Finally…

Disclaimer: These are just my personal views/experience(s). 

Everyone knows, Leicas are, quite possibly, the best cameras money can buy. And, naturally, I have been lusting after one ever since I started photography a few years back. Originally, I was crazy for the M9. But this was when I didn’t know much about photography and just thought the flagship was the best (yes, that is the case but that is mainly true for DSLRs – not for rangefinder cameras IMO).

I used to be extremely intimidated by film photography before I actually tried it out for myself (I still am though, but it’s not as foreign a concept as it used to be). Now I’ve realised that if one truly wants to experience a Leica, they must get one of their gorgeous mechanical film cameras. Mainly the legendary Leica MP (that too in black…yummmmy) that’s rated as one of the best mechanical film cameras of all time. Well, I can’t afford a MP as yet, but I managed to get a well used (and maybe even abused) but fully functional 1935 Leica III for a very decent price off of eBay by accident. “By accident” I mean, I placed quite a low bid around (just for fun) 3 days before the bidding was supposed to end, thinking it would never sell for what I set my maximum bid at, and totally forgot about it since I was busy playing around with my new toy, the Minolta. I get the ‘item is ending soon’ email on my Blackberry, which I discard, and the next thing I know, I’ve won the item! I seriously couldn’t believe it. I was the owner of a Leica. I didn’t care which one it was (as long as it wasn’t a stupid point and shoot – the X1 is actually pretty good though).

My Minolta Uniomat with my Leica III

I knew the Leicas of that era aren’t rated as one of the most easy to use cameras but I seriously couldn’t care less. We have become so spoilt because of technology that we have forgotten what it takes to make a good photograph. There’s no excitement when you transfer the images into Lightroom (or whatever) simply because you already know how that image turned out because you peeked at it on the LCD of your digital camera when you took it.

When I got my first roll developed, the excitement was nerve-racking. I couldn’t contain myself when I was about to receive the prints. Even though, majority of the images I took on that roll were crap, it was a feeling that I will never forget. I don’t remember ever having a feeling that was even remotely similar to this when I started shooting digital.

All this emotional attachment nonsense aside, I have a feeling that one does not have the right to call themselves a photographer till the time they know how to shoot film (this goes for all the wedding and “artsy” photographers out there – glamour and commercial are obviously different scenarios). I feel this is the only way that one can ever learn to respect the underrated art. These days, because of the advent of the cheap DSLR (and the pseudo trendy-ness of the Holga and Lomography – film, but still a fad), any kid who takes a few decent pictures or just knows what every button or dial does (but doesn’t completely understand the function/logic behind it), starts calling themselves a photographer. They fail to understand that being a photographer isn’t about taking a half decent image and then going medieval on it in Photoshop. I know…I’ve been there myself, not so long ago (this paragraph is more of a personal reflection than an accusation).

Anyway, this may seem like complete horse shit to some or it may actually make some sense. Either way, here’s a shot of my dream that came true.

Related articles

• 365 Days With my Leica M9 (alexonlocation.com)
• 35mm (hibrahimphotography.wordpress.com)
• In Love With Lisbon – and Leica (theonlinephotographer.typepad.com)
• A little treat for myself (hibrahimphotography.wordpress.com)

Free from the shackles of Microsoft and Apple…for now at least.

My tech cravings often lead me to explore the unexplored (for me). I know nothing about linux but been dying to give it a proper try. I have used it a bunch of times before but now I’ve deleted Windows 7 ultimate and now running ubuntu as the primary OS for my desktop. Figured I give my MacBook Pro a break till I upgrade the RAM and hard drive (it’s costing me around AUD $600 to upgrade to a 8GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive! My current situation of being an international student doesn’t exactly give me wiggle room for such ‘luxuries’). I am a bit concerned about shifting over to linux in regards to iTunes and Photoshop. I’ve been giving a few softwares, which were recommended to me on the ubuntu forums, a try let’s see how it goes. I have downloaded a software called ‘banshee’ as my iTunes alternative. Looks promising but haven’t, as yet, used it to sync my iPhone/iPod but they say it’s seamless and you don’t have to erase your entire idevice before syncing it like you have to when you shift computers using iTunes (the biggest inconvenience of using an idevice in my opinion).

And for my photo-editing needs, I have been recommended a software called Lightzone by a company called Lightcrafts for professional photo-editing. It has received a lot of praise by the ubuntu commutiny and they say it’s similar to Photoshop but not as heavy. Downloading it right now. Let’s see how it goes. Will post a sort of review once I manage to give it a work out.

Other than a bit of application limitation, I’m absolutely loving ubuntu. The UI is just amazing and it’s running like a charm on my desktop. I am having some issues with the wifi connectivity though (it didn’t manage to install the drivers for my wireless card successfully…I think) but it’s not something that can’t be resolved with a bit of tweaking.

I figure, linux is going to take quite a bit of getting used to, just like anything new. The best bit about linux is that almost all the applications are free and you can tweak and modify any aspect of it in almost anyway you like.

Anyway, I’ll get back to playing with linux for now.

Catch you guys soon!

UPDATE: Tried LightZone. It is an amazing software. Simple, easy to use but with all the functionality that you require. I downloaded a trial but it doesn’t have a hefty price tag (USD $99). In fact it’s excellent value for money. I also gave a try to another software that I was recommended after I had posted this post. It’s called Bibble. Haven’t got a chance to actually use it but the tutorial videos posted on their website show that it’s a considerably powerful photo ed tool (although the computer they used to record the demos wasn’t). Also, it seems like a more direct alternative to Photoshop.

Anyway, more when I get time to play with these softwares (time limitations due to work/uni commitments and whatnot).