and beyond.  In fact, I think you guys out-Leica’d Leica.

The only caveat with this camera is that for some reason Apple hasn’t released a Camera RAW update for it.  All of the photos I’ve posted in this entry were processed through Lightroom 4.  I know.  Heresy for a diehard Aperture user.  Perhaps someday… I mean they've never ignored a camera but ... seriously ... wtf?

Beyond having to use Lightroom 4 when doing post on the X-Pro 1 files this is the digital rangefinder-ish camera of choice for me.  My last Leica M9 has a nice new home and I hope that guy is making lovely photographs with it.  

In the eyes of the Kool-Aid drinkers, though, seeing that Fuji on my shoulder must mean that I don't know how to make proper photos ... and that if I could possibly like an affordable camera ... I'm not as cool as they are.  That's all good.  Let them think that ... It's all good with me.

The Fuji does a better job at street photography than the M9 could ever dream of doing. I have a feeling that the market segment that used to only use Leica will "see the light" as it were sooner or later when they're tired of chasing an upgrade path that costs as much as a car.

And if you're a red-dot-Kool-Aid drinker and see the Fuji and think I'm less of a photographer than you are, well, go ahead and keep that "passion for the perfect picture" going on in your head.

Oh, yeah, buy the X-Pro 1 grip-thing, too.  It's way better with it.  And, I'd also get at least one extra battery.  I don't know if it was the battery that was originally sent with it but ... I wasn't too stoked on its performance.  The crappy M9 battery almost seemed good compared to it.  The second battery I ordered seems to be way better.  Funny when you look at those prices.  The battery is half of what Leica would charge and it's probably a better battery.  Who the hell knows what a grip would cost for a Leica but I'm positive the Fuji's grip is at least a cheaper by 80%, too. ;)  Sorry red dot ... the Kool-Aid is starting to taste a bit overly sugary yet rancid.

Cheers from La-La-Land. Best wishes for making nice photos!

p.s., check out my homey Rinzi's work on his blog ... he's uses the X-Pro 1 well. 

R.S.H.N.... Pink Eye... welcome to LA.

I think those are the key words of the trip. :) 

Los Angeles... well, I've been meaning to visit for a while now. Back in 2006 when I found Chris' work it made me look at photography in a completely different way. I was sixteen and my biggest photographic inquisition was how I could create out-of-focus areas in my photos because with my camera at the time it was not possible. I was shooting with a little point and shoot which back then I thought was as high-end as cameras got. Shortly after discovering Chris' work I bought some camera equipment and was now able to create out-of-focus areas in my photos whenever I wanted. It's been an incredibly memorable five years since then looking back... and it's amazing how it all roots back in one way or another to finding Chris' work. 

We developed a friendship through the Internet which transitioned into phone conversations about all sorts of things and advice on real-world work as I had started getting jobs shooting. Finally five years later, we hung out and shot together. How many people can say they've done that with their first inspiration? It's funny because I was meeting many of his friends who I had been familiar with through his blogs in Toronto at the film festival. And now I met him. It goes without saying that it was a great feeling and I had an amazing time. I'm amazed at what the Internet can do and the doors it can open.

I also found Sev's work through Chris' blog (that link brings back some good nostalgia) and it was amazing to meet and shoot with such a talented person. Sev and I got along really well (it must be the Euro connection) and I think his passion for photography is from another planet. He's an amazing dude... and I think we're gonna get R.S.H.N. tattoos after this trip. ;) 

I was very appreciative of Frank Jackson's work after seeing the street photography video and meeting him was a totally amazing experience as well. I love his approach to photography and he really is a true character. Meeting people like Richard Polom, Nhat Nguyen, Andy Bond, Paul Posadas, Andres Izquieta, Michael Hacker and everyone else was also very amazing and surreal at the same time. The Internet is an incredible thing and it was so cool how it brought us all together. 

I only shot film with my Zeiss Ikon coupled with my Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 lens as well as Chris' Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.0. I left LA with 14 rolls of a mix of Kodak Tri-X, Plus-X and Rollei Pan 25. I developed and scanned them about a week ago but going through all the photos and trying to sequence them is very tough. Especially for a trip that I believe was very important and memorable. 

Out of the 504 photos, there are close to 300 in this blog... which is a pretty good ratio I think. I posted more than every other photo I took there and I maybe should have cut it down but I hope you'll enjoy it. I will do a feature for my dot com of about the 20 best photos... that will be super hard to choose so if you have suggestions I'd love to hear. But for the blog close to 300 is fine. ;) 

Beginning with my mom who dropped me off at the airport. By the way, if you open these images in a new tab/window they will be about 100 pixels bigger... I just had to size them down to fit in the body of this blog layout without getting cut off. 

I was just in Florida for a full week and returned to Toronto a day before I left for LA so I was kind of exhausted of being on planes back-to-back. But the view was nice with the clouds... 1/2 second exposure. 

I arrived to Chris' place late at night and thought the doormat was pretty fitting to his sense of humor. :) 

We went to bed soon after I arrived because it was already pretty late and the next morning we were off to Chinatown for the first day of Street is Serious. LA's Chinatown is way cleaner than Toronto's and doesn't smell like a R.S.H.N. either... I was pretty impressed actually. We were walking to a restaurant to meet up with everybody. Funny how these people didn't feel like strangers...

This next picture is SO Picasso body shop... :) 

In between chatting I took some photos of whatever was around me. I was trying not to think too hard about what I was shooting and filtering out photos in my head which I do in Toronto. While in LA I constantly reminded myself that I was only there for four days so I should shoot as much as possible. I find that a lot of the times judgments change anyways and a photo that wouldn't have "made the cut" in my first draft of selects would end up in the second. 

Shooting street there was really really fun. I found that no one really payed attention to it even though at times they were getting photo-gangbanged. I guess everyone there wants to be an actor or director. Even these ladies. ;)

I thought this was an odd scene with awkward body language.

What an awkward position... there were a lot of kids in LA... lots of wannabe child stars. ;) 

I love this photo. Look at the look on her face... maybe they were enemies in a past life?

Notice the four legs and feet?

Lunch break in the parking lot?

We also have a College Street in Toronto and ours is part of Chinatown too. 

After a few hours we went back to Chris' house and I had to make at least one "pretty" photo for my Mom. :) She thinks it should have been in color... maybe she's right. But I actually took zero color photos while I was there. 

Later that night I met up with Richard and we walked along Sunset Blvd. which I thought would be super packed and full of people and parties but it was literally deserted. It was actually a really bizarre feeling and very unexpected. It was also freezing...

This ad would definitely not fly in Canada...

After over an hour of walking and some great conversations and stories, we decided it was too cold to stay out and shoot even for us Canadians. I was on my way back to Chris' house around 1:30am but I got lost since the streets in this neighborhood are dark and it was my first time getting there. It was really quite a trip to be lost by myself at that time on Sunset Blvd. I felt almost like I was on set in a movie or something.

This "Chapel" was very strange to me. I can imagine there being a meth lab in the basement or something. Weird vibe.

The streets in LA were surprisingly really dark at night... and there were lots of weird things to be seen, but I finally made it back with some GPS navigation help from my girlfriend in Toronto. ;) 

The next morning walked to the subway to head to Hollywood Blvd.

This scene was to be expected.

Not sure which one I like better...?

This is probably one of my favorites as well. I love the film in the background... very Hollywood. And I love the division of the photo into three's from all directions. 

Typical scene when we got out. She told me that the actress had the same name as her and they were looking for that star all day... I forget who's it was.

Vassup?!

There is a very subtle detail in this photo which is the only reason I took it. This would look incredible as a big print. 

Awkward scene in Hollywood. And a cool trench coat and car. ;) 

It was Oscar weekend after all:

Interesting position. I think she was trying to find a lighter.

Classic west coast car. I wish it was Snoop in it though. ;)

I thought this was a very Hollywood-type photo. 

Dazed and confused in Hollywood. 

We wandered into some sort of market off of Hollywood Blvd. Totally different vibe.

I wonder if this woman really shops at H&M? I'm not sure if she is really their "target market." 

I love his this man and the young girl are almost the same size. Kind of an awkward pair I think.

Found my way back to Hollywood Blvd. but lost the group for a while... found some short grannies. 

This chick was yelling from her car to stop taking pictures. Hilarious!

Found a Banksy. Felt like taking a mirror shot almost. ;) 

Where are all the celebs?! Either that or they weren't sure where they were going.

Moved the group to Olvera Street.

Took a ride with Chris, Jamie, Sev, Brenna and Richard... the LA way. 3 up front. :)

Took the bus at some point too but I can't remember when... I think Chris has a video of me taking this photo.

And this one too...

After a few hours Chris, Sev, Richard, Michael and I went to Echo Park to shoot. Grabbing Richard from his hotel... not sure what these dudes were doing.

This is for my friend Russell. :)

1/2 second exposure... not easy. But I think the mood comes across. 

There were a lot of punks out this night.

I found some life on Sunset... I think this shows how dead it was. 

Punks vs. police. Not sure what happened... 

Sketchy taped together car. Someone was getting out of the backseat right as I took this. I'm telling you, Sunset Blvd. is a strange place... 

Love the items in the car. The cross is what makes it for me. 

Could never forget I was in America. :) 

I thought this said LA PRESS at first and that's why I took the shot because I liked the juxtaposition between that and the "DEAD" tag on the other side. It was intended to be a commentary on the state of the press. But I found out after I scanned it that it actually says "LA XPRESS" ... I think it still works though. 

Weird situation on Sunset. 

Went into a restaurant to get some food. Had an amazing red velvet cupcake but this place had a weird vibe for me. Switching to Chris' Nocti right now. Shooting 1.0 saved me in these lighting conditions. Two shots... I think I like the second one better.

The next day Sev and I went downtown. Jamie was so awesome and dropped us off. Thanks Jamie. :) This was very American:

I actually love that this dude didn't want me to take his picture. Looks cool this way.

?

We found another Banksy.

I like how his face is in shadow... subtle detail but I think it makes the shot.

This seemed to be a common thing with the pay phones in LA. 

This is one of my favorite photos I think...

What compels someone to do this?! I don't think this was her "weekend hobby" either. I'm just glad she didn't bite/scratch me. ;) 

JESUS SAVES. Sev and I made a joke that the ultimate street photo would be to have the LA Jesus running out of this building on fire with a girl in his arms, saving her from the flames. So I guess this shot is a work in progress for now. ;) At least we have the location scouted. 

I love this guy's physique. 

I needed this license plate on film. :)

This woman was scraping the gum off of that... 

Sev made a new friend with this dude who was showing us his camera...

Switching to the Nocti now. This lens is really something else... all at f/1.0. It's not easy focusing that on a moving subject. Even if he was moving slow. ;) Love the jacket and the Dickies. 

The light here was great... my girlfriend thought this was with a tilt/shift. Just f/1.0... :) 

Another photo for my Mom. :)

Said ciao to Sev after this and put back my 35/2 to shoot a bit more downtown. I love this photo for some reason but I'm still not really sure why... it just really reminds me of downtown. 

I asked her how to get back to Silver Lake and she told me she used to be a photographer. She wanted to take pictures of me so I gave her my Zeiss... they weren't bad! Better than I thought they would be.

Got back to Silver Lake at night and had to kill some time until Chris got home. I think Sunset Blvd. was my favorite place to shoot in LA. 

Weird grass on the sidewalk... 

I think this is one of my favorite photos from LA.

I met up with Chris when he got home and we went to our friend Natalie's Oscar after party. It was nice to see everybody who I only see at the Toronto International Film Festival in a different environment and in LA this time. Paul edited my photos a few years ago during TIFF but he wasn't there last year. Hope to see him in September.

