So Andre’ the XP1 and the 35mm 1.4 that thinks it’s a 50mm 1.4 and I went for a walk today. The weather started of around 37f and slightly overcast. For me it doesn’t matter cause I go out in anything but Andre’ has a bad attitude about getting wet. He’s got a cousin and it’s the unnamed XT1. Talk about a crazy camera….The XT1 loves getting dirty and wet and cold, whatever but the lenses…well….See, I’m from Philly and here we like things to match and get along…remember, Philly is the city of brotherly love….So, it just seems to me that if’n a camera is weatherproof…shouldn’t the lenses be also…I’m just sayin’. Don’t sweat friends, in no time Fuji will release the best dang weatherproof lenses ever…..you’ll see.
The 35mm is a monster lens but it’s also a gentle giant. I like all of youin’s love the detail, sharpness, contrast it provides. I also the the way it just seems to capture kinetic energy. I get into all kinds of things because I’m not a specialist in any kind of photography, I just specialize in responding to what I feel and see..well maybe see, sometimes see…wish i could see…hmmmm.
I gotta tell ya….if you leave your self open, the possibilities are endless. I mean, for me…it’s about responding to life. It’s about making photos and when looking at them, feeling excited for the next breath. Yeah, guilty as charged….I breathe photography. The shot right up there…yeah, that one and even the first one…they show an awareness of the subtleties of life and death. Geeze, I’d be lost if I had to only do one thing with my camera, maybe even just work in one genre’. Maybe that’s great for those that can and do but I’m not that guy.
I remember in 1970 we were outside of Chu Lai. It was Monsoon season and as the light started to fall so did the sounds of mortars and gunfire. I looked around me at the squad members and all were accounted for and in 1 piece, it was a good feeling. I had my poncho on and was leaning against a tree, knees up, M4 in hand under the poncho. Staying dry was impossible but I always kept my M4 dry. So the rain had stopped about 15 minutes before and the humidity was unbearable but just then the sky opened up.
I looked at the cloud formations and the ripples of light in the sky and it stretched as far as one could imagine. The color was from THE LORD and I felt blessed to be experiencing this miraculous vision. We all just looked in wonderment and felt that maybe, just maybe we could get back to base camp….together in 1 piece.
I looked at that sky and then I felt like THE LORD was shining a light for me to make a photo….Oh man, what a feeling…it was like an experience that one should remember for eternity. I raised the Leica with the 35cron and just as I put it to my eye….
I kinda heard a voice in my head and I thought it was THE LORD as he said….Schmuck, your shooting TRI-X.
Those are the kind of experiences that effect your life…or not! For me things like that leave me open to the possibilities of what ever life throws at me. If it sounds like I’m teaching, well maybe I am but I feel that we all have a responsibility to each other to broaden the horizons of each others minds. I get great pleasure when I help someone and I can see the light go on. IT’s as good as it gets.
What’s this got to do with the XP1 shooter…..? Okay, ok…hold dem dere horses…! It was early 70′ and I was in NYC at Ilya Bolotowsky’s studio. I was there to do a portrait of Ilya in his studio. We sat and drank tea and biscuits. I looked at his paintings and immediately saw a strong resemblance to Mondrian. Ilya explained that he knew Mondrian. He had a sad look in is heart and I felt that he was agonizing about this relationship all his life.
So as I sat with him, I saw this table with many brushes on it. I walked over to it and asked him why all the different brushes…(over 50). He said to me….Don…I pick up many brushes and they feel like great tools….then I close my eyes, I reach down for my friend and start painting. He said that he has never picked up a different brush first before his friend.
My cameras are not tools, Ilya, Harry Callahan, Minor White, Harry Bertoia and many more see to that….my cameras are my friends.
Have a good day and be truthful to yourself, even if others can’t see your truth…………………
Nice set of images and great choice of lens and camera. I have the 23mm 1.4 but find the 35 is my go to more often than not
Thanks Elliot. My choice of FOV will be here tomorrow when I wrangle the 23mm from my neighbor the cop that doesn’t like the XT1. I really wish I could learn the 50mm FOV but after almost 45 years…it’s a dead horse that goes for a ride once in a while….
Thank ya Kind Sir for stopping by.
don
Good words, Don, good words!
Thanks Dan……
Wonderful story, Don, and great first two pictures.
Thanks Tommi. The first 2 shots are posted for you cause I know you like that stuff….the others ….not for you…..
Seeya. Soon……
Great post Don! Story and of course… images.
Thanks Keith. I gotta say, I’m stretching it for images. The weather is starting to break so my own personal standards will perk up….hopefully….
Great post. Awesome photos. There’s always so much inspiration here. Glad to hear a new podcast from you and Oliver too! You mentioned how Andre the XPro 1 gives you the closest thing to a Leica shooting experience and that that could be another show. I’d love to hear more about that. The Leica mystique, rangefinder handling and photographer invisibility are common comments I read from many of the legendary street shooters. I’d love to hear what you guys think and how all of that translates to modern times and to the Fuji, (I mean, Andre). I just became friends with my very first M3. But the intrusion is that he’s very expensive to feed and rather old and fraile, so I don’t take him to the streets. Rather, he comes out for family portraits to provide a tangible, analog artifact of moments in our lives. He seems okay with that but somewhere, I suspect, still longs for the streets. I wish Andre 2 would be weather sealed!
