One body, one lens, that's basically what I always tried to carry when I was on the road. I used to carry my trusted Nikon DSLR, but it was too big, heavy and cumbersome, not to mention it's too obtrusive for any human subjects. I was searching for the answer until the moment I touched a Leica M8. Ever since then, I was carrying it loaded with an extremely compact Leica Summarit-M 35 f/2.5 lens almost all the time.
During the past two weeks, I was on a short business travel to CA Silicon Valley. Fortunately, I had the chance to spare my weekend there with my old friend Ryan, who is a growing talented photographer located in San Francisco. Ryan was assigned to do an engagement session for his long-time college friends, Tina and Jimmy, so I jumped in as an assistant and 2nd shooter. But I realized that I didn't have a powerful DSLR and any telephoto or zoom lens. Ryan insisted me trying to get some frames by his side with my Leica M8 and 35 prime lens. Before then, I never even thought about using my Leica to do any relatively serious engagement or wedding sessions, yet here came the opportunity that I could feel free to give it a try without any responsibility. Out of my surprise, with a rangefinder camera, I found the pure love and inspiration of shooting human subjects again, slowly and carefully. Ryan was kind enough to allow me to lead his friends trying various kinds of ideas, which results in quite a bunch of beautiful frames shown below. Thanks to the patience and loveliness of Tina and Jimmy, Ryan and I not only got a handful beautiful frames, but also had such a great time hanging out together.
Deeply impressed by the natural beauty of the lands end, I also can't help including a few landscape images taken during the final sunset stage of the engagement session. Special thanks to Ryan for his invitation of my joining this beautiful engagement session and his courtesy of letting me post the images here. Enjoy ~~~
All of the images were taken by Leica M8 + Leica Summarit-M 35 f/2.5 in ambient light.
This engagement session can later also be checked at Ryan Zhang Photography.
