2025 Sports Photography - Leica - Analog Only

[Ddbowdoin]

I won’t pretend to be a pro in the slightest bit but as an avid golfer I’ve developed good connections with different courses and clothing brands in the area. My New Year’s resolution is to approach the 2025 golf season with analog only.

I have used M’s throughout the past and will continue to do so. However, I added a Leica R6.2 and a 100 R macro and 135 R Elmarit for some reach. I’m thinking the last piece of glass to is the 280mm 2.8.

my pictures can be found at www.daniel-Duarte.com

I definitely am intimidated by the task. I’ve grown accustomed to an EVF and 30FPS so this will be a true test.

Anyone here ever shot sports/ action with 35mm?

Luckily golf doesn’t have the same strain as field sports and as someone who plays nearly 100 rounds a year I know the sports, the lines, and how to anticipate.

 

[raydm6]

I really enjoyed your website and images! The “ACRE A.C.” building image I believe is in Clinton, Massachusetts? Are the rest of the images in that series in Clinton?

(Ch2) (res-I-due) — DANIEL DUARTE

daniel-duarte.com

Great job ! 👏 Really enjoyed looking at them and the palette of the color images.

 

[Richard G]

I’ve shot kids basketball with the M9 and a 50; and my daughter’s soccer with OM and 200, “analog.” I too like your photographs. You got Atget’s oblique perspective in a few of those.

 

[Ddbowdoin]

I really enjoyed your website and images! The “ACRE A.C.” building image I believe is in Clinton, Massachusetts? Are the rest of the images in that series in Clinton?

(Ch2) (res-I-due) — DANIEL DUARTE

daniel-duarte.com

Great job ! 👏 Really enjoyed looking at them and the palette of the color images.

Thanks! That’s the only image from Clinton. A spattering across MA and VT. Arlington, Acton, Irving (Erving?) spelling check needed. These are bitter sweet images. All 8x10, before we had kids. I have a 3 and 5 year old. Large format and golf doesn’t mix with my free time, had to pick. Picked golf.

 

[Ddbowdoin]

I’ve shot kids basketball with the M9 and a 50; and my daughter’s soccer with OM and 200, “analog.” I too like your photographs. You got Atget’s oblique perspective in a few of those.

That was a fun trip. I landed a grant to try to recreate some of his work. It was mildly successful as I think I found 12-15 around Paris and Versailles. I couldn’t get access to the scans of his work to make dyptchs, which was the original goal. Hauling the 8x10 around Paris in a heat wave was fun!

 

[raydm6]

Thanks! That’s the only image from Clinton. A spattering across MA and VT. Arlington, Acton, Irving (Erving?) spelling check needed. These are bitter sweet images. All 8x10, before we had kids. I have a 3 and 5 year old. Large format and golf doesn’t mix with my free time, had to pick. Picked golf.

Great! Thanks. I’m familiar with all those cities/towns. Yes it’s Erving. The 8x10 shots are great. I noticed a mirror selfie with an Ebony.

 

[Ddbowdoin]

Great! Thanks. I’m familiar with all those cities/towns. Yes it’s Erving. The 8x10 shots are great. I noticed a mirror selfie with an Ebony.

I also have a horrible tendency to sell crap… man, that camera was awesome and then someone offered me 10 grand for it.

 

[Coldkennels]

Anyone here ever shot sports/ action with 35mm?

Luckily golf doesn’t have the same strain as field sports and as someone who plays nearly 100 rounds a year I know the sports, the lines, and how to anticipate.

This is the key - and I think you'll be alright.

I've been a skateboarder for most of my life. Through that, I've been able to travel around a good chunk of the world, and quite often I've had a camera (usually a film rangefinder) with me. I've had some stuff printed in magazines or published/used on websites, but wouldn't consider myself a "professional skateboard photographer". I personally know a few folks who have earned that title, though. And although a few of them do use autofocus, digital, and flash, it's not uncommon to still see guys shooting film in that world. And a lot of them don't bother with autofocus at all - it's just too unreliable (lag, hunting, etc.); the key has always been, and likely will always be, to know where the action is going to happen and pre-focus or zone-focus. Of course, this means you can use anything from a brand new M11 all the way back to a fixed-lens Leica I, as long as you're as familiar with the equipment as you are with the subject.

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that I can always tell when flicking through skate photos if the photographer was a skateboarder or not. I see so many photos of skateboarding on here, Flickr, Instagram, Mastodon etc. that really miss the key moment of the trick (or the trick was obviously "bailed"/missed by the skater). Knowing what you're looking at (and for!) makes a huge difference, and I imagine the same is true of golf.

Here's some of my personal favourites from flicking through my Lightroom, along with the camera and lens I used and some notes/thoughts. Some of them have been in the "What's YOUR sport" thread, but I don't think they all have:


Leica IIIf, Canon 35/1.8, Fomapan 400 in ID11; Canada. This was an easy one - "hey Dan, can you do that invert on this exact spot?" Timing it with the ride behind was the tough part, and that's as much down to the skateboarder as it is the photographer. It took a few goes to get right.


Leica IIIf, Summar, APX 100 (the OG Agfa stock) in Rodinal; France. Another easy one - "Harry, do that trick exactly on that spot". He doesn't roll at all for this trick, so I didn't have to follow him around - composition was easy, so it was only timing I had to worry about. The lack of electronics really help on something like this; any lag in the camera will miss the "crucial moment". You need to know that the millisecond you want to trip the shutter, it'll trip without hesitation, because this trick is over in the blink of an eye.


