2007/November Miami Trip

Greetings, it has been some time since I have written anything about my DCC Leica M3 Plus so here is an update. This past weekend my son and I flew to Miami to visit my mother and try to spread some good cheer while she recovers from a broken hip injury. That's as much detail as I would like to leave you with about that. The trip was only for 2 days and I did not want to bring my Nikon D70 so the little DCC Leica M3 was the perfect choice.

I took photos at the airport, on the plane and around my parents house. Here are some of the results. If you click on each image, you can read extended detail about any post processing I did.

Christopher and I had stayed awake all night. A friend of mine had come over so he could give us a ride to the airport. We did some scans of photos on my el-cheapo UMAX Astra 2200 reflective flatbed scanner. It really is an entry level scanner. I paid about $100 for it in 2003 (I think it was 2003) and about a year after, Mac OSX Panther had come out (if I have my dates correct) and the lousy software that came with the scanner would not work under Panther and they didn't even make it any longer for the Macintosh. I found a program called SilverFast Ai6, downloaded it and made a scan and boy was I pleased. I got the best scans off that scanner it had ever created. So there's a tip, buy SilverFast scanning software if you're not happy with your scans. I have been using their software for scanning ever since for reflective scans on the UMAX and transparency scans on my Nikon CoolScan 4000. I should note here that at a

previous job, I was a professional scanner operator for about 9 years. I scanned using a Scitex Smart 340 flatbed (reflective/transparency) scanner and on occasion would do transparency scans on a Screen DS2020 drum scanner but I preferred the Scitex mostly because it was easier to use.

After we finished his scans, we played Call of Duty  (a WWII video game) over the internet until it was time to go. We were almost the first ones to arrive. So we got our boarding passes from the eTicket kiosk and went to the gate. I took a couple of photos using the available light but even after increasing the EV to +1.8 it only seemed to raise the light areas and did not open up any of the mid-tone or dark areas of the image. That is an item for my DCC Leica M3 wish-list I think.

I took a few more but the exposures were pretty bad. They definiately need to work out that issue in the future. Finally it was time to board so we made our way down the ramp to the plane. We were not able to sit next to each other on this trip but both of us had window seats. I haven't had a window seat for many years and the fact that his flight was taking off before sunrise presented a certain photo graphic opportunity I did not want to pass up.

The plane took off and the sky was starting to light up as we maintained altitude. I started taking photos. I pushed the EV up as high as it would go and it seemed to help. The mini preview screen on the back of the camera gave me enough feedback to tell that I got some kind of image. As the sun appeared over the horizon, I kept taking photos. I lowered the EV to -1.8 but it didn't really help. The photos with the sun were not looking too good. Then the captain made a slight turn and the wing lowered just enough to obscure the sun. I took a couple of photos and they came out pretty good. Here you see one of the photos before sunrise since they were the best.

We had a good flight. When we arrived at MIA the sun was warming up the area very well and I decided it was time to remove my pullover. At my parents house, my father had the jacuzzi all warmed up for Christopher since the pool was a little on the nippy side. We both hopped in for a dip and I brought the camera along to see if I could find some interesting things to photograph. Here are two that I favor; the first stood out to me because of the contrast in subject matter. The bubbly water in the jacuzzi contrasted the placid pond-like water that was in the pool.

In the next photo, I wanted to get as close to the water surface as possible and try and include the ripples in the foreground of this photo of Christopher taking it easy. Some addional retouching was performed on this image. Click the photo to read about it.

I don't know what attracts me so much about this next photo. Normally I would not compose a photo with a pole placed dead-center of the composition. I think the detail along with the mystery of the expression on his face are what

attract me to it. What is he reacting to? I think I like the pole in this case becaue fo the water droplets that are on it which reinforce the feeling of "wet."

I should probably point out at this point (If you haven't figured it out yet) that I do not consider myself a photo-purist. You know the type—they are the ones who insist on leaving every single element in the photos...even if it destroys the photo. Lets not confuse this with the work of Photo Journalists who have to leave everything for the photo to be truthful. No, I'm talking about those who go to great lengths to preserve every element even if it detracts from the image.

As you read the details about this photo, you will find that like the one above, I removed one item. In this photo, I probably could have left the bottle in the photo and just reduced the color saturation but wouldn't that be considered manipulating the image...might as well just get rid of it.

Oh! I just figured out why I like this photo—semiotics. The pole, in this case, is symbolic of a woman's leg which he is looking at. I know it sounds nuts but I think you can see my point.

The day was overcast and as my friends know, I have been trumpeting that it is the time to go out and photograph under the giant softbox that is the clouds. It's not the perfect kind of light but it is very even and can enhance if used properly. Just look at the photo above (Jacuzzi Life). If there were bright sun and scattered clouds they would have appeared in the water reflection, taking away the nice even quality of it. Here is a photo of a plant in the back yard where the evenness of the clouds brought out the color in the leaves.

I thought I would try some black and white in Lightroom with this photo I took in the bedroom I slept in. The exposure is too dark because the camera could not pick up the light level very well but it did make for an interesting effect. It kind of reminds me of the old film days with Ilford HP5.

Ok, here it the last photo I have to show. On our last day we had ice cream at Walls Ice Cream at 67th Ave. and Dixie Highway. Inside there were florescent lights with daylight mixed in through the windows. Luckily there was mostly florescent light which meant the camera only had to balance for one color source instead of two. The DCC Leica M3 Plus is missing a "florescent" white balance setting so I put it on Auto and it got very close. That said, the 3/4 tone was too dark

though. You can see it in Christophers' shirt and pants at how dark they are. I could not open the exposure up because there was no detail left in those areas to brighten. Despite this setback, I am happy with the photo (even if he didn't smile, hee, hee).
 

I am pretty happy with the photos I shot. I am happy that the 5mp size gives me a relatively good amount of data to work with but I would really like to see this approach the 8 - 10mp range and have RAW as an option. WIth RAW as an option, I would assume the bit depth would also be improved and give me more detail in the 3/4 tones.