----- Original Message ----- From: "Boris Liberman" Subject: Re: Tripod use - hard lenses and soft films or the other way round
> > Oh yes, probably it is somewhat off the original topic. I could see > several reasons why an amateur who is serous about their __learning > process__ might not use a tripod: > > 1. Laziness. No, I am serious. > 2. Curcumstances - my wife put up quite a fight when I once wanted to > take a tripod with me in order to shoot some macro shots in the near > forest. > 3. Level of an amateur. You see, I for example, haven't yet enlarged > past 10x15 cm any of my shots. I do intend to do so some time soon. > But again, I haven't done that. All the scans that I've been getting > from the lab do not count as a measure of how sharp are the pictures. > No offence to the lab, but this is how it is. So I will have to taste > this thing myself and conclude my own outcome of it. > > It took me about a year here on PDML to realize that even with this > very low level quality processing that I get from the local labs, I'd > better use primes instead of zooms. No, I am not trying to cause this > talk another turn of direction. > > I think I could say (with proper modesty mentioned) that I keep > growing as a photographer. I suppose one day I will be experienced > enough to use a tripod as often as ever possible. By the way, I need > to buy one, that is good enough. The plasticky video tripod that I > have sucks. But again, as I said - level of an amateur. It does take a while to figure these things out. I hope when it comes time to enlarge some of those negatives, they are good enough to take the magnification. I do think a bad tripod is worse than no tripod at all. A bad tripod will entice you to try things that it can't deliver on, whereas no tripod will make you find other ways to take the picture. And yes, there are certainly situations where tripod use is prohibited or undesirable. I do think that these situations happen less often than people think they do. Your reason #1 comes into play more often than you would care to believe, perhaps not with yourself, but with a lot of people, myself included. William Robb
