The purpose of my buying another Leica was to have it on me 24/7. Something that is achievable with the M6 and Elmar-M 50mm. However, as I walk down the street, drive to the shore, go for a drink after work, take lunch in a downtown park, etc, etc, etc, I see a number of photos. Here's one here, here's one there, etc, but I am compelled to take, maybe, 1 in a 1000 that I see. How about others, how do they feel about this?

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002

Answers

Your self-restraint is called "experience", "taste", "judging the decisive moment"..... Incidentally, be careful when you eat or drink as food could wreak havoc with your M6.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), March 17, 2002.

I understand you totally Travis. I have nightmares about the "photo/s that got away". I try to bring my gear everywhere, but my fiance hates it at times. I guess that is life. Somethings should only be rememberred via our mind, ao else what is the point of having a memory. But it's nice to capture evryhting nice you see on film. Then others can also appreciate your experience.

-- Kristian (leicashot@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

Another thing- sometimes I feel extremly tired after a day out where I am seeing pictures I want to take. Why? Because when I look at things I always put a 35mm, 50mm and 85/90mm frame around it. So I see things in frames, rather than real motion. Sure it makes me appreciate the smaller and more intricate things in life, but it sure makes me tired, especially looking at things when travelling in a car.

-- Kristian (leicashot@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

Your restraint is to be commended. As you gain experience, you will start noticing more "compositions" and less "photo-spam." Keep it up!

-- Williham (wmitch3400@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

I agree with the post about food and drink. I was photographing a street fair last May. M4-P/50Elmar-M in one hand, bottle of Gatorade in other. Wasn't paying attention. Gatorade spilled on lens. $167.00 CLA. Lens gone 10 weeks (to Germany). Luckily, it missed the camera body, or that would have needed CLA, probably $250.

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

I see a lot of neat shots while driving on the elevated highway. Shots of the Mississippi river; industrial & architectural shots of St. Louis from a high camera angle. Obviously, I can't take them. I've thought of rigging a camera with a motor drive to shoot out the side window or even the windshield, at the touch of a remote button. It would be a way to capture some shots no else has done (I guess).

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), March 17, 2002.

For me, it's about 100 out of 2,500 pictures when I was in NYC last week. Not too bad there.

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

Good symptom, I think. Only that every too often I can't help but fire pictures that I don't think worth the film later on. At first sight they seemed to be interesting subjects. And most possibly they actually were. Only that I wasn't able to put on film what I first felt/saw.

Some say that that is the difference between a plain picture shooter and a photographer: being able to get consistent good results.

Still trying . . .

-Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), March 18, 2002.

Pros always have an assignment, amateurs may just happen on a picture. Idly sauntering along with a camera may occasionally turn up a good pic - serendipity's the word I think - but it does get obsessive and can annoy the hell out of your companions (are you listening to me or taking a picture?) An exception is if you're travelling, when all experiences are new. Otherwise a more focused approach - going somewhere for a purpose - is more likely to produce worthwhile pictures, in my experience anyway.

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), March 18, 2002.

I often miss shots and it can be very annoying. As I have a R4s it is not everywhere that I take it with me. Also it takes some time to get it ready, check the light, focus etc. I ran into several occasions last week in Istanbul that after I took the camera out, the moment was gone.

So I'm planning to buy a nice Hexar to carry always, I just need to find some money. :-)

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), March 18, 2002.

Hello Glenn, I think even HCB took his time off ... It is a good idea to take a camera along all time but as an alternative it can be a useful exercise to just look for a motif without taking a shot all the time. Bring along an (empty) slideframe and compose through it. You can even get used to different focal lengths that way by changing the distance between your eyes + the frame. Only if your are totally convinced this the shot of the day, take the photo.

Good shooting

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), March 18, 2002.

Hello Glenn-

In the current issue of LensWork there is a short essay by Frank Van Riper about being good consistently. As we all know, anyone can get a good shot from time to time, but to get them consistently? The essay does not address your original question specifically, but I think you might find it of interest.

-- jeff (debontekou@yahoo.com), March 18, 2002.

For every 16 'images' I see in my head I actually capture on film (81.4%(to date)is B/w unless I am shooting color,somtimes this can be c41b/w)5 working photographs.I use 35mm 75% of the time,50mm,28mm and 24mm being used the remaining 24% of the time(the final 1% is a 2 month experiment in using an M4-P as a pinhole camera).

So,1 in 1000 is not,in my mind,a good ratio.Most Pro's aim to get 1 usable neg per roll(that's 1 in 36).We all want to be the best,so,should we not aim for the work of a pro?

A famous British photographer by the name of Bavid Bailey had a rate of 1 to 100,000000.....or so it seemed.

-- Ben (benphilips@shangrala.com), March 18, 2002.

One thing I knoticed recently when reviewing my "Keepers" of recent vintage; A greater % of them were from 2 cameras out of my entire professional vault. Even though I use the other equipment more often than these 2, they accounted for over 60% of the total keepers, and vertually 90% of my best work. The 2 are M6 TTL with basically a 28/2 ASPH, 35/1.4 ASPH and 50/1.0. and the other is a Contax 645 with a spread of lenses, mostly used on manual focus. Of those two, the Leica holds the lead. Interesting huh?

-- Marc Williams (mwilliams111313MI@comcast.net), March 20, 2002.

I don't know. I think if you see a picture, you better take it. If you don't, you're not shooting enough. I believe it's that simple. I'm not sure self-restraint is a good trait for a photographer.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), March 21, 2002.

I was in Bangkok last week and actually made it to Wat Po at sunrise but did not take a single shot. I know film is cheap especially the prepaid Kodachrome 64 I had but the scene just did not click (no pun intended). If I had shot the roll they would have ended up in the trash. I have a camera on me only when I have a clear intent to photograph. It isn't unusual for me to go to some exotic places and come back with unexposed film. Well, we all have different ideas of what is exotic. But when I do shoot I tend to be very happy with two shots per roll and somewhat happy with two more and the rest basically re-affirms my photographically unrelated day job.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), March 21, 2002.