If you read my postings you can conclude I have an affair with ‘film’….TriX or possible Fomapan 400. You can say I have duel mistresses.
I find myself in Australia….Melbourne to be exact. While I took my Ricoh GR Film camera and have shot, well….just a bit, I have concentrated more on my Ricoh GR111 or my Leica X2. Up till now, if not film, I shot Ricoh GR111. But I wanted to challenge myself a bit and see how I could turn the Leica X2 into a filmenesque look.
The last time I shot the Leica X2, I shot….viewed, and then laid it down knowing that while it is super sharp and a great digital overall from 2012, it lacked that film feel. But not so fast…I challenged myself to make it so. The past few days I have probably walked 15 miles around Melbourne (not downtown) and have experimented with settings, light….exposure, shutter etc and to my surprise, I feel I have almost more of a film look from the Leica than I do from the Ricoh….wow, go figure.
What is lacking from the Leica is the character within the light/shadows….. I just can’t get the same. But I can get ‘film’ out of digital. I have Character in the blur! … the dark shadows although not the same texture as the Ricoh, still none-the-less….bold, thick blacks which encase a person’s face or play with the edges as the eyes are led down thru the image. I am excited about the Leica. At the moment (and this includes three weeks worth of playing with the camera ‘down under”…) I have 158 shots. Not all are good, but most are acceptable in what I am looking for, just not all in the composition of what is being viewed. But hey, that is okay as that is what photography is all about. Shoot…shoot…shoot…shoot…and continue to do that and perhaps you will find one or two you like. Don’t get disappointed but keep shooting.
But I had presented myself with a challenge….turn the digital Leica X2 into an Analog/film, and I am successful. Now my only problem is when I wake up each day to go for my photo strolls, which camera do I take? Ricoh Film? Ricoh GR111 or Leica X2? ….Decisions, oh the decisions we must make in life.