A walk with my Leica M2 in the snow

[Lilserenity]

Whilst in many areas of the world snow is a regular occurrence, we don't really get it in England, we get a sprinkle or an inch there but the past couple of weeks have made for some excellent photographic opportunities. So I went out armed with my (recently acquired) Leica M2 loaded with some colour slide (unusual as I usually shoot B&W, really digging slides at the mo) and went for a walk locally to me on the South Downs near Worthing. It was utterly gorgeous and the snow was pretty darn deep in places (2' at least in some sheltered spots.)

My scanner is a bit ancient and these scans seem a bit soft, in fact I tried some negatives which had scanned sharply last night and same problem. But they've still come through nice. Hope you enjoy.

The rest of the photos are here: My Flickr Page with these photos

I know they are not extraordinary but I thought they were nice enough to share. I was particularly pleased that the majority of the frames on the roll were exposed just fine too 🙂

Leica M2, Voigtlander 35mm Ultron and Kodak EliteChrome 100 Extra Colour (pretty much E100VS)

 

[Rogrund]

Beautiful photos!

 

[Mauro]

Great pictures: congratulations!
It is always nice to see some pictures of Sussex: I have spent many summer holidays in Hastings, and I still hold great memories of those happy days.

 

[payasam]

Good pictures. Difficult exposure, done well. Incident meter?
Unless it's changed since 1977, I think the Lewes area is prettier.

 

[maddoc]

Isn't that something special, a walk in the snow during the fading light at a late afternoon before dust ? 🙂 Very nice photos !

Cheers,

Gabor

 

[Debusti Paolo]

very nice pics

 

[Michael Markey]

Very nice indeed especially that last one. The exsposure must have been tricky. Not had much snow up here on the Lancashire coast although I can see from here that the Lakes has had a fair bit.

 

[sweathog]

Very nice shots!

Also, Worthing?

I'm moving back to Eastbourne in a few weeks, so once I've got myself sorted I shall have to try to get over. I've wanted to go shooting in Worthing for a while.

 

[MCTuomey]

lovely light and composition. and the exposures are very good too, imho. you do the M2 proud, or maybe the other way 'round 🙂

did you meter the snow and open up 2 stops? or simply incident?

 

[ocean7]

Thanks for sharing. These are very nice. I also enjoyed looking at your Flickr and I became a contact 🙂

 

[direwolf101]

Nice pics Vicky! Really enjoyed your Flickr set (especially some of the write-ups).

 

[Tuolumne]

And they say there are no colors in winter!

/T

 

[Bassism]

There are some quite nice photos there.
Just goes to show that all my complaining about how ugly all this snow is is for naught...

 

[Lilserenity]

THank you so much for the super nice comments, I will try and reply to some points in specific but basically metering wasn't too specialist as it were, I use a Leica MR meter and whenever I shoot snow scenes or fading light I tend to:

- Open up at least 1 stop for overcast days with snow (stop and a half for slide)
- Open up 2 stops for bright snowy days
- Open up between 1-2 stops for sunset when I have no ND grads

I kind of play it by ear, been doing this for a few years now and you get an eye for light. I think the main thing is metering pretty dilligently, more so than I would with negative film.

I generally where it's a tricky shot meter the foreground and then the sky near the horizon where I'm not sure and split the difference. Doesn't always work but for one roll of 35mm which these pictures were all from, I do seem to have a good success rate, and working with the Leica is just magic compared to the EOS 3 which whilst I still love, is just not the same!

 

[Lilserenity]

Good pictures. Difficult exposure, done well. Incident meter?
Unless it's changed since 1977, I think the Lewes area is prettier.

Lewes is very nice, but I like all parts of the South Downs in equal measure, except Twyford Down... (what they did there was criminal...) -- I think the only things you'd notice are the new Lewes bypass, the Brighton & Hove bypass and soon the new Brighton football stadium (wrong place totally but the council own the land and that's all they can afford... shame)

 

[Lilserenity]

Isn't that something special, a walk in the snow during the fading light at a late afternoon before dust ? 🙂 Very nice photos !

Cheers,

Gabor

It was utterly magical 🙂 Nothing makes me happier than being outdoors watching the world go by, walking, watching, photographing. It really levels me and on Monday morning at work I feel very fulfilled!

 

[Lilserenity]

Very nice shots!

Also, Worthing?

I'm moving back to Eastbourne in a few weeks, so once I've got myself sorted I shall have to try to get over. I've wanted to go shooting in Worthing for a while.

Yep, as in Eastbourne's fellow seaside town 😉 What with wild Brighton in the middle.

Worthing is probably only at most 3 miles from where most of these pictures were shot. It's great as I can walk up from my flat and in 5 miles or so I'm up on the downs. And 1 mile the other way is the beach and the sea, fantastic place. 🙂 Eastbourne having much of the same benefits!

 

[Lilserenity]

lovely light and composition. and the exposures are very good too, imho. you do the M2 proud, or maybe the other way 'round 🙂

did you meter the snow and open up 2 stops? or simply incident?

Open up 2 stops basically, can't fail with that. I generally do it with the shutter speed but with fading light on the last pic here I did it with the aperture (necessarily, I had 1 frame left and didn't want to risk it at 1/15th and end up with softness, 1/60th at f/8 nailed it according to my exposure notes.)

 

[Lilserenity]

I just wanted to again say thank you to everybody who replied, I'm sorry if I haven't replied to you personally, I'm not ignoring you or valuing your lovely words any less, I'm just a little short on time this evening (going to do that good English thing and go down the pub, with an M2 loaded up with Neopan 1600) 🙂

I'm really flattered! I'm just glad people enjoy something I'm so passionate about, the downs and the photography 🙂

 

[Tom A]

Vicky. I like the shots! Though snow 2" deep is considered a "dusting" in most of Canada. Vancouver suffered through 18-20" in January. There is something with slides that makes it look pretty though.
Hope the pub and the M2/NP 1600 gave you some different views too.