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Seven hours of my feet.
18 photos with the Speed Graphic.
72 Photos with the 124G.
96 Color photos with my M3.
128 B&W photos with my M3.

Longest single outing I think I’ve ever had, and the first where I got to wear an actual badge saying “Official Photographer” and I’m surprisingly not as a sore as I expected. I’ll probably regret tomorrow though.

So it seems that the course for third stage of the Duluth Classic Bike Race goes right in front of where I am living. I had no clue until about 9:30 this morning when I looked out of my front window and seen a massive swarm of bikes going past.

I loaded up some grafmatics for my Speed Graphic and slung my M3 over my should and went to investigate. I’ll post my results when I get them processed.

Last week I caught wind of an Iraq War protest being held a block away from where I work, and was conveniently starting right when I would be leaving the office. I grabbed my M3, a pocketful of hp5+, and attended the rally to do some rogue photojournalism.

The entire set can be seen on my Flickr page. This set to be specific.

So I have the temporary use of a nice old Leica M3. Today I vowed that when I woke up, that I was going to go out and shoot a roll with it. I also vowed that I was going to take one of my Canonet QL17s with me and compare it shot-by-shot against the Leica’s Summilux & Summaron lenses. Seems like a lopsided battle for the $40 Ql17, but it is one I must make if I ever want to commit to buying an expensive 35mm rangerfinder kit.

The film is in the devloper as I type, so expect my results in a few days when I can get around to printing some of the identical frames, and viewing them side by side. Its going to be an apocalypyic battle. (or not.)

Remember the Yashicamat LM that I mentioned a few weeks back? Well, I went ahead and acquired a Yashicamat 124G as well, and last week I put it to some good use.

On Thursday I loaded it with some Provia 100F and stomped around the shores of Lake Superior at dusk to do some night shooting. Also the first color that I’ve exposed since 2004. These should be ready for me to pick up after work tomorrow.

Saturday I chewed up seven rolls of Delta 400 in the thing shooting the 31st annual Grandma’s Marathon. Nothing like an endless stream of some 17,000 people to waste film on right? It was a fun outing, and I learned that I really like the TLR format for shooting people. Waist level composition & shooting is pretty nice. Most people expect a camera to be lifted to the photographer’s face before they shoot, so it is a lot easier to get some candid photos without them even realizing what is going on. Not having to raise & lower the camera creates a certain disconnect from the subject that I find enjoyable. Shooting doesn’t feel so confrontational when half they time they don’t even realize that a photo was taken.

Seems like a nice machine, and a good balance between my Olympus Trip 35 & Large Format gear. I’ve had a lot of fun using it so far, and i’m sure I’ll get plenty of use out of it in the future.