Today it is exactly one year ago that I bought my M (Leica M typ 240). I guess you could call it an impulse buy, as I was neither a professional nor amateur photographer. Two months earlier I had bought a Leica C as a replacement for my Canon Powershot S95, and this led to an invitation to the Leica M Test Drive (those clever marketing people at Leica!). I thought it would be nice for my man, who was much more serious about photography than I was. I only took photos on holidays or during hiking trips, and I didn’t want to spend much time taking a shot. I guess you could call me a true ‘point and shoot’ photographer: ‘Point, shoot, move on, and don’t spend too much time thinking about it as I have other things to do….‘

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TEST DRIVE:

My man was not as interested in the test drive as I thought he would be, but we went anyway. It was a good thing that he hadn’t set his heart on trying the M, because once I had the M in my hands, I didn’t want to let go of it. I only needed a couple of hours with this camera in my hand to get hooked. You can see it in the photo on top of this post that my man took of me during the test drive. I look at the camera as if I have found the treasure that I have been looking for for a long time. Well actually, what strikes me in this photo is that I look happy, but in a calm and peaceful way (if that makes sense?). At least that is what I see when I look at it. I can totally understand if you think this is weird, or over the top, but I felt a connection. I felt comfortable with this piece of equipment, although I was a bit scared of using something so expensive. It just felt right.

So what is it about this camera that can get me to spend a car worth of money, without having a specific need for it, or investigating other options? I know my man has tried to get me interested in using his DSLR (he doesn’t own it anymore, he has downsized by now), but it never struck a chord with me. I was put off by the amount of buttons, menu options, large lenses, big backpack that is required to bring everything, and it just didn’t feel good in my hands. I felt awkward using it. The M on the other hand has the right form factor for my small hands, there are only a limited set of buttons, and it just looks inviting and friendly. And when I looked at the photos after the first day of the test drive, they looked better than any photo I had ever taken. I loved the colors and the depth of field. So I found a way of scraping the money to buy one. And I have not regretted it for one moment.

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FALL:

A couple of things that I love about the M:

I love the rangefinder mechanism. I am a mechatronics engineer with some experience in optics, and I can appreciate the opto-mechanical aspects of the mechanism. But I also love using it, combined with the clear viewfinder. I had never used a viewfinder before, never felt the need for it, but now I really dislike composing from a screen on the back of a camera. The fact that the viewfinder is optical makes it really comfortable to use. The light in the viewfinder is the light of your subject, no need for the eyes to adjust to different lighting conditions. It gives me a feeling that I am doing something real, and it helps me paying more attention to composing. Over the year I notice that I do more composing with the camera, and less cropping in post processing, which I think is a positive development.

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WINTER:

Another thing:

I love the Leica lenses. Of course this is clearly an emotional statement, as I am biased and have no comparison. I just never had a camera with interchangeable lenses. I can only see the difference in size between the Leica lenses and the Canon lenses that my man carried around with his DSLR. And the result in my photos. I never expected to be a person to carry a couple of lenses in my bag, but I do. In this past year I have learned to understand the characters of different lenses. I love the different characteristics between a technical-perfect new lens like my Summicron 35mm and a vintage lens like my Summilux 50mm from 1970. Each have their use , and one of the things I have learned over the year is being able to use that as a toolkit to create different results.

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SPRING:

Today, one year down the road, I want to share my favourite photos. It was not easy to pick them, my opinion of my photos can change over time (sometimes a short time!). Not all photos are technically good (or perfect), some are my favourite because of emotional reasons. But photography is mainly about emotion. So here you have it, my selection from the past year. I learned a lot, I think my photos are getting better. I still have a lot to learn, but I love the process. I can be really happy with a photo that worked out for me, and be really frustrated when I just can’t get it right.

What I notice when I look at my selection is that there are not as much photos of trees and woodland as I would have expected. That is my favourite landscape, but my tree and woodland photos are still not there where I want them to be. This is a bit of a contradiction, on one hand you see that photographing what you love will create better images, as this emotion can hopefully come across in the result. On the other hand, photographing what I love has made me more critical about the difference between the photo and my experience. I guess I just have to keep practising.

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SUMMER:

What I really like is that there are a couple of photos that were created with a plan. Most of the time I just go out and take photos of what catches my eye. But one thing I have learned in the past year is a better understanding of the relation between what I do with my camera and the result. Or, luck is less a part of it then it used to be. Not saying that everything is working to plan today, but I see progression here.

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To come to a conclusion: what I love about the M is that I love taking photos with it. I know, it is a cliché, but for me it is really true: the best camera is the one you love, because that is the one you will want to use and bring with you all the time. I acknowledge my shortcomings as a photographer, but I love learning with the M.

What I want to learn in the coming year:

• More emotions in my photos
• Catching moving objects (I have a couple of blurred photos of cats and deers)
• Overcome the fear of photographing people (so I can shoot them from the front instead of from the back)

We will see how far I can get….

Thanks for reading!