Scenes Seen, Digital Vintage, Stranger Portraits, & A Ramble: The Tool Vs. The Task.

A constant photography topic seems to be whether or not gear matters. My answer?

Yes and no.

No first.

Technically any device with a camera can take a photo. A phone. An old, I mean vintage film camera. An old digital camera. The latest and greatest gear. Manual focus. Auto focus. Crop sensor. Full frame. Medium format. Large format. From a pinhole film camera to the latest release if all we are talking about is whether a simple photo of a static scene can be taken so that it can then be shown to others the gear does not matter.

But it is not simple. Nothing ever is.

The yes.

There are the technical considerations based on the subject matter, scene, and setting of course. One could not realistically be expected to successfully document a sporting event with a pinhole camera for instance. Tool for the task and all of that. But that is not what I am on about.

As much as makes no sense there are the emotional considerations also.

Certain gear even brings about connections with others.

Take a recent day for instance.

Emotion.

I like rangefinders. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never fully understand the why. I have taken stabs at rational explanations that can be heaped upon the relentless pile of online discourse in praise of rangefinders. But it is all nonsense. I like using them. For whatever reason. They get me out of the house. They get me out of the car. They allow me to raise the camera to my face when I otherwise might not have. I bring it when other cameras would have been left at home. And that is enough for me. Reason and logic are highly overrated at times.

And photos were taken.

Connection.

Interesting gear can spark instant community with other… let us say camera enthusiasts. I have met a few cool people where the initial spark was simply, “What camera is that?”, “Are you using fim?”, “What camera is that?”, or the like. That happened on the day in question and further exchanges have already taken place. Things that would normally never happen for this introvert with a very extroverted interest. A father and daughter asked:

“Is that a Leica?”

They thought it was a newer model. Understandable. I swiftly corrected them that this one had a few years on it. Then after a quick camera nerd recap exchange they were interested in a quick picture. Their may be family pictures in the future…

And photos were taken.

While hacking on my daughters car in the shop I came across an old car. In all honesty if I had a more pedestrian image capturing device I likely would have kept it moving. But images of an old car with an old rangefinder seemed like something that needed to happen.

And photos were taken.

So. No. A specific camera and lens was not required. But I am glad I had them just the same. Two recent acquisitions (1 and 2) were in play this day.

Enough of that. Here are the captures from this day.

It is while I took the photo above that I heard, “Is that a Leica?”, from the Father of a Father and Daughter seated having lunch. After some quick introductions and camera catch up the lens was swapped and photos were taken.