Yesterday I posted a few images that I made here in Portland OR using my iPad which is not the ideal way to post things. I'm on my netbook at the moment which works better for this stuff. Here are a few more images I made at the Saturday Market in downtown Portland on Saturday.

We are going out to the Columbia Gorge today so I will post some more scenic images tomorrow. I have been using my iPad to process the images but the software that lets me process the color DNG's keeps crashing. That's why everything is in B&W. When I get back I will do some in color to see what they look like.

We are in Portland and doing all sorts of things with our boys who live out here now. When we got in yesterday they took us to a market in downtown Portland that had street performers and open air vendors. We took public transportation which was a hoot. Of course I got gum on the bottom of my camera bag. Not fun. Here are a few images from our day starting with an image I made of Mt. hood out the window of the plane. All the images are B&W because my mobile editing software has a hard time with the giant files. 

Canon G15

Sorry to be away for a while. I have just been able to sit down and write a blog post. This time of year is very stressful at work. This past Sunday I was able to attend a graduation party for a friends daughter. We had a great time dancing, talking, and eating. After about an hour I grabbed the Leica with the 35mm Summicron ASPH to try and capture the event. Most of the shots are so-so but I did get a couple I like. I must admit I did not really work at it. Focusing on moving subjects is tough and I'm not used to it. Lots of people could have meant plenty of opportunities but I was not concentrating and only a few things came up. Here are a couple that I got. Either way it was fun. I encourage anyone to shoot events like this looking for moments not just shooting people staring at you.

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure ISO 160 1/500s @5.6

This lens is silly sharp with contrast that really just blew me away. The color version was not really what I wanted even though the color was right on. These two kids were playing on this hammock and they always had their back to me so this is the best I got. The light was uneven as you can see with the top half of the frame a little overexposed. I just took an average reading that included more of the foreground and it worked out great. 

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure ISO 800 1/500s @5.6

The graduate and her mom boogie to some music. When I first saw this frame I was amazed at the contrast and sharpness to me it was way over the top. I love this photo it just summed up the party for me and told the story of this young lady her graduation and party. This is really what I was looking for a shot that summed it up in one photo. I knew I had a good chance with the women out dancing. 

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure ISO 800 1/500 @ f4

This guy is from Alabama and he had one heck of a tan. His little girl is 8 months old and was adorable. This is one of the only examples of the type of image I was looking for an unguarded moment. The two B&W's are straight jpg black and white's right out of the camera with just a little work done in Photoshop. Really amazing. I have the M9 give me a color DNG and a jpg black and white. I love this because Lightroom gives them to me side by side.

Well this is hell weekend for me and my staff as we battle through numerous graduations and sports tournament playoff games. Yesterday I was stuck at a baseball park in Lowell MA for close to ten hours. It was a very stressful day. I had to shoot each game and then upload all the photos to our internet sites before the next game started. I had three games to shoot one right after the other with the middle game having both teams in our coverage area. That meant images from both towns had to be up on the towns website before the next game. Ugggh. My main camera for sports action these days is my Canon 7D with an older Canon 300 f2.8. It's still tack sharp even though the focusing on it is much slower than the newer ones. For some reason these games all lacked some really good action but I was able to get something out of each one. The Canon 5D Mk3 was used for shooting first base with the 70-200 and after the game stuff with the 24-70. This system proved to work well as I have used it over the years with success. I used the auto ISO to full advantage for most of the day choosing to shoot at 1/1250s at f5.6 on manual until the lights came on and then I went to ISO 6400 and shot at 1/800s @ 3.2

Needless to say I was looking around for different photos for the blog. Here are a couple shot with the Canon 7D and the 300 2.8. The crop factor for this rig turns out to be a 480mm f 2.8, excellent for sports and other far away objects.

Canon 7D w/Canon 300 f2.8

I noticed these two standing on wires used to make sure cars did not fly off the top of the parking garage across the street from the stadium and I thought it was a cool shot with the lamps.

For a moment I thought I was at Belmont Park waiting for the Belmont Stakes to start. Sun protection, a cool hat, sunglasses, fieldglasses and a racing form? No actually the lineup card for the game.

Here are some shots from the games.

