Hi fellow Leica friends,

Well, I am happy to inform that I'm decided on a very important event in my life. Next week I plan to propose to my princess, Ms. Sarah Smith down in Birmingham AL. She is rather sweet and kind and is open to my Leica collecting (plus a few Nikons for the touch and Russian stuff). I'm just grateful to settle down in my life at the rather old age of 25 finally! Plus no more time to waste on the single dating life and to spend my time shooting the Leicas.

For anyone who is interested, her website is at: http://dreambigdreams.homestead.com/DreamBigDreams.html . She is a current animator and computer graphics student and luckily enough, her dad is a professional photog. I'm just rather grateful to have her in my life. Of course, without having dating her, I would never considered photography as a hobby (as I used to be a classical pianist and turntablist before now) and ignored Leica without done the research.

I guess that people are wondering what I'm going to be bringing down there. Well, only the best for photographing her and the Leica is the only thing I plan to bring in some Domke or Lowepro bag. Thus here is a checklist of my stuff:

1) Leicaflex Standard Mark II 2) 35mm Elmarit-R 1 cam lens 3) 50mm Summicron-R 1 cam lens 4) 90mm Elmarit-R 1 cam lens 5) Leica R4 (hopefully will get it asap before I leave next Tuesday) 6) 50mm Summicron-R R cam lens 7) Leica Mini

There's the complete outfit for shooting my engagement. Anything missing? :) Of course, her dad shoots Pentax and Olympus, both of which I enjoy looking at. I'm a techie sort of guy and trying to enjoy my last week of being single :)

Any advice from the Leicaphile elders here? :) Any tips or stories bringing together Leicas and your marriage?

Leicafully, Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001

Answers

I'm very happy for you Alfie. I hope this means that you won't have so much time on your hands.

-- Dave Jenkins (djphoto@vol.com), November 14, 2001.

Hey Alfie,

Wow, a Southern Belle that does not mind your Leica collecting. You are a lucky man indeed. I wish you both much joy in your new life together.

Your Leica kit sounds pretty complete to me, although it would not hurt to add an M and some lenses just to round it out. Drop some hints. Christmas is just around the corner.

Regards Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@tds.net), November 14, 2001.

Look at it this way: my wife used to be jealous when I was off without her. Now that I'm in love with Leica, she's not so worried, except for all the money that costs us.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), November 14, 2001.

Speaking of M gear, I just added a Leica IIIf to my collection. Of course, I won't be receiving it quite yet until I get back although I need a pocketable fully manual Leica rangefinder (not the Mini plastic camera to be given to my fiancee later on). The IIIf isn't in the best condition aesthetically but the point is to have a beat-up Leica of which I don't have to worry about the finish. I don't have any wide-angle's quite yet but I think that I will add a Summitar and Summar later on next year when I can finish paying off my CC bills and horrible Yale shebang which I hate to think about and my parents : (... oh well, such is life...

So basically the main reason why I haven't supplicated Sarah for M stuff is that I hope that the screw mount Leicas are smaller than the M ones :) Test runs ain't bad!

Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

Alfie

Congratulations on your wedding! At the risk of stating the obvious - make sure you USE the cameras a bit before buying all the stuff. You are almost certain to be buying stuff that you will end up not wanting in the end unless you are tempered by actually using them. Collecting, of course, is something else, I appreciate. Good luck.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), November 14, 2001.

So she SAYS. I wouldn't count on it.

-- Wilhelm (bmitch@home.com), November 14, 2001.

Actually I try to rotate my use of all of the cameras which is a good thing. For example, I use the Leicaflex quite a bit at least 1 week per month and the Leica R4 as much as I can... embarrassingly enough the Leica Mini will be going to the princess and then the screwmount Leica IIIf will be going everywhere I go. I plan to use that as my official rangefinder camera (since the Canonet 19 is going to be on the shelf for collecting).

For me, I guess that the Leica are meant for use while the Nikons and Canons are going to be wonderful shelf material. A little museum for my kids someday :)

Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

Alfie:

Congratulations! Be sure to post some engagement pictures for us to see! :-)

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), November 14, 2001.

Will do :) I will have a whole portfolio of Leica pics of my beautiful princess :). She's a smiley smile gal with a tinge of cynic glances, the way that I would describe her :). Hopefully the Leica will do justice to her spiritual radiance :)

Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

Congratulations, Albert! Now you'll have an assitant to carry your bagful of Leicas when you go shooting! (JUST KIDDING!!!) :-)

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), November 14, 2001.

Many congrats! The only thought I have is that, as a young newlywed couple, it might pretty darn hard to justify a Leica purchase for quite some time. After all, even a used M6TTL could amount to first month's. last month's and security deposit for an apt. you might rent (here in the SF Bay Area it'd cover about a month's rent for a 2 br apt!).

The solution? BUY NOW! STOCK UP! She's gonna marry you for better or for worse, right? That means outstanding balances on your credit cards! Do it before it's too late! Really- you got less than a week left- get off your computer and start calling up Don Chatterton now!

;-)

On a slightly more serious note- it seems you're schlepping a load of eqpt to take a lot of pictures- why not leave that to her father, the pro? This is interesting- when does the photographer allow him(her)self be a photographic subject? In my hundreds of photos, I think I appear in them quite rarely.

-- Tse-Sung (tsesung@yahoo.com), November 14, 2001.

Actually her dad will be taking some engagement photos... of course, I enjoy being in my own photographs too of course and sadly enough, those are Nikon shots which I have but no Leica ones yet... I promised her that I would get the best engagement shots which is most important of course and that we would be getting German optics. I think that she would be pleased and she isn't too picky. I think that it's probably mostly out of conscience...

Of course, CC debt is going to do me in this year but I will be moving in a house soon so my rent is gone forever! :0 HUrraH! In 2 years I hope to get a used M6 TTL by then.

sincerely, Alfie :)

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

Hallo Albert,

why the hell didnīt you invite us?

This cold have the marriage with the most expensive camera gear ever! Certainly an occasion for an entry for the Guinness Book of Records.

Why didnīt you tell us before?This marriage is not a fake, or is it?

Nevertheless, all the best for you both and your LEICAs

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), November 14, 2001.

Actually I haven't set a date for the marriage yet but it will be probably next year during May 2002. Of course, it will be at Birmingham most likely and I will be sending out invitations for the reception.

The marriage will be great although I plan to cut back on acquiring Leica stuff next year until I get back all of the CC debt to 00.00 then I can pick up the M6 finally! :)

Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

Alfie, Tse-Sung is right. You are going to need some new lenses with 3 cams to work on both your Leicaflex and R4. Now is the time to run up the bill! You ought to have a good portrait length lens for Princess, say the 80mm or 100mm. Get both, you never know. maybe a wide angle or two. You really need something wider than your 35. The APO lenses aren't going to get any cheaper. This isn't the time to be conservative. This is an emergency.

Best wishes to you both, Alfie.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), November 14, 2001.

Congratulations Alfie. If you are unfamiliar with Birmingham, send me an e-mail and I can give you the names of some good restaurants (I might even give you the name of some of my favorite shooting spots).

-- Ron Buchanan (ronb@fusive.com), November 15, 2001.