The decade old M9 Monochrom is still my best friend. I wanted to pair it with the latest 28mm lens from the 7Artisans stable-the 28mm f5.6. I posted a few pictures with the M9 Monochrom and 28 f5.6 combination in my last blog but I shot a lot more on a train ride.

The CapMetro train runs from Leander to Austin Downtown in about 45 minutes. It was a ride I promised my son long back but never got a chance till yesterday. The earliest train was at 10:12 am from Leander and I knew the light would get harsh quickly but did not have much of a choice. I shot all these pictures with the M9 Monochrom and 7Artisans 28mm combo and most with a Red filter for added contrast. The sky was a beautiful blue and the Red filter rendered it quite dark. The train had shades of Red which were rendered much lighter thus adding to the contrast.

From a composition standpoint, given that I was shooting urban scape, I tried including a lot of geometrical elements in lines, angles and vanishing points.

At f11 on a 28mm you get very good depth of field so zone focusing at around 3.5-5 meters gets almost everything in focus. While shooting buildings I would ‘infinity focus’, raise the rangefinder to your eye level and shoot once I composed. Unlike shooting street, urban scape cannot be shot from the hip and geometrical elements need to be carefully composed so the viewfinder becomes critical.

I am astounded at the size, build quality and performance of this tiny lens. At $299 it is a no brainer if street, documentary, urban scape is your thing. Of course, it would need a lot of light but will get you brilliant images.

Read more about the M9 Monochrom here