Boo! A Ghost Town with a Leica Q2

Right before Christmas, I finally gave in to the years-long battle to own a Leica. While I would have loved to get into the M line, the Q2 was just an all-around better first Leica to own for me. I have been watching the local used market for over a year, and one finally popped up that I was able to pull the trigger on. I met up with the guy selling it, and now I have this beautiful Leica Q2 to adventure with. As a commercial Sony shooter, the Leica Q2 has been a very different experience both in function and in results. During the holiday break, I took the Leica out on a quick adventure to the backside of the Sierra’s, several hours from my house in the Bay Area, and did a little shooting.

I set out for a quick trip to Lone Pine, CA to photograph the sunrise at Alabama Hills. While there, I shot identical photos on the Leica Q2 and Sony A7RV. I did this out of curiosity, and you can see the video and results here!

I arrived at Lone Pine a bit earlier than I thought I would, so I had some time to shoot something before sunset. I headed about 15mins down the road to a partially-abandoned town called Keeler. I read a bit of history about Keeler before going there, so I could understand this town before walking around. Keeler use to be a much more thriving town on a lake (now gone), with a train station that sent ore from the local mines out of the region and to the refineries. There was also a community pool, where Hollywood actors and actresses from days gone by would frequent when shooting their western movies in Alabama Hills.

Of course today, that’s all many decades in Keeler’s past. Only a handful of people still live in the town, and most buildings and homes are just sitting abandoned today. As I walked around this town, it was eerily quiet. The surrounding views were incredible, and these old buildings, cars, campers, and amenities made the experience very unpredictable.

I shot everything around this town fully manual on the Leica Q2. I always shoot manual regarding exposure, but I also shot everything in manual focus as well. I wanted to force myself to slow down a bit and think more about fewer images with good compositions rather than run-and-gun and cull them later. The Leica photos are absolutely beautiful. I love how rich the colors are, how deep the contrast is, and how much pop the 28mm Summilux lens has. I shot almost everything at f/2 because I wanted to get as much separation as possible. Love how it turned out.

I think there’s definitely something special about the Leica Q2. It cannot replace my Sony system, but I didn’t get it for that reason. I wanted a smaller, EDC camera that could go anywhere with me and that I would enjoy shooting. This camera is it!

Now I need to find someone who wants to buy one of my kidneys so I can get an M11 and a few Summicron / Summilux lenses.