A Night Out in Little Ol' San Antone
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There's truly nothing more that I love than going out for a night on the town with my Leica M10. My Leica M10 is so small and unobtrusive that it's so easy to just throw in a small camera bag & take everywhere with you. I generally only bring one lens for the camera when I'm going out, so below is visual gallery of how I saw the evening.
On this night I went to check out First Friday with some friends. If you're not familiar with First Friday: First Friday is essentially a night dedicated to local artists in San Antonio, headquartered in the Blue Star Arts in Southtown. On this night we left with the best of intentions -- to take in as much art as possible; however, we seemingly could not leave the restaurant that we started at, an order of sourdough breadsticks here, a whiskey & coke there and before you know it, most of the art galleries had closed! On my part, I had a shoot earlier that day in the studio that went for about 3 hours, which includes setting up & breaking everything down, so on my part -- I did show up to the restaurant very late. From the restaurant, with little time to actually catch any of the openings, we walked around from bar to bar, mingling with the fellow patrons and art goers on this First Friday.
After bar hopping, we did actually make it over to Brick at the Blue Star, which is essentially an event center with live music, vendors, and art showings. On this evening the incredible local band called Honey Bunny performed, but unfortunately we just missed them! We did however catch the local band Sweet Charbonneau & The Fur Trappers, a very eclectic & energetic band that's perfect for a night of partying. I always love being able to catch local music. Obviously because I love music; however, little do many people know -- the first genre of photography that I started shooting was Live Music, so I felt right at home photographing The Fur Trappers. Once you scroll down, aside from the instruments, you'll be able to tell who they are. I'll give you a hint -- lots of fur...
While at the Brick, I was able to continue to gather content for the series I have been working on all year: Portraits of Strangers. Once I gather enough content, I intend on putting all of those images together and releasing a book with all of my portraits. Lucky for me, First Friday is a perfect night for gathering these types of images!
If you're interested in the process of how I shot these photos keep reading, if not, feel free to keep on scrolling to view the photos:
On this evening I shot everything with my absolute favorite camera: the Leica M10, paired with my trusty Canon 35mm F2 lens. This Canon lens is from the 60's and renders so wonderfully on the Leica M10. Despite the age of the Canon lens, this lens is actually quite sharp, obviously not as sharp as lenses made today, but there is this quality to this lens that is irreplaceable. I actually prefer this Canon lens to my Leica 35mm Summarit, which is about 4 to 5 times more expensive. For me the Leica 35mm lens that I have is much too clean and sharp, something that most people are after; but once you're in the photography game for as long as I have been, things like how sharp a lens is become less important. In fact, I find myself chasing after lenses that offer more charm than anything else. It's funny because I used to read so many reviews from photographers discussing this very thing, and not really understanding what they were talking about; however, now that I have had the opportunity to try out many different cameras & lenses, I'm able to fully understand this sentiment. Photography, like anything else, is a big picture art form, often involving trial & error; however, once you find the tools that work for you, the world is then yours to capture as you see fit.
Oh, I went to 2nd Saturday the following night! Here are some photos from that evening. Most Importantly, I got to check out Ramin Samindari's current exhibit:
