Bill, This is a great example, and it especially has meaning for me. Once or twice on this forum I've mentioned John Pezzenti. His claim to fame are the wonderful and exciting photos he's made of eagles over the years. While I don't know what equipment he's using now, just a few years ago it was manual focus cameras. How'd he do it? Well, two ways, one being that he got to know the birds. He'd go to their nesting area year after year, until he knew them as intimately as any human could know an eagle. He knew what their flight patterns were, could recognize individual birds. He'd even get up close to their nests, as over time the birds came to know him, and lost some of their fear.
The other thing he did was that he'd continually practice with his cameras. He'd stand by the road that ran in front of his house and practice focusing on the license plates of the cars that went by. Those two things, plus having a great eye, garnered him great success, and hundreds of memorable images. Doug Herr, who frequents the Leica list, is out photographing birds here in Northern California using older leica SLR bodies and long, relatively slow lenses. And if anyone knows anything about older Leica SLR's, they'll know that there's no such thing as auto focus. Yet, by knowing his subject well, he produces some outstanding photos. kind regards, shel William Robb wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bruce Rubenstein" > Subject: Re: Do Smarter Cameras make Dumber Photogs? > > > It's the wishful thinking of the masters of an arcane craft that > the > > pcitures created by photographers who have started since the early > 80's are > > inferior to older photographers. This is like saying that > Shakespeare wrote > > as well as he did because he used a quill pen. > > [...] > However, the person who takes the interest to learn the fundamentals > of any craft will do a much better job of it than someone who is > depending more on technology and blind luck than knowledge. > Knowledge isn't just the nuts and bolts of light and colour either. > It's about knowing what you are shooting. > Wanna shoot birds in flight? It might help a bit if you knew > something about what goes on in the bird's universe. > Sort of to help you predict what they are going to do next. > Or, you could do it like a team of monkeys does it. > Give enough monkeys enough typewriters, and they will hand you Romeo > and Juliet, eventually..... > > William Robb
