[Leica] Farewell, My Lovelies

[George Lottermoser]

> On Feb 8, 2016, at 11:15 PM, W.C. Clough <billclough042541 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> USA
> TEXAS
> VICTORIA
> 08 February 2016
> 
> 	I have cleaned the bodies, the black M6 and the chrome, double-stroke M3, cycled their shutters at 1/1000 a number of times to keep them in shape and then carefully wrapped them in protective bubble wrap for their journey.
> 
> 	As best I could, I cleaned their lenses — the 35mm Summicron, the 90mm Elmar, the Skopar 21mm — each with their incredible stories. Soon, equally protected, they joined the bodies, all cushioned and sealed inside the double-cardboard box for their trip to a new existence.
> 
> 	Someone once said that all farewells should be brief. That philosophy is the great tradition of Episcopal funeral services, a quick service to spare the grief of those left behind.
> 
> 	In this case, the rapidity was to prevent second thoughts. The cameras had been on there shelf for so long it was a surprise to find an exposed roll of Kodak BW400 still in the M6. What frames are latent are as much a mystery as where, in today’s digital world, to have the film developed.
> 
> 	“Of course we still develop film,” says the manager at the local Walgreen’s Drug Store. “But we put the images on a CD. You don’t get the negatives back.”
> 
> 	The company buying the equipment will never know the chain of events that they represent.
> 
> 	At the turn of the century I ran a computer search for “Leica Users Group.” To my astonishment and pleasure there was one. It had a strange program called “PAW.”
> 
> 	At that time, the only bodies I owned was an antique — and still working — Leica ii, and a double-stroke M3. The only lens was the first lens I ever bought, a 1960 50mm Nikkor f1.4.
> 
> 	A few, senior, LUG members may remember the story of that lens. After a few days of shooting, the aperture was getting stiff. I found leafs of the iris floating freely inside. I wrote a long, nostalgic obit for the lens on the LUG which prompted a score of messages all with “Focal Point” in the subject line.
> 
> 	Focal Point was a company in Colorado specializing in repairing old lenses. A telephone call indicated the problem was common and familiar; the cost would be about $125.
> 
> 	I was the news director of the public radio station in Corpus Christi. It was the smallest market public radio station in the country. It ran pledge drives for light bulbs. I was pretty sure I could afford to fix the lens, barely.
> 
> 	Then came the invoice for $250. Another obit on the LUG, explaining I couldn’t afford the repair.
> 
> 	In less than a week, the lens arrived, paid in full. I still don’t know who to thank. No greater example exists of the LUG being a family.
> 
> 	I have kept the Nikkor. It has earned a special place on the collector shelf.
> 
> 	The next link in the chain was an email from LUG member no longer active. “What is your mailing address?” he messaged. I sent it. In a few days a 90mm f4 Elmar arrived. He had found it on a shelf, unused, and thought I might make use of it.
> 
> 	A few weeks later, there was a message on my desk that read “Leica,” with a phone number. It was from a photojournalist who was spending his retirement driving around the country in an RV. When he drove into a town, he checked out the camera stores, and then, at the next town, passed on what Leica bargains he had found in the previous town.
> 
> 	He told me that in El Paso, he had found a 35mm f2.8. “There’s only one camera store there and they want to get rid of it,” he said.
> 
> 	He was wrong. There were six cameras stores in El Paso. Naturally, the correct one was the last I called. And, it wasn’t a f2.8, it was an f2.
> 
> 	 The company emailed me photographs of the lens. This is an important point, because if it knew how to attach photos to an email, then access to the internet was a given.
> 
> 	The asking price was $250. At that time, the average used price for a 35mm Summicron was $650.
> 
> 	One of the best photographers I know is a colleague, Tyler Vance. He sold me a M6 at half the market price. In short order, I had a Leica system.
> 
> 	In the ensuing years, I have hoped that the images I posted to the LUG and to the annual yearbook partially paid for these incredible breaks.
> 
> 	Age demands its dues. Over those same years, digital cameras have come into their own. I am just as slaved to the ability to preview as I am to auto focus. So, the Leicas lived in limbo, locked in the camera closet.
> 
> 	I still have the old Kinderman tanks: 1,2 4 and 8-reel tanks. But, at 74, I have to admit I’m simply not willing to go back to the game.
> 
> 	So, earlier this week, I sold them all. Like a father watching his offspring spring off to their own worlds, I hope they will find a home where they will be as respected and as loved as I loved and respected them.
> 
> 	I watched them disappear into a FedEx truck with a smile, a tear, with great sadness and regret. It breaks my heart.
> 
> 	I had to wait for the truck to leave. Sending them off was enough of a betrayal. I couldn’t live with myself if they had seen me turn to the computer to study the latest reviews of the Fuji X-Pro2.
> 
> 	Farewell, my lovelies.

Beautiful, melancholy prose.



George Lottermoser
george.imagist at icloud.com