Billingham sent me the SL2 bag

The friendly people at Billingham sent me their Billingham SL2 bag. It’s a bag that is designed for the SL2 – and SL – specifically and it is only available at official Leica stores.

Until now, I always brought my SL in either a Billingham 225, a Hadley small, or a huge Think Tank trolley. While the SL fits all these bags, you can tell the Hadley and 225 are designed for rangefinder type bodies. The SL, coupled with a big zoom lens, like the 24-90, or my Panasonic 24-105 never really fit. The Billingham SL2 is designed to fit the SL with a 24-90 attached.

More on how they do this, but for now I can say: this bag rocks!*

*even though I prefer jazz, as you can see in the background… 

Featured #12: Jeff Ascough

This featured article is special to me, because today we have Jeff Ascough from the UK. When I started in wedding photography, roughly twenty years ago, there wasn’t such a thing as documentary wedding photography, at least not here in The Netherlands. I knew how I wanted to capture a wedding, but there wasn’t a name for it really.

Browsing around the internet, I stumbled on the website of Jeff and his wedding work really amazed me. I studied his pictures, checked out his gear and even used his Lightroom presets for a while.

Long story short, you can easily say that for me as a wedding photographer, Jeff was my biggest inspiration.

Check out Jeffs other work here.

1) Can you tell a bit about your background (as a photographer)
My dad was a keen amateur photographer. In the late 1980s, when he reached 50 years old, he wanted to retire from his job (he lectured in mechanical engineering at university) and become a professional photographer. Prior to his retirement, he built a small business but the university couldn’t afford to let him retire. So he asked me if I would be interested in becoming a photographer and running the business for him.

I didn’t have any interest in photography prior to that point. I was 21 years old. I was more interested in music. I decided to give photography a shot, and 32 years later I’m still doing it. 
I started my career as a studio portrait photographer. I shot the odd wedding for my portrait clients, but when I set up my own business in the early 90s, I started to concentrate on weddings as they were the easiest genre to get into. I introduced a black-and-white documentary style to he UK marketplace in the mid 90s, and I still shoot in that style today but only for a handful of clients each year. 
For the past ten years, I’ve been concentrating on shooting landscape, street and portrait photography. 
2)  How did you get into the Leica system?
In the late 90s, I was shooting a lot of events with film in very low light. I needed something which would cope with the light conditions, so I bought a Leica M6TTL and a 50 f1 Noctilux-M as this was the fastest lens I could get my hands on at the time, and with a mirrorless body I could hand hold it down to 1/15th sec. It revolutionised my shooting. I added three more bodies and six more lenses over the next year.

I still shoot film with those Leicas to this day. I added an M8 around 2007 and an M9 a few years later. The early digital Ms weren’t ideal for my work at the time, so I used Canon for a lot of it. This led me to became an Ambassador for Canon in 2008, and even though I was still using Leica, I couldn’t mention it due to my contractual obligations with them. When I resigned from the Ambassador program in 2017, I gradually moved away from Canon altogether and now I shoot Leica for all of my work.
3) Which camera and lenses do you have?
I have four M6TTL bodies with different viewfinder magnifications. An M9-P which is my main digital camera, and an M8 which I use now and again. Lenswise, I have a 21 Elmarit-M ASPH, 35 Summilux-M ASPH, 50 Noctilux-M, 75 Summilux-M, and 90 Summicron-M.
These days, I shoot most of my work with the 21 & 35 lenses. 
4) What kind of pictures do you take and why?
Most of my work involves street and landscape photography. It’s what I was drawn to as a young photographer and today I’m fortunate to be able to shoot it for a living. I prefer to work in England and you will often find me working in coastal areas. I live 100m from the sea, so a lot of my work reflects that experience. I also like to shoot portraits and nudes, but the pandemic has put that side of things on hold for the past year. The majority of my work is still black-and-white but in over the past year or so, I’ve been experimenting more with colour. 

Featured #11: Anastasia Potekhina

I came across the dreamy self portraits of Anastasia Potekhina in the LFI gallery and dropped her a message if she’d be interested to be featured here. She was. Here you go.

Have you got an interesting story to share? Send me a message and I’ll get back to you.

1) Can you tell a bit about your background (as a photographer)
I work as an interior designer since visual art has always been attractive to me. The love for photography came to me when I picked up a camera for the first time with the purpose to use it. I love to travel and at first, I took photos of my travels, learned a few skills here and there, and then I got attracted by the spatial form without people in the photo, basically using objects, their shapes, and reflections as the foundation of the photo. After a while, I experimented and attempted to join these spaces to become part of them, and that’s how my self-portraits were born.

