Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/06/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc James Small wrote: > > At 09:29 PM 6/24/99 -0400, Rob Schneider-Laura Tully wrote: > >I read these sentiments a lot. Yet, I wonder . . . . Has anyone here > >actually been assaulted or threatened (sneers and quizzical/dirty ><snip> > Well, no, but I've damned near punched several "photo-journalists" out with > their verkakte wide-angle lenses. We have had these discussions ad nauseam > on this List, but I do NOT see why these morons cannot use a 90mm lens and > remain at a decent distance. > > We have several present and former PJ's and editors on the List, and, > probably, I will be publicly or privately pilloried by them for posting > this, as I often am, but I do NOT understand why a 90mm head-and-shoulder > shot at ten feet is not as good as a 35mm shot at 3 feet. But, apparently, > editors have some psychological reflex need for wide-angle shots, so the > PJ's are ordered to use 35mm or 28mm lenses to cover every press conference > they attend. ><snip> > Marc ><snip> I got threatened by an angry nut last week. I was doing an establishing shot of the town square. All of a sudden I hear this voice far off in the distance yelling at me. A young runaway who didn't much high school time. She did a pretty good job of rallying a bunch of other people with time on thier hands and I had to get the hell out of there. They would have been small specks in the picture. I think portraits taken with wide angle lenses are unflattering serious pun intended. People don't look so great when the back of their ears are twice the distance from you as the tip of their nose. (Exaggeration intended) Some flattening is generally due. I thought PJ's used wide angles because they can get the shot from the front row and there might be no shot from any other row. I learned that the hard way by being the only photographer at a press conference to not have a wide angle. In the front row I was too close for a decent shot. Working myself back my shot was of the backs of the other photographers. Our working distance was about 7 feet but we were forced to keep a certain distance (armed guards) I had wanted a more portrait styled shot and this was pretty much my first job of this sort. When I shoot a family in their home and I'm switching between the 50 and the 90 I always wish I would have left on the 90. Of course their is such a thing as the enviormental portrait. I've had little call for them. (But some) Mark Rabiner