bmattock
Veteran
Tim said:Now I'm scared at just how much I fit in......
I am a Mechanical Engineer.
I use RF cameras in part because I hate automation getting between me and teh picture, and in part because I love the craftsmanship and feel.
I shoot target with a .50 cal Pennsylvania flintlock rifle and a .36 cal Colt Navy cap and ball revolver because I enjoy the challenge and the history.
I drive a 1966 MGB, because it has a great feel, and because I can actually work on it.
I think I'll stop there....
tim
Tim,
Three words for you:
Vincent. Black. Shadow.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
bmattock
Veteran
Doug said:
I was hooked on fine mechanical watches the first time I idly opened the back of my grandfather's Elgin pocket watch. Oh, my! The gears, springs, and levers inside - all decorated with engravings that the owner would most likely never see - done in a fine style just because it was the right thing to do. Mechanical engineering as not just a discipline, but an actual art form.
I also realized that in this world of intangible information as wealth and power, this was a physical representation of the past, something that should be kept and appreciated.
When I hold my grandfather's pocket watch in my hand, I hold an appreciable fraction of a man's life who made it. Yes, the gears were cut by machine, but a human being sat down at a bench, assembled the pieces, and made it go with a skill that I cannot fathom, and then polished it, marked it with engravings and swirls and florishes, timed it, and set it in motion - I still carry that today - it still keeps good time. It was made in 1903. It has outlived my grandfather, my father, and my outlive me.
What I have I built, made, or created that will last longer than I will?
I am deeply appreciative of the unknown man's skill who made my grandfather's watch. It has led to an appreciation of all fine mechanical things.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
mac_wt
Cameras are like bunnies
I have some strong opinions about firearms/guns. Most have to do with moral issues with why they were invented and produced. I can intellectually understand the thing about 'fine mechanics', but my feelings tell me to stay far away from guns. I hope you don't mind.
Wim
Wim
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
No firearm. But i love to shoot with bows so i said "yes". Although i don't do it too often
No, it's not related to my origins. I don't like horseriding.
No, it's not related to my origins. I don't like horseriding.
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
Yeah, how's that for old mechanical things...a bow
T
Tim
Guest
bmattock said:
drooooooooooollllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!! YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
two problems - 1/ money (they are bloody expensive) 2/ the better half
tim
L
Laika
Guest
I'm a long time shooter, there isn't many types I haven't been into over the years (99.9% target shooting of some sort btw). A high school buddy and I joined a local pistol club when we were 14yrs old and are still members today (23yrs later ), my friend now makes his living making small arms projectiles and I for a few years was a gun dealer and a Glock armourer but gave it all up for a job that actually paid the bills. As has been mentioned by others I think the attraction of finely made firearms crosses over to classic cameras, it does for me anyway. But that said I know a lot of shooter but not many that are into photography but most can appreciate a nicely made classic camera.
), my friend now makes his living making small arms projectiles and I for a few years was a gun dealer and a Glock armourer but gave it all up for a job that actually paid the bills. As has been mentioned by others I think the attraction of finely made firearms crosses over to classic cameras, it does for me anyway. But that said I know a lot of shooter but not many that are into photography but most can appreciate a nicely made classic camera.
R
r-brian
Guest
Bill
I have nothing against hunting. In fact, I have a degree in Wildlife Management. I grew up hunting, ergo my degree. (I just love the word 'ergo'.) I've humanely harvested my share of small and large game, spring turkey hunting being my favorite. Even had some worthless bird dogs years ago when I lived in Virginia. Still own some classic guns, 22 cal.Winchester Model 69 (circa late 1940's), 22 cal. Mossberg Model 44M (circa late 1940's) and a 20 gauge Remington Model 670, which I've had since 1967.
Brian
I have nothing against hunting. In fact, I have a degree in Wildlife Management. I grew up hunting, ergo my degree. (I just love the word 'ergo'.) I've humanely harvested my share of small and large game, spring turkey hunting being my favorite. Even had some worthless bird dogs years ago when I lived in Virginia. Still own some classic guns, 22 cal.Winchester Model 69 (circa late 1940's), 22 cal. Mossberg Model 44M (circa late 1940's) and a 20 gauge Remington Model 670, which I've had since 1967.
Brian
taffer
void
Pherdinand said:Yeah, how's that for old mechanical things...a bow
<gamer mode=on>
OF COURSE THAT'S GREAT !
