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RE: [OM] Barcelona! :)

Subject: RE: [OM] Barcelona! :)
From: "Olaf Greve" <o.greve@xxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:31:54 +0200
Hi Tris (and others),

First off: I noticed your comment about TOPE. Please do not be shy to have a
go at it too! TOPE 1 (Self Portraits) is open ended, and TOPE 7 (Human
Society) is in its shooting interval, so you can shoot for those two themes.
:)

Then regarding Barcelona:

>I agree that Barcelona is a beautiful city, most especially its incredibly
rich mix of
>architecture. And it also passes two acid tests of mine concerning
residences: reasonably
>temperate climate and resides on the water!

Yes, I have lived in Madrid for 7 months, and though I *love* that city (it
has the "real Spanish" flavour to it, whereas Barcelona is more
"cosmopolitan European"), I have to admit that Barcelona is the more
beautiful one of the two, also, the presence of the sea is indeed one of our
major motivations for wanting to move to Barcelona rather than Madrid,
Madrid is just so much hotter.

>You might be going a bit thin on film, though. <g>

Hehehe, I forgot to mention that my 4Ti and the 2n are already loaded with 2
rolls of Provia 100F, so in total I will have 9 rolls of Provia 100F and 2
rolls of E100VS at my disposition...;)

>Re lenses for new photographers: the 50mm is a great place to start, and
with my daughter
>this summer I  threw in a 35mm into her starter kit as well in order to
afford her the
>beginning of a "wide-angle" view (as I have previously stated, my opinion
is that the 35mm
>more closely approximates a "normal" view).

Two very wise choices. I overcame my photographic learning curve using
solely the 50/1.8, then later on, I added my father's 28/3.5 to this. With
these two lenses I have shot many exotic locations and I have gotten some of
my best pictures using them. I think you chose wisely in giving her these
two lenses.

>But I went a step further and purchased for Karin a 35-70 as a walkaround
lens. The
>reason? It would allow her to more quickly "see" the world around her,
photographically
>speaking, from a greater number of perspectives, and, hopefully, accelerate
her learning
>process by more quickly exciting her imagination to what is possible with
re to art and
>journalism as a photographer than would be the case with normal lenses.

Actually, I personally beg to differ here: I think using a zoom lens often
leads to exactly the contrary effect: when observing Gioconda (and myself a
few years ago!) in action with a zoom lens, I notice she's confused about
which focal length to best set the lens at. This causes her to loose
valuable time in actually composing the shot. I think this is typical with
beginning photographers and I suffered a bit from it too. Nowadays I can
more quickly (and more self-assuredly) directly set the zoom to the focal
length I desire for the shot and get the shot quickly (which is the effect
you're hoping your daughter will achieve), but for beginning photographers
it might be easier to just have one (or two) focal length(s) at their
disposition to learn to "see" the picture using that focal length, rather
than having them puzzled about what would be the "best" focal length to set
the zoom at for the shot. Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the matter,
of course anyone is welcome to disagree with me, and perhaps the scenario I
describe doesn't apply to your daughter, so by all means let her have a go
at using the zoom, perhaps it will boost her photographic skills, and if it
blocks her skills, you can always let her revert to using primes. :)

>Now whether my judgment is sound and represents wisdom is another matter.
Perhaps this
>zoom will retard my daughter's progress with information overload. I don't
know.

See above. I think there's indeed a realistic risk that exactly that might
happen, but different people learn differently, so by letting her have a go
at it, nothing is lost. If she does indeed get too confused, she can always
safely "go prime" :)

>But I remember I started with only primes, I remember the learning curve I
was presented
>with and how slowly I surmounted it, and while I'm still to this day not
real big on zooms
>in principle I've come to appreciate their tremendous flexibility, and as
often as not
>when I walk around with just one body these days it sports a zoom. (I own
more than this
>far down the road, and I refer to my 35-70 f3.6, which, over time, I have
come to regard
>as one extremely good working tool.)

I agree a full 100 0.000000e+00re. My mainstay lens at present is the 
35-80/2.8, but
I almost equally often just leave the 100/2 mounted on my camera for
(almost) all shots... It also depends a bit on which photographic mood I'm
in, if that makes any sense ;)

>Re film again: my belief is that it's impossible to snap off too many
frames. The beginner
>I would encourage to shoot to his heart's desire and never never suggest
that film was,
>somehow, a photographic commodity of exceptional premium, something to be
conserved. That
>isn't to say I'd encourage students to waste film or shoot it off
frivolously; I would
>encourage students, rather, to regard film as a necessary expenditure, and
I would not
>burden a newcomer with dire intonations about making sure you have
something "important"
>in your viewfinder before tripping the shutter. My message would be "Go for
it! "

I partially agree here, I too make sure to not let film be a limiting factor
if I want to get a shot, but on the other hand I do not take e.g. 300 shots
of the same tower to hope that one will come out "just right" (a bit a la
the National Geographic's photograpers' style); I do think it's a good idea
to think a bit about the composition before bluntly firing away :) But then,
once satisfied with the composition there's no damage done in taking some 5
or so shots from sligthly different angles. Again, these are just my
thoughts with which anyone can disagree if so desired :)

>Two rolls of 400 in Barcelona for a week? That wouldn't suffice my
student's needs through
>noon. <g>

I know, but Gioconda is not all _that_ interested in photography yet. She
likes to take a few pictures at times, so I actually do think 2 rolls will
be enough for her, but if it's not, we'll just buy more over there... :)

>What will you be doing in Barcelona vocationwise?

O.k., (as mentioned in my original post) the plan is to try to visit:
1-La Sagrada Familia (an absolute must), I also intend to climb the stairs
in one of the towers again.
2-Parque Guell (another must, lovely Gaudi stuff there).
3-Arco de Triunfo (the Barcelonian version of the Arc de Triomphe).
4-Plaza de Colon, perhaps we'll try to go up that one as well, as there's a
really tall statue of Columbus over there.
5-Ramblas/Plaza Catalunya (unfortunately this will be inevitable, indeed,
this is the shopping street part).
6-Gothic cathedral.
7-The pathway to the zoo.
8-Palacio Montjuich and the Olympic stadium.

Then something I haven't been to yet would be the Picasso museum.


I have just found out that my friend lives right next to the Arco de
Triunfo, so options 3 and 7 should be easily realisable :)

Cheers!
Olafo


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