[Leica] Looking for 8x10 (and 4x5) "throwaways"

Sat Jun 17 02:35:00 PDT 2017

Phil, we all struggle. I work literally 7 days a week, more than 12 hours
each day on average. I won't go into the finance situation as it ain't
pretty.

However, I do know what poor is. I grew up in HK and your living, bad as it
is, frankly would be a lot more than I had. I was born in a shanty town
where it was burned down when I was 3 (look up fire in Hong Kong shanty
towns in the 50s and 60s) and it went from there.

Nevertheless, I apologize if my "poor" choice of words offends. First of
all, I was literally asking people that "if they are going to throw things
out, or let them sit in the closets until end of days, hey, I can and will
use them."

As for my photography, yes, I still have some equipment. A lot less Leica
than before. I don't make money with photography (I have tried, but I don't
have time to do commercial photography and my photos don't sell as arts),
however, I do pursue it with all my passion. I bought a 4x5 4 years ago,
trading this and that. For the past 3 years, I have been doing personal
projects that mean something to me, and fortunately, some patrons, friends,
and groups have given me grants and money.

You know how I went to Pittsburgh to photograph 60+ sheets on the author's
project a month ago? The group paid me $600 to take official photos, which
almost covered the plane fare. A friend, whom I never met before, let me
stay in her house (for free). I took the bus in every day to go to the
convention center, and I ate every single meal for 4 days except one in the
free "con suite". I have Patreon patrons that gift me enough to buy some
film. As it is, I still have to pay for the equipment shipping plus others.

On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 2:14 AM, photo.forrest1 at gmail.com <
photo.forrest1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Apologies if I've seemed overly sensitive but I have a place I'm coming
> from as well. I have struggled as a photographer, not with the craft but
> the marketing and opportunity. For 12 years now since my Navy career I've
> tried to make a meagre living (or sometimes make anything at all) doing
> what I love. Photography, all different aspects of it. I finished a degree
> in journalism and In 2012 I wound up homelessly couch surfing, again living
> solely by the good grace of friends, while busting my ass in Philly and NYC
> just to get a part time position that paid $10.75/hr + X per photo and Y
> per word (I forgot the rates but they were LOW.)
> I have finally given up on photography for anything other than my own
> happy snaps and these last two years of this "transition" have been
> horrible on my psyche. I gave up that struggle and am trying to come to
> grips with giving up what I have called my identy for a few decades. I
> guess my time passed when I was in the Navy and that is that. It was a good
> run.
> The whole "give me stuff" angle irked me a bit too because I saved up for
> 5 months to buy an old wood field camera with a bellows that was swiss
> cheese plus a half dozen old riteway holders. Saved up for three more
> months to buy a lens and a replacement bellows. Then saved for another
> month to buy a 50 sheet box of Arista film in spite of wanting 50 sheets of
> TriX that was 3x as much. Maybe I just have more humility than to ask but
> I'm very proud of my little kit I've put together over the past year.
> My girlfriend and I live in a crappy neighborhood in Philly with some of
> the worst rates of the city's heroin and meth ODs. Drug dealers in any
> direction, occasional gunfire (weekly,) people along the streets cooking
> various meats and veggies to both eat and sell; cooking on creosote treated
> wood like old telephone poles and rail ties nonetheless.
> We live paycheck to paycheck with just a tiny bit of savings. I'm
> beginning grad school soon as is my girlfriend, we're both going to become
> therapists. We'll still be low income as students but considering where we
> live and how fortunate we are to have what we do, we don't have the
> audacity to call ourselves poor.
> Sorry to get on a high horse about this but it is a topic near and dear to
> me.
>
> Phil Forrest
>
>
> gallery.leica-users.org/v/philforrest/
>
> ------ Original message------
> *From: *Richard Man
> *Date: *Sat, Jun 17, 2017 04:45
> *To: *photo.forrest1 at gmail.com;
> *Cc: *Leica Users Group;
> *Subject:*Re: [Leica] Looking for 8x10 (and 4x5) "throwaways"
>
> Hmm... obviously I didn't mean to offend. Sorry my enthusiasm get in the
> way.
>
> If people are hung up on the word, yes, in many level, I am not poor.
> After all, I do live in where I am. However, I am literally mortgaging our
> future for some new product development and there are lots of business and
> personal stuff that I am not going to blah about on a forum.
>
> However, I try not to be mean to people, including sending people in need
> money, drove 8 hours to see friends in need for 2 hours, and max out our
> credit cards just so that a dying friend can have some good meals.
>
> But whatever.
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 1:19 AM, photo.forrest1 at gmail.com <
> photo.forrest1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I find this just a bit offensive, on a few different levels.
>>
>> Phil Forrest
>>
>> gallery.leica-users.org/v/philforrest/
>>
>> ------ Original message------
>> *From: *Richard Man
>> *Date: *Fri, Jun 16, 2017 21:03
>> *To: *Leica Users Group;
>> *Cc: *
>> *Subject:*[Leica] Looking for 8x10 (and 4x5) "throwaways"
>>
>> I am poor, nice people gift me stuff. Now I have a Sinar P2  8x10 (Holymother of gods, what a beautiful piece of machine....) So if you any 8x10stuff (film, film holders, lens, loupe etc.) that are sitting around, Iwill probably take them. Same go with 4x5 stuff...Thanks-- // richard http://imagecraft.comBeyond Arduino - When you're ready to get serious...JumpStart C Tools for Atmel AVR and Cortex-M, The Better Alternative_______________________________________________Leica Users Group.See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> // richard http://imagecraft.com
> Beyond Arduino - When you're ready to get serious...
> JumpStart C Tools for Atmel AVR and Cortex-M, The Better Alternative
>

-- 
"Some People Drive, We Are Driven"
// richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com>
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