I found this to be a captivating and insightful video on the subject of not only the topic of street photography, but overall photography in general. His mindset, and workflow from shooting to post editing to an image worth sharing and/or publishing is efficient and masterful.
Late in September 2022, I traveled to the Trinity River / Downtown Dallas area to shoot some pictures. Normally, I take a backpack with one of my Nikon DLSR cameras and lenses. This day, I wanted to travel light, so I just took my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and my Leica D-Lux 7.
While I had only planned to shoot a few river and skyline shots from a distance, then leave, that did not happen. As often happens, I began walking and exploring instead. I hiked down the levee to the Trinity River bottoms trail and kept walking when I discovered the view of some landmarks and infrastructure was very much different and interesting than what we all usually from street and ground (or drone) level. It was captivating, and I kept walking further, shooting pictures with my smartphone, until it “crashed.” There was a message saying the camera had overheated, so it had to close. It was only a mild 91 degrees, which is not hot by Dallas standards, and I’d never had any film or digital SLR/DLSR or.any camera for that matter “shut down” due to the heat, ever in my decades of shooting, including many middle of summer 100+ degree days in TX. The camera did not come back on no matter what I did, and I could see many potential good pictures ahead on the trail.
Fortunately, I had my taken my small Leica D-Lux 7 along with me. It was working, but as with moast mirrorless cameras, it was eating battery power up as I continued to shoot and didn’t have an extra battery. In the end, I was able to capture most of the images I wanted between the two cameras that day. The picture in this post of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge taken from below at the river botttom level was taken with my Leica after my smartphone “shut down.”
I experimented with the choice of camera gear I took with me that day and learned a lesson with that experience. Fortunately, it was not a serious shoot, and had it been, I would’ve had my backup Nikon cameras and gear available.
I am sharing this experience as a caveat for those who set out with a smartphone “only” to capture important images. Keep a backup camera close.
I call this camera my “little” Leica because it is smaller than than other Leica models in size and price, but by no means in quality. I won’t go into a technical review of it here (there are many online), but more wanted to talk about why I bought and use it when I have other quality camera options in my possession available .
First, I wanted a small pocket size camera that is user friendly that I can easily carry around anytime I am out and about. I always have arguably the one of the best phone cameras currently available with me, a Samsung Galaxy s22 Ultra, that takes stunning pictures and use it constantly, especially for the convenience it provides being connected to the internet 24/7, and with all the many Social Media platforms and apps for uploading pictures, videos and images along with various editing software all in one device. I am just like everyone else on that.
And that brings me to one big reason I wanted this Leica because it is never connected to the world around me. When I am out and about, I can walk the streets with just a camera and shoot pictures with one of the best small cameras available. I never touch my phone. My phone is always connected to the world in one way or another, and I use that for different reasons. Unfortunately, there are times over the years I have seen pictures I took ending up in places I never intended them too. How they got there is a mystery, and I am sure with detective work I could find out but but that is not how I like to spend my time. It has not been a serious issue (yet) and I understand I can check multiple settings, turn some off, etc. but that is a hassle. My phone is connected to “Big Tech” in many ways, with the ever evolving and changing terms, conditions, software updates, AI, API, enchantments, improvements, etc., and the unintended consequences that go with that. When I am walking the streets with my “little” Leica, I focus on simply shooting photographs. My phone stays in it’s holder, under my shirt, on my belt. There is little chance of dropping it on the pavement, in a puddle, having someone snatch and grabbing it, and all the pains that go with taking pictures in the street on a mobile device. If any of that happens with my camera instead, it simply won’t impact my life in the same way. I love the easiness and care free nature of shooting pictures on my Leica as well as it’s user friendly design.
Finally, when I want to upload the pictures from my Leica later at a coffee shop, Leica’s phone app turns on the camera WiFi, and there are the Leica pictures on my phone and I simply do what I want with them, same as with my phone camera pictures. I will also say the image quality of the Leica pictures are without equal and superb . I am still just learning all the more complex settings the camera offers and setting them on the fly and hope to get more out of this camera on my future photography walks .
Those are my personal reasons for wanting this camera and are obviously not for everyone. For me, it is great to have it as a camera that fits comfortably between my full frame Nikon and my Samsung Galaxy s22 Ultra camera phone.
Here is link to a video for the Leica D-Lux 7
The story of Vivian Maier is absolutely fascinating as is the body of extraordinary photographic work she left behind. If anyone is a street photographer and does not know about her, this is a must see.
