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February 26, 2012

FRAMING BENEATH THE WIRE BRIDGE


... this picture serves well as example for the adage, "it's not the lens, it's the eye behind the lens" ... it was taken with a single-use disposable 35mm panoramic camera ... the negative is long lost, so i had to do a scan from a 4x10 print, otherwise this would be a much sharper image ... put a single focal length lens on your camera, or, since those're become rather rare, tape your lens' zoom barrel so that it is fixed at its widest angle-of-view ... sitting in your living room or study, look through your camera's viewfinder, then, without changing the direction of your gaze, lower the camera ... try to "see" the frame of the lens ... repeat the process, over and over, until without the camera at your eye you can visualize this framing ... now, go picture taking ... remember, you can't learn this with a zoom lens ... once you've mastered the widest angle of your zoom, try the same thing with a mid-range setting, then with the lens set at its "longest" (most magnification) ... remember, becoming proficient at "pre-visualization" is an essential element in the process of mastering photography ...

FUJI DISPOSABLE PANORAMIC-24MM(?)-F8(?)-1/90th(?)-FUJICOLOR ISO400