[Leica] More comments: how do you use your images

[nathan.wajsman at planet.nl (nathan.wajsman@planet.nl)]

This has been a most interesting thread to follow. It started out
dealing with practicalities (how many do you print etc.) and has
expanded into a deeper discussion of why we take pictures.

So, here is my take on it.

I started taking pictures by coincidence, back in 1985. My wife
suggested that we buy a decent camera for family snaps. So, based on a
report in Consumer Reports (!), I bought a Pentax Super Program with a
50mm lens. And I liked it! During my teenage years, I had had several
very creative friends: musicians, painters and so on. I had tried to
learn to play several instruments, to no avail. But in photography I
found something that I was reasonably good at and which provided a
creative outlet. So I took some courses at a local community college (we
lived in Florida at the time), learned to work in the darkroom, and took
it from there. I still have several prints hanging in the house which I
made during the late 80s and early 90s, and they are quite nice. But as
I look at them today, they are really just pretty pictures for the most
part: landscapes from various trips, city scenes, and of course
important family photos.

But then in 1998, living in Belgium by then, I discovered Leica and the
LUG. At the same time, I also discovered the great street photography
tradition of HCB and others, but equally importantly, I saw some of the
great work produced by members of the list, like Ted, Tina, Johnny
Deadman (Oxford street) and others. My own style changed, not to emulate
the masters, but now I felt free to just photograph what I wanted, the
way I wanted. I find it hard to explain, it is easier to do it than to
write about it. Besides the artistic impetus, the LUG also provided with
many wonderful relationships which have now lasted up to 7 years. I hate
to sound corny, but joining the LUG and all it entails really did change
my life. The fact that I have since moved on to digital capture is
irrelevant to that.

Now, what do I do with the images? As you know, I post many of them on
my web sites. I also print a few, but not that many. Mostly when I want
to hang one in my house or my office, or give a print away as a gift.
Now that I have started my bicycle project, I think I will make a proper
portfolio of the best images--you will be enlisted to help me edit when
the time comes to put them up on the web ;-)

I think it is absolutely fabulous that I am able to look at pictures
from all over the world, in almost real time, and conversely receive
comments from people on several continents within hours of having posted
my PAWs. I have used the Internet since the 1980s, but I continue to be
amazed by this wonderful technology.

BTW--I have recently found a way to share images with family members who
do not have computers--using a piece of software called ProShow Gold, I
can make a very professional DVD (with soundtrack and all sorts of bells
and whistles, if desired) which anybody with a DVD player can view. I
have recently used this to send four slide shows totalling about 300
images to several family members in different countries, and people
simply love it.

Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, Netherlands
http://www.nathanfoto.com
http://www.fotosevilla.com
Print sales: http://www.photodeluge.com
Image licensing: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman