[Leica] LUG: Ain't from around here

["Chris Quinn" <cquinn@mail.sjcsf.edu>]

Posting now from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I've been for 2-1/2 years. New
Mexico is, in fact, part of the United States, despite its status as a
Third-World state and misunderstood name. Even job interviewees from
out-of-state show up an hour late, and people are regularly refused
mail-order service because "we don't ship out of the country."  I came down
to attend St. John's College, where I've just completed requirements for my
Master's degree. As to labs, I have yet to find a reliable one in NM,
despite the reputation of SF as a mecca for photographers. From my time
here, the explanation I've fabricated is that, with all the money in this
town, the only reason businesses exist is as tax shelters, not for purposes
of serving a clientele. "Pro" labs here have: lost film without apologizing
or offering reimbursement, scratched film & denied it, called me
one-half-hour before delivery deadline to ask me to pick up my unprocessed
film since they couldn't get to it, torn film at either or both ends (35mm &
120) thereby ruining negs/chromes, ad nauseum. I sometimes wonder if it's
because I'm a straight white male unburdened by crystals or turbans that I
receive this level of service. Everything is now sent out FedEx to real labs
and billed it to whomever is paying, since at least that way they'll get
results.

Prior to SFNM, I spent ten years west of Seattle (yes, there's land west of
Seattle) in a little redneck town by the name of Port Angeles, where I was
just twenty miles across the water from our own Get-Out-and-Shoot mentor,
Ted Grant. Went to school in the Chicago suburbs, spent most of my school
years in Santa Rosa, California, and was born in the Chicago suburbs. Well,
not >all< of the Chicago suburbs.

Now looking to relocate to a major metropolitan area to push my photography,
which is primarily performance-oriented (B&W backstage/onstage).

CQ