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

Shooting Portra 400 film on the Golden Gate Bridge

After an interesting and eye opening chat I had with Reuben Redding a few weeks ago, I have been shooting various subjects with different cameras in an effort to try and find my way. One thing that came up in that discussion was that I seem to want to label myself a “street photographer” or a “landscape photographer” instead of just a “photographer.”

During the holidays, the park is transformed into a winter wonderland of festive decorations and classic holiday music. The celebratory mood of all the families, the the aroma of baking treats, mixed with the holiday-themed decorations, evokes a nostalgia of days of Christmas past.

I recently acquired a Leica Q2 Monochrom to see how I like it compared to my M10 Monochrom. As I'm getting older, autofocus is something I'm becoming more interested in having, especially for candid and travel photography.

Making a living with photography is my goal, but am I willing to kill my love of the art form to achieve it? And if I’m not, am I really going to make any money? These are questions I’m constantly wrestling with and are likely behind my periodic bouts of burnout. And when I burnout on photography, I mean it.

A behind the scenes look at my post-processing techniques for Leica Monochrom image files using Lightroom, Silver Efex Pro, and Photoshop

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?

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.

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.