The Leica M-Monochrom and More

Last Tuesday (May 10th), Leica announced a couple of new Leica goodies to the world. Of the items, the Leica X2 was the least shocking (IMO). The other two items, a monochrome version of the M9-P (Leica M-Monochrom) and a new 50mm Summicron-M f/2, were quite the news. The Leica M9-P Hermès Special Editions were just overpriced versions of the current M9-P for the filthy rich (@ $50,000 USD).

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Henschotenmeer (Woudenberg) in Black and White

Leica Rangefinder M10 Rumors

Many of you may have heard, that Leica has scheduled an event for May 10th 2012. These events fuel the speculations of the things that may be announced. One of those things being a new Leica (rangefinder) camera called the M10.

Along with this rumor, everyone has (special) feature wishes / requests that this new camera should have. Some of those (IMO ridiculous) features include:

• Auto focus
• Electronic Viewfinder
• Build-in Flash
• Black and White only sensor

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Moerputten and Heusden

Last weekend we had our yearly spring trip with the camera club. Somehow the word' spring' didn't come in mind on that day. When I left home, the sun tried to break through, so with luck, it could be a nice day for photography..... Luck was nowhere to be found. The whole day, nothing but drizzle, wind, rain, drizzle, and rain (at least in the vicinity of ' s Hertogenbosch.)

I went a bit early, and when I arrived, I was the only person there, so I was able to shoot some photos without having to worry about other people showing up in my photos.

The Moerputten is an old trainbridge that runs through a patch of protected nature. It's basically just a bridge now. No trains run over it.

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The Depressing Belgium Ardennes

Some depressing photos from the Ardennes in Belgium.... And these 'objects' are still being used by people.

A combination of a store/shop, and living quarters:

Small (literally) house in the village of Boulion:

The following photo was shot during a foggy day on the parking lot of a supermarket:

I definitely wouldn't want to live there, but is it nice to make photos some cases :-)

Louwman Car Museum, The Hague

Last weekend, we visited the Louwman Car Museum in the Hague. I really had no idea what to expect of this museum, but I was surprised in a very positive way. The building is new, and filled with cars from the late 1800's till today. Including most (if not all) the classics.

If you're in the vicinity of the Hague, you should visit this museum (even if you're not a petrol-head).

Leica M and Lens Caps

Normally, I would have posted the following video in the Leica diary section, but that section is about totally serious Leica subjects only ;-). What the guy in this video is demonstrating (I hope) to the videographer, is that it's easy to forget that you put the lens cap back on the lens. With (d)SLR's you don't have this problem, since you're looking through the actual lens (unless you're blind or shooting in pitch black).

Fairness to say that I've had it happen to me a couple of times, but I notice my mistake at the moment I press the shutterbutton (+3sec exposure in broad daylight?? Must have forgotten something...).

Billingham Hadley Small Review

After I bought the Leica M9, I was in the market to get a new camera bag for the M9. The bag had to be small, versatile, and not scream '(expensive) PHOTO GEAR HERE!!!!'. Since I owned a Billingham bag before, my eye quickly fell on the smaller Billingham bags. Especially the Hadley Small looked very appealing. After checking the internal and external dimensions on the website I purchased the bag (Black FybreNite version) through Robert White in the UK. They had the bag in stock, and it was cheaper (with shipping included) than ordering it in the Netherlands. I also included the SP50 Shoulderpad, for additional comfort.

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Camera Club Photo Weekend 2011

This weekend, we had a little outing with the camera club in Drenthe (NL). During the weekend we visited Orvulte, Camp Westerbork, Dwingelderveld, and Groningen.

• Orvulte is a (really) small town with a no-cars-allowed-policy during a large part of the year. It could be a nice place to visit if it wasn't overrun by tourists (and photographers).
• Camp Westerbork was a transit camp for Jews during the second World War. Over 107.000 Jews, Sinti and Roma were shipped to various concentration camps in Europe and lost their lives. Unfortunately, there's not much left of the original camp.

Barbed Wire @ Camp Westerbork

Iconic rail track @ Camp WesterborkNice autumn colors during the walk to the camp

• National Park Dwingelderveld is a small nature reserve in Drenthe (NL).
• And Groningen is.... well a big city in the northern part of the Netherlands.

Waiting for the busRed, White and GreenThis was the first (photo)trip without my Nikon dSLR gear. Leica only, which was kinda challenging at times (not having zoom-capabilities etc.), but I survived.

Moving from Flickr to SmugMug

Over the last couple of years, I've been storing my photos online @ Flickr. But I fear that time has come to move forward. Forward to another service for the next couple of years. The main reason for moving is that Flickr doesn't seem to innovate. No innovation basically means going backwards, in these days.

Flickr is a WYSIWYG environment. What you see is what you get, and not in the way this term is usually used on the Interwebs. There's no way of changing the coloring or appearance (white only). No way of integrating into another website (e.g. changing the URL).

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