A few comments on the philosophical twists this thread has taken...
1. Pcunite's unhappiness with the current forum membership: I've already had to point out the other day that this part of LuLa is not reserved for "professionals". I and someone else similarly had to point out that those who have not yet used MF (film or DB) are welcome to post as well. And I am not aware of any real "haters" here.
2. Pcunite's call for a special place in cyberspace for him and his ilk: no problems here. I don't care what other people want to do with themselves. But do it someplace else. I want LuLa MF to stay welcoming to amateurs, the technically inclined, people who don't have personal websites, and so on.
3. Full names: would be a good idea. I go by my full name on photo.net for example.
4. Fredjeang's disapproval of too much 'tech talk', insistence that any camera will do, need to focus only on the "creativity": sometimes the tech really does matter to the images produced. Creativity gets you nowhere when, for example, you're photographing in such low light that the readnoise is killing you even before the darknoise does (that's often my problem). Then it's all about how the best tech can serve your needs. We have to talk about these material things, not sweep them under the abstract carpet of "creativity", "vision", "talent", and "client focus".
5. When did the Luminous *Landscape* become the Luminous *Model Studio* or the Luminous *Advertising Agency*? OK it didn't but it often feels like it did. Now I have 100% tolerance for other people's viewpoints, interests and careers - so I really do want to see this type of area continue to be exhibited and discussed on LuLa. No exclusions, no censorship, respect for all - see points 1 & 2 above.
I just think that our discussions would be better if everyone remembered that not everything in MF/MFD is about the particular applications of fashion and advertising. There wouldn't be that frequent harping about creativity, and denigration of the tech aspects. I can understand that if your job is to shoot the one trillionth image of "woman wearing nice clothes", you do need that creativity to make your work stand out. But it is not a universal requirement. Mother Nature, god bless her, provides all the creativity one needs in landscape photography or astrophotography. Then it's about equipment (yes, the tech), preparation, dedication and opportunity, and some vision. But not creativity in the sense of moving lights, people and furniture around, manipulating props and makeup and hairstyling and paint and animal handlers and... What appeals to me is just moving oneself around and leaving nature be herself. That's what I do, that's what I think a lot of us here do...so just keep it in mind that there's a lot of different photography going on and statements of sector-specific dogma are not appropriate.
Ray