2) How did you get into the Leica system?
I received a Leica camera as a gift and it was a new discovery for me. With previous cameras, I had problems sometimes with focus, since I make autoportraits with reflections. So when I started shooting with a Leica M, the rangefinder system turned out to be very convenient for me. And as I was using the Leica camera, I realized it’s invaluable to me and convenient for a magnitude of reasons.


3) Which camera and lenses do you have?
I have a Leica M 240 and 3 lenses: Noctilux-M 1:0,95/50, Summilux-M 1:1,4/35, summicron-M 1:2/50
When there is no camera at hand, sometimes I use the phone.

4) What kind of pictures do you take and why?
My photos have a focus on women or rather a woman, about her inner nature. Usually, if something is good or bad in my life, I take a camera and I want to remember it with a photo of that particular mood or feeling. Therefore, all my photos are not invented in advance, but they are all spontaneous. I try to interfere less with the world that I shoot, in the photo almost always everything remains as it is. I do all the photos in one shot, they only contain reflections and shadows. Sometimes if I don’t like the shot and I want to reshoot it next time, then, as a rule, I can’t repeat the exact shot, because the mood is different and the head begins to work not the heart, making the shot more calculated instead of it having real natural emotion, that in itself prevents the creative process. When children play with their toys, they go into their imaginative state, basically into their own world that they think up for themselves, perhaps something similar happens to me when I shoot.

Work in progress

Filming in cold conditions is a challenge. While the Leica SL is a great videographers tool, there’s a huge benefit to working with a dedicated videocamera like the Sony FS5. Why? Because there are physical buttons for all thing that you need. Don’t even get me started on changing lenses in the cold and wind, or taking off an ND-filter. With the built-in ND filters of the FS5 we can work all day with just one lens, if needed.

Shot with Leica SL with 80/1.4 R Summilux

Q&A: how did you do it?

I received this very kind email last week:

Hello Joeri,
I’ve been shooting for years and years my leica m6, exclusively bw film.  
For all my color work, i’m now adding the m240 to my gear and while reading articles about how my fellow photographers are using the M System specifically for portraiture work, I stumbled upon your work and the article about the kids shooting. Before even reading it, which i did and enjoyed very much, the very first picture of this post blew my mind. I am very aware of all the craftsmanship and experience that went into a shot like this and off course i am not expecting you to share anything you don’t want to share about your process but: THOSE COLORS MAN!!!!
It goes without saying that everything about it is just right, light, setting, the moment, the positioning and so on, but i’am particularly interested in those colors. This look, definitely one I’d like to explore more for my own. 
If there is anything you’d like to share about this shot in terms of exposure, whitebalance or your post process or gear or what ever – that lead up to this shot – i would be glad!
Have a nice day,
L.
Well, mister L, thanks for your very kind words. In fact, when I saw the shot I hesitated for a second. I instantly thought it was taken with the M9. But then I just knew I did this shoot with the M240.
First of all, the key factor in this shot is the girl. Without her it would be a mediocre interior design shot. Of course, the timing and framing need to work, but that’s another story. The second key factor is that I shot her with great light. She was facing a huge window, resulting in very soft light. Next, I worked in DNG, which gives me all the slack I needed for editing.
For editing, you need to make sure you’re getting your skin tones right, which can be a challenge. With soft daylight and the absence of large reflecting walls or anything that can cast interfering colors on the subject, you can now play with your levels. You can clearly see there’s quite a bit of contrast, but because the light is so soft, you don’t get anything blown out. And when you’re increasing the contrast, the colors start to pop.
So make sure to shoot in DNG, don’t blow out the highlights, but above all: make sure you know how to handle your camera. It’s a tool. As soon as you need to think about the technique, it gets in the way of the creative process.
Good luck and happy shooting!

The Leica Summaron-M 35/2.8 short review

I had the pleasure of test driving another classic lens from my friend Maarten from The Analog Camera Store. This time it’s a Leica Summaron-M 35/2.8, produced in ’61, when The Beatles weren’t  known yet all around the world and years before the first man set foot on the moon.

While the summicrons are all identifiable by a ‘version’ number, the summaron range is slightly different. This is, as you can see, a summaron without goggles and it is a relatively fast lens (2.8). Also, the lens housing is identical to the early summicron 35/2.0 versions that were sold in that time.

Because of my schedule, I only had time for a short review, so no lengthy shoots with Fowley and a simplified shot of the lens itself.

The summary 35/2.8 mounted on the M240. It’s even better on the M9.

