Takkun
Ian M.
Backstory:
I've been shooting with rangefinders, Bessas in particular, on and off since high school, but this summer, I finally decided to ditch the beastly Nikons left over from my press days and dive headfirst into RFs for urban photography. I treated myself to a gently used M5 to build my kit around.
Now, when I'd be out with a D3 and 85mm lens, my subjects would run for cover when I'd point that on them. Alternately, I'd get people coming up to talk shop, particularly the 'well let me tell you about my Canon, and why it's clearly the better camera' sort of conversations I don't particularly enjoy having.
But mostly I'd get the former reaction.
While there's a lot I could say about interacting with subjects on the street and the difficulties of doing so, I've noticed something very peculiar these days.
Just today alone, on three separate occasions, people struck up conversation with me. Starting with 'hey, is that really an M5?' The sort of sentence that makes me a little more inclined to respond than the ubiquitous 'hey, nice camera!'. These weren't just aspiring Leica fanatics or gearheads, but some very interesting people--a retired foreign correspondent, a former Leica distributor, a museum employee. Now this happens probably once a week, it so seems. Always fascinating conversation.
I just find it ironic that a camera I use specifically not to draw attention seems to be the cause of so many (delightful) chance introductions.
I've been shooting with rangefinders, Bessas in particular, on and off since high school, but this summer, I finally decided to ditch the beastly Nikons left over from my press days and dive headfirst into RFs for urban photography. I treated myself to a gently used M5 to build my kit around.
Now, when I'd be out with a D3 and 85mm lens, my subjects would run for cover when I'd point that on them. Alternately, I'd get people coming up to talk shop, particularly the 'well let me tell you about my Canon, and why it's clearly the better camera' sort of conversations I don't particularly enjoy having.
But mostly I'd get the former reaction.
While there's a lot I could say about interacting with subjects on the street and the difficulties of doing so, I've noticed something very peculiar these days.
Just today alone, on three separate occasions, people struck up conversation with me. Starting with 'hey, is that really an M5?' The sort of sentence that makes me a little more inclined to respond than the ubiquitous 'hey, nice camera!'. These weren't just aspiring Leica fanatics or gearheads, but some very interesting people--a retired foreign correspondent, a former Leica distributor, a museum employee. Now this happens probably once a week, it so seems. Always fascinating conversation.
I just find it ironic that a camera I use specifically not to draw attention seems to be the cause of so many (delightful) chance introductions.
