A Parting Shot

[Afterswift@aol.com]

Fellow Leicaphiles,

As for comparing the camera to a firearm, the difference, IMHO, is that the
photograper doesn't really aim a camera; the photographer absorbs the essence
of a scene. He also encompasses it with awareness. 

What if the subject is blurred or deliberately missed? What difference does
that make if the photographer comes with a comprehensive consciousness to a
place in time and uses a camera as a visual pen. 

The marksman comes upon his target with a narrow purpose and an even narrower
objective. The photographer is involved with the opposite attitude. The
photographer composes as he or she interprets. The marksman merely chooses
something alive or an artificial object, to remove that or it from the scene,
changing it forever and depriving the world of its presence. 

Booth killed Lincoln. Brady didn't. Booth personally got into the act of
history by removing a political individual. Brady didn't. The motive of an
assassin is that of a subtracter with the intention of replacing the victim
with a personal vision. The art photographer doesn't seek to replace but to
add personal insight to reality.

Therefore what we do in the viewfinder isn't the same as the marksman does in
his sight, telescopic or otherwise. The photographer is in the middle of a
scene, seeing it round. The sharpshooter is tangental to the scene, observing
or stalking his quarry from without, usually hidden. 

Holding a rifle hand held, the shooter immediately becomes aware of a
circular motion of the barrel of his weapon, no matter how steady his hold on
the weapon. 
No photographer experiences that circular orbit. At some point in that
movement, the shooter must choose the correct point in it to fire. 

The photographer usually isn't aware of the orbital motion of his camera. He
is attuned to the movement of the nature and elements in the scene. The
photographer can compensate for the shift of the camera in his or her hands
by increasing its shutter speed. The shooter fires at one speed -- that of
the projectile in his weapon.
With the shooter it's all or nothing. He hits or he misses. 

The hunter usually gets only one opportunity to get off his shot. The
photographer can come away with an image he didn't suspect that can be far
more interesting than the image he originally saw in his viewfinder. A
photographer can see his subject in the depth he chooses. The armed hunter is
limited to a very small spot on the physical target. 

There is a difference between piercing the subject and appreciating it. Our
instrumentalities and techniques reflect that distinction. It is the
difference between blood shed and soul seen.

Bob