Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2018/08/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Wed, 29 Aug 2018 Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant at gmail.com>wrote: >Gerry:? Say it ain't so!? I hope we can talk you out of leaving the >LUG.? I think you're one of the leading lights, and your absence would >be keenly felt. >I have mixed feelings about we photographers segregating ourselves by >camera brand. While I appreciate the cameraderie of Leica users, often >brand exclusivity closes us off to some fine photography that we could >enjoy and learn from, and to technology that might benefit our >photography. I think that the LUG straddles both worlds.? We all have >absorbed a certain way of seeing and method of shooting from having >loved and used Leicas. That stays with us no matter what we shoot with >today. >I became a Leica user around 1970, when my hometown camera store owner >put an M2 in my hands, and I found that I could focus an RF far faster >and more accurately than I could an SLR. I rapidly realized that the >lenses were incredible, and the low-light advantages of Leicas meant I >could get "people pictures" I could not otherwise. Of course, back then, >a lightly used Leica M2 or M3 was only a bit more expensive than a >Nikon, not stupid crazy expensive like they are now.? Today, Leica >competes with far less expensive computer-camera hybrids that give us >more versatility and some amazing new capabilities.? These same cameras >also enable less skilled photographers to (sometimes) capture things >that only the most skilled could before. It can be annoying that a chip >programmed by Japan, Inc. can meet or exceed skills we've cultivated for >a lifetime. But that same chip can give those of us with traditional >skills a boost, too.? And we still can get the shot when autofocus fails. >I haven't had much time to post lately, but I look at most of the photos >posted here. I consider the LUG both an extended family gathering and a >place of lifelong learning. I confess that lately I use my Olympus micro >4/3 outfit just as much if not more than my Leicas.? But I have the >Leica ethos in my blood, and prefer the Leica way when possible.? A >fleeting moment of human interaction or expression, well-composed, >captured with a small, light, fast, responsive camera and superb optics >is still one of my highest goals. To me, that's the Leica ethos. >There are challenges to becoming or remaining a Leica user these days. I >think that most LUGgers have retained something of the Leica ethos even >if they have moved on to other brands for technological, medical or >financial(!) reasons.? Leica-ethos photographs can be taken with other >brands. Mirrorless cameras better the size and weight advantages Leica >used to have, and they are far more versatile than a rangefinder. They >are not as fast as a skilled photographer with a Leica in some >people-shooting situations. But I suspect that if HCB or Eisie or Gene >Smith had access to a Fuji XT-2 or an Olympus EM-1 Mark II, they would >have been happy to give it a try. They might have even adopted them for >some things. Our own BD Colen takes his "Alone, Together" and "Day in >the Life" photos with a distinctly Leica accent, but uses Fujis.? Just >to cite one example. >-Peter ============================================================= So well put. Thank you. -- Alan Alan Magayne-Roshak, Senior Photographer University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Photo Services (Retired) UPAA Photographer of the Year 1978 UPAA Master of the Profession 2014 amr3 at uwm.edu http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alan+Magayne-Roshak/ "All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for an inability to notice. " - Elliott Erwitt