sunday afternoon leicabout.

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About a month ago, I got an email from Nick Solares with the subject line “Let’s Shoot!”  Turns out Nick had up and got himself a Leica M9, and soon afterwards a Summicron 50/1.4 lens (holy cow!), and thought it’d be fun to head out one afternoon, our respective Leicas in tow, to take in lower Manhattan in all its sunny Sunday glory. 

So yesterday we did just that.  After downing a pint at d.b.a., we headed south on Bowery, just past Canal and into Chinatown.  And then went west for a while, zigzagging in and out of Canal Street.  Turned right at West Broadway, then another left somewhere down there until we found ourselves on Seventh Avenue, where we slowly made our way up the West Village and down along the west side of Washington Square Park.  Our final destination: Minetta Tavern, which Nick knows perhaps much too intimately (I jest!), and where we refueled with cocktails, a great bottle of St. Emilion from 2006, and of course the Black Label burger.  (Photos of the food in a post to come.)  It was, all in all, a great afternoon.

Nick is a much more intrepid photographer than I — he’ll get much closer to strangers than I normally would — but I took the opportunity to be a bit bolder, at least for the day.  And Nick claims that my focusing skills were rubbing off on him, so I suppose it was a mutually beneficial walkabout.  I also got to swap out my standard Zeiss Biogon 35/2 lens for a Summicron 28/2 lens that Nick had on loan from a friend, so it was really great to try out a wide angle lens on the M6, especially a Summicron with the handy finger notch on the focus ring, which makes for much easier and faster focusing. 

So here are my photos of the journey, in chronological order.  (Update: Here is Nick’s set.) It was, all in all, a great afternoon: wonderful company, easygoing shoptalk, incredible food, and two Leicas strolling around town.  And I’ll say it again, for the umpteenth time: New York is such a mind-blowingly diverse city.   A three hour stroll only shows you the tip of the proverbial urban iceberg.  I love it so.
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Nick, below, would just wander into the street to get a shot.  It was really great to see him at work/play. 
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Above: Fresh mozzarella + arugula salad at Minetta Tavern. Only a hint of the gut busting pleasures to come.
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