Shootin' film!

Following an 18 month hiatus in developing film, in early June I began working through a backload of color and BW in both 135 and 120. As of this post, 11 rolls of color and seven rolls of BW. I hadn't developed film since the summer of 2023, felt a bit rusty, and was concerned about the condition of the various chemicals. Following a few weeks of hand-wringing and over-thinking I pulled the kit into the kitchen, cleaned it up, and started developing BW (HP5+ / FP4+). Over the next few days I worked through the BW backlog then turned to color. A bit more variation in film stocks as I had shot Gold 200, Portra 800, Portra 400, Portra 160 as well as a roll of Harman's Phoenix (more on that later). Cameras included my Yashica Mat 124G TLR, Leica M3 and Leica M7 (more on that later). It's good to be developing film again and I am very happy with how the negatives are turning out. 

New for me was the scanning process. Earlier this year I took delivery of Valoi's Easy 35. It is awesome! The system includes a CineStill lighting source mounted onto the box into which 35mm film is slid through and imaged. The system comes with several extension tubes to set the appropriate distance between the end of the camera lens and the film. The Valoi system physically attaches onto the end of the lens to form a sturdy kit which rests easily on my dining room table.

That system is attached to the front end of my 1992 vintage Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Micro lens which is then adapted to my Leica SL2 (see image below - taken from the Valoi website). It takes all of five minutes to scan a 36 exposure roll of film. Once complete the SD card is removed and my standard Lightroom process is engaged. In LR I bring up Negative Lab Pro to convert the images to positives and begin processing. When happy with the conversion I shift back into LR to complete the image. NLP is a slick piece of software which produces great results.

These are the settings on the SL2: manual focus, center weighted metering, ISO at 100, aperture at f/8, white balance fixed at 5500 and a two second timer engaged. Although the camera sets shutter speed I adjust exposure compensation as necessary to capture the right looking exposure for each shot. Sounds complicated but in practice I can shoot a 36 exposure roll of film in just a few minutes.  

The Valoi Easy 35, as its name implies, does not scan 120. However, there is a 120 version for which 35mm frames can be used. Probably best to buy that system if 120 film scans are in your future. Hindsight shows clearly the 120 system with 35mm add-on to be the way to go and I suspect I will pull the trigger on that system in the next few months (or less).  

Given the Valoi system I can report that my film developing/scanning workflow has dramatically improved. Developing mid-morning means I can be scanning negatives mid-afternoon and mostly processed before bedtime. Quite an improvement over flatbed scanning!  

Mentioned above was Harman's Phoenix color 35mm film. This is not a re-branded film stock but was developed from the ground up by Harman Industries. They are the parent company of Ilford so they know a thing or two about film. Phoenix produces a very different look from my usual Kodak film stocks. That said, Harman themselves state that Phoenix is an experimental, limited-edition film and a first step on their color journey. To Harman I say, "bravo!" This is certainly a risky endeavor on their part and one I hope they are successful in carrying out. I've read there are a few other Harman color films headed our way and I look forward to shooting each as they enter the market.

Also mentioned above was a Leica M7. I'll have more to say about that recent acquisition in a future posting. The bottom line up front is that I've put 10 rolls of film through it in two months and I'm preferentially carrying it over my M10R. For sure I'm in the "honeymoon phase," but the M7 is a joy to use. Again, more later.

A few images from these recent rolls of film are below.

Mid-year 2025 - Changes to the travel kit

For many years I was a consistent 28mm shooter. That focal length meshed well with how I saw the world and I found it easy to compose and shoot. As noted in these pages, most of my travel included that focal length along with a 50mm and a 90mm. However, a lens purchase from last year changed the way I frame scenes.

About a year ago I bought a used Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 C-Biogon from MapCamera in Japan (a wonderful company with whom to do business).  The "C" stands for compact and this lens is indeed quite diminutive, even for an M lens. Being a new lens in the lineup I found myself shooting it quite a bit and learned to enjoy the tighter view.  Also, as I don't like to mix it up with people on the street when I'm shooting, 35mm lets me stand a few paces further from the action and more squarely within my personal space comfort zone. And, I realized that for my standard use cases 35mm could cover the zone between 28mm and 50mm and thereby replace those two lenses. That got me thinking about changing my travel camera kit. 

