The Vibe

On streets, camera in one hand, I feel free, free to observe and explore photography. Streets are my studio.

There is this three dimensional space changing every second around, above and below me. Everything I can capture in my camera’s two dimensional frame appears in glimpse and disappears forever. Everything is ephemeral. I am free where to position my lens and when to press the shutter to capture an image, frozen in time and space. I capture one frame at a time, but by doing so I loose trillions of other possibilities instantly. The captured image becomes history, other images untaken are lost forever. By not knowing what exactly will happen moment to moment is key to my endless freedom of artistic expression.

Sydney downtown is never boring. The light rail was introduced in 2020. After the pandemic ended office workers started to return to offices. Streets are abuzz with people at any hour. There are more open places for pedestrians, more cafes, and excellent food joints.  

From my home in North Shore I usually take a train or metro to downtown. The time I leave home depends on the season and weather. Those factors, I cheerfully call weather gods, will have direct effect on light. I don’t plan for photo walks. I pretty much stroll randomly on streets and alleys.

On the train I check the city weather using my cell phone’s Weather application. As the train approaches the city before it enters the underground tunnel over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I check skies from the window. I set the AUTO ISO Minimum Shutter Speed parameter based on available light. On a bright day I can go down as much as 1/250s to be able to capture subjects sharp. On overcast days 1/200 should suffice.  

Once I get out of the station I pull my handheld Ricoh GR camera from its holster. I check the current settings button.  There are 3 custom settings I programmed for quick access; they are u1, u2, and u3. My favourite is u1 which is based on the positive film setting, u2 is Kodachrome film setting, u3 is night photography setting. 

Before I pick a location, I check the vibe first. I study how people are moving and what they are doing. I check the direction of light, shades, reflections, layers, leading lines, and the background behind subjects. 

I relax and start slowly. I make couple of test shots first. On a good day, with favourable conditions I will gain momentum. On a bad day I will return home empty handed. But that is the nature of street photography, unpredictability is given.

Street Photography with Ricoh GR III X

Introduction

In this post I will share examples of street photographs I took in Sydney CBD recently.

Small miracles happened. An overcast and a light rainy day, artificial lights were reflected on wet surfaces, all ingredients were in favour of a dreamy noire look. 

I have waited at crossroads and alleys, where human conditions unfold stories. People either took shelter under doorways, or when they walk they were always busy, brushing each other in rush.

Attracted to light like a firefly I stopped thinking about perfection, avoided overthinking, and reacted to what happened in the flow. All I focused on was capturing the essence of human condition. 

As expected majority of images were inevitably bad (which is common in street photography), but 12 images out of 82 survived the initial culling. The hit rate turned out to be 14.6%. One of the highest scores I achieved. 

Ricoh GR III Settings for Street Photography

Snap Focus 

In this photowalk I did not use autofocus. 

Autofocus has its own quirks. Above all it forces you to choose the subject beforehand which severely limits time and space of framing. What if your subject moves in the direction of focal depth, or they are lost in crowd, or suddenly something more interesting occurs. In addition to those limitations, autofocus introduces nearly one second long delay in reaction time and sometimes it fails to engage in low light. 

Snap focus is a technique that shortens the time to near zero between the decisive moment and the moment the image is captured. It allows you to predetermine the hyper-focal distance and focal range where everything would be sharp. Once you do that and your subject moves into the focal range, a full shutter button press captures the image without delay.  

Ricoh GR has powerful snap focus features that helps to shorten the time between the decisive moment and shooting, i.e. determining focal range before the shooting takes place. 

💡Tip: Use Aperture Priority (Av) mode if you want to use snap focus. In Av mode after setting the hyper-focal distance (i.e. the distance at which everything will be sharp), decrease Aperture to increase focal range (i.e. the range where everything else will be sharp enough.) In Ricoh GR both hyper-focal  distance and the focal range will be visible on a green bar on the left side of the LCD, so that you will know.

Snap Focus settings

Here is a picture of Ricoh GR III HDF I snapped from the manual showing controls.   

I overrode a number of buttons to be able to quickly access settings without the need to search them in Menu.  

• Fn button (7) toggles between HDF on and off. Leave it as is.
• Configure ISO button (9) to toggle between Snap focus and AF.
• Go to `C2/Fn Button Setting/ISO Button` and choose `Set Snap`.
• Configure Drive button (16) to set Snap Focus Distance.
• Go to `C2/Fn Button Setting/Drive Button` and choose `Snap Focus Distance`.
• Configure Movie/Wireless button (6) to show `ISO Setting`.
• Go to `C2/Fn Button Setting/Movie/Wireless Btn` and choose `ISO Setting`.
• Configure the first 4 settings of ADJ button (8) to be ISO Setting, Focus, AE Metering, and Outdoor View Settings respectively. The last setting can be anything of your preference.
• Go to `C2/ADJ Mode Setting` and choose `ISO Setting` for `Setting 1`.
• Go to `C2/ADJ Mode Setting` and choose `Focus` for `Setting 2`.
• Go to `C2/ADJ Mode Setting` and choose `AE Metering` for `Setting 3`.
• Go to `C2/ADJ Mode Setting` and choose `Outdoor View Setting` for `Setting 4`. This is to quickly change LCD brightness under diverse light conditions.

