Street Photography with the Leica

"Excuse me, I'm taking a photography course and was hoping to take your photo?"
"Sure that will be fine," most people answered.
Click
"Let me refocus and shoot one more."
Click
"Thanks."

I spent my day shooting on Yonge Street in Toronto. Since it was on a street, I guess it's "Street Photography". I came out of Union Station around 9am and tried to grab a few images at Yonge and Front, then up to King Street.

I brought a wider lens this time, deciding to shoot with the Zeiss Biogon 28mm f2.8 ZM on an M6 with Ilford Delta 400 film. I set the ISO dial to 200. It was an overcast day with a bit of drizzle. Not many shadows and the exposure changed little if I shot towards the sun or with my back to the sun. I didn't actually see the sun all day.

I did bring along the B+W 040 filter I use for black and white film, but with no blue sky to darken it would have little effect and I could use the two stops of light it uses.

For the most part I was shooting with the 28mm at f4 at 1/125 seconds. I try and shoot around f4 until I can get the shutter speed up to 1/500th, then I'll stop down if it's bright enough. I would like a bit more depth of field, but find I need the higher shutter speed to get the photo sharp. I'm not as steady as I used to be. In fact I'm considering using a monopod for street photography. Yikes.

I walked up as far as Bloor Street then headed back down towards Union Station. I had about an hour to wait for the next train, so headed across Front Street to the weird flat iron building that everyone shoots, and tried to use it as a background. Not sure if it worked.

The best shot I made was outside "The Big Slice" pizza joint. I was heading there for a slice for lunch and noticed two delivery guys pushing a cart up a ramp into the store. By the time I crossed the street they were up and gone but I noticed the ramp set up so figured they would be back with another load. After a quick slice, I waited outside for the magic moment and fired off two frames.
Click, click.
And I'm back on the move.

I noticed the frame counter on the M6 was sticking at 22 frames again. I just had this fixed last month, What's Up With That?

Rob Skeoch

My retail store for rangefinder gear and Zeiss lenses is www.rangefinderstore.com
My retail store for large format photo supplies is www.bigcameraworkshops.com