Istanbul through a Leica M6

Istanbul/Ankara – Turkey – October 2011

A bit of news – I’ve recently signed a book deal on street photography which has essentially prompted me to experience the full potential of a rangefinder – and I can see why it’s a street essential for so many.

I shot 5 rolls of film (3 colour, 2 b/w) with a Leica M6 for the first time in Turkey last week.  If you’ve never used a rangefinder before, it’s quite, or even *very*  different from using an SLR, or any camera for that matter, and I definitely struggled to adjust.   Now I love it though and can’t stop using it!

Why is it so ‘hard’ to use?

• You’re meant to look through the view finder with your right eye.  Adjusting to using a different eye is quite hard work and I’m still using my left eye in most cases, unless I consciously remember.  It’s just instinct
• If you’re only used to the Auto setting on your camera, then the change to a manual camera is also hard work.  You’re having to focus, set the speed and set the aperture.  That’s even before composing.  By the time you’ve done all that, the chances are, the subject is long gone, or at least has moved position, meaning the whole process starts again, wasting valuable time!  It was taking me up to 30 seconds to shoot a frame at first.  That’s 29.9 seconds too late..
• The most frustrating part was setting the speed and aperture quickly.  It was mostly sunny in Istanbul  but moving from the sun to shadows meant having to re-adjust everything
• You will inevitably miss opportunities due to being slow or exposing and/or focusing incorrectly.  You have to accept you will get it wrong, before you get it right.

On the plus side:

• It’s a challenge, and challenges are always fun, right?
• Loading film is so much easier than using my Nikon F3 – you can easily walk and load film at the same time, which I haven’t been able to do with any other film cam
• The shutter sound is so quiet that being sneaky is easy
• When you get it right, it’s awesome
• The lens is a 35mm f1.4 (mmmm). I didn’t get to use the 1.4 aperture much with these shots though

With the exception of resizing, I haven’t edited any of the following images – this camera is still new for me and this way it’s clear to see where the image works, and where it doesn’t; many of these images aren’t spot on but I’ve included them anyway.

Leica M6 with a Summilux 35mm f1.4 lens – all Kodak Gold 400 film

Quadruplets?

Shot from the hip.

I love this image for a private joke that only one person will get:

You’d see these kids with masks and tubes holding medical papers – clearly in that state due to their parents forcing them to beg on the streets.

Bad exposure, and composition:

I was always trying to expose on the faces of people, which doesn’t always work, like  here – http://tanya-n.com/Turkey2011/Leica/000033.jpg

In India there are also kids like this who sit with scales. So you pay them and in return you get to weigh yourself.

A ‘negro McFlurry’.

I seem to cut feet off a lot:

3 years ago I met a Reuters photographer (a lovely man called Luke MacGregor) who gave me a lot of valuable advice and told me I shouldn’t cut feet off.  It’s funny that I still manage to do that quite often.

The Blue Mosque:

Note to self: ISO 400 film isn’t the best for dim lighting.

During France v New Zealand (Rugby World Cup final – I got the impression Rugby isn’t very big in Turkey):

(Yes, he’s French.)

My friend thought I was on drugs when I said I saw a dog on a motorbike.  The next day we saw them again:

I don’t take enough portraits of friends these days:

Very 1990s, but everywhere in Istanbul:

Turkish delight galore:

Turkish men/boys love to chat girls up.  I wish I’d made a list of all the things I was told. The most bizarre one was a man telling me ‘cut my body with a knife please’.  Some of the others were too cringe-worthy to add here.

Sadly out of focus:

I purposely focused and exposed on the flag:

Actually, that taxi driver scammed me and my mate and charged us more than double for the fare.

Ankara:

I was here for one of my best friend’s weddings (I took some digital shots – I wasn’t quite going to risk using the Leica for that just yet!).

Badly exposed:

So there we have it – my first few images on a Leica M6.  I’m not sure that I’ve done the camera justice just yet but as they say, practice makes perfect.

Black and white rolls to follow..

(Thank you to James for essentially letting me hijack his camera.  At £2000, it ain’t cheap!)