🔴 MrLeica – March 2023

Free Monthly Newsletter!

Hi friend! Here is the latest edition of the monthly MrLeica newsletter – A summary of Leica posts and videos you may have missed, upcoming events and useful info.

Features

• Recap from February
• New Updates
• YouTube Videos from February
• New Blog Posts
• UK Workshops
• Overseas Workshops
• Featured Photographer (NEW!)
• Viewer Comment of the Month (NEW!)
• Featured Gear/ Supplier (NEW!)
• Featured Patreon Post (NEW!)
• Patreon, Zoom Calls & More
• March 2023 – Coming up!

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Recap from February

The February newsletter is the first edition to include the new features listed above. I travelled to both Lanzarote and Lisbon to make videos for YouTube, ran my usual Leica workshops in London (on demand), 1 wedding day shoot, wrote 4 blog posts, multiple weekly Zoom calls, weekly Patreon posts and shared my fastest viewed YouTube video to date (linked below in the article). On top of all of that I’m trying to find somewhere new to live which seems to take forever! Let’s jump straight in.

Leica Wedding – Congrats Justine & Simon

One wedding shoot in February. Justine is the aunty of a model I photographed a lot over the years before she moved away. A big shout out to Sarah for always being awesome! (I’ll dig out a wedding photo including Sarah for next month). Gear wise I used the Leica Q and Leica SL.

Leica Owner? Join the Leica Club

See full info here or just enter your details below:

Leica workshops in February

Two more private 1:1 workshop sessions in February, both model photography with Leica cameras (the most popular). Rich (below) brought his Leica SL2-S camera for digital and Leica R6 for film. His first roll of film for 30 years! (Get in touch if you want to feel inspired to do the same!)

New small group workshops for 2023

Since around 2015 I’ve been running private 1:1 model photography workshops (often with Leica cameras). Before 2015 I ran small group sessions. As the demand has continued to increase I will now start offering new limited 3-person model workshop days. (A similar concept to my small group Leica photowalks but we’ll hire a model to work with). As with the Leica photowalks I will send event dates to those of you on the workshop mailing list so please add you name if you’re interested.

Directory: Leica Repairs + Leica YouTubers

If you have feedback after a Leica service, repair or CLA I’d love to add it to the Leica Repair Directory page to help others. Equally, if you love watching YouTube, let us know you favourite Leica YouTuber channel?

My recommended photography gear list – https://mrleica.com/kitlist/

February 2023 YouTube Videos Catch-up:

Below is a catch up of all the YouTube videos I published last month. If you’re new here see previous month newsletter for more!

90mm Lenses for LEICA | Voigtlander APO-Skopar 90mm f2.8 lenses

Biggest PROBLEMS with Leica Cameras (Following the YouTube Poll)

Impressive Small AUTOFOCUS Lens For Leica | SIGMA 90mm f2.8 DG DN

Forgotten 50mm for LEICA | Voigtlander Color Skopar

Leica is BETTER? Here’s WHY – Reasons Photographers Use Leica (Digital)

APO vs MACRO – Which Lens is Better? | Leica, Nikon, Voigtlander 50 APO

Selling My LEICA Gear..

New Blog Posts in February

4 new blog posts shared last month. I enjoy blogging much more than YouTube but both are very time intensive!

• Best 90mm Lenses for Leica Cameras (LTM+M+R+L)
• Leica R Mount Cameras (+ Lenses) (Leica SLR)
• Leica is better? Why photographers prefer Leica cameras (Digital)
• Problems with Leica Cameras

Written posts to supplement my YouTube review videos including full res images. 300+ existing blog post articles so feel free to browse the back catalogue!

Workshops and Photowalks

> Workshop dates – Kick start your photography with one of my 1:1 workshops. For notification and dates of photowalks in your area join my mailing list.

See workshop prices and testimonials

Travel coming up

• March 2023 Travel – Spain to teach a workshop – Get in touch if you want to meet for a workshop or photowalk
• April 2023 Travel – Poland (TBC)
• May 2023 Travel – Spain again to teach a workshop – Get in touch if you want to meet for a workshop or photowalk

Featured photogragher of the month (2 in 1)

This month I feature fellow blogger and photographer Stephen Dowling, aka. Kosmofoto.com and also Leica photographer Gunther Walker.

