This is my first picture for Off For A Family Drive using the Leica S2. This is the 70mm 2.5 shot wide open here at iso160 and focused on the baby. I fumbled with the S2 only because I had not really used it before. Same with the previous picture shot with the Gx1 in the same situation. I broke all common sense rules. I shot with two cameras that I had not really used before. Don’t do that!!
I certainly prefer the composition and the moment in the other shot, as well as the general camera rendering. All things considered, I’m sure the Leica will produce sharper pictures, although as we all know, sharper pictures are not necessarily better pictures.
I’m curious whether “Off For A Family Drive will become a series of portraits, or something else entirely. Too early to tell.
For what an S2 costs, you should be able to photograph their souls. As for the GX1, you’ll get used to it in no time. I spent the first two weeks with mine wondering what the hell I was thinking of when I bought this piece of crap. And now I rarely go anywhere without it. It grows on you, like an ugly dog or fungus.
Same picture but the previous one is much better. Leica should sent you M9 instead of S2. Maybe S2 is too bulky for you?
From a technical/camera perspective, the S2 photo is infinitely better. From a DAH perspective, I’d worry more about the light than the camera. I’d bet that scene looked a lot better to the eye than to the camera. And since you don’t shoot with post production in mind, I’m guessing you would have done a lot better with the Nikon with a good strobe and trademark creative filtering. (do you have a strobe for the Leica?)
Content-wise, neither of them work for me very well. The first one is better composed, but they look terribly sad as if they’ve just experienced some horrible catastrophe, which I don’t think is the case. The Leica pic, I suspect, captures something real about the family but is not as well composed. Not saying they’re bad, but not collector/gallery wall good, which I know is what you’re after.
It’s your show and I’m sure whatever you do will be fine, but personally, I’m hoping you get out of California. I’d much rather see people and places I haven’t seen before. And surfing hasn’t been cool since the 60’s, at least not for most people not actually doing it anyway. There must be something of interest outside California and New York? Pretty much any town in southern Arizona, for example, is infinitely more interesting than most anything in CA or NY, except possibly south Brooklyn. Have you considered throwing darts at the map? I can’t imagine how that could go wrong.
Oh, and Texas. Outside of Cross Plains, which is awesome, and the El Paso area, I doubt there’s anything interesting there, either. Maybe some country club type stuff. Been done, I suppose, but not with your flair for that kind of thing.
DAH – Anthony Bourdain’s show was on Rio tonight. Made me think of your adventures.
David, you need to spend some time with Lightroom for the S2 files and you will be impressed with how much you can pull out of the files.
Seems to me like the new camera is working out just fine for you, very lovely portrait.
A good road trip is … no limits.
yes, come on down to texas please!!
As far as using a new (to me) camera out in the field, here are some pictures I shot in Santorini with an old Canonet QL17 G-lll…
Thanks, Thodoris – and on Tri-X, too! My favorite film of all time. I used to shoot EVERYTHING on Tri-X, until T-Max came along and gave me better low-light capabilities, but even then, Tri-X was my main film.
Then digital came along and I gave it up.
I enjoyed your take. Keep it up and share some more.
Thodoris…
Keep on shooting with that Canonet those are some lovely pictures. I was pleasantly surprised and inspired by those images!
Thanks guys!
Bill, I forgot to let you know that your beautiful print made it here just fine… one of these days it will find its way up the wall…
Paul, even though I like a lot some of the pictures I shot with this little camera, I’m still not sure if it’s worth all the time and effort to be using it on a regular basis… shooting film is very expensive (money wise, but even more so time and energy wise, since I do everything myself) and 35mm seems like a bit of a waste at times… on the other hand, I would never have shot these pictures if instead of this small, light and inexpensive camera (which I had no problem leaving unattended, wrapped in a t-shirt while gone diving) I had with me a balky and heavy and expensive “real” film camera… oh, well… we can’t have it all, can we?…
GORDON
too early to tell, but i don’t think an all portrait book would cut it…i am seeing the final result as more of a scrapbook with some but not all portraits….keyed of of the “drive” as much as the “family”…at this point, anything could happen…i mean we headed up the coast and then turned around and went all the way back to LA…now all the way back up…you could safely say we have gone in circles so far…not even to SF in a week of traveling….yet again, we don’t care…we are not going to leave EVER ANY SITUATION WHERE WE ARE ALL HAPPY…time and distance mean nothing….if we do not get to New York, nobody here cares…i mean Akaky will have a much better story to write if we never even get out of California….
too early to tell on the cameras as well….i lost my iPhone last night on the beach, and had to buy the iPhone 5 a few hours ago…so i have the new iPhone, S2, GX1, and Nikon D800…i can make a 60×40 with all of the above except the iPhone…i am going to have Mike Courvoisier make 60×40’s comparing the 800 with the S2 when ( or if) we get to San Francisco…..i will repeat here to you and to all, i am NOT being paid by any camera company to say good things about them…over the years both Nikon and Leica have given or loaned me cameras…however i bought both the 800 and the Gx1…the S2 on loan for this trip from Leica…i am always grateful for loaners, yet will always call it straight as well…and miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep..
JHONYDH
i had my choice…M9 or S2…..i chose the S2 because i already knew the M9 well from Rio and wanted to try something that might compete with my Mamiya VII film camera where i have for the last three years shot Family Drive…