Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica Users in Amsterdam: Pictures
From: Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 14:15:29 -0700 (PDT)

Michael Gerard <geeman1066@earthlink.net> wrote:

> No arguments here.  That is the red light district and that is nice
> bokeh. I can see you've practiced the speech you delivered to your
> spouse regarding your presence in the red light district.  I'm not
> sure that words like "ambience," and phrases like "gritty urban
> realism" actually distract women very much from the argument at hand.

Michael, you may not believe this, but my wife was with me.  We were
between flights and had enough time to take the train into the city for a
couple of hours. I wanted to take the tour of Ann Frank's attic hideout.  
My wife, who grew up near Babi Yar, didn't want to be thinking about the
Holocaust on a ten-hour flight back to the west coast.  She and was more
interested in seeing the "District."  So that's what we did.

Because of the vigilant madam, I missed a great shot--a cute day care
center, the front window filled with stuffed animals and colorful plastic
blocks--located right next to one of the brothels.  Talk about a symbiotic
business relationship. . . 

Judging from other posts, I think people are taking my remarks about bokeh
a little too seriously.  It ain't bokeh--it's misfocused!  I didn't dare
look at my lens scale for fear that Madame Madam would see that I was
taking a picture, and I ended up focusing too close by feel.  

I posted the picture because I was amused at Sander's photo, which was
captioned "this is the red light district," but could have been taken
anywhere in Amsterdam.  My picture is terrible, but you can see where it
is.

If this were the Sixties, I would argue that the technical flaws enhance
the clandestine nature of the photo, and the artistic sense of peeking at
something forbidden.  But since it isnt, I won't.

- --Peter

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