[Leica] was: Pro/Am. now: shoot from the heart!

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@islandnet.com>]

Horst Schmidt wrote:

>Alex, I am happy to get 1 or 2 shots worth while for keeping from a 36 roll of
>film.>>>>

hello Horst,

That's about average for any shooter, pro or amateur. Just figure, that out
of any number of frames you expose, only about 10% are going to be keepers
and within that 10% you always hope to find a diamond or two, if you're
lucky. :)

>I had really good days which gave me something like 4 or 5. But this is the
>exception to the rule.>>>>>

You're not alone! :)

>Being an amateur like your self, I find the preliminaries before taking a
>picture is what I enjoy immensely. The looking for a motif. The thinking what
>lens to use and the actual setting up of the camera. Then the feel of the
>Leica
>M in my hand and pressing the shutter release.

Horst, dont waste time with all the details, shoot what catches your eye
and moves you to feel the moment. Focus and press the button with feeling!
Even as an amateur you don't want to spend too much time fiddling and
setting-up, just get the camera to your eye and shoot, the more you shoot
the better you'll become.

It's all very simple, the more you fiddle the more you'll screw-up.  Keep
in mind,  "we learn by doing!"  And with that in mind, just get on with
lots of exposures and sooner or later it all comes to-gether. Then you'll
shoot instinctively using the feeling within yourself.

>Then the waiting to have the film developed and receiving the prints. Then the
>slight disappointment, when the picture, you were so sure would be perfect,
>didn't turn out the way you envisaged; and finally the happiness for the
>one or
>two prints worthwhile to be kept and to be enlarged.  For me that's what
>its all about.>>>

Well that's about the same for the rest of us! So just remember, shoot from
the heart like everyone else and whether pro or not, we all wait in
anticipation. :)
ted

PS: and with our fingers always crossed! :)

Ted Grant
This is Our Work. The Legacy of Sir William Osler.
http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant