Quick Visit to the Imperial Capital, Washington, DC (B&W film)

The protest sign man, Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the White House

Business took me to Washington, DC, in September of 2018. I had not been to Washington for many years, and it was fun to walk around and see some sights that were new. I have always liked Washington. As a visitor, it is exciting to be at the seat of imperial power. These centers of empire (present or past) are always interesting because you see the trappings of power, the grandiose buildings, the monuments to heroes, and the souvenirs of colonialism or the souvenirs purchased with vast wealth (think of Moscow, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Paris, or London as other examples).

But in Washington, it is challenging to do much creative photography in a short trip. Historic neighborhoods have largely been torn down or gentrified, and the cell phone crowd takes a million snaps of the monuments every day.

Room with a view: 17th Street from the Mayflower Hotel

My hosts reserved rooms for us at the Mayflower Hotel. Nice place! I appreciated seeing photographs of Harry Truman and other notable guests. Even Nikita Khrushchev stayed there (no nasty budget people's hotel for those Soviets).

FBI building, Pennsylvania Avenue (Leitz GGr yellow/green filter to lighten foliage)

Salad greens, Rosa Mexicana restaurant, 7th Street NW

I saw an interesting idea: grow the salad greens in plant boxes where the customers sit. Certainly fresh and wholesome.

Checking in, National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art is always rewarding. To think, you can see Rembrants and daVincis for free.

Mirrored pyramids occupy the concourse between the east and west buildings of the National Gallery.  Selfies have been taken here since long before the cell phone era. In the two frames above, I used the same 1949 Leica IIIC. It is a pity the photographer did not age as gracefully.

7th Street at the Mall

7th Street food truck

Walk along the mall, where you see tourists from around the world walking, eating, taking selfies, and hanging around. The food trucks are a decades-old institution, but I admit I have never tried their culinary specialties.

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial with Lincoln Memorial in distance 

The World War II Memorial at sunset is a peaceful setting. The Lincoln Memorial is due west in the distance.

Tree trunks, 17th Street SW

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, DC

The quote above is engraved in the granite panels at the FDR Memorial. It is a somber and meaningful place. Consider this quote when you observe the vile and self-serving man who occupied the White House as 45 and the way we institutionalize abuse of the poor.

This is the end of our short tour around Washington. As with so many other places, I should return and explore in more detail.

The black and white photographs are from Fuji Acros film, taken with my dad's 1949-vintage Leica IIIC rangefinder camera and its 5cm ƒ/2.0 Leitz Summitar lens. I previously showed a comparison of my 70-year old IIIC with the new Leica Monochrom black and white digital camera when I stopped at the Leica Store Washington DC.

Test of the Leica Monochrom versus the 69-year-old Leica IIIC film camera

Leica IIIC rangefinder body and 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Leitz Summitar thread-mount lens

Dear Readers, a business trip brought me to Washington, DC, in late October (2018). I arrived early on a Saturday and decided to check out the Leica Store on 977 F Street NW. The store is in a strategic location: the Imperial Capital, seat of power and unbridled (and corrupt and uncontrolled) spending, half way between the White House and the US Capital, and near tourist sites like the Mall. The staff at the Leica Store are very nice and were glad to see me using my 1949-vintage Leica IIIC with its 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens. I have written about this IIIC before and used it for a month in Nepal during my 2017 trip. Similar to the Leica Store in Hong Kong that I visited in 2014, this one had shelves covered with fantastic camera bodies and lenses, and superb photographs were on the walls.

Leica Monochrom Type 246 with 50mm f/2.0 Summicron-M lens (from US.Leica-Camera.com)

I had always wanted to try the Leica Monochrom, a digital rangefinder camera with a monochrome sensor. It has a body about the same size and shape as my 1967-vintage M2, but has a 24MP 24×36mm B&W CMOS sensor with no color array or low pass filter. Pseudo-photographers on popular photo web sites like Dpreview bash the idea of a monochrome camera, but serious workers around the world do some amazing work with it. Unfortunately, the Monochrom body alone costs about $8000. Hmmm.....

Regardless, Mr. Paul at the store let me do a quick test. We went outside to F street to find a suitable subject. A restaurant next door had white plates and cups that were glowing in the sun.

Leica Monochrom with 50mm ƒ/2.0 ASPH lens, DNG file opened with Photoshop Elements 11 and contrast reduced. Resized with ACDSee Pro to 1600 pixels wide. Click to enlarge.

