john_graham3

Very nice stuff Joop. I'm leaving on a cruise tomorrow and after seeing your shots and the other fellow (I forgot his name)with black and white travel shots I'm thinking of taking some of the C-41 b/w film with me that I've got in the fridge. I doubt I'll be able to pull off such nice shots never having used b/w for that kind of thing before but it will be an interesting experiment/challenge. Let my kids do the typical vacation snaps with their digis :*)

"They were of use with the LTM bodies holding the lens immobile, in the locked position while unscrewing the lens. They were carried over to the early M mount lenses--first two versions of the 50 Summicron and the first version of the 35 Summicron and the 35 Summaron."

 

For a short while I had the very first model 28 Elmarit and it had an infinity lock built into the finger scallop. AFAIK that lens was never made for LTM.

You can think I'm anyone you want Kevin, it's of no consequence to me. Or to anyone else so it would seem by the lack of support and encouragement. If you choose to trash the respect you had on this forum it's your call.

 

Al, I apologize for busting your balls. I was out of line.

I'm not the one acting like an authority on photography Al, you are. If you asked your clients to show you their photos before you deigned to give them credit for knowing a good photo from something that could've come off a security camera at the corner 7/11, then I'm not surprised you're a legend in your own mind living in 1966.

"in the 40's would a white male be free to sit in the back of the bus and get a shot like this."

 

Yes, but that's beside the point. You can tell by the way the vista window is starting to curve that this shot was taken forward of the middle, not in the back.

You can tell because Al's head isn't in the shot :*)

"Can anyone who has actually met Al tell me if his head is actually the size of a watermellon?"

 

Read through just a few of his 11,000+ posts and you'll have your answer :*)

Yep, lots of CONTENT if it needs a 1000-word essay to explain/justify it :*)

Some interesting shots. Not your typical travel photos. Got me to thinking about shooting some black and white again. BTW did you take <a href="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/4722149-md.jpg">this one</a> yourself or did the ostrich take it himself with a Bessa-L+15mm :*)

Why not just give it to me, then we'll be even :*)

Sounds like your Saturday night hasn't ended yet Pete :*)

Sorry about my part in that. I didn't realize I had a couple of Mark David Chapman's in my fan club :*)

"I can't stand the idea of buying a Leica via the net. I need to handle the item I will purchase."

 

I'm with you 100% in principle (another) John, but unfortunately these days going that route you might have to rack up quite a few frequent-flyer miles trying to find what you're after. With everyone having access to eBay as an avenue to sell their gear for substantially more than any dealer would offer, the pickins at stores are very slim and rather than being priced competitively with eBay, they're jacked way up to take advantage of the few of us who would rather not buy sight-unseen. I would still consider buying "via the net" in terms of expanding your search to legitimate retailers like KEH, Tamarkin and others, as these folks don't tend to over-rate their stuff, and because they buy cheap and get repairs at dealer rates they can afford to get things fixed before selling them, unlike eBay where there's usually little or no markup room for the average trader.

Funny, my doctor said something like that just last week. After he listened to my heart he lit up a cigarette and said "John," he said coughing, "your heartbeat sounds a little slow, I want you to stop that morning 5-mile run, and no exertion for the next six weeks. You look a little gaunt too John, so make sure you eat plenty of steak and have a good breakfast of three eggs every day." "How about a stress-test and an ultrasound?" I asked. "Naah, have you seen those machines? All plastic. And if the power goes out, they're paperweights!".

Yeah, I confess. Twenty years ago I flew out to L.A., got a fake driver license in the name of John Graham, got married, had three kids, got divorced, built a multi-million-dollar business and set up this whole fake life while simultaneously practicing dentistry in Miami Beach. I even became active with the SoCal gun-control lobby so nobody would suspect I'm really a crazed NRA supporter, and hid my juvenile fascination with genitalia so well that I was approved as a Big Brother. I did it all so one day twenty years later after they invented this thing called The Internet I could get on the Leica Forum and fool everyone. But one person, Kevin Mendenhall, was just too darn smart for me. Curses, foiled again!

 

BTW, as for marrying my office assistant, as with eBay, irregardless of how much if any of my bad experience was my own fault, I'm not in a hurry to go back down either of those roads :*)

"Which one was that Brad - Al's photos being awful or the existence of awsome photos on this forum. Seems to me john doesn't know his photographic, erm, backside from his photographic elbow."

 

You don't think there are awesome photos on this forum Stuart? How about Doug Herr's photos? How about Stuart Richardson's shots from Iceland? There are many others, though I can't be certain all of them are still active on the Leica forum. Not that anyone could blame them.

Content? Looks like vid caps off a security camera.

"Mr. Graham has been on photonet for all of four months, lists no bio information about himself, never posts any photographs, never offers any useful information, so pay attention to his advice...you'll become an expert at?" </p>

 

Add to the list of cards you shouldn't play is the "never offers any useful information" card. Unless you consider the same "beat the hell out of your gear or you aren't a real man", "digital is crap", and "back in 1962 a Leica cost $xxx" as useful information. Oh, I almost forgot the continual bullcrap about all the young girls you date. And I've mentioned a few times that I live in Los Angeles (I'm in the book and just about every high-end tax, bankruptcy and divorce lawyer in the area knows of me since I handle "discreetly" many forced liquidations for people in the entertainment industry). </p>

 

And as for you Mr. "Mendenhall" if you need to assert your superiority by proclaiming because I had a bad experience on eBay and decided not to go back for more I'm a wuss with a little penis, fine. Sticks and stones bro. As to you believing that I (and so it seems, everyone who challenges you) is not who he says he is, again, I really could give a hoot. In fact I'm glad you believe I'm someone else, so if and when you do go postal it'll be his house you show up at with an AK47 at 2AM and not mine :*)

"Some of us have had great results buying and sellin one Ebay." </p>

 

And some people have played Russian Roulette and not blown their heads off. </p>

 

If a tourist wanders into a bad neigborhood and gets the crap kicked out of him, he <i>could</i> come back for more sightseeing the next day wearing body armor and carrying an Uzi in each hand, but does that make him smart?

"Al keeps us sane"

 

Yeah, by giving us an exetreme counter example to juxtapose against ourselves. Aggrevating? Not really. Disgusting at most, pitiable at best.

"Again wonderful shots, AL !"

 

I'm speechless. What specifically about those fuzzy, blown-out, cellphone-quality snapshots do you count as "wonderful"? There are many people on this forum whose photos truly are awesome. Those are, excuse me, just awful.

If when you receive that "minty" M3 from an eBay seller with lots of positive feedback and find out it needs US$300-worth of repair to get it working right you might come to realize the M6 was the better buy. Of course you could always send the broken M3 back to the great, honest eBay seller. All you'll lose is the $50 you paid to have it shipped from the US and the $50 it cost you to ship it back to him. Wonderful place, eBay. Highly recommended :*).

A slam-dunk tort action and the defendant's bankrupt. Double bummer.

"My Visoflex II has the ground glass mounted in a slide out panel. Supposedly a clear glass with cross hairs was available also, and possibly other screens as well. I've never seen another one like mine."

 

It was called a Micro Visoflex. Surely it's listed in one of those old product catalogs you frequently quote from to look like an authority.

Leica announced some time ago (2 years maybe)they were discontinuing all slide projectors. This came quite a while after they discontinued the last of their enlargers. It will come as no surprise when they announce that film bodies will be available as pre-paid ala carte only, until they run out of parts and then that will be discontinued too. But all these items will be eternally available used, and probably Leica will (unlike other brands)keep on repairing them as long as parts hold out.