Mario! I knew Mario's face from Chris' blogs and the street video and when I saw him in the hotel for the film fest two years ago I went up to him and told him I just watched the video the day before. We ended up shooting Drew Barrymore beside each other a few days after that at my university's theatre. Mario's an awesome guy and another inspiring shooter and I'm glad we got to hang out both in Toronto and in LA. Again, the connecting power of the Internet absolutely amazes me.

Mario's lovely girlfriend Heather with Mike who's also a wicked photographer.

Jamie and Sev:

The next day was my last in LA so I said goodbye to Chris, Jamie and Sev in the morning because they were going to the desert to shoot and I had some things I had to do before my flight. I had a meeting with someone during the day and then had to lock up my luggage before heading to LAX so I went to Venice Beach to kill the last few hours and because I was curious what it was like. Actually, it was not at all what I expected. It was pretty dead but it may have been because of the weather.

It was seriously windy that day. No wonder Venice Beach was kind of deserted. 

I love how he's flipping me off. :) 

These "doctors" were everywhere in Venice Beach... literally every other store.

Another very American car.

Check out the hand... :) This would be a cool big print too. 

This trip was really memorable and amazing on so many different levels. It was incredible meeting everybody who was there and being able to hang out and shoot with the person who inspired me to get into photography was just amazing. It's hard to put it into words. I was looking forward to meeting Angelo from deviantART to thank him for that site... but hopefully next time! Huge thank you Jamie and Chris for the hospitality... it was such a pleasure & I appreciate it. I can't wait to go back to LA again... shooting there was so much fun. 

While I'm on the topic of how cool it is to meet people from Uber (RIP), dA, etc... Dan Entwistle was in Toronto for a few months and I got to hang out and shoot with him a few times and Dmitry Koupriyanov and I have become good friends. I will also be hanging out with Philip Schulte for dinner & shooting in a few hours in Toronto. Seems pretty amazing to me. 

Cheers,

Arthur Mola

http://arthurmola.com

http://twitter.com/arthurmolaphoto

PS - I did a cleaner edit of a smaller selection of my LA photos on my website. 

regime change starts at home.

So ... I thought I'd be getting the post before this post out before this one -- those of us with real world photo jobs can't possibly post every day.  Every week.  Every couple of weeks.  Okay ... once a month.

Seems as though the workflow/digital asset management blog has a life of its own.  Wanted to wait to see if a cd polishing company could save 30-odd discs before I finished.  A month and change ... 1.25 million images and growing ... lots and lots of terabytes later ... and I'm almost done.  The thought of ingesting more damn cd's/dvd's kind of turns my stomach.  Imagine a big-ass plastic container with 16-odd spindles full of optical media and pulling out that first disc...

Yes, it took almost one month of serious ingesting.

It's funny seeing the evolution of cameras.  There are Nikon D1 (2.74 mp) images, D1X (5.3 mp), Canon 1D (4.48 mp), Canon 1D Mark 2 (8.4 mp), Canon 5D (12.8 mp), Canon 1DS Mark 3 (21.1 mp), Canon 5D Mark 2 (21.1 mp), Canon 1D Mark 4 (16.1 mp), Leica M8 (10.3 mp), Leica M8.2 (10.3 mp), Leica P864 AKA Leica M9 (18 mp) and Leica S2 AKA The Saudi's Choice (37.5 mp) images ... as well as tens of thousands of scanned negs/chromes, too.  

Every once in a while I'd peek in a folder -- kind of for data integrity but mostly because I was being nosey -- to reminisce.  I'd rather reminisce than shoot photos of walls.  

I'm sure that's much more "real world" than actually tidying up your ACTUAL WORLD digital asset management and actually doing WORK that is workflow.  Perhaps not. ;)  Photos of friggin' walls.  I mean ... really!?  To me that kind of "real world" is about as relevant as a retired dentist masquerading as a photojournalist.

The latter of which has a website that isn't 10% as good as MANY friends on dA and flickr.  Totally laughable. Funny when guys of "that calibre" call you/me a paparazzi.  Honestly, it used to make me mad when the uninformed and clearly ignorant of the "real photo market" would say this shit but ... now I pretty much laugh at them.  Yes, I've shot on red carpets but none of my photos are unauthorized. Something I'm sure the dentist-turned-wannabe-pj couldn't do.  Not that he'd have ANY chance of being credentialed.  Probably as much of a chance as real worlders. ;) 

Ol' retired tooth-checker has as much of a chance of actually receiving a "real commission" as Kim Kardashian does winning an Oscar®.  I mean she did show up to the SAG Awards, though.  I thought of a Facebook status of "Since when did porn actresses become SAG members?  In other words how the hell was Kim Kardashian allowed to come to the SAG Awards?"  I didn't put that up because ... I don't think it would be appreciated by some people.

I can write it here because I doubt they have time to read my blog.  'sall good.

What's not all good is when marketing companies at the camera manufacturers figure out supporting bloggers wasn't that great of an idea.  Honestly, dunno what it is about the red dot but I think it's almost like Viagra for some.  I'm sure their internal dialogue goes something like "I can't make a photo to save my life but damn is my camera sexy."  They're the same ones who probably bought the Titanium one. Personally, I wouldn't touch their camera unless it was sprayed down with a disinfectant.

Just remember "... an erection for more than 4 hours could be a serious medical condition and should be treated by a doctor."  Red Dot = Blue Pill.

I know.  I'm not nice.  On to the point...

When I saw the discs within that 40-plus pounds of spindles entitled "Space Ship One" I was trying to remember if I was nice or not.  I thought back to the media room and setting a .wav file to play 3 minutes of wet farts of varying lengths with a good amount of lag between them.  I set it to play well after I'd gone outside in the heat to smoke.  I also distinctly remember being able to have an eye on the MBP.  In the "real world" gear gets stolen in media rooms.  Happens all of the time.  

My real reason for keeping an eye out, though, was to see the face of some wannabe reporter for some Christian-based new service that I'm sure was nothing more than a newsletter you find on the ground outside a coffee shop in Barstow.  Homeboy didn't have a sense of humor nor did he appreciate being within 5 feet who didn't use "I'm so blessed" or "awesome" or "my word" as ways to express themselves.  In the "real world" working shooters speak a lot like truck drivers.  ;)

I've made a truck drivers blush.

Anyway ... after about 2 minutes the ol' MBP started to have intestinal issues.  And, yeah, the volume was up kinda high.  Homeboy the play-reporter -- to me like a hobbyist housewife who thinks she's a "real photographer" -- hears a pretty wet greasy one.  He lost his shit.  Lost it.  Sorry about the pun.  I could have run back in and hit mute or pause but I was too busy laughing my spleen out through my nose. Yes, like milk in 2nd grade my gatorade came through my nose I was laughing so hard.  Dunno why that guy couldn't tell it was an MBP making the sounds but ... he left.  I didn't really give a shit.

Pardon the pun.  Again.

Perhaps he got the last word as the Gatorade left a sting for a while.  I don't remember milk hurting that bad.  It gave the "coloured sweat ads" a whole new meaning.

My photos were moving and I'd spent a couple days in the middle of the desert watching grown rich men light homemade rockets to see if they could get some poor soul past the technical boundary of space.  

That and hearing some engineer bum our Grey Goose vodka and recount stories I'm positive his surely tight-lipped employers would expect him to be as well.  Friggin' desert, man.  Strange shit everywhere.

*forgot to ftp the images to photobucket*

The desert really brings 'em out.  I think that's actually the last shot.  So, yeah, I'm leading with the last instead of something near the first but I think it illustrates that the desert really does ... something ... to people.

Although there are some scans from the assignment paid sojourn to the mojave, I don't think they were done by my lab correctly.  I didn't see them in the 2004 folder around the date they would have been processed.  Whatever.  How much has changed since 2004?  I was still shooting dual systems ... Canon (1D and 1D Mark 2) and Nikon (D1X).  Now I'm all Canon.  Have been for a long time.  Funny looking at those "little files" compared to big bitches of today.

Funny comparing the machine I was using compared to today, too.  I think it was still system 8 or 9.  It was mac but it kinda sucked.  I love version 10.6.6.  I'm starting to love NIK's Silver Efex Pro 2, too, which I've been evaluating within my workflow -- one that doesn't include friggin' walls -- for the last few weeks in beta.

I thought ... ya' know ... to illustrate it to you guys ... I'd see what it made the files of yesteryear look like.  Actually, I was way bored of watching status bars grow and started dicking 'round with the files on the Space Ship One discs once they were ingested from the optical discs.

I'm pretty sure this is the Kodak Tri-X 400 variant filter in Silver Efex Pro 2.  I like how, similar the actual film stocks, it holds the mids and highlights better than Delta.  

Tri-X as opposed to ...

The Delta.

Wish you guys could see these on the calibrated MultiSync PA241W.

This is Paul Allen of Micro$oft fame and wealth.  He had a range of emotions the day before "they lit it."

We referred to him privately as a code word.  I've heard he records every single broadcast of every single broadcaster in the world so ... I'd image he may google himself, too.  I don't think google should be capitalized as it's more of a verb these days.

I used Nik's Color Efex Pro 3.0 on this one of Paul, Mike (the test pilot) and Burt Rutan.  Used a nice Kodak Portra 400 NC filter/process.  I wish the wires would let us use these kinds of filters.  I think they give a photograph a better look than just a plain old jpg that they allow us to file.

One of the reasons I loved Nik's Silver Efex Pro 1 is that I grew up on film and like the aesthetic.  That's about all film has become.  Has better dynamic range and shadow detail and yadayadayada but it can't be digital's speed.  Speed of which a couch-blogger needs to post photos of walls.

I would much rather look at any colour photo processed through -- without becoming a contrived HDR mess -- Nik's Color Efex Pro 3.0.  Again, wish they'd let us use these film filters.  They don't make a material change to the editorial content whatsoever.

Perhaps in time.

Seems giddiness was the general mood for the pre-launch day.  I couldn't just file "happy photos," though.  What if things didn't go well?  They'd need something else to play.

Serious.

And, yes, some Color Efex Pro 3.0 film effects thrown in.

Pensive.  I like how the lens of his glasses refracted (?) "One."  I love the look, simulated with Nik or actual film, of grain.

Pensive or just uncomfortable in a room that was some old military surplus kinda room with air conditioning from the 1950's?

We got to Mojave via some other god-forsaken friggin' desert locale at 04:00 or some shit.  Rarely, do I wake to see a sunrise ...

Levels/Contrast-adjusted "camera original" -- can't wait to hear the hobby-bloggers start using that term. I mean we do a workshop with three instructors and ... of course ... the imitators have to add two to their one-man show.  Funny.

The Silver Efex Pro 2.0 version of the boneyard.  Here are a couple screen shots showing the differences in their emulsion filters...

The Kodak BW 400CN Pro filter/process, which Mr. Jackson likes in the "real form," acts a lot like what it does ... in the "real form."  I compared it to a film I like in "real life" Fuji Neopan ACROS 100...

With a touch more contrast -- and especially with this new feature called "Soft Contrast" -- made this the winner for me.

... a little judicious-cough-cough Velvia filter in Color Efex Pro 3.0...

That's seriously more what it looked like than what the "old cameras" saw.

Played with the sunrise in Color Efex Pro 3.0, too. ;)  I miss Velvia.

There were thousands there just to see Space Ship One.

A little more Velvia action with some control points.  I was pretty awestruck when I saw the White Knight and Spaceship One beneath it.  NIK's Control Points are pretty amazing, too.

The Velvia and Provia filters in Color Efex Pro 3.0 are pretty damn nice.  Photoshop also allowed me to turn some Canon original into an X-Pan. ;)

Members of the media or elements of composition ... through a nice emulsion filter in Silver Efex Pro 2.0.

