🔴 Guest Post: Thomas van Zoggel
“How a blazing Nikon F5 led me to a love for Leica”
Who is Thomas?
I was born one September Saturday night in 1989 in the Netherlands, and my father always says that that day was the first and only time he ever saw me do anything quickly. That might sum up my character actually, as I like to slow things down in general. I suppose that helps explain my passion for film photography, and a love for old cameras that impose challenges which don’t necessarily speed things up when it comes to taking a picture.
My journey to Leica?
My father has been a professional photographer for his entire life. Selling cameras in the 80’s and early 90’s. Later working in laboratories in the hay day of analog photography, printing everything from family photos to commercial billboards and gallery exhibitions. Later when labs were not doing that good anymore, he started photographing commercially himself, weddings, events, and anything similar you could think of. None of this rubbed of on me in my youth.
When I moved out of my parents’ home, for the first time I thought about taking a proper picture of my hometown to hang on my own wall (I moved cities). My father/Santa gave me a Nikon D3200 for Christmas soon after. I did not use it for years… It was not until some health problems at the start of 2020, led me to being bed strained for a number of weeks, when I finally caught up on the online course that came with my previously gifted Nikon DSLR. I learned about photography. I learned ISO, aperture, shutter speed. I learned composition, light, subjects. I finally understood how interesting photography could be, and I wanted to go out and do it!
After recovering during the first few months of the pandemic, the following year or two provided an excellent environmental calm, and time, needed to practice my new hobby. I quickly switched to a Sony A7, as mirrorless seemed to be all the rage, and it meant I could borrow a couple of nice professional lenses from my dad who was using the system as well. As he saw that I was enjoying photography, my dad decided to get back into the hobby. Professional photography for some tends to kill the passion over time, as it appeared. He bought a Leica R6, something he always wanted to try. On this camera, using a 50mm Summicron-R, I actually learned proper exposure and manual photography.
This would help me later to expose for proper negatives, when my dad also taught me about dark room printing! In the meantime, I was told a Minolta XD-7 was similar to Leica SLRs, and I did not think I needed or could afford a premium film camera, so I bought into that system. This was my first film camera, and the relatively cheap lenses helped to kick start my analog camera addiction. Because as you all know one cannot just stop there.
Why Leica?
At this point I was photographing anything and everything really. I was still trying to find my footing and what my preferences were. One day I was finally trying to make those photos from my home town to hang on my wall. I tried using a tripod but the learning curve was steep for something seemingly simple. When returning home late one evening, I encountered a shady looking stranger in some deserted woods between the train station and my apartment. He was working with a tripod, so I thought it would be a great idea to ask this random person to critique my photos and see if he had some tips. Today he is one of my best friends and joined me and Matt on a trip to Budapest last summer. I love how a seemingly solitary hobby like this helps you meet so many new people if you are just open to it! Long story short, my buddy was working with a proper DSLR, a Nikon D610. The heft of this machine impressed me and I decided to leave my lighter weight feeling Sony behind and move on to the Nikon system. I also loved its contrasty and saturated images, something I initially thought would drive me in my personal taste of photography. With my new friend and a Nikon D810 I went out many times to do night photography (by now understanding how to use a tripod of course), and I was doing landscapes during the day too.
The change came when I met a girl who was open to me experimenting with portraiture, and was happy to have me take her photos. I strongly felt I should explore this further, and I started looking for people to photograph. Instagram became a big help, and I met many more like minded people through this platform and had the ability to work with a lot of people on portrait photography. By this point I had actually bought a Leica M3. I honestly don’t remember what drove me to it, but I do have a soft spot for 50’s and 60’s technology. I restored a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle with my dad when I was in my teens, still drive it in summer. I learned about the Leica M3 years before starting photography and thought it would be a cool period correct accessory, little did I know… Also, I read a lot of Ken Rockwell, and by this time I had already found MrLeica, both of which thought the M3 was the best thing since sliced bread. One of the things challenging me on Nikon were the colours out of my D810. They were never really doing it for me in terms of skintones, it would always turn orange after a bit of editing. This coincided with me getting acquainted with Matt, and him putting gentle but continuous pressure on me to buy a Leica SL. And once I gave in, it fixed my colour issues, but I was also forever hooked to the Leica eco system…
What Do You Photograph and Why?
