Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013

This guy was one of those weird characters you can glimpse on the subway. He probably lives in a much more hard-edged world than anyone else on that subway coach. It’s certainly one with very bright lights. I also like how the guy on the left seems to have no eyes thanks to the reflection in the glass pane through which I was shooting.

Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013

Somewhere else entirely.

Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013

What a moustache! I took two frames of him, the second one missed entirely, which is always a risk when shooting from the hip. I also like the faceless mannequins in the shop front and the reflection of the women walking.

Berlin | © Lilly Schwartz 2013

Wrong city, man! Someone in Berlin is obviously dreaming about an even bigger city.
I like how everyone seems so concentrated in this picture.

All pictures taken with my Olympus E-PL3 and my M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6.

In the morning I finished reading and looking through my Louis Faurer book. Such a great find! On top of things I realised that it seems to be sold out everywhere and already goes for high prices second hand. I got it reduced for a third of the listed price, which is a tenth of what it goes for second hand. I also edited some pictures, like every morning and finally also watched the documentary Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), which was really enjoyable.

The only problem with the documentary was that it’s full of reasons why the Leica is such a wonderful tool for street photography. It sparked again my bimonthly Leica google frenzy, gah! Yes, every couple of months I’m looking for ways of getting a Leica without selling a vital organ on the black market. So far I’ve been unsuccessful at this and clearly need a sponsor (anyone?). Since winning the lottery is unlikely and I don’t have a couple thousand euros lying around it will probably still take some time until I can fulfil my dream.

My Leica plan so far looks like this: Since it’s unlikely that I’ll have the money to buy both a body and a lens at the same time, splitting it up will be necessary. One reason for my shiny new micro four thirds camera – apart from the small size and the quiet shutter – was that it takes just about any lens with an adapter. With a couple of adapters I can use all my Canon lenses as well as my Leica M39 thread mount Jupiter 8 lens with the camera, and – surprise surprise – also Leica M-mount lenses! This means that at some point I can get an M-mount lens – probably a Voigtländer lens, which definitely produce the Leica feel and are a bit less expensive – and I’m already halfway there. Might be a bit difficult to use with the crop factor and the manual focussing on the Olympus, but the image quality should be pretty awesome. Then later on I can get either a used Leica M6 (film) or a Ricoh GXR with an M-Mount module (digital) to get a full-frame body under a 1000 euros. Sure, it will still take a few years until I’ll manage to save up as much, but at least there is a plan! And until then I’m sure going to have fun with my Olympus.

Yes, I’m really happy with my E-PL3. The only problem I noticed was that it has some quirks right after it wakes up from sleep mode: The screen turns on again, even when I turned it off before, and the shutter releases before the autofocus had time to do its job. However, apart from that I’m really happy with it. The image quality is really good and the autofocus really does quite a good job most of the time. I’m really happy also about the quiet shutter, which made the two frontal pictures on the subway possible without awkward fallout afterwards. Nobody noticed! On my first attempt of shooting with the camera I also noticed a bit of noise, but that was just because the picture in question ended up being quite underexposed. After all the kit lens is not exactly fast!

I mostly took pictures yesterday while out and about running errands. Those took quite a long time, so in the end I didn’t have time to practice my drawing skills.