When I am on holiday or when I have time off I usually take my Leica camera with me. When I am terribly lazy, I only take my phone. In Buenos Aires the situation is slightly different, because of safety issues it’s best not to carry around a large camera or a camera bag, so there I am even more inclined to take my Leica with me as it fits in the small light (non-camera) backpack that I carry along. Apart from the camera there is just enough space left for my phone, keys and some cash (which, in Argentina with the current peso, means lots of space ;-)). When I want to take a photo I carry the bag on my chest, open the zipper, turn the camera on, take it out of the bag, take a photo and put it back into safety before anybody has noticed what I just did!
I usually have my Leica on A mode, aperture priority. Mostly, when the light allows it, I shoot wide open, which is just a swing on the aperture ring on the lens, the shutter speed then just follows. Leica is manual focussing only, and with the aperture wide open, focusing is rather tricky, so I literally focus on that rather then losing time with manual settings.
Recently, I have bought myself a bike so I can move around more swiftly. Especially when the clouds are good, the fact that I move around faster gives me more opportunities to shoot.
On this particular day I biked towards Puerto Madero, passing by Plaza San Martin, trying to redo a shot of the skyline in the Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur, one I did before the pandemic with a blue sky. While I am biking it looks like it might rain, I feel some drops. I have no raincoat and I have no idea how long my backpack will keep my stuff dry so I speed up. I don’t want to take any risks damaging my camera. But then, even before my T-shirt got wet, it stops dripping all together.
When I finally arrive at the entrance of the park, I find it closed ‘due to bad weather’. D**n! This is Argentina. Argentines can’t stand the rain, in such a way that for all events the general rule is ‘the event will be canceled when raining, except if advised otherwise.’ But this isn’t an event. It’s a park. I hadn’t expected that, it isn’t even raining anymore!
I’ve come so far already, so I bike around the costanera, where there are all kinds of stands where they sell drinks or choripáns, families are walking, kids are biking ; it’s Sunday and even on this cloudy day lots of people are outside.
I bike home again, through Microcentro, the office neighborhood which is dead on a Sunday, passing the 9 de Julio avenue, back towards my house. Ready to check out the photos I took.
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