The White Knight seemed to lumber down the runway and almost seemed to "just get off."

Yes, more iVelvia. ;)

This is an extreme crop from a 4.0/600 Canon.  And, yes, iVelvia in Color Efex Pro 3.0.  They were way the hell up there.  With the naked eye they were hardly larger than a speck.

Kinda like the "speck of a man" looking at the "speck of a transporter/spaceship."  Honestly, I think the Control Point feature of Silver Efex Pro 2.0 kicks Photoshop CS5's burn-dogge collective ass.  The above is the "control point applied" photo. This is the unapplied ...

When guest stars or "housewives with cameras" satisfying creative whims try and dodge and burn most of the time they get halos.  Big ones.  Even my gf can spot a photo where someone "tried to bring something up" and it's pathetically obvious.  Selected just a bit of the lone dude standing on the truck.

When I applied 18% brightness within that Control Point it didn't just bring up the man; it also brought up some features on the old airplane but in an even way instead of a tell-tale way when someone plays with something they know nothing about but should if they refer to themselves as "a photographer."  Pretty amazing I think.  Housewife-photo enthusiasts all over the world should buy this plug-in.  I know.  I can't ever be nice.

One of my favourite things in the world is the "blind item."  They're lovely.  They're like sudoku for the shallow.

Everyone tried to shield their eyes from the bright morning desert sun...

Nice and flat camera original from a Nikon or Canon in '04.

And a file I think looks way better because of a NIK plug-in from '11.  Pretty sure it was Portra 160 VC. iPortra 160 VC.  Sorry.  I know there are people who are sticklers for that shit.

They usually live in forums.

And don't shoot.

At least I haven't dropped an f-bomb. ;)

Even the guys behind the launch -- one with money and the other with engineering skills -- tried to see it coming back.

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing it fire it's engines then proceed up to the fringe of space.

It was early.

I'm not a morning person.

It was when iPods still had disc drives.

It was a bitch to see that morning.  

Just some levels/contrast ... pretty much a camera original ... and then a little Color Efex Pro 3.0...

Just pops without being obnoxious.

Went with one of the less contrast iEmulsions on Silver Efex Pro 2.0 for comparison.

Seriously, when it comes to digital monochrome conversion I don't can't stomach looking at something that hasn't been processing with Silver Efex Pro 2.  The first one was amazing as well.

And then she came back to earth ... gliding.  Her escort was a prop-job; NASA gets jets.  Whatever.  I don't think NASA could have done this project without hiring 30x the people needed and wasting shitloads of money, though.  These guys had a mid-seven figure budget.

This is more what the original file looked like.  The previous had a little iVelvia applied.

Perhaps a bit here, too.

She was launched from an insect-looking airplane, fired a rocket made from rubber or some shit, blasted its way toward space and then glided home.  Pretty amazing considering the budget.

Rutan and Sharky were stoked...

I was pretty happy for all involved.

A little post-flight play-by-play and Silver Efex Pro 2.0 iMonochrome.

Water.  I woulda had a bottle of bourbon.  Then again, I don't have a pilot's license nor should I ever.

When you launch Silver Efex Pro 2.0 it brings it displays it in "neutral."  After a little Control Point on Mike's face ...

A bit better.  It makes the face pop, which is kind of what the whole frame is about.

He was pretty happy to see the benefactor!  iProvia.  Brings up red in the face a bit much for me, though.

And the Silver Efex Pro 2.0 version...

A nice i100 ISO variant.

It's really close to what real Velvia looks like and does to skin tone.  Horrible film for skin tone.  It's also pretty fine-grained.  A grained-up iEmulsion version through Silver Efex Pro 2.0 looks like ...

Think it's one of the 1600 iISO's they have.

The look of Rutan in his glasses is priceless.  I'm pretty sure I was on some long glass for this one.  No, I'm not gonna go look at the EXIF.

Here were my two choices I was looking at the most ...

And the one I went with here ...

It was pretty contrasty light and I thought this best represented what I remember seeing.

Another nice thing about Silver Efex Pro 2.0 is that when you're selecting your iFilm Stock you can just hover over it and it changes your main viewing screen really fast.  I didn't really mind 1.0 being a bit slower because I loved what it did for digital monochrome.  It kicks ass now, though.

Yes, even I'm patient with things I like. :)

And Mike looked right at me quite often.  Perhaps he agreed with what it said on my shirt. ;)

That was my choice for this exercise in getting to know software -- using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0 on prior workflow instead of making some nice flower-cat-wall-boring photos.  Here were the iEmulsions I was "hovering" around...

The normal stand-by, iKodak Tri-X 400.

The iAPX I went with ... and ... just for the hell of it ...

Some super-iGraininess.  Wasn't bad, actually.

Loved this and could have "pulled a Detrich" to remove the post-thing but ... didn't.  This is neutral and I wanted an iEmulsion with some contrasty pop!  I would never pull a Detrich by the way.  We (those who shoot for wires for a living) are allowed to do some contrast, unsharp mask (to make up for our CMOS's softness), levels, colour temp and resize. That's it.  I'm sure couch-bloggers sit around all day making irrelevant adjustments to irrelevant wall photos and looking at their Google Analytics page. ;)

Much better.

Kinda like when you're shooting a Caucasian face against a bright background and the subject is wearing a dark suit against a mid-tone background element.  It's a bitch to expose.  Although we aren't allowed to file a photo with a wire service using a Control Point -- or burn or dodge in Aperture or PS CS5 -- it would sure be nice.  Because of idiots who were stringers for Reuters, dumb asses like Detrick and real dumb asses like Walski we'll probably never get to either.  Doesn't change the editorial integrity of the photo but ... the idiots ruin it for the rest of us.  Just like how couch-bloggers will end up ruining it with the manufacturers.

The soon-to-be-favourite tool of people who wake up one morning and print up "Professional Photographer" cards are gonna love these Control Points!  No halos or whatever you call it when you see someone who doesn't know how to use burning and dodging or whatever they call it in Lightroom.

Et voilá...

The face is perfectly lifted from the shadow of his hat with a bit of brightness adjustment and no halos from heaven.  I've heard these halos are very popular in some parts of the world.  It makes people look holy.

There were lotsa big lenses that morning!  A bit more iVelvia. ;)

The skinny Italian hard at work.  My 600 wasn't.  Those gimbles -- even though I rarely need long glass -- are amazing.  Perhaps some couch-bloggers can ask a celebrity to borrow one. ;)

Like the privately launched rocket when would we ever see this again?

Seriously, this was one of the coolest things I've seen.  Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2 is also one of the coolest things I've seen.  Instead of shooting brick walls, flowers, cats and horribly cropped canines -- then again, that's kind of what the most vocal forum members and guys who do portraits sitting next to their cameras do -- I wanted to marry the two.

Digital monochrome looks like sharp crap no matter the depth of field.  Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2 makes it look lovely.  

Funny thing is that I went to Epson's HQ's in Long Beach to demo and get trained on the new Epson Stylus Pro 9890 very recently and got to print some massive ... prints.  One of the files was from the M9, another from the 5DM2 and another from the 1DM4.  Since these were for me, I could process them above and beyond wire service standards.

And, of course, I applied some lovely Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 filters.  The prints looked amazing.  Whereas "plain ol' digital" has too much of that "sharp edge" when you use Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 you soften the edge and make it beautiful.  I know ... if you're intoxicated by the red dot, everything must be sharp.  So contradictory to what "the street forum's god," said:

"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept" Henri Cartier-Bresson

Seeing sharp digital monochrome photos -- beside what I do for wire services -- really makes me throw up a little in my mouth.  Seeing them printed makes me throw up a little more than just seeing them on a screen.  Ask around ... someone's seen me do it.  

Hope you've enjoyed a new interpretation of my little sojourn into the Mojave with the skinny Italian assignment seven years ago with today's newest software. :)  I think you're gonna love it.

In fact, I'm gonna select a random commenter's comment randomly ... and give them a copy of it when it's released to the public!  MAKE SURE YOU USE A REAL EMAIL ADDRESS.  Each comment will receive a number on a little piece of paper.  I'm gonna put the little pieces of paper in a bag and mix them up.  I'll close my eyes and pick one.

Hope you win!

I'll do a short blog announcing the winner and where they're from unless I finish that archiving blog.

Hope you're all well and having beautiful weather. ;)

Cheers from somewhere warmer than where you are!

-C

pretend jesus pt. 2

I think I left off with photos from San Francisco, right!?

*checks post*

Indeed.

In the Domke bag on my left shoulder sat the Leica M9.  Was funny how often I just wanted to “switch to what I know.”  Undeterred I kept shooting the Canon 5dm2 and either the 2.0/35 Summicron-R or the 1.4/50 Zeiss ZE.  I left the 1.4/50 Summilux-R at home because I already had a heavy-enough Think Tank Airport International V2.0 to carry ‘round.  That bag is a joy.  From big-ass four-sevens to little RJ's ... it's fit everywhere.  Thank God no one ever weighs it like the wanks at BA.

When I checked the iPhone 4’s weather app I noticed that the weather in Seoul wasn’t much different that places in the E.U. I’ve been to in the Fall.  Well … when I got there … they were experiencing a cold snap.  My light jacket didn’t even cut it whilst walking to the Hyundai Department Store.   Should have known Korea gets cold having watched every episode of M.A.S.H. way back in the day.

I wasn’t in Korea to just shoot street shots.  I was there on assignment.  Funny that I was doing the public relations photography and Doug Menuez was doing the other photography.  I hope you click his name.  His work is lovely.

I don’t usually share details about assignments but … I was doing a walk-through with the p.r. people and a pretty famous actress.  We’re walking around this billion dollar facility and a guy wearing a coat, whom I assumed was a doctor because there were doctors everywhere, walks up to us and says, “You’re Chris Weeks?”  The actress gave me some kind of look.

I said, “Yeah” to which he responded “My friends and I read your blog.”  In one fail swoop at the end of him saying that he raised up his Leica M9.  “You pushed me over the edge to buy one.”

I invited my gf’s uncle to one of the Leica Road Shows (prior to it becoming a dentist’s convention) and he ended up buying an M9 as well.  Then again, I believe some rather wealthy dude bought two M9’s and pretty much at least one of every piece of glass with a red dot on it as well. 

Thinking all these things and knowing that I committed myself to shooting street with a D-SLR left me perplexed.  I mean … from what I was seeing out of my car’s windows I knew I wanted to get out and shoot but … with … a rangefinder not that clunky D-SLR.  But whatever I wanted to prove to myself that a) I didn't need a rangefinder, b) if that's what someone used to shoot street I wanted to know its limitations intimately and c) didn't want to be accused of being exclusionary.

More on (b) later. ;)

Very effective napkins those rolls of teepee.  I shook off the cold.  When I left L.A. it was in the middle of a heat wave.

I'm used to long-ish exposures hand-held.  I like making them with a rangefinder for lots of reasons but I couldn't rule the D-SLR out of the game.  I made the exact photo I wanted to make.

I know nothing about Buddhism.  I failed at yoga.  That's all I know.  And I'm not sure either of those two are connected in anyway besides having to take off your shoes before you enter.

Sometimes I wonder if I "shoot to theme" and then really can't place one theme on what I look for when making street photos.  Had a conversation with Doug about patterns in human behavior. A few things made sense after that.  

Even though there's a lot of activity in Seoul once you tune out the din of traffic a place like this temple -- sorry no idea what the name is -- can become quiet as a tomb.

I worried that I knew I may interrupt homey's moment with the loud twack of the 5dm2 but ... surprisingly he didn't pay attention to me.  Guess I didn't have to worry.

