Last week I was at the McGlynn School in Medford for a very special event. One of the teachers at the school was receiving the annual Milken Award for teaching excellence. It was a big secret but i was able to find out what was going on when I got there and who the recipient was. This inside knowledge was critical in getting the shots I did. I was able to get shots that none of the other news media got because I placed myself in the perfect or near perfect spot to get the shot. As the ceremony began I moved over to the side where the teacher was located. As luck would have it he was sitting amongst his students. The kids were very excited and once they new that one of their teachers would be winning $25,000 they were hanging all over this one teacher. Anthony Petrelis is his name and when his name was announced his students were even more excited. I was in a great spot behind the seated guests. I was able to make some great shots with the 7D and the 70-200 but soon the folks in front of me stood and got in the way. As Petrelis moved up to the front I moved opposite of all the news media and placed myself in a great position to get a shot of the principal giving Petrelis a big hug - no one else had this angle. As I finished making my shots, my good friend Stan Forman (shooting video for Ch. 5 in Boston) came over and said "you must have some great shots from where you were. I was right next to you". So here are the shots made that day I was pretty happy with what I got. The ISO on the 7D was set at 1600 and the 5D at 2000. The shutter speeds ranged from 125 to 160 and the aperture was constant at 2.8. This was a great assignment and I had a great time getting these emotional images. Another perk of the job.

Canon 7D w/70-200 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School fifth grade teacher Anthony Petrelis, center, waits for the Milken Award announcement as second grade student Lara Madkhali with her hand on his shoulder and fifth grade student Jonathan Dias, right, wait as well Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014.

Canon 7D w/70-200 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School teacher Anthony Petrelis reacts to winning the Milken Foundation Award during a ceremony at the school Wednesday, October 8, 2014.

Canon 7D w/70-200 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School teacher Anthony Petrelis reacts to winning the Milken Foundation Award as fifth grader Jonathan Dias congratulates him during a ceremony at the school Wednesday, October 8, 2014.

Canon 5D Mk3 w/24-70 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School principal Diane Guarino congratulates fifth grade teacher Anthony Petrelis after he won the prestigous Milken Award Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014.

Canon 5D Mk3 w/24-70 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School fifth grade teacher Anthony Petrelis, right, looks at the giant check that represents his award as Elaine Swain and Lucille Feragamo former award winners from Massachusetts in the year 2000 hold it for him after he won the prestigious Milken Award Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Dr. Jane Foley of the Milken Awards looks on.

Canon 5D Mk3 w/24-70 f2.8LMcGlynn Elementary School fifth grade teacher Anthony Petrelis is mobbed by students after he won the prestigous Milken Award Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014.

How many times have you said to yourself - I wish I had my camera with me! I can't say I've never had that problem but it's less of a problem now since I have the Leica M9 with me all the time. This morning as I was about to drive out of my driveway the light just struck me. It was beautiful and I knew I had to make an image or two. The first thing I saw were the needles all over the driveway and I knew there was an image there somewhere. The second situation I saw was the early morning light blasting through leaves next to my house and I could not resist recreating what I envisioned. The starburst was what made it for me. The most important part of the whole exercise was that it was fun! If you always have your camera you will never have a moment when you wish you had it.

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure 1/60s @ f5.6  ISO 400

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure 1/60s @ f5.6  ISO 400

Leica M9 w/35mm Summicron ASPH

Exposure 1/60s @ f5.6  ISO 400

I had a great time yesterday at a friends retirement coffee. My friend Wayne is retiring on Friday after 30 odd years as a local town manager. We are both within a year of each other age wise and we started at our first real jobs about the same time. Wayne as a town manager and I as the local news photographer, we both started in 1979 at our jobs. So over the years we became friendly and I knew at some point he would retire as many other friends in public sector jobs have over the last few years. I brought along my M9 just to take a few fun shots while I was at the event. I decided before hand to shoot with the 50 Summilux wide open at 1.4 so I could get some nice separation and isolate him more. I used manual white balance and knocked the ISO down after the first images I made at ISO 640. I probably could have got away with 400, but why when you are shooting at 1.4. 

