Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Thu, 03 Dec 1998 11:14:22 -0300, Greg Locke wrote: >I guess my advice, especially if you are not going to be around all the time >to help out, would be not to introduce concepts such as focus, depth of >field, etc. I disagree with this. My first camera was an Argus C-3. Dad let me start using it when I was around the age of Bill's grandson, and one thing I NEVER had a problem with was focusing. (The C-3, for those of you who think of Barney as a purple dinosaur and not a bumbling deputy sherrif, is a kinda sorta Contax clone, with separate range- and viewfinder windows, like screwball Leicas.) In sum, I don't think the kid's too young to learn to focus a camera. I *do* wish I'd had two things I didn't. Foremost would have been some pointers and coaching on composition. (I suppose this is true to some degree with everyone, but I *really* needed it then!) The other thing I wish I'd had is a light meter, even something like a Gossen Pilot, not to mention the TTL metering in every SLR from the mid-60s to the present. I specifically do NOT suggest that Bill get his grandson an Argus C-3, though! >The few times I have had to teach people photography, I emphasized the WHY >and WHAT they were photographing. Know exactly what it is you are trying to >capture and exclude all that is not a part of the photo you want to make. This is what Mr. Samson taught me in high school, and I wish I'd met him eight or ten years earlier. He was a dyed-in-the-wool Nikon man, but a good photographer from whom I learned most of what I know nonetheless. /*------------------------------------------------------------- ** ** Howard Sanner ** Kirsten Flagstad Discographer ** Ampex Mailing List Founder ** flagstad@sysnet.net ** http://www2.sysnet.net/~flagstad ** */