Re: Multiple bodies

[PoTato <roses@pl.jaring.my>]

Hi Ted,

Just wondering after all you wrote, what would you say is the percentage of
press photographers that use Leica R gear.

- --adi
>Jeff wrote:
>
><<As an enthusiastic hobbyist, I find hauling too much gear to be more of
a bane
>than a boon>>>
>
><<<You see, I am fairly adaptable in my technique,>>>>>>>>
>
><<<These opinions are shaped by the fact that I am often carrying my gear for
>hours at a time, through downtown crowds and up mountainsides. If I had an
>assistant, or a nearby car (and thus, more sedentary technique) I might do
>things differently.>>>>>>>>>
>
>g'day Jeff,
>
>Having been an "enthusiastic hobbyist" as most pro's start out like
yourself, I
>thought I might add a bit of a perspective to round out the gear discussion .
>
>Even for us, more gear at times is just as much of a "bane as a boon". I
might
>add a big pain in the neck and ass. :)  However we are paid to come back with
>the best there is and not having the right lens and coming back with, 
>
><<<<<<" something satisfying, though maybe not exactly the same
>composition.">>>>>    just doesn't cut it with the folks who pay the dollars.
>Sure sometimes that's life and we do have to come back with something
>"satisfying" but if you do that too often and not have the zinger material
>expected of you, you do not go again.
>
><<<<<You see, I am fairly adaptable in my technique,>>
>
>And that's a bonus for all of us, amature and pro, because if a photographer
>can't adapt quickly the moment is lost forever. As in my case at the
Barcelona
>Summer Olympics in the swimming mens back stroke final.
>
>Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury was the favourite to win Gold and just before
>the race started the "only Leica R7 I took with me instead of the usual 3
with
>other lenses attached", was knocked to the floor and jammed. Those things
happen
>in the crush of covering the olympics. Now I'm dead in the water so's to
speak
>:) 
>
>However I had a Canon EOS 1, but only with a short lens as I was using it for
>"happy snaps" and not for real work.
>
>I had to " adapt" quickly and change my technique much like you.  so I
worked my
>way through the photo position of about 200 photographers looking for
someone to
>loan me a 300mm Canon lens they weren't using, as the correct lens for
swimming
>was a 400mm and everyone was using theirs. A 3 barely worked as Tewks was
in a
>nearside lane to me.
>
>Got one, nothing like having friends in a crowd! :) and sure enough the
Canadian
>won Gold and I got my "ass saving" pictures by quickly adapting. But my
400 2.8
>Leica would have made a tighter and better picture. And it is little
things like
>this that makes you carry everything you own.  "bane or boon" :)
>
>And the client? Well I let them make their complimentary remarks before I
told
>them how close it was that I didn't get a picture. And after that little
>incident I carried all my gear to every event. And for someone who has
covered
>every summer -- winter Olympics since '68 you'd think I would have known
better
>than to have taken only "one camera body of the main working gear." :)
>
><<<If I had an assistant, or a nearby car (and thus, more sedentary
technique) I
>might do things differently.>>>>>>>
>
><<<<<I am often carrying my gear for hours at a time, through downtown
>crowds>>>>>
>
>It may sound like pros always have an assistant, we don't. Thought you might
>like to know what I carried daily for the summer games and through the crowds
>and on the media buses and wherever I had to go.:
>
>3 R7's with motors, 28mm, 100, in pockets of photovest, 180 attached to an
R7,
>280 attached and a 400 2.8 on a monopod and attached to R7. Also a 1.4, 2X
>extenders in the pocket and at least 30 rolls of film. And that is in the
push
>and shove of a really big "crowded photo position".:)  
>
>However we still manage a few good snaps and the odd cold beer. :)
>
>ted
>Victoria, Canada
>http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant
>
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