Some call Bruce Gilden a genius ... and he's literally right in your face.  So ... it's all good I guess.  

See I was almost-mean just there.

And wasn't.

I just don't like to be seen and I want my photographs to reflect that.  I guess that argument is as esoteric as the meaning behind a bazillion buddhas.

That's not intended to be a street photo.  And I have no idea if they're, in fact, buddhas.

The Zeiss is so lovely.

This was the district I was "centered" in.  I have no idea what it's called but I know the G20 was to be held the following week in the same location.

Seoul reminded me of a cross of Vancouver, Los Angeles and something vaguely European.  The traffic is worse than L.A.  It wasn't quite Naples-crazy, though.

I like smoking photos only because I'm jealous they're smoking.

This mega-mall dwarfs anything besides that place in Minnesota.  4 Starbucks ... and Seoul is definitely a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf town.  Huge and seemed very lonely.

I'm pretty sure this was like the next morning after arriving.  Went back to the same temple.  It was fun to watch all of the kids looking at their "art assignment" from so many different perspectives.

No one paid any more attention to me than normal.  I think I was looking for a reason to just switch back to the M9.  

Since I live in a culture-less city, it's so odd to see such stark differences between the old and the new and how they co-exist here.  Okay, LA's not completely without culture. ;)

I hear that apt. bldg. in the background is super-expensive.

Then again, the monks are sitting on a pretty nice piece of real estate here, too.

I don't quite get the surgical masks.  Every time I saw one I thought of Michael Jackson.

And ... I don't know for sure but I'm willing to bet that the 5dm2 on AWB handled this mix of multiple light sources better than the M9 would have.  The M9 sees things so differently sometimes even when you tell it what to see.  No so much with the 5dm2.

I have absolutely no idea why these guys were here about the same time a few days in a row but they were super-stoked about something.

In the U.S. I would have thought they were reborn Christians.  The best thing I've heard in a few days is that "Christians are just jews ... who want an insurance policy."

Not Scientologists, though.  Seems a bit overt for them.

I love how girls everywhere love having their nails done.

I asked a friend from "the center" about some places to see.  He took a map and circled a few things.  I took the map to the front desk and told them where I'd like to go.  They then took out a card, wrote something in Korean and handed it to a driver.  Wherever I ended up was 45 minutes away.  

There were a lot of restaurants.

Side streets.

I knew I had my address in Korean.  I knew no matter how lost I could hope I to get I'd still be able to get back to the hotel.

Seoul's an amazing place, really, for making street photographs.  People are pretty chill.  They're used to cameras everywhere.

Frank liked the barstools.

The people of Seoul seem outwardly happier than in L.A. I think.  I love using the Zeiss glass on the 5dm2.  The way it renders the negative space is just lovely.

Everyone's also selling everything to EVERYONE else here.  And, again, the 5dm2 does quite nicely at slow hand-held shots.

Kinda kicks the ass of any rangefinder, too, when you wanna get closer than .7 meters.  

They stood around this stage for at least a few hours bombarded by karaoke and adverts.

I think he was cold.

And as good as those smelled I still went to a "proper restaurant" but wasn't super-stoked about the color of the "chicken."  I'm almost positive whatever the hell I ate was ... dunno ... 

I'm sure it was ... it's just I'm no Anthony Bourdain.

There are a lot of heads in that shot.

I would end up looking as stoic as homey frame left if I had to stare at all of that for too long.

Kind of reminiscent of Hollywood and Highland.

Right after I got this I put the 5dm2 into the bag the M9 was hiding in.  I'd proved several things to myself about shooting street and went back to the rangefinder.

Focusing at night with a rangefinder is way better.  Was the first thing I noticed when I put the camera up to my face to make this photo.  I find focusing on the 5dm2 with even the "better" focusing screen still kinda sucks for quickness especially in the damn dark.

Workable, definitely, but when you're used to one thing ... 

You know how it is.

The tones and the moment worked really well for this.  I like how the M9 has a colder feel than the 5dm2 even when I use a flat picture style.

I always wonder what people are thinking in those 1000 yard stares.

I think for me ... ya' know ... 'cause I'm older ... that focusing a rangefinder is quicker because i'm matching shapes, recomposing if I have to and then making the frame.  With the D-SLR there was a little hunting with focus.

I like to get in and get out as quick as possible.

I'd rather not have to use my magic panacea to get out of the "getting caught moments."

I know.  It looks like he's taking a dump.  I'm 14.

I like when things are shutting down.

That karaoke-advert stage-thing was still going on.  People seemed happily distracted.

So much order.  Totally bucking khaos.

Yet not when buying/selling socks of all kinds.

I wonder if they're buying cheap Chinese imports and threatening their own well-being like we do!?

All I could hear was a shrill voice coming through a horrible speaker with more horribly distorted music coming through equally bad speakers.

But she was happy.

I don't think you could possibly see this girl and see how happy she was and not let it effect you.

If not, dogs don't like you.

And you know it.

My other talented-friend-named-Doug whom I met on the way back to LAX thought this one should be kept in the blog post.

What are the odds of meeting two ultra-talented dudes named Doug in 72 hours?

Everything kinda smelled good-ish.  I'm just a freak.  I'm used to restaurant rating signs in L.A.  Even if they had those in Korea I wouldn't have been able to understand them.

I was so anticipating that I would experience a "Lost in Translation" kind of feeling about Asia but ... I was wrong.  Not once.

Like I said, "... everything smelled good-ish."  There were a lot of places to eat.  

And I picked the busy-questionable place.

I remember eating street food in Downtown L.A. once.  Once.  Like getting sick off of alcohol.  Once.  I know better.

Gave him a card with the location of my hotel written in Korean and didn't happen to hit any traffic whatsoever.

Then I think I reeled from the dinner choice.

And slept a few hours so I could eat breakfast and go ... work ... actually.

I'm pretty sure I worked that night as well.

Decided to meet up with my friend, David.

And instead of the 5dm2 ... I brought the M9.  In as much as I got used to the feel of using a D-SLR for street I've gotten quite used to making street photos with a rangefinder.  Shoot me.

I seriously don't think that homey had a bluetooth headset.   Perhaps he was having internal dialogue.

Yes, I know ... a bit Bruce-whatever-his-name-is but ... he wasn't looking at me.

Directly.

I think this guy may have been trying.  Leica M9 or the 5dm2 I think I would have gotten his attention.

Not that I was trying.  Of course.

Always so much activity in Seoul.  So much.  Everywhere.

Okay ... can't say everywhere because I didn't tour Korea but ... suffice it to say there are a lot of people moving around there.

There's another thing about shooting a D-SLR ... I don't have a Noctilux for that body. ;)  I'm not sure if it was the ND or just the fact the Nocti vignettes when you're wide open ... in daylight.

I do know that that Buddha was really friggin' big.

When I realized what was going on around me it dawned on me:  I'd never made photos at a funeral.  I have friends who have but ... me ... never.  I'm not quite sure what Buddhists call what I saw going on. I watched for a significant amount of time.  

And made a small series of frames.  I know they know I was there but kinda pretended, I think, that I wasn't.  

I know everyone has an opinion of rangefinders but I was so appreciative of the fact the M9's silent mode really is pretty quiet.

Very interesting ceremony.  

This whole experience, of course, juxta-fucking-posed to being in some other temple and, oh, just a nice piece of lead noctilux hitting something that was about as loud as a drum from only a few inches. Could have been more but it seems to work. 

If I prevented anyone achieving whatever they were to have achieved that day, I'm sorry.

Almost no laces.

They're smart.  Untying laces sucks when you realize you've done it six times before.

I think they worked somewhere in giganta-mall.  This place gave me a whole definition of "food court."

They were a little touchy about photos anywhere in this general vicinity ... not that it kept me from doing the same.  Perhaps the army of police dogs and Oakley-wearing Korean soldiers should have tipped me off.  Perhaps.

I even shot a roll of film.

A roll of film that's still in the body.  I think there are two other rolls by the t.v.

Korea is definitely somewhere I hope life finds me again.  Thank you Dr. Kim and Mr. Choi.  

I know I didn't scratch the surface in Korea but perhaps one day.  Then again, I don't really have the chance -- besides in Los Angeles -- to do more than surface scratching when I'm out-of-town.  Most of the time when I'm out-of-town street shooting is just an adjunct to working, which I consider much more "real world" than "writing a blog about something."

All of the photos -- besides the colour ones -- were processed in Aperture and through Silver Efex Pro. Been screwing around with Color Efex Pro and Viveza, too.  More on that later...  

Been skyping and emailing with a mutual friend of ours about doing a couple workshops.  I'm hoping to that Mr. Jackson will be able to do some Los Angeles dates, too.  He's such an interesting foil to the kind of street I like to shoot.  Although we're working on the first one for the winter in Los Angeles, we're looking at other dates and cities that make sense.  It's something I've always wanted to do but doing long-range planning as a freelancer is ... well ... I wish I got more "what does your calendar look like in the second week of february" instead of "... you working tomorrow" or "do you think you could get over to (insert location) today/tonight?"  We're gonna keep it reasonable, too.  This will NOT be tied to any manufacturer.  People -- with a solid knowledge of using their camera -- can shoot anything they'd like.  More details soon.  

I gotta edit some photos.

I'll keep you posted.  There's some really good stuff coming up.

FYI ... I don't think I was mean to anyone in this post. ;)

Cheers from chilly Los Angeles.

-c

Note:  Between the time I initially composed/edited this was one month ago today. :(  Time friggin' flies.  The next one will definitely cover switching from a laptop-based workflow to a Mac Pro-based work flow using RAIDs and all sorts of IT stuff I never really wanted to know about.  Managing a 2.5 TB active library is all sorts of fun.  And all I want to do is push a button at the right time. ;)

pretend jesus pt. 1

It’s been a while.  Wish I could be like the other blog posters and do an update every day or so but, well, that’s not going to happen.  It’s much different when you make photos for a living.  Wonder how many of the semi-popular bloggers gave up their day jobs?  If they did, they’ll be selling their Leicas. ;)

Unless you’re getting the page views of someone like Ken I doubt the “clicks” are much currency.  What drives them?  I remember Angelo told me “It’s not the popularity they want; they want human interaction.”  And instead of wondering what drives them I wondered what they’re missing from their lives that they need SO MUCH attention?

Makes me examine why I post anything online.   I have plenty of human interaction and usually run from things involving more than four people when I’m not working.  Online popularity?  Is that what I’m after?  Being rather pragmatic I don’t think so.  Unless you’re Ken there’s no real money in posting what celebrity friends tell you about something … a day before an embargo.  A pro would never do that.

There are a lot of things a working pro won’t do.  Posting every friggin’ day is one of them for sure.  Between maintaining relationships with clients and phone calls and Fedexes and emails … then there’s the actual work and transit and post-work-flow.  Most of my pro friends … in fact … almost none of them even have any sort of blog nor post anything more than an iPhone 4 photo on FB.

Funny how it works in the real-Real World.  Funny how almost none of the people using that term have any idea what "real world" is.

When I read the phrase “real world” I think of shooting an NBA game for a wire, covering the Boxer victory party as a staffer or perhaps behind-the-scenes (BTS) on a national spot.   I guess I consider location scouting for a automobile commercial or editorial real world as well.  When I did the BTS on a Norman Jean Roy shoot it was so "real world" watching one of Vanity Fair’s best do his thing.  Sorry.  No links.  A client owns that stuff.  The “real world bloggers” wouldn’t ever know what that’s like.

Is a blogger playing with a camera “real world”?  Is a dentist, former ad-exec or engineer traveling to S.E. Asia a REAL photojournalist?  Is someone with barely 3.000 banal stock photos a working photographer?

