Leica M6: Why It's My Favorite Camera

If someone were to give me $3000 to buy a camera, a modern-day mirrorless would make the most sense, right?  But I’m a contrarian! Instead of buying a Sony, I bought a 23-year-old fully manual film camera. There’s not a single bell and whistle on this thing. Nothing at all automatic about it. And it’s only as fast as I am, which isn’t very fast at all. I’m going to share with you why I bought the Leica M6 and why I think it’s worth dropping some serious cash to own one. 

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted a Leica camera. Even as a kid Leica felt like it had this sense of legacy and prestige surrounding it. This sense of worth that meant if you had one, you were somehow one step closer to becoming one of the greatest photographers in history and one step closer to becoming a proud member of Magnum Photos.  Right up there with Capa and Bresson… man, what an honor that would be. But obviously, as we get older, we realize that expectation doesn’t quite match up with reality. That yes, the history and legacy are there but like getting your hands on a brand new pair of P.F. Flyers, they can’t ACTUALLY make you run faster or jump higher, regardless of what The Sandlot made you believe when Benny laced up that fresh pair. (Leave a comment below if you agree that The Sandlot is the best summertime sports movie ever made) 

Owning a Leica doesn’t make you a world-class photographer. It just doesn’t. That only comes with time and practice. About 10,000 hours according to some. It’s all just a figment of our imagination created by heirloom stories, by branding and marketing. However, even though I’m much older now and I've properly grieved my failure to get into Magnum, the allure of Leica still has a very special place in my heart ...and who knows, maybe there’s still a chance that P.F. Flyers can magically make me athletic. I like sportsball! 

First and foremost, let’s just get this out of the way. Cameras are tools meant to help you accomplish your goals. Whether your goal is to take a photograph or just to it hang around your neck as a status symbol, there's a camera out there that will help you achieve your heart’s desire. And as always, the best camera is the one you have on you. 

Now the Leica M6…why do I own one? Well, to be perfectly honest I fell for the hype, the status, the legacy and my childhood dreams but I don’t regret it for one minute. And I don’t think you would either if you had dreamed about it for 15 years as I did. Every moment you pick this camera up you get this feeling that nothing else in this world can give you. It’s almost like the Germans greased the gears with oxytocin when they manufactured it to make you fall more in love with every touch. Every time you take it out it’s like going on a date with your significant other. Wow, I’m sorry, this got really romantic really fast but I just don’t know how else to explain it!. All that to say, the Leica M is a dream to shoot and mechanically superior to any film camera I ever owned; and I’ve owned a lot. I bought mine in 2015 and this is actually my 3rd M body. I tried an M2 and an M4 before landing on the M6 TTL, which has the perfect blend of all I was looking for and I felt the same way about every other M it’s just that the M6 created a bigger spark for me. 

Another reason I bought this camera is because I’m peculiar. As weird as it sounds, I like the idea that the photos I take, documenting my life, are shot on highly vetted cameras like the M. The M is so well known for it’s documentary work and it’s vast line-up of photographers. Did you know that Leica has documented almost every major conflict of the 20th century? I love history and I love documenting my life, my environment, the people and the time that I’m alive. And when I die and maybe they find my body of work, I’ll be more proud in my grave knowing that it was mostly shot with Leica and that I’ve contributed to that longstanding legacy. Honestly, it’s about contributing to the Leica legacy and doing what I love more than anything else.

Lastly, I bought the Leica M6 as an heirloom. I’m filled with so much joy knowing that I get to pass this camera down to my son when I’m gone. And I want it to be something he’s proud to receive and something that actually appreciates in value over time. Today this camera is worth $3000, but not when I bought it 6 years ago. I paid $1600 and it’s almost doubled in value since then. So I know, when I hand this well-cherished M6 over, not only will he have the history of his father but he’ll have something that may help him in hard times, but let’s pray that those hard times never come because I’d love it if he passed it down even further.

Maybe I’m old school, but let’s be honest. The world we live in today is so disposable, mass-produced, and overly digitized. Most folks these days are passing down debt rather than heirlooms, but hopefully, my old dude rambling will inspire you to find something cherishable to pass on to your next generation. Also, print your photos if you aren’t already. Let’s bring tangible back. You’ll be so glad you did 20 years from now.

Anyways, I could go on and on about my deep-seated emotional attachments…

If you’ve been considering a Leica and you have the cash, not credit...Dave Ramsey, then I highly recommend getting one and if you use the link below, it helps me keep the lights on and this channel running. But just remember, a Leica will not make you a better photographer. Only time and practice will. Keep shooting and keep living that creative life. 

