[alt-photo] Re: AUUGGHH... Restarting and new decisions... Need advise.

[Judy Seigel]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2009, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

> Hey David,
>
> I'm intrigued with your questions and only wish I could seriously contemplate 
> whether to buy a Leica M9 or a medium format digital camera.
>
> I have a Canon 5D, which has been terrific for when I'm being paid to 
> photograph people.  It's fast, does the job well enough, and-- in the end-- 
> everybody seems satisfied and happy.  I recently rented the Canon 85mm 1.2 
> lens for a job, and it was a dream.  I really loved it and loved the results. 
> Honestly, it made me like the camera better-- which makes me think I just 
> haven't been using the right lens.
>
> For my own artwork, though, I rarely use that camera-- mainly, because-- in 
> the end-- I just don't like the format. I find myself cropping to square, or 
> something close to it, all the time.

I've been reading this thread, and (as it were) biting my tongue to not 
say what I'm thinking -- then I figured, oh hell, say it -- what will they 
do, fly out on their 85mm xp-1 and sneer at me? (Which I've been assured
is rarely fatal.)

Maybe it's just because I don't know a lot of what they're talking about, 
so I figure all the tergiversation (real word) about camera x or y to 
print d or f in format box or canoe, is useless, because.... it assumes 
digital (or whichever) prints aimed at utmost advanced printness of the 
moment, with a mandate for perfect whichever.  Does/will anyone next year 
or next decade give a damn?  They could sneer at today's format & every 
one of our digitons and its mother, no matter how perfectly "correct" our 
set-up as conceived & executed by (our/their/someone's current 
standards.... next year will probably be full of something else.

So permit me to suggest -- print the damn thing in gum: Then add 3 or 4 
coats and colors and washes and inventions and.... however it comes out: 
THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU INTENDED !  And defy the world to match the glory 
of your (fake) lens and magic (added) color. Because, as we know, there's 
always something new in technical perfection or advanced digitation or 
bicameron lens or aesthetic imperative of correctness to keep a 
photographer so preoccupied and distracted s/he forgets what transfixed 
him/her in the first place (whatever it was, I forget now).  Anyway, the 
next generation will probably sneer because we were so off the mark about 
telepathy.

(Though, now that you mention it, I had the perfect oatmeal box last week 
-- too bad I threw it out... but I'll definitely save the next one.)

J.