 It’s all relative.

Instead of posting photos on sites such as Flickr or dA and relying on comments, favourites and pageviews some of those out there like to sit on forums.  They wear a 1,000 post  mark like a badge.  The most “popular” on forums lack a qualified eye.  Go ahead and hate.  If you do, you probably have more than 5,000 posts.  Maybe even 10,000.  You're looking forward to 20,000.  Couldn’t that time have been spent making photos with the cameras you know EVERYTHING about? 

Yes, EVERYTHING.  EVERYTHING besides the actual execution of a nice photo.

I know.  I know.  Your flower, cat, snow-covered lawn furniture photos, banal fashion photos … all … very sharp.  The people with the most posts usually have the sharpest photos.  And within a little group … they have a following.  A sad pathetic following but a following nonetheless.

Having any kind of online following is such a two-edged sword.  I have a small audience in mind when I write.  I like the fact that most of the people I correspond with by email, comments or FB are pretty damn good shooters.  I like the fact they tell me when something inspires them, they get a gig, want to share a file (photo), get repped or published.  It makes up for the “other comments.” 

Unlike most bloggers I don’t care if everyone likes me.  I care if editors like me.  There’s a huge difference.  Editors, assignments and commissions are “real world”; walking ‘round with a camera and telling your forum buddies "this or that is cool" is “not real world.”  Perhaps it's practical but it's NOT the real world you're trying to make people think it is.

I think so many photo bloggers care too much about what people think of them.  They’re still under the impression the pipedream will come true and their site will be the next dpreview.  In their defense the content is usually about on par.

In as much as I don’t care much about the negative associated with any online presence there are some comments that make you think.  When I did that street thing on dA or made the street video last summer I enjoyed 99% of the comments.  The ones that made me think were:

“Why only use Leica?”

“Is Leica the only kind of camera you can use for street photography?”

“I use an SLR and do street photography:  Why is a rangefinder better!?”

"I read some of Chris Weeks Street Photography for the Purist and was disappointed that he knocked the SLR Street Photographers, we are not all in a position to afford a Leica..and just because you dont use a Rangefinder doesnt mean you can’t take good Strret Photos..as someone new to Photography I was very disappointed & surprised by this.."

A former FB-friend would tirelessly comment upon anything shot with a Leica with comments such as “I can do that with an SLR.”  Sure, cool, perhaps.  I didn’t really give a rat’s ass.

For the most part I dismissed those statements.  I know … how very exclusionary of me.  Right?  Honestly, I have way better things to do than sit around and discuss rhetorical questions with randoms.  I’d much rather be making photos for either my clients or myself.  I simply don’t have the time to just sit around and write bullshit fawning reviews of anything with a red dot on it.  In fact, I think it’s funny that some have replaced writing responses on forums and have turned that into writing blogs with 10 readers. ;)

It did make me think, though:  Was I really being that exclusionary by only shooting street with a Leica? 

Having finished my first motion project and looking at lots of hours of “footage” in post shot with Leica R glass and the Canon 5d Mark 2, 1d Mark 4 and the 7d I wondered what it’d be like to actually shoot street purposefully with a D-SLR.  Don’t get me wrong … I’ve shot street with a Holga, my old trusty FM2n with it’s 1.4/50 Zeiss ZF lens, a Rollei TLR and even my iPhone 4.  Shooting with the aforementioned was basically an accoutrement to my Leica rangefinder shooting.  Or like the time I broke two Leica M’s and HAD to use the FM2n.

I always defend my use of Leica to my friends who are REAL PHOTOGRAPHERS.  Ya’ know … the ones who are the ones getting published all over the planet through traditional and emerging media.  The staffers.  The freelancers.  The stringers.  Funny thing is … I don’t know anyone who’s a WORKING photographer who uses Leica.  They use Canon and Nikon.  All of them.  They rent ‘blads.  Most of those I know who own the expensive digi-‘blads are not what I’d consider innately talented at anything more than bullshitting clients. ;)  They know who they are. 

In as much as I love my M9 … My MP … My M6 …. My M3 … I wondered what it would be like to just take out a D-SLR and give it a go.  I know there are smaller bodies out there but all I had was the Canon 5D Mark 2.  Okay … I have 1Ds Mark 3’s, too, but that would have been ridiculous.  I still think shooting street with the smallest footprint possible is the smartest way to go.  Who knows, though.  Can’t really say unless you really go out and do it.

I know … now I’m gonna get comments that I’m being exclusionary toward big D-SLR’s.  I’m sure those comments will come from those with 1000+ comments in forums.  FYI … if you use 1000+ comments as a badge of honor, you’re a wank.  Just FYI.  Just STFU and make photos, loser.

Anyway … a few weeks ago … I left the house with the Canon 5d Mark 2 … a Cameraquest Leica R to Canon Eos adapter … a Summicon-R 2.0/35 and a Summilux-R 1.4/50.  Felt so so so strange to start walking ‘round Downtown L.A.   There was a bit more “heft” on my shoulder as compared to having a trusty M-body on my shoulder.  When I picked up the body I didn’t see frame lines.  I saw a matte screen and felt a bit disconnected from reality as I wasn’t seeing reality through a crystal-clear window. 

So funny that when I started this experiment/project I had a certain view of life.  The very next day of shooting, though, I had a wholly different view of life.  It had nothing to do with the project/experiment whatsoever.  Wholly unrelated to photography but very very nice.

Making the first few frames seemed awkward to me.  The heft went from my shoulder to in my hands.  It felt so strange to have such a massive body shooting street.  The focusing seemed different, too.  Wasn’t wholly different, though, from shooting with F3’s, F4s’s and F5’s back in the day … ya’ know … before autofocus.  Yes, I know that F4’s and F5’s had autofocus but I mostly used manual primes.

I could have used some AF prime on the 5DM2 or even a zoom to really dispel others.  But, no, I love Leica glass for myriad reasons so … I wasn’t going to cheat myself out of the visual pleasure later.  I like fast glass.  Shoot me.  I like fast GOOD glass. ;)  Sorry … meant to clarify.

The first time I went out I was hunting for some light I’d seen on Grand before.  Sadly, I was a bit late but walked around anyway.  I think it was more mental than anything else but I felt like “everyone could see me making photos” with that massive D-SLR up to my face.  Such a different shooting aesthetic than the M9 or any of the other M’s for that matter.

Focusing is so fast with a rangefinder, too.  5dM2’s are meant for AF … not manual.  Whatever.  I was doing this project/experiment/folly and it was gonna happen no matter what.  There are photos I totally missed because I’m so used to the precision I’ve come to love with focusing a Leica rangefinder.

As time when on I got much better.  The 5dM2 sings in low-light with beautiful files up to 3200 where as the M9 struggles with anything above 800.  Don’t get me wrong the files are useable but they’re not as beautiful as the 5dM2’s files.  If only the quick rangefinder focusing as opposed to the not-so-fast-focusing of the 5dM2 in the dark could be coupled to a nice new sensor solution that could sing as well at high ISO’s. ;)  Guess we’ll have to wait and see. ;)

I don’t know what it is with the M9’s AWB but it “wasn’t as good” as the 5dm2.  I know minor changes can be made to RAW’s but if I don’t have to tweak it, why would I want to?  The monitor on the M9 is a bit too reminiscent of the M8’s when you look at it and then look at the same photo made with the 5dm2.  I’ve gotten used to it, though. 

In practical use it was very interesting.  The 5dm2 is noticeably louder than the petite M9.  My girlfriend said “You should really use the Leica if you’re gonna do that.”  Yes, the subject was pretty damn near and within eye-/earshot.  Just FYI … they didn’t say anything nor look at me.

There was one instance in Echo Park where a dude was “less than pleased” that I just photographed him.  I’m not sure if I had the M9 that he still wouldn’t have said something.  And … FYI … I’ve found the best excuse yet for making street photographs.  I’m not, however, going to say what it is.  Yelling at someone in Italian that I’m a tourist and don’t speak English works pretty well but the new one … ah … it’s perfect.

They even leave smiling. No, I'm not telling you what it is so some wank with over-processed HDR street can attempt to teach some pedestrian course about street photography.  Perhaps, though, I'll be able to tell select groups in person. ;)  More on that in the next post.

Except for the ex-/current Mexican mafia dude in Echo Park everyone else bought the "new excuse."

Honestly, I don’t care if I get caught making a frame.  If there’s someone with me, I care but … if I’m alone, it’s all good.  There's one dude in Central Eastern Europe with some kind of "Leica print" I'm sure is still on his face. ;)

Let’s see … what else can someone say?  Okay … yeah … I could have used some Canon glass and tried AF street photography.  Thing is … I don’t own any canon AF primes – the Zeisses are much better.  Wasn’t going to put a CPS order in either.  I can say that the footage I saw with the Canon 1.4/35 and 1.4/24 is lovely.  I kinda thought that the Canon 1.4/35 was too big for street.  For street with the 5dm2 I used a couple Leica lenses via adapter and the beautiful 1.4/50 Zeiss ZE.

I tried to use the motivation that I wanted to shoot street but didn’t have a Leica.  I was directing myself.  Let me tell you … directing is fun.  Since I didn’t have a Leica and all I had – my projection of myself to myself – was a Canon 5dm2 and a few nice manual focus primes. 

Funny that the price of 5dm2 and the lenses in question could be purchased with room left over for a roundtrip ticket and accommodations when compared to the M9 body alone.  But if you’re a retired dentist/engineer and a current forum wank what’s a few grand, right?

“I have the red dot; I’m qualified.”  That’s what I assume they say to themselves.  Too bad they can't buy a "qualified eye."  Too bad even the paparazzi I know are better photographers than they could ever deign.  I'd much rather work some red carpets for clients than "pretend-work" in the streets of S.E. Asia for sure.

Since my life and assignments had me all over L.A., the Bay Area and Seoul, Korea, that’s where my experiment/project took place.

In as much as there were situations where I wished I had the M9 with me, I remembered my motivation and did the best I could.

And then I look at the material to edit and find out that, in fact, I started this experiment/project/folly way before the light disappeared on Grand.  It began on a walk with a doctor-friend to brunch in our wonderful little neighborhood on a Saturday morning, which means 2:00 p.m. in our this 'hood.

only in los angeles do you see mariachis figuring out a parking meter.

After walking back from brunch i decided to go to a place my friend Dan and I call "Mexican Wedding Fountain."  It was straight up and down light but whatever ... I can't shoot in flat light every time I want.  

Every weekend there are wedding parties lined up after wedding parties to shoot formal photos.

Not everyone is part of a wedding party at the fountain.

Was odd ... Even though I had -- what seems massive to me in terms of street shooting -- this D-SLR in my hands and no one really paid any more attention that normal.

Yes, I was using B+W ND filters.  I use them all of the time.  I usually have to tape them on to the Leica R lenses as they have some brilliant-ass filter scheme that no one uses.  Well ... except for guys in forums who would rather talk than shoot.  

Interestingly, and not that you're gonna see it here, but like shooting D-SLR video I used a certain picture style making everything flat.  In doing that it seemed like the dynamic range of the 5dm2 was better than the Leica M9 as well when the picture style was flat.

Was totally surprised no one really paid all that much attention to me.  For having shot 99.9% of the street work I've done in the last however long with an M9 ... it shocked me.

To me it was so ironic -- i like to look for patterns in human behavior -- that some out there would "tag" this area when so many of their own culture use it as a place of beauty.  I'm not being racist as I live in this neighborhood as we know who the taggers are.

