How to deal with photography deniers?

[Theo Sulphate]

Just last week I was out with my whole plate camera. Guy comes up to me and wants me to come on his local TV station for an interview...

 

[BrianShaw]

View attachment 220320

Whatever happened to cursive? All of that Palmer Method for naught.

 

[BradS]

Whatever happened to cursive? All of that Palmer Method for naught.

Palmer method....I had to look that one up. Thanks. I learned something.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've been asked every question imaginable. The best one was when a kid asked me if that was an old TV. I get people all the time talking to me while I'm taking photos with the LF camera. They almost always engage me when I'm busy though... so I say, sorry, but I'm working. Or they'll engage me when I'm counting the exposure... If someone is around when I'm not busy, or I'm done, I let them have a look under the dark cloth. Is your camera upside down? It's not their fault. They don't understand.

 

[Helios 1984]

I've been asked every question imaginable. The best one was when a kid asked me if that was an old TV. I get people all the time talking to me while I'm taking photos with the LF camera. They almost always engage me when I'm busy though... so I say, sorry, but I'm working. Or they'll engage me when I'm counting the exposure... If someone is around when I'm not busy, or I'm done, I let them have a look under the dark cloth. Is your camera upside down? It's not their fault. They don't understand.

Somewhere, there is a kid who'll grow up thinking that my Topcon rangefinder was a lamp because his mom told him so.

 

[AgX]

Don't blame that mum!
She was right:
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...419500/1546695853243/IMG_0378.jpg?format=750w

 

[Black Dog]

I've encountered a few people who look down their noses at film users, but many more, especially recently who seem genuinely interested and even ask me where they can get film for their old Rollei or whatever. Haven't had an ITAH moment yet though. Ah well.

 

[papagene]

A couple of weeks ago I was out on the Brown Mtn Trail in Tucson Mtn Park talking to a nice couple about my Bronica S2a, film and printing when a man approached with a big smile and said "Ah, a Bronica... from the distance I thought it was a Hassy. But as I got closer I see it's an old Bronica, good camera."
I have had very few negative experiences out in the field with my older film cameras. Can't say the same when in photo gatherings when talking to digi photographers. They all seem to want to convert me.

 

[jim10219]

The world is full of people who like to argue for little to no reason. Some people are just cranky and anyone who isn't a reflection of themselves upsets them for exposing their own insecurities. When I was younger, I'd often engage with these people. But I've learned you can't win an argument with people like this. You might be able to out smart them, but they'll out stupid you. And most of the time in an unregulated public argument, the stupidest person wins because your logic won't have any effect on them, but their anger and frustration will eventually effect you.

 

[tbransco]

The world is full of people who like to argue for little to no reason. Some people are just cranky and anyone who isn't a reflection of themselves upsets them for exposing their own insecurities. When I was younger, I'd often engage with these people. But I've learned you can't win an argument with people like this. You might be able to out smart them, but they'll out stupid you. And most of the time in an unregulated public argument, the stupidest person wins because your logic won't have any effect on them, but their anger and frustration will eventually effect you.

One of the most sensible things I've read today. There is, indeed, no cure for stupid.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

The world is full of people who like to argue for little to no reason. ...

No, it isn't.

 

[JensH]

I don't know, but what I do know is that the only REAL painting is acrylic.

Jo, go away with your old style Mussini stuff... takes months to dry. ;-)

 

[blockend]

I assume people think I'm another smug aging hipster, and a film camera is my way of showing contempt for the straights. If anyone asked I'd tell them I'm a compulsive type and unable to move on.

 

[Kino]

This weekend I walked around Cincinnati, Ohio with an Agfa Ambi Silette and was largely met with disinterest, but one man did approach me with a DSLR. He only grinned, pointed at the camera and said, "doing it Old School!" before he walked-on.

He wasn't derogatory and seemed genuinely happy to see someone shooting film.

 

[blockend]

He wasn't derogatory and seemed genuinely happy to see someone shooting film.

Like other interest groups, from the inside photographers think other people obsess about their personal choices. This is rarely the case. A lot of the time people really don't care, or are just trying to make conversation. I recall seeing older photographers carrying folding cameras at the height of the late 1970s SLR boom, and wondering why they kept such obviously out of date equipment, but I was young and stupid back then.

Photojournalists are conformist in their gear choices nowadays. It wasn't always the case. Look at newsreels of a car show or catwalk from the 1960s, and you can spot 35mm rangefinders, SLRs, TLR's, large format press cameras, and 120 folding rangefinders. All used by professionals.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

My friend from the 55+ community I live in told me he threw away his Hassie because no one wanted it.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

...
Photojournalists are conformist in their gear choices nowadays. It wasn't always the case. Look at newsreels of a car show or catwalk from the 1960s, and you can spot 35mm rangefinders, SLRs, TLR's, large format press cameras, and 120 folding rangefinders. All used by professionals.

In a documentary about the JFK assassination I saw last year, old TV news video showed press photographers huddled in a hallway with numerous SLRs, TLRs (held overhead!), rangefinders, folders, press cameras, and even small ciné cameras.

My friend from the 55+ community I live in told me he threw away his Hassie because no one wanted it.

That may be more common than we'd like to think, as geezers die off and their wives or children have no interest or idea of the value of such equipment.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

That may be more common than we'd like to think, as geezers die off and their wives or children have no interest or idea of the value of such equipment.

But there is a flip side to this. Nice cameras, especially Leicas, emerge from safe deposit boxes or home safes, where the old gent kept his "investments." Consolidaters or estate buyers then do their best to sell them, so at least they are back in circulation .

Back to the original post. Oz, where are going with this, or what are you trying to learn? Too many cameras, sell them. Need some item or lenses ,buy them. Just do it.

 

[blockend]

I gave away a complete darkroom, camera and lenses to a charity shop. It was around 2004 and I hadn't made a print in three years. My wife pestered me to get rid of that old rubbish cluttering up one of the cupboards, and after a year I relented. Fortunately, when I realised the error of my ways in 2009, prices were still depressed and I was able to replace everything for a song. And more.

I'm not an instinctive hoarder (honest!), but in areas other than photography I've seen deeply unfashionable items go from worthless to worth a fortune in just a few years. Particularly anything that reminds the old and comfortable of their youth. Today's commonplace is tomorrow's exotic, and that applies to the subject as well as the camera.

 

[removed account4]

That may be more common than we'd like to think, as geezers die off and their wives or children have no interest or idea of the value of such equipment

The equipment has no value if no one wants it or it isnt' being used.
If somebody has a mint Hassy with 5 pristine lenses and he can't use it .. not sure what the value of it is. If no one wants or uses the stuff, it is worthless. And if somebody finds it in the trash bin while dumpster diving outside the guy's house and feeds an electrical cord through each lens and camera and afixes a LED light bulb to a fixture, those "cool old school camera parts lights" have more value as a desk lamp or curiosity piece selling for IDK 20$ each than anything else.

 

[Helios 1984]

The equipment has no value if no one wants it or it isnt' being used.
If somebody has a mint Hassy with 5 pristine lenses and he can't use it .. not sure what the value of it is. If no one wants or uses the stuff, it is worthless. And if somebody finds it in the trash bin while dumpster diving outside the guy's house and feeds an electrical cord through each lens and camera and afixes a LED light bulb to a fixture, those "cool old school camera parts lights" have more value as a desk lamp or curiosity piece selling for IDK 20$ each than anything else.

My Topcon 35-L was found in the trash by the guy from whom I've purchased it heh

 

[NB23]

“Film? What film? I am doing air-photography.

Oh by the way, do you wanna hear my air-guitar solo?”

 

[Luckless]

Photojournalists are conformist in their gear choices nowadays. It wasn't always the case. Look at newsreels of a car show or catwalk from the 1960s, and you can spot 35mm rangefinders, SLRs, TLR's, large format press cameras, and 120 folding rangefinders. All used by professionals.

Are they really 'conformists', or is the current market offering for practical gear suited to the job just far more narrow than it was sixty years ago? We pretty much are down to picking between SLR vs Mirrorless, in basically three different sizes, with near universally black bodies besides a handful of oddball outliers.

 

[blockend]

Are they really 'conformists', or is the current market offering for practical gear suited to the job just far more narrow than it was sixty years ago?

A little of both, probably. The press pack seem to favour full frame DSLRs with a 24-70, plus another body with something longer. One national newspaper pro who worked on a project I was involved with used a digital Leica. They could probably use M4/3 or APS-C cameras without too many compromises, as the final image will be seen in print or compressed on a website. IQ will hold up at least as well as film speeds. The fix-it-in-post mentality seems as evident among the pros as amateurs.

 

[removed account4]

My Topcon 35-L was found in the trash by the guy from whom I've purchased it heh

i love that !