"A plain-jane Leica M6 with ZERO history. Zero significance. Zero collectability." Really? Yet, that "plain" camera sells for $2000 USED. Sorry, doesn't qualify as plain jane to me. A Pentax Spotmatic is a plain-jane camera. I have one, but don't use it, because 1) film is just too damn expensive, and 2) A digital Pentax K-3 has spoiled me, and it's just a better tool. But it is not a plain-jane camera, and neither is that Leica.

I remember commenting on a previous article of yours concerning your disdain of current black and white photos. I pointed my website to you, and you said, "you understand tonality". Thanks for that, and thanks for this short series on black and white tonality.

Hmm. I tend to like (and take) digital photographs that don't *look* like digital photographs. I don't like the posed, clinical look, and I'm an old timer: I tend to like photographs that come out of the camera, with a minimum of post (and camera!) processing. Yes, I convert most of my photographs to black and white, but I haven't yet exhausted that medium, and I like photographs that highlight form and light, and that doesn't need color. Keep up the good work; your postings always cause one to think.

Well. A Fire Rooster like me (1957, right?). My wife tells me that for your year (a Rooster year), you should wear some red all the time, and especially for your element/year, which only happens every 60 years. The Chinese usually wear a red string or cord with some jade on it, and it's best if it is given to you as a present. Take care, Andrew

Just the 4th of July? Well, I have two huskies, and I live a mile from Stanford Stadium, and they have fireworks after almost every game. The dogs don't like it, but they are getting used to it. So, be glad you only have fireworks on the 4th!

A debater. I want to be a Master Debater. God knows there's enough of those in photography already, but what the heck.

It's a little ambiguous. It is perhaps clearer to say, "A photographer’s job is to shoot something no one else would notice." Really seeing something is photographer's jargon; noticing is what the rest of the population might call it.

Pepper #30 is worth it because it is a good photograph. The potato is not, because, well, "there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." And it is rather fuzzy.