Re: [Leica] 35mm = amateur

[barney@sgi50.wwb.noaa.gov (Barney Quinn)]

Tina,

I know it has been a long time since you posted this quote, but I have
been thinking about it. I feel strongly about it, and would like to
come out of hiding for a few paragraphs to say something about it.


>> >To be perfectly honest, I think 35mm cameras are for journalists and
>> >amateurs. 'Quality' is not their strength.
>> 

A photographer with a decent portfolio to show doesn't have to prove
anything to anyone. Ones images speak for them selves. This certainly
includes you, along with the rest of the photographers on the Leica
list.

I have several serious problems with statements of the form, "Real
vegitarians eat peanuts." It's clearly false. I know two who simply
don't like peanuts. It's trivial beacuse it's only rhetoric. It's a
commonplace. You can say it about anything. You can use an arguement of
this type as a fill-in-the-blanks parlor game and come up with
something which sounds good, no matter how stupid the statement may
really be.

These kinds of statements aren't alyways easy on the psyche. It's easy
enough to read one, and say, "I'm a vegitarian. I don't like
peanuts. Therefore, am I real?" All this accomplishes is to send one's
mind on a one way trip to a dark land filled with a bunch of energy
wasting anxities.

Were I going to stoop so low as to utter a statement as idiotic and
bankrupt as the one which started this thread, somehting which I
refuse to do because I am an honorable person :-) I would say that
real photographers have brains enough to pick the right tool for the
job. (-: (Note for the humor impared - this was intended as a joke )

Nikon v. Canon. Kodak v. Fuji. Leica v. the known universe. Large v
small format. Not one of these endless debates has ever produced one
single image, not even one single very bad image. I do wish we on the
internet could learn to celebrate each others work rather than curse
each others hardware choices.

Good shooting.

Barney