With only a few exceptions I have been a 28-50-90 shooter. A few trips swapped out my ZM 25mm f/2.8 Biogon for the CV 28mm f/2 Ultron. Different, but very similar. The trip to Scotland dropped the 90mm and added a Tele-Elmar 135mm. In fact I shot a few of my favorite images of that trip with the 135mm but don't plan to bring it along on future travel. The Tele-Elmar is nearly twice the size of the CV 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar and that latter lens is far more useful for the types of images I normally shoot. And regarding the CV 50mm f/1.5 Nokton, it has travelled with me on every trip to date. 

That all changed with a recent trip to Ireland where I replaced the 28mm and 50mm with 35mm. Like last year's trip to Scotland, Ireland was another DIY adventure with my wife, her older brother and his wife. And it was another 800+ miles of driving a 9-pax van on the left side of quite small roads. Fortunately the Guinness, the Irish stew and the brown bread more than made up for any stress resulting from the driving! For camera kit I brought along the CV 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar, the CV 35mm f/1.5 Nokton and the CV 75mm f/2.5 Color-Heliar. As those three lenses are new to readers of this blog I will explain. 

21mm - Several years ago I sold a ZM 21mm Biogon to purchase the ZM 25mm Biogon. I felt the 21mm was too wide for street work and at that time I wasn't traveling as much. Fast forward to 2025 I find there is a place for 21mm in travel photography. Interiors in particular. However, I wanted a small lens. The ZM 21mm was too large for travel (as is the ZM 25mm). The CV 21mm is the newer re-designed version for digital sensors. It is a tiny lens that produces big results. However, following Ireland, I still feel 21mm is too wide and that 25mm is better for me. I'll keep the lens as it is small enough to bring along if necessary and at the used price I paid I'm happy for it to live in the back of the dry box.

35mm - A few months following purchase of the ZM 35mm C-Biogon I purchased a used CV 35mm Nokton as I wanted the extra two stops. That lens lived on the M10R during the trip to Ireland. While physically larger and heavier than the ZM C-Biogon, it is still pocketable. It is also very sharp with great renderings. I am happy with the lens. More importantly, I returned home feeling confident that 35mm could replace both 28mm and 50mm for my style of travel photography.

75mm - This focal length seemed a good paring with the 21mm / 35mm. It is an older LTM mount lens to which I installed the LTM-M adapter. Worked a treat. That lens is fairly new to me and it is not a focal length I am used to shooting. To be sure, it is sharp and it renders nicely. However, I found I really don't like the Leica M System's 75mm frame lines. That frame is included with the 50mm frame (which is an awesome frame line!) and its dotted lines appear more like a vague suggestion than actual frame lines. Too many of my 75mm images suffered poor framing due to those lines. Or, to be fair to the frame lines, suffered due to my inexperience using the lens and the associated frame lines. Truth be told I should have put in month of shooting with the lens before the trip. That didn't happen and I don't believe that lens will travel again with me.

So, 21mm and 75mm are out and I will travel next with 25mm / 35mm / 90mm. The 35mm will live on the camera as I have bonded with the focal length. The 25mm will be used for urban landscapes and images of facades / murals at close quarters. It will also be the "cathedral / museum interior" lens. The 90mm will cover those few times when I want a bit of reach. And, 90mm can crop to 135mm or a multi-image pano can replicate a 50mm.   

Two trips are planned this year and the 25mm / 35mm / 90mm will be along with me. In expectation of those focal lengths I have begun using the 90mm to improve the muscle memory. I struggle with critical focus on that lens and the only cure is to shoot it more. With regard to the 25mm, my Lightroom catalog shows I have shot 3,000 images with the CV 25mm over the past three years and I feel confident with that focal length. And finally, 35mm will be the daily driver as I'm starting to see frame lines in my head when I view the world! 

More to follow as the journey continues. See below a few BW and C41 film images shot with either an M3 or an M7 through a 35mm lens. All film developed and scanned in my kitchen.

