[Leica] Lets start a Leica equipment discussion

[bquinn at sgi.com (Barney Quinn)]

I think that people "should" try to find their own voices, develop their own
styles, and cultivate their own vision so that it can be shared with other 
people.
A bit too much like new age babble, but important none the less.

If I understand your point it goes something like this. The Dvorak Cello 
Concerto (
actually there are two ) remains the Dvorak Cello Concerto no matter who 
made the
cello on which it is played. If the same cellist played it on a different 
cello the
tone and color might be different, but things might be changed at the level 
of
matters of taste, but not in any significant way. The work of an artist 
transcends
the hardware. Do I have it anything like correct? Because I agree with you. 
You can
spot a piece of chamber music by Brahms from a mile away, even if you aren't
familiar with the particular piece you are hearing, and it is nothing like
Beethoven's chamber music. I think that the same is true of the photographic
masters. I bet you could make a very accurate guess about who took a 
particular
high level image, even if you hadn't seen the image before. HCB then remains 
HCB no
matter what kind of camera he was using, and getting to the core of what his 
work
is all about isn't about hardware.

I have a question for the group which I will disguise as a question to you. 
What
does it mean to imitate an artist like HCB? How will you know that you have
succeeded in the endeavor to imitate him? I'll also offer an observation in 
the
hope that it might generate some comment. I think that there are many areas 
of
human endeavor ranging from photography to music to golf to god knows what 
which
involve hardware and where you can observe exactly the same pattern. To a 
beginner
the quality of the hardware used doesn't matter much. As you start to learn 
to play
the cello you have to struggle so hard just to learn to hold the cello and 
get the
bow to work that it makes no difference who made the equipment. You will 
sound
equally bad no matter what. But, equipment does make a difference to people 
in the
mid range. You do get to a point where a decent cello can help you grow and 
it can
make you sound better because it isn't placing obstacles in your path which 
you
need to overcome. I think that the upper stages equipment ceases to matter. 
I was
at a master class with Yo-Yo Ma. He picked up a twenty-five hundred dollar 
student
instrument so that he could demonstrate something. He sounded like he was 
playing
his strad. I am sure that you and Ted and Tina could take prize winning 
pictures
with a holga.

Past a point hardware is irrelevant.

Barney




"B. D. Colen" wrote:

> Hi, Barney - Of course I don't think that people shouldn't try. But try to
> be what, and try what?

--
Barney Quinn, Jr.
(301) 688-1982 (O)
(240) 535-3036 (C)
(877) 220-0981 (P)