[Leica] Re: Monaghan the Clueless replies...

["TSL" <eno22@enter.net>]

>What I have discovered over the years, is that
>there are a lot of "photographers" who actually do not understand the
>"craft" of photography. They don't know the difference between incident and
>reflected light. They don't know how light metering works. They don't know
>about the exact plane of focus and how everything else falls in the
>confines of Circle Of Confusion. How the COC changes with image size and
>f/stop. What is acceptable and what is not.

>But they will argue vehemently about which meter is best, that AF is better
>than MF, and any other argument that suits their mood at the moment.
>Totally without knowledge of the craft.

I have discovered that there are a lot of "photographers" who actually do
not "need" or even "care" about understanding. I'm not promoting this, but a
"craft" is not understood as much as it is perfected by habit, experience.
Does someone need to know what happens when one steps on the gas pedal?
Yes, just that A or B will happen.  This has no real reference to anything
pertaining to the mechanism itself.  I've heard people say "ask what it
does, not how it works".  Take an instrument.  There are some who don't get
involved with any theory or even any rules, except one's that are from
experience, i.e. listening to another and trying things out.  There are some
highly respected, and deservingly so, musicians who will be quite speechless
in a setting that is focused...  on what's beneath the surface, so to speak.
A person playing the blues - a quite common reference - may play a few
notes, but 'perfectly'.  These people hit the note and the place erupts.
Then you go into some music store and some punk is playing the guitar so
fast you can't see anything.  He's running up and down the scales, modes, he
is clearly a schooled musician and knows what he is doing - we would like to
think.  But it's garbage.  He's running all over the place using modes,
scales that are highly technical and advanced in both music theory and it's
applications.  But he's not got it.  He impresses nobody.  A photographer is
not under any obligations to know anything about Circles of Confusion
(doesn't sound good anyway) and doesn't need to know what the word
"incident" vs. "reflected" light is.  Of course he may, and most do and I am
NOT saying that this is anything negative at all, I'm saying it's not an
indication of one's photographic ability.   There are many photography
teachers that are teaching rather than shooting.  Of course, one can be both
as is often the case.  And AF has nothing to do with it.   There are plenty
of people who can use a meterless M and pull off the best of shots.   Or an
M6 - the meter is not so much of a scam.  It's still ability.  And this
person may take twice as long to achieve the same (intended) results, but
work and work and one can easily blacktape all the f-stops at the start.
With Leica photography, there is certainly all of this going on at different
levels.  But, at the very least, one should equally respect the Leica
photographer who's got no idea what he's doing.  If others think he does by
his images, then he's doing what he's set out to do - take pictures, without
much automation.  The point is that while shooting there is more room for
acting and less room for applying learned abstractions.