2017

You can never go back: De Mello and the D70.

2017, Beyond 200 feet of My House™, De Mello Palheta Coffee Roasters, Favourite, Inspiration, Life's Little Moments, Nikon, Nikon 50mm f/1.8G, Nikon D70, Portrait, Q&A, Teaching point

↑Nikon D70 + Nikkor 50mm 1.8G.

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“You can never go back.”  So the saying goes.

Today I dusted off an old camera I haven’t used in years — the Nikon D70.

The D70 was the first DSLR I ever owned, and it’s the only camera I never subsequently sold.

I’ve carried it through the streets of Toronto, in all sorts of weather.

We’ve also traveled together to New York City, Paris, and Athens.

A few of the people I’ve photographed with it are no longer with us.

But I was reminded today that, indeed, you can never go back.

—Peter.

Cafe Reading, revisited.

2017, Beyond 200 feet of My House™, De Mello Palheta Coffee Roasters, Favourite, Inspiration, Leica 35mm Summilux ASPH FLE f/1.4, Leica M9(P)/M-E (CCD Lives!), Portrait, Q&A, Teaching point

This is a candid shot, taken just moments after the original Cafe Reading photograph (which, in contrast to this one, was posed).  I had just informed V  that “I got the shot”, and she immediately relaxed and started to flip through the pages of a book.

So I photographed her, because I knew that this was the better image.

I don’t often set up photographs, but when I do I will wait (with camera in hand) for the moment that follows, because what follows is usually better than any idea I can dream up.

(Technical:  Taken on a rainy morning, with the soft light working its magic.)

—Peter.

↑Leica M9 (CCD Lives! – Prosophos Open Letter to Leica) + Leica 35mm Summilux ASPH FLE.

One eighth note.

2017, Favourite, Film, Filter (Yellow), Inspiration, Kodak Eastman Double-X (5222), Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4, Leica M3, Print, Scanner - Plustek 8200i, Within 200 feet of My House™

Technical: 1/8 sec (handheld).

For a long time, I’ve wanted to photograph the headstock of this guitar, at a certain time of the day when a faint stream of light makes its way through the back window of our house.

I’ve never bothered trying with my M9, because I knew it wouldn’t quite get it.

So yesterday I tried with my newly-acquired M3, as I was testing it for the first time.

To my eyes:  it got it.

—Peter.

↑Leica M3, 50mm Summilux ASPH @ f/1.4, and Kodak Eastman Double-X (5222).