nature
1 little balloons went for a walk in the forest. They followed each other along the shaded paths, they climbed the hill one after the other, they played and jumped off the called trees as if the world was never going to be the same. And despite the dangers of this outing, they all came back home and safe.
With spring approaching, it is almost impossible to go into the forest and not to find a free bug, a white petal or the smell of invigorated nature. The water is more audible, the sunshine is warmer, the green is more saturated, the birds are happier, and the joggers are swifter.
The fog dissipates amongst the silence of the morning sunshine.
The first week of February brought quite a weather in Slovenia - the fallen snow started feeling very comfortable under the heavy downpour of warm rain. So comfortable that it didn't even realize when the ice wind came that it will be turned into an ice cover weighing down every branch, transforming bushes into caramel mustaches made of ice - thin, heavy, and sparkly.
I was lucky to have the chance to play a bit with a lovely little camera for several days - Leica X1. It is a camera that has been introduced back in 2009 along side the M9 and the S2. It was the camera that no one expected and that came as a surprise. Looking at the current second-hand market, it must have been popular enough. In the past 3 years there must have been a number of them sold (I wonder if there are estimates) and they are now coming around to the second-hand market. And they are quite well-priced still performing lovely and available often at 50% off the original retail price, they are quite attractive entry into the 35 mm photography. There are a number of great reviews on this little camera (DP Review, Luminous Landscapes, and others) and I wouldn't venture into writing another one.
The few observations I have about the camera refer to the ever-so-discussed auto focus and the potential function as a street photography camera. I haven't dealt with auto-focus for some time and it was strange coming back to it - the feeling of lost control was almost overbearing and I often felt the pulls of my muscle memory to rotate the ring around the lens. The way I shoot the M9 allows me to oscillate between focusing and composing, multitasking between the two until I press the shutter. With the autofocus one can also do it. But in my tests, I felt that it requires some mental and muscle adjustments. I think I didn't spend enough time with the camera to manage this myself (I did get the X2 recently and will write about it as well) but I imagine that it will make for a lovely back-up camera (and if you are one of the owners of the new black-and-white Monochrom, the X1 or X2 would be a suitable colour back-up).
