NikonGear'23
Images => Life, the Universe & Everything Else => Topic started by: Michael Erlewine on May 28, 2016, 02:08:41
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This has got to be funny; if not that, then sad. I have been spending time around home (not that I am ever very far), waiting until I am physically more mobile, i.e. still recovering. And so I busy myself as best I can, including photographing or at least gathering and putting together the equipment I will need for the summer to photograph images, etc.
Yesterday I needed a particular adapter for a camera mount, but that particular adapter was an import, hard-to-find, and one of those things that once you buy it, you can’t return it, a Special Order. You wait for it to arrive. None of the online shops had it or, as mentioned, it was a special order that would take weeks to get from Europe. Then I thought, as a last resort, why not look on Ebay. While not likely, there is always a chance there could be one.
And the amazing thing is there was one, and at a good price, but that was just the beginning. To my complete surprise, the seller also lived in Michigan, just as I do, which means it might ship fast, and then when I looked closer, I was further amazed to find that the seller lived in the very same little town that I do, Big Rapids. How improbable was that, to find a rare camera adapter being sold by a seller who lived in the same town? I had to meet this person, just because we must have so much in common.
I tried to ask the seller a question on line. I wanted to make him an offer below what he was asking. He might go for it, but try as I might, the darned Ebay would was not working properly. It would not let me email the seller, make my offer, and I planned to offer some friendship as well. I could drive across town and pick the item up in just a minute or two.
Well, as it turned out, when I read the even smaller print, the seller was already someone I knew, none other than myself; I had posted this adapter for sale maybe a year ago and had left it up there and then forgotten all about it. In a split second, I had no one to bargain with and no new photo friend, but I did have the adapter, and always did. And I had to really laugh. Talk about getting old?
And there must be some allegorical meaning here about looking for your Self outside yourself, not unlike what Narcissus did when he saw his own reflection in a pool. Only here I saw my reflection in the Internet and wanted to meet this guy. We had so much in common. I also wanted to find out if he would take less for what the adapter he was selling. LOL.
Well, that house of cards came tumbling down and here I sit clear-minded, my reflection-doppelganger having vanished.
[Photo taken very early this morning, the new buds on a local Spruce tree. Nikon D810, PB4, El Nikkor 105mm APO, Zerene Stacker]
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Funny story, ring too true for many of us.
Great photo. Understated (IMO) in both palette and subject, and very nice.
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I like the story and I particularly like the photograph. The detail and color are beautifully placed in the overall composition.
Cheers, John
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Too funny :) . Michael, a year or so back I was seriously searching for a Voigt APO 125 f2.5 Lanthar and using Google one popped up on Dpr so clicked on it. It was an old post of yours selling. I did get reasonably excited since I recognized you then reality set in when I saw the date of the post >:( , ;).
Funny, I just found it again and the thread is still open ;)
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52313199
I always enjoy your images and write ups/'how to...'. Love the detail and light in this one.
All the best
Tom
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Fun story, and a nice image. Very lovely.
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This story seems far too familiar!
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat at work, looking at a particularly bad drawing or design, wondering why the idiot in question did what he did, only to see my initials at the bottom of the page!
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Hilarious story and exquisitely pleasant green. Thanks for sharing both!
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A nice tale with definitely some depth in it, matching the DOF of the photograph. Thanks a lot, Michael.
(and wishing you a speedy recovery)
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This sounds so familiar...
I had to laugh.
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A story of modern life.
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Could be a story from my life as well. Although I might have found the item in the odds and ends bin next to me, once I cared to look .... Or ruminating through a cupboard usually not visited on a regular basis.
I'm pretty convinced there is a moral here, but not certain as to what it contains.
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Discovering that you would be an interesting person to yourself should you happen to meet yourself somewhere.
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Remarkable story, and beautiful fresh green.
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I was there long ago. Standing in front of the mirror wondering who the guy in the reflection was. After many years
of trying hard and collecting my bones I found congruence and integrity. I hope they will never leave me again.
Love your work and style, your meditations, .... , hope you will remain true to yourself, ... , recognizable, .... in your pictures
you seem to be ONE .... keep on your path and make us all happy with your work .... most of us all some guy in Michigan
little place called Big Rapids ... say hello and thank you whenever you meet him!
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Very interesting story ! I'm not sure either of what the moral could be, but believe it's quite a sign of our times... Sometimes I find a website interesting and want to join to discover that another myself has already joined some years ago ! :P
It gets darker when I walk in some outskirts of Paris and see some housing building "so typical" of an era, and after at least a quarter of an hour, discover that I did design it in my young years (of course at that time there were fields next to it).
We believe often that the world, as the web, is pretty big, almost infinite, but in fact we thread in some sort of virtual neighborhood in which we can easily get lost because of too few particulars signs, as in some real suburbs with similar architecture and designs.
That's mostly why, for our pictures we tend to go for quality (whatever that means for each of us), to use them as some landmarks in the contemporary sea of images... :o
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Good story :)
and a beautiful image
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I'm pretty convinced there is a moral here, but not certain as to what it contains.
One of my favorite quotes is from the philosopher Hegel in his "Phenomenology of the Mind," and it goes: "We go behind the curtain of the Self, to see what is there, but mainly for there to be something to be seen."
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Very interesting story ! I'm not sure either of what the moral could be, but believe it's quite a sign of our times... Sometimes I find a website interesting and want to join to discover that another myself has already joined some years ago ! :P
It gets darker when I walk in some outskirts of Paris and see some housing building "so typical" of an era, and after at least a quarter of an hour, discover that I did design it in my young years (of course at that time there were fields next to it).
We believe often that the world, as the web, is pretty big, almost infinite, but in fact we thread in some sort of virtual neighborhood in which we can easily get lost because of too few particulars signs, as in some real suburbs with similar architecture and designs.
That's mostly why, for our pictures we tend to go for quality (whatever that means for each of us), to use them as some landmarks in the contemporary sea of images... :o
Ah, another philosopher! I like what you are pointing out here.