Strasburg Photowalk

Early yesterday morning I enjoyed a photowalk through town. It was a beautiful morning shared with a few dog walkers. Perhaps a bit past golden hour but the shadows were still long and the light just contrasty enough to be pleasant and not too overpowering. The walk included a street on which I have driven many times but rarely photowalked. Not sure why except that is it quite literally on the other side of the tracks and a bit further afield from my usual paths. However, lots to see and enjoy on this route and I will add it into regular rotation. 

Since returning from Ireland in early May I have been shooting film almost exclusively. This day I thought I'd show digital a little love and grabbed the M10R and a 35mm on the way out the door. Over many months 35mm has become my standard go-to focal length and in an effort to mix things up a bit I pulled the CV 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar from the back of the dry box where it has been languishing since returning from France last fall. That lens will be part of the kit I take to England later this year and I thought I'd better start using the focal length again to re-familiarize myself with its use. Quite a bit of difference between 35mm and 90mm. Shooting mostly 35mm (and 28mm before that) I see and compose with a much wider expanse of the world than 90mm affords. Also, with a manual focus rangefinder system I find critical focusing with 90mm challenging. Best to add that focal length into regular rotation to develop the needed muscle memory.

See below a series of images from morning's photowalk, all captured on the M10R through the 90mm. 

Lightroom's Book module

Yesterday I uploaded to Blurb, through the Lightroom book module, my fifth photo book in two months. 

At a recent meeting with my photo club, there was a presentation on the use of Lightroom’s Book module. I’m sure you are well familiar with the Library and Develop modules but if you look across the top of the LR screen you will note several other modules. One of those is the Book module. Let me explain how I use it. 

But first a disclaimer - I am not an expert user of this module. With each use I  become more proficient, and I thank YouTube for the free instruction, but I'm still struggling with several aspects of the module. However, I know that in the end all will be good. It's just not yet the end.

Regarding making photo books, there are many options available to us. In the good old days I used Apple’s photo book process that was embedded within the iPhoto app. When Apple transition to the Photos app, they dropped their indigenous photo book capability. In press releases Apple stated a return to core competencies and that did not include making photo books. That was unfortunate. Over many years I made quite a few photo books and I was always very pleased with the quality of the book. The paper stock used and the printed photo renditions were both excellent. The Photos app did not remove the ability to do photo books however it moved the book development and printing to third party apps which acted as plug-ins to Apple Photos. I chose the most highly rated of the third party plug-ins and printed several books. There was a noted difference in the quality of those books from the Apple products. For several years I stop making photo books as I researched and thought through other options. 

In 2020 I looked harder at the photo book options. There are a good handful of companies in this business space. Following more research I landed on Mix Book. Between 2020 and 2024 I printed a number of photo books. In general, quality was good. One book, a collection of my favorite black and white images called “Monochrome,” showed poor renditions. Reaching out to Mix Book via email I explained my issues and posited my thoughts on why the images didn’t render as desired. In response, Mix Book concurred with my assessment, printed another copy and sent it along to me. That version was printed correctly and remains one of my favorite photo books. So, all in all, not a bad experience with Mix Book. 

However, I found working in two different apps a bit clunky. Edit to jpegs in LR (or Capture One before that) then upload to Mix Book. Arrange images as desired, add text as desired, finalize and print. It worked but I felt there was a better way.

Enter my photo club. At the December 2024 meeting I was introduced to the Book module within LR. As of that meeting I had been using LR exclusively since the previous March, a little less than a year. I had seen the modules beyond Library and Develop but had not paid them any attention. Needless to say, my eyes opened wide and my jaw dropped as I saw how to seamlessly manage photo book development within LR. Key for me is the ability to adjust image editing within the Book module. Also, I can very quickly re-enter the Library module to bring in new photos as necessary. The Book module has great tools to manage the over all layout as well as the individual look of each page. While there are automation tools I have not yet learned to use, I find the overall process easier and more intuitive than Mix Book. 

The YouTube videos I have watched taught me the value of doing a lot of upfront work while still in the Library and Develop modules. Specifically, adding keywords and image titles. Those are aspects I’ve not paid attention to in previous post-processing efforts. That has changed. Using keywords enables me to make Smart Collections containing images tied to keywords. This lets me quickly build a portfolio of images from which to populate the photo book. Once the images I seek to publish are in the Smart Collection I make a few mouse clicks and send the collection into the Book module. Adding titles enables their automatic addition onto the photo page without me having to enter text. Very useful. There is still some work to do, sequencing pages and adding (or not) additional text, but by that point I am well on the road to a completed book.

At any point in the process I am able to print the book as a pdf so I can monitor the look and layout of the book. It is during this step where I might notice that an image’s editing requires a bit or work, usually an increase in exposure. Within the Book module I am able to select an image, click into Develop, make necessary changes and click back into Book. Very fast, very useful.

In those cases where I am adding a lot of text, as with the book I just uploaded, it is the 2024 year-end compilation of my 52Frames effort, each week’s image is on the right side of the page and the left page is the write-up explaining the image. I was able to copy those descriptions directly from the 52Frames website and paste them onto a Word document. Once all 52 weeks were copied and formatted as I wanted, I copied each week's text from the document and pasted into each of the 52 left hand text pages. A layout preset was built that resulted in consistent formatting and significantly reduced the amount of “cleanup” time I need to expend when I had finished the copy / paste. Again, there are more automation / layout preset techniques I need to learn but I’m happy with my progress.

Once the book is complete and I have QA’d the end product pdf the book is uploaded to Blurb. To do that part I needed to establish an account with Blurb. No different than the account I had established with Mix Book. Upon pressing the “Send to Blurb” button in LR, my internet browser comes up and the Blurb page opens. After a few more clicks to pick the number of copies and to verify address, the book is added to the Shopping Cart, I pay for it, and Blurb sends notification to me that the job is in the cue. For my recent upload, Blurb told me to expect the book to arrive in a few weeks. However, based on my experiences with the previous four LR-to-Blurb photo books I expect it sooner.

As with other photo book makers, you have control over the format of the final book. One of the formats Mix Book offered was 8”x8” and that was my standard pick. Blurb offers 7”x7” and 12”x12”. In square I prefer the 8”x8” so instead I am choosing “Standard Landscape” at 10”x8”. A few other formats / sizes are available. Regarding covers, hardcover, with or without a dust cover, is available in addition to softcover, which I prefer. Also available are several types of paper. The previous four books used the standard, and less expensive, paper. For this fifth book I chose “Premium Lustre.” A bit more expensive but I am looking forward to seeing how it compares.

And speaking of cost, the book I just ordered will be 106 pages, the largest I have ever had printed, and it cost $78.28 (includes taxes, shipping and handling). Previous books were about 50 pages and averaged $45-$55 each. For me, well worth the cost.

Why do I print photo books?

To see my images. Why spend as much as I have on camera gear, on travel, on editing only to keep images locked up as electronic files on a variety of solid state drives (and in iCloud)? I want to see my images. Slowly, my favorite images are being printed, framed and hung on the wall. It is my goal to have the majority of “art” hanging on the walls of my home to be my photography. Photo books are the natural extension of that thinking. Memories of family and friends and wonderful trips and key milestones in life. That is what photo books give me. Gotta’ get the images off the drives and onto the coffee table!

If you’re interested in seeing your photography in an easy-to-digest format that you can hold in your hands, I cannot recommend photo books highly enough. And I cannot recommend LR Book module highly enough either. It has been a game changer for me and my photo book productivity gone through the roof. 

Cheers and good luck!

France 2024

 A few months ago I travelled to Europe for a little over three weeks. Two of those weeks were spent in France. I had always been ambivalent regarding visiting France. Everyone I spoke with who had visited ooh'd and ahh'd about their visits. For whatever reason, I refused to believe them. Finally relenting, I visited. Turns out everyone was right. France is fantastic!

In addition to Paris, my travels took me through the Loire Valley, Brittany and Normandy. Highlights of the trip, in addition to Paris itself, were the many cathedrals I toured, Bourges, Amboise, a wonderful night on Mont St. Michael, crepes and cider in Brittany, those famous beaches of Normandy - including a visit to the American Cemetery, Giverny and Monet's Gardens. Such a beautiful country. Regarding Paris, pretty much everything was amazing. I was especially captivated by the "cafe culture." So many open air cafes with seating spilling nearly onto the streets, filled with people sipping coffee, or something stronger, while watching other people and engrossed in animated  conversation with table mates. All very French. 

