Why Gear Does and Doesn’t Matter

What is the need for the biggest and best most expensive gear? I was out and about this weekend and saw protesters for the Black Lives Matter movement in my town and made photographs in both digital format with a Nikon D610 and 35mm and 120 film in a Leica M3 and a Rolleiflex 2.8C....

I Don’t Need Anything, But This Leica and This Notebook

Being both a photographer (documentary/street) and a writer (stand-up comedy/screenplays), I came to the realization that there is a correlation between the two. Because both require something of me. See, I carry a Leica and notebook everywhere I go. When my parents took photographs when I was growing up, they took them out at Christmas,...

Nikon vs. Leica

I am both a Nikon and Leica shooter.  I shoot film and digital with both brands and the other day I sat down at my Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter--that's where I do my best thinking on paper--and I wrote out what each camera type is good for. For shooting street photography, Leica may be classic,...

Golden Nugget Flea Market – Searching for Bargains (and Photographs, and Conversation!)

Not only do I enjoy walking this antique flea market when I visit my folks in PA, but I love photographing some of the people and getting into conversations about photography because of my Leica IIIf that I'm shooting with. I carry that camera everywhere I go, because it's small enough to fit in my...

Portrait at 100

Portrait of a neighbor, at 100 years old.  Leica M2, Summarit f1.5 Lens, Kodak Tri-X Film.  The Wise Photo Project

Croquet Fun

Portrait of the Players.  Leica M2, 50mm f1.5 Summarit, Kodak Tri-X Film

A Night at the Pool Hall

Leica M2, 50mm Summarit f1.5, Kodak Tri-X Film

Time Traveling With a Leica or Rolleiflex

The year is 2066. We're teleporting to different parts of the earth, holding meetings on virtual beaches while sitting at home, and having robots do all the chores. And we're using the latest camera technology, which means no camera at all--just look at something and it's captured. We're lamenting not having any photos from the...

Subject Matter: The Subject Matters

If you want more interesting photos, shoot more interesting subjects.  (And shoot on film.) There's a special beauty to having a special beauty in your life to have to photograph.  This is mine. Having willing family members and friends makes all the difference, much more than camera equipment. The first two were made with a...

If a Photograph is Worth a Thousand Words… (Part 3)

...then a detail photo, one that lets us really see something that we might have missed, is worth a million, too! You can see more at ColoradoFaces.com