Leica M Monochrom: best pics

[menos]

Good stuff Menos ... love the way your first image of the set looks like a question mark and ending with an image of birds flying freely ... glad you got out made some images and got those juices flowing again ....

Thanks man - while not posting any photos on the internet for some time, I did a lot of thinking about the few frames I did. This selection here is in pairs - each with it's own story, taken mostly only minutes apart.

Hey Dirk,

You're back, and with some great shots too - the birds remind me of something that won't quite come to mind, very interesting.

This can only mean that I have to get out and shoot too..............

Hey John, yes - I think I have found a start again photography wise - been in a deep black hole for a long time.
It seems one needs a break sometimes and a forceful jumpstart to get going again. If you find the time, just force yourself to get out.
On my first walks some weeks ago it would happen that after a few hours I didn't take a single picture but this goes away now slowly coming back to normal. Just do what you feel is best seems to work.

Great series Dirk...

Thanks Allen, wish I could be around to see some of your gallery stuff.

Many thanks guys -- I'll see if I can find any more photos between Grants and Albuquerque today.

Dirk, I like the shot of the bicycle repair man, with his tools scattered about and his pumps lined up, ready for the next customer. The bus shot is neat - wonder how many times a day a bus goes by that spot? Would be interesting to do a series from that spot on all the buses that pass by that very spot in a given day, and see all the different expressions on the people and what each is doing.

Out of curiosity, I'd be interested to see a version of the 'window' shot with the potted plants cropped to the window frame (so eliminate the surrounding white wall). Just curious to see how it would look.

Thanks Vince, been liking the outcome of your road trip a lot - mainly because you put things in your images that look so far away from me - especially liking the portraits of the bicycle traveller, what a story!
I always try to not crop photographs - I don't know what it is (it's not some foreign rule one authority once posed) - the moment I play around with a photograph and try cropping the whole image just falls apart - the feeling you have towards the frame when you took it us just cut off, falling onto the ground.
I feel images you take really live somehow and should stay complete if possible.
I have discarded many photographs I just did not get right or how I wanted them but missed a certain framing or having a leg walk into the frame that shouldn't be there, …

The pair of photographs with toilets and potted plants have a certain meaning to me, as strange as it sounds, you will find that this pair of shots has a very, very similar story to it as the pair of photographs with the two men - one free, the other confined, both strangely connected, despite photographed in different streets of a 30 million people city, merely half an hour apart …

That's why something's missing... now I got it. Welcome back Dirk (Menos)!

Thank for the welcome back Dave - worked hard to get back …

a few random ones from the CNY holidays:

Have a nice weekend fellas!

 

[Rodchenko]

Mark by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

Vince, this is an absolutely stunning portrait. I love the composition, the look in his eye, the way you tell the story with the flag, the mat, and the man in the same plane, with a shallow depth of focus, adding to the intensity.

Superb.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Many thanks! I was thinking tht maybe I should have pulled back a bit to show more of the bicycle (or perhaps had less headroom at the top and more at the bottom).

I almost felt like calling that photo 'The Great American Hero', and in an odd way I'm jealous of his lifestyle.

Today is the proverbial 'end of the road' as far as this particular journey goes. A bunch of snow fell overnight, so hopefully my flight later today won't be cancelled (though I could stand to stay a little longer!). Gotta get back to swinging the hammer....


End of the Road by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

 

[Vince Lupo]

Well it looks like I'll be staying a little longer after all -- my flight got canceled this morning and the earliest flight I could get was Monday evening (all the flights tomorrow are sold out). So I'll get to do a few more photos after all.

 

[Dektol Dan]

I Liked Sharing Your Ride, Vince

I Liked Sharing Your Ride, Vince

Vince, I followed your route pretty closely last fall on an extended shoot, but alas, I went with a 4X5 and 4:3 digital. I didn't bring the Mono. The 4X5 experience was a disaster, the camera was too heavy for the tripod while carrying it and down it went to the ground. Lucky for me, it hit the sand instead of rock.

