ƒ/1.7 | 1/200 | 400
I took this photo with my Leica about a month into owning the camera. It was very new in my hands still, so details about the camera that I know now were still things I was learning then. Take, for example, when the aperture ring is set to Auto, the camera defaults to a 1.7 f stop. Certainly not an issue, but definitely a bit annoying to not be aware of when using a 28mm lens that has a rather shallow depth of field when it is at 1.7. As such, the above photograph is sharp as can be in the smallest section of the frame. Still, I kinda prefer the mistakes to the perfections and this one fits that bill.
I remember when they first opened Millennium Park that Anish Kapoor had such a hissy fit about letting people take photos of his work that if you had any camera on you, security would come and give you all this total BS about how you can’t photograph the sculpture and that it was strictly forbidden to sell the image if you somehow got a shot in before they’d come hassle you. This was in 2003 (classic Chicago delays causing Millennium Park to open 3 years late) and pre-dated smart phones by 4 years. I really want to know what Anish Kapoor thinks of this whole situation now, knowing that “The Bean” (not its real name, ha ha!) is the most photographed spot in the entire city.