[Leica] do i deserve to own this leica???

["Peter A. Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net>]

Kyle:  The short answer: YES!!!

I've gone through your sites thoroughly, so I'd seen many of the photos
before. But it was nice to see them put together as a portfolio.

One interesting thing emerges.  You put forth this "stage personna" as a
cynical, wise-assed GenX LeicaSlacker.  But you are also a really fine
portraitist.  Your "straight" close-in photos of people really do
"photograph their souls."  You combine this with an ability to
photograph gritty, wrenching and bizzare things most of us couldn't or
wouldn't.  And you've got a sense of humor, which is something most
"serious artistes" wouldn't know if it fell from the sky and flattened
them.

All these things are part of you.  Right now they seem separate, but
you've started to integrate them.  That's what developing a style is all
about.

I once read a quote to the effect that the trouble with the world is
that the stupid people are cocksure, but the insightful are full of
doubt.  I think having self-doubt is a sign that you want to grow.  So
keep taking pictures.  You certainly "deserve" to have a Leica as much
as anybody else on this list.  

This "am I any good?" angst is something we all go through.  Remember
(Theodore) Sturgeon's Law:  "Ninety percent of everything is crap." 
Even the best pros take a lot more pictures than they publish.  That's
why there are 36 pictures on a roll.  So don't use *your* ninety percent
as an excuse to beat up on yourself.  

That wonderful "photography as wife or girlfriend" analogy is apt.  The
fact that you are at the point where you need to make that choice says a
lot about how good you are.

As you say, keep pressing that shutter button, it'll become unstuck.

- --Peter

BTW, I just got a brochure from a Seattle theatre which uses your
"wiggly long exposure plus flash" technique for a shot of the audience
in the lobby.