Hi all Leica-philes,

Well, it looks like everyone is rather excited at viewing a selection from my engagement photos with the Princess Sarah. I managed to shoot a lot of solid indoor shots which was quite an experience in itself. The pictures are located at: LUSENET.

A little story about the pictures + relevant background. I took a lot of pictures of Sarah's roommate's cat Cassius and attempted to capture the emotions of the cat during its daily existence. I believe that the cat does mirror the personality of my princess too :). In fact, it loves Sarah a lot better than Kay, her roommate.

Of the shots, only 3 pictures aren't taken by me. The 2 portraits of my sitting down in a chair "Portrait of Myself by Princess Sarah" and one where I am holding the cat "Sarah's Portrait of Myself with Cat" are both hers. I wouldn't be surprised if consistently she gets better focus than I do since my eyesight is rapidly declining into oblivion and only shows me why I need a good split-screen viewfinder in my Leica R4 (just like my Nikon F which is 10 times easier to focus) or the Leica M6. Of course, I don't know whether or not I can replace the viewing screen for my Leica R4 but I'm sure that if I get a Leica R6.2 or R8 I would have a lot less trouble.

I am rather happy about my picture taking abilities. The exposure were all on point and shot at f2, f2.8, and once at f4. Exposure times were usually 1/30 or 1/60 for most of them and I am just grateful to get a ton of solid shots. The equipment used was my Leica R4 with recent 1991 Summicron-R 50:2 lens (the only R- lens I was able to afford) and I plan to procure the 28mm or 35mm lens later on hopefully. Apart from all that, I would welcome a lot of feedback on my photos if you wish to provide them.

Other relevant news is that I just procured the FED 2f (or g, I don't remember) in navy blue in replacement of the much heavier FED 3 I am leaving on my bookshelf at home. I hope to get my Leica IIIF fixed up at DAG Camera repairs soon.

Also I promise to post the black and white Tri-X pictures of my fiancee when I get those back from CBOP and scanned onto CD-ROM. Enjoy and have fun looking at my pictures (including the elephant picture influenced by Picasso).

Leica-fully yours and (merry Christmas), Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001

Answers

Hey there Alfie, Well done. It is always a good idea to get on the cat's good side if you want to be accepted, and it is obvious that you did. Clear too that both the princess and the cat like the lens, and for sure the princess likes the photographer. Good thing, to chose a leftie, (I am left handed too) and I think that the cat would prefer to stay with the both of you, rather than the room mate. What I couldn't see was the crucial ring finger on the left hand - where is the diamond?

-- Margaret (fitz@neptune.fr), December 03, 2001.

Actually, the engagement ring didn't fit her finger (size 6 needs to be resized at size 8) so basically we need to have the ring sent to a jeweler's. Basically she left the engagement ring in the case for the meantime. Of course, I'm still learning how to focus the R4 more accurately as I keep getting near-close shots very well but I really think that I need a lot of improvement in that area. Thanks for your support :)!

Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Oh, by the way, the ring is amethyst in white gold. We agreed not to have a diamond for political reasons (Debeers monopoly + African monopoly). We are happy with our choice together.

sincerely, Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Alfie,

Fantastic - you have been missed!

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), December 03, 2001.

I checked out your photos, Alfie. No doubt in my mind -- this what Barnack had in mind when he created the Leica. This is what Capa aspired to.

-- Eve Hessler (Evehessler@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Eve: Will you marry me? I love saucy women...

-- Richard Le (rvle@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.

I don't know if I'd use "saucy" to describe Eve... unless the "sauce" contained vinegar.

-- john costo (mahler@lvcm.com), December 03, 2001.

Alfie: what do you mean when you say that your eyesight is "rapidly declining into oblivion"? Do you have an ongoing medical problem with your eyes? I hope not.... nice pics. Keep on enjoying life.

-- john costo (mahler@lvcm.com), December 03, 2001.

Hey, Eve's my type too.

I just love witty women.

Its easier to swallow lost arguments with them. With dignity and grace.

;-)

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.

Well Alfie, good to see you around again. Some here were worried about you recently.

Anyway, I guess you are looking for some kind of critque by making your post today. Here goes.

When looked at objectively and compared with the images we all see around us, the pictures are of a rather poor quality. There are 3, perhaps 4 that are keepers when taken from the 'family memories' perspective. Sorry, but that is the way I see it.

I suggest you stop using 1-hour labs, I've told this to you before. Get much closer to your subject and fill the viewfinder of that Leica! Read a book or two on photography. Look for light, it is all about light. I know you want to portray reality, that's good, but you could just as easily set you "Princess" near a window of diffused light as in the middle of a room wioth some lousy incandescent light. There nothing wrong with engaing the subject and waiting for a good pose, facial expression and so forth. The pictures look like you grabbed the camera and just snapped a few shots with no consideration or visualization of the results. If you want to learn through the school of hard knocks, that's fine, but at least put some effort into improvement. Be realiatic and be your own hardest critic. There is a good argument that a photographer should not seek the critique of others (as I am doing to you here) but to be his/her own critique. When you have matured and produced a body of work that suits you, it won't matter what others think.

Hang in there. Keep shooting, and keep posting too. You're a fun guy to have around.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), December 03, 2001.

hi Alfie, Glad to see you bouncing back with some photos but without any emotional attachment to the subjects,quite a lot of them don't work very well beyond family photos realm. i hope you won't take this too harshly but you should be harsher with your editing,removing those less effective repetitive photos of the same subject and only present the better shots.Because of your previous spill regarding art et al,some people are going to pounce on your work. You should never be "satisfied" with your skill,vision at any stage in your photographic pursuit ,especially now, where there is a big discrepancy between your own self assessment and the general view of other more experienced photographers. I hope you will continue to enjoy your Leica but will also consider joining a local art/photogrpahy class/camera club in the future to get some exposure to some concepts in light,compositions etc and get some feedback on your work.it needs not cost much at all . In a way, you are getting this from people on the net. regards, jasper

-- jasper (jtiong@rocketmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Hi, Alfie:

Though you are not directly requesting any comments I assume you'd accept them since you are posting your pictures.

I got the impression that you are trying to shoot wider than your focus abilities grant and/or slower than you can hand hold your camera. You don't post tech details that could support a more accurate diagnostic.

Another possible improvement: fire your shutter slowly enough to avoid camera shake. Sometimes I make every effort to keep the camera solidly steady while focusing but move it when depreesing the button.

That said, enjoy your photography and thanks for sharing.

-Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), December 03, 2001.