Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 9/8/00 10:04 PM, Miro Jurcevic at miroj@ozemail.com.au wrote: > Use poorer members of the LUG can only drool at the idea of 9 M's. That's > more than any dealer normally has in our neck of the woods. Miro, What makes you think I am any richer than you? You know nothing about my financial circumstances other than the number of cameras I use. Perhaps you get jealous of the guy at the garage for his having a set of tools you might only dream of? Or the truck driver with that huge vehicle, so much bigger than what you get to work in... My cameras are the tools I use for my work. I use them because they work and because I like them and because I know they accomplish what I set out to do with them. I do not have the option of rental or of going out to buy a replacement when I need it since that involves too much time and expense. When I started out in China I had a suitcase and a couple of Nikons that I had bought second hand, paid for with money I had earned from selling my photographs. I also had nowhere to live in this totalitarian state. Many years of hard work, hard travel you can barely imagine and a passion to create ever better images has led me to the situation where I have acquired 9 Ms. I am sure I spent less on these than the majority of LUGGERs spent on their car(s). I am not a collector and every camera has to pay for itself or it is on the block. My film costs BTW dwarf my equipment costs and always have. Maybe instead of drooling you should take some photos that are worth the attention and $s of others and you too could have what you want to make the photos you dream of with the best tools on the market. I have no idea what you do for a living but I can assure you that the vast majority of photographers make far less than most other professionals, including plumbers, truck drivers and garage mechanics so don't assume a guy with a set of tools is loaded. It is cheaper for me to have 9 Leicas than 1. The funny thing is that to start out as a professional photographer does not involve a large initial outlay: if you have a $200 camera and a $60 flash it can be very clear very quickly whether you have what it takes to make a living. To be able to do a wider variety of work and grow creatively most (but not all) photographers choose to use more equipment to realise their vision. The vast majority of my clients do not specify even what format they want for the jobs they give me: they explain their demands and expect me to do what I feel is best. If my preferred way of working was to shoot with a Holga and make digital prints then so be it. It better be good or I don't get any more work. There are photographers who do very very well using such equipment and others who do miserable trash and fail to make a living with hundreds of thousands of dollars of fancy Swiss cameras and lighting systems. Oh and how many Leicas do you suppose the dealers have in stock in my neck of the woods? Bests Adrian - -- Adrian Bradshaw Corporate and Editorial Photography Beijing, China tel/fax +86 10 6532 5112 mobile +86 139 108 22292 e-mail apbbeijing@yahoo.com OR adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com Please note my new mobile number (as of August 1st) _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com