Light has its own character

Look For The Light

I’ve always been looking for the perfect light to make thinks look better. We all do, photography is all about light after all. But sometimes it gets tricky. Yesterday I was out in the village of La Colle-sur-Loup to capture the authenticity, either in the ordinary or in the more complex subjects. The idea was to catch what the village is all about, its identity, its character. While La Colle-sur-Loup has a lot of that, I found the character was mostly in the light itself. Clouds were covering the sky in white, turning it into a huge soft box for everything. That’s great, but for some shots a blue sky would have been so much better, and for others the warm color from the sun was really missing. But does it mean the time spent there was useless? Certainly not. Time can’t be useless when you walk around with a camera. It’s a pure pleasure and everything can happen at any moment. That’s what I love about photography.

Sometimes It's In The Details

For the picture above I had just switched from the 28mm to the 75mm (I frequently bring the 75mm with me for a day out shooting. Unfortunately, I rarely use it simply because I don't like switching lenses on location. It find it breaks the flow I am in and I tend to move me away from the mood I am in. ), things look completely different and it changes the way we look at them. I like to do that because it's like having another approach and the results can be surprising. I have been there with the wide angle an hour or so before, but the 75mm and a little change in the light was all it took to render what you see here (picture above).

A Work In Progress

But I am not done yet with La Colle-sur-Loup. I plan to get back again this week when the weather is better (i.e. blue sky & sun). Yesterday's walk in the village gave me the opportunity to explore areas and things I didn't know yet (I work in the village everyday, so I know a lot about it. But with a camera you always discover things and little corners you didn't know exist. And that<s exactly what I like to do.). And now that I acknowledged the difference it makes looking through two different lenses (I knew, of course, but discovered how surprisingly interesting it could be), so I'll try that approach : go wide, then "get closer".

What’s In The Bag

• Leica M (Typ 240) + spare batteries x 2
• Summicron-M 28mm, f2 ASPH
• Summicron-M 75mm, f1.2 ASPH
• Olympus VF-2 Electronic View Finder
• Sony RX100 + spare batteries x2
• 64GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards x 3
• Lens cloth & brush
• Glasses
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus

Good Light!

Norm

© Normand Primeau