[Leica] Unsubscribing

[Alan Magayne-Roshak]

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