Nowadays, of course, all the cool photographers have a K-1. Or an MX. Or a K-01. or... well, some sort of Pentax. And naturally all the cool photographers are on the PDML.

As proof, I hereby offer the 2017 collection of wit and insight culled from the daily ravings of the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. (If whoever coined the phrase "herding cats" had ever had the experience of compiling this list he'd surely have had second thoughts about his reference point for degree of difficulty – but I digress.) It's mostly the Usual Suspects, of course, but we did see some new contributors to the PDML this year, as well as the addition of a new voice or two. We also saw new ways of contributing: Jack Davis' email client decided to break up his posts with random line breaks, thus generating some marvelous free-verse poetry. Even (with the slightest of editing) a Haiku! This is the kind of entertainment you can't buy. (And if I know most software configuration menus, can't switch off without 20 hours of tinkering over a period of six weeks.) Seriously: It took all my willpower not to fill this list with examples of Jack's computer-assisted verbal art.

If the rest of this year's list seems somewhat... prosaic by comparison fear not. The Quotations List as always will be featured in the PDML Photo Annual. And with the 10th edition appearing in 2018 (yes, amazing as it seems this will be the tenth time we've done it) we'll have a "best of" compendium of PDML Quotations in it. Can a printed tome contain 10 years of PDML snark and wisdom without spontaneously combusting or ascending into heaven? (Or both?) Order a copy later this year and find out!

For now, enjoy the 2017 list!

What a beautiful photo! You must have a very good camera.

— Traditional

Bugger. I've been kippered by a BobW joke!

— Chris Mitchell (but possibly also "Traditional" as well)

It's better to maximize the minimalism.

— Ken Waller

My negs and slides are in the loft, next to the scanner. Someday they will learn to love each other and have little digital babies without me having to do anything.

— Bob Walkden

There can be a huge disparity between clever ideas and good ideas.

— Larry Colen

Love is blind but so is ignorance.

— Cotty

I won't be awarding any post-modernism points this time round because none of you pointed out the self-referencing, or the questioning of the gaze, or the mise-en-abyme implied by the apparent 35mm film strip.

— Bob Walkden

It will open up a market for artisanal hand crafted pixels.

— Larry Colen

I'm too old for angst.

— Paul Stenquist

I prefer my own disorganization to someone else's.

— P.J. Alling

It's just mind boggling how much stupid there is to go around.

— Bruce Walker

Keeping calm and carrying on – and you know I can carry on quite a bit!

— Ann Sanfedele

I can't work out if that's a trick of perspective, a really huge cable release or you are a relative of your president.

— Mike Wilson

In my opinion the bare minimum isn't good enough.

— Cotty

If you were born after 1994 and think you might have Bluetooth, don't forget your tin foil hat!

— Rick Womer

thatsnks Rick.

— Dave Brooks

Histograms don't lie, but you have to know their language.

— Paul Stenquist

If that were any cuter I'd go into insulin shock.

— Larry Colen

I wonder if he wouldn't have been just as cute at 640 ISO?

— Jack Davis

PDML is good for obscure computer coding info and finding out if people are okay in natural disasters.

— Paul Stenquist

I'm just checking before firing up the chickens.

— Doug Brewer

Wine improves the soul. Mustard improves the wine. Therefore, mustard improves the soul.

— Rick Womer

I'm never sure what I've chosen until I see the photos in photoshop.

— Ann Sanfedele

I see a nice painting of a trout and lots of nekkid ladies.

— Dan Matyola

When real artists do mundane things, they do them artistically.

— Rick Womer

Tripods are for wimps. ;)

— Zos Xavius

'Good' and 'good enough' are not quite the same thing.

— John Sessoms

I wasn't going to name and shame, but it might be time for a reminder that friends don't let friends use AOL.

— Doug Brewer

Anyone who gets sight of me with my knickers outside my tights is going to be really sorry, believe me.

— Mike Wilson

Someone always discriminates against poor old farts.

— Alan Cole

At my age my Pentax kit will probably outlast me, so I'm good to go!

— John Coyle

If the photographer doesn't exercise some judgment, just guns away, all that has happened is that the burden of finding the decisive moment has moved from the field to the editor's desk.

— Stan Halpin

Back in the days when all the cool photographers had a Spotmatic.

— Brian Walters

If he's on this list he does not know what's good for him.

— Dave Brooks

The new photo.net is such a miserable turd that even maggots and dung beetles aren't interested.

— Rick Womer

A moment is just an interval that's too short to bother with.

— Bob Walkden

I was never rich enough or artistic enough to justify getting an LX.

— Dan Matyola

You're making the same stupid jokes as me. That's probably a sign you should worry about.

— Larry Colen

I took Cotty's advice -- while ignoring Bob W's :)

— Bruce Walker

Microsoft has no sense of humor, especially when they're the butt of the joke.

