[Leica]New Leica IIIf photos

[cochranpr at mac.com (David Cochran)]

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