Dear William
I have complained about amateurs on forums where the subject is the business of photography and where their opinions gleaned from 'goodness knows where' can do real harm. However there are many amateurs whose pictures one can admire and whose approach to their subject is admirable. Lartigue is one and Harold Egerton, inventor of electronic flash is another. We don't know whether any of those would have had useful contributions to make to this list but I bet we would have been honoured if they did.
Just because you have a Bee in your bonnet about UV filters does not mean that their use is unprofessional. One of my definitions of a professional is that he/she gets the required results by any practical means. One of those means is not putting their equipment at risk and thereby jeopardizing their results. Despite what you say I will continue to use protective filters as I have done for almost all my 47 years as a photographer. In that time I have smashed a few filters and replaced dozens. At the time the earlier thread was running I had just removed an insect which had hit the filter at 100mph plus while the lens was stuck out of an aircraft window. I am glad it wasn't the �1,000 lens it had hit.
I have shot in a few deserts and while it might be possible to swap a filter around it isn't very professional to tell a client that the shots are a bit flared because you have scratched your lenses.
Much of the advice on this list is about helping each other not get stuck with some digital technical problem. In doing this I and others am willing to share because we get something back in return. When I faced a really frustrating problem two Christmases ago I got help on this list from China, Venezuela, Croatia, Somerset and just down the road in Cornwall.
Bob Croxford
On 21 Jul 2004, at 21:19, william.curwen wrote:
Three weeks ago, I made a posting on this forum titled "UV FILTERS - BAD
SCIENCE AND URBAN MYTHS". This was made in response to a growing irritation
with amateurs pontificating on and on about an important subject they knew
precious little about, and I was subsequently shot down and belittled. Well,
not *really* belittled, I am made of sterner stuff than that, but it got me
thinking about the way this list works.
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