[Leica] Leica Monochrom in DC today -- NOT DC?

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

jon.streeter OFFERED:
Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica Monochrom in DC today NOT DC?


> Fascinating observation about not thinking you were shooting in black and 
> white, just shooting.<<<

Hi Jon,
When I started playing in photography 1950, colour was an expense beyond my 
economic reach. So I never bothered with it. Besides I learned to soup B&W 
film and eventually got around to making my own B&W prints using my wife's 
"tin baking trays" :-( Which didn't make her a happy camper because the 
trays all went black.... nothing like Acetic acid and tin! I eventually had 
to buy her a new complete set of baking trays and a set of plastic photo 
trays so I may live another day! ;-)

But right at the beginning the most important part of being a success ( 
whatever that was 63 years ago?) Was the content of a successful captured 
moment! No different than today! Be that stock cars crashing & flipping 
during a race. A major fire with engines and police and whatever was 
happening............ It was the content with B&W film! Yep all 36 frames! 
Roll after roll! By the hundreds!

If we went on a little holiday and the weather, location was pretty? I might 
spring for a roll of Kodachrome? But never had a projector to show. :-( So 
that took care of shooting colour! :-)

During my many years of shooting documentaries for the National Film Board 
of Canada it was 100% B&W regardless of subject. From under the earth 
mining, birthing, cattle ranchers to deep sea fishing vessels' off either 
coast of Canada. Or me to the North Pole. You name it and I've probably shot 
it in B&W. Most of the 100,000 collection images in The National Art Gallery 
of Canada in Ottawa are B&W. Every frame with nary a thought about colour.

My personal National Archives of Canada collection of 280,000 images are a 
mixture of B&W, some colour shot for different clients. It's the largest 
photo collection by a single photographer in the History of Canada. Lot's of 
Happy Snapping to be sure! :-) Damn you just have to love it! :-)

Like I've said for years! "Real Photographers Shoot B&W! Eat Sushi and Drink 
Single Malt Scotch!" :-)
AND:
"When you photograph People in Colour. You Photograph their Clothes. But 
when you photograph people in B&W . You Photograph their Souls!"

Shooting books on the medical profession started in June 1980 in B&W. Then 
along came digital some years later and I started shooting digi without a 
thought about shooting in colour, then converting to B&W! The book "Women in 
Medicine . A Celebration of their Work." I shot and souped 500 rolls of 
Tri-X with not a thought of colour during the months of shooting in the USA 
and Canada. Producing one of my best ever books! And all shot with Leica 
cameras, M7's & R8's. Sandy Carter was my co-shooter on this book and you 
can't tell her photos from mine even when we were shooting in different 
hospitals and cities!

You might be surprised to learn every frame of my 500 rolls were shot set on 
automatic "A". And not one frame lost to anything........ but ME shooting a 
bad angle or moment! :-( Exposures all perfect!

Leica's can be absolutely amazing tools of the trade when one doesn't think 
techie stuff and just shoots magical moments of life!  B&W or colour!

cheers,
Dr. ted