Get married, divorce Leica?

[payasam]

Dante is getting married. He should live happily ever after.

 

[Roger Hicks]

We're friends, not lovers (current wife, not Roger Hicks and me!).

Oooh you flirt!

From Frances (to Dante):

"Cameras and wives are not the same sort of thing. You should never compare or weigh one against the other. Also: what would your wife sell in order to marry you (shoes, dolls, dresses...)? Would you think this reasonable? If so, are you sure you are suited to one another?

Also: a little hardship when you're first married is easier to bear than years of resentment. You'd be doing your wife no favours: you could end up holding it against her, and that won't do your marriage any good at all.

Or she might always feel guilty that you sold your Leica gear, even though you did it just because you loved her. That's the way I felt about Roger's first Land Rover -- and why our current Land Rover (bought 20 years later) was one I spotted. Selling the Leicas could shift the whole dynamic of your relationship, so it's probably not worth it."

Now you can see why I've been married 25 years and 48 weeks...

Cheers,

R.

 

[LeicaTom]

...decide that Stolichnaya is good enough for the in-laws

Do a Las Vegas style wedding and run off to Paris or Schaffhausen for the honeymoon..........buy her a Leica M6J and a case of Kodachrome, she`ll love you for it 🙂

Keep your Leica`s and still get Married.......

Congrats to the both of you

Tom

 

[JeffGreene]

Congratulations Dante! I would second other's advice here to keep the wedding as inexpensive as possible. Don't sell the Leica or any of your gear to fund it. You'll regret it, and eventually resent her. My bride and I have been together almost 35 years. Marriage has its ups and downs, but far more ups than downs. We have an understanding; she enjoys the output from my photography and she leaves me alone with respect to the gear, and I smile while she shares her home redecoration ideas. Mutual respect and tolerance is the key. I've always enjoyed your site and like other visitors there recognized your fiance from your lens shots. Your fiance is beautiful and I wish you both many years of happiness!

 

[kully]

🙂 Cheers for the advice Lawrence, but we've been we've been 'toghether' for nigh on 10 years.. if I had to send messages like that we'd be long parted.

Oh Kully, you seemed like such a smart guy at the photo meet but, believe me, this is not the right attitude! If you're not yet hitched and already booking brownie points, think about what things are going to be like in a year or two. My advice to anyone getting married is simple: do not compromise because the single, most destructive message you can send her is that she's going to be able to run the show by dishing out or withholding brownie points (or whatever). Just my two-p worth but spoken from experience.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and hope you'll make it to Barcelona!

 

[M. Valdemar]

"A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree; The more you beat them, the better they be."
- 16th Century English Proverb

"Kiss the hand you cannot sever."
—Old Tuareg Saying

 

[lawrence]

🙂 Cheers for the advice Lawrence, but we've been we've been 'toghether' for nigh on 10 years..

That's good to hear, Kully, and I wish you all the very best for the future 🙂

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

There are ten different kind of people : those who understand binary, and those who don't. Up to you.

He he. Some even have a unary mind: only their way!

 

[MikeL]

Congrats Dante. Tell everyone it's just a party, and the costs will drop in half.

 

[Dante_Stella]

Again, thanks for the nice notes - and for the perspectives. The various takes on this have been very interesting (and in some cases hilarious) to read, and I am beginning to wonder if I have developed gear deaccessioning syndrome (GDS).

Looking at the numbers again, the financial end of it is actually pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, apparently because only one or two of the lenses I targeted was worth more than a thousand dollars (and the fact that after January 1, some economies of scale will kick in that will more than compensate for the cost of the party). The other issue is not eliminating functionality only to have to reproduce it later. So it's looking like more and more of a disciplinary exercise - and probably not one that should be escalated into interpersonal conflict or resentment, as Roger says.

And having studied what is what, the only thing that is really duplicative is a Tri-Elmar (which duplicates four much less expensive lenses). So, roughly following the survey, I think I will eliminate that (11% by number of lenses; a much higher proportion by dollars) and keep the proceeds focused on photographic purposes (paper, film, scanner repairs). That fulfills the ritual bloodletting/hairshirting, serves a minor economic function, and preserves the zero sum nature of things. I think I will reserve judgment on the rest for now.

Regards,
Dante

P.S. Just as a side note, I'm not sitting on a ton of equipment of any type (a lot of what appears on my site is a collection of "exit interviews"). All of my M bodies and lenses fit in one small Pelican 1400 case (with the rigid padded dividers...). The rest, which takes up a Crumpler December Quarter bag, is not in question at all. That stuff is either used constantly, is impossible to duplicate in functionality at any reasonable cost, or was inherited.

 

[novum]

This seems pretty common here on RFF, especially with the mid-life crisis crowd.

I look forward to your photos of bums, cats, cups of coffee and/or glasses of beer next to cameras, and self portraits in the mirror.

Ouch. You have me scoped out to a T.