[Leica] OK Walter, I'll Bite

["Khoffberg" <khoffberg@email.msn.com>]

Apologies to all - I posted this incorrectly a few hours before. Anyway . .
.

Walter recently wrote:

"I'd love to hear more about their experiences, stories, travels, dangers,
drunken stupors, etc. and a hell of a lot less about the DAMN 135 lenses."

I'm new to the list and still trying to understand the lore, conventions,
taboos, shibboleths, rules, and secret handshakes of the LUG.  I will say,
however, that I'm thoroughly fascinated by the threads, much more so than
medium format digest which I also get.

Anyway, here's my "experiences, stories, etc."

I guess I fall into the sister of that cursed "doctor" category.  I'm
president of a consulting firm in California and find myself flying hither
and yon to the tune of 120,000 or so miles a year.  For the last year or so,
I've been carrying my M6 and some other gear in pursuit of a project which
I'm calling "Ends of the Day."  I don't know how many hard core travelers
there are out there, but it can be pretty hard to do anything other than
drag back and forth to the hotel room and order room service when you're on
the road for clients.  So I resolved to take my camera and make myself get
out and shoot pictures both before and/or after the work day.

In Miami earlier this year, this resulted in some splendid sunrises off M.
Beach.  I also went for a couple of walks in the Art Deco district and shot
the neon and passers by.  My typical solution is M6 on a small gitzo, 35mm
2.8 or 50mm 2.0 at f11 and 6, 8, and 10 second exposures (E100S).  Got some
really lovely stuff.  (Don't have a nocto.  Like the slow exposures.)

Many trips to NYC at different times of year generated some lovely late
afternoon stuff in and around Times Square (hand held 50mm).  Most recent
trip I did my tripod trick up and down Fifth Ave. (Empire State Building in
red) and slow handheld inside Grand Central Station.  You all probably
already know this but the city takes on a different feeling at night.
Pictures that wouldn't amount to a hill of rattlesnake poop suddenly take on
a whole different quality.

A trip to Chicago found me wandering along the water to Navy Pier.  Low and
behold, they've spruced it up since I was last year and have quite the
arcade going there, complete with a wonderful old carousel, Ferris Wheel,
and wonder of wonders, fireworks.  Same business with the tripod, settings,
etc.

More of the same from Sydney, Santa Barbara, Seattle, and elsewhere.

So what do I conclude by all this?

1) I have a pretty extensive Hassy rig and a bunch of Canon stuff and I
can't imagine doing any of this with anything other than the Leica.  I know
what exposures work.  I set the hyperfocal distance and I'm done.  Not to
mention it's a much smaller kit.
2) Getting my ass out of bed in the morning (that darn time zone thing)
and/or making myself change my clothes and go back out on the streets after
a full day has proven a wonderful tonic for the work sodden soul for all the
reasons I'm sure all of you understand.

In fact, some of the folks around the office were sufficiently taken by the
whole proposition that they've started to carry their cameras around and
take pictures as well.  Double in fact, we're going to publish some of these
pictures as part of a product we have called Stop Winging It(r) which is a
sales related journal.  The "ends of the day" theme serves as a reminder to
our users that they should stop and look around every once in a while.
There's beauty and wonder in the details of even the most prosaic or
troubling day.

So how'd I do Walter?  Hope this is a reasonable missive for this forum.

Cheers
Kevin Hoffberg