Build quality and ergonomics

Leica cameras were build as an alternative to heavy large format cameras and they are supposed to be small, light and intuitive. This little summaron ticks all these boxes. It’s so lightweight that it feels right at home on my M9P or your M10(add whatever letter). It’s so much easier to walk around with a camera in your hand or on your shoulder when the weight is kept to a minimum.

Ergonomically, nothing to complain about. Focus is smooth, aperture ring clicks like it should, the only drawback might be the focus lock, which I personally do not really like. Your mileage may vary. About the aperture ring: it has full stops only, but it’s very easy to dial in half stops, or even third stops. Pretty nice actually.

This 35mm has six elements in four groups and (except the glass obviously) is completely made of metal: the focus tab the tubes and even the front cap. They don’t make them like that anymore.

It does flare when you push it, but a hood can improve that.
Isn’t it lovely?

Sharpness, bokeh and rendering

With vintage lenses you never really know what you’re going to get, but this lens surprised me with regards to sharpness. It’s not summicron-ASPH sharp, but probably more than sharp enough for most of your needs. Sharpness improves quite a bit in the corners when you stop it down. And that also gets rid of the more than average vignetting (which I like by the way). Bokeh can be a little swirly in the highlights, but I rather liked it. In one word: this lens has quite a bit of character.

I didn’t see any obvious lens errors, but it does flare when shot against the sun. A hood can improve that if you don’t like it.

Growing tomatoes in my tiny back yard.
Shot against the sun, but still plenty sharp and details.

Conclusion

I like this lens. It’s small and light enough to use on your M all day, it’s sharp enough for most things, it has vintage character without the muddy IQ, it has lovely vignetting and it won’t burn a hole in your wallet (well, a little hole maybe). It’s a collectors lens, but not so expensive you’re afraid to use it. Go for it!

Works perfectly for a portrait like this. Note the vignetting. I like that.
Pommodori tomatoes. And vignetting.
Here’s a better impression of the rendering when shot wide open with objects on different distances from the lens.

The Leica Elmarit-R 180/2.8 short review

My friend Maarten from The Analog Camera Store sent me two lenses to review, one of them being the pretty heavy Leica Elmarit-R 180/2.8 tele lens. My longest lens for my Leica system (both M, SL and CL) is a 90mm, which I only use for seminars and other events where I need to keep my distance. Even for weddings, I consider this focal length too much. I do own the Panasonic 24-105 which I use for events where easy of use is more important than IQ and where things can get dusty or wet.

Who said 180mm is too short for wildlife photography?

Having said that, I’m not a big fan of the 180mm focal length, but it does have its place in photography. Some photographers have used this focal length for portraits and now that we need to keep our distance because of the COVID situation, it’s actually not a bad idea to use a slightly longer lens.

The good news is that with this lens, you won’t find a better value for money anywhere else.

For slow moving action the 135mm is fine. When things start moving fast, the focus throw is too long.

Build quality and ergonomics

This lens is rock solid. You can’t possibly outlive this lens. The downside is that it is also quite heavy. I wouldn’t recommend to walk around with it all day, but shooting it from a tripod in a studio is perfectly fine. Also, landscape and wildlife photographers seem to be used to walking around with heavy lenses. If you’re like that, the R 180 will feel at home in your photo bag.

On the SL it is heavy, but well balanced. Nothing to complain here. The aperture is, unlike most Leica lenses I’ve seen, not the usual ring, but it seems to be a separate part of the housing that can be rotated to select the right aperture. Absolutely beautiful and solid. The lens has a tripod mount, which is very nice to have.

I often complain about the short focus throw on modern Leica lenses. Well, this one is definitely not too short. To be honest, it is very, very long. When shooting portraits from a tripod, it is a good thing, because you can really nail the focus by finetuning the lens. But for shooting sports or anything that moves…good luck with that. It can be done, but it’s hard.

Shot against the sun…
But now slightly turned sidewards flaring gets heavier and contrast is lost. It’s not a bad thing: you can create great romantic images with it.

Sharpness, bokeh and rendering

While I haven’t my usual shots with Fowley (he’s on a much needed sabbatical I’m afraid), the R180 surprised me with it’s IQ. It’s pretty sharp wide open, at least in the mid. Sharpness increases, as you would expect, with increasing the aperture value. Bokeh is very pleasing, far more creamy than I’d expect from a relatively old lens design.

It does flare and loses contrast when you shoot it against the light in certain angles, but you can use that to your benefit as well.

I didn’t notice any obvious lens errors and it also vignetted less than I suspected.

