[Leica] slowing down the process does not make for better pictures

[Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu>]

re camera buying:

>I think using a screw mount Leica can not only be
>cheaper than getting a Bessa, it also gives you a real
>education in Photography.  You need to think about
>almost every step of the process and the slowing down
>helps you make better pictures.  [snip]

nooooooooooooooooo! if you want slow shooting shell out $200 and buy a 4x5
and you can spend all day realizing you left the dark slide in, or left the
dark slide out, or forgot to cock the shutter, or you can't remember if you
loaded the holders or not, set the horizontal and vertical tilt, monkey with
a 20 pound tripod, oops, not level, (twist twist, twist twist) still not
level, dang (twist twist, twist twist).

this is one thing i hear again and again on this list, but i still don't
understand and think is a lot of hooey, to be honest, that bugs are features
and that if you have to look through one finder to focus and another one to
frame and it takes two minutes to rewind and two minutes to load and you
have to pull a luna pro out of your pocket to meter and the shutter speeds
are on two seperate dials and there's no hot shoe that the combination of
those quirks in some cabbalistic camera gestalt, result in "making better
pictures" because it keeps you from taking a photo faster. the whole idea of
the 35mm camera in the first place was to allow photographers to take photos
FASTER and the whole evolution of the leica camera line (even the lamentably
slowly evolved M) has to been to facilitate taking photos FASTER. "need to
think about every step in the process" i think also is some strange
thinking. it's like saying "having a mechanical watch is better than having
a quartz watch because you have to remember to wind it and take it into the
jewelers once a month to have it set because it gains and loses and that
improves your memory and makes you really understand time."

if you want a "real education in photography" take some classes with eddie
adams or eugene richards or joe mcnalley, or mary ellen mark, or the great
photographer of your choice. more likely than not, they'll stick a canon
rebel in your hands and send you out into the world to think about the end
product and not the process by which the light makes it to the film.

feel free to discount me, i'm just ranting.

kc

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html