Strange thoughts...

Pherdinand

Pherdinand

the snow must go on
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Jul 26, 2004
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Last evening while browsing ebay again (after some time!), it came into my mind, that while I was a student back in my home country, or even before, at school, i would have been EXTREMELY happy with ANY of the cameras i own now. One and only one would have been enough. I remember myself staring at some much simpler cameras in the shops, wishing i'd have one.

And now i keep on buying them and looking for new ones.
What the hell am i really missing???, i wonder.
 
Pherdinand said:
Last evening while browsing ebay again (after some time!), it came into my mind, that while I was a student back in my home country, or even before, at school, i would have been EXTREMELY happy with ANY of the cameras i own now. One and only one would have been enough. I remember myself staring at some much simpler cameras in the shops, wishing i'd have one.

And now i keep on buying them and looking for new ones.
What the hell am i really missing???, i wonder.
Click to expand...

I know EXACTLY how you feel, Pherdi...

Long time ago, I wished I could have a Beirette - a DDR-made piece of ... hmmm.... well, you know...

But it was really a long time ago.

Nowadays, I can practically get whatever I like (almost), and it looks like I'm making up for those wishes of my youth. Owning a Leica was unimaginable - even a few years back :)
Now I have two.

It doesn't make me any happier (or younger), though.... :D

But, OTOH, it looks like I'm riding this GAS-horse to exhaustion. I keep thinking more and more that I should leave one or two representative and quality cameras of each group I have, and leave it at that. A Rolleiflex and a Yashica 124G, A Koni Omega with 90mm lens, two Leicas with lenses, and an AF Nikon with several lenses, and that's it.

...Yeah, wishful thinking ;)

But, as long as it makes me looking forward to the postman ringing the bell, those days of youth seem to come alive, at least for a little while...

Denis
 
You are now like that kid, but now with more cash. If you had one of those cameras as a kid you would probably have wanted the next one bigger/better/faster model. We are all kids at heart.
 
My question, as I wait for the postman, if you had one of those unobtainium in your youth would you have taken a different path? The crossroad approaches, camera in hand, a life in photography? or ...
 
Buddha said, "Life is desire and suffering."

It's human nature. The funny thing is, if enlightenment means giving away ALL my cameras, I don't want to be enlightened. (Can I give away some, and be semi-enlightened?)
 
Well, Frank, i agree 100% - my last camera "giveaway" made me terribly angry and sad! OK i'm cheating, it was not an intended giveaway.

Richard,- i guess not but one can never know what would have happened, IF.

Kids, indeed. Or maybe it's that i don't collect anything at the moment, and the "collecting caveman" reflex starts to work.
I still have my stamp collection somewhere but it doesn't fascinate me anymore.
Anyone interested in a trade? A Contax for eastern-european complete stamp series? :D
 
I have a fairly modest collection going(less than twenty--so far) and for a long time I kept telling my self"I'm not a collector I just NEED [insert any camera feature in this spot]" But a while back I decided to embrace my collectorness. I dont spend my grocery or rent $ on this obsession and I'm single so I needn't explain "what the heck is in that box this time" so it's pretty harmless.
The hard part is answering my family's question of why do you need that?My sister and my dad both think I should be putting all of this $ into my IRA acct but I'm already stashing quite a bit of my income there and sis though it was just crazy for her to not travel like she does and save the $ and my dad just muttered something about "damned kids" when I asked why he "needed" the latest John Deere garden tractor he bought. I figure it's my $ and you pick your poison and my nephew will get a pretty cool pile of cameras when I'm gone.
Actually, he has been hinting around for a "real" camera so I'm on a search for the appropriate bday gift in July.
Just my .02$ worth, Rob
 
Pherdinand said:
What the hell am i really missing???, i wonder.
Click to expand...

Pherdinand, I do not think your thoughts are strange, not at all. They are quite normal I think, at least for those of us who have not lost the overview :)

There is an old saying: Talk to a painter and he will talk about his paintings. Talk to a photographer and he will talk about (his) cameras.
More or less we are all concerned by this illness, some so bad that they are collectors only who never ever have shot a decent photo with all their $$$$$ gear, but even those who try to keep concentrated on photography have a very special relationship to that technical tool called camera. From what reason ever: mechanical precision, optical performance or an easy handling make you love this tool or not.

