30 Days with the Leica MP, Volume 1: Day 1

I found myself shooting a lot of longer focal lengths last winter. After wrapping up my 30 Days with the Fuji X-T2 series, I fell into a rhythm with the 35mm (~50mm equivalent) and 56mm (~85mm equivalent) lenses attached to my X-T2. I was having a blast with deliberately shooting the “wrong” focal lengths when out on the street. I had pre-ordered the Fuji X100F, though, and while waiting for it to ship I figured I should get reacquainted with the wide 35mm focal length.

And there’s no better way to fall in sync with a particular setup than to spend 30 days shooting with it, and only it…so I kicked off another 30 Days series! This time, I decided to try something slightly different, though. Up to this point, my 30 Days With… series was exclusively shot with digital gear. This was kind of a necessity, since the criteria required posting images within a week of shooting them. Because I don’t develop my own film (yet?), the turnaround time from taking the images to getting the scans was just too long. But for this particular series, I really wanted to try shooting with my Leica MP and the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 Biogon. So I figured I’d relax the “post within a week of shooting” rule and just not worry about posting images until some later date (now!).

So the sole rule for this round was to only shoot with my Leica MP with the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 Biogon attached and Ilford HP5+ pushed two stops. That’s all I shot with for a month, and it successfully got me reacquainted with the wide focal length. Shooting black and white film was perfect for the time of year, since winter in Omaha isn’t exactly colorful. And pushing HP5+ a couple stops added a lot of contrast, grain, and grit to the images.

For the next 30 days, I’ll be posting 30 of my favorite images from this month of shooting. Unlike with prior 30 Days With… series, I won’t be adding a lot of commentary to each day’s image. I may write a little bit here or there if I feel so inclined, but for the most part the posts will be all about the images themselves. I think this is fitting when using a camera like the Leica MP, which purposefully strips away all the non-essentials that us photographers tend to focus on during our camera reviews. So for the next 30 days, forget about the gear and just enjoy the photos! 🙂