Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/20

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Subject: Re: [Leica] adams the myth - Yeth?
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@neteze.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 08:08:37 -0800

At 10:00 AM 11/20/99 -0500, Summicron1@aol.com wrote:
>but i agree -- who cares what camera he used/promoted. Hell, the man had to
>make a living. He probably didn't care what brand of tool he used that much.

He actually did care very much for his equipment. Not brands in large 
format as for the quality of it. Though he did speak highly of some older 
Zeiss large format lenses he wished were still in production once. He said 
he always used the finest lenses he could get his hands on.

But you are right, he never went out with one sheet of film, and I suspect 
many of his mistakes were better than a lot of photographer's best efforts. 
His 35mm portrait of Alfred Stieglitz was one frame. But he had 35 others 
in case the moment lasted long enough to make more I'm sure.

He is quoted as saying "A dozen good negatives in a year is a good year." 
Let that sink in.

Gene Smith has a reputation for being a meticulous printer of anal 
retentive proportions, but his answer to that was a story he told about one 
time he had some 12 negatives to print for publication on deadline and he 
had something like 14 or 15 sheet of paper to do it. And he succeeded. 
That's a benefit of being a master of his craft.

When I used to print basketball or football pictures on deadline (that is, 
about 15 minutes to print 2 or 3 pictures dodging, burning, bleaching - the 
whole ball of wax - I always kept that story in mind. Gosh, I miss those 
nights in the darkroom. It was fun to meet the challenge! (Amazing exercise 
of memory making old pains less painful I'm sure).

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA

http://www.neteze.com/ewelch

The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances...a tiny relationship 
- - either a harmony or a disharmony - that creates a picture. -Ernst Haas, 
"More Joy of Photography"