[Leica] The rangefinder challenge

[Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>]

Two recent episodes of possible interest in my development as a Leica user:

Photographing in the military cemetery at Etaples, Northern France (WW1
British base camp). Officers get more space than men. Many died in December
1918. All so cruel, what can you do but cry in such a place?

I've had repeated problems using the Leica to photograph repeating shapes
(stairs, railings etc), I'm a bit of a sucker for such things, though I
often ban myself from wasting film on them, brick walls too! Massed rows of
identical tombstones are a nightmare with the rangefinder, but to my
pleasant surprise I found the focussing to be only a slight problem - after
8 months of carrying a Leica I've finally got some sort of feel of where the
distance is on the 35, 50, 90 lenses, so I could get close by feel , leaving
only a couple of tombstones to sort out - which one exactly overlaps in the
rangefinder window? - and that was eaisly sorted out by looking for fine
details. 6 months ago that would have taken me ages ( it's still not quick
enough!). Also, the exposure on so much white was a factor  - tonally it was
like a snow scene.

I was photographing near where I live in East London - entrance to the
Blackwall Tunnel there is 'hell's bus stop'. You go down piss stink
graffiti'd stairs to a sliver of hyper-polluted pavement where you wait for
a bus in a deep cutting where a two lane choked highway enters a tunnel. I
had railings in the foreground as I looked down at the tunnel road and the
bus stop. Lots of fine alignments going on - the legs of people at the bus
stop, the positioning of white lines in the road below between the
foreground (out of focus) railings. Waiting for the right shapes of traffic.
The negs are rubbish, none of that came out - parallax error,  I'll have to
go back.  As the foreground obstructions (railings)  were so close, even the
slightest distance between eye and lens makes a difference. Old news for you
veterans out there I'm sure, but now I've learnt another little habit - when
there's a close (obstructing) foreground, and you're using a Leica M, just
move a tiny bit to your left before you make the exposure.

Alex