Hi Gang,

 My machine lost its head and dumped the qwk packet, so I can't quote,
 sorry.

 Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that the use of a long lens was bad and
 that the people who used them were less than good photogs.  I have seen
 pictures made with long lenses that generated a great deal of money for
 the photographer. Thinking Fergie topless here, and I don't see how the
 paparizzi could function without them. :-)

 But by the same reasoning, I don't think short lenses are to be looked
 down upon as inferior an unable to do the job.  A twenty foot shutter
 release on a tripod mounted camera equipped with a normal to wide lens
 produces better (in my humble opinion) bird pictures at the bird bath.
 All the background isn't squashed up and you can generally use a faster
 shutter speed on a larger lens opening while staying with slower fine
 grained film.

 Shooting with a SLR Nikon whiz bang with a lens that gives the entire
 combination the appearance of something designed more for shooting
 missiles at enemy aircraft than taking pictures will indeed require
 that one stand far back to avoid pushing their own presence on the
 gathering, however even when standing at any distance pointing
 something like that at people and not believing they are paying
 attention to you is, I feel, rather naive.

 I prefer getting down in the trenches with the same crowd using a small
 rangfinder or automagic type camera equipped with a normal to slightly
 wide angle lens,  Put them at ease by telling someone, "hey Joe, I'm
 going to make your nose look bigger than Aunt Martha's in this picture."
 Soon you just become a silly Bob taking pictures for the album and are
 completely ignored.  Now you can get a picture of Joe interacting with
 Aunt Martha where Joe is the obvious center of interest, and Aunt
 Marthas interest in Joe is being shown, where they are having their
 conversation, who else is there, time of day and even the food on the
 picnic table. You are not required to tell anyone what is going on with
 words, you have told the whole story with a picture.

 That's just my opinion on a grouchy morning..

 Bobfer


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