Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/30

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Subject: [Leica] NOW photographing people and focal length — was Re: Legs
From: imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser)
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:17:43 -0500
References: <C8A15024.28D2%mark@rabinergroup.com> <24DFFA43-77BA-4E7D-817F-3EFD117ABF2D@mac.com> <6.2.5.6.2.20100830134923.055d3188@med.cornell.edu>

What I call a serious photographer,
someone who has thoughts and feelings about,
and respect for their subject,
and has something to communicate visually in that regard,
will choose the focal length of the lens appropriately.

I believe that Mark R chose a medium long lens for
a very powerful street photo recently
(the silhouetted figures in front of the fountain).
It worked very well for the subject and, I believe, his intentions.

If a street photographer worked with a long lens,
and with the same respect and depth of knowledge for his subject
as Doug Herr shows for his critters,
I imagine we'd see equally strong work.

Doug has provided URL's to those who use wide or normal lenses
where he uses long lenses.

It's not about the focal length.
It's about the intentions, skill and depth of thought and feeling
which the photographer brings to the game.

All the rules:
wide for street and architecture
medium long for portrait
long for wild life, stage and sports
etc.
have been and will continue to be broken
by the serious photographer
who's seriously searching for their own voice.

IMO YMMV

Regards,
George Lottermoser 
george at imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com/blog
http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist

On Aug 30, 2010, at 1:01 PM, Chris Saganich wrote:

> If human beings showed-up for me the same way that wildlife shows-up for 
> me then a long lens it is.  I like safety.  Often we treat people we don't 
> know more like wildlife or the streets we are on as untamed and dangerous. 
>  I never felt that HCB images portrayed people or places that way.  The 
> people and the places seemed very natural and it is obvious that is how 
> they showed-up for him.  Other street images seem like the photographer 
> was shooting wildlife in a dangerous place.



Replies: Reply from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] NOW photographing people and focal length — was Re: Legs)
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Legs)
Message from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] Legs)
Message from chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich) ([Leica] Legs)