Portraiture is still what I mostly photograph and share online. I love the interaction with people, and I was amazed after my first workshop with Matt how much fun a one or two hour photoshoot with a model could be if you know what you are doing. I providing someone with pictures that they will love. For me the beauty of the model is less important than the fun we have during a shoot, and the enthusiasm they have for the pictures once they receive them. I only dread looking at my pictures after a photoshoot as I’m afraid there won’t be any good ones and would have to disappoint the model, but luckily that never really happened! I think a lot of that, both quality of the photos, and the inspiration that comes through in them, comes from Matt.
Another YouTuber that I have always liked and followed, if only for his sarcasm but definitely also the photographs, is Grainydays (Jason Kummerfeldt). We actually met him with Matt when we were at the Leica campus in Wetzlar a year or so ago. It was pretty cool to have a coffee with two of my biggest inspirations at once. Jason photographs what I guess is called Americana, abandoned and derelict buildings and environments encompassing the American historical spirit. My take on that is a European version, and specifically in Poland. I have photographed the old ports and other derelict places in Gdansk with Matt already several times, as he also likes it. I travel to Poland more frequently to visit friends and family (I’m half Polish), and I always see cool opportunities along the way in the Polish countryside as well. Recently I have been trying to stop and capture those more. Obviously this takes a lot of time, and I have a day job plus other responsibilities, but I can see myself coming back to this kind of photography more often in the near future.
Thoughts
I admire people who can do photography for a living, but also know those whose passion it killed. My goal is to have a creative outlet, in the meantime hopefully taking me away from screens, a major part of my daily life currently. I struggle sometimes with the balance of photographing for myself and sharing it with others. I like to make pictures for people, but I dislike promoting myself on social media. On the other hand it would be a shame if I don’t share good photos with others. Also, social media has led me to meet and stay in touch with so many cool people outside of my own bubble, and I definitely don’t mind meeting even more of you! Lately I have been introduced to Substack and I will try to see if it is for me, Instagram unfortunately is crowded with irrelevant, cheap and time consuming content. Sometimes I flirt with the idea of just shelving my digital cameras and continue only analog. Whoever I happen to cross paths with in life will be invited to view my private physical gallery if interested. But then who knows what more of this great community I would be missing out on?
I think what helped me recently was to let go of the strict regime I put on myself when posting to Instagram for example. I tried on regular schedules with coordinated hash tags and the ideal 4:5 aspect ratio. Now I just do uncropped 2:3 pictures with random hash tags at random times, still care too much what other people will think, but at least have a more natural and fun approach to all of it. Even if I don’t post for a while sometimes, I feel much better when I do. Hopefully for Substack I can write some articles that come from the heart, and not try to cater to a specific audience. Photography should stay fun and not feel forced, and I just do what I want because I want to. This has already brought me so much richness in life, and I’m looking forward to see what else this will bring on my path in the future.
How Do You Know MrLeica?
When I was still photographing with the Nikon D810 I bought a couple of classic Af-d lenses, both zooms and primes, as they were relatively affordable. Actually, I quite liked the DSLR experience. In some of my childhood memories I am using one of my dads Nikons, and he is teaching me to use the center focus point and then recompose. After realizing that these Af-d lenses could be used on film Nikon bodies, why let them go to waste?
I found a Nikon F5 in mint condition with two more professional zoom lenses not far from me, which I was going to pick up shortly. Before arranging to pick it up together with my dad, who would probably be better suited to judge its condition, and was excited to buy a camera with me that was out of his price range at the time, I did what any of us would do. I checked the reviews on YouTube. Guess who has an awesome and creative review on the Nikon F5 on the internet, even in his early video days? Yes, this is how I learned about Matt!
Favorite Leica Camera?
I can only mention one camera here, and that would be the Leica M3. I have had four of these over the years to find the nicest sample, I have sold two. My eyesight is not necessarily among the best, so I mostly appreciate the larger viewfinder magnification. Over the years I also learned that the M3 is considered one of the best built of the M film cameras, and in my own opinion it is also the most beautiful. I’m not saying it’s perfect. I started photographing without my glasses on, but my eyesight has deteriorated a bit. Also, I have astigmatism, which makes it hard to use standard diopters. I decided it would just be easier to photograph with glasses on as I also don’t want to take them off every time I’m taking a picture.
This is when I realised that my early double stroke M3 had an extra retaining ring in the eyepiece, which further increases eye relief. I had to buy a single stroke M3, and I still don’t see the entire framelines without moving my eyes. Also I had to add a small plastic snap on ring to the eye piece as the metal from the early Leica’s would scratch my glasses. This means you can’t screw on the 1.25 and 1.4x magnifiers anymore, so the extra magnification becomes even more valuable. I am still surprised when I manage to get in focus pictures wide open on a 90mm Summicron, but apparently this system just works!
