Photo Bag

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I’ve never done a What’s in my camera bag piece before. I’d always thought about it, but lately, my shooting style has changed in such a way that I no longer need to cary a camera bag. I just cary the camera on a leather neck strap. My Leica has a fixed 28mm prime so I have no need to carry any other lenses. So, that’s it (And, sometimes an ND filter in my jacket pocket). I do however prepare, what I call a “Photo bag” which just consists of a complete clean, dry pair of clothes, a towel, my Leica & Macbook Pro. … and my tripod which I basically keep in the car these days. I’m basically packing a complete set of crispy, dry, comfy & clean clothes. Ha!

New Life

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The more I look at this scene, the more I realize why it holds my attention. It’s the combination of my two favorite subjects: Urban Decay and Nature photography. I’m also happy with the composition. Allowing just enough depth of field to make obvious the foreground subject (shrooms) without loosing so much contextual detail in the background.

It’s beautiful to me, to see this new life; these mushrooms, growing amongst the discarded & forgotten in this decaying pile of rubble. Natural beauty. Happening.

1/60 sec at f/2.0, ISO 50, 28mm Leica Q2

$20K

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Today’s forecast calls for rain but this morning gave me about forty minutes of golden sunshine so I took advantage of it. I’ve seen this tank car around the corner from my house for the last week but always seem to be passing it in the evening when the “$20,000” is backlit by the setting sun. With this in mind, I popped over to grab some shots in the morning light.

1/400 sec at f/4.5, ISO 400, 28mm, Lecia Q2

1/160 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/160 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

Leica's Instant Camera

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I used to travel to Munich, Germany on a regular basis and spent a lot of time waiting for connecting flights in the Frankfurt International Airport. I always looked forward to ogling the Leica cameras in the electronic boutiques and on a whim, picked up their version of today’s instant camera; the Leica Sofort. Despite it’s hefty price tag, I never regretted the purchase because I’ve enjoyed using this camera for the last 6 years. Below are just a few images that I took while on a trip in Japan. The images below are a few of my favorites, though a complete gallery of snapshots can be found here.

These days I use this camera, primarily, to take photos of my son. I like the idea that he may be one of very few people who will have actual chemical-photography photographs of his childhood. They’re different, unique and special; just like him.

Nagasaki, Japan

Bridge in Kobe, Japan

A Shinkansen train

Foggy afternoon

Havre De Grace, Maryland.

1/200 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/200 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/160 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/160 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

Randomness

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With gloomy weather in the forecast today, I’d envisioned some dreary, misty, morning photos at Lake Nockamixon. I had a section of tall pines in mind that I’d hoped to catch towering up into the fog. Instead, the weather cleared up, and I had to adjust my sails. Today turned into a random photography day where I just got in the car and drove, pulling over to explore any sites that interested me.

Below are a few images I’m happy with from today’s meanderings. Maybe it’s just the “Leica look” put out by the Q2 but I love the details in these images. Especially with the leading image of the excavator, shot at f/1.7. It has a 3D pop to it, right? I feel the same way about the third image of the shiny corrugated steel sheet against the textured green brick wall. They just seem to pop.

1/3200 sec at f/1.7, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/500 sec at f/5.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/250 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/640 sec at f/5.0, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

1/320 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q2

Poe Paddy State Park

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Spent the weekend camping at Poe Paddy State Park, located in Woodward, PA. Temperatures were in the low fifties during the day and dipped down to freezing at night. I was loving my -20 degree winter bag and enjoyed some morning golden hour photos along Penns Creek.

1/60 sec at f/16, ISO 1000, 28mm, Leica Q

1/60 sec at f/8.0, ISO 320, 28mm Leica Q

1/60 sec at f/16, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q

1/500 sec at f/1.7, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q

1/60 sec at f/8.0, ISO 200, 28mm, Leica Q

1/80 sec at f/1.7, ISO 100, 28mm, Leica Q

1/60 sec at f/11, ISO 500, 28mm, Leica Q

Foggy morning

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I’ve made a lot of power line images. I just really like the way these towers are constructed and how proud they seem no matter where I see them. This morning’s fog put a whole different mood over my typical scene.

Shootin' the moon

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Camping on 7th Lake with my family this week, I took advantage of the dark mountain sky. There’s so little light pollution up here in the Adirondacks. It’s funny; I never realized how fast the moon is moving until I tried to capture it. Between adjusting camera settings I found the moon was moving through my frame quite quickly! Using a shutter speed of 1/15 second seemed almost too slow, so I ended up bumping it up to 1/25 second and took a bunch of test shots playing with the aperture until ultimately settling at f/10 on my 500mm lens. Having never really tried to capture the moon before, I am happy with these results.

1/20 sec at f/10, ISO 50, 500mm, Sony A7R IV

Philly architecture

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It has been a long time since I’ve pointed my camera at so many buildings. Today’s on-and-off rain and low cloud cover provided some great naturally diffused light and beautiful soft shadows. I had a great time down in Philly and am happy with the images I made today. So many interesting patterns and textures. I remain amazed at the crisp goodness coming out of the Fujifilm X100V. The fixed 23mm lens (35mm full frame equivalent) is incredible. Tack sharp!

1/60 sec at f/10, ISO 640, 23mm

1/170 sec at f/8.0, ISO 160, 23mm

1/180 sec at f/3.6, ISO 160, 23mm