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Dad Photographer
We got back from Italy a couple of days ago, and the jet lag effect still shows a little on us. We spent 17 days in two locations; 5 days at the beach resort Rimini, followed by 10 days in Siena (Tuscany). Overall, the trip was a success for us as a family.
I took with me the M9 and the SWC. The lens that was used most of the time was the 35/1.4 pre-asph Lux Version 2. I could have left home the Heliar 50/3.5 and the CV 25/4 without any loss of opportunities at all. I may have screwed things up after over 12 days into the trip by rotating batteries in the M9. That was a bummer since I had original batteries and off brand ones. The M9 got the well known "battery is dead when in fact it is not" syndrome. I tried to take care of the problem by turning off the M9 and letting it forget, before taking another photo with it. Then I gave up on the M9 and I used the SWC for a couple of days. It is a good back-up camera!
Most of the time, I set the ISO to 160, and then in the lat afternoons I would use ISO 500, and at night maybe ISO 1250. I was very busy with my family each day, being a father and having the responsibility of driving a manual shift car in towns without many places for parking. Gas stations shut down during certain hours of the day, so it was important to fill up when possible.
Cash problems suddenly emerged after finding out that using a debit card to withdraw cash (for smaller expenses) required a PIN that did not have more than six digits. I had to contact our bank via email to ask them to change the PIN to fewer digits.
The rental car had problems. It was the most annoying problem in the trip. I emailed Hertz about it yesterday. I ended my email with "I feel cheated and robbed".
I did not take with me any laptop computer, and I just used multiple memory cards, which I changed every few days.
It was a real treat to again meet with Robert and his wife. They were lodging in a small ancient village one hour driving south of Siena, where we were staying, so we agreed to meet at their village, and then we toured two or three additional locations in Tuscany that day. Having two Italian people guide you around was very special. Using Leica cameras was a treat! Robert and I chatted also about our cameras, but mostly it was chatting about the history of the places that we visited together. We were barely back "home" that evening when Robert had sent us some suggestions for us to visit. Then, Robert and Nico (from Lucca) called each other, and we all agreed to drive from Siena to Pisa and then Lucca, to meet with Nico and his family. It was a very nice traveling day, with Robert taking the lead where we would be driving and where we could find a good parking place. Dana and Lina had lots of fun taking photos of the leaning tower of Pisa. They picked up some Italian words too. We met with Nico and his wife in their home, and we all enjoyed a great dinner. Then, the GPS ( a must item in Italy!) guided us back at night to Siena,
I will post some pics here from the trip. I took over 1300 photos with the M9.
I took with me the M9 and the SWC. The lens that was used most of the time was the 35/1.4 pre-asph Lux Version 2. I could have left home the Heliar 50/3.5 and the CV 25/4 without any loss of opportunities at all. I may have screwed things up after over 12 days into the trip by rotating batteries in the M9. That was a bummer since I had original batteries and off brand ones. The M9 got the well known "battery is dead when in fact it is not" syndrome. I tried to take care of the problem by turning off the M9 and letting it forget, before taking another photo with it. Then I gave up on the M9 and I used the SWC for a couple of days. It is a good back-up camera!
Most of the time, I set the ISO to 160, and then in the lat afternoons I would use ISO 500, and at night maybe ISO 1250. I was very busy with my family each day, being a father and having the responsibility of driving a manual shift car in towns without many places for parking. Gas stations shut down during certain hours of the day, so it was important to fill up when possible.
Cash problems suddenly emerged after finding out that using a debit card to withdraw cash (for smaller expenses) required a PIN that did not have more than six digits. I had to contact our bank via email to ask them to change the PIN to fewer digits.
The rental car had problems. It was the most annoying problem in the trip. I emailed Hertz about it yesterday. I ended my email with "I feel cheated and robbed".
I did not take with me any laptop computer, and I just used multiple memory cards, which I changed every few days.
It was a real treat to again meet with Robert and his wife. They were lodging in a small ancient village one hour driving south of Siena, where we were staying, so we agreed to meet at their village, and then we toured two or three additional locations in Tuscany that day. Having two Italian people guide you around was very special. Using Leica cameras was a treat! Robert and I chatted also about our cameras, but mostly it was chatting about the history of the places that we visited together. We were barely back "home" that evening when Robert had sent us some suggestions for us to visit. Then, Robert and Nico (from Lucca) called each other, and we all agreed to drive from Siena to Pisa and then Lucca, to meet with Nico and his family. It was a very nice traveling day, with Robert taking the lead where we would be driving and where we could find a good parking place. Dana and Lina had lots of fun taking photos of the leaning tower of Pisa. They picked up some Italian words too. We met with Nico and his wife in their home, and we all enjoyed a great dinner. Then, the GPS ( a must item in Italy!) guided us back at night to Siena,
I will post some pics here from the trip. I took over 1300 photos with the M9.
