[Leica] Mike, 50mm and lifeboat

[Thomas Kachadurian <kach@freeway.net>]

LUGgers:

Let me preface this by saying that I think Mike is nuts to limit himself =
in
the same way I think people who voluntarily choose celibacy are nuts. Whi=
le
I respect the self control, it just ain't for me. Of course  he=92s clear=
ly
not going to be shooting any interiors, and isn=92t going to photograph b=
irds.=20


That said, for my first three years as a photographer (published and
everything, like Mike says) I owned only 35 and 105 Nikkors and I was qui=
te
capable of shooting anything I encountered. When I first went to AF I
bought a 20, 35, 85 and 180. I used nothing else for nearly 6 years.

I have lots of equipment now but rarely take more than three lenses to an=
y
shoot. If I'm feeling really insecure about what I'll be shooting I might
have a few extra in the car to run back for.=20

I realized after two days of shooting indoors last week, heavy shooting,
that I hadn't changed lenses once, I had two bodies, one with a 90 and on=
e
with a 24. My other lenses never came out of my bag.

When I am shooting B&W for personal projects, I often use only a 50mm len=
s.
While I like to load up a color frame with details, I like my B&W images
clean and simple, and anything wider than 50mm includes too much
background. I work very close, so anything longer is too tight. Why take
lenses I know I won't use.

< Mike wrote: Here's an exercise for you to try (if you want): imagine th=
at
somebody came to
you tomorrow and said, okay, you're going into the lifeboat now, and you =
have
to choose the most basic, simplest lens kit you think you can live with, =
and
then you have to use nothing but that for the rest of your life. How far =
could
you pare down? >

I could live with 24, 50, 180 as long as I could sneak an extension tube =
in
my pocket. If I could make the 24 a Canon TS-E lens, I could make a prett=
y
good living with them too. =20

It=92s fun to sit here after dark (when I can=92t be out shooting) and wr=
ite
about lenses, but the fact is that a few good lenses are all it takes to
make many excellent photographs. Really great photographs, OTOH have much
more to do with the photographer than the camera or the lens.

Tom

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Thomas Kachadurian
WEB PAGE: http://members.aol.com/kachaduria