It was a memorable visit and I look forward to returning in the next year or so. Many more wineries to visit!

A few of my favorite images follows.   

The Eiffel Tower in nightly lights. Beautiful.

Le Pouce by César Baldaccini. This one about 12 feet tall!

An evening stroll in a wet Amboise.

Shot through a cab as we drove by. I had no feel for how large was the Arc de Triomphe.

The Cathedral in Bourges

Dott electric assist bike in Paris. Watch out for them. There are millions on the roads!

A colorful subway stop. So easy to get around Paris.

It's not called the City of Love for no reason.

I was told there is a famous painting in the Louvre. Never got close enough to confirm.

I found the statue quite dramatic. Not everyone felt the same.

Another "rainy alley in Paris" image.

Sketch artist near Sacre Couer.

Golden hour double rainbow over Mont St. Michael.

Simple and portable

That is what I ask of my camera kit. 

My photography journey began in the mid-1960s. It was at that time my dad felt I was old enough to not drop his beloved Canon kit and he showed me how to capture properly exposed and in-focus moments (I'm still leaning the framing and composition part of the equation!). It was easy then. Focus ring and aperture ring on a relatively small prime lens (a 35mm, a 50mm or a 105mm), shutter speed and ASA on the top of the camera. Load film, set ASA, focus (split ring, still my favorite in the SLR world), play around with aperture and/or shutter speed to match the ball to the needle, press the shutter release. Easy peasy. Afterwards I waited a few weeks for film development to review the images and learn how well I had listened to dad's patient instruction. Sixty years on I am still outside with cameras shooting up a storm. Thank you dad for teaching photography to me!   

While in college in the mid-1970s, my dad gifted me my first camera. It was the same camera (Canon FTb-QL) he used and that I had used, so I knew it well. Manual everything. Match ball metering. Prime lenses. Easy. A great kit that I still own and that still shoots a few rolls every year.

In the late 1980s I started buying zoom lenses, and packed away in the closet those "old fashioned" prime lenses. Much better to carry around a wide zoom, normal zoom and a tele zoom. More capability! Bigger and heavier, they must be better, right? And best of all, I look like the pros! 

In early 1990s the auto-everything SLRs were mature and ubiquitous. By then my Canon was long in the tooth but the new Canon bodies employed a different lens mount with no compatibility with my older FD/FL lenses. I had no reason to stay with Canon and Nikon's advertising was very persuasive. I bought an N90, a few zoom lenses and a bigger camera bag. 

In the late 2000s I moved to Japan for a few years. By then, in addition to having the N90, I had been gifted a Nikon D100 (with the battery grip, just like the pros!). I had also added more lenses, flashes, cables, wires and my bag was larger and heavier than ever. 

It was on one of my first weekend photo walk-abouts in the Tokyo metropolitan area that I realized I had too much gear. That very next weekend I packed away the Nikon gear and bought a Canon PowerShot G10 15MP digital point-and-shoot. For three years I traveled all over Japan and Asia with that camera and it opened up a whole new world for me. And it continued to perform well for many years after I returned to the States. Still have it, still works well (traveled with me to Scotland earlier this year). Simple and portable. A theme that has resonated with me ever since.

In the waning months of 2019 I began looking at the current offerings of the camera industry. Gone was film, gone were the SLRs, and the DSLRs were being replaced by mirrorless cameras. No reflex mirrors flopping up and down with each image. Less moving parts, less to go wrong (although to be honest in my decades shooting SLRs I had never had a mirror or shutter failure). What's not to like about mirrorless cameras? They are computers with lenses. They even get software upgrades. Being computers, their software has a setting for every scenario a photographer would ever, in multiple lifetimes, come across. To support that increased functionality, manufacturers covered the cameras in customizable buttons, knobs and dials. Of course that required every possible feature in these auto-everything wonders to be accessible via ever expanding menu schemas. More features, more menu headings, and sub-menus and sub-sub menus. As one example, per Google, the full operating manual for the Nikon Z8 is 948 pages. The simplified User Guide is 239 pages. I'm not picking on Nikon. The Z8 is an amazing, pro-level camera deserving of all the buzz it receives in the camera media. And I am sure Canon's and Sony's manuals are just as long. 

However, the standard mirrorless camera of today is just too complicated for me. 

Don't misunderstand. I'm plenty smart enough to figure them out. I just don't want to have to figure them out. I want to feel the same joy, to experience the same simplicity of photography I felt back in the 1960s and 1970s. I'd like to look at the camera and know its settings. Aperture, shutter speed and ASA (I mean, ISO). While there are exceptions, that just isn't possible for the vast majority of mirrorless cameras on the market. 

To be fair, these are modern marvels. The image quality of a fairly straight forward sub-$1,000-ish digital mirrorless camera is superb. Better than ever in the history of photography. And the expensive end of each company's sensor / body offerings are even better, with even more features! As new models come to market the bar is raised even further. More resolution, faster processing, better video specs. Amazing cameras. But for me, it's too much. I feel less like I am taking a picture with a camera and more like I am taking a picture with a computer, or with an exceptionally large iPhone Pro Max. 

I feel no joy. 

Instead,

I want simple. 

I want portable. 

And that theme led me to the Fuji X100 series, then to the Fuji X-Pro series and finally to the Leica M series. 

About the Fujis I will state only that they are, like all mirrorless systems, superb cameras with an amazing lineup of lenses supporting them. Although my X-Pro3 was sold off to help fund a used Leica M10R, the X100V remains in my dry box. Yes, it's complicated. It is a modern mirrorless with buttons and dials. Yes, the menu system requires study, and every time I pick it up I have to refamiliarize myself with the operating system. But the optical portion of the hybrid viewfinder is a joy to look through. Clean and unobtrusive. Look through one, shoot with it for a day and you'll understand the buzz behind those cameras. 

It was the optical viewfinder of the X100/X-Pro that led me to buy a used Leica M10R. Optical viewfinder, manual rangefinder focusing, manual aperture ("Aperture priority"), prime lenses which don't talk to the camera body, a solid chunk of hand formed metal (there is no doubt you are holding a finely crafted piece of machinery), it is an amazingly versatile and rugged camera. And it is my go-to, daily carry. Every time I walk out of my house it is with me. In the past two and a half years, I've hauled it through Iceland, Scotland, France, Central Europe, London, several U.S. states and multiple National Parks. Snow, ice, rain, wind, dust. The camera just keeps on taking pictures. To be clear, it has been well used, but not abused. I protect it best I can and make sure it is clean and dry before tucking it in for the evening.

Regarding simplicity, while I have not completed any formal studies on this topic, based on having perused menu systems of a variety of camera systems, it seems to me none are simpler than Leica's. In fact, fully 99% of the time I enter the menu system it is to format an SD card or to select the correct lens upon mounting it to the body. I can look at the camera, see the ISO, shutter speed, aperture and the distance where the lens is focused. I'm ready to shoot. Simple.  

As for portability, when carried across body and under a jacket, no one knows I have a camera. Although stealthy carry may not be a driver for most folks, carrying around a lot of weight often is. My standard travel kit is the camera body and three small prime lenses - a 28mm f/2, a 50mm f/1.5 and a 90mm f/2.8.  The 28 is usually on the camera while the 50 and the 90 are carried in jacket pockets. A spare battery in my pants pocket along with a spare SD card and I am good to go. For daily walks locally, a 35mm f/2.8 is mounted and I'm out the door. Although I have many, I rarely use a camera bag these days. 

I love my M10R. However, the M system is not perfect. Far from it. The longest, native mount, rangefinder coupled focal length available is 135mm. I own one and it can be a challenge to focus. Through the optical view finder the 135mm focus box is quite small. When using that lens I usually attach the Leica Visoflex to the coupled hot shoe and look through it to focus and compose. Through the Visoflex I see a standard mirrorless electronic viewfinder. It is not the optical viewfinder, manual rangefinder experience I have come to love. Bottom line is the only way I can shoot longer than 135mm is to adapt a third party lens onto the M10R and shoot through the Visoflex. I'm not willing to do that and those images don't get made. Fortunately, with the 40MP sensor I can crop into a scene and still have resolution for a nice final image. For those cases, my 90mm and more rarely, my 135mm, work well.

