This Is Not a Leica.

It is said that "The best camera is the one you have with you."  A quick (and relatively lazy) internet search doesn't provide an easy answer as to who actually said it, although I did find one who credited Chase Jarvis.  At any rate, in this post I want to address the thought, because besides my Leica, I do carry a lot of other cameras.

However, here's the thing: I always have my Leica with me, ever since I missed that picture one Christmas of the decorations being set up in Lexington's little version of Central Park, Hopkins Green.  Even today when I ran an errand, interrupting my writing here, I came across an image of people on a local sidewalk casually playing old time fiddle music.  Only in Lexington.  I had the chance to shoot just one frame with my M3, but that was more than if I hadn't brought it.  And I would have been really frustrated about that.

Sadly, nowadays my finances intrude on this photography.  Film lies undeveloped ... for two years.  I just can't afford to get it processed.  So I often double shoot with the camera I have with me: my iPhone. 

These are all pictures I made while my daughters rehearsed for their dance recital this past weekend.  As any dance parent knows, weeks and months of careful practice go into these events, and those weeks and months require patient attendance.  Needless to say, when I saw an image in those empty moments, I wanted to capture it.  The phone was the easiest way.

I used the standard photo function that comes with the Apple iPhone, then ran it through the free version of PS Express, changing it to Black and White, perhaps tweaking the brightness and contrast, and adding the border.  That's it.

By the time we moved into the theatre, I started shooting color.  I'm not sure why.  However, this only changed my process in that, rather than using the Black and White conversion function in PS, I shifted in the other direction, juicing up the saturation.

The exercise is interesting, in its way, much like my exercise of using only one Leica with whatever lens I've chosen to put on it for the day (or, for that matter, usually for an entire roll of film).  I'm pleased that, when I've posted these on Facebook, they've gotten positive responses, including "Likes" from my photographer friends and even on (for the picture immediately above) from the Tamarkin Camera Facebook page.

In my fantasies, they are impressed enough by my work here to lend me one of the new digital M (240)s.  The stuff I could do with that video function!

 

Perhaps I should keep my dreams realistic: like getting enough money to get that film processed ...