Fujifilm Acros film, exposed at EI=80, developed in Xtol, Leica IIIC camera with 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens.

The Monochrom DNG file has a tremendous tonal range. In the example above, I reduced the contrast to show details under the table, while not allowing the white dishes to become featureless glowing white blobs. But surprise: the Acros film also recorded all the data. I could probably increase the contrast to reasonably match the Monochrom scene. I scanned the 35mm negative at 3600 dpi with a Plustek 7600i scanner using Silverfast Ai's Tri-X 400 profile.

Full-size crop of the sugar packets in the Monochrom DNG file. Note the almost complete lack of grain. 

Full-size crop from Acros film negative.

With a crop of the file to look at the lettering on the sugar packets, you can see that the Monochrom file is essentially grainless. The resolution is amazing. The Acros film file is clearly grainier and has lower resolution. But remember, this is the "primitive" and "obsolete" chemical recording media exposed via a 69-year-old optical instrument. If I mounted the newest version of the 50 mm Summicron lens on my M2 camera, the resolution would be better, and an exposure on the now-discontinued Panatomic-X film might reduce the grain. Regardless, I am happy at how much detail film can record. It is not obsolete by any means (but the prejudice on the part of film-haters certainly is).

Leica SL (from US.Leica-Camera.com)

I also examined the Leica SL. It is a gorgeous piece of Teutonic engineering and solidity, like the film  Leicaflex SL of the 1970s. The viewfinder is superlative. But this thing is a monster and feels as heavy as my Nikon F3 with motor many years ago (and that was a big machine).

Comparison of Leica SL and 1960s M2 (from Camerasize.com)

Sorry SL, I just will not carry you around when I travel, and if I am going somewhere by car, I may as well take my medium format cameras. Also, the minor issue of the cost - $11,300 for body and 50mm lens - is problematic.

In summary, I really like the Monochrom but do not need it now. It is a bit (OK, very) expensive. Black and white film suits my needs presently, and I prefer the way it depicts the scenes that I typically photograph. The Leica SL is just too big and heavy to interest me. Its lenses are as big as Hasselblad lenses. I want to thank the gents at the Leica Store in Washington for the test run.

Here are a few touristy film photographs from the venerable Leica IIIC.

Room with a view: 17th Street NW. Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC

Sunset at the WWII Memorial, Washington, DC

Checking the scene at the Mall, Washington, DC

Pennsylvania Avenue at the FBI building. I used a Leitz GGr (yellow/green) filter over the Summitar lens

Venerable tree on 17th Street, late afternoon

4th of July on the National Mall - 2005

In commemoration of the July 4th Independence Day holiday, here are some photographs from one of the biggest celebrations of them all, the one on the National Mall in Washington, DC. I had the opportunity to spend a few months working in Virginia in 2005 and could not resist going downtown for the concerts and fireworks display.

As advised, I arrived in the morning before lunch. Security was tight, and police checked everyone entering the mall area. Part of the Mall still had vegetable gardens, remnants of the Folk Life Festival from June. Summer in Washington is great because there are festivals of one sort or another almost every weekend, but you have to put up with the humidity.



At the Capital, people had already staked out their spot on the steps, and it was not even noon. The sun was blazing down and the temperature was at least 90° F. Were they really going to sit out in the sun for over 7 hours? Answer: yes. Police had placed pallets of water nearby for people to stay hydrated.

This is the view of the concert they would see many hours hence. You can see the heat haze in the distance - summer in the city. I did not want to sit in the sun, so I moved on.

The lawn in front of the Capital was filling up by early afternoon.

A few areas along the side had some shade; perfect for a nap.

There was even free food, if you were willing to wait in line.

Some vendors had set up their displays, including the bumper sticker guy. Guess who was the President at the time?

The 4th is a great day to display your patriotic garments.


Finally, I decided to settle down on the grass west of the Washington Monument, which is on a low hill. The US Marine band played a concert near here, and the Monument was much closer to the fireworks, which were to be launched from the Reflecting Pool.

Finally, concert time at 7 pm, and then the fireworks. The Lincoln Memorial is in the distance beyond the Pool. I took the Metro home at 11 pm - long day.

Photographs taken with a Canon PowerShot S330 compact camera. This was an early-vintage digital unit, but I was impressed how well it handled difficult exposures. The color palette is a bit bright, but it works well. The built-in jpeg compression was too high, resulting in odd artifacts.