Winter's End
Not much snow in the Sandia Mountains this year. I hiked up an arroyo to near the top of the first tier of ridges. Didn't make it quite all the way as the bare rock became very slippery. There were small green leaf buds on many of the trees, and it won't be long before the grasses green and the early blooming cactus show some flowers.
The photos were made with my Kiev IIa. It is a bit of an awkward camera to use. The rangefinder window requires close attention to finger placement, rivaling the ergonomic unfriendliness of the Argus Brick. The aperture scale revolves as the lens is focused, usually putting it on the bottom side out of sight. These are things that frequent use would make less important, I suppose. The lens is very fine.
Fourteen people voted in the Leica/Contax poll with eight favoring the Leica/Fed/Zorki style, while six preferred the Contax/Kiev. I'm a little surprised that there wasn't more of a spread. I suspect modern shooters are wary of the bottom loading in the Barnack cameras.
