Re: [Leica] b&w, color of the soul (was: Old colour film stock and back to pictures.)

["David Medley" <dmedley@whidbey.net>]

From: Robert G. Stevens <robsteve@istar.ca>

>I must say B&W is not easier to make a good picture than Colour.    >
>Robert Stevens
>



Thanks, Robert.

One of the first projects that I give to my "Beyond the Basics" workshop
students is a roll of the new C-41 process B&W film (Kodak or Ilford), shot
as part of an assignment, and processed the same day. Most of these students
have never shot a roll of B&W and they find very quickly that color masks a
lot of very bad and or very boring image making.

And this brings up another point. A couple of weeks ago, I conducted a two
day "Basics" workshop for the Coupeville Arts Center. My students ranged in
age from about 18 to somewhere in their 60's. More and more I am finding
that the retail photo industry is doing very little to help these people.
The Mall type camera stores have very little on their shelves other than the
P&S-digital-automatic equipment and the people behind the counter know
little to nothing about the craft of photography. More often than not, when
I go into that type of store, with an M-6 around my neck, the clerk will
ask,

"what kind of camera is that?"

When told it is a Leica, they will look at me with a blank stare and say,

"Oh? Never heard of it."

The point that I am trying to make - it is up to those of us who do have
some knowledge and experience with image making to share that knowledge.
There are a lot of people out there who would like to know more about it and
they cannot get much help from the average retail outlet. Volunteer at your
local school, community center, art center............wherever. If we don't,
we need not worry about what features the next M series will have because
there won't be anyone left who cares about buying it. As it is, 95% of the
world thinks of personal photography as 4x6 inch prints that come out of the
machine at the local drugstore.

Cheers,
David Medley
Whidbey Is.   WA
USA
dmedley@whidbey.net