I think any good camera, including old Leicas, should be used. I hang out a
lot on Rangefinderforum.com because the community there is a lot like our
list here...like family. A lot of people there use SLRs, and OM stuff is
popular there. There are a LOT of guys there with big collections of Leicas
in closets that never see sunlight.
I've suggested on RFF, tongue in cheek, several times that the collectors
ought to send their extra cameras to real photographers...lol I can't
complain about those guys though. Last week, some of the guys there who knew
how poor I am got together, without me knowing it, and took up a collection
to help my son have a good Christmas.
I don't know if I've said here what's happened with my son and I in the last
few months. His mother, who had custody of him, is bipolar, and her
condition has been getting a lot worse. This summer, as I later learned, her
cats started talking to her and giving her orders. Telling her to paint all
over the furniture in her apartment, and telling her what clothes to wear.
In August, right before school started, she asked me to keep him one evening
so that she could go to work. Instead of going to her job, she trashed her
apartment and destroyed everything my son owned, and almost everything she
had too. She ended up being put in the state mental hospital by the courts,
and I was given custody of my son. He had nothing but a few pieces of
clothing and a few toys he had at my place. Everything else, including all
of his things he had had since early childhood, was gone. He's 11 years old.
I have not been able to find a job since coming back to Indiana from Santa
Fe. That didn't surprise me, as I had applied for HUNDREDS of jobs between
the time I graduated from university in 1999 and the time I left in early
2006, and I got only ONE job interview, and was not hired. That's why I left
Indiana and went to New Mexico. I had ended up homeless after my family,
ashamed that I had failed in life, threw me in the streets to live in the
old car my grandpa had given me. Grandpa was already suffering from the
Alzheimer's disease that finally took him last week, and so he was unable to
help me then.
When I came back, I had an income from a client in New Mexico who was
sending me a check every month to keep me in an apartment and fed. She has
stopped doing so because her business is nearly bankrupt due to the poor
economy. We survived on the student loans I am getting while I work on my
masters degree, an unfortunately common survival strategy for young educated
men here, because none of us can find work. Two of my former classmates are
women on welfare, despite having bachelor's degrees! Men cannot get such
help here, the law only allows it for single moms. So us guys go back to
school. Several of my friends are doing the same thing.
When my son came to live with me, I had to spend a large amount of my
student aid to replace his clothes and pay his expenses for going to school
(books, etc). I drive him to school every day because he goes to a special
gifted kids school in the public school system. It is a far better place
than the regular schools, but it is far from home and the school buses don't
serve the area we live. My money from school ran out over a month ago and we
have barely survived because we couldn't afford to eat much. Christmas was
out of the question. I told my son I'd get him something when I get my
student loans for next semester, in January. He was happy just to be living
with me and not with his mother, who scared him so much that he doesn't even
want to see her anymore. She is still locked in the mental hospital and we
don't know if she'll ever get out.
The guys on Rangefinder Forum took up a collection for us and had thought
they'd get together a couple hundred dollars so I could get Mack something
for Christmas. Instead, the members donated over $1400! They did it by
Paypalling money to one of the moderators, who then sent it to me with a
note about what they'd done!
It would be cool to have an OM-3Ti, but Christmas has come for us already.
My son will have a good holiday and the rest of the money will be used to
help pay our living expenses for next year. My own family doesn't care if I
live or die. It felt incredible to see such generosity from people who don't
even know me well.
--
Chris Crawford
Photography & Graphic Design
Fort Wayne, Indiana
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com My portfolio
http://blog.chriscrawfordphoto.com My latest work!
http://www.plumpatrin.com Something the world NEEDS.
On 12/22/08 4:52 PM, "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Chris Crawford wrote:
>
>> That's a shame. If I had a 3Ti, I'd use it, and carry it, like I do my 4T
>> bodies.
>
>
>
> Please, will somebody give Chris an unused 3Ti? Chris is our resident
> professional photographer-artist and I'd like to support his efforts in any
> way I can. I can only imagine what kind of photographs this cat could take
> with a camera that truly is the SLR that Leica failed to build.
>
> Mine is interchangeable with the 4T and E-1. At the moment the 4T has Delta
> 400, the 3Ti has PanF loaded. The OM-3Ti is just way to sweet of a camera to
> let lounge in the closet. If you want a collectable, get a LNIB Leica. But
> please let those OM-3Ti's go to a home where they are used.
>
> It's not that the OM-3Ti is any "better" than any other camera, but what it
> does is make YOU a better photographer. I didn't really think this was
> possible, but I believe the entire gestalt of photography changes when using
> certain types of cameras. I see where I approach photography entirely
> differently with the OM-3Ti than with other OM bodies. It's similar to using
> a 4x5 camera where the entire mindset is altered and you seek out
> opportunities to exploit the strengths of the system.
>
> The OM-4Ti is very much like the 3Ti, yet so very different. There is that
> little switch with an "Auto" position which draws us in like moths to a yard
> light. We know "Manual" is there, but the siren-song draws us into the
> rocks of auto-exposure.
>
> AG
--
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