First Leica S2 Photos

Here are a few shots from the lovely Leica S2. The first image is from the 35mm Summarit and the rest are from the 70mm Summarit.
(Click images for a larger image.)

Picnic Point

When testing a new camera or lens and there's no time for a road trip, our local beach, "Picnic Point" is always ready to oblige. Over the weekend I traded in my Sony A7 and all my Sony lenses to help fund a Leica SL and 24-90 lens. The camera is superb and the lens is stunning. Stopped by Picnic Point on the way home to take some test shots.

As always, click for larger images:

Royal Embrace

A little digital bilateral something I've been working on...

The Peak

70mm Summarit-S, f/2.5, 1/60 Sec.

The Ikon Passes Into Memory

I still love my Zeiss Ikon ZI.
I think now that Cosina has recently stopped making Zeiss and Voigtlander rangefinders altogether, we may never see it's like again...film is fading. :/

Leica Q - First Test Shots

My X2 and a couple M lenses are now on the chopping block to pay for the Leica Q. Superb little camera and an excellent successor to the X series.

I've only had the Q for a day now. Here's a selection of my first few shots around the house and office.

Click to enlarge:

 

Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2.0

Found a nice, used copy of this wonderful lens! Everything I hoped it could be...lovely rendering! 

Christopher Lee, May 27, 1922 - June 7, 2015

Farewell my friend. You'll be sorely missed in this house but never forgotten.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33098353

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/11/christopher-lee

Perspective

This kind of looks like the kitchen in my first solo apartment...except mine was more run down and my fridge was a lot smaller. I was in my 20s and I managed as best I could...I had a futon, a TV, a VCR and a couple of pressboard bookshelves filled with paperback books.

That dingy place ate most of my blue collar paycheck I earned as a signmaker at the time and left just a little for food, basics, a little beer and some spending money.

Thank goodness I still visited my folks a lot in those days...they were always giving me canned foods to take home to add to the ramen, lentils and beans in my larder. Most of my neighbors didn't have that luxury.

It was a rather rough, very ungentrified neighborhood...I would occasionally hear gunfire at night. My only "extravagance" was a couple of second-hand synthesizers bought on layaway over many months from pawn shops (the aforementioned spending money) as well as a four-track cassette recorder, A-frame keyboard stand and a little mixer I had received as birthday gifts. My music kept me happy and sane - it still does!

I doubt most conservative lawmakers ever lived like I did...and if they did, it seems they didn't learn a damn thing about what it means to be poor, to live from paycheck-to-paycheck, to be a hard worker but still fall short!

My life in this place and my interactions with my neighbors shaped a lot of my opinions and attitudes today. Things like what "a living wage" means and what the effects of poverty are on people's lives. I never saw any "welfare queens" or "people scamming the system", I saw people doing the best they could with what they had and what they could get.

Chance, circumstance and luck have been *very* good to me since then and I'm doing very well for myself now but I will never forget or ignore all the things I learned those many years ago.

And now, some color treatments.

Abusing Nik's Color Efex Pro this evening. ;)

As always, click the photos to enlarge:

Black & White Treatments

Still really enjoying Nik's Silver Efex Pro! I've been stuck inside for a while recovering from surgery and have been going through some photos, looking for some good candidates for B&W conversion and processing a handful.

Here are a few. As always, click for a better image:

The Magnificent Welles

So wonderful! I just re-watched this yesterday after not having seen it for a couple of years and I just can't recommend it enough. What an absolute tour de force of writing and acting!

For anyone who is a fan of Orson Welles, this is a definite must! It's an astounding one-man-show, written and acted by Marcus Wolland.

This is an incisive peek into the complex character of an iconoclastic genius, not fully understood or appreciated in his time. Set during the time of Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" and how the studio basically rejiggered and 'destroyed' the movie while he was out of the country.

I originally found my copy here on Amazon.

Return to Shadow

My album "Shadow" can be listened to online in its entirety absolutely free at this link.

A complete gearlist-per-track is available here if you're curious about the synths used.

Winter in North Bend - Mount Si

A beautiful winter tableau of Mt. Si shot with the Sony A7 and the Sony/Zeiss 24-70mm f/4.

YES! A local Leica store!

Finally, there's a Leica store in our area! Just opened in Bellevue Square Mall..at least until they get their own digs.

Finally the PNW has a local place to go for all-things-Leica. How jazzed am I? :)

Got to talk with the local rep today and I also had a look at the lust-worthy Leica 50mm Summicron Apo-chromatic lens. I'd trade my Summilux ASPH in a heartbeat! We're talking about love-at-first-sight here! ^_^

Leica Store, Bellevue
221 Bellevue Square
Bellevue, Washington

(425) 451-4060

Dead Stars

I keep seeing these memes about how all the stars we see in the night sky are dead.

 *****THIS IS WRONG*****

Most visible main sequence stars in the night sky are still burning strong with plenty of life left.

The light reaching us from stars so far away (and so long ago) that they *are* actually dead, is too dim to see with the naked eye.

...and remember there's *new* stars in those distant regions whose light hasn't even reached us yet.

Bro, do you even science? ;)