BUAHAHAHAHA...<gamer mode=off>
True that classic guns and classic cameras seem to have so many things in common. I pretty much prefer the second ones though, it doesn't hurt that much if I accidentally shoot my own foot
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bmattock
Veteran
r-brian said:
Brian,
Beg pardon, I misunderstood the basis of your statement regarding taking photos of game vs. shooting them with firearms. You were being literal - I sensed a message!
It's all those years of being a smoker - and a gun owner - I got used to being an 'oppressed minority' of sorts, facing disapproval at every turn...
Mea Culpa,
Bill Mattocks
S
sfaust
Guest
I never hunted, but owned a number of firearms over the years and still have some to this day. For me, it was all about appreciation of the mechanical aspects, and a personal challenge to take a very small object traveling at 2,000mph and put it dead center in small black circle at 100yards or longer.
I started with .22 and 30-06 in my early 20's, and have had something ever since. I got my first camera in my teens, and have always had a camera ever since. There seems to be a connection!
Hunting never appealed to me in the slightest. I just couldn't look a deer int he eye, then kill it. However, I understand how hunting is a part of mankind, and has been ever since, well, since however and whenever we got here on this planet.
There are no moral aspects of firearms with me. That lies squarely on those that use them inappropriately, and shouldn't be a burden on those that don't. I feel the same toward knifes, rope, hammers, autos, bricks, or any other object used inappropriately to harm others.
I currently have a Sig P229, Taurus .357, Colt AR-15, and a Colt Pocket 9. I used to be a police officer in my way past, and I think firearms just stayed with me on part because of all the training, practice, and just because...
Hey, thats funny. I just realized my signature line about never being is jail is incorrect. I was in jails all the time. I used to bring people there a lot!!! I guess I should change to read I never spend the night in jail!
I started with .22 and 30-06 in my early 20's, and have had something ever since. I got my first camera in my teens, and have always had a camera ever since. There seems to be a connection!
Hunting never appealed to me in the slightest. I just couldn't look a deer int he eye, then kill it. However, I understand how hunting is a part of mankind, and has been ever since, well, since however and whenever we got here on this planet.
There are no moral aspects of firearms with me. That lies squarely on those that use them inappropriately, and shouldn't be a burden on those that don't. I feel the same toward knifes, rope, hammers, autos, bricks, or any other object used inappropriately to harm others.
I currently have a Sig P229, Taurus .357, Colt AR-15, and a Colt Pocket 9. I used to be a police officer in my way past, and I think firearms just stayed with me on part because of all the training, practice, and just because...
Hey, thats funny. I just realized my signature line about never being is jail is incorrect. I was in jails all the time. I used to bring people there a lot!!!
I guess I should change to read I never spend the night in jail!
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Hey Stephen; cool: another Colt Pocket 9! Couldn't be all that many of those around, they were made so briefly. Like the Bessa-T? I too have a police connection in the past as a Reserve for 10 years... valuable experience.
I too have a police connection in the past as a Reserve for 10 years... valuable experience.
N
Nikon Bob
Guest
Bill
I hear you about the " oppressed minority of sorts" bit being in the same boat. Cheer up I think there is a movement to ban junk food so we will have lots of company.
Bob
I hear you about the " oppressed minority of sorts" bit being in the same boat. Cheer up I think there is a movement to ban junk food so we will have lots of company.
Bob
S
sfaust
Guest
Doug. I almost gave away the Pocket 9. Its a lousy shooter, but its packs in real small places
I spent about 12 years in law enforcement at various levels. Worked quite a few of the NE Patriots games in the Zoo (stadium). I got lured away by big money in networking back when the internet was still a dirt road. Best choice I ever made
I spent about 12 years in law enforcement at various levels. Worked quite a few of the NE Patriots games in the Zoo (stadium). I got lured away by big money in networking back when the internet was still a dirt road. Best choice I ever made
doubs43
Well-known
"cool: another Colt Pocket 9!"
I don't have a Colt Pocket 9 but I do have that Colt Woodsman I first fired in 1948. My father bought it new in 1927 and it still has the standard velocity main spring housing. It also has one of the nicest triggers you'll ever find on a pistol of it's type.... a factory hand-honed sear and hammer set installed shortly after being bought. Some day it will go to my son.
