Tripodplaces

In this post I’ll set out the rules for the Leica Lessons year. Defining those areas Mike’s original suggestion left open for interpretation. If anyone wants to comment, feel free.

During the period of one year beginning on August 10th, 2009 and ending on the same date in 2010, I’ll only use
– One camera, which must be a Leica rangefinder.
– One lens, of fixed focal length ((Though not specified by Mike, I’ll define that the lens must also be a Leica.)).
– One type of black & white negative film ((Again, as not strictly specified, I have decided to allow myself the luxury of pushing/pulling it.))

I’m giving myself one escape clause: Should it happen during the year, that someone asks me to take pictures for them for a special event in their life, I can do so with the equipment they consider most reliable to allow me to take good pictures. The key here is that the event has to be important to the other person, not necessarily to me (so if one week into the exercise, I get back-stage tickets to a Genesis reunion concert, I just better bring lots of film and do the best I can). I’m setting this opening because this has happened twice to me (once a funeral, once a wedding). Should this occur, I’ll let the person asking decide whether to trust me or several thousand Euro’s worth of Canon equipment ((I fear I know the answer.)).

Why August? (Relatively) simple: When I decided to do this project, I did not own a Leica, so starting straight away would be a tad tricky. Furthermore, I am shooting a good friend’s wedding in July, who is counting on more than the badly exposed B&W shot’s I’ll undoubtly be making for the first few months of this exercise ((More on that soon)). Why the 10th? It’s my birthday, so easy to remember.
The two months in between will give me the time needed for selecting and buying a Leica with matching lens, get some filters, as well as selecting a film, learning to load it ((Which appears to be an artform all by itself)), etc.

On friday May 29th, 2009, Mike Johnston posted a suggestion on his site named `The Leica as Teacher‘, in which he proposed that aspiring photographers seeking to improve their skill spend one year shooting with Leica, one lens and one type of B&W film.

My first thought was: “Let somebody else do it”, which is probably what most readers thought. I then realized that someone else doing it wouldn’t be a whole lot of use in making me a better photographer. My next thought was, again like most of the commenters on the post, to change the assignment in small ways. Like most people for instance, I wanted to substitute a camera I already owned. (My mother’s old Olympus Pen FT sprang to mind). Luckily, quite quickly, Mike added a simple paragraph to the original post:

no, it doesn’t have to be a Leica—except if you want to take my advice, in which case it does have to be. Must be, in fact.

At that point I was sold and started browsing Ebay.

This section of my log will chronicle my experiences during these ‘Leica Lessons’.

Note: This post was written shortly after the post on T.O.P., but was in draft for a while as this site wasn’t finished yet.