On the digital side, I use a Leica SL2s now, and it has brought many improvements over my old Leica SL. With back side illuminated, next-gen sensor technology and in built stabilization you can effectively take pictures in the dark (and easier to focus with the improved EVF). There’s no other camera I can think of that can get you this level of image quality with the same ease, as I have already gotten shots that I otherwise would have missed.
Favorite Lens?
35mm Leica Summicron V1, also called the 8-element. I have the goggled version, to fit on the M3 (and similar to its glasses wearing owner). The only drawback of the goggles is it slightly reduces clarity in the viewfinder, but the image quality is perfect (for me). I bought the lens from the son of its first owner, as well as his M3 (now my main M3) and 90mm Leica Elmarit f2.8 (also fantastic), which probably means this lens has always been with the same camera. It has apparently seen the world already as it was used for professional photojournalism, yet remarkably it’s in mint condition, so I try to keep it that way. My M3 and this lens are standard issue when out and about and I intend to put many more miles on them. It’s a nice everyday focal length for me and combined with a soft rendering wide open it can be used for portraits as well. I also use it on the SL2s, but I admit it looks pretty funky with the goggles!
Late last year I bought a 28mm Leica Elmarit v4 pre-asph after a trip abroad where I realized I missed some shots because of not having something wider. I am not sure it’s the end all of 28’s for me, as there are things that I like and don’t like about it. I have however been using my SL2s a lot more recently out and about so I do enjoy the focal length. Also the 50mm Leica Summilux f1.4 pre-asph is a recent addition after yearning for one for a long time, and I can confidently say it is everything you need for a portrait session. Although I tend not to go out for portaits without my trusty old 90mm Leica Summicron f2 pre-asph as well, I just use it for much tighter head shots now. I think these last two lenses can please both vintage and modern look enthusiasts, and that’s rare in a lens. I have tried both the older and newer versions of both, and they are pretty similar in terms of sharpness and rendering, with slight variations in colour balance due to coating advances. The later lenses are much lighter and more practical in use, but the early ones just look and feel cooler, and they are more repairable.
Favorite Film?
I have shot colour film early on, but found it to become too impractical. Developing chemicals are sometimes difficult to source (although I believe this is improving now), and don’t stay fresh as long which forces you to shoot a lot of color in a short amount of time. Furthermore I enjoy analog photography for the entire process including dark room printing. For colour there are no gallery grade fibre based papers anymore that I could find. And worse (or better, as supposedly their quite toxic), there are no more chemicals produced for printing colour positive film. Finally Fuji Pro 400h used to be my favourite colour film, and that is out of production due to material shortages. If these things change, I would consider going back to colour.
Luckily I enjoy black and white photography and printing more than colour. I used to be an enthusiastic advocate for Ilford Hp5. Super versatile in terms of speed (and I still use it at high ISOs) and a nice combination of grain, sharpness and tonality. Unfortunately the negatives come out very flat, even when developing for ISO 800 (although at 1600 they get quite nice, but you lose some shadow detail). If you scan the negatives this is all fine and dandy, but I found the negatives a real challenge to print in the dark room when you want to get skin tones just right for example.
Perhaps this is why it’s called HP5 professional, and I’m not quite there yet! I tried Kodak Tri-x but it gives me negatives similar to HP5 at 1600, although I have only tried developing it in Hc110 so far. But when speed is not of the utmost importance, I found lately that Ilford FP4 gives me everything I want. Sharp 35mm negatives with the dynamic range or tonality where I personally want it, so no complicated dark room processing. Classic but fine grain is pleasing and I have the option to make slightly larger prints when wanted. And since Leica introduced their film variant in ISO 50 and everybody is raving about it, the 125 of FP4 actually seems to be quite versatile in comparison!
Where can you find Thomas?
Follow me at:
- Instagram: @sunny16portraits
- Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/191819449@N06/
- Substack: https://substack.com/@thomasvanzoggel?
MrLeica comments on this article
Thanks Thomas! It’s crazy to think that I met Thomas thanks to making my Nikon F5 video. Thomas went from being one of my workshop students (model photography first then later model photography with Leica cameras) to now a great friend.
I feel the Leica M3 is the perfect camera for Thomas. It suits the clothes he wears and the old Mercedes car he drives. His M3 + matching silver chrome lenses look good and deliver the results too.
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