What Has Happened Here? Or, Comments on this Newsgroup...

Greetings to the list,

It has some time since I have read or participated on this list...
for a lot of reasons. Most of these reasons became clear again when I
and others answered a well-intentioned question; after which the
thread soon became a lengthy derogatory flame-fest: armchair
specmanship, discussions about equipment minutiae, and personal
attacks by equally ignorant individuals who spend more time arguing
than actually making pictures.

Some time ago, John (attributed as books4321 at hotmail dot com)
posted a very thought-provoking piece that I'm going to repost here.

It is well worth reading.

It may offend most of the readers of the list, but it is my hope
that some - maybe just a few - will be enlightened; for those the
resulting flaming that I will undoubtedly receive will be worth it.

For the rest of you, stop bickering: If you don't already have one,
get a decent camera; then go and learn how to use it well to express
your creative vision.

And, if you need to rant about things that don't relate to
photography, then by all means do so - but please find another
newsgroup to do that in.

Meanwhile, I'm off to make some photographs - not sit in front of a
computer. May I humbly suggest that you do the same!

Regards,
David

QotD:
"Never ask a person who collects cameras if you can see his
photographs."
- Brooks Jensen

******

Esse Quam Videri / "To be rather than to seem"
By John (books4321 at hotmail dot com),
2002-12-13 in rec.photo.technique.misc

A flash in my head yesterday brought this latin motto. I realized the
I seem to be a photographer. I read newsgroups, study equipment
reviews, compare prices at B&H and Adorama, think about buying a new
_______ and research it to the nth degree, can explain the difference
between incident and ambient light metering in 10 seconds, that print
film has more latitude than chrome, wonder if it would be interesting
to own a MF camera in addition to my FE, n80, Coolpix 995, and SX-70,
I could buy a MF too and then I could scan off of a flatbed and then I
could spend months deciding which flatbed to buy, or what if I had a
20mm?

About three months ago, I quit reading the photography magazines that
are vendor ads for the last 50% of the issue. I started reading mags
like Lensworks. Mostly pictures and interviews. Usually you don't even
know what type of equipment is used unless every images is square and
you guess it is a 6x6. I realized that I have spent 98% of my time as
a seeming photographer, NOT taking pictures. Instead I am thinking
about equipment upgrades, etc. I had an Ansco tlr, Miranda slr, K1000,
Canon FTb, Minolta X-700, and others. Each bought because it would
make me a better photographer, but the time spent was in finding the
next best camera system, rather than taking and processing more
images. Today I was thinking about an F4. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I realized lately that those working in photography, those with fire
in their bellies, don't read much because they are too busy doing
something. This is true generally. New year's resolution: to be. To
read when I have question, but then to return to being. Thanks for the
place for my angst and its resolution. I am unsubbing and going out to
shoot some film/pixels. If you have the same problem, you can come
too.

By NOT photographying I avoid the likelihood that my photos might be
crap or at least start out as crap and having to work to figure out if
I can make interesting images or not. There is little risk in
equipment hounding, other than the scary sales people in NYC. Off to
confront my demons and come back with some images. Thanks for the
therapy.

******

 

Bless you.