Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT - National Geographic film usage
From: Henry Ting <henryting10@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:33:20 -0700 (PDT)

Ted, you're a lucky man....doing what you enjoy doing
in life. I reckon to be successful in any profession,
you have to enjoy it to get there.

- --- Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> wrote:
> bdcolen wrote:
> 
> >>But don't forget that they are often involved in
> assignments that
> > extend for months, and involve travel to difficult
> and distant places,
> > places where you can't easily return - or can't
> return at all - to get
> > the one shot you missed. <<<
> 
> Hi B.D.,
> That's a factor many photographers, amateurs in
> particular, do not think of
> when they get off on large amounts of film use,
> usually decrying the amount
> and, "if I shot that amount of film I too could be
> as good as etc etc...."
> Absolutely not true!
> 
> The difference is the experienced photojournalist
> "writes with their
> cameras" instead of plinking one or two frames here
> and there. Simply
> because the amateur or casual shooter has never done
> a major documentary on
> a location they'll not likely if ever return to ever
> again. And in some
> cases have never done an in-depth "self project" on
> where they live.
> 
> Since my beginning days I've never thought about the
> amount of film I shoot,
> period. As it's a non-issue.  The most important
> thing has always been and
> still is to this day ".... shoot everything that
> motivates you toward the
> success of the assignment...." Or project I'm
> working on!
> 
> Kit McChesney wrote:
> >>> Maybe this will make you feel better, but there
> is probably a greater
> > percentage of pictures that are "successful" than
> the few that are
> > published in any magazine or newspaper.<<<
> 
> Nearly always! That's why I said the 90% not used
> aren't throw a ways.
> 
> >>And it may be that some of those pictures are even
> "better" than
> > the ones that are published.<<<
> 
> Quite often that's the case no matter whom you are
> shooting for on large
> film use assignments.
> 
> > I would also venture to say that if it takes
> 20,000 shots per story,
> > someone is wasting lots of film, and maybe the
> photographers aren't that
> > good after all. <<<<,
> 
> Not so at all, simply because the "really good guys
> and gals" never relate
> to how much film, they relate to the motivating
> moment to the eye. Quite
> often it's the experience of shooting years that
> lets the photographer have
> a better eye than the inexperienced amateur.
> However, not always.
> 
> >>I'm sure if I took 20,000 shots (and I don't
> consider myself a half-bad
> > photographer) I could get five or six pictures, or
> even a dozen (most
> > National Geographic stories don't have much more
> than that) that would
> > pass muster for just about any publication!<<<
> 
> I suppose one could ask...." have you ever shot any
> major assignments for
> self or published?"
> Please take that not as a reflection on your ability
> as it's quite possible
> you maybe one of the, what I call... unsung heroes
> of the amateur
> photographer world. (If you are or were a
> professional please accept my
> apology.) Who in fact, if given a true opportunity
> may just be the hidden
> "worlds Greatest unknown photographer" because the
> situation to shoot a
> major shoot has never been offered. Therefore one
> remains a complete
> unknown.
> 
> > Kit (who at age 15 wrote a letter to the editor of
> National Geographic
> > asking "what do I have to do to become a National
> Geographic
> > photographer?" and who later found out that there
> were many other
> > equally or even more interesting things to do in
> the world!)<<<
> 
> Kit dear lady.... never! Nothing beats free roaming
> the world shooting all
> kinds of life situations day after day, year after
> year. Meeting new people,
> being involved in situations many only see on TV or
> in magazines. And my
> gosh the wonderful things one learns in real-time
> and not by reading a book
> or looking at the idiot box screen. Love it and wish
> I could live it over
> another ten times more! :-)
> 
> And the best part? Being paid to do what you love
> with great passion, with a
> never ending life of enjoyment, enjoying it with
> never a word of retiring.
> ;-) ;-) Me? I'm not retiring, that's quitting. When
> I go it's going to be
> right in the middle of shooting something wonderful
> with the last image
> being my best! ;-) Oh yeah and a Leica of whatever
> model clutched in my
> steely grip! :-)
> 
> Of course I suppose if you worked your life doing
> really what you wanted wit
> h great passion, then that's cool, good on you. As
> there are thousands in
> the cold cruel world doing a "job" they hate and
> would give their eye teeth
> to be a free wheeling do your own thing
> photojournalist .
> 
> Or as one guy said to me..." is that all you do for
> a living go around the
> world going click click with those little black
> cameras? Geesh what a
> racket, I'm going to get me one of those and live
> like that."
> Then I explained the reality of somethings in life
> and he got the message.
> Returned to fixing furnaces. :-) True story. :-)
> 
> Kit again wrote:
> >>Yes, imagine the practice that taking 43,000 shots
> will give you! (And the
> labor paying for all the film! That's a whole 'lot
> of dishes to wash!)<<<
> 
> Naw when yer working like that someone else is
> paying the film bill. :-)
> However, if it's perceived you're blowing film just
> for something to do
> without any kind of picture success rate......
> you'll be in very deep
> doo-doo big time and possibly be dropped as a
> shooter for whomever your
> client is. Then your final job may well be washing
> dishes! ;-)
> ted
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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