There are sometimes when you get a shot you like very much even if its not considered to be a fantastic photo. Its the conditions during the take of the image that can make a photo an instant personal favorite.
I had just parked my car and it was raining heavily. I saw the woman with the red coat holding a red umbrella and I thought that’s a good chance for a quick street capture. Luckily for me, I had already set the Leica M8 in street mode (f/8, distance set to 5 meters, AUTO ISO with minimum speed at 1/125). Then while I was ready to press the shutter I notice at the right corner of my rangefinder (outside the frame lines) the red STOP sign and I immediately moved the camera to include the sign in the frame.
(Leica M8, Summarit-M 35mm f/2.5, crop from the left size)
The coat, umbrella, boots and sign all colored red, together with the droplets of rain on the windshield composed one of my personal favorite street photos. An autofocus camera would probably had focused on the windshield which would create a completely different image, and the rangefinder window allowed me to look out of the frame and make a last second change in composition. These are some of the situations where I really love my four years old M8 and its a camera that I will continue to use for many more years !
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