Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/26

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Subject: RE: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.
From: "Kit McChesney | acmefoto" <kitmc@acmefoto.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:30:41 -0700

Yes, knowing him, he probably is! ;-)

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of (SonC)
Sonny Carter
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 5:33 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.


Hah! He's probably on the LUG and going back through his papers and marking
you down right now!

S.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Kit McChesney | acmefoto" <kitmc@acmefoto.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 6:18 PM
Subject: RE: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.


> Rob--
>
> Well, I wish I could say that most of what I learned was as valuable as
what
> you learned, but most of what I had to do was busy-work. This man was
> obsessed with himself and even more impressed with himself, and it was
> drudgery working with him. He was also pretty verbally abusive (the kind
of
> person who feels that negative is the only kind of criticism worth dishing
> out) so it took a while to get over that! Thank goodness all my other art
> professors were kind and genuinely helpful artists!
>
> There's always a rotten apple in every barrel!
>
> Kit
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Rob Heyman
> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 4:31 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.
>
>
> Kit,
> I can identify with that. I began working in a photographic studio for a
> Dutch
> photographer who put me in the darkroom printing his negatives for
portrait
> clients. Day after long day of making slight variations in cropping to his
> already beautifully composed portraits from perfectly exposed negatives. I
> cursed every day printing in that darkroom, when all I ever really wanted
to
> do
> was get out into the studio, or anywhere else, and take pictures.
>
> It took me some years to realise that that was the greatest training I
could
> have received. Staring day after day at the printing easel taught me to
> identify
> a good composition. I transferred this subconsciously to the viewfinder
and
> found that I had learned to crop in the camera. To this day I rarely crop
an
> image except to change the proportions to, perhaps, a  panorama.
>
> Great lesson, learned hard.
>
> Rob
>
>
> Kit McChesney | acmefoto wrote:
>
> > Speaking of boxes with holes in them ... you're absolutely right! When I
> was
> > in college and majoring in photography, in what was a scandalously bad
> > program somewhere in the South, my professor, who was the tyrannical
> > director of the program, would not allow his students to use anything
BUT
> a
> > pinhole camera, one that we had to build from scratch from balsa wood,
> with
> > a precisely measured hole drilled into a small piece of sheet brass. Not
> > only that, but we had to create our own gray cards, gray scales, test
for
> > reciprocity failure, and a whole host of other arcane tasks that had
> already
> > been done by Kodak and god and goddess knows who else, and surely didn't
> > need to be done by a cast of poor, overworked undergrads who only wanted
> to
> > learn to take a good picture and learn to use a Good Camera. This horrid
> man
> > fancied himself as The Most Knowledgeable Authority on The Subject of
The
> > Pinhole Camera, and was one of the most unpleasant individuals I have
ever
> > met in my entire life. He did more to kill the creative spirit of droves
> of
> > enthusiastic young photographers than anyone could possibly have
imagined.
> > (I'm still in recovery).
> >
> > However, I did learn that a camera is indeed a box with a hole, and that
> you
> > can take some very interesting pictures with such a box.
> >
> > Makes working with an M a lovely and well-deserved reward for doing
> penance
> > in that dismal darkroom 25 years ago.
> >
> > Kit
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Beddoe,
> > Neil
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 10:03 AM
> > To: 'leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us'
> > Subject: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.
> >
> > My M6 is in a pretty sorry state with external bits falling off and the
> > superglue stuck to the chrome from when I glued the leather back down
and
> > used too much.  Strangely it takes pictures just as well as it did when
I
> > first bought it.  My lenses are still mint in every way as I wrap them
in
> > cotton wool and tuck them up in bed every night with a lullaby since
they
> > are the means by which light enters my camera and strikes the film and
as
> > such are sacred and wondrous objects.
> >
> > I hope all the black paint, titanium and other silly variants on the M
> > camera all fall under Mr Cassidy's bastard file and the people who buy
> them
> > realise that this WON'T AFFECT THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURES IN THE
> SLIGHTEST
> > AND THAT'S WHAT COUNTS.
> >
> > Neil
> >
>
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> --
> __________________________________
> Rob Heyman M.Photog
> 32 Binyara Street
> CHAPEL HILL   Qld   4069
> Ph   07 3878 3884  fax 07 3378 6639
> __________________________________
>
>
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Replies: Reply from Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> (Re: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.)