Category: Leica

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 6, 20219:05 pm

Leica Q2 Monochrom

One year and a few days after receiving Leica Q2, I am finally writing a review, with emphasis on benefits—not features, although both are related. Don’t confuse the two as being the same. My favorite analogy: The holder that wraps around your take-out cup of hot coffee is a feature. Protecting your hand from being burned is the benefit. See the difference? That’s where my 12-month take will focus.

Meanwhile, I oddly added another member of the Q family to my stable of (now) two cameras. Leica Q2 Monochrom arrived on Dec. 28, 2020. Some people will wonder why, when the other model shoots color and black and white. The difference for me is RAW, photo sharpness, and exceptional low-light performance. I have plans for the all-in-one that will be obvious over time.

Leica by Joe WilcoxJan 4, 202110:34 pm

If the Lockdown Lasts Long Enough…

I am so tempted to buy a can of spray paint and replace that last zero in twenty-twenty with a one. Because given that Southern California’s COVID-19 crackdown continues unabated—and that the restaurant couldn’t have opened in “Early Fall” because of it—autumn twenty-twenty-one looks ever more realistic. That assumes the place isn’t forced into insolvency, like so many other local eateries. In this County, SanDiegoVille keeps a running list of restaurants and pubs permanently shuttered during 2020—the majority since the pandemic’s start. I count 113 entities, but more when accounting for establishments with multiple locations.

These businesses are prohibited from seating customers, indoors or outdoors; take-out and delivery are the only options, and they don’t generate enough revenue to keep operations aloft. The widening spread of COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2), demonstrates that forced closures are ineffective killing the pandemic. But they sure look likely to massively massacre small- and medium-size businesses.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 3, 202110:24 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Angelo

Next door to Huck and across the street from Fluffy and Pepto, you could meet Angelo—as my wife and I did yesterday. Daniel Tiger lives on the same side of the street—as may Darth Mew, Ginger, Huck, Jedi, Milo, and Princess Leia; I haven’t seen any of them recently. The leashed, 17-year-old black, whom his owner has had since kitten age, drank water from a cup as we approached. A roommate watched Angelo, enjoying the delightfully sunny 18 degrees Celsius (64 F) temperature while laid back in a lawn chair.

I wouldn’t call the feline feisty. He moved slowly but assuredly. To assist aged digestion, part of Angelo’s diet consists of chicken and pumpkin puree reduced to pâté in a blender.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 2, 20216:36 pm

You Spell It Like This

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes you need a second one to communicate the message. I captured the Featured Image today along University Ave. in San Diego’s Hillcrest Neighborhood. “Massachusetts” is correctly spelled in the billboard for Mike’s Pizzeria.

Digressing, why New England pie? I recall there being a New York pizza place in the location before it joined the many shops and restaurants that have closed thanks to the overly onerous lockdowns imposed by Governor Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom. He acts like some quirky, hallucinogenic-taking medium blessed him as the messiah of COVID-19—the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2). He will kill more people (and businesses) than he will ever save; he attacks the pandemic with the figurative equivalent of atomic bombs. Will someone please hide the launch codes before radioactive fallout kills us all!

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 1, 202111:54 am

Good Advice

Happy New Year! Here’s a worthy resolution that my wife and I saw today, chalked on the Madison Ave. sidewalk near Massachusetts in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. I used Leica Q2 to capture the […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 31, 202012:01 am

Flickr a Week 53a: ‘Donna’

On January 1, I introduced this series; now comes the final post of 2020 on the last day of the year. Longstanding Internet tradition demands a cat, who joins two others in entries “Devil’s Eye” and “Lotta Love, Lijah“. Wolfgang Franzen used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture self-titled “Donna” on Nov. 30, 2020. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 6400, 1/60 sec, 28mm. The portrait is a keeper for beautiful bokeh, compelling composition, creamy black-and-white, and high-ISO detail. Then there is the feline’s mood-setting character.

I came to this photo when searching Flickr, which Wolfgang joined eight years ago this month, specifically for the camera. If you wonder why: I am the proud owner of the Q2 Mono, which arrived from Leica Store Miami on December 28.

Leica by Joe WilcoxDec 30, 20209:30 pm

Must Dark Chocolate Taste Bad to Be Good?

The answer depends upon your tastebuds and eating habits. In July 2013, following a diabetic health scare, I voluntarily adopted a low-carb, low-sugar diet—and the latter isn’t easy, given how much sugar is added to everything. According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, “For most Americans, the main sources of added sugars are sugar-sweetened beverages, baked goods, desserts, and sweets”. I stopped eating all these things seven years ago. Granny Smith Apple is my main treat; dark chocolate is the other.