So it is normal that you think about new tools from time to time and sometimes a new tool brings new pleasure and it even can give you an creative push again, no question.

But if there is any compensation for the fact that we get old then it is that we learn that all the new gear does not make us really happy, it's all "nice-to-have" stuff only.

A good photo can make you happy, if you achieved a perfect visualization of your idea, if you jumped over your limits, if you reach a new level of craft and creativity,
if you look back some years and your photos tell you that you got much better meanwhile.

That's why I keep my equipment as simple as possible: 1 TLR 6X6, 2 RF with four primes, one SLR with a travel zoom, and a (good) P&S for every day. Basta.
Can't live with less possibilities, each camera has it's purpose.

I must admit there was often a lot of seducing stuff I thought about already but I could resist and after a while I've always been glad that I did not buy it. Let's hope this will stay as it is, I am not absolutely sure ;-)

Best,
Bertram
 
Bertram2 said:
There is an old saying: Talk to a painter and he will talk about his paintings. Talk to a photographer and he will talk about (his) cameras. <snip>
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Maybe, but this is different. Whilst the painters babble about their end results, we babble about the means to our end results.

Does the painter go on about the different brushes and paints? I've known some and I've never heard them. Do the dancers go on about their shoes and tights? Does the carpenter keep buying better hammers? Are we all crazy? I think we need help. :D
 
digitalox said:
Maybe, but this is different. Whilst the painters babble about their end results, we babble about the means to our end results.

Does the painter go on about the different brushes and paints? I've known some and I've never heard them. Do the dancers go on about their shoes and tights? Does the carpenter keep buying better hammers? Are we all crazy? I think we need help. :D
Click to expand...

Hmm, Scott, indeed I've read they do :)
 
I've worked with tradesman, and they all gather around when someone's got a new drill/saw etc. We all do like our toys :).

I was out birding the other day, and of course, the conversation invariably ended up about equipment sooner or later. It wasn't all we talked about, but it's inescapable.
 
Kin Lau said:
It wasn't all we talked about, but it's inescapable.
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Yes it is, agreed. More or less unavoidable. Nothing bad so far but the question is where do I set my limits for the importance of technical basics.

My personal experience is that in general the more someone talks about his tools the less good and interesting are his photos. One of the most pleasing qualities of this gallery is for me that I have not found one of the "all-talk-no-photo" type of amateur here.

There are other places in the www where you sometimes cannot believe
:confused: what ridiculous nonsense some of this kind produce with a $ 6000 combo.

Best,
Bertram
 
There are other places in the www where you sometimes cannot believe
what ridiculous nonsense some of this kind produce with a $ 6000 combo.

i know, it's kinda sad in a sad-funny sort of way.
dreadful photos of pets and children shot by those who seem to know very little about photography/light but have gear to die for.

i'm happy being a great shooter with just my crappy canons...;)

joe
 
backalley photo said:
i know, it's kinda sad in a sad-funny sort of way.
joe
Click to expand...

It's a phenomemnon which I detected first since I posted photos in web galleries.
I did not know it before. I mean there are people who spent a lot of their off time and a lot of their money on photography since quite a long time, often since decades, they watch and comment all kind of top photos in the web all day long, hundreds, thousands of them but it does not seem to have any impact on their own level of craft and art at all.
They buy expensive new lenses from time to time and post some new shots later, worse than ever.
It is grotesque somehow that they can deal especially with a machine based on visual perception for such a long time and at the end they shoot the same crap as they did it 10 years ago.
No evolution, no self training or education, no relation at all between thes own work and the sourrounding fellow photographers he is talking to all the time.

Eyes "wide shut" ? Sad in a funny-sad way indeed.

Wonder what keeps them shooting. The results can't be the driving force. Is it the "male jewelry " aspect only ? To me it seems to be a male phenomenon primariliy.

Best,
Bertram
 
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