Here's my goodbye to my kids from Chaco, I hope that you can relate.

 

[jcrutcher]

35mm Cron Version 4

L1003064-Edit.jpg by rootbeer2004, on Flickr

L1003062-Edit.jpg by rootbeer2004, on Flickr

 

[Quan]

A cloudy sunrise, in split second before the sun hide away

L1008599-Edit by john_kuan, on Flickr

MM+Rigid50

 

[Vince Lupo]

Thanks for sharing Dan -- the first time I came to NM, I brought my Super Wide C, and I can't remember what else (might have been a 500cm). Too bulky for me. What I have now - including that printer - is just right. Actually, maybe even having the extra 50 with me (Summicron) might be too much. But it definitely has a different signature than the Noctilux, even wide open. So it is nice to have.

So I am now here until Monday afternoon - might as well make the best of it! I'm staying in Old Town, so after having walked around it, I went for a drive down to Estancia. This is one of the things I found there:


Estancia by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

Hopefully I'll have a few more shots to add before I finally board that plane!

 

[NY_Dan]

Vince, you're kill'in it as they say... good clean work

 

[Vince Lupo]

Thanks Dan -- it took me a few days to find a groove. Wouldn't mind having a few more people shots though. Maybe tomorrow.

That shot above was taken with the 35/1.7 Voigtlander Ultron lens at f/2. Stupid me only realized today that the filter size for the Summicron and the Ultron were the same, and I have two very dark ND filters in that E39 size. Makes me almost inclined to prefer the Ultron over the Noctilux!

The one very lucky thing about that shot was that there were two crows sitting in that right-side tree. I waited and waited until they flew away -- missed the first one, but got the second. Blind squirrel and the acorn, right?

 

[menos]

Great shot Vince - I like how this ghost house looks almost transparent with door and window allowing to see through - truly forgotten.

Crows do not hurt an image like this in my opinion - especially two of them would beautifully repeat the pattern with two threes, two visible smoke vents, …
Catching the crow in flight though odds some drama to this lifeless scene - I like.

 

[airfrogusmc]

What a productive trip Vince. Love the last shot but more important there is a wonderful body of work being created.

 

[icebear]

Great work there Vince.
The shot of that house has so many things working and the clouds were on your side, too. With a blue sky it would have been only half as dramatic. You did align the post behind the house with the door frame on purpose, did you ?

 

[icebear]

Just a couple of documentary shots of one of the coldest winters since the 30's in this part of the country:

 

[Vince Lupo]

For a minute I thought those were penguins! Nice tones, and I particularly like the bottom shot.

That tree trunk just happened to line up perfectly - I took particular note of it at the time, and remarked to myself how it was ideally placed. The whole scene just looked like a movie set!

 

[Vince Lupo]

Many thanks Helen -- I must admit, it looked a bit spooky when I saw it. Glad I chose to go down that road.

No real progress today - took a few shots, but nothing of any real value. I'll see if I'm able to get anything tomorrow before I (hopefully!) board that plane for the flight home.

Found this one among the fray - a shot from a few days ago, thought it looked interesting:


Tularosa by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

 

[john neal]

Vince,

+1 on the house shot - superb!

 

[Vince Lupo]

Thanks John - really it was just a luck of the draw.

A shot from the town of, well, Hope!


Hope by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

 

[haraldr]

Snowy landscape in light rain

Snowy landscape in light rain

New to the Monochrom and new to this forum. New to processing B&W in Lightroom as well. All the pictures taken yesterday with a M-Rokkor 40mm. Heavy snow in the morning, light rain afterwards. Did not get quite the creamy look I wanted.

L1005278-Edit.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005309-Edit.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005310-Edit-3.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005315-Edit.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005332-Edit.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005349-Edit.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

L1005341.jpg by haraldr, on Flickr

 

[Vince Lupo]

I like the atmosphere of the first shot. Now when you talk about 'creamy', what do you mean? Do you mean 'glowing' highlights? If so, are you shooting wide open with that Rokkor lens? If not, how about giving that a try?