Animaux Domestiques - 家养动物

Concert Photography With a Leica M

Some experts and self proclaimed knowers say that you can´t use a digitala Leica M8 at the low light conditions in a concert. I choose not to listen to them.

I set the ASA to 640 the aperture to 2,8 and the shutter speed dial to 1/60 and start capturing the flying moments with the aid of the excellent rangefinder which gives me the extra control that I need. Back in the good old days I used to use a SLR and a Tri-X 400 film set to 800 ASA with a 35mm or a 85mm lens. Today I prefer to shoot concerts with a rangefinder and a 50mm lens.

As you can see the Leica M8 is still a really good camera for concerts. My EOS 5D Mark II is a much better choice for concert photography especially in poor light conditions. But I prefer to work with my slightly obsolete Leica rangefinder cause it´s a joy to use it and I really enjoy the picture quality that it delivers. Some people might call me a hipster, but a hipster for me is someone who buys a camera to show of with. The best cameras to show of with is a professional Canon or Nikon. Ordinary people often knows that brands and if you use a big fat Canikon with a huge lens then you must be a professional photographer. For most people Leica is just some old nearly useless crap from eastern Europe. One guy even asked me if Leica was made in DDR (German Democratic Republic).



I took 20 pictures at the concert and then I sat down and enjoyed the show. The most important thing to do when you shoot concerts is to take time to enjoy the show. The artist in the pictures is Jimmy Needham who gave an excellent acoustic concert at Kungsporten in Husqvarna. Jimmy's music and his deep and very self-revealing lyrics called for reflection. He was accompanied on the stage by his guitar, harmonica and the very talented drummer Will Hunt. If you never heard  of Jimmy Needham before then please click on the following link and listen to one of his best tunes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGew7dGto



Leica M8 is a amazing camera to shoot with. But it does have it's limitations. Used in the right conditions, the good old Leica M8 performs like a champion.Hovever there are no perfect digital camera for every situation. Eventually I really hope that I will find a perfect camera. Until then I will stick with my Leica M8 and it´s backup the hipster fanboy Canon Eos 5D Mark II :)

Text and Photo: © Mikael Good, All Rights Reserved.

Alla svenska bidrag till Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2013

Nu återstår det bara ett par skälvande timmar innan slussen till årets upplaga av Leica Oskar Barnack Award stänger för denna gången. Till dags dato har 7 svenska fotografer fått sina bilder accepterade till den ärevördiga tävlingen. Premissen för att få skicka in bilder är att du antingen är knuten till en bildbyrå eller att du har fått reportaget publicerat i en tidning. Slussen stänger inte förrän vid midnatt så du har fortfarande gott om tid att sända in ditt material.

»TRACTOR BOYS« - Martin Bogren
»THE OLD MISSION HOUSE IN BJÖRKENÄS« - Mikael Good
»A FRAGILE STATE - LAND TAKEOVERS IN RURAL COLOMBIA.« - Gustav Arvidsson
»STOCKHOLM PARADISE« - Joakim Kocjancic
»MAKE A WISH-GAZA« - Loulou dAki
»BELLA ROMA« - Thomas Madsen
»TOUCH ME« - Johannes Frandsen

Min egen favorit bland de svenska bidragen är Tractor Boys av Martin Bogren, det är ett bidrag som jag tror kan komma långt i tävlingen. Jag har hunnit gå igenom många av de insända bidragen och det känns som om årets upplaga av Oskar Barnack Award håller en genomgående hög nivå. Men om ni ändå surfar in på www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com rekommenderar jag er att ta en koll på bidragen från Russian Federation (Ryssland) som innehåller en hel del riktigt bra dokumentärbilder.

Text och foto: © Mikael Good, 2013

Greetings from Latvia - Sveicieni no Latvijas!

What would you do if your neighbours could not afford to pay their rent, their food and their clothes. Would you just ignore them and pretend as if they were not there? Or would you help them so they came back on their feets again? Latvia is a neighbour to Sweden and they are short of everything. And yet few Swedes cares about their Latvian neighbours situation...

Latvia is the country in the European Union that has suffered hardest by the economic crisis that hit the world in 2008. The previously so Optimistic Latvian Tiger Economy which was pumped up by the major Swedish banks aggressive lending lost its bite and the country has gone into a deep economic recession. Workplace after workplace has gone bankrupt. According to official statistics nearly 20 percent of the population is now unemployed but unofficial sources are talking about an unemployment rate of almost 40 percent and in some rural areas in the east of Latvia the unemployment is almost 100 percent according to social workers.

The Latvian family in the photo-essay on Flickr consist of a mother, her three children and their grand mother. The father of the family drowned in a fishing accident a couple of years ago. The family live in a dilapidated barn-like house in a little village on the Latvian countryside east of the capital Riga. They have no running water. The only heat comes from the wood stove which is located in the living room in the small apartment. The economic situation for the family is tough and they live on the margin. Even if the family like most other Latvians didn´t borrow any money in the banks, they had to pay the full price for others mistakes when the government had to cut every cost that they could to save the economy of the nation in order to prevent a national bankruptcy. Today is the situation on the Lativan countryside directly comparable with the situation in the U.S during the great depression of the 30s. Some sources even say that the situation in Latvia is worse.

The Latvian economy is slowly getting better and better. But the price for the better economy is high. Many highly educated Latvians has moved abroad for better paid jobs. And this brain-drain can prove to be devastating for the country in a nearby future. The population in Latvia is declining rapidly and this is a serious social and economical problem for Latvia. In the 2000s the country has lost one seventh of its population through emigration and a negative birthrate.

According to official sources nearly 2 million people live in Latvia today. But some unofficial sources says that only 1,7 million people live in the country. In 1989 just two years before Latvia gained it´s independence from the Soviet Union, the population in the country was 2,7 million people. There are no jobs, no hope and no future on the Latvian countryside today and those who can move to a slightly better future in the bigger cities or abroad. Those who remains, are the elderly, the disabled and those who for various reasons do not have a chance to move away.

If you want to support Latvian families in need you can make a donation via Star of Hope, USA: http://www.starofhope.us/donate-now-to-a-child-through-star-of-hope-starofhope.html

If you want to take a look at the pictures on your phone or on your tablet click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61029780@N06/sets/72157632859125683/

Text and photo: © Mikael Good. All Rights Reserved.

The Christmas story - There was a girl named Lisa

When young people leave institutions in Russia (at age 18) they encounter multiple problems. Many are met with various types of prejudice because they come from an institution, they have no adults who care about them and they often lack the everyday knowledge that others may learn in their family, such as washing clothes, cooking, managing household cash, finding suitable accommodations in which to live and more.