Creating Every Day: Chasing Light with the Leica Q2 Monochrom

I’m sitting at a small café inside the mall, near Nordstrom, while my kids disappear into another store to spend money. It’s just past noon, and the sunlight is pouring in through the upper windows. The light is sharp, directional, and unapologetically harsh, which is not ideal for portraits, but it is perfect for capturing people and street-style photos.

Most people walk by with little regard for the beauty around them, or do not care. They need a pair of shoes for this weekend’s festivity, and so couldn’t care less about the light. But I notice, I see,… art. I see the shadows it casts on the floor tiles, the way it wraps around the table next to me, and the contrast of light and dark on the muscled, chiseled man walking by while he takes a sip of his cappuccino.

I met a new friend while waiting for my kids, Jorge, views some of my videos on my YT channel

I’ve had the Leica Q2 Monochrom with me for the past couple of days, not for a job or a planned shoot, but just to create. I wanted to practice seeing, not just looking, but training my eye to catch fleeting light and respond.

That’s what this post is about—not travel or gear, but the act of creating every day, even in a mall. Especially in a mall, so much activity, not as much as it was in my day, says the old guy; that old guy is me; I’ve become that old guy; I hear There is Something There to Remind Me by Naked EyesI am immediately taken back, and want to bring myself to the present to the here and now to create, but the past is what got me here, my love of this craft is what drives all of this now, so I stay, cognizant of the past that brought me here, but remaining vigilant of the light that is now in front of me, and I create.

patience

The beauty of this Q2 Monochrom is a reminder; perhaps it is fitting that this song is playing because this camera reminds me of how I started, only with black-and-white film, and the passion I felt, if I can harness that not just because this camera is new to me, but to keep me grounded in a way that I am always, at least when I need to, “be” so I can create when necessary and not just because this camera is new to me.