The previous two photos show how different NIK Silver Efex can be.  The dude and the tag and the fountain I processed as high ISO whilst the legs and the bride and the tag were done using a low ISO process.  I love NIK Silver Efex.  It takes the edge off of photos that are too-sharp ... too-digi.

In fact, for me it's a factor that levels the playing field when shooting digital street.  Seeing a too-sharp street photo makes me throw up in my mouth a bit -- whether the file's from a Canon, Nikon or Leica M9.

I'm pretty sure it was that night we took the metro into Hollywood. 

I found that the 1.4/35 Summicron-R was quite nice for a hipshot.  No, it wasn't wide open.  I wanted the photo and wasn't waste the moment on trying to be a hotshot at f/1.4. ;)

It's one of the things that I love about Leica focusing scales:  They're right the fuck on.  Ah oh.  I said fuck.  Hmm ... wonder which of the donkeys I just offended.  I'm sure some marketing-pussy will hear about it. ;)  I've NEVER found the Canon scales to be anywhere near accurate.  The Zeisses do almost as well as the Leica R-glass.

Had no idea Avatar character-impersonators-buskers were there now.  Hollywood ... You really glitter all that's gold.

All fun must be topless, right!?  Homegirl's having lotsa fun.  Those bastards driving those buses get in our way all of the time.  I've come to really dislike them.

Ever since late June of last year homey's been working it day and night.  My Leica M9 couldn't have made this shot any better than what I got here with the 5dm2.

I always wonder what tourists bring home with them and if it's how they really remember what they thought they saw.

Having "stood around" listening I know that these guys on Hollywood Blvd. basically entice customers into these sight-seeing vans.  They say that the next one leaves in 10 minutes.  Well ... that's not usually the case as they're trying to "fill 'em up."

So they can drive slow and piss us all off.

I think it's creepy to want to drive around and see private homes of public people.

Honestly, I think it's as creepy as sex tourism. ;)

Or getting a puppy from "a breeder" at 5 weeks old ...

Hope he raises it right.

Along with the tweaky dudes and way-too-young-puppies, junkies, tourists, character impersonators and the like ... there are those trying to get others to do "personality tests."  Oh my.

Famima:  Where Two Supermen and a Willy Wonka recreate.

Reborns:  Using the young and gullible to save souls. ;)

I know.  I know.  I know.  Not all reborns are crazy.

Along with the previously described list ... there are a lot of pizza-by-the-slice places.  I guess it's no different than Amsterdam, really ... save the kebab joints.

And ... for the dudes whispering in your ear "Coh-ca-ina," "Ecstaaaahsee" and "Russian girls, young girls!?"

As good of a place as any I suppose.

1/40th at f/1.4 and 1000 ISO.  Guess a big ol' D-SLR can handle slower shutters.  I mean ... when I do some atmosphere photos for clients I regularly handhold a quarter or a half so ... whatever ... perhaps I'm well-practiced ... but I found shooting someone's candid moment just as easily as I would have with the M9.

I've always wondered what a drunk guy wearing Affliction on his way to "get some bottle service" at Drai's would see.

Merchant of pipes bored out of his mind.

Behind closed curtains.  The captions keep on coming, though.

Same lovely out-of-focus negative space as the M-glass.  Then again, it's glass made by the same company so I'd hope it'd be pretty consistent.

Luckily, R-glass is pretty easy to find and not all that expensive.  Poor R-System shooters.  Lucky us, though.  Wonder if that fate will ring true for other systems besides the M?

Metro antics.  He told me he practiced a lot to do that.

By this point in time I'd gotten over the fact I didn't have an M in my hands.

I seriously have no clue where I made this photo.  It's LA-somewhere.

I would have thought the kinda-loudish sound emanating from the 5dm2 would have killed this moment. It didn't.  Before I would have tried it I would have thought the ONLY camera I could have made this with would have been a rangefinder.  

Contemplative-life-shots are some of the ones I'm always looking for.  Once they see you, though, and you get eye contact I think the moment is ruined.

LA ... one of the only places where you can make street shots from the car. ;)

I always see the Luminous Landscape-kinda guys with their d700's, wide glass and a tripod here but ... was so happy to see a moment that also provided scale.

Can't say much about the difference I feel in life between this series of photographs and the next photo. The next photo doesn't symbolize anything other than it was the next frame I made after learning some news.

Some have a life-changing experiences like the poor dude under the sheet and some have other life-changing experiences.

Life is strange.

Light and the reflection thereof are things I'm amazed by.

Wish you guys could see this on the big screen.

In as much as I thought it would make a difference ... and ... seeing as how I've made almost 100,000 frames with an M9 ... It was me I had to get over when using the 5dm2 for street.  No one else noticed.

Strange for me was -- I have no idea why this was shooting with the 5dm2 -- that I would routinely use longer shutter speeds when I'd try and isolate a slow-moving or stationary-for-the-moment subject.

Like I said. ;)

Ya' gotta try Louis downtown.  There aren't a lot of things good about downtown ... but there are a few.

Shooting wide open with an ND got me a bit of vignetting but ... I'm used to that on M's as well.

So ... Whatever.

Wonder if the above tourist went home and posted that photo and said he was a cough-cough travel photographer.  Wait ... He'd have to have bought a Leica first to do that.  Sorry.  My mistake.

The beautiful light of Echo Park. 

Where haircuts cost USD6.00...

Would have thought they'd have heard the click and the diaphragm and whatever else the 5dm2 does when it's making a photo.  They didn't.

Fairfax is a trippy place.

Such a dichotomy between 2 or 3 blocks here ... not to mention a mile or so.

They caught me but their expressions were no different.

Hence the photo.

This brings up another thing ... 

Sometimes between frames time elapses.  I noticed that every time I picked up the 5dm2 it was ready for me to make a photo at a millisecond's notice.  

Unless you put it on a certain mode the M9 eats battery life.  I have it set to turn off after a minute and if i wanted this frame on this day carrying the M9, I wouldn't have gotten it.

What is aimed at whom interests me as well.  I like not-so-apparent things.  Really doesn't matter what camera I'm shooting, though.  No camera inspires what you like to shoot.

If I ever move from L.A., I'll miss the ghetto birds.  Traffic?  Not so much.

It wasn't as bad as Seoul, though.

They must spend so much money on jet fuel those guys.

So from Hollywood, the Metro, um, Echo Park, Silver Lake, the Mexican wedding fountain, Fairfax, Hollywood ... I ended up in fake Denmark.

Greeted by tea baggers.

I like the confused tourists.

Clearly, enjoying their native cuisine over some nice Abelskiver.

I see a momma-bird and baby-bird.  My friend, Sev, said "... a rarely working portrait format."  Something to that effect.  I would rather hear that from a guy like Sev than from 100 forum-farts with unqualified eyes.

Yes, your eyes can see frozen lawn furniture, cats, rivers, flowers and Asian models quite well.  No doubt in my mind.

So many captions ... so little time.

As opposed to the area best know for a Mexican gang called "Los Avenues"...

I find these as odd as I find the ones in Napoli.  Does Mary really want to be fenced?

Dunno why I saw their house this way.

But I did.

Don't think there was much business this day.

Clearly, lunch affected homey to exhaustion.

Would have thought anything but an M would have alerted faceless homey ... but ... no.

The Vista.  I wonder if she was "checking in" on "the social network"?

No one paid any attention to the 5dm2 and more than they would have if it were an M.

Was sitting having lunch with "The Maestro of the Moment."

We do get rain here.

Not often but it happens.

Then I found myself on a BART train.

Then somewhere off Market in SF.

It was raining up there, too, but it always rains up there.

I've been told that SF only looks good if you do HDR to your street work because you hear it's trendy and that's what the art buyers want.  Perhaps. ;)  Perhaps you'll sell the Golden Gate Bridge as well?

I like sniping people getting their hair cut.

I'm not sure the dude on the right is much of a fan of the waiter -- kinda made a bit more sinister looking by juxtaposition to light -- frame left.

Again, was surprised how low-profile the 5dm2 is in PRACTICAL use making street shots.

I won't say REAL WORLD.  I'll say PRACTICAL.

I mean I guess it's real world, too, to a degree.  

Just makes me laugh how much I see/hear the words real world used these days.

I knew that I snuck up pretty well but I also knew I'd better have had the focus nailed ... as there's no way -- even with a Leica -- that they wouldn't have heard the click.

They did.

I'd also switched to the 1.4/50 Zeiss ZE.  For me the out-of-focus negative spaces have a totally different look than the 1.4/50 Leica-R and M for that matter.  I'm sure there's some donkey on a forum who disagrees and thinks it's ugly but ... they're usually shooting a brick wall or their cat.

Or for their ModelMayhem portfolio.

Equally as uninspired and banal.

Of course.

It'd be fun to imagine that this guy is carting the cumulative contact sheets or printing from most forum members to the curb.

But he wasn't; he worked at a restaurant.

I'm pretty sure that's how 99% of her night was ... seeing as how most people were in North Beach and it was starting to rain.

I was honestly shocked that I could get this close with a D-SLR and pull off a moment as much as I could with the 5dm2.  They didn't see me once in four frames.

Whereas with any of my film M's I would really hope I got it before I could fast-advance, the M9 was better but ... it's no match frame-rate-wise with the 5dm2.  No match.

Has to do with that inherent lag when you have it set so that the battery doesn't drain.

Yes, I have extra batteries.

But still.

They didn't catch/see me either.

Yes, focus on the hand is intentional.

The old dragon saw me after about five frames but I ended up liking the second frame better.

That concluded my stroll 'round Chinatown and North Beach with my friend Martin.

Sorry ... that was the conclusion to the stroll ... a purposefully Dutch shot of someone who's confused. ;)

The next couple days were spent at a dog show.  Yeah, I know ... PETA hates me.

I'm good with that.

From there ... I flew to Korea for a minute where I continued my experiment/folly/exercise in futility.

Yes, "Pretend Jesus" has a pt. 2.

I never thought I'd do enough street shooting with any SLR much less a big-ass D-SLR to actually have enough material for a normal blog post.  Honestly, I was blown away by the fact except in rare situations I didn't really miss the M9.  Or really ... any M ... for that matter.

As my friend Martin said the other day ...

When I asked "what does a pro/working photographer mean?"

I'm sure that the masquerading forum guys who think they're "a pro" still think you can only shoot one brand or another.

I shoot both.

I love both for different reasons.

My Leica M9 compliments my Canons and vice-versa. 

But I'm still amazed that shooting the Canon 5dm2 for street was such a joy.  It's nice to have ISO 3200.

Ya' know ... usable ISO 3200 or even usable 2500 in the way the Mark 2's usable.

Unless I'm editing an assignment I use Aperture to do selects, make adjustments, put it through NIK Silver Efex and export to the blog.  For me it's seamless.

So ... on that note ... I'll try and get Pt. 2 done, too.

Hope you're all well!

Cheers from a fall-like-for-the-moment-LA,

-C

p.s., If you're still thinking you're a photojournalist, please look at this photo.  That's what real photojournalists do.  They do it for real.  They don't just call themselves a photojournalist because they're a tourist.

baby killer.

One would think that 100+ media at a courthouse would mean something BIG was going on.  Right!?  Well ... In the lovely city of Angels suburb Beverly Hills ... that's not the case.  At least this morning it wasn't the case.

Instead we were all -- 10 legitimate photographers and about 45+ paps -- waiting in the beautiful morning sun of the city that will bring us all "The Persian Version" soon.  Think "Jersey Shore" but in black beee-ehhhm-douuuuble-uuuu's and girls with bad bad bad dye-jobs.

I didn't have an assignment today but thought about the spectacle and felt I wanted to photograph it myself.  In case anyone in Sweden doesn't know what's going on actress/model/clothes designer/singer/tabloid sensation Lindsay Lohan was scheduled to appear in court due to a possible probably probation violation.  Usually I'm inside an exclusive party with her but this was different.

