A Trip to Chongqing, China with my Leica SL by Alexkaikeong

December 14, 2016 essay, Full Frame, Guest Post, Leica, Mirrorless, Reportage, Travel, User Reports 14

A Trip to Chongqing, China with my Leica SL

by Alexkaikeong

Hi Steve,

I was very happy to be able to go on a trip to Chongqing, China. Chongqing city is situated in the west of China with a population of about 30 million people. But I wanted more interesting shots so I went to a small village outside of this city. It was known as Chongqing Zhong Shan Ancient Town.

I was told this ancient town was about a few hundred years old. The houses were all built on wood and till today it is still in the original state except some badly damaged were restored again.

The people who lived there were from generations after generations. They were very poor and lifestyles improved lately due to the Government opening this town for tourism. So the residents uses their houses as restaurants or gift shops selling their hand made handicrafts.


I shot everything with the Leica SL body and a 90mm lens. At first, I tried to use the Leica 50mm F2.0 ASPH lens but the old people hated me for getting too close to them. To the old Chinese people, they hated been photographed because it meant taking away their spirits when they were photographed. So I had to use the 90mm F2.0 lens.

I hope all readers love my shots and any comments would be very much appreciated.

Alexkaikeong

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14 Comments

  1. Very nice. I also have the SL with 50 apo and 90 (pre-apo) crons. They both render beautifully on the SL, and the 90 is surprisingly easy to focus with the big SL screen

  2. Hi there Alex,

    I think there is a trend building here with many photographers regarding the SL & M lenses.

    Have been a Canon guy for over 20 years, felt I was out of touch with my art, jumped into mirrorless just over three years ago, Sony in fact so I could use my old Leica m lenses.

    Sold all my Canon equipment and now have the SL along with some new M lenses editions.

    I have kept a Sony A7II just for my Ziess Sonnar 135mm f2 because the lens is that good.

    For me, it’s the perfect balance for what I do. In fact, I have just returned from shooting a wedding in the beautiful city of Florence just using the SL and 4 M lenses.

    I have written a post on Linkedin describing how I felt from a personal perceptions point of view and how it handled shooting the wedding, please have a read and let me know if it resonates with you.

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/florence-wedding-behind-scenes-leica-sl-adrian-scarbrough-?trk=prof-post

    Regards

    Adrian

      • Hi Steve, I am not that far off, I managed to source a 4-year-old Summilux 35mm 1:1,4 FLE ASPH, my word am I happy. from my recent Italian trip, which was Rome and Florence plus the wedding in Florence it would be fair to say the 35mm was used about 75% of the time.

        A question for you Steve, not sure if you received my email I was just asking if the images and words from my LinkeIn post (link above) could feature as a guest post, would be certainly a privilege to be part of what you are doing.

        Regards

        Adrian

  4. The people shots are very noisy and not sharp, whereas the moss covered wall and the scales are sharp and very clean. I’m guessing that even using the 90mm you stayed at a distance and cropped fairly heavily, which could explain the lack of sharpness and the noise? Maybe because they didn’t like you getting too close, as you said.

    Aesthetically the shots are nice and you’ve certainly caught the flavour of the place.

  5. Beautiful picture and yes, that’s China as I recall it. A few remarks:

    The first images shows some heavy artefacts on the contrast line between hand/arm and background. I wonder why,

    The composition of the second image appears to be lacking; there’s an annoying out-of-focus hand in the right hand corner, that could and should, imo, have been avoided.

    Thanks for sharing!

  6. I too use the f/2 90mm M is my “standard” lens on the Leica SL. A marriage made in heaven.
    Everything from flora and fauna to landscapes and sport.
    The combination is perfect for 4K video.
    Goff

  8. These images are so enjoyable to view. I love the way the light falls. The blues do remind me of Fuji blues but they look good. Thanks.

  9. Nice photos and beautiful colors. I specially like the one with the weighing scale. I would have expected better 6400 though. Did you have to push the files even further in PP? Do you shoot DNG?

    Thank for posting!

  10. whatever the grvmt whatever the country, whatever the people, this world hates beggars, except the photographers, i wonder why ?

  11. Photographs are ok, although I don’t see how that camera get better images really.
    Blue cast is still present in some of them,… the first floor, whites around the nest one, or the last pavement

Comments are closed.