We are back to black-and-white for the last picture from Chinatown. I’m moving beyond the architecture, capturing more of the street scene in a very busy part of town. While I tried to reduce the clutter in the first two pictures, I embraced it here.

I’m using a 50mm on my Leica Monochrom, which is usually not wide enough for architecture, but somehow I managed to include a lot of it here in a structured way that pleases me. Notice the foreground activity with the people interacting with their vehicle. Then in the mid-ground, we have the ubiquitous fire escapes that add that characteristic Chinatown texture. Finally, I included a high-rise that anchors the background. I even managed to include the complete light pole.

What worked in my favor was the small-to-large progression from foreground to background. I must admit that I don’t analyze every scene like this as I snap the picture, but I’m getting faster at balancing the composition. Especially with a slow, deliberate, manually focused camera like the Leica M.

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