Georgetown's Ben Noelk is out at third after a runndown with Lowell Catholic's James Sullivan in the first inning of Georgetown losing to Lowell Catholic 9-4 in the Div. 4 North Sectional Championship game Saturday, June 7, 2014 at LeLachuer Park in lowell. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Georgetown's Ben Noelk is forced out at second by Lowell Catholic's James Sullivan in the fifth inning of Georgetown's loss to Lowell Catholic 9-4 in the Div. 4 North Sectional Championship game Saturday, June 7, 2014 at LeLachuer Park in lowell. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Georgetown's Michael Goddu reacts to Georgetown losing to Lowell Catholic 9-4 in the Div. 4 North Sectional Championship game Saturday, June 7, 2014 at LeLachuer Park in lowell. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Georgetown's Mike O'Leary wears everyone's rally caps during the last inning of Georgetown's loss to Lowell Catholic 9-4 in the Div. 4 North Sectional Championship game Saturday, June 7, 2014 at LeLachuer Park in lowell. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Hamilton Wenham's Austen Michel slides back safe to first during The Generals 8-7 loss to North Reading in the Div. 3 North Sectional game at LeLacheur park in Lowell Saturday, June 7, 2014. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Hamilton Wenham's Austen Michel watches the last at bats for his teammates during The Generals 8-7 loss to North Reading in the Div. 3 North Sectional game at LeLacheur park in Lowell Saturday, June 7, 2014. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

Masconomet catcher Michael Manni, Jr. signals he has the ball after tagging out Glocuester's Jordan Pallazola at the plate during Masco's win over Gloucester to win the Div. 2 North Sectional at LeLecheur Park in Lowell Saturday, June 7, 2014. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson Masconomet pitcher William Twiss celebrates his five hit 5-0 shutout win over Gloucester to win the Div. 2 North Sectional at LeLecheur Park in Lowell Saturday, June 7, 2014. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

I just got my used 35 mm Summicron F2 ASPH from Leica Store Miami and it's mint! This lens is 6 bit coded and was a very reasonable $2195. The lens is like brand new. Figures it's raining out and the photo opportunities are limited on the way to work so I was only able to do some basic testing. I went down to the water front and jumped out of the car for a brief shot and on the way out my door I grabbed a shot of some bushes etc. Not very exciting but I will post more later on as I get a chance to shoot more. I am including color and B&W just to give you a feel for how the lens performs in drab lighting. I'm not going to go overboard yet but the results are very nice. I set the camera to pick up the 6 bit coding automatically which it seems like it did. Not a lot of data. No shutter speed (aperture priority) and no f stop recorded. The focus is very smooth. I am so used to focusing my very old 28mm Elmarit V.1 which is smooth but slow so the ease of focusing caught me by surprise. Looks like the 28 will be going back to Leica for a CLA. More to come

I had the opportunity to pull out my Leica 135 Tele-Elmar today and give it a try. I had only previously used it on my Sony Nex-7 with great success. I was curious to see if I could focus the lens close-up. I just banged around the yard to make a few shots and to my surprise I was able to make some good frames and the lens did not disappoint. The background bokeh has a nice creamy effect and really makes this lens stand out amongst many other newer lenses. At f4.0 it is rather slow but that does not matter with today's digital cameras. This lens is very inexpensive at around $400 used and I always tell people it is a bargain at that price. I plan to use it more when I head out to shoot. Here are some shots from around the house. Sorry I don't have any travel shots from all over the world like Thorsten but soon enough I will have travel work from Oregon.

Leica M9 w/Leica 135 Tele-Elmar

Exposure ISO 400 1/180s @ f4

The cool thing about this image are the spider webs that are tack sharp. Really amazed me. The background is just beautiful.

Leica M9 w/Leica 135 Tele-Elmar

Exposure ISO 400 1/125s @ f4

I thought this refection of my car on my boats hull was kind of cool.

Leica M9 w/Leica 135 Tele-Elmar

Exposure ISO 400 1/350s @ f4 

These flowers really worked out nice. I love the sharpness of the leaves in places I think it really adds to it.

Leica M9 w/Leica 135 Tele-Elmar

These are the same flowers as above but in color. I have cropped it a bit to make it a little more interesting. Of course I messed up again and forgot to set the camera for the Tele-Elmar and left it on the 28 Elmarit. Pretty stupid of me.

