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Re: Hardware fetish (long), was Re: [OM] Jane Bown

Subject: Re: Hardware fetish (long), was Re: [OM] Jane Bown
From: Garth Wood <garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 20:22:33 -0700
At 11:22 PM 11/14/2000 +0000, Simon Evans scribed thusly:

[snip]

>Also, the more effort you put into something the more you'll get from it,
>whatever your level. You don't have to be talked about in photo magazines to
>be successful. I've tried to stop getting bothered that my prints won't ever
>look like those of Weston, Adams & a host of others. Yes, I want to learn
>more and produce better work (files full of dull trannies and negatives
>remind me often), but above all I want to be me. I just want to take
>photographs. Success to me is being happy with my images.

A welcome reminder.  One of the trannies I'm most pleased with came from a 
series of shoots over several days in and around the University of Alberta back 
in the mid-80s.  I shot five or six rolls of transparency: I kept only one lone 
image, which is in the Unofficial Olympus Web Photo Gallery.  All the others 
were long ago consigned to the garbage can.  They were *okay* -- but nothing I 
couldn't reproduce in a matter of moments if I really wanted to.  That one 
picture, though, was magic for me, and even if I wanted to reproduce it, it'll 
never quite happen -- the very subjects (various old trees) have since been cut 
down.

[snip]

>Re: Edward Weston turning down Ansel Adams' offer of a superior lens. Some
>of that may be pride, but I would put good money on the fact that he really
>was _happy_ with that inferior lens. This guy was obsessive about his
>photography, and if he thought he could get preferable results from a
>different lens he would have used it. AA sometimes comes over as being a bit
>too much of a technician for me, albeit a superb one. I'm not saying whether
>EW would today dig out battered SC lenses for his OM-1 or whatever he would
>use, but I reckon that, if he was happy with the battered lens on an OM-1 he
>certainly wouldn't spend too long comparing the lens tests to those of some
>Leitz wallet-eater or another brand.

Of *course* he was happy with it -- it was part and parcel of what was working 
for him!  I have no desire to *own* the more exotic Zuiko glass, but I 
certainly wouldn't mind being able to borrow a piece or two from time to time 
just to see what could be done with it.  (For that matter, I wouldn't mind 
trying some of the other manufacturers' glass... [HERESY!  ;-) ]).

>Perhaps I'm on the wrong mailing list...?

No, you're just being exposed to the innate "gadget-mania" of many of the 
denizens of the List, who tend to be reasonably technically literate and 
engaged.  Nothing wrong with that per se.  In fact, it's kinda fun.  I like the 
variation of interest on the List -- keeps my own interest level up.

Garth


 
"No, this is the Great Theatre of Life.  Admission is free, but the taxation is 
mortal.  You come when you can, and leave when you must.  The show is 
continuous.  Good-night."

   -- Robertson Davies
      1913 - 1995


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