Tuesday, June 2, 2020

ONE PHOTOGRAPHER’S EXPERIENCE; THE GEORGE FLOYD WASHINGTON D.C. PROTESTS



Contributor to this blog, Johnny Martyr, published an article by photographer Ben Eisendrath on his own blog.  He graciously offered to have that article posted on this blog as well.

Guest blog; all text and photos by Ben Eisendrath, depicting his experience on Sunday May 31st, 2020

When the crowd’s chants and weight against the steel barricades diminished, the wall of police stepped back, careful to remain shield-to-shield. The quieter the protesters, the further away law enforcement fell. But when the chants turned instead to advancing through the wall, the opposing force closed the gap to intimidating effect; a tidal ebb and flow of conflict.

The first man to jump over the barrier knelt in the grass and delivered a Black Power salute. One provocative profile with his back to thousands stood behind the steel facing hundreds of Secret Service, Park Police and National Guardsmen arrayed across Lafayette Park. Within seconds, two more men joined him, and they threw their hands up to the “don’t shoot” stance. At that point, the dam went from leaking to collapse and protesters poured over onto the lawn. The police, who hadn’t moved on the first three men then surged forward to stem the break. Miraculously, through a hail of thrown water bottles, the protesters were pushed back and the fence reset. The dam repaired, police retreated.

george_floyd5_2020-14
© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic + shameless@gmail.com

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© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

On the other end of the line, two teens leapt over; a boy and a girl.  Their breach surprised both sides. The police closest to them, including a senior officer, came forward and corralled them with shields and hands, pushing them to the barrier.  The police yelled for protesters to help lift the teens back over to their side. “Someone strong! Lift him over!” It came off as a parental moment in the midst of an epic. The same group of officers repeatedly walked forward to hand back signs that had been dropped on their side, before stepping back into their defensive line.

george_floyd5_2020-16
© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

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© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

And so it continued. Insults, hurled water bottles and moments of humanity between the protest and the object of its fury, the police. Several officers who made the mistake of holding their shields upside-down (“POLICE” inverted) were targets of comedic abuse and smiles on both sides.  Officers of color were singled out and shamed as traitors. A black officer who also held an upside-down shield received “And you’re the black one! How does that look [expletive]??” to a roar of the crowd.

At exactly 7:00pm EST, whether planned or spontaneous, the bulk of the protest broke off and began to march again, along H Street toward the intersection of 14th. A tight column of police followed. The streets had been blocked off long in advance and belonged to the protesters and police alone. The chanting throng passed closed-down, boarded-up hotels and storefronts.  And when some lingered too close, officers moved between the windows and the protesters, forming temporary standoffs.

george_floyd5_2020-17
© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

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© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

Then something happened. Out of relative order came a stampede of chaos. Hundreds, running as if a fuse had been lit. Most ran by, but at the center, a group of protesters began rocking an MPD car.

george_floyd5_2020-2
© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

The flash-bang grenades came. Unsure of where each would land, the crowd surged in all directions, anticipating the next explosion.  Some stopped and turned, hands up, redoubling the “Don’t Shoot” chant. Some dropped to their knees. An officer climbed atop the previously-threatened car and took aim at concentrated areas of the street with a disbursement weapon, protesters scattering as the barrel came their way. Wherever a grenade hit, the street filled with smoke. Some participants were hit with paintball-like pepper projectiles and came limping out of clouds of sulfur. Again, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot”. Protesters were seen tossing fireworks at the advancing line. Young voices continued the chant, again and again, while approaching their riot-gear-equipped opposites through an acrid mist.

And then, sealed off with cars and shields from marching North or West, protesters were on the move again, following H Street and toward the Capital.

Galvanized.

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© 2020 Ben Eisendrath / @insomnigraphic

Notes on the gear from the author:

I chose my Leica M10 and mounted the tiniest wide/normal I have, a contrasty 1970 Summicron 35mm (Germany variant). I didn’t want to stand out, and I wanted unlimited “film”. All was well with my setup until the grenades went off, which caused me— the human— to knock my aperture tab and close down too far for some of the mayhem.

Aside from the long lens digital photographers covering the event, there were many film shooters. From the Nikon F3 and M6-holder next to me on the barrier to the young guy toting a medium-format Fujifilm 6×9.

Ben Eisendrath is a Washington D.C. resident who I met a few years ago through our love for Leica cameras and lenses. Ben owns Grillworks, a custom wood-fired culinary manufacturer. He is also a night-owl and music lover whose concertshots of GWAR, Slayer, Depeche Mode and other awesome acts can be found routinely in Parklife DC.  With night-life and rock shows halted due to Corona, Eisendrath took to the streets with thousands of his neighbors this weekend to protest the death of George Floyd.  In a rare instance, Eisendrath left his film cameras at home but armed with his M10 and vintage 35mm Summicron, he documented Sunday's protests outside the nation's capital.

