The coolest thing a collector could do...

[LCSmith]

I think maybe you are all missing my point -- no doubt because I am particularly poor communicator.

Let's be honest. There's nothing cool about collecting. I mean, it is cool for the collector (sort of) but that's really it.

The collector can keep, let's say, ten cameras (and lenses). But the other 700 are given to the school. They are all rangefinders (that's an essential part of the story).

The collector can continue making mediocre photography (in deference to David's astute harangue to arms), but also becomes a legend by founding a school.

 

[retinax]

I see you have misidentified me as some crochetty old bigotted maniac mired in the miasmal mist of greed or worse. No, it is only a dream we are discussing, friend. It is not a real thing. Imagine the story. Some very mediocre photographer surrounded by hundreds of beautiful cameras gives them away and founds a school of rangefinder photography. It need not be Leica (we are dreaming and when we dream we just let ourselves think; the "judgement" or "assessment" of the idea comes later -- that's what we are doing now!). Imagine the sheer liberation that person would feel. That person would be an instant legend.

No no I think I get your idea from your clarification post #6. Sorry I got hung up on the "Leica rangefinder photo school" name - if we don't have to call it that, I'm all for it 🙂.

 

[oftheherd]

For those type of ham fisted morons I have just one word, pinhole.
You can buy 8"X8" carboard cartons from the dollar store, 2 for $1.
Use 5X7 paper as a negative, tape it to one side of the box. Then place the .6 mm pinhole at the other end, that is a 200mm FL working at f333. Some 5X7 trays, HC-110 at 1:32 is a great cheap developer. A makeshift darkroom. Contact print for a positive. Image making at it's most basic.
Buy what you need, divide total $ by number of students, charge students that amount and add $10 per student on that amount.

If they want a film camera, well they can just go and buy their own. That will cause them to treat it with somewhat more respect.

Nice idea, but what of those people who choose to, or must use their equipment (personal or client furnished) in environments that are not conducive to slow, patient, protective use. I chose to use my own equipment for crime scene photos when my office didn't have cameras, and later, when I could get better photos because of the equipment I had in my personal property that my office didn't have. Luckily there usually isn't a lot going on at a crime scene so I could take my time, but accidents do happen. There were times during surveillance when that was less of an option.

Once I had to hang out the back of a Chinook helicopter's open ramp for photos of an entire village area. Didn't loose or damage anything but my self evaluated bravery. But ...

 

[giganova]

I love collectors! Without collectors, we would never see vintage cameras hitting the market (or popping up in estate sales) in brand new condition. A few months ago I bought an M4 BP that is essentially brand new and the collector was so nice to have it serviced before sending it to me. A 50 years old brand new camera! 😀

 

[David Hughes]

I still can't work out what they would do in this school. RF's are easy to focus, exposure is fairly easy these days; mostly a matter of learning when not to trust the thing and what does that leave?

Like I asked, what would they do on Tuesday?

Here's a contribution though:-

https://www.pbase.com/ericsorensen/image/52955921/original

Regards, David

 

[LCSmith]

I still can't work out what they would do in this school. RF's are easy to focus, exposure is fairly easy these days; mostly a matter of learning when not to trust the thing and what does that leave?

Like I asked, what would they do on Tuesday?

Here's a contribution though:-

https://www.pbase.com/ericsorensen/image/52955921/original

Regards, David

If what you say is true, that virtuosic RF photography is mere "exposure and focusing" then virtuosic musicianship is mere "notes and strings".

 

[Phil_F_NM]

I never called Kostya nor anyone else an idiot or a moron. I just happen to work in a field where I see kids and families with very low socio-economic status, most of which would love to partake in any creative endeavor but don't have the means to do so. A good camera with lens could be the equivalent of all the money a family has for a month. So in this very selective school who gets chosen to participate? Only the most talented? This has both class and racial backlash associated, at least here in the USA.
As for debating me, I don't post here that much recently, mostly due to work and school. I don't pick fights but I do like to put some perspective into the conversation occasionally.
Ok, y'all can now tell me and the rest of us how hard you had it back in the day, no shoes, snow, uphill both ways to and from school, working in a coal mine at age 4, whatever. I'm not going to play who has the worst trauma or who grew up in the hardest conditions. I'm privileged now and I know it. But I'm also sensitive to that fact and keep it in mind in my work and walking around Philadelphia with a camera.
Yeah, more photo schools, more arts in schools, that's fantastic however you do it.
Phil Forrest

 

[aizan]

What kind of "collectors" are we talking about? Amateur photographers with GAS? Or a real antiquarian? The latter are sorely underappreciated.

