Sean Moran
Established
Hello folks,
I had two pleasant surprises this week, leading to the publishing of two Leica-taken photograph three times in two different publications. I'm not a professional, so this was a big thing for me. However, the point of this post is not to brag but to praise my M2 & rigid Summicron combination.
Let me explain ...
A local political and cultural magazine - Fortnight - decided to use some of my Belfast photographs in this month's edition (yes, I know; you'd expect it to be published once a fortnight, but it is a monthly). One of them was a photograph of an ex- British-Army jeep going down the Falls Road, carrying children with toy guns and the words "For hire" on the side. This was a typical Leica photojournalism-style grab shot and the editor used it because decommissioning of IRA weapons has been a news story, and here was an apparently decommissioned Army vehicle in the Republican heartland. No surprises there, then: Leicas are ideal for this kind of image.
The other photograph though was of the Northern Ireland Assembly building (Stormont), which is currently suspended because the opposing politicians won't sit down together. This is a beautiful white building at the top of a long road going up a hill. On the day I took the photograph, the Summer sunshine and blue sky (enhanced by a Leitz orange filter) led to a nice image. I also included the words painted on the road in front of the building: "No Entry" - an instruction for traffic, but also a comment on the fact that Assembly is not in session. Leicas loaded with HP5+ would not be most photographers' tools of choice for architectural work, but this combination impressed not one but two editors.
The magazine editor liked the photograph when he first saw it, but Stormont is a Northern Ireland landmark and photographs of it are common, so he wasn't raving about it at this point. It wasn't until the photograph was scanned into the printing firm's computer that people realised just how good the image was. The editor of Fortnight was amazed at how he could bring up details of the image with such clarity.
As luck would have it, the same printing firm was about to print a book about the Northern Ireland Assembly written by a BBC journalist. They too were impressed with the Leica image: so much so that they decided not to use the image they had planned to use on the front cover, and used mine instead. Not only that - they used it on the back cover also.
I used to think that much of the Leica myth was baloney, but when the products of Leitz lenses and M bodies impress editors and printers to this extent, my views are changing. These people are not naive buyers of images, but they recognised quality results when they saw them. Hats off to Leica, say I.
Cheers,
Seán.
PS On the same day this happened, I received back a set of prints and an article I'd written from Amateur Photographer with a postcard saying that my work was "not suitable". Ah well, such is life. I'll be trying AP again sometime.
I had two pleasant surprises this week, leading to the publishing of two Leica-taken photograph three times in two different publications. I'm not a professional, so this was a big thing for me. However, the point of this post is not to brag but to praise my M2 & rigid Summicron combination.
Let me explain ...
A local political and cultural magazine - Fortnight - decided to use some of my Belfast photographs in this month's edition (yes, I know; you'd expect it to be published once a fortnight, but it is a monthly). One of them was a photograph of an ex- British-Army jeep going down the Falls Road, carrying children with toy guns and the words "For hire" on the side. This was a typical Leica photojournalism-style grab shot and the editor used it because decommissioning of IRA weapons has been a news story, and here was an apparently decommissioned Army vehicle in the Republican heartland. No surprises there, then: Leicas are ideal for this kind of image.
The other photograph though was of the Northern Ireland Assembly building (Stormont), which is currently suspended because the opposing politicians won't sit down together. This is a beautiful white building at the top of a long road going up a hill. On the day I took the photograph, the Summer sunshine and blue sky (enhanced by a Leitz orange filter) led to a nice image. I also included the words painted on the road in front of the building: "No Entry" - an instruction for traffic, but also a comment on the fact that Assembly is not in session. Leicas loaded with HP5+ would not be most photographers' tools of choice for architectural work, but this combination impressed not one but two editors.
The magazine editor liked the photograph when he first saw it, but Stormont is a Northern Ireland landmark and photographs of it are common, so he wasn't raving about it at this point. It wasn't until the photograph was scanned into the printing firm's computer that people realised just how good the image was. The editor of Fortnight was amazed at how he could bring up details of the image with such clarity.
As luck would have it, the same printing firm was about to print a book about the Northern Ireland Assembly written by a BBC journalist. They too were impressed with the Leica image: so much so that they decided not to use the image they had planned to use on the front cover, and used mine instead. Not only that - they used it on the back cover also.
I used to think that much of the Leica myth was baloney, but when the products of Leitz lenses and M bodies impress editors and printers to this extent, my views are changing. These people are not naive buyers of images, but they recognised quality results when they saw them. Hats off to Leica, say I.
Cheers,
Seán.
PS On the same day this happened, I received back a set of prints and an article I'd written from Amateur Photographer with a postcard saying that my work was "not suitable". Ah well, such is life. I'll be trying AP again sometime.
