Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/08/09

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Subject: [Leica] How do we log our shots?
From: wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 08:22:42 -0400 (EDT)

Erik van der Meulen wrote:

>Until not to long ago I owned one M6 with a 35 and 90mm lens and life was
>simple. I carried a tiny note book and a pencil and occasionally scribbled
>notes about the shots I took. This usually enabled me to reconstruct
>conditions and settings afterwards with moderate accuracy.
>Recently however, I acquired an additional M6 and M4 with some new lenses
>too. During my first trip with the new gear, my administration became a
>mess! While it was wonderful playing around with the different bodies and
>lenses, my notes did not keep up.
>
>Now I am curious how others handle this. What information do you record with
>your shots? Do you have a sophisticated iPhone tool, or also a paper scrap
>book?
>

This may be one of those times when less is more.  Do you need to carry all 
that equipment?  Can some be left at home as 'backup' in case of loss or 
damage to the primary?

When I was using film the black body was E100G and the chrome body was 
Provia 400, so I knew which film came from which body.  I didn't keep a log 
otherwise: the cameras were completely manual so I was always aware of the 
aperture & shutter speed.  Lenses?  if you have 2 or 3 widely separated 
focal lengths you can tell by looking at the pictures, or from memory.

Now that I'm using a digital camera, I still use it on manual only so I'm 
still very conscious of the exposure settings, and have learned that 99% of 
my photos are made with 2 lenses.  The vast majority of the time & can 
recall the technical details and enough of the context (to remember which 
lens I was using) that field notes aren't necessary (2 digital cameras = two 
file number sequences, still easy to tell which body made which photo).

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com