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From: Reuben Acciano <rubydoomsday@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 21:54:26 -0400 (EDT)
Howdy gang,

Reuben here. My 85 f2 and 24 f2 arrive later this week, but I've already got
shoots planned ...

Just a few opinions on the various issues raised in the last few digests.

24 vs 28 - Having owned and used both for years, I would say that the more
dramatic perspective of the 24 can become addictive, depending, of course,
on subject matter. In the context of shooting performers/musiciana at close
range, the barrel distortion characteristic to super-wides is an oft
exploited mainstay. Consider that, fundamentally, most shots of musos are
going to be quite similar - some guy/gal on a stage in dramatic light
brandishing an instrument. To exaggerate perpsective in a way that makes
them appear to leap out of the frame is a visual parallel to their often
"larger than life personas", which is why it's such a prevalent tactic. I
loved owning a 28, but can't seem to "see" the wideness; it almost looks
like a standard view to me, when one is mounted on the 4Ti. I need the extra
coverage to mess with composition from a cramped corner, jostling with a
half a dozen other photogs. "Luckily I'm small and can usually get into
nooks the others can't even see ... heh heh. Similarly, once I'd had a 16mm
fish on my Oly, the 24 even seemed "confining" to look through. Of course,
the wider you go, the closer you have to get to keep the subject a
(compoisitionally speaking) dominant feature in the frame. With the 24, I'd
come close to getting cleaned up by guitars and musicians on MANY occasions;
with the 16 fish, I could practically tell what many of them had eaten for
dinnner that night ...

That said, the best live shots (some anyway) I have ever taken were with a
50mm standard (1.8 and sadly not Oly but Can*onn[fodder]). I was in the
photo pit at a club where the stage was nearly 5ft above dancefloor/audience
level. Being only 5'5" myself, it would have meant tiny subject matter with
massive foldback speakers (monitors for the performers to hear themselves)
in the foreground of every shot - a nightmare sitch. Changing to my (then)
detested standard made me cringe - how would I create drama without
converging verticals, and crashingly deep perspectives? But it saved my
neck, and the brighter VF image meant a swag of crisp images.

Just goes to show that unlearning can be the best learning. My favourite
these days is the 35 f2 - wide enough for ageneral view with min.
distortion, yet sharp as a tack and necessitating the use of my most
important photo accessory, my mind. The poor man's zoom - ie. your feet -
and a good sharp prime are all that's needed for good pix anywhere IMHO.
Just a whippersnapper's $0.02.

Cheers.


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