My Leica M film rangefinder is locked in the past. I bought the analogue rangefinder  on the basis of craftsmanship in the 1970s when it was already  being marginalised  by the innovative, Japanese SLR cameras. In 2022 the film M is technologically  obsolete but it works.  

 I am no True Believer in Leica, its  myths or seductive mystique.  What I currently have  is a well made, vintage  film camera with a minimalist industrial design that requires a considered approach to photographing the world around me.   

 This picture was made in 2021 when I was starting to photographically  explore   the Spring Mount Conservation Park in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.

Spring Mount  is a local stringybark conservation park in the ranges that run alongside the Inman Valley. It  lies  between, and separates,  the Hindmarsh Tiers and  the  Inman Valley.  

Spring Mount is a short 15 minute drive from the coast of Encounter Bay where I live so it is easy to access. This  picture is  approaching  the conservation park from the Inman Valley.

The park is basically a small,  isolated patch of bush surrounded by farmland -- nearly all of which is grazing land.  It is the coastal beaches  that attract people who live in Adelaide,  not the remnants of the original bushland that has been extensively cleared.

If film was cheaper to use than  digital a decade ago, that  is now now longer the case, especially with  the continual fall  of the Australian dollar.  As I simply cannot afford the extremely  high price of a  digital M rangefinder (eg.,the current  M11)  I am confined to the past. Consequently, I am obliged to ensure that each exposure of the  36 roll of colour film is carefully considered, given the need to work within the  limitations of an analogue rangefinder.