You can check out more of Eisendrath’s work, contact, and follow him at
www.Insomnigraphic.com   |   Shameless@Gmail.com  |   @Insomnigraphic

Contact: Johnny Martyr
And now, finally,  begrudgingly, on Instagram!  @JohnnyMartyrPhoto




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Monday, June 1, 2020

CCD VS CMOS SENSOR - LEICA M (TYP 240) VS LEICA M9


To this day there are individuals that prefer CCD sensors, like the one in the Leica M9, thinking they are superior to the now widely used CMOS sensors like in the successor of the M9, theLeica M240 or even the Leica M10.  Whenever a discussion comes up, evaluating the Leica M9 compared to the Leica M240 or M10, there will inevitably be comments that claim that the image quality of those two cameras is inferior to the M9, that the CCD sensor in the M9 is superior to CMOS sensors.  Some even go so far as to ask for the return to CCD sensor in future Leicas. 

I personally have never subscribed to that way of thinking at all, as a matter of fact, I have always thought that fundamentally there is no great difference in the way the two different sensors perform. 

I have never had a chance to make any direct comparisons myself, but I am happy to report that this task has been very eloquently performed by David Farkas of the Leica Store Miami.  He took this very subject to task in a three part series in the Red Dot Forum (www.reddotforum.com), titled

“The Great Debate: CCD vs. CMOS”

In the first part, David showed a relatively large number of photos taken of the same subject with both cameras.  He then posted the pictures with no identification, but asked the readers to try to identify which picture had been taken with which camera.
The results were inconclusive with an almost even split of wrong and right answers.

Magenta Tulips - 1    Magenta Tulips - 2
  image 1                                                                                                  image 2
Which image is from the M9

In the second part, David again showed photographs, also without identification.  But this time only one example was shown in each instance, and the readers were asked to identify if the picture was taken with an M9 or Leica M 240 camera.  Again, the answers showed no identifiable ability to tell the two cameras apart.

Finally, in the third and last part, David evaluated the results he obtained.  In his final thoughts he writes:

“For me, and I imagine for many others who couldn’t tell a definitive difference between either the head-to-head match-ups in Part 1 or the individual shots in Part 2, the results of the experiment are fairly clear. To restate: the hypothesis being tested was to see if the CCD look is real, unmistakable and couldn’t be emulated in post processing. To this end, I think I have at least demonstrated that with just a small amount of global adjustments in Lightroom, M240 files could make for some convincing M9 shots. And while I will give credit to the M9 for the great images it is capable of capturing, the M240 is still a better overall system. I would advise against forsaking the usability and image quality benefits of the newer generation CMOS-based camera based on the conviction that the CCD-based M9 offers superior color rendering. As I already mentioned above, the M9 can turn out gorgeous images. This was never up for debate. In fact, for those that absolutely, positively, just adore the look of CCD, and hold the results of this test as even greater evidence of its superiority, then there is good news. Used M9s can be had for around $3,000 and Leica still offers a CCD-based camera brand new, the Leica M-E for $4,995.

But, I do believe that much of the public perceived shortcomings of the M240 look come from its inherent higher dynamic range, the resulting flatter default files, and some users not taking full advantage of both the malleability of the M240 DNG files and the flexibility afforded them in Lightroom. We live in a wonderful time for photography. Our tools in the field and in the digital darkroom are better and more elastic than they’ve ever been. As photographers, our vision is only limited by our own creativity. Perhaps it’s time to put the CCD vs. CMOS debate to rest and just go out and shoot.”

L1001240
Leica M9 or M 240?

It is nice to see someone verifying what I have thought all along.  In the final analysis, the Leica M 240 and by a slight margin, even more so the Leica M10 are the better cameras.  Not only do they render at least equal results, with their higher resolution, the final image quality is superior.  The Leica M 240 and the Leica M10 are also more capable cameras in other respects, like featuring live view and the electronic Visoflex as an accessory, making close-up photography and photography with long lenses possible.  Also, with the Leica R adapter, the M240 and the M10 are perfectly capable to utilize the Leica R lenses just, as with other adapters, it can be equipped with lenses from a large number of other manufacturers.  While not for everyone, the motion picture capabilities of gthe Leica M 240 need to be mentioned as well.  In addition, there are several other features not found in the Leica M9.

This doesn’t mean that the M9 suddenly is a bad camera.  To the contrary, as David Farkas mentions on several occasions, the M9 is a very capable piece of equipment.  The M240 and the M10 ere simply more capable, part of which is the result of Leica having switched to the CMOS sensor.


For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

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