Recently we travelled up to London to attend the Leica Akademie: a workshop for users of Leica Cameras to help them get the most from their rangefinder, and we also wanted to pop in and view the Ansel Adams exhibition in Greenwich. Previous to this London visit we had visited the Leica store in Mayfair and met with John Dooley, a Leica instructor who is also an Architectural photographer and previously the photo editor at The Daily Telegraph. After chatting with him over a coffee and playing with a 50mm Noctilux lens (yes please), he mentioned they ran workshops for Leica photographers so I got myself booked on as a good excuse to drink more of their coffee, hang out with other Leica users; and just get in to London to do some street photography which I don’t get much of a chance to do.
The workshop was three hours in total, mixed with people new to Leica along with those more familiar with them. Part of the workshop was heading out on to the streets to take photos for half an hour. It was good fun walking around with the sole intention of taking photos and nothing else.
Below are a few photos from the street part of the day, under pressure to get a few photos within half an hour or so. For those interested, my street photography setup is a Black Leica M9, Gordy hand strap and 50mm Summicron (very occasionally I’ll use a 35mm Summicron). I also use a Sigma DP2 Merrill for certain conditions, a Leica M6 with 50mm Summicron (HP5 film) or a Canon 5D mk3. Most of the time I actually use my trusty mobile phone (Nexus 5X as of 2016) and really enjoy it.
Our thanks go out to John Dooley for a great day and some golden tips; and everyone else at Leica who spent a lot of time to just talk photography with us, it was a great pleasure and we hope we didn’t take up too much of your time. For anyone with a Leica looking to familiarise themselves with the nuances, I recommend getting on the workshop. They are also extending this soon to include more specialised areas like black and white photography.
Dripping in jewellery
Prashant - amazing article I really enjoyed.