Spent the morning shooting Old Sacramento with my Leica M6 with Kodak Tri-X film (expired).

Things got a little crazy for me in 2023 photography-wise, and that is reflected in my top ten pictures from this year.

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.

Street photography is a bit of a mystery to me. Probably because its origins are surrounded in mystique and filled with famous names and even more famous photographs. But what sets an iconic street photograph apart from just an average or a not very good one?

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?

When we would travel down to San Diego every couple of years, we would take our daughters to the San Diego Zoo, mostly to see the Pandas. My oldest is especially nuts about them. Show the girl a Panda TikTok and she immediately gets those Puss in Boots endearing eyes.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

And the light. Oh, my, the light. There was a tall clump of trees off to the left and their shadow fell around the area except for a swath of sunlight that illuminated the tree and the rocks directly in front.

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.