Olympus XA goes to the Kerry rally in Cleveland

[DougK]

All,

I'm not going to get political with this post but what an amazing photographic experience! Just me, an Olympus XA, and one 24 exposure roll of 400 speed film. Unfortunately, I ran out of film before Kerry walked by (I was about 15 feet from the walkway), but hopefully some of the shots I took will come out. I'll take 'em in for developing tomorrow (well, today, I guess) and I sure learned a lot about street photography in a very short amount of time.

Probably more of interest to the folks here at RFF, Leicas were much in evidence amongst the press photographers who were doing the up close and personal shots; one young lady had two plus an SLR and most of the photogs had at least one RF of some sort.

Remember, no matter which candidate you support, GET OUT AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON 11/2!

 

[Rich Silfver]

I'm surprised to hear that professional photojournalists still use Leicas at events like these. Pleasantly surprised for some reason 🙂

Would love to see photos of these photogs if you caught any of them - looking forward to seeing your results regardless. Post here soon 🙂

For vote information I like the http://electoral-vote.com/ site for electoral vote predictions.

 

[DougK]

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the photographers, sorry about that Rich... Leica Girl was pretty cute too 🙂 I met up with my buddy who sells the studio equipment at Dodd and he says that most of the working pros he talks to carry both a Canon 1D and a Leica. We're not dinosaurs yet 🙂

If you think about it, a rangefinder is perfect for the situations a lot of those folks covering the campaign work in: tight quarters, never know when the decisive moment will happen, and they need to move quickly when it does. Of course, the photo pit itself was filled with the big zoom SLR people...

Overall, a very neat experience, even if I am short (5'8") and was surrounded by very tall people :bang:

 

[DougK]

I got the film back today and I must say I'm quite surpised how well the XA did in tough lighting conditions. It is definitely harder for me to handhold this camera steadily than the others in my collection, but I did get a couple of shots that came out decently considering I was on my tiptoes holding the camera at arm's length above my head to get over the crowd for most of them. Some flare was in evidence but given the lighting conditions, I'm not going to hold it against the camera, I think any camera would have had similar issues from my location. Unfortunately, I left the prints at work but I should be able to scan and post tomorrow evening.

 

[DougK]

Pictures at last...

Pictures at last...

I'm amazed how well these came out considering the conditions... in this shot, we have Mayor Jane Campbell of Cleveland starting things off. Looks like I need to dust my scanner more often though....

 

[DougK]

Here we have senatorial candidate Eric Fingerhut whipping up the crowd.

 

[DougK]

And finally, Bruce Springsteen, the highlight of the evening for many, I'm sure. I think I got bumped right as the shutter went off. Crappy pic, but I HAD to get a shot of the Boss up here 🙂