Thanks Douglas. Ya got me folding under pressure and I have to do a post about how the XP1 is like an M4 in use. I will do a post in a few days but your issue of…”don’t use the old M3 on the street because it’s fraile and I just use it for family stuff because it’s safer that way”.
Listen ye of little Leica faith…the M3 is the most durable M they ever produced including current models. If you threw the camera against a brick wall, or dunked it in the salt water ocean, or ran over it with a SUV but not a Volkswagen, you couldn’t hurt that camera. You’d kill it for sure but not hurt it…if it ain’t named, it can’t have feelings. So, on the street, you probably wouldn’t test the things I just posted. You’d probably just use it to make photos….imagine that.
Yeah. The primary intrusion isn’t durability but cost of film and processing. I’m still very much in early stage street shooting so my keeper rate isn’t high enough to want to spend on film. That plus the cost of 35 or 50 leica glass, even vintage, is a bit tough to tackle right now. Going a more non traditional route (portraits) instead of street allowed me to grab a 90 and 135 on eBay that was within me reach and still have cash to put towards some digital purchases. I’m currently a former Canon shooter turned Ricoh GR and M43. Looking at the weather sealed EM1 or GH4K. Currently loving my Pen5, but prefer the rangefinder viewfinder placement and larger field if view with a Fuji or Leica. When my hit rate cracks 1 in 36, I’ll consider taking the Leica out hunting moments on the Manhattan streets. Til then, digital is my friend. Which brings me to why your Fuji as Leica analogy is so intriguing! Sounds like a great way to learn the full manual way of seeing light and zone focus without the punishment of film costs.
Hold on Douglas…..
yeah, what ya want…. I’m processing some film so I can scan the negs to process in Lightroom.
Hmmmmm, something doesn’t wash out in my brain with this method.
So Douglas you were talking about spending money on lenses, film, processing etc. I have a post coming up, inspired by you that you may find interesting……
Thanks Don! Can’t wait to see it! And keep those awesome podcasts, images and inspiring posts coming!
More back story on me that might resonate with others along this path. I’m a long time photographer (decades) who was more than casual but never a genuine pro or pro level confident photographer. Just this year, I became obsessed with getting better and becoming more thoughtful and focused in my image making, trying no longer just to document life with attractive images, but also to make images that are still personal, but have actual artistic merit. I’ve also become obsessed with street photography and the work of the Magnum greats. You guys pointed me to a new all-time favorite, Gianni Berengo Gardin, and I’ve been collecting books and marveling at the works of Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Joel Meyerowitz, Gordon Parks, Vivian Meyer (can’t wait for the documentary!), Eisenstadt, Eve Arnold, Freedman, Winogrand, Harry C, Robert Frank, Bruce Gilden. Harold Feinstein, Saul Leiter, Capa, Griffiths, Martin Parr, and more. I’ve been reading “Magnum: Fifty Years on the Front Line of History” (amazing book!) and have Roland Barthes’ “Camera Lucida” (at YOUR recommendation) and Robert Capa’s “Slightly Out of Focus” on deck. And I invested in that massive Magnum Contact Sheets book so I can study the masters’ contacts, hoping to see how a true artist works a scene. Cartier-Bresson is said to have refused to look at portfolios when considering photographers for Magnum and instead looked at contacts for this very reason. I’ll never see like him, but tracing those big footprints feels like a worthy path.
In my own work, I’ve moved beyond spray and pray, but still rely on volume to get good shots. Ming Thein has a great article about the ratio of film keepers to digital keepers that makes sense to me. A worthy read. And I’m no stranger to gear acquisition syndrome, but am beyond the point of “I can’t shoot without X piece of kit” and am taking pictures often with the stuff that I already have, even while dreaming about that Panasonic-Leica 42.5mm 1.2, or a Fuji XPro 2, or an Oly EM1.
I’ve had a chemical darkroom (a temporary set it up, take it down in a bathroom) before, and never really became a great printer, but have gotten pretty good at coaxing my images along in Lightroom (often with the aid of your awesome presets).
So I am clearly nostalgic for a past that I never really had with a Leica rangefinder, when photo journalism and picture magazines were king of all media, and image making was still revelatory. Well, for me, at least that last one still feels true!
My first “real” Leica was a M3. Used, abused, but loved. Thing just wouldn’t die….
Keith, great camera the M3. I think my first was a IIIg with a collapsible Elmar. That body is packed away since. 1971. If I ever shoot film again that’s what I would use .
Excellent post. I have book marked your page. First time I have come across you. Going to have a read of more of your posts. Hello from London, England.
Thanks Martin. I try to get to the crux of the situation but with some humor. If you hang around here for a spell. you start thinking about names for your cameras…
don