Going through my pre-pandemic trips and rekindled my travels through London with the Leica SL. There is nothing better than remembering the good old days and how life was prior to COVID. We are getting there, sooner than later we will be back to travelling and experiencing what life around the world has to offer for us. For now walking down memory lane is what we have. I do not have the Leica SL anymore but in reality, today, it is still a very good camera even with its age. Today’s cameras are moving towards the high megapixel technology but in all honesty 24 megapixels for me is still the sweet spot. Large enough to print great quality photos and small enough that it wont break the bank with all the hard disk space and processing power you will need. Who wants Lightroom to hang up trying to process those high resolution files? At 24 MP, the original Leica SL is still a fantastic camera, and for the price and those wanting to get into the Leica SL ecosystem its a great choice! This post is more so to share images from my trip to London with the Leica SL.

The last year has been a challenging one to say the least and it has been quite a while since I last posted, shared or wrote any content on my site. We all run thru trials and tribulations and the last six months has had me stay away from writing. I am restarting and kicking the wheels on getting the ball moving here again and as a first post in almost a year I would like to share some time I spent last summer in the quaint small towns of northeastern France. Having been to Paris for a second time in the last few years we wanted to explore the countryside of France and ended up visiting the towns of Colmar, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr and Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg. Definitely a change from the city of love and the bright lights of Paris but lovely and charming in its own way and right. Beginning the second year of owning the Leica SL, this would just be another place to continue to put the test to the Leica SL.

Germany, Cologne… and here we were with Photokina 2018 kicking off. The past few weeks have been dominated by announcements from Canon and Nikon with the EOS R and Z systems respectively. I have been keeping an eye on Leica Rumors as a few intriguing rumors have been swirling around…. Leica Q2, Leica SL2, maybe a mini M (CM) or maybe Leica would finally release the 35mm or 50mm Summicron which at this point long overdue. I had some excitement looking forward to the press release from Leica, and here I am with my thoughts on the news that came out of Photokina. Somewhat disappointed but lets go over some of the key notes.

Those of you who follow my blog or my posts know that I shoot with Leica cameras or primarily the Leica SL at the moment, but today I will be going over my experience with the Fuji X100f. With my move to a Leica SL from a Leica Q, the one aspect that I lost in between that decision was portability for times when I am on the go or need to travel light. With this my decision came to try and give the Fuji X100f a shot as a companion camera to my main set. For the days when I need a semi pocketable camera that I can take along to places like amusement parks, family get together's and so on. This gives me a camera that's way better than just a smartphone for times when I do not want to bring the Leica SL. What I will go over in this post is how well the Fuji X100f complements my Leica SL from functional and technical perspective.

Love it or hate it, that's the term or review I have found the most about this lens, but one statement I have also heard is how this lens has a special character to it. If your looking for that classic or Hollywood glam look of the 1950s, this lens design is your lens. That is really what drew me to this particular lens, my style is looking for those timeless photographs that feel like a lost memory. So I took the plunge and made the effort to make this my primary lens for over one year and decide whether I love it or hate it. With that, I look to share an extensive review of the Sonnar f1.5 to provide a personal field test and view of the lens. When I first started looking at this lens, there really was not any reviews or articles on it, probably due to the fact that there are not many fans of this lens. I've often heard comments about it's softness or so but I will go through how to overcome this and hopefully through this post I can add public information about this lens for anyone interested.

Recently an opportunity came across my lap and got me excited, my brother in law was looking into getting into the Leica system and was jumping straight into it with purchasing a Leica Noctilux. He has asked me to purchase it in advance and my only response was heck yeah as this would give me a week to try out the legendary Noctilux. Its very rare that you get to hold and shoot with a $10,000 lens so this was an opportunity that I was excited for and had me waiting for the UPS truck to arrive. 

Recently an opportunity came across my lap and got me excited, my brother in law was looking into getting into the Leica system and was jumping straight into it with purchasing a Leica Noctilux. He has asked me to purchase it in advance and my only response was heck yeah as this would give me a week to try out the legendary Noctilux. Its very rare that you get to hold and shoot with a $10,000 lens so this was an opportunity that I was excited for and had me waiting for the UPS truck to arrive. 