In a relatively recent change, the FDA requires “added sugar” to be included on a packaged food’s Nutrition Label along with the overall total—the remainder being naturally occurring. The amounts can be staggering. For example, in a half-cup (130 grams) of Bush’s Baked Beans (original recipe) there are 12 grams of sugar—11 of them added, for 22 percent of the daily recommended total of 50 grams if consuming a 2,000-calorie diet. But other organizations recommend much less intake. The American Heart Association guidance is no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams for men. Ladies, one cup of Bush’s would fill your daily quota.

Leica by Joe WilcoxDec 29, 20208:20 pm

The N-Word for White Women

Six months have passed since I walked by the painted window, somewhere in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, that is this post’s Featured Image. My thoughts needed some percolation before I was ready to express them. Here we go. Women of a certain age (often middle age, or older), economic status (Middle Class or wealthier, which means entitled), and race (white) are all over the InterWebs for behaving badly. Somebody smartphone-videos their tirades, which may or may not include racial slurs but more often is angry or exasperated. The typical stereotype is the woman who calls cops or store manager to settle a perceived grievance.

Call it the new KKK—Karen-Ken Klan, which lynches people in the social media public square, where they don’t lose their lives but absolutely lose their livelihoods: Jobs and reputations, for starters. Death would almost be merciful compared the merciless torture for which they endure.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 27, 202012:00 am

Flickr a Week 52b: ‘Winter afternoon at the Boston Public Garden’

The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2), dramatically changed this series‘ planned character. There is much less street photography, fewer candid portraits, and more landscapes or scenes where people might be expected but are absent. Bleak black and white, or scant color, are common for what they represent during a year where, as I warned my wife in late January: “Fear is the contagion”. Examples relevant to today’s selection: “A Spring Snow Fall In Prescott, Wisconsin“, “A Yukon Quest Team“; “Barns in Snow“, “Break“, “Foggy Morning“, “Forever Silence“, or “Ice, Ice Baby“. The tonal change began in May, rather than March—my habit of curating two months ahead.

Our third Monochrom moment in a row comes from Subhash Roy, who used Leica SL2 to shoot self-titled “Winter afternoon at the Boston Public Garden” on Dec. 20, 2020. Vitals: f/8, ISO 200, 1/500 sec. I used to live nearby that lovely locale, and it’s wonderful to see a statue—of George Washington—still standing months after so-called peaceful protestors and rioters defaced or destroyed iconic (and some controversial) American statues and monuments. The winter scene takes the Sunday spot for composition, film-like quality, and mood.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 25, 20205:38 pm

The Bee Tree

I am not a photographer and bear no illusions about ever being one. My composition skills are raw, and rarely cooked, and I lack the post-production sense that someone else would use to create art. My camera, the Leica Q2, is professional grade and seemingly beyond my skills. But I handle the all-in-one well enough, and it is satisfying to use—enjoyable and versatile.

I am a storyteller, however, and use photos to mark moments or to illustrate a narrative. Take as example the Featured Image (warning: 30GB file), which I captured today along Georgia Street between Lincoln and Polk in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28mm; 11:36 a.m. PST. The original was portrait, but I cropped square.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 25, 202012:12 am

Flickr a Week 52a: ‘Where Mozart Lives’

Happy Christmas! For months, I searched for a holiday-specific, Creative Commons-licensed photo and found none that wowed me. Instead, we go non-traditional but other timely—when bow and string made merry music and smartphone distractions were beyond the imaginations of even the most prolific, prophetic science fiction writers.

Roman Boed captured self-titled “Where Mozart Lives” on Dec. 28, 2017, using Leica M and Summilux-M 1:1.4/50 ASPH lens. The EXIF doesn’t identify specific camera model. Vitals: f/1.4, ISO 3200, 1/60 sec, 50mm. The string quartet portrait is a keeper for atmosphere, composition, film-like texture, and timelessness (just ignore the lamp’s pull-string).

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 24, 20209:53 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Measure

I really should be more observant about where kitty portraits are taken. This one is on North—or could be Campus—nearby Madison or Monroe. For some reason I failed to use the iPhone XS camera for quick, GPS-marking shot. Sigh. The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2, on Dec. 4, 2020. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 125, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 9:41 a.m. PST.

The black earns nickname Measure, for how it sized up my approach and the motion of nearby birds.