Gunther first reached out to me with his Leica camera story and ended up booking me for one of my 1:1 Zoom, call sessions for help with getting the most from his Leica Standard similar to the one I love and use. We had a very enjoyable call and could have easily talked for hours. I promised I would share the very interesting story around Gunther’s Leica camera but found Stephen Dowling / Kosmofoto had already done a top job of this on his blog. Rather than repeating what Stephen shared I link his blog post for you to enjoy below. I highly recommend you check it out. It gives you some idea of the remarkable stories behind some of the vintage Leica cameras that are still going strong today. See Gurther’s images here – https://www.instagram.com/leica_adventures/

The WW2 Leica buried by a German soldier’s widow

Viewer’s comment of the month

Bruno commented on my recent “Why Photographers Prefer Leica” article

“I have been a Nikon user for decades (Nikkormat, F2, F3, F5, D200, D3, D800, Z7). In the late 1980s a friend of mine (M6 and CL user) asked me (regarding my work) why I used Nikons and not Leicas. I answered the obvious non-Leica owner answer: I do not need a Rolls Royce to go and buy my daily bread. Leica are expensive and for posh people, my Nikons can do the same for a lesser cost. He proposed: “Take my M6 + 35 summicron for a week and photograph the same subjects, at the same time, with the same film with your Nikon body and 35 mm Nikon. Process the two rolls in the same tank, print two sets of the same 10 images (10 shot with the Leica and 10 with your Nikon) and I bet you I can separate them into two distinct piles without making a single mistake. I laughed and agreed to the challenge. A week later I presented him with 20 prints which he separated into two separate piles strictly according to which combination kit took them. I realised then I was not seeing an existing difference. I gave Leica (M) a chance and never look back. On top of image quality there was also the experience and unobtrusiveness of using a Leica M that convinced me… to this day. Agreed I had to wait until I could afford to get a satisfying kit, but I started over 30 years ago and have not regretted a thing”. – Bruno Chalifour

Featured supplier/ gear of the month

Suppliers are often reaching out to me with offers of free gear to test. Normally I say no thanks but if it’s a product I use on a weekly basis I jump at the opportunity.

I want to give a special shout out to Rick at Wotancraft for sending me two absolutely beautiful premium leather camera straps. Wotancraft give you the option of intergraded Peak Design anchors so they work with my multi-camera system flawlessly. I went for the Full Leather Neck Strap (Dark Blue) as it’s a bit different and goes well with both black and silver cameras. I also got the Full Leather Wrist Strap (Aged Vintage Brown) which has instantly become my goto wrist strap. If you ask them nicely they will even emboss your initials on the strap for you at no extra cost! Mine say “MO”. Thanks Rick!

Patreon post of the month (shared)

To give you a taster of what we get up to on Patreon I will start sharing a featured post each month. Join the 200+ active monthly members!

Post: “Do you value your old images? I just binned a pile of prints..” – Read on Patreon

March 2023 – Coming Up

I’m just back from Lisbon (Portugal) where I was making new content to share with you. I landed last night so I still need to look at the photos, develop the film and then I will get some videos put together. I’ve got more 1:1 workshops booked for London and Spain in March. Sorry for no new groups events dates via the workshop mailing list yet, the private sessions keep booking up my weekends. Soon! Have a great day.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts to try to improve the service!

YouTube video – spotlight

I have a backlog of new videos to share with you that i’ve been working on. One video will be the Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN L mount autofocus lens. It impressed me more than I expected it would! Thanks to Sigma UK for sending me the lens to test.

Previous Newsletters (+ Video Links!)

• MrLeica Newsletter Archive

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First Time Reader? See Below

> UK Workshops

I teach basic to advanced level photography to anyone with a camera. For full details see workshop prices and testimonials + join the mailing list for dates.

• UK – London (Most popular)

> Overseas Workshops

Happy to travel worldwide to run photography workshops. See list below for some of the planned countries. Join the mailing list to submit your interest.

• Poland – Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw. (Same price as London )
• Hungary – Budapest. (Same price as London workshops)
• Spain – Alicante region. (Same price as London )
• Tenerife/ Lanzarote – Small group/solo + model, multi-day.
• US – New York. I will trying to plan a visit perhaps later in 2023.
• Your country – Want me to fly to your city? Get in touch!

Some advantages of meeting in your city include (1) you don’t need to travel (2) I will give you model contacts in your city that you can keep in touch with after I leave. This has worked well for photographers in the past. The flipside of that is, if you rather come to the UK for a London workshop you have the excuse for a holiday!

Want to learn how to take portraits?

Join my Patreon where I teach model photography and we have 2x 1 hour general photography Zoom calls each month

Meet the models! Join a workshop

Do the same as Jorge from Mexico and book one of my 1:1 workshops