Last night was Kerry’s birthday. We marked the occasion in true Kerry style: with lots of punch, outlandish drinking games, and potent vodka jelly shots.
The lime ones were the best.
One of the cool things was seeing Laura again, who’s pictured below.
We haven’t seen each other in ages. The last time was when Kerry was away in Australia… which was apparently a touch over four years ago.
Now that she lives a ten minute walk away, rather than over in deepest darkest Edinburgh, hopefully we’ll get to hang out more.
I’ve just gotten a new Leica M8, and so took it on its first proper outing tonight.
I’ve currently got a couple of 50mm lenses that are rangefinder couples. As the M8 isn’t full frame though, it means that they actually wind up at like 75mm, with a fairly long minimum focussing distance. Rather than use either of them, I went with a wee Soviet made lens called the Industar 69.
The Industar is this really flat, pancake lens which looks like it has been sliced off of some sort of toy camera. The build quality is pretty terrible, and to get it to work on the Leica M mount cameras, it requires some disassembly and modification.
Focussing is done by guessing the distance of the objects that you want to shoot, and it’s really hit or miss. The focus zones don’t seem to match up with the markings on the barrel, and it can be wildly inconsistent with its depth of field. That said, its flat profile feels really good to use on the body of the M8, and when you hit its sweet spot, it can produce some really, really nice shots…
Enough about that though.
Kerry’s boyfriend Steve has a drone mounted with a GoPro, so we took a swatch.
They are fairly impressive things, and there is a whole lot of interesting footage coming out shot with them recently. As they become more and more affordable, it’s going to be fascinating to see how it develops.
The lime vodka shots were the best.
Friendships are a funny thing. How they are formed, and why… how they are sustained. What drives us to see the same people, and develop bonds. Why do we want to be around other people at all? It’s such a simple concept, but one which strikes right at the heart of what it means to be human.
People are fascinating.
That’s maybe partly why I find pictures of people so fascinating.
Happy birthday pal.
Paisley, July 2014
Leica M8
Industar 69 – 28mm f2.8