Tom wrote:
> Interesting. I didn't know a lens had a point of view. I thought that was
> what the photographer decided. Point of view (perspective and angle) are
> decided by location. You use your feet to get it correct. Framing is
> decided by focal length (or cropping) you use your zoom lens, or cropping to
> control it. In fact, I would say, you loose 1/2 of your picture making
> capability when you refuse to use either. Of course, that makes it simpler,
> but so does using a camera without adjustable aperture and shutter speed.
Well, that's nicely sarcastic, but what it shows is that you and I have a
fundamentally different conception of how pictures are made. "Point of view"
was colloquial; it's called field angle. What you're presuming is that when
you photograph there's going to be an obvious "picture" out there in the
world that you already know you want, and that your job is to somehow zero
in on it--and that you then must do this with your feet or your zoom lens.
That attitude is what's simplistic. It presumes that there's a simple view
of a "subject" and that it's obvious what should be "included" and
"excluded" in order to make that view into a picture. That may be fine for
scenics and standard views and formula pictures, but most pictures aren't
like that (at least, not the pictures I like. Your mileage may differ.)
I don't believe that's the way most good photographers see, necessarily.
Rather, they're constantly looking, constantly seeing, then reacting to what
they see, and that "composition" is the work of an instant, an almost
thoughtless overlay of the viewfinder on the view. This process is faster
and more efficient and more logical and more intuitive when they don't have
to make picayune little "cropping" decisions at the moment of exposure.
Rather, if they know in their minds what their lens is going to take in,
they automatically arrange the framing to compensate.
With more photographs than not, it doesn't matter anyway if the lens takes
in a little more or less than what's optimal. Who's to say what's "optimal"
anyway? Many times it's a distinction without a difference. Photographers
just arrange the viewfinder naturally to balance whatever they're looking
at, and go.
I've been thinking about this over the past several days and, of the
hundreds of photographers whose work I admire or respect, I can't think of a
single one of them who is known to use a zoom lens. At least that I know of.
Except _maybe_ Joyce Tennyson when she does portraits--I think she uses the
fast Canon standard zoom. Of course most of her work is done with a view
camera. Hell, the cameras that 60-70% of my favorite photographers use don't
even _accept_ zoom lenses (Leica Ms or view cameras).
Now how do you suppose they did it? How did they manage when they had missed
out on "1/2 of the picture making capability" that you enjoy with your zoom?
And if you've got a 100% advantage on Cartier-Bresson, Eisenstadt, Haas, Sam
Abell, Galen Rowell, David Muench, and on and on, are your pictures
naturally a lot better than theirs? Seems like they should be, with all that
capability at your fingertips.
Look, the bottom line is, there are no rules with any of this stuff. Hell,
none of any of our pictures are going to amount to a hill of beans to
anybody else in the world but ourselves and our immediate families in the
end anyway. All that matters is what you like to use and whether your
pictures satisfy you. If you like zoom lenses, who the hell am I to tell you
not to use 'em? Knock yourself out.
But I'll bet if anybody on this list got a chance to do some moderately
heavy shooting for a few days--say, 5 rolls a day over the course of a
10-day vacation, of some subject matter that really engaged them--9 out of
10 would end up doing better work with one LX and one $30 50/2 than they
would with a bagful of crap that included however many fancy klunky big ol'
zoom lenses you want to name. If you don't buy that, well, fine. But it's a
bet I'd be happy to take.
--Mike
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