I'm not a big Beatles fan, but the title fits, so I can let it go.

A while back I intimated that the Nikon D3S would be the last camera I owned. Well, my back and shoulders voted otherwise, especially since I had the 70-200 VR II on it. A wonderful combination without doubt, but after a while I got less and less inclined to take it anywhere. So it got traded in and instead of that, I'm carrying an entirely different beast, the Leica M8.2 with a Voigtlander 50mm 1.5 lens. A great deal smaller and lighter than the Nikon, but in terms of image quality it can hang in there very nicely. Plus I came to the realisation that rangefinder shooting is just more fun than DLSR shooting. The DSLR will get the shot pretty much every time, but the challenge of doing so with a rangefinder is a totally different experience. That being said, if anyone happens to ask me to shoot a sports event, wedding, etc, and offers to pay me for it, then I will pick up a used Nikon D7000 and 18-200 without a second thought. DSLRs rule when getting the shot is of paramount importance.

Anyway, nobody's beating down my front door to pay me to take pictures so, for now, the Leica it is. Today was quite a nice day so I took the M8.2 out with no particular theme in mind; just shooting whatever was out there. So here is a day in the life of someone walking around Nagoya.

First stop is Meijo Park, just a few minutes from where I live. There's a set of swings and bars in a tree-lined area, and I thought it would make for an interesting wide open shot.

Cute little puppy

Statue, again wide open if I recall.

One thing I've never really experimented with is foreground blur. Everyone knows about background bokeh, but using foreground blur creatively is a fairly new thing for me. Still, got to start somewhere.

Simplicity in photography

Anti-nuclear demonstration

Installation at one of Nagoya's parks

The Japanese seem to like dancing; they're always practicing their moves here and there, presumably for festivals or something similar.

They call a rangefinder's viewer "a window into the world".

Abstract shot of statue

 I would wager that if I'd have tried to take this shot with the Nikon and the 70-200, he would have noticed. Of course with that setup I could have taken it from further away, but...

Two more examples of creative (ab)use of the Voigtlander's F1.5 setting

I have to admit to thinking about Cartier-Bresson's famous bicycle shot while I was lining this one up.

Another demonstration: this one against an American military plane called the "Osprey" which, protesters claim, is a safety risk due to its (rather unimpressive) safety record.

On the way back home I ran into some of the parkour gang. I've shot parkour with the M8 before, and while it might not seem like the ideal camera for sports, it's pretty effective if you know how to go about it. The trick is to prefocus on where you think the action's going to happen and wait. This is where the lack of blackout of the M8 (.2) is very useful. Also the Voigtlander's speed lets me get away with using 320 and 640 ISO, which is the M8's limit for most people. The shallow depth of field also results in an interesting look, very different to that which I would get with a DSLR.

They were keen to show off their new hoodie design

This young lady has a very impressive sense of balance; the rope that she's standing on is not only narrow, but it moves. She can balance on it while doing John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever pose. I'm impressed.

パルクールで悟り

Enlightenment through Parkour

The focus isn't quite right here, but I really like the effect that the shallow DOF provides.

More tightrope action

Last shot before the battery ran out (and before it got too dark). The "no entry" sign is a lucky bonus, much as I would love to say that I put it in there intentionally.

This is not an entirely atypical day as Nagoya on a Sunday goes. A pretty good day for a photography enthusiast. Nice to be using a rangefinder again.

Thanks for looking!