I don't have a Colt Pocket 9 but I do have that Colt Woodsman I first fired in 1948. My father bought it new in 1927 and it still has the standard velocity main spring housing. It also has one of the nicest triggers you'll ever find on a pistol of it's type.... a factory hand-honed sear and hammer set installed shortly after being bought. Some day it will go to my son.
rbiemer
Unabashed Amateur
Oh boy, this group keeps getting more interesting. I worked for a gunsmith in the 70's while I was finishing highschool. That was just as the patents on the Colt 1911 were expiring and lots of folks were building "clone guns" in an amazing variety of fit and finish. I loved that job for e few reasons. I got to learn the 1911 very well and I got paid pretty good money for a teenager. We put the guns together during the week and then on Saturdays would take them to one of the local gun clubs and test fire them. 3 or 4 magazines through each gun. Then at the end of the day the boss would unbox or unwrap something from his collection. That was a dream! I shot an astounding number of different pistols and revolvers that I will likely never own. And we were still on the clock!
Beside the cool factor and the money I loved that job for one other reason: I was a teenager and my parents hated that I worked for a gunsmith. I have long since gotten that out of my system, thank goodness!
About that same time I found my dad's old Argus C3 in it's bag and asked him to show me how to use it and haven't been withou a camera since.
One major difference between cameras and guns: Its easier (and legal) to make your own cameras. And while I have no problem watching while any one builds/uses their cameras-- if the gun is homemade then I'll be happy to hear the results some other time I just remembered I have anything else to do just now.
Rob
Almost forgot, I have shot my foot once at the beginning of almost every roll of film I'v ever loaded into my Olypus Stylus cameras(1st and now Epic version)to check flah and film advance.
Beside the cool factor and the money I loved that job for one other reason: I was a teenager and my parents hated that I worked for a gunsmith. I have long since gotten that out of my system, thank goodness!
About that same time I found my dad's old Argus C3 in it's bag and asked him to show me how to use it and haven't been withou a camera since.
One major difference between cameras and guns: Its easier (and legal) to make your own cameras. And while I have no problem watching while any one builds/uses their cameras-- if the gun is homemade then I'll be happy to hear the results some other time I just remembered I have anything else to do just now.
Rob
Almost forgot, I have shot my foot once at the beginning of almost every roll of film I'v ever loaded into my Olypus Stylus cameras(1st and now Epic version)to check flah and film advance.
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S
st3ph3nm
Guest
Doug said:
Please tell me you don't reload in the dark!
I'm a "no" vote here. I was kinda into guns a little as a kid - my brothers were in a re-enactment society that had (at the time) the only working horse-drawn artillery piece (a 4pdr. IIRC) in Australia. Very cool watching it getting run across the MCG - much to the groundsman's dismay! So they also had muzzle loaders (old Martinis and the like) and did a little hunting (but with more modern stuff - 30/30's and Lee Enfields). So guns don't bother me. Hunting for food doesn't bother me, either, much. I'm a vegetarian myself, but that's because I, myself, couldn't pull the trigger. So by my own personal code, it seems hypocritical to ask someone else to do it for me. Easier to just not eat them, and restrain myself to patting and photographing them.
I *do* believe that there's a strong link on the engineering viewpoint that connects the two hobbies - and as others have mentioned, old cars, planes boats & whathaveyou. I just had a customer buy an 1971 Ferrari, and I can't wait for him to bring it in and show me the SIX (count 'em!) side-draught Webers on it!
Cheers,
Steve
So, the last two times I went hunting...
I was in a field with my brother and father in a line, I was in the middle. We were going up a little hill, my brother was slightly ahead, and higher up than me to my left. I took a step, scared up a really big rabbit that darted forward to the left. It quickly was out of my shooting area, safety first, my brother was over there, but right in front of him, perfect shot. He was like Elmar Fudd fiddling with his gun and dropping his hat while I watched the bouncing white tail of the big bunny bound over the crest of the hill. He actually muttered, “What do I do now?"....
The last time, I think in the same area, I heard a rustling at my feet. I looked down, into a shrubby thing, and there stood a beautiful pheasant. Um, really, at my feet, he could have pecked my boots. So there I stood, gun in hand, bird at foot with a dilemma. You just don't blast the little sucker, it is unsporting, and there would be nothing left to eat!!! Choice two, kick the bugger to get him to fly. Well, that didn't seem right to me either. I hung out with him for a little while, we talked, and then I just moved on. He just poked around under the brush while I was there, and I really wished I had a camera...
I voted no. My father is a regularly unsuccessful hunter (now you know where I get it from) and avid shooter. He actually used to work for Winchester, late 60s early 70s. There are a couple guns in his collection that are mine for the taking, but I do not own one myself. I have not gone shooting since I was in college.