If you want zoom lenses, the Leica M system is not for you. There are no zoom lenses available for the system. Leica does produce two lenses which each enable three different focal lengths. But that system is like three prime lenses housed in one lens body. They are not traditional zoom lenses. And they are big, heavy, f/4, and expensive. I am very happy shooting small, fast prime lenses. Zooms are convenient but I can't think of a scene I missed by not having a zoom. And the more I shoot primes, the more awkward I feel when I shoot zooms. 

Battery life is too short. However, that is overcome through the purchase of additional batteries. On a daily basis I  manage power such that I don't need to change batteries in dicey situations and I have never missed an image due to a dead battery. Regarding those additional batteries, there are no third party manufacturers of Leica M systems batteries. All of mine are Leica branded and all are quite expensive at $200 each!  

Finally, speaking of "expensive," it is no secret that Leica systems are very expensive. As of this post, through B&H, the cost of a new Leica M11 is more than the cost of a new Nikon Z8 body AND a new Nikon Z9 body together! Either of those camera bodies have so many more features and capabilities to offer and much more bang for the buck. However, neither of those cameras are simpler to use and both are far less portable than the M10R. 

Building out a camera kit gear involves tradeoffs in cost, features, capabilities, simplicity and portability. Every photographer needs to work through which combination of tradeoffs are most important to them. For me, at this point in my life, simplicity and portability are paramount. 

Cheers all!

52Frames and 2024

 We're beginning the last full week in 2024 and that completes my second consecutive year as a "52Framer." See my post from March 2023 regarding what 52Frames is and why I signed on to participate. In short, over the past two years I've posted an image to the site every week. Well, almost every week. This past March just after returning from Iceland I woke at 0230 on a Monday morning realizing I had not posted, by Sunday's 2359 due date, the previous week's (Week 11) image whose prompt was, "Roads." The unfortunate thing was that I had the image ready to go. It was an image I shot on our last full day in Iceland in nearly white out conditions. I added it to the comments section of that next week's post so I felt better about myself. However, the "52Framer" counter paused at Week 11 and started over for week 12. All good. That image below.

Other than that one glitch I'm 103 for 104 weeks so far. Not bad. The prime directive is to upload an image every week. While there is a topical prompt for each week's images, more important is to upload. Of course the kicker is that the image must be shot in that week. No rummaging through the back catalog for your amazing shots. Go out with the camera each and every week and take pictures. No issues with me, I love getting out and about in my little town, or the surrounds, for a bit of Jim and camera time. But, and I have to be honest, a number of this year's submissions were phoned in. At least I felt they were phoned in. It has been a busy year for me and I just wasn't feeling it for a lot of the prompts. Or, by the time I got around to shooting the prompt it was too late and I needed something to upload. Thank you iPhone for always being with me such that I have a supply of ready-to-upload images of stuff-I-see. It may sound like I'm beating myself up on this issue but I'm really not. I'm happy with 90% of the images I've uploaded over the past two years and that is all I ask of myself. If I'm able to hit the prompt as well, that's icing on the cake.

Going into 2025 my goal is to continue uploading every week. I will try to meet the literal intent, or at lease the general spirit, of each week's prompt, but if not, so be it. There are no 52Frames police. There is however a very large and supportive international community of extremely talented and creative photographers ready to provide feedback (if asked). I am very grateful for those who, in 2023/24, took the time to discuss, in one or two short sentences, their thoughts on my images. Their comments were always helpful for me. Talented and creative aside, I review images for each week's prompts and there are more than a few which appear to me to have been phoned in as well. Gotta' say, I am happy to see those, as it helps me realize I am not alone in living a busy, hectic life.

52Frames has improved my photography. For those weeks when I buckle down and really work the prompt, I learn about myself, my camera and my photography. That is the reason I keep participating. 

See the link, https://52frames.com/, for more information about this large international photography community. In the mean time, here are a few of my favorites from 2024.

Week 1 - Self Portrait

Week 5 - Shot from below

Week 7 - Unexplored

Week 10 - Symmetrical composition

Week 18 - Something I made

Week 26 - Negative space

Week 35 - Rule of thirds

Week 40 - A quiet moment

Week 47 - High key

Week 51 - Black and white minimalism