Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/18

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Subject: Re: [Leica] National Geographic
From: "Rob Appleby" <rob@robertappleby.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 19:07:12 +0200

>>>>
A thousand monkeys, given an eternity and typewriters seem to get results,
too.  NG's realization rate is absurdly low.  Let's take the low end of this
estimate.


400 rolls x 36 exposures / 8 weeks (ave) / 7 days = 257 frames per day

or 1 frame every 2.80 minutes over a 12-hour workday.

Is the definition of "sketch" to run your F5 on motor drive continuously?  I
have been to a lot of places and I think it is highly questionable whether
any society is moving so fast that you would find something even arguably
photographically useful an average of every two minutes and 40 seconds.  If,
of course, they waited for something interesting to happen, it would mean
that they would just roll the motor drive.

>>>>

I resubscribed just to answer this message! Well, any excuse...

I generally shoot about 7 rolls a day when I'm working on a project, which
isn't much. That works out at around 250 frames a day (if my maths is
correct), so something like the figure you quote above. But most of my time
is spent just hanging around waiting for something to happen. Then every so
often I have a half hour or ten minute period in which i shoot a roll or
two, or maybe I take a single shot in an hour. It's not a matter of the law
of averages, just that when you see something interesting that is pertinent
to your story, you have to be sure to get it on film. It goes in bursts, for
me at least.

There's lots of reasons why you'd shoot two or three rolls to get a single
image - poor lighting, quick changes in the scene, whatever. If you don't
get it, then you'll feel like a fool, so you just have to make sure - and
even then sometimes you don't.

As for the quality of NG photography, I am still consistently surprised by
the excellent imagery. Without a doubt, they have published and continue to
publish some of the best photography I see. Of course, it's all colour, so
they don't get people's souls on film (Ted ;-))! One lovely shot online at
the moment, IMO, is of a child on a windowsill overlooking the Chicago L
(http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0205/feature7/index.html). It may
not be iconic, but it puts you there. I think it would be a privilege for
anyone to work on a feature for them.

Well, I'm back...

- -- Rob

http://www.robertappleby.com
Mobile: (+39) 348 336 7990
Tel: (+39) 059 303436

See City of Crows online at The Digital Journalist:
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/city_intro.htm

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