Tim, my thoughts on your email -
At 500mms, you should still be able to get bird portraits without post
capture cropping.
+ How close are you approaching the subjects? Have you tried to get them
acclimated to your presence before you fire away? Perhaps if you are able to
determine their range of comfortability with your presence, you could move
in closer.
+ Are you wearing clothes that help you blend in to your surroundings? Is
you lens/tripod camouflaged?
I too come from a slide background and try to get it right in the camera,
but if need be I have no problem doing post capture cropping.
Hope this helps.
Kenneth Waller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Øsleby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Composing on screen vs. in viewfinder.
Those of you reading the list lately may have noticed that I have a
project
going on, that forces me to explore some new land (read learn new
techniques).
How a beeeep should you avoid noticing that? With my endless ranting
questions ;-)
I have been talking about using longer lenses, building hides and so on.
This has been great fun, and I am learning a lot about photography and
birds. My longest glass that is usable is 500mm (with converter it tends
to
be too soft), so I have to crop the pictures to make them interesting.
This has made me realise that I am a lot better at composing in viewfinder
then I am with composing on computer screen. I have been thinking about
this. I have some ideas about why.
First:
It is that in the field I compose more on instinct. I am there, and I have
emotions about the motifs. My heart is involved, and I believe that it is
my
heart that makes the composing decisions. Back at home, the motifs are
more
distant to me, so there I compose by brain (and as you know, that's not
much
of a brain).
The second reason has to do with the decisive moment:
When I shot slides my mind was in "capture mode" (sorry Shel, I know you
don't like that word). When pushing the button I knew that what is in
frame,
stays in frame, and what is out of frame, stays out. (Everybody who has
tried masking slides in glassless frames, knows that you do everything you
can to avoid that activity later).
Now, when shooting digitally, being forced to crop later something happens
with my mindset. There is no decisive moment in post processing on
computer.
There is always possible to go back.
What I'm saying is that I think I need the decisive moment to make a good
composition. I also need to be emotionally connected with the motif in
some
way.
But what do I do about this? Practise is one obvious answer. And I will
practise. But, I also have a strong belief in the power and wisdom of this
list. I would really surprise me if it doesn't burp up some good ideas and
advise.
Tim
Mostly harmless (just plain Norwegian)
Never underestimate the power of stupidity in large crowds
(Very freely after Arthur C. Clarke, or some other clever guy)
