All rights to this photograph is reserved the photographer
I like this image because of its spontaneity and simplicity. This image was taken while I was doing some photography at Smithfield Market in London. The image came about as I was leaving the table I had been sharing with these gents. After shooting through the night, headed down to the local greasy-spoon downstairs in the market’s basement for something of a “pick me up”. The restaurant was small. Got my breakfast and joined these folk at one of the few tables in the joint. Not knowing them, we shared a little polite conversation. The gent in the middle was telling me he worked as a clown for kid’s shows in his spare time. In between, told him what I was doing.
Just before leaving the table, prepped my camera – either a Leica M3 or M4-P – I was using at the time and a 28 mm 2.8 Elmarit. As I was sliding out from the table, lifted the camera up and asked the gent in the middle, “May I”? And, this was the resulting shot – one frame. His companion to the right saw this coming up and at the moment I put the camera to my eye, gave him a hug. The gent on the left carried on eating and seemed unaware of what was going on. Love the shot and that’s why I love Leicas.
Why I like Leicas:
Leicas can’t be beat for intimacy and spontaneity when it comes to this sort of work. In a shot like this, I couldn’t ever imagine a DSLR with 24-70 mm or any other lens working in this kind of space. It would have been too intrusive. By the time you’ve sorted out which elements to focus on in the autofocus, the moment’s gone. With Leicas and in the situations where I use them best, there’s little or no intrusion between the situation or the subject and myself. Its a sort of one on one thing. With a Leica in hand, there’s little that I need know and even less to think about. Its just there – me, the moment and hitting the shutter button – bang. With modern DSLR’s – wow. Talk about information overload – where to place the focus spot, juggle the zoom, check the exposure, shift there, twiddle here, lock this, shuffle that, where’s the subject, check the framing and then … hit the shutter. What a palaver.
Rogan Coles is currently based and works in Hong Kong. His editorial work and image archive are at Photoshelter – check it out!
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Rogan
Really enjoyed looking at your Photoshelter pictures. Especially Smithfield Market and Saving Sight in Africa.
Were all of these photos taken on Leica M cameras?
Wonderful picture! Thanks to share!
Hi des,
Thanks for your supportive comments. Yup, all the Smithfield images done using an M-3 and 2 M4-P’s. Most of the Saving Sight images where done on a mix of Leica and SLR – as in the close ups.
Thanks Vincent, may be I should be doing more of this sharing. In the past have tended to “hide” much of my personal work.
Just checked out you Smithfield Market images and some fabulous stuff there. The Shot on this site is definately what a Leica is for.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for you supportive comments. Had to be patient on this project but, once things got going, it was Leica all the way. In a sense my timing was good. Shortly after working on this project, they went and refurbished the whole place. In be posting something if a story behind the story on my blog in the near future.