Nice bokeh and pleasing rendering.

Conclusion

If you like the 180mm focal length and don’t mind the weight, nor the long focus throw, you won’t find a better lens anywhere else. It’s sharp, has nice bokeh, doesn’t suffer from any significant lens errors and is built like a tank.

While I always thought 180mm isn’t suitable for wildlife photography, I was proven wrong the minute I stepped out of my house and ran into this heron that patiently posed for me. Most animals that are big enough to fill the frame from an acceptable distance won’t be so kind to wait though.

If you’re interested in the 180mm focal length, this is a complete no-brainer. Go for it.

Note: because I’m quite busy I didn’t have the time to get the product shots I normally take, plus I didn’t go out with the lens as much as I wanted.

To me, 180mm portraits are a bit too compressed, but that’s just a personal thing.

There’s a bit of CA in the letters of the rings, but nothing special.

Q&A: Flash system for Leica?

Last week I received this email:

Dear Joeri,

I’m a leica M photographer in Australia.  Thank you for your wonderful work on the M system, especially your book on training. Wonderful material and a great help to those wanting to improve their technique and speed.
Could I ask your opinion please:
I currently shoot documentary photography (mainly families) with my M10 and a reflector generally. Sometimes I need to do corporate shots (including staff groups).  What lighting setup do you use for off camera flash/softbox and do you use this with a flash trigger that plays nicely with Leica M?
I am also considering an SL2 with L to M adapter to use with my M lenses (I’m not a fan of autofocus anyway and hate the size of big DSLR lenses) and wondered what your thoughts are on this body  and whether it plays nicely with the same lighting setup as above?  This would make the group shots FAR easier with a lovely EVF (I hate the EVF available for my M10 and prefer rangefinder focussing on that body).
Thanks for your opinion and I genuinely hope to meet you in person one day when travel is a lot easier.  Keep doing what you do for those of us who enjoy photography (not computerised rapid fire auto everything)!
Kind regards
R.
Well R, these are all good questions. I used to work with daylight for many years. Not just because I liked it, but also because I didn’t really know how to work with flashlight. But when I started shooting corporate headshots, I needed a more consistent source of light than just the (indirect of course) sun.
My life got a lot easier when I invested in a high quality, compact flash kit: the Broncolor Siros 800L, which is powered by Li-ion batteries that last a couple of hundred shots, depending on your power settings.  I have two heads, but I often use only one with a reflector in a so called clamshell set-up. You’ll also need a big soft box for that of course. I might do a post on that later. I also use it for the dreaded group shots. See this link: A Leica group shot: how I did it
The Broncolor works flawlessly with the remote that is not meant for a specific brand. It works on the M, the SL, any camera really.
I have no experience with the SL2 yet, but I can honestly say that the SL has made shooting corporate portraits a lot easier and more consistent. The EVF is a delight to use, works perfectly with M lenses (I do all my headshots with the 50/0.95) and there’s no stress at all about rangefinder/lens calibration issues. You don’t need the SL2 for the resolution for that kind of work. The SL has plenty of resolution. If you can find one for a good deal, you’ll love it, I’m sure.
Hope this helps.
PS: the featured image isn’t a head shot, but it does show what you can do with just one light and a big soft box.

Featured #11: Benedikt Ernst

I reached out to Benedikt after having seen some images of him on the LFI website. Benedikt liked the idea of being featured here, so here we go.

1) Can you tell a bit about your background (as a photographer)
“I am fascinated by photography since my teenager years. I think the pictures of Peter Lindbergh impressed me first in the late 80´s early 90´s, and also the work of Anton Corbijn, who influenced my taste in music by his work, too. But I had not enough assertiveness to go this path after school to become a photographer. So I worked as a bank clerk, a jazz club owner and a long time as graphic designer in Munich and Cologne. About 10 years ago I decided to switch my focus to professional
photography.”
2) How did you get into the leica system?
“I got my first Nikon F-301 when I was 15, so I started again with a digital Nikon system years ago and still love my Nikon D-850. Over the years I worked a lot for Meyer Optik Görlitz and learned a lot about special lenses and looks of different lenses. And because I have been shooting nearly 90-95% of my pictures in black and white for years, my attention fell on the Leica M monochrom. Right now I work with a Leica M 10 monochrom, a Leica Q2 and Nikon D850.”
3) Which camera and lenses do you have?
“As I said before I own a Leica M10 Monochrom with Summicron M 1:2 / 35mm asph., Summilux 1:1,4 / 50mm and Summicron M 1:2 / 75mm asph.
With Nikon I use a lot of different Nikkor lenses, and also some old Meyer Optik Görlitz and Zeiss lenses (for example the Zeiss Biotar 1.5 / 75mm).”
4) What kind of pictures do you take and why?
“First I shot a lot of beauty and fashion pictures. After my decision to work almost exclusively in black and white my main interest switched to fashion and natural portrait photography, I love to shoot high contrasted pictures, black and white editorials and sometimes some special reportage stories. I do not edit my pictures al lot, no high end retouch.
I think there are two reason of shoot in block in white. First of all I love the timeless look of the pictures, and the second reason is clearly the absence of distracting colors. I love the pureness and the surreal touch of black and white.”

