At 17:05 11.04.2006, you wrote:
Not to disparage the frustrations of those who complain about the
aggravations of carrying equipment around and then actually using it
( I have shared those woes many time myself ) but I long ago came to
the conclusion that one needs different solutions for different problems.
When shooting sports where you needed all cameras readily available
the vest and perhaps a fanny pack works great. For scenic hiking
backpacks are great. For shlepping around a campus or town
conventional bags perform well. There is no one solution. Now, get
things in perspective those of you who are discouraged by having to
stop, put down a bag and fish out a lens or a filter. Read some
history of photography especially in the American West of 150 years
ago. Photographers had entire horse drawn wagons to haul thiner
equipment. It could take a day to take a couple of photos. Perhaps
less emphasis on haste and convenience and more on the fact that we
have it so easy would alleviate some of the grievances.
Don
We know of ritual activities of several indigenous people, connected
with the need to slow down due to ecological circumstances (e.g.
gathering raw material after some days of starving and praying or
going to resource locations via some peculiar long way - all that for
just to be sustainable and not to waste).
These days we could mimic their behaviour and shift it into
photography. Read the looser dummies tutorial of large format
shooting and apply that repetitive trance into digital context.
1) bring along your camera, but find out you have left the tripod in
the car (290 meters away - see the proverb of non-photogenic things
beyond 300 m)
2) bring the tripod just to find out that the CF card is in the car
(I wonder why, but so it is).
3) bring the card to find out it is xD
4) now bring the CF to find out it is full
5) go after your picture bank/external HD
6) find out that the battery is empty
7) sit back and think 10 minutes
8) recall that you must have forgot that you have your new G5
powerbook somewhere in the compartment
9) bring the powerbook
10) go to the car to load the battery
11) recall that you could have loaded the picturebank's battery in
the 1st place
12) sit back and be quite pissed for 10 minutes
13) take the laptop to the camera
14) go back to the car to bring the USB cord
15) after finding the cord try to go back to the camera, but find out
it is dark already
16) you cannot find neither the camera, nor the CF card, picture
bank, tripod or laptop, but you DO find your 32 MB xD card
17) sit back for 15 minutes quite beerzerk to think what it really
was why you wanted to take that photograph
18) recall that it was one wild looking guy sitting under a tree with
his (long-time-no-wash) striped shirt, 6-days beard, worn boots and
too big and uncomfortable iron bracelets - yes, and eating a poorly
cooked gopher.
19) go back to your car to find out . . .
Cheerio!
Peeter,
understanding why some stick to their soapboxes so firmly
