[Leica] London travel report (long)

[Martin Howard <marho@ikp.liu.se>]

Well, for once the weather gods smiled upon me!  Arriving in London on
Wednesday last week and leaving on the Sunday, the only times it rained
was when I was indoors!  Otherwise mostly brilliant sunshine.

Being fairly new to Leica photography (May 1998), this was my first
chance to exercise my Leica M3 in the manner which I had first intented
when I bought it: travel photography.

In addition to the M3, I brought the 35mm 'cron, 50 DR and 90 tele-
elmarit (thin).  I used the 50 almost exclusively: partly I think this
is because of the single frameline when using the 50, partly because I
seem to see with '50'-eyes more than 90 or 35.  Film was Tri-X and HP-5.

Inspired by Tom A's stories of Paris, I typically started a day by
taking
the underground out to the edge of Zone II (whoops ;) and walking back
towards the centre, shooting as I went.  I find that it takes about an
hour or two to start seeing pictures, but after that it's much easier.
The Leica is truly wonderful for this type of photography.  So much
better than the other cameras I've owned previously.

A typical routine would consist of finding an interesting subject (often
people), estimating the distance and prefocusing, followed by a quick
raising of the camera to the eye, adjustment of focus and shutter
release.  I discovered that often the key is doing things slowly, i.e.,
not too quick.  Waiting just that little extra for the elements to
position themselves is often worth it.  <snip> goes the shutter and
then look away with a wry smile, knowing that I got the shot ;-)

Also, working slowly and smoothly seems to attract less attention than
hasty, jerky movements.  I was surprised at just how invisible a chrome
M3 is: hardly anyone took any notice of me, while men wielding autofocus
SLRs with a tank-gun girthed APO lens had people ducking for cover. On
the other hand, not surprising: many look like minature bazookas!

I think I've located a negative scanner here at the university, so I'm
hoping that I can get a web site with a few pictures up and running in
a week or two.

Thursday afternoon I attended a couple of photo exhibitions.  The
Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) have a small exhibition showing some of
the more important works through the history of photography, but many
are missing and many photographers are not represented.  They also have
a separate small collection of HCB's pictures from around the world on
display.

The Museum of London had an exhibition of Terence Donovan's work on
display.  A fair amount of fashion photography from the 1960's, but
interspersed with other shots too, some photojournalistic.  On until
August this year.

On Friday I met fellow LUGger Gerry Walden for lunch.  He'd brought a
portfolio of his great b&w shots (many of which can be seen on his
web site) and was entertained by stories of his trials and tribulations
as a photographer.  During the course of the discussion he told me of
the well kept secret of The Print Room at the V&A.  I have now held in
my hands, genuine HCB and Lartigue photographs!

Of course, no trip would be complete without a shopping spree!  At
Jessops Classic Camera I found reprints of Leica manuals for the c, f &
g LTM cameras, along with one for the M2 and M3.  These are listed as
out of print and unobtainable with the Internet bookshops, so I was
quite happy to get them.  Also picked up a 1933 general catalogue.  Ah,
those accessories! ;-)

London seems to be a good place for books on photography.  For some
reason, I've walked along Charing Cross Road many times and never seen
Zwemmers!  What a treasure trove!  Also discovered The Photographer's 
Gallery, but unfortunately this was closed for renovation and only the
(smallish) bookshop was open.

For those of us living in Sweden, England is currently expensive, so I
shopping was limited: Certainly no camera gear.  But the best bits were
walking around all day with an M3, 50mm and Tri-X and just enjoying
every
second of it.  Now it's into the bathroom for loading the tanks and
remodelling of the kitchen to develop the film!

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard, Grad. Schl. for Human-Machine Interaction,  |
HMI/IKP, Linkoping University, SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.|    Just
Tel: +46 13 28 5741; Fax: +46 28 2579; ICQ: 354739         | say "DOOH"
E-mail: marho@ikp.liu.se; www.iav.ikp.liu.se/staff/marho/  +------------