William- IMHO, we are all students of photography, regardless of our skill level, as one can always learn something and no one is perfect. :-)
My counterpoint to your point is that someone who is starting out in photography may not stick with it if it is too difficult to get the shots that he/she desires. When you're shooting stuff like cars at car shows like myself, zooms are extremely useful in getting the composition right, so one can exclude other spectators from the frame, for instance. It's not like I can force everyone to step back a few feet just for my sake- people get offended (God knows why!) when I ask them to not walk in front of me for a few seconds so I can take a few shots. For practical reasons, I have purchased a motor drive for my camera as well, as I do not have auto-bracketing features on my Super A, which I wouldn't mind having and using in situations when I need to take the shot quickly and get out of the way and want to still get a nicely exposed shot. I guess it really comes down to what you want to do with the photographic skills you learn- I'm not trying to be creative, I just want to get the shot. If you want to learn the creative and artistic side, obviously, your approach is much better. Taka -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of William Robb Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 8:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Do zooms teach visual discipline? Was: Advice Needed For Student [snip] Sure, no problem, whatever works for you. But if you have a fixed lens, you may have to be a bit more creative in selecting your vantage point. The idea of being a student of photography should be to find creative ways to get a good picture, not to take the cheap and dirty way out. Prime lenses force more creative thinking on the student by imposing one field of view. This creative process will serve the student well, no matter what lenses are chosen down the road. William Robb - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
