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Two days ago, my “Photographing your family with the BEST photo equipment” article was featured on SteveHuffPhoto.com.
The piece generated much commentary, and I’ve read through all of it. Almost all of it was overwhelmingly positive but, surprisingly, a few negative responses emerged. I write “surprisingly” because I always choose my words very carefully and I know there wasn’t anything controversial or provocative in my post.
It was meant to be very positive, in fact.
But this is the internet age, where making a statement like “I like pizza” will generate a handful of negative responses. Arguing with the responders is not productive, of course.
You know, I realized several years ago just how inconsequential all the frantic machinations of daily life can be, when we don’t take the time to appreciate each other. The only important thing — the only enduring thing — when you strip away all the pretenses, is this:
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“How we treat each other is the only thing that counts.”
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So, instead of trying to respond to a few negative comments, I’d like to take the time to post a personal “thank you” — on this very site — to all of the wonderful people who got my post. For their very eloquent comments (some critical, but at least constructive) I’d like to specifically thank these individuals:
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Neil Buchan-Grant
Ashwin Rao
Duane Pandorf
Colin Steel
Photozopia
Jonny
Harry
Danniel Schwartzkopf
William Jusuf
Joanne Puyat
Travis
Robert T Wilson
Armanius
Leo
Duncan
Flamingjune1967
Denis
cidereye
Laugaut
Jack
Michael S.
Nacho Pello
Mark S
Peter Laaba
derekdj
Bryan Campbell
Paco
Guillaume
Andrew
Chrstine Lee
William Jones
Matus
Rick Alan
jim
David Young
Kelvin
Mo Han
Jason Howe
Richard ford
Dariel Palacol,
Dj0502
Joan
Andrew Ryle
Gauge Caudell
Orestis
John
des
Manny
Peter
Charlie
Marc Weisberg
Tyson Ng
c.d. embrey
Bianca
Felipe Méndez
Dan L.
Henk
Jun
Radar
Twitch
Enzo
David Young
Denis
John Driggers
Greg
dan
Chris Smith
Garazd Vahen
Jag Siva
Jacob
Steindid
Godfrey
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Last but not least, I want to thank Steve again for his generosity in allowing me to share my words and images on his wonderful site.
—Peter.
Prosophos 
Great post and the right attitude in your reply there 🙂
I agree with your on this wholeheartedly, since my favorite motive are the people I love most. Your photos manage to sum up all the reasons I covet the M9.
Thank you kindly.
You are very welcome Peter, I only comment on things that I find personally interesting and your post definately fell into that category. I also like the simple style of your blog, somehow it aligns very nicely with your photography.
Cheers,
Colin
Congrats man. I keep an eye on the site and read a number of the articles. Over time I personally have lost some enthusiasm for the site however. I don’t feel that there’s a lot of objectivity on the site and things generally seem “OVER THE TOP!” and hyperbolic. More and more of the articles there seem to be written by guest authors, whom I imagine don’t get much recompense.
Hi Peter,
Great follow up to your fantastic inspiration post on Steve’s website! Although I didn’t post any comment on the website, I fully agree with you that you choose your words carefully and IMO they are also very powerful! And your pictures are amazing and they gave me inspiration to shoot my own family in this way as well. Please do not pay too much attention to the negative responses. It is better to focus on the positive side of live, because it gives you new fresh energy to shoot even more beautiful photos:-)! Keep up the good work and please keep on sharing new stuff!!
Have a wonderful day, Jeroen
Thank you very much Jeroen!
Family is, for many, the #1 or #2 priority in their lives (depending on where they stand on God). That being the case, surely anything that involves them deserves your best effort. That best effort probably involves your best tools. Still, the images of your family are not (I think) extraordinary on account of the Leica equipment, but on account of your love of them, your value of special moments involving them, and the complete focus and attention you bring to making their images. If you had only an iPhone or a box with a pin hole and film holder, I believe the images would still be extraordinary. They’d maybe look different than now, but there would be no hiding the love, value, and attention within a different technical scope.
Perhaps you’ll squirm a bit at the analogy, but if you gave Miles Davis a kazoo he’d still have found a way to express his vision, ’cause he loved the music. So in that sense, I understood your post on SH’s site to be about something other than gear…
It was a really good post.
Thanks Greg. You understood correctly.
Ignore the negative, accept the positive, that’s the only way to assure your brilliance
Very kind of you Simon. I’ve been trying to do just that… so far, so good :).