Back to the topic of starting a school for Leica photography, I would say the real goal should be to reduce the price of their products. But as a side project, sure, it would be cool to start a photography school.

 

[TenEleven]

Not just him on this thread and another ones.

In return to Leica poop and film wisdom.

The whole film Pentax thing and photo-school is bogus. I never learned simple thing with film. Only after getting digital DSLR I understood.
Film is waste, obstacle in learning. With DLSR I was able to learn ISO, shutter speed and aperture in real time and hundred times more effectively.
Even S16 is easy to learn on digital.

Rangefinder school has to be done after it. For those who are willing to understand why it is different.
Here is opening video for it:
https://youtu.be/Xumo7_JUeMo

Also, sorry about your bad film experience, I shot digital for a decade and it was all **** until I shot film and the pain and money expense taught me to actually see and not just spray around pictures wily nily.

 

[LCSmith]

I never called Kostya nor anyone else an idiot or a moron. I just happen to work in a field where I see kids and families with very low socio-economic status, most of which would love to partake in any creative endeavor but don't have the means to do so. A good camera with lens could be the equivalent of all the money a family has for a month. So in this very selective school who gets chosen to participate? Only the most talented? This has both class and racial backlash associated, at least here in the USA.
As for debating me, I don't post here that much recently, mostly due to work and school. I don't pick fights but I do like to put some perspective into the conversation occasionally.
Ok, y'all can now tell me and the rest of us how hard you had it back in the day, no shoes, snow, uphill both ways to and from school, working in a coal mine at age 4, whatever. I'm not going to play who has the worst trauma or who grew up in the hardest conditions. I'm privileged now and I know it. But I'm also sensitive to that fact and keep it in mind in my work and walking around Philadelphia with a camera.
Yeah, more photo schools, more arts in schools, that's fantastic however you do it.
Phil Forrest

We are only dreaming, friend. Maybe the dream has more to do with the collector than the school. Maybe the collector has the chance to be a legend, when before the collector was only a collector. What is your dream for a school?

 

[retinax]

I still can't work out what they would do in this school. RF's are easy to focus, exposure is fairly easy these days; mostly a matter of learning when not to trust the thing and what does that leave?

Like I asked, what would they do on Tuesday?

Here's a contribution though:-

https://www.pbase.com/ericsorensen/image/52955921/original

Regards, David

I think/hope the OP pictures not only the specifics of rangefinders being taught, but a photo school which lets students use Leicas a collector donates. Hopefully not exclusively as the phrase "school for leica rangefinder photography" in the op suggest, that would be rather absurd (would using an SLR get one expelled?). But making them available to people who otherwise don't have access to them would make sense.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Also, sorry about your bad film experience, I shot digital for a decade and it was all **** until I shot film and the pain and money expense taught me to actually see and not just spray around pictures wily nily.

Sorry, but I'm not biased against of Leica as you are. Photography where I have seen 99.99% of dross is called LF 🙂. And their gear prices aren't cheap either.

You might slightly misinterpreting my film experience. Do you read posts here with some degree of attention? 🙂 Ever clicked at links in the sig? 😎
My film pictures are known here and where by now. My darkroom prints are in different countries and continents. I was just watching new video from Inspired Eye today where my film taken pictures were reviewed, noted. Some with film Leica, some with Smena, some with Bessa. I might be only one film photog in this IE magazine, video issue. 🙂

It was learning exposure, where film was nothing good for me. Nor I'm taking many exposures on digital.

________________________________________________________

Who is next to poop on Leica and its users here?

