PHOTO OF THE DAY
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Monthly Archives: May 2010
PHOTO OF THE DAY
PHOTO OF THE DAY
NY Public Library @ Bryant Park
THE LEICA SWAG BAG
My Leica swag bag came today – the prize for winning the NY Photo Festival scavenger hunt. I have to admit, I was kinda gunning for one of their point and shoots. But! Beggars can’t be choosers, and so without further ado, here’s what I won:
One Leica Baseball Cap, in black, with a red Leica badge on the front.
One small Leica bag, again in black, with badge.
One Leica mousepad! I kindof really like this one. It’s just a big round red leica logo.
One… thing? It’s like a small desktop magnifier or something. It’s cute. Came in a little jewelry box. I originally thought it was a viewfinder, which would have just been silly.
…and finally – a $150 Voucher for Leica products! It just so happens that my old Canon SD1000 is really quite dead, and while it served me well, I could use a new point-and-shoot. So this would be really great if all Leica products weren’t so damn expensive!
Their cheapest model is still $700. With my voucher, that takes it down to $550, but for that I could get a Canon S90 with a lot of change, or… well, just about any other high end compact I can think of.
I’m scouring Adorama right now, and so far all the Leica branded options I’ve got are a table-top tripod, a battery charger, or…ummmm… some $500 binoculars?
I can’t even sell the voucher, since it works like a rebate program and the name has to match the registered purchase. One day, if my adventures in imaging ever take off, I’ll get my built-to-order MP. But for now, it looks like I’ll just have to be content with my mousepad.
PHOTO OF THE DAY – Canonet
Having blown through all my Leica shots yesterday, I bring you the first of a series taken with my new Canon Canonet 28. It’s a lovely little camera, if a little limiting and sort of broken. I got it used on eBay with no promises as to its function.
It is about halfway between a point and shoot and a manual camera. A fixed 40mm lens gives you focus, aperture and ISO controls, but no shutter speed control. The ISO selector is limited to 400 on my model, and you can no longer find a battery to exactly match the voltage of the old mercury ones, which throws off the metering a bit. But it focuses quickly and accurately, is fairly quiet and unobtrusive, and a great little street camera to walk about with in the daytime. The film stock was Kodak Tri-X.
PHOTO OF THE DAY – We Have A Winner!
You may recall that on May 13th, I participated in the New York Photo Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Given the rare opportunity to test drive a Leica M9, I walked the streets of NYC for an afternoon attempting to capture a photo that would match the festival’s photo contest theme for that day – “Leica Red”. The three other themes were People, Motion, and Nature.
I assumed they would draw a winner the evening after the contest closed, or within a few days thereof. When I didn’t hear anything a week later, I assumed my photos didn’t make the cut. But lo and behold, they selected the above shot! A few others were also included on the Leica Facebook page. I have to say, it wouldn’t have been my choice, but I can’t complain!
Find below a slideshow of some of my favorites from the rest of my day. Surprisingly few matched the choices of the festival. Curious…
Download some RAW shots from the camera to play with here:
