RE: [Leica] Living with a D!X, picking pockets with an M

["Brian McCarthy" <straightline@btinternet.com>]

I totally agree B.D.  I have an M6 and a Nikon F5 and this mirrors my
experience exactly.

Brian McCarthy
brian@imagespace.co.uk
www.imagespace.co.uk

 B. D. Colen Wrote:

> I have to strenuously disagree with you, Peter. Based on my
> experience it is
> indeed possible to be unobtrusive and blend into the background -
> and it is
> far easier to do that with a small camera, rather than a large one. Get
> close to someone with an M with a 21, and if you have been hanging around
> for a while, they will probably ignore you. Stick an F5 with a
> 17-35 zoom in
> their face and they CAN'T ignore you.
>
> B. D.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of pmjensen
> Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 8:43 PM
> To: leica users
> Subject: [Leica] Living with a D!X, picking pockets with an M
>
>
> >In a way what you're saying about working
> >with the D1X and with Ms could be said about working with any autofocus
> >modern reflex camera and working with Ms - if you want to be unobtrusive,
> >you can't shove an F100, F5, EOS1n, etc. - or a D1X - in someone's face.
> >Once again, it's not a matter of brand, film v digital, etc.,
> it's a matter
> >of the right tool for the right job.
>
> I'd like to offer a counter line of thought on this by twisting it
> around. I don't think that you can be unobtrusive under any circumstances
> while holding a camera, of any type, in someone's face, even in a crowd.
> And, to that extent, it doesn't matter what type or size of camera you're
> using. My experience is that the larger and more obviously
> professionally-sized cameras reassure by virtue of their obvious function
> (and, by extension, the photographer's function or place in the social
> order). The Ms, by contrast and by looking insignificant, call into
> question why the photographer's broken the social contract and moved in
> so very close: is he going to pick my pocket (or some more amorphous
> fear)? What's he doing, what's his purpose here?
>
> That's my projection, of course - no real way to tell the truth.
>
> Instead of trying to be invisible, which comes off looking questionable,
> it might work better to be so persistently present that people eventually
> get bored and lose interest in your workings - then the interesting stuff
> can happen, and that's when the Ms gain the upper hand: by not constantly
> (re-)calling attention to their mirrors, shutters, motors.... But there's
> so much cultural stuff at work here, too: New Yorkers are far more
> tolerant of personal-space intrusion than, well, just about everyone
> else, as a for-instance.
>
> [Slight digression. This whole topic presupposes wide angle lenses, I
> guess. It amazes me (in a good way) that some photographers are able to
> make such complicated, interesting images, spatially complex in two and
> three dimensions, with normal and longer lenses. Now recovering after
> years of being paid to please graphic designers, I've got a terrible
> personal aversion to anything that flattens the picture plane.
> Kon-see-kwentlee, I'm in everyone's face, all the time.]
>
> At least that's my experience. In any case, I agree, >>it's a matter of
> the right tool for the right job.<< Thanks alot.
>
> ---Peter
>
>
>
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