Leica IIIg, Summar, Fomapan 400 in Rodinal; Germany. This one was almost pure chance; it was at an international competition held in an industrial museum in Brandenburg. I was exploring the gantries when I heard some noise way away from the event space, looked down, and saw this guy practicing. I asked him to do something through the space under the lights and waited until he hit the perfect spot.



Leica Ic (i.e. no rangefinder), Voigtlander 28mm Color Skopar, Rollei Retro 400S in LC29; Wales. Shooting downhill skateboarding (or, in this case, street luge) is hard. You wait for ages, they whip past you in a second, and then you wait another five minutes for something else to happen. Again, I'd hate to be dealing with autofocus in this situation. Knowing the racing line and where they'll be is key - just pre-focus, check your DoF is enough, and shoot.


Leica IIIg, 21mm Voigtlander Color Skopar, Fomapan 100 in Rodinal; England. This was at an event that I was asked to cover by a website. All the skaters were hitting this one end of the bowl, so it was obvious where to position myself, but every single run by every single rider involved a different trick in a different place, so there was absolutely zero predictability, and a lot of quick focusing and framing on the fly. Figuring out where to aim in the chaos was tough, but this was easily my favourite out of the results - if only because the framing gives you a prime view of the classy English graffiti behind the skater.

 

[Coldkennels]

Also, I've mentioned him before on here, but Ian Ruhter's work with wet plate collodion to capture snowboarding and skateboarding photography is truly amazing, and a huge inspiration for me:



I can't even begin to get my head around the logistics of this project, but the results are beautiful and like nothing I've ever seen: Ian Ruhter Suspended In Time Prints

 

[Ddbowdoin]

This is the key - and I think you'll be alright.

I've been a skateboarder for most of my life. Through that, I've been able to travel around a good chunk of the world, and quite often I've had a camera (usually a film rangefinder) with me. I've had some stuff printed in magazines or published/used on websites, but wouldn't consider myself a "professional skateboard photographer". I personally know a few folks who have earned that title, though. And although a few of them do use autofocus, digital, and flash, it's not uncommon to still see guys shooting film in that world. And a lot of them don't bother with autofocus at all - it's just too unreliable (lag, hunting, etc.); the key has always been, and likely will always be, to know where the action is going to happen and pre-focus or zone-focus. Of course, this means you can use anything from a brand new M11 all the way back to a fixed-lens Leica I, as long as you're as familiar with the equipment as you are with the subject.

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that I can always tell when flicking through skate photos if the photographer was a skateboarder or not. I see so many photos of skateboarding on here, Flickr, Instagram, Mastodon etc. that really miss the key moment of the trick (or the trick was obviously "bailed"/missed by the skater). Knowing what you're looking at (and for!) makes a huge difference, and I imagine the same is true of golf.

Here's some of my personal favourites from flicking through my Lightroom, along with the camera and lens I used and some notes/thoughts. Some of them have been in the "What's YOUR sport" thread, but I don't think they all have:

View attachment 4852807
Leica IIIf, Canon 35/1.8, Fomapan 400 in ID11; Canada. This was an easy one - "hey Dan, can you do that invert on this exact spot?" Timing it with the ride behind was the tough part, and that's as much down to the skateboarder as it is the photographer. It took a few goes to get right.

View attachment 4852808
Leica IIIf, Summar, APX 100 (the OG Agfa stock) in Rodinal; France. Another easy one - "Harry, do that trick exactly on that spot". He doesn't roll at all for this trick, so I didn't have to follow him around - composition was easy, so it was only timing I had to worry about. The lack of electronics really help on something like this; any lag in the camera will miss the "crucial moment". You need to know that the millisecond you want to trip the shutter, it'll trip without hesitation, because this trick is over in the blink of an eye.

View attachment 4852809
Leica IIIg, Summar, Fomapan 400 in Rodinal; Germany. This one was almost pure chance; it was at an international competition held in an industrial museum in Brandenburg. I was exploring the gantries when I heard some noise way away from the event space, looked down, and saw this guy practicing. I asked him to do something through the space under the lights and waited until he hit the perfect spot.


View attachment 4852810
Leica Ic (i.e. no rangefinder), Voigtlander 28mm Color Skopar, Rollei Retro 400S in LC29; Wales. Shooting downhill skateboarding (or, in this case, street luge) is hard. You wait for ages, they whip past you in a second, and then you wait another five minutes for something else to happen. Again, I'd hate to be dealing with autofocus in this situation. Knowing the racing line and where they'll be is key - just pre-focus, check your DoF is enough, and shoot.

View attachment 4852811
Leica IIIg, 21mm Voigtlander Color Skopar, Fomapan 100 in Rodinal; England. This was at an event that I was asked to cover by a website. All the skaters were hitting this one end of the bowl, so it was obvious where to position myself, but every single run by every single rider involved a different trick in a different place, so there was absolutely zero predictability, and a lot of quick focusing and framing on the fly. Figuring out where to aim in the chaos was tough, but this was easily my favourite out of the results - if only because the framing gives you a prime view of the classy English graffiti behind the skater.

Fantastic work man!

A former middle and high school skater, I was never good though. I still watch and listen to the soundtrack from ES Menikmati. All time favorite for me.

 

[Coldkennels]

I still watch and listen to the soundtrack from ES Menikmati. All time favorite for me.

Thanks, mate. And Menikmati is a classic - they don't make 'em like that any more.