Iron Creek Photography®: Along the Lower Schwabacher Landing with a Leica M9

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Along the Lower Schwabacher Landing with a Leica M9

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/11 1/500 ISO160

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/4 1/2000 ISO160

In Part I we described the area and purpose behind this 3-parter; in Part II we'll showcase the Lecia M9 and Leica Elmarit 24mm lens.

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/3.4 1/2000 ISO160

I had reported earlier about the "mistaken lens" and how I ordered a 28mm and received the 24mm by mistake. This has been one of the best mistakes to be made. Truth be told this has been the lens I normally keep on the M9 and will use this more often than not.

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/4 1/2000 ISO 50

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/3.4 1/1500 ISO 50

Sandy & I had finally made the turn into the Lower Schwabacher Landing not really knowing what to expect to see other than the brief views we observed from the upper highway. We parked at the very end of a dirt/gravel road that was marked as the Lower Schwabacher Landing expecting to see a boat ramp however that's the farthest from the truth. What you see is a small gravel parking area, a port potty and a trail leading towards the water.

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/9.5 1/350 ISO 160

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/3.4 1/2000 ISO 160

Taking the trail towards the water you'll quickly see it follows along the waters edge past a small then larger beaver pond and into the river itself. The water the first day was flat as a mirror, the wind was calm and the sky was blue with clouds. Perfect conditions for that mirror look. As reported earlier, it didn't take me very long to decide on returning and using the Cambo WRS/P45+ (that's coming in Part III). I will tell on ourselves now by admitting neither Sandy nor I had carried a tripod with us on this first visit so all the images from Part I and II were captured handheld. I have found the Leica M9 very forgiving with handheld shooting and it is rare that I even think about using a tripod with it no matter the focal length.

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/11 1/500 ISO 50

Leica M9 Elmarit 24mm f/9.5 1/500 ISO 160

We walked along the rivers edge for close to a mile that first day sometimes shooting side-by-side so you might notice what looks like the same images from Part I.