Featured #10: Edwin Bouldin

I met Edwin recently on Facebook and we had a short chat. I asked him to send his story and pictures to me and it turned out to be quite an interesting story. Not something you’d read everyday.

I also included some of his shots from his recent expo, which were shot on a 6×7 camera. They may be NSFW-DOHLYEI (Not Suitable For Work – Depending On How Liberal Your Employer Is)

1) Can you tell a bit about your background (as a photographer)

“Honestly, I’m not a photographer albeit I do carry around a camera with me mostly everywhere that I go. I think photographers are people that dedicate themselves to a profession of photography which I do not. I do however love to reflect back on my life without having to read my journal as most time I write so fast in the moment I can’t read what I wrote when I revisit the journal. I used to be a Soldier in the US Army in 2009. I was in a helicopter on my way to do a mission with a group of other Soldiers. We had an Iraqi translator (who was also a historian) in the chopper with us. I was sitting by the door next to the gunner when the translator told me to look outside. He then proceeded to tell me that where we were flying over where the Iraqis believe to be the Garden of Eden. Knowing that no one would believe me if I told them I flew over the garden of Eden, I decided to document the deployment in pictures. There was no store I could go to buy a camera, so I used my iPod which had a camera function on it which I kept tucked in my body armor.  One day while running for cover from an attack I dropped the iPod. Since then I vowed to never be without a camera. “ 

2) How did you get into the Leica system?

“When I came back from Deployment, literally the next week I went to Best Buy which is an electronic store in the United States and asked which camera I should get. The salesman offered me a Nikon D90 with a zoom lens which I reluctantly bought. I took it back after a few days. I rented this camera and that camera but none where convenient enough to carry every day. A friend of mine was an avid photographer who would shoot weddings occasionally. He prided himself with shooting the Leica M system at weddings. At that time the camera to have was the M9. He knew my intention was to never become a photographer and that my camera absolutely had to be indestructible and small (which at the time the M9 was the smallest full frame camera around). He was going through a divorce and had to liquidate some things, so he sold me his M9 and a 35mm Summilux which I still have till this day. At age 31 it was the most expensive thing I had ever bought…. And the most beautiful.” 

3) Which camera and lenses do you have?

“I’ve bought and sold many M cameras since 2010. I bought an M240 one week after it was first announced from Steve Huff (first owner), an M6 TTL, M6 Classic, M7, and an M10. I’ve since sold them all and have remained until this day with the Leica M9 that I bought after my deployment. Film is great but it is really hard to have developed and scanned and the CMOS sensor in the M240 and M10 do nothing for me creatively. There is one camera that I am yet to own but am currently saving up for which is a Black Paint Leica M9 Monochrome. Lenses I own are the 35mm Summilux Asph (Non-FLE) and a 50mm Summilux ASPH. When I finally arrive at my Leica M9 Monochrome I plan on retiring my M9. I will never sell it as long as I live. It is barely recognizable from when I first bought it as it is heavily braised. The sensor is changed though so it still has life in it.”

4) What kind of pictures do you take and why?

“I take pictures of what inspires me or makes me think of something that was going on at the time. My M9 and 35mm Summilux is meant to be my diary. I shoot exclusively in black and white and even have a special preset I call “Digital Tri-X” in light room I apply to each photo. I shoot in black and white because I want the pictures to be timeless and classic. In 2016, I attempted something different. I felt moved by a discussion I had with a great photographer in Germany. She was showing me picture upon picture of naked woman in boudoir. They were all beautiful. I thought about the days of antiquity when women were considered damsels, and in some cultures devilish. I couldn’t understand why and how that was the case then and what people saw in these women now that wasn’t appreciated then. I decided to use that as a theme for my first solo exhibition in Germany I called “No Water for the Blue Pill”. I used mainly a 6X7 camera shooting Portra 400 and Tri-X. I did manage to sneak in some images with my M6TTL at the time.”