This 3-year old is great!

So I am at a wedding (as a guest) and happen to have my M8 with the 50 Lux mounted. The official photographer is off somewhere to parts unknown as this scene unfolds. I grab the M and start shooting. Now the light is horrible --- late afternoon sun streaming in through an un-draped window --- and probably why the photographer has disappeared... Anyway, it was over in about two minutes and I grabbed about 20 images total. All shot with the M8 and 50 Summilux Pre-Asph. Converted to B&W in CS3 where I also cropped all to 3:4 perspective, my preference for images with people in them.

Enjoy!

1) The little boy was the ring-bearer and is 3 years old. Here he has set his mark and asked the 5-year old flower girl to dance. She being all dressed up with nowhere else to go, accepts:



2) He is very smooth. I am actually impressed by his total show of confidence and decorum, and by her expression, so is the young lady:



3) Here he cleverly sets his mark, dances out of his shoe, and elicits help getting it re-tied from the unsuspecting young lady:



4) And finally, our young hero goes for the close and actually makes it; my hat is off to him!



Cheers,

Wonderful Jack. I really like the B&W treatment also. What parameters did you use in CS3?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Nill Toulme said:

Wonderful Jack. I really like the B&W treatment also. What parameters did you use in CS3?

Click to expand...

Thanks Nil!

You're gonna love this: I loaded the B&W adjustment layer and pressed "Auto"... Seriously, that's it. But keep in mind I was also shooting the M8 without the IR filter, and I've always claimed I get superior B&W conversions out of that camera because of the slight IR leak...

Cheers,

I actually kind of suspected that. I had coincidentally tried it for the first time earlier today... didn't really have time to fiddle with it so just hit it and it came up with the defaults and looked really good for that shot, so I rolled with it.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Really fine shots, Jack. I can't believe that you got this quality of B & W conversion on Auto in CS3.

Priceless

Jack,

These shots are priceless. The parents of those little ones would probably cherish those photos on the wall.

They are magnificient. True wedding photojournalism at it's best.

Thanks Kathy, thanks Ralph!

Ralph, re the B&W conversions... While the "auto" mode in CS3 works very well for many images, I really think the base camera raw file has a lot to do with the final result in this situation. I have done some similar conversions from my 5D files, and while quite good, they simply do not have the quality of tonality --- I'll say it, more "film like" --- that the M8 conversions do.

Cheers,

Funny (or not so funny, future expense-wise ) that you should say that. I just read a small piece by Bruno Stevens yesterday that says what you say in regard to the Leica file quality. (This of course is not to diminish the merits of the person behind the camera). Really lovely work.

Yeah, that's actually why I came back to the camera... I had it originally and sold it because of the IR bleed and inaccurate blacks on many synthetic fabrics. However, a few months later I was converting some of the M8 raws to B&W and thought, "Man these are really good!" So fast forward a few months and I decided to buy back in BEFORE Leica "fixed" the IR bleed in the upcoming M9. The other side of the coin is I really enjoy using the rangefinder for this type of work, travel and even landscapes. They are small and light and there is a "Zen" component to composing with it that just works for me.

Cheers,

My eyes aren't the youngest, to understate matters. I remember when the M8 was first released that you expressed some concern about manual focus in this regard. I gather that from the perspective of everyday practical reality this has not been a problem.

Ralph,

This is what I like about the camera. It allows intimacy. I see no reason for having many lenses. With just a 28mm on the M8 I could shoot anything, street, indoor parties, landscape and architecture oh and yes, portrait.

The thing to remember is that perspective depends on just one thing, how far one is from the subject. Of course the size of the image may be small but so what, most pictures are only needed up to 8x10.

For larger images, get a 90mm lens!

Asher

Ralph Eisenberg said:

My eyes aren't the youngest, to understate matters. I remember when the M8 was first released that you expressed some concern about manual focus in this regard. I gather that from the perspective of everyday practical reality this has not been a problem.

Click to expand...

I'm adapting I have the eyepiece magnifier and use it on 50 and up lenses --- a huge help!

Cheers,

Ralph Eisenberg said:

My eyes aren't the youngest, to understate matters. I remember when the M8 was first released that you expressed some concern about manual focus in this regard. I gather that from the perspective of everyday practical reality this has not been a problem.

Click to expand...

I finally stumbled upon Jack's Famous Wedding Scene thread...
The print is incredible.

Having used the M8; I wish someone (before Mike did the following day) had told me about the 2nd window on the M8 for focusing. I suspect I had covered it with my finger when I took that awfully back-focused image of Woody at dinner. Even so, I know that the manual focus is my biggest challenge with the M8. Still... it's one I would welcome.

Hi Chris, and thanks for the kind comments on the print! I always try to explain to folks that as good as an image can look on the web, seeing the actual print is a significantly better viewing experience!

Sorry about that second window on the M8 --- I had too much wine than night to notice you were doing anything wrong!

PS: Aren't you supposed in New Zealand about now?

Cheers,