tramsey Loc: Texas

After reading your piece on the Leica camera, I became very curious who this Roger Hicks is. So in true police investigative manner, I Googled 'Roger Hicks.' First up was Roger Hicks Ministries, that didn't fit, next up was Roger Hicks, noted photographer, author, and magazine article contributor. WHAT?? Our Roger Hicks an author? Than it fit your eloquent style of writing and thinking, of course. How could I have missed that?
It had a reference to Wikipedia. Roger Hicks is no stranger there either, this is what it had to say about our fellow not so ugly hedgehog:
Roger Hicks is a British author of more than 30 photography books,[1] plus a biography of HH Dalai Lama, travel books, cook-books and others. Many are written with his wife Frances Schultz. He is a regular contributor to Amateur Photographer Magazine[2] and frequently writes for Shutterbug magazine in the United States.

My sincere congratulations to you Sir on your accomplishments and a most sincere thank you for spending time on this forum to lend a hand.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

All that and a good guy to boot.

travlnman46 Loc: Yakima WA

Hi tramsey: Who would have thought... Very interesting, how fortunate we are that Roger Hicks is willing to spend time sharing his wealth of knowledge with us. My Thanks to you for bringing this to our attentionand my thanks to Roger for all his help here at UHH.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I look at his accomplishments and all that he is and find it hard to believe that he spends time on the Hog giving us the benefit of his knowledge.

JustBNme Loc: The Darkside...

I knew he wrote books about photography...But not the others...Travel...Cookbooks...And The Dalai Lama???
I recently purchased his e-book about choosing tripods and there was a ton of great info in it and some great tips too... And he has a sense of humor too!!! And he finds time to help us here on UHH too...
I would like to meet him if he ever makes it to this side of the pond...

Danilo Loc: Las Vegas

Roger might tell you: "It's easy to get the proverbial cat out of the bag...not so easy to get it back in."
I thank you, also, Roger. It's a pleasure to connect with you.

Photogdog Loc: New Kensington, PA

Roger,

As usual, I had no idea! I thank you for sharing your insights and experience.

PD

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

I KNEW it!

Thanks for all your help Roger!

Of course now we have the option at our next Photography Club meeting of dropping his name...

Singing Swan

See...told ya he was no ignoramus and he has a right to be a bit arrogant. Ya'll should look at a few of the other folks on this forum. Some are really really worthy folks to know and listen to!! And you're right, we are very lucky that they take some time out of their lives and spend it here on the Hog with us beginners.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

so Roger, what impact did meeting and interviewing the Dalli Lama have on you?

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

Ah, but how do you know I don't do Roger Hicks Ministries in my spare time? Bless you, my children...

And bless everyone who has contributed to this thread for being so kind. Here's a bit more about why I'm here:

1 I really love photography and like to encourage and help people

2 Mostly, there are nice people here. If you're trying to help people for nothing, whether via posts or referrals to my free site http://www.rogerandfrances.com/ , it gets a bit tedious being insulted.

3 Purely cynically, it's market research. The e-book on tripods (http://www.rogerandfrances.com/e-books.html ) was written because I saw SO many inquiries here about tripods.

4 Displacement activity. Being on UHH is easier than working on another e-book (I've just started another, about choosing and using camera bags, cases, straps, etc.)

For anyone who's interested, here's more about Frances and me on http://www.rogerandfrances.com/aboutus.html . I've a bit less hair than in that shot, but Frances is still just as beautiful.

Cheers,

R.

Mark Koons Loc: Wheatland, WY

I think I remember 30 or 35 years ago reading a couple of regular features Roger wrote for the photo magazines and another series, equally good but with a different slant, written by his partner, Frances.

I was ( and still am ) so impressed with their knowledge of photography and skill as writers.

Kurt Vonnegut said anyone who couldn't explain themselves to a fourth grader was more or less a fraud. To my mind Roger is a technical master who understands his subject so thoroughly he can make meaningful distinctions about equipment and technique then express them so any reasonably apt fourth grader can understand.

The respect I have feels good. Thank you for your continuing contribution, Roger.

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

It's a long story...

I wanted to do a book on Tibetan iconography, mostly so I could learn a lot more about it, from people who knew what they were talking about. This included a friend, Ngakpa Choegyam. The publishers said, "Yes, maybe, but could you do a biography of HH?"

I said, "I'll ask him," and he said "yes," so (with Choegyam) I did. It's called Great Ocean and it was published by Element Books and then Penguin. It also led to my doing a propaganda book for the Tibetan Government in Exile, called Hidden Tibet. Very few people know much about Tibet, including the fact that it's a very big country: 2500 miles east-west, 1500 miles north-south, though it's lozenge-shaped (like the diamonds on a suit of cards) so these are very much maximum dimensions.

Insofar as I am convinced that there is any form of life after death, which is not to a great extent, I'm a Buddhist, believing in reincarnation. Sure, plenty of ageing hippies say, "Oh, yeah, man, like, I was Tibetan in a past lifetime." It had a bit more weight, though, when Ngari Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama's youngest brother, said to me, "Oh, yes. You and I were very close in a past life." There may or may not be anything in past lives, but both Frances (in India) and I (in Tibet) have memories and experiences that are hard to explain any other way.

When I was spending a lot of time in Dharamsala, many years ago, I was one of the few people who was exempt from security checks. The first time this happened, I said, "What about the Swiss Army knife I'm carrying?" Ngari Rinpoche shrugged and said, "What about it? You're not likely to stab him, are you?"

He's a wonderful person, and can be very, very funny. He hates it when people make exaggerated obeisances -- I've seen him drag someone to his feet when the guy attempted to make a threefold prostration in front if him -- and I really do grow rather weary of those who have swallowed Chinese propaganda and portray pre-invasion Tibet as a slave-holding theocracy. It does not take a great deal of study to realize that this is pure drivel. As is the image of Tibet as a Shangri-La.

HH Dalai Lama himself said, "Sure, Tibet was not perfect. The country and the religion needed purifying. But nobody deserves what has happened to Tibet since 1950."

Cheers

R.

FireRescue18 Loc: Montgomeryville, PA

Roger, thanks for your time!

tramsey Loc: Texas

Have you run across Photo Guy yet. He is a fire dept photographer to.