April in Paris

[jun_park]

I went to Paris, France two weeks ago with my wife and I brought M8 with 50/2 Cron, 35/2 4th Cron, CV

21/4, and 90/2.8 Thin T-E. Though I've only used 35 and 50 exclusively. Both with UV/IR filters.

 

35/2 works as a normal lens (a bit of wide side) and 50/2 works as short tele lens and it's perfect head &

shoulder shot from a dining table.

It seems that I get more images (wider) than what's showing inside the frame line of M8. I'm still learning

to adjust.

 

Comments are welcome.

 

Thanks!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25709866@N05/sets/72157604579563425/<div></div>

[John D]

I envy you the trip. I do not normally post here but think that your photos are a great display of what the M8 is capable of doing. Thanks for showing us and let us see some more when you get a chance. John

[frank]

"...but think that your photos are a great display of what the M8 is capable of doing. "

 

Do you really think pics like these only can be done with a M8??? Dream on. Sometimes I wish people would be less out of touch with reality when talking about Leica gear...

[george_conboy1]

It doesn't appear that John said that the photos "only can be done with a[n] M8", merely that an M8 is "capable" of such photos. That is a material difference. You should be less out of touch with how you quote someone else's words.

[cdnguyen]

Beautiful pics. Thanks for sharing !

[vic_.]

Thank you! Beautiful stuff. You are a great photographer. I felt as if I was there.

[SolaresLarrave]

Your absolutely best... Cafe di Fiori series, and the Montmartre night shots. Very good work!

Thanks for posting too... it brought back some memories!

[thomas_hardy1]

Very nice shots. I was in Paris last June and these photos brought back nice memories. How

did you like Paris in April?

[jun_park]

Thanks for the good comments. This was my 5th visit over the last 20 years of so. This

time I try to avoid tourist traps and hang out where local went and ate at where locals eat.

I had an evening tea at the Café de Fiore and this was the place where French Poets and

writers and philosophers hung out in the old days and I've seen many photos of this place

especially in black and white photos. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of what those great

photographers have done. One thing I regretted now is that I missed the Museum of HCB

and we stayed at Montparnass and it was right there. Darn it. But it's ok I've seen his

original large prints at the gallery in St. Germain from the last trip. his prints were very

beautiful, lot of mid tones and less contrasty but very sharp. hard to believe it was from

35mm film and I was shooting with M6 at that time.

 

It took them a 150 years to built the Notre Dame. It was spiritually overwhelming on

Sunday mass at Notre dame and the interiors and music and the priest... Next day I visited

those gargoyles that hung from the top of the cathedral which protects evil below, looked

very real and create very surreal mood when they are looking down on to Paris.

 

The hotel We stayed in, charge a bottle of water-Evian for 8 Euros while I had a nice crusty

baguette and fresh butter and jam with coffee for 4 Euros at bakery Paul at St. Germain de

Pres. It rained a lot and those rain slick was beautiful to photograph and we visited a lot of

private galleries in St. Germain de Pres. We saw many great paintings of Serge Poliakoff.

His paintings range 300,000 to 1M Euros. Next day, we visited Pompidou centre and we

spotted his painting. Although We couldn't afford the paintings, we afforded the book of

his paintings. We left the book in the alley while taking photos and walked a few blocks to

realized that we forgot it and went back to find that no one took it. Thank god that they

were blind.

 

The jazz cafe was great if we eat there then the entry fee is waived, at other place you pay

25 Euros and you get one drink. Although the music was great we were too tired to stay

late. We visited the one of the very best bakery Poilane, a small but famous.

 

A week passed by so fast but had many memories and beautiful photos. I was shooting a

blue door and all of a sudden a little girl zipped by on a scooter thing and I just happened

to catch her in the action.

 

Leica M8 made it much easier to take candid photos and less bulky to carry it around. I've

put the black tape on the red dot logo and M8 and no one noticed much.

 

Thanks for visiting and a good comments.<div></div>

[jun_park]

Correction. It's "CAFÉ DE FLORE" not "Café de Fiore" or "Cafe di Fiori".<div></div>

[laurentvuillard]

Nice photos Merci, thanks for sharing! How critical is M8 focussing compared to M6?? I've heard conflucting reports on RF accuracy versus sharpness in digital. PS:"8 Euros for an Evian" you should report them to the office du tourisme! B......s: totally shameful even in Paris! BTW tap water is fine (does not taste great I agree..).

[jun_park]

We drank a bottle of Evian from the room fridge then realized it cost 8 Euros so next

morning I bought 6 pack for 2.50 Euros and put one back in the fridge. The fridge has a

sensor and whenever the item moves it automatically registered to the bill. Better watch

out.

 

I find the focusing on M8 just same as on M6. M8 seems it's taking more pictures that

what the frameline on m8. That's all. My m6 is .72x and M8 is .68x so it's very little

difference.

 

The critical focusing would be at the close range I focus on the eye and then recompose

and it's slightly out of focus. Anybody have any better solution for that? For instance, in

my photo of the waiter at the cafe de Flore, i focus on his face then I recomposed and it's

slightly out of focus.

 

One more thing I noticed is, look at the photo above, I used UV/IR filter and the sign"Café

de Flore" reflected on the lower part of the photo. Do you notice it up there? Faintly in

bluish script upside down.

 

Other than that I love shooting with M8.

[vic_.]

Hi Jun, Really good compositions! Did you have a backup plan in case the M8 misbehaved in Paris? I ask because I'm thinking of getting one, and would like to know what people do in such situations. Thanks!

[jun_park]

Vic, I didn't have a backup plan and even though I have M6 I didn't bother bring it with me. I

brought spare battery for the M8 thou. My backup was my wife's p&s digital Panasonic/Leica

and I guess it's OK for a snapshots.