advanced shooter
If You Need More Than One
LENS, YOU'RE NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER!
I first heard this statement in an
interview with Clyde Butcher,
famed large-format landscape
photographer, and of course
thought, “Wait a minute, I own
15 lenses. What does that
make me — a hack?” But then
I cruised over to Clyde’s website,
www.clydebutcher.com,
and saw that he owns 16 lenses
and six cameras — aha!
But even if Clyde’s statement
seems a contradiction
to his actions, his point is
valid nonetheless. Many photographers
simply have too
much gear and they don’t
use what they own to its full
potential. In particular, I find
that zoom lenses are really
misused — they’re either
zoomed all the way in or
all the way out. I’ve written
about how zoom lenses make
photographers visually lazy
in my column before (Winter
2008), so I won’t re-hash
an old rant. The point is that
photographers should know
the capabilities of their lenses
intimately. And there’s no
better way to learn what your
lenses can do than by leaving
all your glass at home and just
taking one lens out each time
you go shooting.
Trust me, taking only one
lens out on a photo shoot
is scary. All you seem to do
is limit your options. If you
take a wide-angle zoom, then
wildlife appears everywhere,
posed in perfect light and
waiting for you to dig out that
telephoto lens you left behind. If you take a macro lens,
then every flower and bug in
the universe has gone extinct.
During your first few outings,
all you’ll see are opportunities
missed. You’ll long for a
bag full of lenses. “Curse you,
Wiggett, what a stupid idea!”
But after a few outings
you’ll begin to understand
how the lens you have sees
the world and suddenly opportunities
for photos will
appear everywhere....
By Darwin Wiggett
Contributing Editor
To read more from Darwin’s column please....
BIO
If you are a stalker, debt collector, or the Canadian Revenue Agency - I am dead.
Otherwise you can find way more about me than anyone is really interested in here.
The short version is this: I love to take photos and have been doing so for nearly 25
years - it is a great job and a wonderful lifestyle. So far it is the best work I have come
across for my personality (unless I figure out how to get paid to eat pizza and drink
beer).
Please click here to visit Darwin's site. |
