Rui Morais de Sousa AL-MOST-LY PHOTOGRAPHY

Apr 27, 2012

St. Stephen - The Eleven

Mourão, Portugal - August 1985

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

“Saint Stephen” – Jerry Garcia/Phil Lesh/Robert Hunter

Saint Stephen with a rose, in and out of the garden he goes,

Country garden in the wind and the rain,

Wherever he goes the people all complain.

Stephen prospered in his time, well he may and he may decline.

Did it matter, does it now? Stephen would answer if he only knew how.

Wishing well with a golden bell, bucket hanging clear to hell,

Hell halfway twixt now and then,

Stephen fill it up and lower down and lower down again.

Lady finger, dipped in moonlight, writing "What for?" across the morning sky.

Sunlight splatters, dawn with answer, darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye.

Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow,

What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned.

Several seasons with their treasons,

Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own.

Did he doubt or did he try? Answers aplenty in the bye and bye,

Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills,

One man gathers what another man spills.

Saint Stephen will remain, all he's lost he shall regain,

Seashore washed by the suds and foam,

Been here so long, he's got to calling it home.

Fortune comes a crawlin', calliope woman, spinnin' that curious sense of your own.

Can you answer? Yes I can. But what would be the answer to the answer man?

Recorded by the Grateful Dead on the albums “Aoxomoxoa” and “Live/Dead” (1969)

“The Eleven” – Phil Lesh/Robert Hunter

High green chilly winds and windy vines

In loops around the twisted shafts of lavender,

They're crawling to the sun.

Underfoot the ground is patched

With arms of ivy wrapped around the manzanita,

Stark and shiny in the breeze.

Wonder who will water all the children of the garden

When they sigh about the barren lack of rain and

Droop so hungry neath the sky.

William Tell has stretched his bow till it won't stretch

No furthermore and/or it may require a change that hasn't come before.

No more time to tell how, this is the season of what,

Now is the time of returning with our thought

Jewels polished and gleaming.

Now is the time past believing the child has relinquished the rein,

Now is the test of the boomerang tossed in the night of redeeming.

Seven faced marble eyed transitory dream doll,

Six proud walkers on the jingle bell rainbow,

Five men writing with fingers of gold,

Four men tracking down the great white sperm whale,

Three girls waiting in a foreign dominion

Riding in the whale belly, fade away in moonlight,

Sink beneath the waters to the coral sands below.

By the Grateful Dead, from the “Live/Dead” album (1969)

Morning Dew

Mourão, Portugal - August 1985

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

“Morning Dew” – Bonnie Dobson (1962)

Walk me out in the morning dew my honey,

Walk me out in the morning dew today.

I can't walk you out in the morning dew my honey,

I can't walk you out in the morning dew today.

I thought I heard a baby cry this morning,

I thought I heard a baby cry this today.

You didn't hear no baby cry this morning,

You didn't hear no baby cry today.

Where have all the people gone my honey,

Where have all the people gone today.

There's no need for you to be worrying about all those people,

You never see those people anyway.

I thought I heard a young man mourn this morning,

I thought I heard a young man mourn today.

I thought I heard a young man mourn this morning,

I can't walk you out in the morning dew today.

Walk me out in the morning dew my honey,

Walk me out in the morning dew today.

I'll walk you out in the morning dew my honey,

I guess it doesn't really matter anyway,

I guess it doesn't matter anyway,

Guess it doesn't matter anyway.

Recorded, among others, by the Grateful Dead on their live triple album “Europe’72” (1972).

Apr 26, 2012

Dark Star

Mourão, Portugal - August, 1985

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

“Dark Star” – Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter

Dark star crashes
pouring its light
into ashes

Reason tatters
the forces tear loose
from the axis

Searchlight casting
for faults in the
clouds of delusion

Shall we go,
you and I
while we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall of diamonds

Mirror shatters in formless reflections
of matter

Glass hand dissolving
to ice petal flowers
revolving

Lady in velvet
recedes
in the nights of goodbye

Shall we go,
you and I
While we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds

From the album “Live/Dead” by the Grateful Dead (1969)

(And many other recordings by the Grateful Dead)

Apr 20, 2012

Minha Namorada

Alfama, Lisboa - Julho de 1987

(Hasselblad 500 EL/M)

"Minha Namorada" - Vinicius de Moraes / Carlos Lyra

Se você quer ser minha namorada

Ah, que linda namorada você poderia ser

Se quiser ser somente minha

Exatamente essa coisinha, essa coisa toda minha

Que ninguém mais pode ser

Você tem que me fazer um juramento

De só ter um pensamento, ser só minha até morrer

E também de não perder esse jeitinho de falar devagarinho

Essas histórias de você

E de repente me fazer muito carinho

E chorar bem de mansinho sem ninguém saber porquê.