— P.J. Alling

Ah, so this really is the Pun Discussing Mail List.

— Ken Waller

Nothing you shouldn't be able to fix with a boat, a chain saw, and a few hours, Dave!

— Rick Womer

Please forgive the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one.

— Blaise Pascal

If I'm going to have to train management, I'd rather use a cattle prod.

— John Sessoms

The best way to cut is with your eyes closed and your hands at the mercy of Beelzebub. Iknow, trust me.

— Cotty

I've read what others had to say but I still don't understand your photo.

— Alan Cole

If I bought a new camera only when I needed one, I'd probably still be shooting with the K10D. If we all did that, Pentax and alst every other manufacturer would be out of business by now.

— John Sessoms

Some of us would crawl on our knees for 100 miles over frozen gravel for one semi-decent shot.

— Mike Wilson

Makes me feel like I'm in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

— Jack Davis

People are more interested in photos of themselves having fun than the dignity of the photographer who took the picture.

— Paul Stenquist

One time I was forced to crop so heavily that I was left with a mere 1x1 image. Imagine my annoyance when I pulled that up in Photoshop to retouch it and found that that single pixel was blown out! Of all the luck! Fortunately I was able to rescue it with a serious application of curves and cloning from another shot in the set.

— Bruce Walker

The company that manufactured my camera has no right in the world to dictate the aspect ratio of my photographs.

— Michael Reichmann

Sometimes you have to peel away the outer layers from fruits and vegetables to get to the edible parts. Photography is no different.

— John Sessoms

If I were any good at it there would have been 3 or 4 times that many photographs. If I were any good at editing, there'd be 3 or 4 times fewer.

— Larry Colen

It's all about the photographer's interpretation of the scene. There are no right or wrong answers.

— Paul Stenquist

The cut-off leg doesn't bother me as it appears to be a deliberate decision rather than a mistake.

— Ken Waller

I knew a guy who liked to use macro lenses to photograph poisonous snakes. Haven't seen him around in a while.

— John Sessoms

The more you struggle to make it lifelike the less like life it becomes. But since a work of art is an illusion anyway, if you heighten the illusory quality, then you come closer to the effect of life.

— Alberto Giacometti

I crop often. Sometimes radically. To focus more clearly on what interests me in the image. Am I a terrible photographer?

— Eric Weir

From a viewer's perspective, I look at the presented image on its merits at the time. What happened from conception to this stage is nobody's business!

— Cotty

Apparently the whole universe could be a giant hologram. If so it's probably running on a Windows 8 box

— Bob Walkden

There is no such thing as too much Øksne.

— Mike Wilson

That is probably the best photo of a turkey's butt I've ever seen.

— Larry Colen

If proper English were required on the internet, half the posters on Facebook would be frog marched out of their parents' basement and executed in the back yard.

— P.J. Alling

I'm meeting up with Bob W tomorrow. Remind me not to let him take me to any Leica shops.

— Chris Mitchell

I have a pretty complete kit of what I find to be truly excellent Leica and Zeiss lenses nowadays, but the Pentax FA77/1.8 and FA43/1.9 Limited lenses remain in my topmost tier of lenses I remember fondly for their excellent performance.

— Godfrey DiGiorgi

Frothy white water
Contrasts with rock and boulders
Some nice patterns caught

— An unintentional haiku by Jack Davis

Optical clarity probably isn't as important for welding masks.

— Richard Klein

Good taste never grows old.

— Bob Walkden

I have to do something other than drink and argue with Bill Robb.

— Paul Stenquist

At least I'm not a cormorant.

— Bill Bailey

An admission of ignorance is always more accurate than a wild guess.

— John Sessoms

Sometimes mediocre is the best you can aspire to.

— P.J. Alling

Ars longa vita brevis. Which is Latin for tl;dr.

— Bob Walkden

Choice of tools doesn't make someone a crappy photographer, only making crappy photographs makes someone a crappy photographer.

— Larry Colen

When hipsters instagram their lunch they usually use a cell phone. Isn't a K-1 a bit of overkill?

— P.J. Alling

Forget about images I'm proud of, I'm reduced to searching for images I'm not ashamed of.

— John Sessoms

One of the most helpful aspects of the PDML is letting each other know when our work is crap.

— Larry Colen

You wouldn't know it from looking at my pictures, but I'm actually pretty picky about my gear.

— Bill Robb

Some of use are young enough to have jobs. The rest are old enough to either be at the doctor or are needing their afternoon nap.

— Bill Robb

My sense: Intensely awaiting his own
reaction and hopeful to covet
the experience.

— Another unintentional poem by Jack Davis

I'm not a nerd, I'm just old.

— P.J. Alling

Fine Larry, you can have my baby.

— Bill Robb

Whenever you see something labelled 'creative' or 'pro', you can be sure it isn't either.

— Bob Walkden

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— Traditional

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