Sheela teaches pilates and dances ballet. We met at her studio, and I brought the Leica M11.
That second decision is the one I want to write about.
The M11 indoors
The M11 is a wonderful camera and a demanding one. Indoors, it asks for everything at once.
There is no autofocus. Focus is a rangefinder patch and my own eye, and with a dancer that patch is always a beat behind where she is. Open the lens up to gather the light and the depth of field shrinks to almost nothing. Stop down for safety and the shutter speed drops, or the ISO climbs. Every frame is a small negotiation between those three things, and the camera does not negotiate on my behalf.
Outdoors there is always enough light. Indoors there is whatever the room gives you, and the M11 makes you honest about it.
I missed frames. Focus a fraction off. A hand blurred where I wanted it sharp. That is part of the cost of this camera, and I have made peace with paying it.
The other camera in the bag
I had the Lumix S5IIX with me as well, and the second photograph here is from it.
After a stretch of manual focus in a dark room, autofocus feels close to cheating. It holds her eye while she moves and lets me think about the frame instead of the rangefinder patch. Different tool, different pace. Both were useful on the day, and I am not precious about which one earns the picture.
Working with Sheela
What made the session work was Sheela.
A dancer knows her own lines in a way most people never learn. She could hold a shape while I found focus, then move through it again, and again, without the energy draining out of it. That patience is rarer than it sounds.
She also brought ideas. Not poses, but instincts, from pilates and from ballet. I would adjust a little, she would offer something else, and the session moved forward as a conversation rather than a set of instructions.
That is the kind of collaboration I keep looking for. Presence over performance. Someone comfortable being seen without exaggeration, and generous enough to keep giving when the camera is slow.
The photographs
Two frames from the session.
