Had I used anything else other than a small point & shoot compact camera for this picture, I am fairly certain I would have ended up in hospital with a swarm of doctors and nurses labouring to remove a camera from my rear. This image was taken in Chippenham, England while waiting for the National Express coach that would eventually take me to Heathrow airport. I was waiting together with my parents and very quickly realised this picture had something to say about modern day England. By the time I had taken my trusty Leica D-Lux3 out of the inside pocket of my coat, switched it on and focused only a few seconds had elapsed. Before anyone else knew it, I had composed and taken a picture that would end up being printed in a popular daily national newspaper (without my initial knowledge as it happened).

Compact cameras are not to be sniffed at. Indeed compact cameras are great for street photography and parties when it simply isn’t practical to be seen wielding a larger professional looking camera around the place and sticking it in people’s faces. Admittedly the Leica D-Lux3 is a little outdated these days. It’s autofocus takes forever to wakeup and the CCD sensor so noisy it negated most of the advantages the brilliant Leica lens offers the serious street photographer. These days I would choose the brilliant Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 or Canon’s equally amazing and super flat S95 and soon to be released S100, despite sorely missing the native 16:9 format CCD sensor offered by the trusty and amazingly sturdy  Leica D-Lux3.

Happy snapping!