Longer reply to Marilyn?s question: Your question came just as I was evaluating what I really do like most about photography. From time to time, I think, we stray from the ?True Path? and are lost. Last week a friend and I were doing galleries and re-charging our creative batteries a bit. Outside the Detroit Institute of Art we tried to scare up something interesting to shoot. I had my new Sony V1 and he had a 35mm rangefinder. There was a great gnarly tree with a fellow in a straw hat seated beneath it drinking from a bottle in a paper sack. I tried a few shots without much enthusiasm before moving on to some workers struggling with levers and slings to move a heavy granite cylinder. I intuitively knew there was a picture there someplace but still there was no magic. Then my friend, who is usually sporting ten pounds of digital gear, exclaimed how nice it was to hear a real shutter and feel the snick of the winder on his Voightlander Bessa. I said ?Gimmy that thing! I hate this bleeping piece of bleep - can?t see the screen in the sun, it feels wrong in my hands, and it makes fruity little pretend camera noises!? Well, I was smitten by the Bessa and have ordered one. The utility value of digicams can?t be disputed but I am certain I could never love them. There are aesthetic and existential components to the process of photography that one must not ever surrender. Making each photograph involves the heart and mind being as one with the moment and the tools - (romantic enough for you?). Thanks for asking the question. AZ Build a Lookaround! The Lookaround Book, 2nd ed. NOW SHIPPING http://www.panoramacamera.us > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: photography > From: Marilyn <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: Wed, April 20, 2005 9:59 am > To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students > <photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, Mike. I appreciate it. > > Marilyn > ________________________________ > > Leave gentle fingerprints on the > soul of another for the angels to read. > > Proverb > __________________________________
