After testing lenses last week I was happy to walk around with a simple, 50mm (35mm equiv.) format lens on a square frame in black and white. It reduces the amount I have to think about to a minimum where technical settings are concerned and allows me to drop into the nice zone of just looking for stuff I'm interested in looking at once they become photographs.
The super long lenses can be fun, the super wide lenses make me feel as though I'm having to work too hard to make things fit correctly, but a nice, normal focal length is like a vacation for the eyes. That, and a good B&W profile in your camera.
2 comments:
I love the square! A B&W square makes me vibrate with excitement and anticipation. For the last couple of weeks I have been cheating on my digi cameras with my good old 500C/M. Ilford FP4 and HP5 loaded into the backs. Kind of like hooking up with your ex wife because the sex was alway REALLY good but you just couldn't stand all the finicky crap that came along with it.
I sold all my Blad gear sometime ago but was so despondent a good friend of mine bought it all back and gave it to me as a present. Now that's a friend! He caught the bug as well and bought himself a complete Blad system as well. None of that fancy digital Blad stuff. Keeping it real, 500C/M all the way.
Every once in awhile I will set my digicam to B&W square mode but it just doesn't feel right. The camera doesn't have the heft of a good professional film camera, nor does it give you the same feedback. I took a photo of my grand daughter with my 500 C/M this afternoon in Starbucks (please forgive me for I have sinned) and believe me, everyone knew it. Lots of looks and lots of chatter about someone using a "real" camera.
My 500C/M affair will run its course. As it always does but I'm sure glad it wants to play when I do.
Eric
Bars are easier than gyms. It's good to see you are writing again.
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