Leica M8 and environmental portraiture

More on this later, but I really appreciate the M8's ability to work in edge lighting conditions, and with extremely little distortion, without fail.

The lenses are to thank for this, of course; these shots are all taken with the 24mm Leica Elmarit M, which is fabulously well-corrected and wonderfully detailed.

Anyway, this was a great wedding--Nikki and Spiro--and I loved the way these helped me express the day.

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Groom in Canmore, Alberta. Leica M8
Working with the Leica M8

Ok, just a brief entry here on working with the Leica M8.

I've used this system since November, and know it's strengths and weaknesses pretty well now.

There's a lot of "general opinion" that it's a fairly flawed camera.

But in my opinion, it's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, and I'm not just talking about the legendary Leica glass, though that's enough of a strength for some right there.

No, I like the way the camera shoots. A lot has been written about how it's a true M camera, a rangefinder, and wonderfully ergonomic.

But it's also really invisible. Pictures here are from downtown Toronto around afternoon rush hour; the M8, without a flash, is the perfect camera for environmental portraiture and taking advantage of the wonderful natural light everywhere.

A couple of the pictures here are from BCE place in downtown Toronto, where pros with "pro-looking" cameras have been asked to leave before...

No-one at all bothered me with the M8. Since I looked like a tourist, they assumed I was a tourist.

Anyway, I'm going to write more about this very interesting camera. It's a tough one to master; when it messes up, it doesn't do so in a nice average way. But if you know what you're doing, it's truly a great tool for expression.

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