Leica M6 TTL

How to Get the Best Results with KODAK PORTRA 400

Kodak Portra 400 is a pro film by Kodak, meaning it has lots of latitude for underexposure and overexposure. Generally speaking when it comes to color film you want to overexpose.

However, you can get good results at box speed! That means shooting it at 400 and developing at 400. One of the results of overexposing color film is you get deeper saturation in the colors and unlike digital photography, you don't have to worry so much about blowing out your highlights.

Now there are a couple of ways you can go about doing this. The easiest way would be set your ISO dial to 200, 100, or maybe even 50, depending on what your camera is capable of. It’s the easiest way because your light meter and ISO is compensating for the exposure.

The second way of achieving this is by overexposing like you would if you were shooting normally overexposing it manually while looking through the camera.

Quick recap: overexpose the film by one, two, sometimes even three stops to saturate those colors. Don't worry about the highlights. Send it in to your film lab and have them develop it at normal box speed (400).

And now you got the best results you can get with Kodak Portra 400.

4 Super-Easy Ways to Take Screenshots on a Mac

We’re talking all about taking screenshots, screengrabs, screen recordings and even Touch Bar screenshots on your Mac laptop and desktop. 

Learning how to record your screen or different portions of it might be really useful, especially, if you’re a student and you need to throw a screenshot into a document or a presentation or various kinds of online school work, especially now that a lot of schools are using distance learning due to covid. It’s also pretty useful for creatives who need to take screenshots to throw into a design or a thumbnail and even for screen recording video to add into your YouTube videos but whatever the reason, by the end of this post you should be able to know how to use all of the different methods. 

Like all screenshots you take on a Mac, once you capture that image, it will hover on your desktop and wait for you to direct it where to go or wait for you to mark it up. If you don’t touch it, it will automatically save your screenshots to your designated location on your computer. For me, that’s the desktop.

METHOD #1 Screenshot

This first method captures the entire screen.  But Keep in mind, this is going to grab the entire screen so whatever is on your screen you may want to make sure is not sensitive information or something you don’t want people to see, for instance your desktop icons or things on your taskbar, so keep that in mind when you use this method. If you capture sensitive info, you can always crop it.

For this method, you’ll press ⌘+SHIFT+3 on your keyboard.

METHOD #2 Selection Screenshot

Method number two is the selection screenshot, where you take a screenshot of just a certain portion of the screen, such as a certain window you may have open, or maybe a small element from a page, or if you want to exclude something like icons on your desktop or maybe some sensitive information.

For this method, you’ll press ⌘+SHIFT+4 on your keyboard.

Once you press the hotkeys, your cursor will turn into a little crosshair. You’ll then want to take your mouse and move it to an outside corner of the subject you wish to capture, then click and hold your mouse and drag it. This will form a dotted line around the portion that will be captured. Once you have your selection the way you want it, release the mouse button and voila, you should see your screenshot floating on the bottom right hand corner of the screen, ready for you to edit it it or drop it in to your application. Just remember, if you wait too long it will save it to the default location.

Btw, if you’ve taken a screenshot and it disappears before you decide what to do with it, you can always bring up the search on your mac and search for “screenshot”, you should be able to find it in the list by filenames, which will include the date and the time in the filename.

METHOD #3 Screen Recording

This next method is one of my favorites because I do a lot of video work where I need to screen record online videos for projects or need to record my screen for demos and tutorials. This function uses Quicktime Player to record your screen, and while you can easily access this feature by opening quicktime player, this hot key can literally save you time searching for the program, opening it and selecting the screen recording feature.

The way you access this awesome feature is ⌘+SHIFT+5.

Now this one’s a little bit more complicated than the others because you have to go in and make adjustments to the settings for audio and what audio input you want to record. Now one thing to mention is that, by default, you may not be able to record the computer’s sounds, only your voice through the computer’s microphone. There are 3rd party workarounds for this. Otherwise, you’ll only have audio from your computer’s microphone. I don’t know if this is some sort of feature that Apple has to keep from having copyright issues or what. I’m not really sure why they do this.

METHOD #4 Touch Bar Screenshot

So with this last method, I’m not quite sure why anyone would need to use this but it is a feature, but it exists, so if for some reason you need to take a screenshot of your Touch Bar then you have that option also. I guess maybe, if you are creating a tutorial for an application or if you’re creating some sort of a user guide for someone and you need to show the information about what features you can access on the Touch Bar, this might be a useful feature for you.

In order to take a screenshot of your Touch Bar you’ll need to press ⌘+SHIFT+6.

And just like all of the other screenshots, you’ll have to quickly decide what to do with before it saves in the default location.

Alright friends, Now you should be able to take every kind of screenshot you could possibly need...and not need. I hope this has been super helpful for you

Until next time, Aloha! Shoots!