Continuing to pull as much data as I can from the RAW files of the Ricoh GR has truly been an eye opener. Here’s my most recent incarnation of a building in Downtown Miami inspired by Daido Moriyama. Here, I tried to put enough grain and contrast on the image with the right amount of sharpening. Dodging and burning brought out those details in the sky. Even though the GR has just been released I already feel its going to be a classic. If your lucky enough to acquire one, it is my humble opinion, you won’t regret it one bit. Also, I see some mini reviews are surfacing but do not be dissuaded, its practically impossible to review this camera in a few days and even a few weeks, this camera has so much inside, that I can comfortably say it will take me a few months to begin to grasp and wrestle the spirit of the GR. So if you’re interested in an ongoing review series then you’re in the right place. I …

When it comes to street photography, I think we can objectively agree that being inconspicuous is a good skill to acquire early on, its just the way of a “Karyudo“. This particular shot was taken using the Ricoh GR ‘s Snap Focus feature at 2m. Again, I continue to use a combination of Silver Efex(a special preset I’m actively developing) and Lightroom. Notice the tones, the richness of the black and the wonderful greys, I’m now fully convinced Pentax-Ricoh struck just the right balance with the premier street photography tool ― the Ricoh GR.

I’m currently in the honeymoon period with my Ricoh GR and I continue to experiment with my bw conversions. This time again I used Silver Efex but today I brought them back to Lightroom for some added tweaks. Daido is certainly an inspiration to me but my end goal is not a very high key image with tons of contrast, but rather a gritty image with enough grain and contrast to be different but yet describe the ambient atmosphere with a unique perspective and let it be a reflection of my vision. All images by Jorge Ledesma

The master of the compact camera, Daido Moriyama, is truly an inspirational documentary photographer. His grittiness, pouring his soul on processing, are just but a few of the many characteristics that define this living great. With that said, I delved into Silver Efex to create a custom preset for the Ricoh GR and these are the initial results. As always, presets are not the end all be all of processing but only serve as a starting point to get really intimate with the image.

The more I shoot with the Ricoh GR the more I continue to fall in love with its output. Don’t forget to click on the images for a larger view 1600px wide view. As far as processing goes the color image is pretty much straight out of camera with a little sharpening and an added lightroom retouching brush. She really is that beautiful. Color the BW, I basically desaturated the whole image and adjusted the levels and tones. All and all, I’m very happy with the GR’s versatility as a quotidian photographic tool. Like my friend Wouter says I’m still a slave to the GR with hopes of soon or in time becoming its master. All images by Jorge Ledesma