How I enjoy this hobby is not how You enjoy this hobby. Get over it.

[Jim Galli]

I've been in large format since 1993. Self taught with books and lots of trial and error and failure. At first I was going to be an important arteeest. That was no fun and too much work, and I have the attention span of a gnat. Plus I live so far in the middle of nowhere that it was silly to think I could ever run with the big dogs. And I'm a republican, so there's that. No such thing as a conservative person who is artistic. Just ask Imogen.

But, all that said, 26 years later, I've assembled a very large body of work, mostly unseen, for a while some was put on my own web pages, but that's about the extent of it. When I die my kids will have a large mess to clean up. Thousands (quite literally) of LF negatives, mostly 8X10.

But over the course of time, what I learned that I enjoy the most is just playing with the stuff. ALL of the stuff. I probably have 300 viable large format lenses and I'd venture maybe 25 - ish cameras. Yesterday I bought a Stigmatic and a Protar VII for the 4X5 outfit. I'll have fun playing with both of those, and in the course of that pleasure, likely fix their problems associated with being 90 years old and also add to the pile of negatives. But the fall-out is, I'm not a rich man. I'm just a wage earner nearing retirement. And the way my hobby pays it's way is, I buy things, I fix them, I make them better than they got to me, I preserve them for another generation, and often, I sell them. For a profit if possible. Yes, I'm a capitalist. My deal with my wife is, the hobby pays it's own way. It doesn't come out of our regular paycheck.

All in all, I've had a good time doing all this. But some people look upon me with a scowl. Selling stuff for a profit, even if you fixed it, is taboo. Evil.

The For Sale section here used to be part of the fun. That was squashed successfully. Bravo to you purists who judge me for enjoying my hobby my way instead of yours.

[Peter De Smidt]

Jim, your description applies to many people here. I don't get why you're getting any flak.

[Tin Can]

As a Demon Krat I agree with you Jim.

We are more similar than disparate.

I worked in testing laboratories all my life as a technician not a scientist. They dreamed, I made it so.

I love to fiddle about, fix things, make things and I got paid well for unusual solutions to new challenges.

I chose LF as a interesting enough endeavour to fully occupy myself in my dotage.

So far so good and I have met a few LF practitioners even here in nowheresville.

Or as we call it, Fly Over Country.

[jim_jm]

Same here. I enjoy researching, tinkering with, and preserving old photo gear almost as much as I enjoy using it.

The time and effort you spend refurbishing / restoring gear has value, and Lord knows, no one individual is ever going to get rich selling old cameras.

I've gained lots of valuable information from your posts here, and from your web site, so Thank You!

[Tin Can]

My road to financial success, is Buy High Sell Low, but sometimes I lose and make money.

Fools gold!

[BrianShaw]

This is a very sad message to read. I’m blue.

[cowanw]

Well Jim, I have appreciated the several lenses that I have bought from you, and yes I think the struggles over the classified section have resulted in entrenched positions that are undesirable.
Whatever the desire to keep things true to the original intention, whatever each person thought that was, a changing clientele will require change in the functions of the forum.
I don't see the problems largely because I use the New Posts route and just slide by the posts I don't wish to read, although it did occur to me a couple of sellers could be irritating.

Your comment that "How I enjoy this hobby is not how You enjoy this hobby" is all too pertinent in many (most ) areas in the forum. What works for A; may not work for B: how B learns may not be how A learns.
Society has become divisive and the internet exacerbates that and there is not much I can do about all these things except to note that my perception is that you are more of a Wendall Wilkie Republican than a 21st century Republican and so are permitted to be artistic.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Jim, I'm with ya! Politics never come into things and if they do I'm gone! I do what I love because I love it. We see things the same way.

[Vaughn]

It seems many people do not realize the amount of (unpaid) work the moderators do -- yet they demand the moderators do more work in order to make themselves happy and content. Having been a moderator of what should be a very mellow site (parents of triplets or higher -- and it did not turn out so easy), I appreciate our moderators' hard work, and do not moan over their desire to make this site easier to manage.

And I would never call the moderators names, which is a total bullshit thing to do.

[Tin Can]

The only comparison I can think comes close to the PITA of being a moderator is Condo Board member.

I wasted 14 years doing that thankless job, even quit a few times.

I had board members lying to our Condo paid lawyer and to me as Pres. All Artists! Bah Humbug!

But somebody had to do it...