See this months Nat'l Geo for the Bob Sacha self portrait in the assignment section.

-- Brooks (bvonarx@home.com), November 21, 2001

Answers

Gee thanks, Brooks. I always wanted to see one!

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), November 21, 2001.

Specifically for your benefit big A, hope you enjoyed it.

-- Brooks (Bvonarx@home.com), November 21, 2001.

speaking of spotting leicas, Brad Pitt was carrying a couple in the movie Spy Game. (excellent film)

my two random cents, ken

-- ken kwok (kkwok@gostanford.com), November 21, 2001.

i saw Spy Game today and also noticed he was carrying both a black and a chrome M6 as well as a Nikon. At one point he had an external finder attachec to one of his M6s and there was also a shot of him rewinding a Leica. Pretty realistic as a photojournalist in Beruit in the '80s would probably have that camera configuration

-- tristan tom (tristan@tristantom.com), November 22, 2001.

Not only was Brad Pitt using realistic cameras of the time, he used the right camera for the right type of scene and actually held the leicas correctly! Great attention to detail. I also loved the movie.

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), November 26, 2001.

Dear Matt-

As I'm always interested in the technique of others, I'm curious as to the correct technique of holding a Leica? I don't mean this to sound flippant.

Thanks.

-- jeff voorhees (debontekou@yahoo.com), November 26, 2001.

Jeff, i realize that people hold these cameras slightly differently, but as a general rule you sort of cusp (this is probably the wrong word) the bottom of the camera with your left hand and focus the lens with your index finger on the focus tab (he only used leica lenses in this film with focus tabs). I have handed my Camera over to a number of friends, and they invariably cannot get a grasp of focusing these camers with a focus tab. Most hold in in the right hand and try and focus with two fingers grasping the focus tab as if it were a handle... giving no support form the left hand to the camera and making it more unstable. When Brad Pitt shot with the leicas it looked like he had had a lot of experience with this particular type of camera...

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), November 26, 2001.