A Weekend With the MM

[sanyasi]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

My wife was out of town this week, so I spent the weekend with my Monochrom. Chicago also had its architectural open house (I am told stolen from London), so between a jazz club and the open house, I had an interesting weekend.

 

Here is a link to my Monochrom files that I have posted: The Sanyasi-Aesthetic | Monochrom

 

Here is a link to the architectural open house photos: The Sanyasi-Aesthetic | Architecture

 

And here is a link to the jazz musicians in a club: The Sanyasi-Aesthetic | Musicians (Benny Green was taken the prior weekend).

 

In the architectural photos gallery, some may find the photograph labeled the Park and the three after it of particular interest. These were shot from out of the window of an architect's office. They let me turn off the lights in the conference room, but the glare was still pretty intense. To rectify the problem, I put a red filter on a 75mm summicron. I then shot through the rectangles of white glare, trying to keep the composition within the glare, which was consistent throughout the rectangle. The red filter was perfect for the clouds (also lightened the trees), but it was also helpful in cutting through the glare. I like these photos and don't see the problem that has been discussed in another post about filters, but if someone does, keep in mind that when these photos came out of the camera they were almost in high key, so the glare may have had an impact.

 

After ten days with the Monchrom, I can say I am very happy with it. It meets all expectations.

 

As for post processing. The only thing I do in PS is adjust the building lines. I use LR and Silver Effects 2. I make most of the adjustments in LR, but I like to the brush system in SE2 better for dodging and burning. I also have experimented with two film types that I keep coming back to.

 

Moderators. I considered posting this in the MM photos post, but since it is a link, I wasn't sure. Feel free to move it there if appropriate.

 

Jack Siegel

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[brill64]

architectural open house is not really "stolen" from anywhere, it's a great idea & should be shared..

[MarkP]

Great sets of photographs What lenses did you use?

[sanyasi]

Thanks much. Appreciate it.

 

Benny Green was a 90 Summicron--older model.

The architecture shots were mostly 35 summicron. The shots in the park, with clouds, were a 75mm summicron, with red filter.

 

If you hold the mouse over the upper right hand corner, you will get an information menu. That will then give you some of the EXIF data. You will see many shots were at ISO 2000 or 2500.

 

Everything was handheld. I assumed they would not let me set up a tripod on the office tours, but some photographers did bring tripods and to a person, they said nobody objected. Most of the locations I visited were architect offices and the architects were receptive to photographers. A nice change of pace. Maybe next year I will bring an Arca Swiss technical camera:D

[algrove]

Due to the higher ISOs being useable with the MM, do you find that Summicron lenses are enough and that you are less inclined to need faster lenses with the MM?

[sanyasi]

I have all summicron's (21, 35, 75, 90) and one summilux (50). With my M9, I used the summilux if I was in a really dark situation; I also used it for a lot of other stuff because it is a good focal length for me.

 

When I went out Saturday, I took both my m9 and mm. A pleasure because it meant not switching lenses in the field. However, I only ended up using the MM. When I put the kit for the day together, I put the 50mm on the M9, and the 35 on the MM. My thinking was straightforward. It was cloudy and raining and I was going to be shooting in buildings without flash or tripod, so I figured the M9 could use the summilux advantage.

 

I have been out with the MM about six times in the last ten days. It is extraordinary. I still like a low ISO, but I find myself shooting at 1250 and not worrying about it a bit. 2000 or 2500 isn't a big deal either. I am still a little reluctant at 5,000, but will experiment. I am about to head out for a short trip in a few weeks. Normally, I would take my Canon DSLR and M9. I am giving serious consideration to just the M9 and MM. The MM is fun to shoot with.

 

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned and it is minor: Transferring files to your computer is amazingly fast. With the M9, I usually load a card and walk away for a half hour or forty-five minutes. It seems like a relatively full MM card transfers in about 15 minutes. Eliminating the color information really enhances transfer speeds.

 

Best

 

Jack Siegel

[AlanG]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I am quite impressed by your images and even more impressed that you did this in one weekend.