 

[zuiko85]

Nice idea, but what of those people who choose to, or must use their equipment (personal or client furnished) in environments that are not conducive to slow, patient, protective use. I chose to use my own equipment for crime scene photos when my office didn't have cameras, and later, when I could get better photos because of the equipment I had in my personal property that my office didn't have. Luckily there usually isn't a lot going on at a crime scene so I could take my time, but accidents do happen. There were times during surveillance when that was less of an option.

Once I had to hang out the back of a Chinook helicopter's open ramp for photos of an entire village area. Didn't loose or damage anything but my self evaluated bravery. But ...

I know! Maybe one of those archeological dig sites where the bones indicate a crime scene. Been laying there for 1000 years anyway, another 5 or 6 minutes won’t make much difference.
Actually my first post was mostly just a but of fun, not serious.
In do like pinhole though, about as basic as you can get.

 

[LCSmith]

But making them available to people who otherwise don't have access to them would make sense.

Yes, thank you. This is the spirit of the proposition.

 

[GarageBoy]

Also, sorry about your bad film experience, I shot digital for a decade and it was all **** until I shot film and the pain and money expense taught me to actually see and not just spray around pictures wily nily.

Or you could have applied the same discipline with digital

I've gone through rolls of film that went in the trash as soon as I got the box of slides back

I like to teach with digital - you remember what you did and can adjust right away. You don't have to wait until you get your photos developed, and wonder "hmm what would have happened if I turned up the flash one stop, would stopping down the lens one or two stops give me the extra dof I need?, Can I hand hold 1/15s)

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

My lovely local camera shop has days where it lends out cameras with a roll of film to mostly students for them then to see the developed results (for a small fee and the cost of the film). It's very popular.

But not his Leicas!

 

[leicapixie]

Surely not Leica M's film..!
These are reserved for "real photographers" who never actually expose film thru them..how crass.
The unwashed, ill educated are only worthy of old Pentax Spotmatics or newer K-1000.
First don't supply straps, as dropping cameras like phones is standard.

On a serious note my Pentaxes have never been serviced, Nikons somewhat and Leica have helped repair folk thru their lives..😀

 

[Rayt]

Yes, yes. All very true.

But let's say it's a collector who is a particularly poor photographer. Let's also say (we are dreaming) that the collector is also an emotionally secure and self-aware person, and they know their photographs are poor. What a feeling of liberation it would be to unburden oneself of such a weight of mediocrity and failure, only to become a legend and a hero!

What a horrible statement. You seem to have issues with some people.

 

[David Hughes]

I never called Kostya nor anyone else an idiot or a moron. I just happen to work in a field where I see kids and families with very low socio-economic status, most of which would love to partake in any creative endeavor but don't have the means to do so. A good camera with lens could be the equivalent of all the money a family has for a month. So in this very selective school who gets chosen to participate? Only the most talented? This has both class and racial backlash associated, at least here in the USA.
As for debating me, I don't post here that much recently, mostly due to work and school. I don't pick fights but I do like to put some perspective into the conversation occasionally.
Ok, y'all can now tell me and the rest of us how hard you had it back in the day, no shoes, snow, uphill both ways to and from school, working in a coal mine at age 4, whatever. I'm not going to play who has the worst trauma or who grew up in the hardest conditions. I'm privileged now and I know it. But I'm also sensitive to that fact and keep it in mind in my work and walking around Philadelphia with a camera.
Yeah, more photo schools, more arts in schools, that's fantastic however you do it.
Phil Forrest

Well, you could do what this old git does; after checking I give a lot to charity shops. That's film and digital, btw, because I like them to go around and be used and there's too much hassle to selling a lot of unappreciated (say 3, 5 or 8 megapixel) cameras. The only problem is finding some way of keeping the instruction manual with the camera...


Regards, David

 

[David Hughes]

If what you say is true, that virtuosic RF photography is mere "exposure and focusing" then virtuosic musicianship is mere "notes and strings".

Hmmm, what musician can play 36 or 37 notes one after the other over (say) a couple of days and then choose the best one and get acclaimed for it as photographers do?


Regards, David