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

Exposure ISO 250 1/250 @1.4

I'm not sure what he is referring to here but the harem of ladies got a kick out of it.

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

Exposure ISO 250 1/250 @1.4

When listening to folks talk Wayne often does this chin up thing that shows he is listening and understands. Interesting!

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

Exposure ISO 640 1/750 @1.4

Talking to a friend.

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

I will always remember Wayne's smile. I know that his town is still very special to him and will keep an eye out even though he is retired.

Cape Ann Light Photography Workshops has announced the Thacher Island Photography Workshop with 30 year veteran photojournalist Kirk R. Williamson. The workshop will take place June 17, 2015 and is weather permitting. This exciting workshop is only available for five people due to travel constraints to the island. If you have not been to Rockport and experienced the wonders of Thacher island in the spring you are in for a treat. The workshop starts with a sunrise photo shoot of the island from the eastern shore of Rockport and continues with a short break for breakfast and then out to the island for a full day of shooting. At 3:30 PM we leave the island and come back to Rockport for more shooting or to download the days shoot. A critique session follows from 4-6 PM and is followed by a group dinner on Cape Ann. Check out all the details here

Sydney Wedmore, president of the Thacher Island Committee, looks out over the island from the top of the north tower.

You know what I like about shooting with the Leica, using the viewfinder. It's so clear and gives you a great idea what you are going to see in the end. With the DSLR you are looking at something that is through the lens at 2.8, at least with my L lenses it is. I like it but it's just different from the way I see with a Leica. The other day I picked up my Canon 7D with the 70-200 and said damn this thing is heavy. It is slowly losing it's luster as I get older. The Leica on the other hand is light in comparison. Even with the 90mm it's light. Working with it has become effortless. Yes, the M9 has it's flaws but I have learned how to deal with them and have the camera set-up the way I like to use it. But using the rangefinder is great. With the 50mm Summilux wide open you can make your background disappear. This shot of my dog "Kodak" is an example. I wanted to show some personality with this image and making sure there was no background was paramount in my decision to shoot wide open. I love this shot as "Kodak" is giving my the hairy eyeball, like ain't no way you are getting this ball.

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux

The other day I decided to shoot this interesting fall foliage photo. I was using my Leica M9 with the 35mm Summicron. I was a distance away so I knew the background would not be totally out even at f2. But as you can see I was able to knock out enough of it so it is not distracting. Whenever you can focus the attention where you want it the photograph will have much more impact. Shooting close to your subject with a wide aperture will take care of the background and bring the impact you are looking for.

Leica M9 w/ 35mm Summicron

This morning the light was overcast with the sun kind of poking through from time to time. There was no wind at all so I headed down to the harbor looking for some interesting images. I had with me the Leica M9 with the 35 Cron and the Nex-7 with the 90 Tele Elmarit. It was low tide to make things even more boring or interesting if you look at it that way. I decided to go for a high angle of the harbor up on Bearskin Neck. You never know what will pop up if you are ready.

Leica Nex-7 with Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit

It looked like these folks were heading out to bring the boat back to dry dock because there was no wind at all. I love the ripples in the calm water and some of the foliage on the shore starting to turn. I get the feeling of fall and time to bring the boat back into drydock.

Sony Nex-7 with Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit

The still water with just ripples running through it with the sun reflecting off it was such a cool affect that I shot this image and then another vertically. 

Sony Nex-7 with Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit

This next shot of seaweed reminds me of heads of trolls with lots of hair.

Sony Nex-7 with Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit

Then as I turned around I saw this mother and daughter having a quiet moment looking out at Sandy Bay and I just had to make a shot of them.

