Re: [Leica] do i deserve to own this leica?

["Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic@hotmail.com>]

Kyle Cassidy writes:

> worrying "am i a photographer, or just some jerk
> who can afford expensive equipment?"

Anyone who takes pictures is a photographer.  There are good photographers and
bad photographers, and everything in between.

> leica has a long history of greatness which
> we're all aware of and those are big shoes to fill.

Even the greatest of Leica photographers didn't turn out one masterpiece after
another.  Remember that you see _all_ of your photos, whereas you only see the
_best_ photos of the most legendary photographers.  In fact, many famous
photographers owe their fame almost entirely to a _single_ photo.

> i also think that the large portion of my initial
> inspiration has fled and what i've been doggedly
> persuing these last few years has only been technical
> expertise, which is nice to have, but it's the least
> important aspect of what i want to do.

Do you take pictures because you like to take pictures, or do you take pictures
because you are interested in what you are photographing?  It is often said that
the latter provides far better results than the former.

> this represents the first time i've really, seriously,
> gone through the backlog and tried to sort anything
> out of it.

They all look good to me.  There are perhaps no sure Pulitzer Prize winners in
the bunch, but neither are there any that would not look good framed and hanging
on a wall.

> the results are not displeasing, but it's painfully obvious
> i'm not publishing any books out of this.

Do you feel that you've improved since you started taking photographs?

> this is all, in fact, rhetorical, but i do
> encourage all of you to go through your own
> negative archives and pluck out the very best
> and put them together.

Unfortunately my yield of really nice shots is very low, and most of them seem
to be accidents.