Micro Purpose

I set auto ISO to 6400, shutter speed at 1/30, and manual focus. I pick some random object at about 10 feet away, and pre-focus the lens. And then I step out of the apartment, into the night, with a micro purpose.

I want people to see that I am taking pictures. I am not going to be sneaky. Well ok, not one micro purpose. Several.

To capture images on the street, of people, is very easy. To capture interesting images of people on the street, ridiculously difficult. So I ease myself, I take a shitty photo of a building, "with people."

Shitty picture of a building. Yawn.

But here is the thing: I crouch into a wide stance, I take forever to focus (because I had previously set to about 10 feet, and I just basically ruined my plan..), and I am OBVIOUSLY taking a picture. Not too far away, I see a man in a wheelchair, my brain says, "hmmm this is an interesting shot, because, man-in-wheelchair-against-the-stream-of-oncoming-everyone-else-people." It's a stupid idea. But my micro-purpose tonight is to make it obvious that I am taking pictures. So I crouch into my wide stance again, I lift the camera to my eye, and I focus. Now, everyone but the man sees what I am doing. I think, better than the building shot.

The man and I are waiting for the light. And I think, "oh another interesting shot." (Look, I know the shots are stupid. But I am in my 10,000 crappy photo journey, so, it's got to be this way, for a long long time.) And I compose, shoot, compose, shoot, repeat. He turns to me, says something that I can't hear. I walk towards him, and show him the picture of himself. "Oh man that's nice." I pat him on his shoulder, I say, "Thank you."

I try a new restaurant.

I have coffee. And I play with my Digilux 1.

In Which Boxy Adorable Is More Important

Finally the Leica Digilux 1 arrived. The battery hardly holds a charge anymore. Don't care. The moment I took it out of the box, I was drawn by the chunky boxy silver+black and pretty much everything about the way it looks. I continue to be a sucker for beautiful things.

This point-and-shoot, from 2002, is large. Today, I think point-and-shoot means tiny, in shirt pocket, you know, smart phone sized. But the Digilux 1 is most certainly not pocketable. I am glad about that. I like to hold it. It is not too easy to hold. It is surprisingly slippery. Don't care.

I tried the camera in low-light, my normal tango thing. Fail. Just too difficult. The photos from the Digilux 1 were uniformly "terrible," except that... I loved the ways that they were terrible. I know, I have a serious problem.

But since I don't get paid (not quite true, but true enough) to take pictures, my camera doesn't have to be flawless. It can be temperamental, as long as it is the kind of temperamental that pushes my gush-my-love buttons.

I was able to convince these two lovely pieces of toast to be my model. Interesting the low shutter speed here... I haven't looked at the specs (remember I told you that I was too busy coo-ing?) and yet the lovely toasts were in focus. I like the way that Digilux 1 (perhaps I will call it Digil) rendered the complexion on the crusts.

I had to pay these chairs to model for me. I am glad that I did. They have such beautiful legs.

Adore.