Enjoying The Sights On South Beach

I met James Mitchell at least five years ago through the photo.net Leica Forum. He's in the Miami area every few months on business and we always get together for lunch, or at least a drink. It's coffee for me and beer for James, so we have to find a place with a decent selection of imported beer and really good coffee, or try to at least. This was back in 2003 and a sidewalk cafe in South Beach was the location.

He had a "new" vintage Leica M3 in a fancy custom leather "half case" with matching strap. I like the Leica M3 myself ~ I have one ~ and it's probably a good idea to buy one that saw light use or maybe just sat under somebody's socks for the past fifty years. Get it cleaned of the dried out old lube, re-lubed, and it'll be good for half a century of actual use. What I don't understand is the concept of a fancy expensive half case. Yes, it protects the camera from dings and dents, but you have to remove it to stick a fresh roll of film in the camera.

I think that I was using my little Leica CL that day. It had looked pristine when I bought it a few years before but I don't make the effort to keep it that way. To me it's a tool I use to make photographs. It has a great lens and it's the kind of light weight/small size camera that makes me not mind schlepping it around all day. It's probably half the weight of the M3, and about one third smaller in size. It's not as well built either, but life is full of trade-offs.

What I really like about this picture, though, is the typical South Beach scenery walking by in the background. Noplace else around here seems to have as many cute chicks.

Al Kaplan And Jon Sinish On Miami Beach

If you've been following this blog for awhile I'm sure that you're aware that Jon and I have been friends now for about forty years. We just look young! Every time he's visiting Miami there's the obligatory trip to Miami Beach so he can see the genuine Atlantic Ocean instead of Long Island Sound.

There's a bit of size distortion caused by the perspective of the 15mm Heliar, but I am 6' 3" and Jon is just a tad shorter. I have a much larger nose too. That part isn't camera induced distortion! The camera hanging from my shoulder is my Leica CL with a 40mm Summicron.

When I shot this one I hadn't had the Bessa with the 15mm Heliar for very long, and I wasn't yet very good at guessing the framing while holding the camera off to the side. I'm still not exactly adept at shooting verticals with the rig. I like this picture anyway. That stance and facial expression are pure Sinish!