Shooting Folsom Lake with the Leica M10 Monochrom
Shooting middle of the day "Street" Landscape Photography with the Leica M10 Monochrom with a red filter to create high contrast black and white images.
How Do I Find My Photography Style?
Everyone with a phone or camera is out shooting. On the whole, this is a good thing. But with images flooding everyone’s brain on a daily basis, one question remains. How do you stand out?
Coming Storm
Shooting in black and white forces you to look for different subjects and aspects to shoot. When looking for a black and white photo, you look for textures, contrasting light and shapes. It was the latter that I was on the hunt for that day. I wanted to make the perfect silhouette against the dramatic sky.
Holding Hands
At one point, there was a subtle cacophony of squealing and we realized that we were hearing bats up in the darkened ceiling out of eyesight. Creepy. Where was Bruce Wayne when you needed him?
Twilight Geese
I had my student setup her tripod a few feet behind where we stood so that she could get a better view of the water, bridge and surrounding rocks. As she stepped away, I noticed a group of geese in the water. And as the sun was setting, a large sunspot appeared on the surface of the water just a few feet away from the geese.
Mistle Tree
As we approached this tree I thought to myself that it might make a nice photo. I had to have the usual wrestling match with the lazy part of myself because all my gear was nicely tucked away in my backpack. Thankfully, my photographer self won the battle and I took out my monochrome camera.
Miner's Tree
The fog. It makes for such wonderful photographs but it comes rarely in the area where I live. So when it happens, I have no choice but to get dressed and drive to a ravine close to our house to take pictures. But I was tired. I didn’t want to get dressed and go out into the cold. I hadn’t even had my coffee yet!
Rattlesnake Rock
It has been a fruitful wildflower season during the Spring of 2022, but I felt like I still hadn’t gotten “the” shot. The Lupin had already been in bloom for a couple of weeks, surely there wouldn’t be any left to photograph?
Elk Sunset
The sun was setting, the waves were crashing, and I didn’t have a tripod to capture the moment. On top of that, all I had with me was a black and white camera. Who shoots coastal sunsets in black and white? The answer: I do.
Monochrome Awards Honorable Mentions
While contests like these don’t really mean much, I still thought it would be fun to enter them just to see what happened. I doubt I will enter any pay-to-play contests in 2022. Photography is such a subjective art that winning in one of these contests shouldn’t blow your ego up anymore than not winning should tear it down. Just go out and shoot and have fun.
Using Lightroom to Post Process Your Leica Monochrom Landscape Photos
As the owner of a Leica Monochrom, you will know that there is no color information available with the .dng files from the camera. Since the color filter array has been removed from the sensor, there will be no way to manipulate the different “colors” of grayscale like when you convert a color photo by setting the Treatment to Black and White in Lightroom.