You'd think there was a baby killer having a trial.  Seriously.  Sat trucks.  MULTIPLE teams from each outlet.  Remote cams.  Dudes with backpacks carrying USD50,000 transmitters with 7 aircards inside transmitting live feeds.  It was crazy.

I went, too.  A couple Leica M9's.  The 1.0/50 Nocti with a nice B&W ND, the old 1.4/35 ASPH (send the new prototype back to Germany with broken aperture blades) and the Voigtlander 4.5/15 (the old version with no focus coupling).  Oh yeah ... the shot I envisioned was up high so I brought the step ladder I use to get out pots and souffle dishes.

 And I was gonna do a post about a wedding I shot a few weeks ago.  That's gonna wait.  It was looking at the selects of that wedding that I decided that digital black and white conversions suck ass.  They may be monochrome but ... they're not the same as film.  Not even close.  Even the presets in Aperture and my favourite converter I use in PS CS3 -- no, I don't need anything more than CS3 -- "aren't quite right" as it were.  Not even close.

A friend was showing me some work.  After 8 beautiful film scans I got to a photograph and I said "Um." He looked at me and said "I know."  Shot with an M9 ... It was probably f/8 or greater.  Honestly, I'm not sure I want to look at M9 digital conversions to B&W shot with a tight aperture.  In fact, I think you have to be wider and perhaps get the exposures you need via ND filters.  If you're gonna leave them in colour, all good.  

I'd always heard of the NIK Software solution Silver Efex.  Well ... it's only like USD100 so I bought it and started using it with Aperture.  Switching from 64-bit to the 32-bit version because NIK doesn't have the 64-bit version out for Apple sucks.  Whatever.

I worked a lot of photos from the wedding and was way more pleased than just looking at normal B&W conversions.  Silver Efex "took the edge off" and gave noise a nicer grainy look.  So far, I'm very happy with that plug-in.  I just wish they'd get off their asses and put out the 64-bit version.

The following photos were all processed from DNG's in Aperture, then opened in Silver Efex and then exported from Aperture to a size photo that piece of shit typepad won't crop horribly.  

Unlike his normal routine Michael Lohan didn't spend 30 minutes being a fucking blowhard and talk to even the most obscure or irrelevant "outlet."  He just walked in.  I knew he'd have to say SOMETHING later.  

I asked if they were doing a school project.  Whatever.  I don't think they got sarcasm.

Her "note" was pretty funny, though.  Watch out talking heads in Los Angeles as this girl wants your job.

Was funny watching those two.  I had a lot to watch, though.  Getting up at 05:00 wasn't a total wash.

Guess I was noticed. ;)

Even talking heads -- always trying to "market up" -- have contemplative moments.  I didn't know they actually thought.

I have so little respect for video news-gathering organizations.  I mean ... fed bullshit by producers with agendas ... shot by "spray-and-fucking-pray" video-operators ... 

I think news video-operators probably have the least talent of the working visual pros out there.  

There's always one.  He kept yelling "Lindsay's not Mel Gibson."  I'm positive he was a plant from some television programme yet I couldn't identify who was taping him.

 

When the news choppers arrived I knew we were close to the kick-off.  Helicopters are so annoying unless, of course, I'm watching a splendid high-speed chase that we're so famous for here in la-la-land.

And then she appeared.  

And did the "perp walk" ...

Must suck having to do that.  Her mother, Orange Oprah, and her attorney, Shawn Holley-Chapman, trail her.  I'm pretty sure the "dudes in suits" are either BHPD or LASO.  Dunno.

I saw a lot of my friend's work and didn't think she looked as "worried" as she does in my take.  I don't know anyone who shot wide.  FYI.  It was 70-200/2.8 all the way.  Well ... unless you're a low-level pap with a fresh visa and you've still got the kit lens you bought in Sao Paolo. ;)

Imagine 150+ cameras on you as you're on your way to find out because of your disease you may be going to jail.  I know ... poor little rich girl ... but ... I've always had nice experiences with Lindsay.

I like this because it's almost like she's shielding herself from the light.  The light from someone's flash. No, I wasn't shooting with a flash.  

I think this is my favourite photo, actually.

And ten seconds later ... it was over.

And my photo-buddy Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicky Ut began getting his cards out of the cameras.

And everyone started ingesting, selecting, editing, captioning and sending to their desks.

I didn't.  :)

About 30 minutes later fifteen reporters burst out of the doors saying "She's not coming out; she's going straight to jail."  Since I was there to show what it's like to attract world attention for something pretty petty, I went 'round back for a position.

Like most white suburbs the cops have nothing to do.  This was a big deal to them and they surely treated it like it was.  

Some d-bag nicknamed "Malibu Bob" or some bullshit got a ticket for jay walking.  :)  Funny as shit.  He's one of those "in your face video-paps."  Honestly, I think they're the worst.

Because of that dumb-ass the po-po on bikes made it their life's mission to keep everyone on the sidewalk...

Instead of hiding behind bushes and nicking people for speeding he was wrangling.  Whatever.  I set my step ladder down and stepped up.  Didn't really need much else.

And once again ... she appeared ...

This time, though, behind heavily-tinted glass and some kind of other obstruction.  There's no chance any of the dudes with long glass got anything.  

Wonder how much that transport/escort cost?  Yeah ... all for a misdemeanor and a fucking axe to grind. Well played guys.

Lindsay's clearly angry father decided to speak (big shock) and ya' know 30 crews wanted to listen.

Amazing, really.  You'd think something really important was being said and instead it was bunch of grandstanding as this dim-wit has zero going on in his life and continues to live it by glomming on to someone else's fame.

Ya' know ... like all of those "equipment reviewers" (loosely defined) ... who came from forums ... and of which hardly say anything bad about anything.  They are so laughable it's ... well ... it's funny people actually listen.

He's making a point.  Homeboy behind him is one of those "pop star reborn Christian minister-types."  I was just waiting to hear him say "... and you can find more information at [insert evangelical name].com."

Something tells me I wouldn't want to be a woman in a relationship with pappa Lohan.  

Perhaps he really does need Jesus.

Crazy-plant-guy was lead away by the Sheriffs. ;)

A serious hard-hitting video journalist took contemplative notes.

And then he went on-camera for the recap.  I was more intrigued by the way one of his crew was looking at him.

And the AFP had their mobile office set up. ;)  Sending out the last few photos from such an important day of news gathering. ;)

Amongst the ENG crews and long glass ... I think you'll see something ... besides Lindsay, of course.  The above photo is ©Reuters.

So, yeah, an interesting morning.

And I'm loving the NIK Software Silver Efex!  It makes looking at normal digital B&W palatable.

Hope you guys all have amazing weekends.

I'm sure a certain baby killer won't be. 

Cheers from la-la-land.

-C

choke.

in doing some desktop housecleaning ... as i only had like 42gb of working space on my macbook pro's hard drive ... found some folders ...

and i believe i meant to blog them or do something besides archiving them.

f.u., photobucket ... you're slow.

i swear to god ... why the fuck would anyone just "talk about cameras" if they don't actually use the fuckers?  jesus.  i don't know why i read the superfluous photographer but sometimes i do.  whilst i know several amazing shooters who do some serious darkroom stuff, i know even equally as amazing shooters who've never even smelled a darkroom from 15m away.

f.u. photobucket still trying to login.  

back to the superfluous-but-can't shoot.  there was this entry about training photographers ... um ... yeah ... okay ... but shouldn't you have some talent in the first place to train someone else?  pageviews from other old white guys who listen to jazz with tube-fucking-amps doesn't fucking mean you can shoot.

makes me laugh.

photobucket doesn't.

so yeah ... found some scans ... no ... the m9 hasn't totally queered me ... looking back at said scans, though, i really don't remember when i made the photos????  dammit.

right?

i remember i made this as a half-tribute to ken. ;) it's not a whole wall hence the half-tribute.  

something wasn't quite right about homey.  not that he couldn't take off an arm.

according to my ups driver ... even these guys can take off an arm.  dunno why she's afraid of my little spaniel, though...

whatever. i'm sure she has her reasons.

fyi ... anything that looks like a 35mm lens was shot with the new 35 summilux ... and ... film.  don't get too shocked.

my kid is even enjoying rangefinder photography ... albeit ... digital rangefinder photography...

i think you can see her photo here.  ;)

couldn't find anything to suggest she moved that one.  hmm.

she likes to walk 'round the 'hood with me and look for photos. :)

i find other peoples spaces and environments so interesting. dunno why.  perhaps i'm just nosey.

love the face lamill isn't "opening near you."  they have clover machines. :)  even though the walmart of coffee bought clover.  jerks.

flowers.

more flowers.  they're dead now.  i just walked by yesterday.  loving the new 35-'lux with film by the way.

but not as much as mr. pug-friend loves spongebob. ;)

palms and a contrail.  not a chemtrail.  so much talk about chemtrails lately. don't get it.  even if they are spraying us with shit ... what the fuck are we gonna do about it?

quiet moment.  quiet shutter.  didn't have a clue i was there stalking a photo. ;)

i do NOT photograph homeless ... but this guy was like conjuring something.  i waited to see if anything materialized.  nothing.

whilst waiting to pay for some tulips (swear that's true) ... i noticed it was taking forEVER for the family in front of myself and drinky-mc-drinkerson to offload their basket full of instant gratification (read:  food full of high fructose corn syrup).  homeboy was carrying that bottle like it was his baby.

skip back or forward or whatever to seattle and portland...

the new 35-'lux and ... some apx 25.  he didn't hear it either.  try that with an slr.  i know i know i know ... some say anything you can do with your rangefinder ... i can do better with my rebel.  cool.  good for you.

agressive birds and panhandlers in seattle.

agressive friggin' gum-smell in that horrible alley in seattle.  some nice .95/50 nocti-luv here. :)  i'm pretty sure i had the other nocti on.  can't remember for sure.

i don't remember what i did yesterday for that matter.

nice quiet moment with a malty beverage.  or without.

i know some who'd kill to live at that address. ;)

some leica m9 roadshow action.  met some very nice people and total leica enthusiasts.

it's all about the m.  as seen through a .95/50 nocti.  love that lens.  too bad it costs more than a car.

gets me all choked up.  sorry.

a juxtapositional pun.  and now we're back in seattle.  

say ah.

that girl was amazing, actually.

she was happy.

as was homegirl.

not so much for homietheclown.

if you come to seattle, you must have that photo.  trust me.

he was busy.

he was as happy as his cornermate homeytheclown.

i was as happy as both when i made this photo.  "sorry sir ... all rooms above the 4th floor are really hot."  fucking april in seattle and it's hot?  he was right.  

i got a different room.

on the third.

diva-bitch-asses get their way ... trust me.

a view from a different room.  i mean ... rainy outside and its 25c+ inside... wtf?  don't get it.  felt like a fucking resthome.

no, i wasn't cropping square:  these are from the rollieflex mx-evs 3.5. unlike the guys at the superfluous phtographer ... i use my equipment and don't just postulate the methods of use.  if you don't use old cameras, they will wither up and die.  can't have that happen to such a beautiful little machine.

