Pentax Photographers Have Some More Fun

There are online resources for Pentax photographers created entirely by enthusiasts that are not quite duplicated by partisans of other marques (example: Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page). One of the best is the PDML, or Pentax-Discuss Mailing List, a mailing list moderated by Doug Brewer. The PDML serves a large group of Pentax photographers, many of whom have become friends. (Although I'm sure they have their lapses, the PDML is, among other things, perhaps the most civilized of any of the mailing lists, user groups, or forums that I've experienced since the heroic days of the 1980s and early-'90s CompuServe Photography Forum moderated by Mike Wilmer; in fact, the PDML and "Wilma's" CIS Photo Forum were the inspirations for the atmosphere of friendliness, respect, and collegiality I've tried to foster here at TOP.)

Recently, Pentax photographers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Israel, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, the Philippines, Italy, Hungary, India, and several other countries decided to put together an Annual. Once quite common in photography, Annuals have fallen out of favor in recent years; I have a smattering of old ones in my library*, and find it fun and useful to page through them to see what enthusiasts and hobbyists were up to in years past. The PDML members' work, in the words of media specialist Mark Roberts, who facilitated the project, "encompasses every photographic style under the sun: urban documentary shots, expansive landscapes, portraits, sports, macro, abstract, fashion, travel, wildlife and combinations of many of the above. Some defy categorization. All speak volumes about the talent and imagination of their creators."

The PDML Annual is published through on-line book service Blurb.com. It also includes the famous PDML Quotation List. (Sample: "Calibrating a monitor with software is like measuring a car's speed by licking a finger and sticking it out the window." —Rick Womer.)

All of the group's profits from the sale of the book are to be donated to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. Kudos to the PDML'ers for making their idea a reality.

Mike
(Thanks to Derby Chang)

*A comprehensive collection would require a bigger house, and considerably worse OCD.

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Featured Comment by Oren Grad: "I haven't been following the PDML closely so wasn't aware of the Annual. I wonder how much it was inspired by the original—Pentax itself has for many years run an owners' club in Japan, called Pentax Family, and has issued a photo annual each year. I've got a run of about ten of them on my shelf, though I eventually gave up chasing them because they look similar from year to year. But I just checked to see whether they still do it, and lo and behold."

Featured Comment by Dennis Mook: "As a member of the Leica User's Group (LUG), we have put together an annual for the past three years, also published by Blurb. The annual is a wonderful way for members of any photography or marque-related group to recognize and memorialize its members' enthusiasm and talents."

Featured Comment by Scott Loveless: "I'd like to chime in, in response to Dennis Mook. When I suggested the possibility of a PDML book, it was only after I had been lurking on the LUG for a couple months and saw how smoothly theirs came together. After seeing how the LUG handled theirs I suggested we do something similar, and a couple of folks, with Mark taking the lead, really made it happen. So the LUG's method for collecting the photos was really our working model and I'd like to thank you folks for it."

Comments

[erlik]

Um, I hate to be a fanboy, but...

Olympus has something similar and has had for a while in the form of Wrotniak's site. (And in a slightly lesser measure through biofos.com) Incidentally, UK Olympus Photo Safari Group has recently had an exhibition and a book published through Blurb.

I didn't write this to belittle what Pentax users do and have. I just wanted to add to it. I think that the Annual is a terrific thing, just like the UKPSG book is a terrific thing. While I don't give a flying fig about what other people use, I'm glad that the "lesser" brands' users show their brands are alive and very much kicking...

It would be a very sad world where we'd have only two or three camera manufacturers.

[Brian]

I think you are right there is just something "more fun" about Pentax and the owners than so many other camera companies which seem to take themselves almost too serously. So many of my partners in my medical practice seem to think the marque they own designates them as real photographers. I do chuckle a lot at that belief.

I am hoping that the latest rumor about Pentax will prove the fun to be even more true with suggestion that the K3D will be square format with 22 megapixels and still use the old lenses. (I have a ball experimenting with them.)

[Mark Roberts]

Looks like I don't need to send you a press release, then? :-)

I'd like to point out that all our profits from sales of the book are going to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation (www.curesearch.org) In fact, the photographer you quote, Rick Womer, is an oncologist in the Children's Oncology Group, the research organization supported by the NCCF.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Mike, there is a one-time "anniversary" book of Leica M8 photos contributed by Leica User Forum readers and edited and designed by Bill Parons, also available from Blurb. The title is "Many Eyes, One Camera," but early copies are labeled "any Eyes" instead.

The project took shape in a long thread, http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/50441-anniversary-book-no-images-thread-please.html and the links to the Blurb edition can be found there.

scott

[David Bostedo]

Well as long as we're talking about groups publishing books, the Travel Photographers' Network has also published a book through Blurb. The site isn't quite like a user group, although it behaves like one. The project was entirely user driven - created, controlled, and staffed via the forum discussions (which are, surprisingly maybe, at least as civil as things are here). It's not an "annual", more like a collection of the last few years. You can see the book here :

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/560965/

I'm proud to have 3 images in it! :)

[scott kirkpatrick]

A better link to the Blurb page for "Many Eyes, One Camera" edited by Bill Parsons, (M8 photos in the first year that it was in use) is http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/393702 .

The link I gave in my comment above would be a waste of time for most readers, unless you are interested in the trials and tribulations of putting the book together. It sells at cost from Blurb (we didn't think of making any profit, much less using it as a fund-raiser). Over 200 plates, 75 photographers (including me).

scott

[CP]

The cover shot was by Bong Manayon (more of him here):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bongmanayon/2695572641/

He is a pastor.

[Brian Mosley]

Here's a link to the Olympus Photo Safari Group's Exhibition Book One... the book was produced to accompany our 200 print Exhibition in Nottingham before Christmas.

http://www.blurb.com/books/461006

Kind Regards

Brian

[Clinton Bersuch]

Thanks for mentioning the old Compuserve Photo Forum. I was a member from about 1992 until they were assimilated by the Borg collective (AOL) in the late 90's. I was also a member of the Aviation SIG (AVSIG). Those were two really good sources of information for their respective subjects. I participated in my first online chat in the Photo forum in probably 1993 or so. Those forums were a real cut above what passes for discourse on the internet today and I really do miss them.