Macfilos Weekender with Kevin Armstrong
As an acquaintance and I parted company after coffee at The Wallace Collection in London he asked if I was going to take photos that day, given that I had the X Vario with me, to which I replied that I doubted it. The sky was grey and completely overcast and I was not in the mood to photograph anything whether or not, technically, the sky was acting as a giant soft box. Brits don’t usually look up at such a leaden sky and exclaim “what a lovely soft-box, perfect for photographing details.”
I wandered off to the nearby St Christopher’s Place for lunch. It’s a small quiet square with a narrow lane leading off bustling Oxford Street, that entrance being so small that most people walk right past, thus completely missing its boutique shops, cafes and restaurants.
My general approach to photographing in the street is to hang around places that look interesting and see if something happens. Sitting on a bench, I noticed the arched fountain and after a while a man sat within its ‘frame’. Good. I waited until someone of interest passed by behind him to add some depth to the composition and then took a short burst of photos as the woman in the red jacket passed through the same ‘frame’. The relatively small, discrete and quiet X Vario was not noticed as I held it on my leg but I had to push up the ISO a bit and then reduce noise in Lightroom.
Reviewing the photo on the MacBook Pro at home I noticed how the man was an island of calm as people — and pigeons — passed by. In London the pigeons can add a bit of action to a photo, if not glamour. My wife also commented that the arch of the fountain matched the man’s headphones, something I hadn’t noticed. The idea that both were ‘streaming’ came to mind.
Walking down the lane towards Oxford Street I was surprised by the decorations and stopped to try and capture their reflections and colours that contrasted so well with the general greyness of the day. I saw that in this case the overcast sky helped as there were no highlights to spoil the clarity of the reflections and so I learnt something new.
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Nice image with a lot going on in the frame, and all of it well composed. Quite a challenge and well executed.
Kevin , I am perplexed. You state "but I had to push up the ISO a bit and then reduce noise in Lightroom". Why would you be touching the ISO? I leave the ISO on my XV,my X1 and my Q on "auto ISO" and very rarely, if ever, touch it. On auto it automatically sets at the lowest possible ISO consistent with the conditions and speed/aperture settings you have selected.
The light conditions for the photo look pretty normal to me so there is no way with the XV you needed to have used an ISO which generated perceptible noise.
As well as leaving the ISO on auto I invairably select A/auto for both the aperture and speed settings for most of my photos on all my Leicas. I also shoot jpegs and try to avoid post processing as much as possible.
Keep it simple I say. The dictum works for me. Plenty of examples of my "auto" photos on Macfilos but each to his/her own I guess.
Hi John,
I set my ISO manually on my X, and would have shot at 400, at most, looking at the image. Although I go the other way, and shoot to DNG with a fine Jpeg, and use manual on shutter and aperture – after all at F8 this shot would be fine, and would have been sharp all the way through.
Dave
"I had to push up the ISO a bit and then reduce noise in Lightroom." – Does that account for the fuziness? I’d have expected something sharper from the XV. Interesting image all the same.
An intriguing shot, Kevin. Big Brother is definitely watching – and he’ll be wanting a Leica for his next birthday.
Nice image, and story of how it came to be. I also like Stephen’s Orwellian twist on it, like you I didn’t notice them at first glance, I followed the area you had targeted. However on second glance, yes we have become used to these things on almost every street corner.
Dave
Thanks Stephen,
I didn’t notice the cameras until you pointed them out which shows how used to them we have become!
Kevin
Nice serendipitous composition Kevin.
But apart from your camera, you were not alone. Look at all those eyes above the Gee’s Court plate.
Brits, the most watched people on the planet.
Hmmm.