Travel Photography is all about being on the go and exploring countries, cities and small towns of the world. Those of you who follow me know that my philosophy in photography is one lens and one camera and being agile and ready to go is the biggest advantage in just going out and shooting photos. Trusting in a single focal length for that particular day, shoot or walk is the approach I take as this will let me just focus on framing my composition.

Recently an opportunity came across my lap and got me excited, my brother in law was looking into getting into the Leica system and was jumping straight into it with purchasing a Leica Noctilux. He has asked me to purchase it in advance and my only response was heck yeah as this would give me a week to try out the legendary Noctilux. Its very rare that you get to hold and shoot with a $10,000 lens so this was an opportunity that I was excited for and had me waiting for the UPS truck to arrive. 

Primes are here! 

Its been over a year and a half since the Leica SL lens road map was announced at Photokina, but we are finally seeing the first products of that road map with the official Leica announcement of the 75mm and the 90mm Summicron Prime Lenses. To me, this is exciting as I have been waiting for the new primes to be released since moving to the SL system. The Vario lenses and the 50 Summilux to date have been lenses that I tend to shy away from due to size and weight. Those of you who follow my profile know that I like to be mobile and travel with one lens so primes are my go-to options. To this date, I have been shooting with M mount lenses on my SL as I wait for the release of the 35mm prime. 

Today is a new day, and with a painful heart I am moving on from the Leica Q to try out the Leica SL. Over the last 18 months I really have grown one with my Leica Q and it has never let me down. It has so far been the best camera experience I have ever had and as I am writing the new post I also have posted my Leica Q for sale to fund the Leica SL purchase. Finally deciding to push forward I find myself in a torn situation with a feeling of potential regret of moving on from the Leica Q. I might shed a tear but its unreasonable to have two pricey cameras. I would like to start this post with my greatest appreciation for the Leica Q, it truly is a magnificent camera, and even to this date, its still has an amazing image quality and soul to it. More than two years since its release it still hold up well with newer cameras today. Had I not decided to move to the Leica SL.

Opening new gear is pure joy, I know you all have been there. Ordering your gear, unboxing the gear and feeling, touching and testing out your new toys. This was always a great feeling that fuels your G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) to want more. But ever since moving to a Leica system the love for my gear has exponentially grown. Yes you sign over your life for purchasing Leica gear but you really get what you pay for. If you are a person who appreciates the finer details of life and the minuscule details and the thought put into industrial designs then Leica will truly appreciate. 

For the purist at heart and those who just love to go out there and shoot photos, things can start to get really complicated as you add layers and layers onto your photography workflow process. Today I tackle on describing what I go through from a Lightroom processing workflow perspective as I pop the card out of my camera and into my digital PC.

In today's world social media is such a huge tool in everything you do as a person, business or entity. It's unavoidable and a really good community to get your digital self marketed. As a photographer, sharing your experiences or some of your day to day work builds a brand and following that leads to other opportunities. Along with all the benefits of starting and growing your social network presence come along the challenges and the pitfalls.

You have been there, you hit those lulls and lazy days where you just think to yourself, nah I don't need that camera sitting there. It could be a normal day, getting to errands, out for a jog, or just the normal day to the office. Seeing the same thing you see and walk by everyday. We all get in this cycle of repetitiveness that it happens, we get uninspired and the camera just sits there. Sometimes its tough to get those creative juices going again, you just think to yourself why bother. I am not going to see anything of interest today, its just another run to the coffee shop. So, how do I get out of this rut or prevent it?

As we ride the social photography boom of today with smartphones, social networks and mobile apps, there is a growing dependence on filters and post processing applications to give your photographs that extra oomph. It's a question I always get when posting photos on socials media, "What filter did you use?". Answer is, when the shot is a great shot, "None" and even minimal post processing. 

When photographing a landscape, colors and details can make a normal landscape a glorious photo. There's so many things to consider when looking for that perfect emotion you are looking to portray in an image. Often times it requires you the photographer to return to a location multiple times in a year, waiting... waiting and waiting for the right time.

As I look at my favorite photos in my collection of photographs, I start to notice a pattern of how these photos came about. As all photographers or anyone travelling do, we all plan, map and scope out the itinerary of where we are going and what we expect to see. Deciding on the best time of day to visit a location and to try and capture that special moment. But even with the best of plans, we can never foresee circumstances of each and every day and what nature will provide to us.

Simplicity that has enhanced my focus on pure photography.