New Additions

Today I received the latest of my new lenses for the Leica, a 28mm f2.8. I contemplated the 35mm for a long time but found that it wasn’t wide enough for the things I wanted to do photographically. So my lovely 50mm f2 is now joined by an 80-200mm f4 and the afore mentioned 28mm. A nice little family of options is growing.

I also got two of the three rolls from my trip up north processed (one’s still in the camera). A&I labs in Hollywood handled the processing, proofing and scans. I have to say that I’m not at all happy with the negative scans they did for me. There’s dust everywhere and everything seems excessively grainy for 200 ASA stock. So for now I’ll simply work off of the proof sheets and see if there’s anything there for me to print.

My exposures are becoming much more consistent now that I’m metering exclusively with the Pentax Digital Spotmeter. I’m learning so many new things about how to effectively evaluate a scene and I’m relearning that wonderful Zone System scale that I always vaguely understood but rarely put into practice because of impatience or lack of understanding or a myriad of other reasons I kept myself at a sub-par level.

It feels good to start trusting your own skill level instead of just throwing a bunch of stuff you thought you learned way back when against your work and seeing what sticks. The next thing I’m going to have to get in the habit of doing is taking better notes. Digital is great because it remembers everything for you short of filters and lighting. As seductive as it is to trust that I “just know” what I’m doing now, it’s better for me to look closely at the details and learn from all that I put into the image. 

Like I said, the scans are pretty bad but I will show you one image from a previous trip I took to Griffith Observatory simply because I could see it as one of those places I’ll find myself revisiting over and over again. I love this building so much for what it holds. It has history, knowledge, and beauty ensconced in it’s heavily ornate, bleached walls. There are few places like this in Los Angeles. I’m glad that it’s here.

So, here’s a Leica shot and though it may not show much of the building itself, it’s hard not to know where you are when you see it. That’s why I love it’s iconography so much.