Re: [Leica] Leica Guilt?

[Gerry Walden <gwpics@ntlworld.com>]

It came home to me on a trip to the Gambia. I was there on a 'holiday' 
with my wife, but I was also shooting stock for my travel library. The 
country is so poor it is unbelievable in our eyes. I became as friendly 
as one gets on a holiday with the beach bar man and we talked about 
money etc. I realised that in my camera bag I had equipment worth more 
than he would earn in THREE lifetimes. He worked a 12 hour day for 6 
days a week, and walked an hour each way to the job.

We can never equalise our lives a times like this but I vowed then that 
half of anything I sold those images for would go to a charity working 
in that area, and I also made sure that everyone I photographed or who 
worked with me benefited directly financially from the experience as 
well as I could. There was little more I could do at that time.

All I can say to Faneuil is that I let my camera do as much good as I 
can as I go through my working life. I often do work for charities at 
cost or even less, and where ever I travel in the third world I am sure 
to put as much money into the local economy as I possibly can.

Gerry
www.gwpics.com

faneuil wrote:
> So I have had an M7 for one year now.
> I love using it and have seen great improvement in my technique and results.
> But I have this creeping sense of guilt...
> Especially when I look at my camera with its 35 1.4 asph  and 24 asph and
> think:
> !@#%! Did I really spend nearly six thousand dollars on all that?
> Yes - I sold lots of equipment (and an antique telephone!) to fund it all -
> But the guilt grows.
> 
> I am sure to incite a lot of flaming - But just wondering if anyone else
> feels this way.
> 
> Just a Sunday morning pondering...
> 
> And then I think - "well hey - at least I didn't blow 100k on a Porsche.."
> E
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