That being said, there is mechanical beauty in firearms, but they are really works of engineering simplicity. There are a number of major firearm manufactures in CT. I have had the opportunity to tour a number of them, and good fortune to count some as my customers. Marlin Firearms is a very well run clean shop, but it is just that, a big machine shop. I was told many times by the folks I dealt with there that what they do is simple and by no means high tech. I also had an opportunity to tour Colt's Firearms. Colt has been in bankruptcy and on the verge of disaster for probably 20 years. In my years of experience, theirs was the worst manufacturing facility I have ever seen, of any type. But, they still turn out a decent product. I guess my point is that their attraction my be the beauty of simplicity, like an M3, or whatever your nostalgic self enjoys.
I was in a field with my brother and father in a line, I was in the middle. We were going up a little hill, my brother was slightly ahead, and higher up than me to my left. I took a step, scared up a really big rabbit that darted forward to the left. It quickly was out of my shooting area, safety first, my brother was over there, but right in front of him, perfect shot. He was like Elmar Fudd fiddling with his gun and dropping his hat while I watched the bouncing white tail of the big bunny bound over the crest of the hill. He actually muttered, “What do I do now?"....
The last time, I think in the same area, I heard a rustling at my feet. I looked down, into a shrubby thing, and there stood a beautiful pheasant. Um, really, at my feet, he could have pecked my boots. So there I stood, gun in hand, bird at foot with a dilemma. You just don't blast the little sucker, it is unsporting, and there would be nothing left to eat!!! Choice two, kick the bugger to get him to fly. Well, that didn't seem right to me either. I hung out with him for a little while, we talked, and then I just moved on. He just poked around under the brush while I was there, and I really wished I had a camera...
I voted no. My father is a regularly unsuccessful hunter (now you know where I get it from) and avid shooter. He actually used to work for Winchester, late 60s early 70s. There are a couple guns in his collection that are mine for the taking, but I do not own one myself. I have not gone shooting since I was in college.
That being said, there is mechanical beauty in firearms, but they are really works of engineering simplicity. There are a number of major firearm manufactures in CT. I have had the opportunity to tour a number of them, and good fortune to count some as my customers. Marlin Firearms is a very well run clean shop, but it is just that, a big machine shop. I was told many times by the folks I dealt with there that what they do is simple and by no means high tech. I also had an opportunity to tour Colt's Firearms. Colt has been in bankruptcy and on the verge of disaster for probably 20 years. In my years of experience, theirs was the worst manufacturing facility I have ever seen, of any type. But, they still turn out a decent product. I guess my point is that their attraction my be the beauty of simplicity, like an M3, or whatever your nostalgic self enjoys.
dont45
Member
I'm rather shocked by this relationship between guns and photographers. I grew up in the midwest where a gun was as common, and as unthreatning as a baseball. I became interested in photography in the 8th grade, so it's been guns and cameras ever since. I think the comment about liking fine made machines may be right on for me. I just love the fine side-by-side double barrels. A few years ago I bought a new ou Beretta. It's nice, but I never shoot it. I go back to my 1905 English double.
I just bought an MP and shot my first couple of rolls of film. I'm not a leica nut, but I'll tell you that of every camera I've ever touched or used, this one is no comparison. It must be like a Rolex -- I never owned one, but I'm sure glad I sprung for the MP. When I think about the old English gun, and what some of you've said about the M3, I think I understand where you're comming from.
Anyway, what a great array of topics and contributions here. I never know what I'll find, but it's always interesting and often useful.
Thanks
Don Thompson
I just bought an MP and shot my first couple of rolls of film. I'm not a leica nut, but I'll tell you that of every camera I've ever touched or used, this one is no comparison. It must be like a Rolex -- I never owned one, but I'm sure glad I sprung for the MP. When I think about the old English gun, and what some of you've said about the M3, I think I understand where you're comming from.
Anyway, what a great array of topics and contributions here. I never know what I'll find, but it's always interesting and often useful.
Thanks
Don Thompson
R
Rob
Guest
I have a Ruger 10-22 and a Ruger P97 (.45) but rarely shoot them.
I just put holes in paper targets, never had a desire for hunting.
Never was into collecting guns, so thats all I have. Tried skeet
shooting recently for the first time, seemed pretty easy to hit them.
I just put holes in paper targets, never had a desire for hunting.
Never was into collecting guns, so thats all I have. Tried skeet
shooting recently for the first time, seemed pretty easy to hit them.