Contrary to what you may have heard, photography is not going down the drain. As far as Pentax is concerned it appears to be getting better all the time. In 2016 our patience was rewarded with the introduction of the Pentax K-1 and bank balances plummeted all around the world as PDML members joined the full-frame club. (Of course, not all bank balances plummeted. I think that of Ricoh Corp. did pretty well.)

Armed with the latest technology, Pentax shooters went out and made some fine photographs in 2016. And then talked, questioned and argued about them on the PDML. Some of my favorite bits of those discussions are exerted here for your edification and enjoyment in the dark days ahead (I mean winter, not the coming apocalypse). And naturally we have some quotations from photographic commentators outside the PDML, in addition to extraneous comments from little-known outsiders having nothing at all to do with photography because... well I haven't really worked out the reason why. And since I've been doing this list for over 10 years now and still haven't come up with a reason I am beginning to think I'm not going to ever work out what it is. But if I do I hope to God it doesn't have anything to do with squirrels and electrical tape.

As usual, the Quotations List will find its way into the PDML Photo Annual. Enjoy!

I'm too critical of my own photography. It may be crap, but that shouldn't stop me from posting it.

— John Sessoms

Comments, criticisms, gasps of 'ooh' all welcome!

— John Coyle

The photograph itself is making no value judgment, however the people looking at it are free to be as judgmental as they want.

— Larry Colen

The nice thing about ducks is they give someone besides Paul a chance to post sharp bird photos.

— Alan Cole

I strive to be the person my dog thinks I am. This makes people uncomfortable, since my dog thinks I am a god who can smite him with no warning.

— Bill Robb

I have always preferred inspiration to information.

— Man Ray

I had to type 'I side with Cotty here' five times before it stuck on the screen.

— Chris Mitchell

Getting the flash sorted out is a bit of a pain – despite instructions translated from Chinese via Gaelic and Inuit – but it has worked very well.

— Rick Womer

Pick the outcome you want and work your way backwards, swimming upstream as it were.

— John Sessoms

I'm not sure what it is that makes any particular picture good, but a ladder never hurts.

— John Szarkowski (The Online Photographer)

A squirrel and a roll of electrical tape is all a real man needs.

— Bill Robb

I've never seen a picture that included a giraffe that led me to say, 'The giraffe is spoiling the picture'.

— Paul Stenquist

Those aren't defects in technique, they are techniques in art.

— Larry Colen

Most of the good that I do with my cameras is to salve other people's egos by lowering the bar of artistic merit.

— Larry Colen

If you hunger for some tedium, you can use the Brush tool to correct different areas of the photo differently.

— Rick Womer

Well, I spent the best part of half an hour staring at this very nice shot from Bruce, but I'm buggered if I can find the naked woman in it.

— Cotty

The whole god damn world is insane. Photograph it.

— Mark Stringer

Adobe seems to be learning from Facebook about how to document their upgrades.

— Larry Colen

Forty years ago I could pull focus on a car at 200 mph, now I'm lucky if I can focus on a tree stump. But photography is still a joy.

— Paul Stenquist

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

— Jean Cocteau

Bad photos are bad photos, regardless of format.

— Doug Brewer

I'm not always the nice person that I appear to be on this mailing list.

— Bill Robb

There's another Paul Stenquist on Facebook. He's a 20-something Swede who plays American football in Europe. We always exchange birthday messages and congratulate each other on the excellence of our name.

— Paul Stenquist

Maybe he came back for the cat pictures.

— Nicole Jacque

Sometimes things get confused between my brain and my fingers.

— Larry Colen

I was just paying for fuel and the lass in front of me bought 3 scratch (lottery) cards, a catering pack of cheesy wotsits and a litre of budget vodka!

— James Whitham

Some lenses are like that. You can preach and cajole and restrict and recommend good diets and they still just keep gaining weight.

— Stan Halpin

Looks like a case of lens envy overwhelming photographic commonsense.

— Mike Wilson

There's no such thing as 'photographic commonsense'.

— Bruce Walker

Possibilities don't go back, they go forward.

— Michael Specter (YouTube)

You will note that I merely claimed that the photo was wordplay, I did not claim that it was funny, clever or bore any redeeming characteristics whatsoever.

— Larry Colen

Septuagenarians seldom need to pad their resumes.

— Dan Matyola

I have a simple rule: I make a list because I can't remember what I've got. And if I've got to make a list, I have too much and sell off the excess.

— Godfrey DiGiorgi

Often I don't recognise my own irony.

— Brian Walters

Conformist! What on earth are you doing on a Pentax mailing list?

— Mike Wilson

I know on this list the association of zebra stripes with prison garb is probably nothing that needs explaining.

— P.J. Alling

Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.

— John Sessoms

The lesson is to do whatever sings for you photographically and don't become distracted by mundane details like film, or digital, or darkroom, or inkjet. Photography is much more than any of these things.

— Godfrey DiGiorgi

A significant percentage of my photography isn't even in the same zip code as anything resembling sane lighting.

— Larry Colen

If I knew how to take a great photo I'd stop.

— Martin Parr

You can trust me to take a mess of photos. And for that matter to make a mess of photos.

— Larry Colen

Photography is much like drains: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

— Malcolm Smith

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