On Memorial Day weekend Janet and I were over to a friends house for a beer and dinner. My friend has an old (very old) beach house that has been in the family for generations. So we had a great time and of course the Leica M9 came along for the fun. I made some shots outside of my friends doing goofy things which won't make these pages. After dinner us old folks sat around talking and listening to, of all things, ring tones. My wife and I have iPhones and it's pretty easy to set up ring tones. But on my friend Will's ancient flip phone it was endless menu's he had to keep going back through. It was a howl watching him do this and getting frustrated while doing it. I could not resist making a shot of him attempting to make ring tone changes on his ancient flip phone. The M9 gave me beautiful B&W jpgs right out of the camera. I did very little to this image in Photoshop. This image is handheld at 1/24s at f2.8. Try holding your Canon or Nikon and big glass without IS it ain't fun. This allows one to shoot with a nice light camera and record everyday events with ease. Sure it takes a little practice but it's worth it in the long run.

Leica M9 w/Leica 28mm Elmarit V.1

Exposure ISO 1600 1/24s @f2,8

Processed in Silver Efex Pro 2 Tri-X filter added

I like this version much better using Silver Efex Pro 2. The Tri-X grain really adds something. The other filter was Full Spectrum.

Yesterday I had the chance to do some shooting at a bar in downtown Gloucester while a friends band was playing. Janet and I had a great time being with old friends from high school and enjoying some great music from our high school days. The band is called Garfish and they have added a horn section that gives them the opportunity to play some great old tunes from legendary bands such as Chicago, and Blood Seat and Tears. I had no idea how dark it was going to be until I sat down and noticed I could barely see the band. All I have for lenses at the moment are a Leica 28 mm 2.8 Elmarit V.1 and a 90 mm 2.8 Tele Elmarit. As I have said before my very rare black paint Leica Summilux V.1 is up for auction at Tamarkin Rare Camera Auction this Thursday so my low light shooting is limited. So how do you feel about shooting in the dark. 

Well I gave it a whirl at ISO 2000, which for the Leica M9 is kind of a stretch. You can't imagine what it's like to time the lighting so you get something at 1/25s or 1/15s or even 1/6s it's brutal. It was a struggle to get the exposure right with this camera. Here are few of the images I got.

Leica M9 w/90 Tele Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/60s @2.8

I was lucky in some respects as my friend Gary had the LED strobe lights mounted pretty close to him and the bright blue light would occasionally light him up. I did make a rookie error while using this camera. I have found that setting the camera on manual for lens selection works well for my 28 Elmarit. I use the oldest setting which is 11804 which I think is for Vers. 3 Elmarits, mine is a version 1. But I forgot to change it over every time I shot with the Leica 90 oh well. The results were not to bad.

Leica M9 w/28mm Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/45s @2.8

So you can see in this image how dark it was. The band was only lit by these colored LED bars on either side of the band. Dismal at best but I guess it's all about mood with rock music.

Leica M9 w/90mm Tele Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/15s @2.8

Since the guitarist was in such a dark place and never got much light on his face I decided to just shoot his guitar with his hands blurred if I could.

Leica M9 w/28mm Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/25s @2.8

I was lucky to some extent as one of the horn players was lit up by his own music stand LED lights. If you can call 1/25s lucky.

Leica M9 w/90mm Tele Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/15s @ 2.8

Being a photojournalist requires waiting for peak action when shooting at slow shutter speeds. I just caught the lead singer at the right moment to freeze his moving around at 1/15 of a second. Talk about luck and skill meeting at the right time.

Leica M9 w/90mm Tele Elmarit

Exposure ISO 2000 1/60s @ 2.8

You can just make out the LED light on the right side of the frame lighting Gary up. 1/60 of a sec. was a real luxury. Using the Leica M9 for low light work is a challenge when you can't see the top of the camera. I was using it on full manual and not auto at all. Turning the dial on top to get the right exposure was a pain since with my close up eye sight is nil I had no idea what shutter speed I was at most of the time. Using it in auto would have allowed me to see the exposure but then I could not do much about it since I was shooting wide open at 2.8. It was still a worth while experience and I learned quite a bit about using this camera in almost total darkness.