This is written not to criticize, chastise, flame, or belittle anyone who is a SPORRS contributor, but to reflect some personal observations and ideas as to why SPORRS was born.
I was one of the original list members (the first time). The idea of a list for serious railfan photographers was a good one. And, the list had a good beginning. There were constructive discussions (sometimes biased) about film, cameras, lenses, techniques.....and the subjects go on. At least they were all directly related to railfan photography. Sure, there were differences of opinion on a variety of the subjects, but the list was providing some good information. Then, for a multitude of reasons, SPORRS seemed to have died an early death. Not so: Jim Gilley did a resurrection and Dave Cohen's idea lived on. So far, so good........... Now comes the meat of my discussion. Anyone who takes offense at what I say should contact me directly. I have thicker skin than most of you because of age....and, I don't really give a hoot if you disagree! SPORRS is drifting for a number of reasons. The main one is that there are contributors (and I use the term very loosely) who don't come close to being serious railroad photographers, yet they become serious mouthpieces. Another is because SPORRS is being made a discussion group for other facets of the railfan hobby; like becoming critics for books and videos. Sure, I know that Dave Busse wanted to generate interest and conversation when he posed questions like "what is your favorite book", or "what is your favorite video"? OK, books require photos; videos are a whole different ball game (and I will be the first to admit that there are lots of players; producers, sellers and buyers). SPORRS was not begun as a forum for book and video reviews........at least, that isn't the information I was provided. The CUNY railroad list just loves this kind of stuff. Then SPORRS degenerates to tasteless "humor" submitted by one NP fan to another list which is then forwarded to SPORRS by a video guy. Jim Gilley already addressed this quite nicely. Next, we have a SPH&TS "wannabe" director interjecting politics into the discussion in the form of Republicans wanting to eliminate PBS!!!! Good God people, what in the world does any of this have to do with railfan photography? Finally, an old sage of 26 (another video guy) wants to know why people take train pictures? How about, because we want to! How about, because it is (or, used to be) fun. At the wise old age of 26, he surely has critiqued everyone's work as thoroughly as he has Benson's and Steinheimer's! OK, lets step on the feet of the father of the list. Who really cares about imaginary cottage cheese.......especially when it takes up bandwidth of more than one message? Surely, not I! And then, when SPORRS starts to sink, folks ask why? Lets get back to the reason for the list. Dave Cohen (father of the list) exhibited that quite nicely yesterday with his explanation of the quick-focusing of the Nikon 80-200. Hey, that is SPORRS! Lets stick with hardware issues, techniques, and some computer hardware/software discussions if they are relevant. I might be wrong, but I never remember anything in the original "charter" that included what we do with our images after we shoot them.......or even why we do it in the first place. Dammit, I have muddy old black and white photos taken in the late 1940s because I wanted to; no other reason. I sure wish I could have taken them with products of today's technology. I know that I am not alone in that thought. And one final observation......In the beginning of SPORRS, there was a lot of discussion about lens sharpness, film representation of "true" colors, grain and resolution, and film processing. Also, the merits of manual focus and exposure vs. auto-focus/exposure. In a discussion of these critical parameters of capturing an image, how can one even bring up video?!!!! In addition to being boring to the point of curing acute insomnia, how can anybody even compare video to the topics that were so near and dear to the subscribers just a couple of months ago? I guess I must have missed something along the way. Oh yeah, I have nothing against anybody's First Amendment rights; I will be the first to grant a person his say. My complaint is that we should choose the appropriate forum for the subjects of discussion. There have been a lot of informative discussions on SPORRS. Corn's and Busse's tips on aerial photography were good. If I ever get the chance to shoot from a helicopter, I'll certainly remember them. Busse's ideas of methods of packing equipment for air travel was worthwhile, especially for those who haven't done it or do it very infrequently. Different ways to label slides was interesting as well as storage and slide databases. Absolutely, there is no question that SPORRS generates topics that are of interest to most of us. Why don't we try to keep it along those lines? Go ahead, Charlie, launch into techniques. What we have already seen on the subject provided some interesting ideas. Sorry for stepping on toes. (No, not really....that was a white lie). John C. Lucas --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
