117/365 Leica Landscapes

4/27/2013

I took Josie to softball practice at Whitney Lane Baptist Church in Kensett this morning.  Across the street from the church, was a wooded field with a bunch of wild flowers and daffodils.  Normally this would be easy pickings for me and my iPhone, but today I had a Leica M8 with a 35mm F1.4 lens that has a close focusing distance of .7 meters ( 27.5 inches ).  I really enjoyed trying to make sense of these landscapes and flowers with the rangefinder camera.

 Working with a different camera type is a creative challenge I used for years in the film era.  Anytime I felt uninspired I would trade out the Nikon camera bag for the Bronica medium format camera bag.  With the bag change I lost zoom lenses, built in light meters, motor drives and auto focusing, a complete change of pace and a new way of seeing.  I really miss that with digital cameras.  I use P&S cameras and my iPhone to take up the slack but it is not the drastic change I enjoyed in the film days.

 Using the Leica today took me back to those old days of a completely different way of working.