Tabi basa and greeting family and friends,
How was your weekend? I hope it is great and awesome as it is supposed to be. Saturday, as usual, is a day of enjoyment, unless you made a conscious decision and declare that everyday is a time to enjoy. By right, any time spent on the face of the Earth is supposed to be a time to enjoy, rather than to confine it into one singular celebration.
For me, yesterday was the day of celebration, where we celebrate the birthday of our little Jared, who just clocked his first year upon his arrival to this plane last year. It was a simple celebration, but it was indeed more meaningful since it is the time for us gather as one big family, save for one that is quite a distance away from us.
Happy Birthday To You!
For me, birthday celebration is indeed a good way to say thank you to family and friends that has been supporting us in life. It is not something that we can do every day.
Gears Used
For this celebration, I used Leica M10-P and Summilux 35 FLE. Reason for 35 mm is because I am working at tight space and have to make use of the wider angle to compose better. I can use 50mm but it would a bit too tight. A usual, for this kind of celebration, if you only have to use one lens, and one camera; a camera coupled with 35mm would be a good combination.
The used of medium-telephoto lens or telephoto lens is not encouraged unless you want to work at spot and avoid from walking around due to congested space.
Let There Be Light
In this job also I am using external light. Not because M10 can’t handle available light, but because I want to experiment with the lights.
For any room-lit environment, Leica can handle it without any problem, even if you are using the Elmar or Summaron family of lenses that has aparture higher than f/3.4. M10’s excellent ISO performance is good and high enough for you to use ISO as high as 10,000 without any problem, though I always keep mine as low as possible, usually 400, because I want to have my image as technically perfect as possible.
For my experience, Noctilux is my go-to lens for challenging events, because it is the King, King of the Light, or basically King of the Night as it can capture as many photon of light as possible, without compromising the quality of the image. At the biggest aperture opening in modern Leica aspherical family of lens, it is indeed goes without a fight. The second contender is Summilux 50 FLE, that I believe many go for it instead. Though it was introduced in 2004, it is still a good lens as many Leica user is concerned. I even bought it as my first Leica lens, only to let it go to acquire the King of Light.
Therefore, my take is, for event photography, the best go-to combination is 35-50, or if you have wider such as 24 or 21 (I would go for the latter), do add that in your lens bag. If you only have to go with one lens, go for 35 (the wider the better, I would recommend f/1.4).
Tukang Rantek Life Long Learning
To those who approached me about photography and if they intend to get serious, I would suggest to them to do an event first, and get hold of the experience first-hand before moving on the next discussion. For me, photography is more than just a sniper in the distance. It is one of the most important personnel in any event. My approach of doing my photography is to interact with the event-goers, and be part of them. Why? For me, if the photographer is having a bad time, it will be reflected in his expression, thus in a way, will affect the event goers. The negative vibe will propagate and it will make the event a bit less than it is should be. However, just imagine the photographer is a cheerful one, or the one with high energy, it will create and impact to the event-goers positively. Thus making the already good event even greater. For me, that is an accomplishment.
Having said that, to each is their own, as photography job is like drawing on a piece of white canvas. The photographer can choose to be walking on the snow without leaving any footprint, or he can choose to make a snowman.
Have a good weekend!
Your Tukang Rantek,
Claudius Weson
Note: Claudius Weson is a tukang rantek (photographer) based in Miri, mainly doing portraiture (indoor / studio / outdoor photoshoot), weddings and event photography.
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