Re: Roll call

[dvcinc@swbell.net]

Alastair Firkin wrote:
> I've been thinking that it is time to have a roll call. We have not had one
> for over a year or so. I'll start the ball rolling

Robert De Vries

Live in Kansas City, MO. 65 years old. 
Have 1 wife and 2 children, both married.
Occupation: Investment Banker. President of De Vries & Company, Inc. for
past 12 years. Prior to that worked on Wall Street in NYC. MBA from the
Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

I started taking pictures with a Kodak Brownie at about age 9.Then had a
Kodak 620? box camera. (still have both). I bought a Kodak Pony in 1952.
I was in Germany in 1959 and wanted to buy a Leica but could not afford
it. I vowed that would change one day, and happily it did, but with a
new family etc., not until the 1970's. I had a Nikkormat and then F2
Nikon and bought my first Leica, an M2 with 3 lenses. I also bought an
M5 and M4. I acquired my first reflex, an SL, about 1975. Finally I
bought an R3Mot with 3 lenses and sold my Nikon equipment. I have owned
only Leica since that time. I shoot some nature and landscapes, but I
specialize in Railroads. I hope to retire in a few years and plan a
second career in Railroad photography. I am collaborating with an author
on a book where I supply the photos.

Current equipment:

M equipment. M-2, M-4, M2M. LTM: 1f with canon 35MM f 2.8.
Lenses: 35 f2, 50 f2, 50 f2.8, 90 tele-elmarit f 2.8.

R equipment: R-3 Mot with winder. R-5 with Motor.
Lenses: 28 f2.8, 50 f2, 60 f2.8, 90 f2, 180 APO 3.4, 280 APO f2,8, 400 
f 6.8. Lots of accessories.

Other Leica equipment. 8 x 42 binoculars, Pradovit, Focomat color V35.
Mini zoom.

Am selling the R-3 and buying an R-8 soon. I have delayed while waiting
for the motor drive. I am also going to sell the M-2 and buy an M-6
shortly at currrent prices, and sell the 90 f2 and buy the 100 APO f
2.8.

I sometimes think of buying an F5 or EOS 1n and a couple f2.8 zooms just
to have autofocus. Then I see something like the last issue of Trains
magazine with some pictures taken by a conductor over 30 years ago with
a Leica. The pictures just jump off the page compared to the rest of the
photos in the magazine. Other than some of my own shots from time to
time, there are no Leica photos in these magazines.

Bob