'sup happy?

from a different view.

i shot the 120 variant of agfa apx 25 for the most part.  i mean ... f3.5 isn't all that fast but the shutter doesn't vibrate much!

caption contest?

such a sweet man.  found out where the best waffles in portland are sold.  so amazing to meet people so passionate about the most simple things in life.  we learn from everyone.

except for those who profess shit they don't know about, of course.

we kept running into this family.  the first night we were in portland we ate at the ever-so-esoteric clyde common.  i noticed the dad was looking at the two leica m9's on the table.  when we started a conversation he said "i know those are good cameras and i kept thinking to myself, 'those guys probably can't even shoot'."  too funny.  we're now friends.  sent this to them. :)

plenty of seats but he chose the ground.  all good.  portland is weird.  

and we arrive in spaniel-land! :)  a very good place to be.  indeed.

and in spaniel-land we find little spaniel feet with little spaniel slippers.  

back to seattle-land.  this is my friend jon.  he and i hadn't seen each other in 20 some-odd years.  so great to reconnect with him and his lovely wife.  

seemed as though no time had passed as he was one of my best friends in high school.  such a cool dude. 

i would totally put this on the wall if it weren't for the fact the dogs would freak-the-fuck-out.

i know that feeling "where the fuck is it!?"

waiting in food truck row.

dennis rodman's doppelganger?

pesky double-exposures. :(  doesn't happen so much with digital. ;)

your guess is as good as mine.

that's some rad ink.  for damn sure.

he told me he had to get back to salt lake to see his son.  that he had a job waiting for him.  

hope so.

i still think he was buying some h.

choke.

hope you're all well.

cheers from the la-la,

c

smoking wiener dogs.

listening to broken bells.  remember to buy ... not download illegally.  unless it's shitty jazz.  wait ... that only comes on vinyl.  i guess you have to be in wisconsin to really like it, though. ;)

so yeah ... we had our memorial day.  not sure i'm sure why we get that monday off.  i'm not gonna kiss ass so the older white guys like me, though.  sorry.  not my style.  we got a monday off, though, and that was nice.

it's inevitable that when there's a "long weekend" the "weekend warriors" are out in force.  

penis=small.

rather than "destroy the dunes" as it were ... we hung out with a dear friend ... and some furry little dear friends.

'twas a beautiful weekend up north of hell-ay.

this little girl is getting new parents.  fancy parents.  she's so damn sweet.  

perhaps not as sweet as little homie on the left. :)

oh, yeah, not only am i totally in love with aperture 3 but the maccreate.com film simulation presets are really friggin' cool.  not gonna say which were used ... but ... pretty much every photo in this post was run through one preset or another.  

and ... all of the photos in this blog, almost like, well, every other post in recent memory were made with the leica m9.  for the most part i used the new 1.4/35 summilux asph ... i mean ... in prototype form but ... still.  also, there's some 1.4/24 summilux asph, 1.0/50 nocti and ... um ... 2.0/75 sumicron asph, too.  not gonna go frame by frame and say which was used where, though.

funny ... that even though i shoot the best equipment canon has to offer ... it still didn't make me love digital photography.  the leica m9 made me love digital photography.  it even perhaps made me love shooting my canon digi-equipment even more.  odd how things work out.

don't think my lab loves me as much any more, though.  then again, they friggin' should after having a nice drum scan of a neg and then the subsequent almost-six foot wide print we had made.  that should make up for it.

next time 'round ... perhaps we can skip the damn drum scan.  expensive little bitches those things are.  i know ... should have put on some nice jazz ... and made an analog print, right?

whatever.

you're gonna get some cavalier overload, just fyi.  a warning if you will. ;)

such a pretty little face.  wait ... did i hear someone say they wanted to see more of this pretty little face?  i knew i did.  in fact, i think it was a faint whisper out of austria?

rough day of being sweet and cute.  a friend said "you should weaponize this cuteness."

love her little face.  then again, i guess you could tell, right?

her name is punky and she gave birth to a little boy very close to our hearts.

oh my.  what a face.  his personality is just beyond.

i think she likes him ... and ... him ... her.  :)  then again, how couldn't he.  she's amazing.

he's pretty amazing, too.  

i don't think we can name him peta sucks, though.  ;)

baby puppies.  baby wine grapes! :)  except only one will be squashed in the fall and it WON'T be a puppy.  velvia 50 preset. ;)

2.0/75 asph sumicron.  velvia 50 preset again. ;)  i was watching cows move from shade tree to shade tree.

and then a nice ride through some nice tree-lined canyons in the central wine region.  not that we drank any wine.  we had tequila and vodka.

our new favourite cocktail, though is:

high ball glass.  fill with ice.  1 oz st. germain liqueur. 1 oz. grey goose pear vodka. splash of apple cider.  

jesus in a glass.

or a dollar in a barrel.  whatever.

only in this part of the state could you walk into a barn filled with beautiful organic vegetables and fruites and buy on the honor system.  

never happen in los angeles.

we have too many douchebags here ... both native and imported.

most are in entertainment.

we made new goat-friends.

who eat hay ... not fucking corn.  animals should not eat fucking corn.  just fyi.

only assholes from iowa who own feedlots and supply fucking mcdonalds feed their poor cattle corn.

grass-fed ... not that we're eating goats ... livestock is way better.

sorry guys for talking about you and hay and feedlots in the same ... vicinity of sentences and photos.

next ... we went to a dog show.

but seriously ... this should make you angry.  as a father ... i cannot believe what industry/media does to young women.  truly disgusting.  vivid should ... be so ashamed.  yeah ... i just told a porn company to be ashamed.  hmm...  that's like telling a nazi to be nice.

this was what we were greeted by when we parked albeit illegally but ... whatever ... there were no parking attendants/guards at their respective posts.  so ... whatever.  we parked.

the cosina/voigtlander 4.5/15 isn't too bad on the m9.  yeah ... there's some weirdness at the edges but ... whatever ... not every lens can be a leica lens. ;)

<

don't shit here or the akc will spank you.

this little irish terrier wouldn't though.  such a nice little guy.

nothing like a 1988-era fountain in the 909. ;)  or a six-stop nd filter. ;)

homeboy's sucking on a straw next to a sign for a semen bank.  wonder if that was a to-go cup?  dunno.

sorry.

i'm gross.

i'm 14.

whatever.

meet kate.  kate is pretty.

this is leo.  leo is my homeboy.

this is jack.  not jack-jack but jack.  jack's cool as hell.

silky grooming is srs bsns.  srsly.  so many captions ... so little time.

i used to pick on chihuahua owners but ... the stars aligned ... and ... well ... silkies ... and their owners were in the crosshairs of visual snark. ;)

silky.  yorkshire.  i dunno.

i only like cavalier king charles spaniels ... and 80% of their owners/breeders.

"analog bill" my new friend.  very nice guy.  

buy a cosina/voigtlander 4.5/15 and get a free star filter. ;)

fyi ... fucking metal halides ... suck.  they spike in red, green and blue.  their CRI must be -100, then again, high pressure sodiums must have -250 CRI.

i like this.

srs. bsns.

my little friend sammy.  he's a fancy show dog.  i have a soft spot in my heart for rubies.  

sammy has impressive slippers.

afghans.  i think.

someone brought a pony to the dog show?

"another goddamned dog show, marj!?"

that dog weighs 2lbs.  the woman on the right has a cavalier, too, though, so she's off the hook for just "being a chi-chi breeder."  the japanese love her dogs.  

this job's gotta suck over the course of a four-day dog show, right?

srs. bsns.

welcome to the united states.

caption contests could run rampant with these photos.

he asked me to take him out and go chase birds.  poor buddy.

focus.  snack.  bait.  whatever.

at least buy him dinner first.

"fuck ... my nuts are next. if i weren't the most loving breed in the world i'd turn 'round a bite you."

for a chi-chi ... she's sweet and ... cute.  she's big in japan.  pardon the pun.

i love this breed.

they're amazing.

so was this judge's uncanny ability to see a dog's molars at 15 feet away.  brava.

some days you're the pigeon.

some days you're the statue.

potahtos.

potaytoes.

judge gear.

shouldn't she have her glasses on all of the time, though?  kinda like an umpire?  odd to me.

is it snack time yet?

homie ... i'm a photographer ... not the judge.  seriously.

snack.

bait.

don't think they really care.

whatchotalkinbout?

i perfected my monkey sound.  leo and chop-chop agree.  i'm not being racist.  that dog's name is chop-chop.

do not fuck with her.  she will fuck you up.  she has a wiener dog.  my favourite photo of the day.

the irony.

yep.  busy yet good weekend.  started in heaven and ended up in the 909.  at least we were surrounded by mostly friends. :)

hope your week is off to a good start and you're not thinking about making photos whilst listening to jazz and you're actually making photos.

those who can't do ... teach.  remember that.

cheers from a now-warm hell-ay.  i'm going to make soup.

cheers,

c

hip plastic.

i've decided i hate blogo, too.  the typepad editor sucks, too.  wanted to find another platform before i wrote anything else.  whatever.  no time.

the other day i downloaded plastic bullet, another brilliant app for making photos on the iphone, after having read about it on the prolost blog by Stu Maschwitz.  love stu's blog.  i like things written by REAL working professionals and not just gear-bating monkeys.  see ... the difference is ... the techie-bitches and forum-mongers ... they theorize ... they don't actually do anything by practice.

it's kinda like reading theonlinewannabe and thinking he really has any friggin' clue about what two lenses to take with you.  again, theorization ... no practical knowledge whatsoever.  it's actually comical.

anyway ... back to plastic bullet.  i was stoked with hipstamatic.  in fact, i've made many 5x7 prints on our little "printer by the couch" and they came out amazing.  i mean ... the latest iteration of hipstamatic came out great as they pumped the resolution.  

originally, i was only gonna talk about plastic bullet but ... well ... not talking about hipstamatic seemed kinda unfair as i absolutely love that app.  in as much as i never leave home without a rangefinder ... when i do ... which is so rare but ... whatever ... i never really feel like i'm without a camera when i have the iphone with me. 

typing on the iphone sucks compared to my crackberry days but ... again ... bitter with the better.  the iphone is better for just about everything else.  seeing a browser on a 'berry is laughable.  not only but no matter what you use to sync the 'berry with a mac ... nothing works well.  now ... i change something on the iphone and ... it's changed globally.  that's very important in terms of contacts and calendar with me.com.  love it.  not going back.

whenever i see photos uploaded on facebook i can tell were taken with a blackberry it makes me laugh. they suck.  

here are some photos i've made with the hipstamatic app...

i have a few bitches with hipstamatic even though i love the app.  it's rather slow.  it got even slower after the newest iteration, too.  then again, the files are good enough to make a decent print.  also, it doesn't save an original from the iphone so that you could have a non-hipstamaticed photo as well.  i find it crashes sometimes and if i had an "original" i'd still have the photo.  

99% of the above photos were taken with one lens/film combo.  i know there are others but i'd prefer this one.  not saying what it is.  you can make up your own combo.

having only used plastic bullet for a few days ... well ... i know i don't particularly like the fact it only saves a rather small version of the iphone photo.  it can, however, take an existing photo and work it's magic on it.  kinda like these two.  then again, these two were made with a canon 1dsm3, dumbed down and moved to the iphone but ... whatever ... you get the point ...

that was what i did first with it.  i liked the effect.  once you see a version you like you hit the heart button and save it ... otherwise if you hit the refresh button you'll loose it forever.  

it's interesting that plastic bullet tends to do a bit of overexposure on some of it's versions but if you hit the refresh enough, you'll find something you'll like.  it's only gonna get better.  i mean ... red giant is amazing.

i decided to go to target and make a few photos with the plastic bullet...

from target to the bucket. ;)

a couple different versions of this one ...

so, yeah, there are things i love about plastic bullet and things i love about hipstamatic ... a few things i'd change about both ...

but ... i'm really enjoying plastic bullet. :)  it ain't a leica m9 ... but ... really ... what is? ;)

hope you're all well and making fantastic photos!  i have to go to a fancy party.

cheers from a spring-like los angeles,

c