[Leica]New Leica IIIf photos

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Hi David,
You are most welcome, anytime you wish to send them along on list, maybe 
some others might learn a few things if they take the time to read.

Or please feel free to send them private as I do now and have coached a few 
members over the years in direct fashion. They've all felt the behind the 
scenes tutoring made a major difference in their picture taking.
ted
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Cochran" <cochranpr@mac.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica]New Leica IIIf photos


> Hi Ted.
>
> Thanks a lot for taking your time to look at my photos.
>
> Here are some excuses...I mean, answers to what you ask of my photos.
>
>> 1: Nude....behind the figure ....(snip) However at the moment I have to 
>> ask a question. "What was your motivation for making this exposure?" What 
>> turned you on visually to say to yourself, "Jeeeeesh look at that 
>> neat....... click!"
>>
>> Or were you making "test frames" checking the refurbished camera? 
>> Therefore, the picture content wasn't meant to be anything more than a 
>> test shot exposure?
>
> Yes, I wanted to shoot my pics earlier before sundown but the rain did not 
> allowed me to do so. I was walking down this street before getting to the 
> theater and I saw this wooden figure standing in the entrance to a 
> souvenir shop. It was behind an iron fence. I shot it putting my lens 
> between bars. Also there it was, a tall woman with her breasts 
> exposed....;-)
>
> I wonder what would motivate a tourist to carry back home a wood sculpture 
> that is more than 6 feet tall and probably weighted 100 pounds.
>
>> (snip)...therefore not possible for you to have made any movement to lose 
>> the light. That being the case why did you shoot it?
>
> The only thing of some interest on the street at that moment...and the 
> only thing with some light.
>
>>
>> 2: Old city lamp..... Not much to say, as I and I assume many others on 
>> list, have been attracted to an old lit lamp at night and shot something 
>> along the line as this.
>
> Maybe we have some Moth genes in our stream....;-)
>
>
>> The most important thing in this case is a correct exposure and being in 
>> focus and that's what you have. In other words it's OK and works as a 
>> simple illustration shot.
>
> ...and the only thing with light to expose...:-(
>
>>
>> 3: Walker by Fountain. Very nice! :-) I like it as the action works along 
>> with the back lighting. You're close to having the walker's head with a 
>> lamp post growing out of it. Yep that might be a tad nit picking but what 
>> it does is, it makes you look at the scene harder next time and you will 
>> look for those little things very quickly as you are focusing the camera 
>> or just looking through the view finder before you go "click!"
>
> Ted, there are some people that have lamp posts on their heads, I assure 
> you, this guy was walking with it attached..... :-D
>
>>
>> It's simple little things like this that make the difference between a 
>> shot that works perfectly and one that has a post or tree growing out of 
>> a subjects head.
>>
>> In this case you were luckier than planned! :-) That said, I still like 
>> the shot and I don't think I'd have done much different other than I'd 
>> have let him take a few more steps into the frame where he was directly 
>> inline with the sun.
>
> My instinct made me hit the shutter when I saw the guy at this point in 
> the frame, I guess my thing with "balance" of "objects" inside the frame.
>
>>
>> If for no other reason than he'd have cut down the flair off the tiles 
>> and the ring around the fountain.  But a walking subject is prone to not 
>> walk exactly where you want them to go, so it's best to shoot as you feel 
>> comfortable with the scene which means to shoot several as the subject 
>> continues to move partiularly where he wasn't directly inline with the 
>> sun. Then edit on the light table later selecting the best frame.
>
> He was walking kind of fast, at least faster than my ability to quickly 
> wind the IIIf and re-frame... It was also starting to rain again.
>
>
>>
>> It's a fine bit of seeing and re-acting to the moment.
>>
>> ted
>
> A little story here. I got the camera during the week. I loaded it but the 
> whole week it was raining. Heck, as I write it is raining... Come Saturday 
> I had this engagement to go to the theater for a homage of a friend of 
> mine, I shot Nude and Lamp on that night before entering the theater. On 
> Sunday I drove to the Old City to see if I could get out and shoot. 
> Usually, when it is raining in the interior of the island, in Old San Juan 
> it is not.. Well, it was. All of a sudden it stopped, the Sun broke out of 
> the clouds and I had my opportunity.
> Jumped out of the car and walked as fast as I could. It was about 5:45 pm, 
> I was going to lose the light soon. My window of opportunity, 20 minutes. 
> It started to rain again.
>
> When I get to the office today I will post more photos of the day.
>
> Ted, I do appreciate your words and eye. I will take advice and try to 
> improve. Thanks again.
>
>
> peace
>
>
> David
>
>
>
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