Shooting with Day Light flash

Photography feature | Pro tip

When I am exploring one of the many San Francisco neighborhoods, I like best to shoot with the Contax G1 35mm range finder camera. It gives me flexibility and mobility when shooting street photography.

Shooting with a Ranger, makes it easy to coast around the city and grab shots, without making a fuss over your gear. Since it’s small and light weight, and it’s accessories are quite unassuming, it lends itself well to shooting street portraits.

Since I am in the process of designing camera bags, and I often visit the Mission district to pick up sewing supplies, I gave myself a little photo assignment, which here was to shoot fashionistas who sport their own original style. They give me bag inspirations and are interesting to talk with.

About the Photography

I chose to shoot with the Contax G1 with the Contax 45mm Lens-F2.0, which is considered a legacy lens, and added the Contax TLA 140 for fill-flash, to give my subjects that added splash of light I wanted.

I shot with Ilford HP5 400 black and white film, which I had gotten for free from the Leica store, here in San Francisco. They’re holding an Analog Celebration this month, and gave us local photogs some great film to shoot our subjects with. Thanks! LeicaSF 🎞️

Living in San Francisco, driving a scooter just makes sense. I've been working with 3 Scooter dealers in the Mission, SF Moto, Mr Scooter & Scuderia West, to nail this Vespa ET4 down.  So now, I always take this guy out for a ride whenever I go on Photo & Sewing Junkets around the city. 

Mission neighborhood feature

The Mission is full of great thrift shops and places to pick up sewing supplies. Born Again Thrift in the Mission has a sister store down the street. But this shop just has a lot of good threads to bare, and it's nicely located. The Fabric Outlet is another place, great for sewing and bag making supplies.