Display Customisation

When I am shooting frequently  say every 30 seconds or so I wanted to preserve battery power by quickly turning the LCD off and on again without turning the camera off. 

In Ricoh GR III while shooting, pressing the `Disp` button repeatedly allows you to show information on the LCD in verbose mode (showing two lines of information), in single line mode (showing a single line of information at the bottom of the LCD), no information (just the live view without information), and blank display. 

 The method I describe here will let you to toggle the display between single line mode and blank display (ie. display is off.) 

• Go to `C3\Shooting Info. Display` 

• Leave the first column (verbose mode) check boxes unchecked.
• In the second column (single line mode) select at least `LCD Display` and other choices you are interested in checked.
• In the 3rd column leave all check boxes unchecked.
• In the 4th column (no display) select the `LCD Display` check box checked.

Why Ricoh GR III X HDF 

I have been shooting with Leica Q-P camera since it came out in 2018. Sometimes I used Leica CL but my go to camera had been Leica Q for the past 6 years. It is a beautiful 24 MP camera with a fixed 28 mm f/1.7 Leica Summilux lens. The quality of images it produced were superb. I enjoyed using it and I still do.

There were four main reasons why I switched to Ricoh GR III X during street photography walks.

• Ricoh GR III X is super light (262g) as opposed to Leica Q which weighs 640g. This makes a big difference in long and intensive photo-walks when weight becomes an issue.
• Ricoh GR III X is much smaller thereby it does not draw as much attention. 
• 40 mm focal length is better for street photography. It gives me extra 1-2 m length away from subjects to be able to take intimate shots. 
• Ricoh GR III X has superior snap focus options, which enable quick and intimate shots.

Melbourne Cup 2024

Yesterday was a Melbourne Cup day all around Australia. I hit the Sydney metropolitan area with the following goals in mind:

• Use 50 mm focal length
• Get closer to subjects as much as possible
• Aim good framing and minimal cropping

On the upside the carnival atmosphere in the city relaxed everyone. Women, with dazzling outfits, wanted to be seen. Weather gods were in favour too, with an overcast but a bright day. These conditions helped me to achieve my goals. 17 photographs turned out to be OK with minimal cropping and touch ups out of 141 shots over 4 hours, 11,000 paces.

I used my Leica CL crop sensor camera camera with Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH lens mounted on it yielding 53mm effective focal length. I used zone focusing with aperture set to 7.1 and the focus zone set between 2 and 7.5 meters. I set minimum shutter speed to 1/250s. 

There were some setbacks however:

😱 Leica CL does not have IBIS, therefore camera shake is an issue in low speeds. It turned out however even 1/250s shutter speed wasn't enough to compensate for hand and foot gestures turning up blurred. Going forward next time I'll use 1/500s.

😱 Some of the images gave me more blurred outcome on the mid-back side of the focal zone. I can't figure out why. Potential reasons are given in the Appendix.

Appendix

I set the aperture to f/7.1 (mid point between f/5/6 and 8.0.) I set the zone focus between 2-7 meters. My minimum shutter speed is set to 1/250s. Despite that my subjects between 3-7 meters aren't sharp enough, why?

Chat GPT answer:

Your setup seems solid for zone focusing, but a few factors could be affecting sharpness at that distance:

1. Depth of Field (DOF) Limitations: At f/7.1, even with zone focusing, the depth of field might not be as wide as expected, especially with an APS-C sensor. On a full-frame 35mm lens, f/7.1 offers decent DOF, but with the crop factor, you may lose some perceived sharpness. A smaller aperture like f/8 or f/11 could help.

2. Focus Calibration: Zone focusing relies on accurate distance markings, but if there's a slight miscalibration in your lens or sensor alignment, even slight deviations can make a difference in sharpness for subjects at 3-7 meters. Test the lens focus with manual adjustment to see if it consistently matches your zone marks.

3. Subject Movement: Although 1/250s is generally fine for most stationary subjects, any slight subject movement within your zone focus range could lead to soft images. For moving subjects, you might want a faster shutter speed, like 1/500s.

4. Sensor and Lens Resolution Limit: The Leica CL’s APS-C sensor and the 35mm Summicron lens might be reaching their resolution limits when combined, especially at f/7.1. Testing at f/5.6 and ensuring proper focusing alignment might help optimize sharpness. 

If none of these tweaks yield improvement, adjusting focus slightly or revisiting hyperfocal settings could help achieve the desired clarity.

Lunch Break

In autumn, office workers are having a lunch break in the Sydney CBD. I like the yellow colour palette, giant Corinthian columns. I can see the play, to other eyes it may look like a banal reality.

Next time you see cockatoos in a cloudy day

On a wire next to each other

Casually accompanied by one another

Pay attention to their communion

Being themselves for a short while

Feeling the warmth of strangers

Shoulder to shoulder

Strangers no more

The Lantern Man

It was a mid afternoon in the northern part of the city where the sun escapes through gaps between long shades of buildings pouring its light on odd corners. 

This man, an ordinary office worker, with a plastic bag carrying his late lunch suddenly moved to a sunny spot just for few seconds. It appeared as if his ordinary plastic bag was a lantern of some sort absorbing and reflecting a pack of light. I wouldn’t call him a messiah but suddenly he no longer appeared as ordinary.

Do not afraid of capturing images of ordinary scenes. In fact good photography most often than not is about creating extraordinary out of ordinary.