Daily Inspiration #216 by David Reeve

Hey Steve,

I’m a longtime reader of your site and have finally decided to make my first submission.

I chose to send you these three photos principally to show your readers the versatility of the M9. Whether I’m shooting street, fashion, portraiture or even party snaps, the M9 performs flawlessly each and every time. This camera has literally changed my life. I can’t emphasize that enough.

All photos were taken with my M9 and (I believe) a Voigtlander 35 f/1.4 (the horse may have been with a 50mm Zeiss but I’m unsure).

Photo 1 – Horse: I found this guy deep in a teak farm while traveling through Costa Rica. I’ve since made a 40×60 print of it and the quality is incredible.

Photo 2 – Guitarist: I was doing a behind-the-scenes type shoot of this musician’s music video in Central Park when it suddenly started to absolutely piss rain. He had a crowd of people following him as we escaped and I was lucky enough to snap him crossing the street.

I should also mention that at this point in time my camera was entirely soaked. I had the fear Steve. I saw my investment crumble before my eyes and was terrified that my little rangefinder would drown. It didn’t. Snap snap snap, wipe wipe, snap snap snap. It never faltered once. I once even dropped mine in the mud around the Omaha Beach landing site in Normandy. I picked it up, gave if wipe, and off I went. Just incredible for a camera with little or no weather sealing.

Photo 3 – Zuza: This photo shows what you can do with the loathed SF 24D flash and an off-camera cord. The amount of hatred for this little flash across the various Leica forums is incredible given its real-world results. It’s lightweight and it works. Even Seal agrees. I use mine as often as I can.


Thanks for taking the time to review my submissions and please keep up the great work.

-David Reeve

david-reeve.com

20 Comments

  1. @ David: thanks so much for your tips ! I’ll try the SC-17 then.
    It’s gonna be very useful for portraits or to shoot in a “Bruce Gilden” way 😉
    And “the SF-24D can be used to trigger studio strobes in place of a pocket wizard.” is really cool too.

    Keep going !

  2. Hi David,
    Good job ! I like these shots !

    I’m also a extensive user of the M9 – on to do list: write a submission for steve 😉
    I got a SF 24D too but I don’t succeed in making it work with an off-camera cord.
    Could you please give us more details about your configuration ? Maybe a picture by PM ?

    Thanks a lot and keep going !

    P.S: the direct link for your website doesn’t work here.
    BTW nice autoportrait with Magritte in the back ! I’m waiting for the section 4 now !

    • Fabrice,

      Thanks for the encouragement. As for my off-camera flash setup, I use a Nikon SC-17 cord and nothing else. Attach one end to the camera and the other to the flash et voila. It should work perfectly. Be sure to throw a hand strap on it so you can let go of the flash when you need to focus. Oh, and here’s something cool… I figured out a while back that the SF-24D can be used to trigger studio strobes in place of a pocket wizard. I’m not sure how it works but it does and it’s sweet.

      As for the self-portrait, it was taken at around 7am with my Yashica after a late night. I’m surprised it even turned out!

      And yes, I realize the link to my site didn’t post correctly but hopefully people can use a little intuition if they really want to check my work out.

      Thanks again.

  3. Yeah, someone praised the good eye and I agree.
    I myself love the harsh light on the cute blonde, it’s sexy, but I believe that nice dress deserves an AA filter.

  4. David is right, never look back, all the I gadgets and stuff don’t come close to the joy I get from my Leicas.

    Speaking of understanding exposure, the color photo is just spot on. Not to mention beautiful. Great work Sir.

  5. My wife has been begging me to go shoot some horses for her but I haven’t gotten around to it (bad hubby). Shoot me an email if you are interested in selling a print. Would make a great mother’s day gift…

    chad@showperformance.com

  6. Thank you all for the kind words.

    A quick comment to those longing for an M9. My first camera was an old Yashica rangefinder and I still shoot with it to this day. The M9 simply allows me to shoot like I would with the Yashica but with the added benefit of not having to pay for developing/scanning costs (which are around $15-20/roll in NYC). So to those still learning, go buy a nice film rangefinder and the book “Understanding Exposure” and start shooting. Otherwise, if you can afford the Leica and are teetering on whether or not to make the purchase — do it and never look back. It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever owned period.

  7. What amazing pictures. All three of them. Sometimes I just whish I could get hold of a M9 just to try. But then my fear is that I will want to get one. So for the time being I will stay with my little E-PL2 and save up for a Fuji X100 which is more in my league.

    Thank you for sharing these pictures.

    [img]http://www.dslr-forum.de/attachment.php?attachmentid=1788110&d=1304625904[/img]

    • I love the second shot of the musician…and the shot of the horse is cool in a mysterious sort of way.

      As for the model…I don’t know if I would use that shot as an example of how ‘great’ the SF 24D flash is. To my eye, that’s about as harsh looking as you can get from camera flash. Just my opinion.

      • Great pics!

        That woman’s eyes seem to say “stop playing with your camera, play with me instead”.

        (sorry, couldn’t resist…)

    • Sell your E-PL and purchase a used M8 instead of the X100!!!

      Ernesto

  8. wow. just wow. this are some serious pics. fantastic. you give me something to aim for and discover!

  9. one of my favorite daily inspirations!!! amazing EYE, emphasizing the word EYE, which what matters here the most. the M9 is just the tool to paint what the brain tells the eye to shoot. amazing pics!!! thanks for sharing

  10. God dammit, your pics makes me angry. I know it’s not a camera 🙁 I wish I could taking pics like you guys do….

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