Charles L. Dischinger wrote: > When the consist of freshly painted new > locomotives showed up unexpectedly, I immediately decided to try and get > them at the location noted the day before. I drove down the highway at > high speed, but with existing traffic conditions was unable to gain on the > train as much as I thought I would. I was barely ahead of the train which > ran basically parallel to the paved highway. I turned off of the paved > highway down a dirt road running perpendicular to the tracks. At this > particular location the tracks and highway were about as far apart as they > get. I was doing in excess of 60 mph down the dirt road when I came over > the hill. The train was almost at the spot I wanted to shoot it. Before > the car came to a complete stop, I was grabbing my camera sitting on the > seat next to me and opening my door. When the car finally managed to slide > to a stop, the train was there!!!!! I swung the camera up, zoomed in and > squeezed the trigger firing off about six to eight shots. There was > absolutely no time to focus or determine the optimum exposure. But, I got > the shot. A good shot.
This reminds me of a common story about interviews with professional photojournalists. Keep in mind that many photojournalists will shoot 30,000 frames with the goal of getting 30 published in the story. At any rate, the story says that these interviews almost always turn to asking the photographer how they got their particular shots. As common as the question had become, there apparently was an equally common stock answer: "f8 and be there." Having been a user of an all-manual camera for lo these many years, I had never understood why anyone should get so all-fired up over all this gee-whiz automated technology on the new professional cameras these days. My little box o' light has worked just fine. But, such comments from professional photojournalists, and stories like Charles', underscore what wonderful tools these gizmos are in a variety of situations. Not all, but a variety. I decided a year or so ago that, as I had more and more time to spend getting the shot, I was getting more and more frustrated with "being there" on short notice but not being otherwise able to deal with it. Thus, when the holiday rush quiets down, I'm looking forward to breaking in my new N90s....in a variety of situations. Sometimes, I'll have to switch to manual. However, to differ with Charles a bit, I haven't been aware of much of an argument on this list. Seems to me it's been more of a sharing of experiences in different situations, which is what this list is about. Now, when I go out and really work with my new AF system, I'll already know when I need to reset my tool for the given situation, thanks to the comments shared on this list (such as Charles' and others who have commented on the use of AF with long teles with head-on ditch light shots). Happy holidays.... Patrick Lenahan Dallas, Texas [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs X-Mozilla-Status: 8013 Content-Length: 963
