Olympus E-PL1 and Fun with $90

Another WIN! On the for sale board, the "ancient" Olympus E-PL1, with kit zoom lens, for $90, shipped. I would be a moron to not buy it. (OK, I would be a moron to buy it. So as you can see, since I would be a moron either way...)

I played with the E-PL1 and the Leica X2, because I felt like it. Anyway... I compared images from the Leica X2 against the E-PL1 (I know I know not fair guess what don't care), in approximately equal environment, the X2 kicked the E-PL1's butt..

It was snowing out. I wanted to take my camera. Guess which one I could afford to get snowed on? Yup.

At Dupont Circle

It was MUCH more comfortable, as in, warmer, inside...

Oooo.... Grainy... ISO 1600 on the E-PL1... Bad, and, interesting too.

I am not sure what is going to happen between us. I have too many (again) cameras. And I am in my Leica-lust-passion-fest...

The Return of the Leica X2

A few months ago, by "luck," I owned the Leica X1 and X2 at the same time. I returned the X1 (thankfully it was still within the no-questions asked return period), and kept the X2. I loved the look of the X2. So simple. So direct. I won it on Ebay, for about $900. At first I was giddy, and then I realized that no one else placed a bid because it was "incomplete." The camera did not come with the original charger, or the box. This is a big deal because it would be difficult to resell a camera without its original box. And I had long accepted that any notion keeping a camera "forever" was an illusion. I could have offered to cancel the deal, because the seller could not find something (irrelevant) he promised in the ad.

I REALLY wanted to have an X2, and I had the money in my camera fund.

After a couple months, I sold the X2. But I missed it a lot (this was unusual, therefore I knew it was for real, as in, true love), even though I already have the Leica T, Leica Digilux 1, and the Leica M9. Fast forward to last week, as usual, I obsessively scanned the ads, and I saw that the person who sold me the T had just made his X2 available on the for sale board. I bought it, thus owning an X2 for the 2nd time.

The camera is so beautiful.

Yes I cloned out the license plate.

And besides for what I paid, it would be cheaper to own the X2 with the Elmarit lens, than to buy an M-mount Elmarit. At least that's the story I tell myself...

I now have 4 leicas. I love to touch and stare at them. They are scattered around my bed. Other than the Fuji X100, I can't say that about any other camera that I have owned...

As If Breathing

My friends ask me about my photographs: "what happened to you these past 2 months?" I am so glad that they (and others) noticed... I am not going to tell you what they said, because... it's embarrassing to hear good words about my work*

A good number of writers on photography (on the internet) insist that only the best work should be presented in online galleries. I agree with them. It is a good discipline. I don't do that, not because I don't have discipline. Well OK I have issues with discipline. But more important to me is to remember my transformations. I want to share my development with my friends. I want them to see how I evolve. I want them to see my missteps and my experiments.

I think about photography day and night. I imagine ideas. I think about techniques. I used to think about Judo day and night. Before that I used to think about cooking day and night. After Judo I thought about Tango day and night. So, yeah... I am obsessive.

A few nights ago, I stared outside my window, into the icy rain, and I HAD to capture the icicles. So, I grabbed my camera, and took this, and posted it onto 500px. Only to remove it 10 minutes later.

What a fucking moron I was. I had no business showing this photo. 1/4 second, ISO 1600, hand-held, no vibration reduction?? That's just plain stupid. I was angry at myself. So, I yanked it out, and tried again. This time, with more seriousness.

That got me thinking a lot about long exposure time. So I started to play.

Yes, yawn. Here is the thing: EVERYONE has to go through it. I had never gone through this phase. So I had to. I didn't have a choice. I had to do it. So, stupid, yet so necessary.

And then, I went to the milonga.

I also took a few "normal" shots.

Still, look at the settings in these last two photographs. 1/15 second, hand-held...

Anyway, what the hell is happening to me? I gave my friends very very very long answers. The short version is that, photography has become closer to... breathing.

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* Long story. Let's just say that I am still striving to prove that I am worthy..