[algrove]

I must say that I find using 2.0 lenses more than sufficient with the MM. In addition, I enjoy shooting with the MM all day long just looking for luminance reducing the one hour around sunrise and one hour around sunset preferences for color shooting.

[sanyasi]

I am quite impressed by your images and even more impressed that you did this in one weekend.

 

Thanks again. My life is a little crazy right now (in good ways). My wife was out of town Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I got bored at work Friday afternoon, so I headed out. Sat through two sets of jazz and then stayed up until 2AM processing photos. Got up at 8AM for architecture open house. Stayed until close on Saturday. Swore I would only work until 10PM processing. Quit at 1AM. Out again for the tour Sunday at 9:30. Back home at 5PM. Processed to midnight.

 

I am now going back through and re-editing. Spending lots of time dodging and burning (sometimes 40 strokes per photo) and I got rid of the blue toning. The prints look great. I did find that several looked great on the screen and just didn't work when printed--a little too much camera shake and with architectural photos that just doesn't work (at least for me).

 

I was exhausted Monday morning, but what a great weekend.

 

Best

 

Jack Siegel

[norm_snyder]

Very nice club photography. I recognized Benny Green, but it would be great if you credited the musicians. The Monochrom is definitely worth considering. Thanks for the posting.

[colonel]

Nice pictures

Also cool website

Is it an off the shelf website or did someone write it for you ?

[sanyasi]

Very nice club photography. I recognized Benny Green, but it would be great if you credited the musicians. The Monochrom is definitely worth considering. Thanks for the posting.

 

Thanks for the reminder. Normally I credit the musicians--see musician gallery outside of Monochrom folder. As I noted, I am running around and did all this rather quickly. I am generally unfamiliar with this quintet--except Wilkes--and went to his website to find out who the others were, but didn't have much luck, so I will have to keep looking.

[sanyasi]

Nice pictures

Also cool website

Is it an off the shelf website or did someone write it for you ?

 

Thanks.

 

It is Zenfolio, which I think some others on the forum may use. Zenfolio - Professional photo and video hosting for photographers and enthusiasts.. They have a free trial and different plans. I have one of the professional plans, which they show as starting at $120 a year. The non-professional plans are cheaper, starting at $30 per year. Zenfolio competes with Smug Mug. So if you like, you can sell your photos and related products through the site (I don't), with Zenfolio and its partners creating the products from your files and fulfilling the order. I suspect that is where Zenfolio makes it money.

 

The system is menu/template driven, so it is easy to set up your site. As you may have noticed, they now let you blog through their system, if that is of interest. So basically, you pick design templates and a few settings (e.g., color of background, whether you want search engines to index your photos, format for the gallery), and off you go. Very straightforward and simple.

 

I have chosen to mirror the system on my own site. Normally, the URL for your site would have your name and Zenfolio is the address. I set up my own site and used mirroring, so I didn't have to refer to Zenfolio in the address. The Zenfolio set up contemplates that people will do this, so all you have to do is check with the company hosting your website. It was pretty straightforward.

 

Prior to Zenfolio, I was using a system that one person developed and ran for photographers. You downloaded his templates and used them on your own site (he did no hosting). It was a nice system, but a little quirkly and it took some tech support e-mails to him to get it up and running. Zenfolio was much much simpler. Recommended.

[geoffreyg]

Lovely work. I know many of the scenes in Chicago quite well, and really respect the insight and tonality that you brought to them. They are placed inan in-between world, somehow with a fresh classic viewpoint that makes them very intriguing to look at. You also found some lovely new ways to see and show them. Bravo.

[microview]

Nice 2010 pics of Duncan. Hope he's still with you.

[billo101]

Great shoots! Great MM!

[sanyasi]

Nice 2010 pics of Duncan. Hope he's still with you.

 

Duncan died unexpectedly this past May. He went to an empty bathtub, climbed in and just sat there for 4 days. Two visits to the vet didn't save him. We were devastated. I still find myself looking for him at 3PM treat time.

 

The good news. We got a phone call two weeks ago. Little Max will be ready to come home at the end of December. We can't wait, but we will not forget Duncan.