My Ten Favorite Leica Images from 2016 by John Ricard

Soul Brother, Photographer. I was working on a 365 Project at the start of the year. It lasted only 100 days because I felt it was just too much trouble to carry a Leica with me everywhere I went. This image of my friend, was taken specifically to fulfill that day's photo requirement, but I ended up loving the image.

My Ten Favorite Leica Images from 2016

by John Ricard – His Instagram is HERE

Soul Brother, Photographer. I was working on a 365 Project at the start of the year. It lasted only 100 days because I felt it was just too much trouble to carry a Leica with me everywhere I went. This image of my friend, was taken specifically to fulfill that day’s photo requirement, but I ended up loving the image.

Francesca, Model. I’ve been experimenting with color quite a bit in the past few months, and this is one of the more successful results.

Shadeen, Model. For this shoot, the client wanted images photographed cleanly against a white background with full detail visible in the hair and face. I gave them that…but I also took a few minutes whenever possible to photograph some images with my Leica that wee lit with the more dramatic ambient light in the studio. These images, while not likely to be used by the client, were my own favorite images form the shoot.

Chelsea, Dancer. Chelsea kicked over a Profoto light doing these kicks. It was my fault however, for having the light too close and not sandbagging it properly.

Dreamdoll, Model. One of my favorite ways to use my Leicas is for BTS (Behind the Scenes) images on my own shoots. These images are always more interesting than the client images which are often taken with my Nikon D810.

Adina, Model. I love photographing models when my glam squad does something creative with the look. Makes my job easier. This was taken in the natural light that falls in the changing room of my studio.

Tex Johnson, BJJ Competitor. The client asked for a clean image taken before training, to be used for his Tale of the Tape listing. For that image, I’m always coaching the fighters to look more intense. For this image, taken after training, I didn’t have to tell him anything

Jon Satava, BJJ Competitor. I photograph BJJ tournament matches using a Nikon D3s. These images are really easy to shoot and aren’t all that interesting to me. It is the scenes I find off the mats, that I capture with my Leica, that are most compelling to me.

Miss Mulatto, Rapper I was photographing Miss Mulatto in soft, pretty light and both she and I were pleased with the images. Jermaine Dupree looked at the images on the compute and said, “You gotta make her look hard. She’s a rapper.” Realizing he was making sense, I changed the lighting to something more dramatic.

Anonymous Couple. Although this image of a couple kissing in the Times Square subway station in NYC, is the only street image in this particular collection, I photograph scenes like this quite often. These are seen in my @cameraworknyc account on IG.

8 Comments

  1. Some great, intense images. I especially like your use of colour and artificial light, not characteristics normally associated with Leica images.

  2. If anyone is interested:

    Soul Brother: M9
    Francesca: M9
    Shadeen: M240
    Chelsea: M240
    Dreamdoll: M9
    Adina: M240 (with Nikon 58mm 1.4)
    Tex Johnson: M240 (with Nikon 85mm 1.4)
    Jon Satava: M240
    Miss Mulatto: M240
    Anonymous Couple: M240

  3. Really nice shots. I always love seeing photos from people using Leicas professionally. I do so myself for the right job. I firmly believe that, while the lack of certain features like autofocus or a fast buffer in M cameras can create a challenge, it can also lead to very creative photos because you have to “work for it” a little harder. Yes, you can take the same images with an all automatic camera, but a lot of times we simply don’t.

  4. Really great photos

    The one of your friend that was a surprise fav of yours is a great pic. I like the one of the bjj competitor as well. Those 2 make me stop and think about what is going on in the subjects head.

    Thanks for the cool submission.

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