Hi guys, gd evening(here in Singapore).

I have been into photography when I was 13. I am 30 now.

Started with Minolta, Nikon. Jumped straight to rangefinders via Bessa R and then to Leica. Never used an AF camera since, except the T5 Yashica.

I have been enlarging photos I took that I liked and have been faithfully storing them in albums, aswell as the negs. Browsing through them as often as I have time. Places I have been, people I have met and LIGHTS I have captured.

A wonderful and addictive hobby, though expensive. But well worth all my spare time.

On the day of my passing, I plan to bring ALL the photos (maybe negs too) with me. I would be buried, not cremated and hence not burning the photos.

I plan to take my M3 and 50 cron with me.

I WILL CONTINUE TO SHOOT IN HEAVEN.

;)

-- Travis koh (polar@cyberdude.com), January 12, 2002

Answers

FYI: God shoots with an M3 and DR Summicron. (Excellent++ cond.)

-- Dennis Couvillion (couvilaw@aol.com), January 12, 2002.

I'm sure God will be glad to have a Leicaphile to chat with about his Leicas (RF, I should imagine) and the problem of unavailable darkness. You might pack some ND filters too - that could go down well.

-- Dr James Harper (drjh@btinternet.com), January 12, 2002.

Very good, Dr. James. Maybe pinholes would be more suitable for snapping in Heaven. The only problem is, nothing ever happens...

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 12, 2002.

The Devil though drives a Pontiac and shoots with a Topcon, and a whole lot o' stuff goes on down in Hell.

-- Dave Doyle (soilsouth@home.com), January 12, 2002.

It's not my photos I'm worried about, it's my M3. I cringe at the thought that some pragmatist will turn it into a beater.

-- Bud (budcook@attglobal.net), January 12, 2002.

Hi Travis:

Your question is joining a thought I had some times ago.

In my case, most of the things will disappear and it's better this way. Who cares about Portugal or France in 2002?

There are too many photos for the public eye to keep a memory so don't expect to be famous. May be your family will appreciate to have a memory, may be.

Today, the best photos I take are those sent on the List of my Club, the memory of the month, forgotten 3 weeks later. It paints a smile on the face of the people. Leica? Nah, just a Olympus Camedia, out of production Digital Camera.

Mee Leica R7 is used in an egocentric way, my pleasure to have sharp well balanced, colored slides. friends are surprised when I show them, very seldom to tell you.

No one cares and this is Ze Best!!! Yours in a Buddha way. Xavier

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), January 12, 2002.

Travis:

This continues a thread I started a month or so ago.

I doubt that God shoots with a Leica as he can not afford it.

I have decided to give some photos to my kids and if they want to keep them-good.

Photos of my city I will give to the archives and they will be glad to have them.

In many other ways I have learned to live in the NOW and enjoy it.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), January 12, 2002.

If god has any connection with the vatican at all, you can be sure he can afford a Leica.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 12, 2002.

How about the 2000th birthday special edition M6?

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), January 12, 2002.

that all depends on where im going...

-- grant (g4lamos@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

DOWN the toilet!

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 13, 2002.

I frequent estate sales most weekends when I'm stateside looking for that $5 Leica/accessory; the only thing so far has been a mint- Trinovid 6 X 24 for $40. Don't recognize the model? It was the first Trinovid of 1963; I checked with Leica, NJ.

It is a pity; most decendents don't want the old photographs. They throw them in a box and let people sift through them. Of course, no one else wants them either. A lot of that generation served in the wars and have photo's in military garb; photo's of their yound family; school photo's, etc. All stages of life, sad. I guess mine will go the same route. 8^{

-- Chris Chen (chrischen@msn.com), January 13, 2002.

I don't bother making hardcopies anymore. Everything is scanned into CD-ROM. I guess when I am dead hopefully not less than 35 years from now my grand children can look through them unless Microsoft had developed it own propriety format and render these dreaded Photoshop files unreadable!

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), January 13, 2002.

Ray

I think it is a waste of time putting anything digital onto any media and expect to be able to read it in 35 years time without updating every five years or so. Best to leave hard copies or negs or slides in my opinion. Digital technology is speeding up too sp what we could do ten years ago is not much of a guide for the future.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

I am shooting for future viewers, most of whom are at this moment not even glints in someone's eyes. It not that I am shy. I just have too much else going on to promote myself as a photographer. When shows and publications happen--great--but I am not pounding on doors on a daily basis. There is stuff from the Great Hanshin Earthquake and of day to day life in Japan that should interest future generations. I'm an archivist, as all photographers ultimately are.

Death is the mother of beauty, as Wallace Stevens says.

If there is a heaven and nothing happens there, you might be allowed to visit hell, a far more interesting place (if you have read your Dante). Better take along a Noctilux and Summilux and some fast film. And a motor or a Rapidwinder. Those winds in the upper circles.

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4-u.or.jp), January 14, 2002.