Sony Nex-7 with Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit

Today I had a pretty boring assignment and decided to bring along the M9 knowing the photo was going to be bland. I needed to photograph someone hanging a show of posters at a local library. My standard tool would be the Canon rig but I wondered if the Leica would give the image a different look. No flash was involved so I could evaluate both systems. I started shooting with the Leica and the 35 Cron ASPH in jpg mode knowing that I could not adjust the color very well afterward. The AWB works fairly well when there is only one light as there was in this case. At first I was excited about the pop the 35 Cron has but after looking at the Canon shot overall it's much better. 

Leica M9 w/ 35 Summicron ASPHStephen Lewis hangs one of a set of three anti-racism posters at the Beverly Public Library in preparation for an exhibit of his diversity posters starting Monday, Sept. 22, 2014.

Exposure 1/60s @ f2   ISO 400 at 35mm

As you can see this image at f2 is exciting as the woman's face and the Mr. Lewis's face are tack sharp but everything else is slightly out focusing the attention right where it should be. At 2.8 it would not be as nice. My problem with this image is the hot spot on Lewis's head. This is a problem with the jpg mode on the M9 and srgb mode. The original still has no information there. As you will see the Canon handled this much better. New technology trumps everything.

Canon 5DMk3 w/ 24-70L

Exposure 1/60s @ f4.5  ISO 1250  24mm

At 4.5 this image does not have that special character to it with the interaction between the woman's face and Lewis's. This is also because of the wider angle lens. This lens is only a 2.8 and at 35mm would not have given the same look as the Summicron. I kind of like both images but this one I like a little better because there is no hot spot on Lewis's head. But the Leica does have a special look to it. Let me know what you think!

I have been using my M9 on AWB much of the time and had the opportunity to try out the really fast method of using manual white balance. I was on assignment to photograph a guy that restores old films. He was at his storage facility where he keeps hundreds of films. I was hoping to get him in action restoring but that was not the case. The room where he keeps these films is a light green and the film canisters are also a light green and the florescent lights have a green color balance. What a problem! Everything is green. Normally I would have used a green gel on my flash and let the camera figure it out but this time I wanted it to look more natural so I quickly decided that manual white balance was the way to go. It's pretty easy to do you just go into the Set menu push the Set button to show your choices and using the up button above the wheel go up two to manual white balance. When you press the Set button again you will get a red square saying "Attention Point camera at white surface and release shutter. When you do this your white balance will be set. I also shot these images in jpg fine. Everyone has said the jpgs out of this camera suck - I disagree. If the WB is on they are really good. It's just like shooting chromes (transparency film).

I'm glad I know the M9 menu system inside and out and quickly changed it over and searched around for something white. I found a roll of paper towels and made and exposure of that. I then shot a test shot of the subject. The preview on the screen showed me that it had done a pretty decent job of figuring out the overly green light and had given me some natural skin tone. Pretty amazing. If you are ever in a situation where you need correct color and you will be shooting in the same location you should use this method. Just don't forget to set it back to AWB after you leave the situation you are in. Carrying around something white like a note book works great. 

In full disclosure I also used my Canon 5D Mk3 with it on AWB and a 430EX2 with a stofen box as the wide alternative. The flash over powered the florescent lights and gave me a good WB. I knew that would be the case especially with the flash. If I had used just the AWB and natural light the 5DMk3 would have been spot on. New technology is wonderful. Below I show both situations with the Leica M9 and the 50 1.4 ASPH and the Canon 5DMk3 with the 24-70L.

Leica M9 w/50 1.4 ASPH MWBPhil Hopkins sits amongst a growing collection of old films that need to be restored at his storage facility in Rockport Tuesday, September 16, 2014.

Leica M9 w/ 50 1.4 ASPH MWBPhil Hopkins looks at a few frames of one of a growing collection of old films that need to be restored at his storage facility in Rockport Tuesday, September 16, 2014.

Canon 5DMk3 w/24-70L AWB 430EX2 & StofenPhil Hopkins looks at a few frames of one of a growing collection of old films that need to be restored at his storage facility in Rockport Tuesday, September 16, 2014.