High End Weddings with Leica MPs and 3 Lenses in FL

G

Gray Fox

Well-known
Local time
3:54 PM
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
Messages
214
I just read an interesting article in the February issue of Rangfinder Magazine about a FL phtographer of high end weddings who recently switched from digital capture to a pair of MPs with three lenese, a Summilux 35mm/1.4, a Noctilux 50mm/.95, and a Summicron 90mm/2.0 ASPH. He shoots mainly B&W and sends all his film for processing, proofing/scanning and printing to Richards Photo Lab in LA.

It's an interesting read and shows nice examples of his work. He explains how going back to film is really not more expensive since it gives him more time on other business aspects of his business as well with his family. I haven't checked, but I imagine the article is on the online version of the mag, too. When I started reading the article I was sure it wold lead to a discussion of his MF gear and Kodak Portra 400, but was surprised at the end.

I checked the Richard Lab online and was surprised at how reasonable the prices would be if you were doing mid-to high end wedding and/or portraiture and were able to communicate to the lab how you wanted the final prints to look.
 
Yes the photographer is Riccis an RFF member here. I consider him an RFF shining light. And he is a truly nice guy always willing to answer my questions.
 
Amazing guy! Always willing to answer questions and even sent me a bunch of film once when i wanted to try out the ektar stuff.. And as for richard photo lab. AMAZING, best lab in the world by far..
 
Riccis is a really nice guy and his black and white wedding shots are something to behold.

He recently switched from Neopan to Tri-X ... mainly due to not having a lot of confidence in Fuji's future support for Neopan!
 
Yes, he also shoots a Rollei TLR, a Pentax 67 and a Widelux.

I recently got out of the wedding industry myself and was pretty excited to have stumbled onto Riccis' work earlier this year and to see that he shoots weddings almost exclusively Leica. As noted above, his black and white work is outstanding.
 
What a wonderful business model! I do however wonder why he doesn't develop his own film considering his statement early in the article about not wanting to outsource post production. Regardless, the photos still look great!
 
softshock said:
What a wonderful business model! I do however wonder why he doesn't develop his own film considering his statement early in the article about not wanting to outsource post production. Regardless, the photos still look great!
Click to expand...

I agree....the last wedding I did I used a combination of film and digital. It worked out well and by word of mouth I have gotten calls asking about doing film weddings.

I was never comfortable processing wedding film either due to my REALLY clumsy hands along with the need for total darkness. My dark room is fine for printing but too porus for film.
 
Riccis work and vision is outstanding, knows his subject matter,ability to use the SUB-PAR, manual focus, old tech. leica m cameras, i wonder if many younger wedding photogs. could make the transition without auto everything canons & nikons. willing to rely on there ability instead of the cameras.
 
softshock said:
What a wonderful business model! I do however wonder why he doesn't develop his own film considering his statement early in the article about not wanting to outsource post production. Regardless, the photos still look great!
Click to expand...

You're right. That's not very logical. On one side he couldn't outsource the digital postprocessing, while on the other hand he outsources the film postprocessing :confused:
 
tom.w.bn said:
You're right. That's not very logical. On one side he couldn't outsource the digital postprocessing, while on the other hand he outsources the film postprocessing :confused:
Click to expand...

That way, he's not tied down with processing all the rolls, doing the scans, etc. He notes he can better spend the time serving clients and looking for new ones. And as pointed out above, what if something went wrong with his processing, since this event can't be repeated? Better to send it out to a highly-regarded lab like Richard, who do this every day, in volume.
 
Zonan said:
That way, he's not tied down with processing all the rolls, doing the scans, etc. He notes he can better spend the time serving clients and looking for new ones. And as pointed out above, what if something went wrong with his processing, since this event can't be repeated? Better to send it out to a highly-regarded lab like Richard, who do this every day, in volume.
Click to expand...

The point is: if he can rely on someone for development and print so he could rely on a professional for digital postprocessing.

But it seems that it pays off for him.
 
In the old days, '70s and '80s many of us used to send our film out to large custom labs that did wonderful work. While in the Army in Germany in the early to mid '70s, I had a photo business on the side and sent every roll to a lab in FL for proofing and then portrait reprints, wedding packages, and memory mate style youth athletic stuff. Knock on wood, I never lost a roll of 35mm or 120 film, and had the same results getting prints back. I have a few of my sample prints from that era in an album and they have barely faded in all that time. If I had a business now I would try to find a lab like Richard's on the East Coast, or, failing that send them to LA. Confidence in the lab you use sure does make the time available for other business and personal projects.
 
Riccis work is incredible. Haven't read the article in my Rangefinder yet. Got asked to shoot a friends wedding next Saturday using film. Can't touch Riccis work but the inspiration is on time. Great blog too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom