The power of sequence; the power of focus

I was in a hurry taking a photograph of this old mill. I was parked on a busy street in a rough part of a town I don't know very well. So I didn't want to faff about composing this image. For the frame on the left, I placed the focus on the barbed wire and let the background be controlled by the DOF at f/8. For the frame on the right, I focused on the building. When considered as single images, I tend to prefer the one on the left. But, in revisiting the images after the passage of a few months, I kind of like the interplay of the two versions when presented as a diptych. The change in focus can suggest a narrative, but in a very subtle way. Subtle = good, right? Shot on the Leica R9 using the 50mm f/1.4 lens. There was a time when I preferred the f/2 version of the lens, but now I'm digging the 'Lux. Delta 400 film with sloppy development :(. 

Welcome the new year

I took this photograph about one year ago on a walk in the park. It was a crisp winter morning and I was feeling like my batteries had been fully recharged over the holidays. I had not used the word pandemic in a sentence since a term paper I wrote in high school about the Middle Ages. A few years ago, that was. I had no earthly idea what was coming. At any rate, I was naturally attracted to the clouds that day because of the drama they impart to the scene. At the time it seemed like an optimistic view. And you know what, I still think it is. Today, I'm hoping that the clouds are about to part, just a little.

The image was shot on the Leicaflex (original) with the first version of the 50 mm f/2.