E se mais do que minha namorada
Você quer ser minha amada, minha amada, mas amada pra valer
Aquela amada pelo amor predestinada
Sem a qual a vida é nada, sem a qual se quer morrer
Você tem que vir comigo em meu caminho
E talvez o meu caminho seja triste pra você.
Os seus olhos tem que ser só dos meus olhos
Os seus braços o meu ninho no silêncio de depois
E você tem que ser a estrela derradeira
Minha amiga e companheira
No infinito de nós dois.

Apr 17, 2012

Lyon, France - August 2008 (Leica M3)

After my last post about the Leica M3, I thought that it would be appropriate to show some more photographs made with this fine photographic tool.

On a hot summer day, we were travelling by car from Germany to Portugal. Not wanting to fall asleep at the wheel and needing to stretch our legs, we decided that it was time to take a short break in the French city of Lyon.

Rangefinder cameras can be very good travel companions. They are small and unobtrusive, people usually don’t seem to take them very seriously. That’s why many photographers – obviously myself included - consider them ideal for street photography.

I hope that you enjoy the photographs.

Technical Data:

Camera - Leica M3

Lenses - 28mm Elmarit-M + 50mm Summicron-M + 90mm Tele-Elmarit-M

Film - Kodak Tri-X

Developer - Kodak D-76 1+1

Location - August, 2008

Scanner - Epson 4990 Photo

Apr 12, 2012

Film Cameras For Lovers - Leica M3 (Photo Gear 14)

It seems to be fashionable these days to make things look retro.

Now you better not get fooled by the looks, the Leica M3 doesn’t look retro...

The Leica M3 is "The Real Thing"!

Leica M3+Versenkbar Summicron 5cm+Leicameter MC

(Camera and lens from the same vintage: 1955)

Introduced in April, 1954 – yes, that is 58 long years ago!!! - the Leica M3 was the first Leica to have a bayonet mount - the Leica M mount – permitting that lenses are changed faster and easier.

Previous Leicas were screw mount (The Leica Thread Mount - or M39 - was used on all previous Leica models with interchangeable lenses. The Leica IIIg released in 1957 - three years after the introduction of the M3 - was actually the last screw-mount Leica).

Comparing to former Leicas, the finder on the M3 – the first Leica finder to combine rangefinder and viewfinder into one window - is much improved, being of larger diameter and exceptionally bright.

The base length of the M3 rangefinder has been increased to 68,5mm for greater accuracy and the M3 finder has a high magnification factor of 0,92x. That together with framelines for 50, 90 and 135mm, make the M3 the rangefinder camera of choice for the normal and longer lenses.

The 50mm framelines are permanently visible in the finder, while the 90 and 135mm are shown when such a lens is inserted in the camera, or when you activate the finder frame preselector located on the front of the body (the first M3s didn’t have the preselector lever!).

The parallax error is compensated in the Leica M3 by moving the framelines diagonally through the field during focusing.

For wide-angle shooting use a separate viewfinder slid into the accessory shoe, or use a 35mm lens having the “goggles” that correct the frame of view attached.

Leica M3 + Visoflex III + Telyt 4/200mm

Leica M3 + Visoflex III + Telyt 4.8/280mm

Some other important features of the then new Leica M3 can be resumed as follow:

- Easier film loading with the opening backdoor (previous Leicas had only bottom loading);

- The transport lever used to tension the focal plane shutter and advance the film by one frame (former screw-mount Leicas had a winding knob);

The first M3s had the so called double-stroke, as in the case shown in this post: you have to wind with two short strokes. Later on, Leitz changed the film winding of the Leica M3 - and all subsequent models - to single-stroke film advancement.

- A single non-rotating shutter speed dial to control the exposure times (LTM Leicas had a second dial for slow shutter speeds). Shutter speeds set before or after winding.

- The film counter automatically returns to its starting position when the take-up spool is withdrawn.

- Built-in self-timer.

Some thoughts about the year of 1955?

Elvis Presley made is 1^st TV appearance, Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” is considered obscene, Winston Churchill resigns as British PM, Gaullists lose elections in France, West Germany joins NATO, Warsaw Pact is signed, Bill Halley hits nr.1 with “Rock Around the Clock”, Carl Perkins records “Blue Suede Shoes”, and so on, and so on…

It was still a long time coming for the world to know and hear about The Beatles, men landing on the moon was still a dream waiting some 14 years to become true, Portugal still had longer to wait to be a country free of dictatorship…

And all this time the Leica M3 was shooting and shooting and shooting…