The Debut of Event Street Photography

Well, my Digital Leica M arrived last week. And with it, a new approach to event photography and, soon, wedding photography.

This past Sunday night was my first opportunity to take the M for a spin, and with the kind permission of the Mandelbaum family, I used a street photography approach photographing a party celebrating their son David's engagement to his high school sweetheart, Melyssa.



An aside: I've known David since the day he was born; he and my older daughter were classmates in grade school and much of high school. He's the first of my daughter's grade to get engaged. A personal milestone.



So this is both a subjective look at the event from the point of view of a street photographer, and a first look at my new camera.



Now, it really shouldn't make a difference which camera I use, but the Leica is different. I'm able to see the action at the moment I press the shutter; further, there's no lag time--no hesitation by the camera when I press the shutter release.





I felt the difference immediately, and was better able to capture subtle gestures, glances, etc. Finally, I was able to use the Leica lens tab to pre-focus. This lets me better anticipate and capture these moments.



The camera's small size made it easy for me to move around, unobtrusively, taking pictures with nobody noticing.







Even David's parents and sister didn't notice me when I shot this.















Don't worry, there was an official photographer getting the key moments. But the freedom to be able to work on the periphery is a high-risk, high-reward approach.



Interested in this kind of photography for your next event? Email me at masonresnick@gmail.com.