Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>>> 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 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html