MEANWHILE, OVER IN THE SAME PICTURE
Wide-angles give you the opportunity to tell big stories….
By MICHAEL PERKINS
FOR ME, THE PHRASE F.O.M.O. (Fear Of Missing Out) is a prescription for a wide focal length. In capturing a scene, I’d much rather choose a field of vision that includes too much information as too little.
Compact tales…
This ragtag little news sheet began nearly a dozen years ago when my go-to lens was more typically a 50mm prime, so much so that its ability to render objects like the “normal” function of the human eye inspired the blog’s name, The Normal Eye, along with a similarly titled photo collection. The belief was that the “nifty fifty” was the ideal street lens, and, given my preference for that kind of work at the time, it seemed like the signature glass for me. And so it was, for a while. However, increased work in the narrow streets of lower Manhattan and various densely crowded bazaars since then have given me fresh respect for fairly wide lenses, with a mid-1970’s-vintage Nikon 24mm f/2.8 as my present default, or as close to a “desert island” optic as I’m likely to get.
…and even micro-narratives.
In shooting really wide, I often start with a master shot, delivering a general, large story, and discover, upon later review, that there are actually several different stories lurking within that massive trove of information. In the topmost shot here, for example, I fell in love with a classic house and its surrounding grounds, and so wanted nearly all of that narrative in a single frame. And yet, because I had all that data from which to select, I also could see the wisdom in cropping to a higher front-of-house shot that excluded the woodsy atmosphere (the middle shot here) as well as much tighter emphasis on the guest room / office / enclosed porch on the side (the third image). The 24 had given me a master shot that was sharp and color-true from corner to corner, so that, not only was there lots of “stuff” in the frame, none of it was exaggerated in aspect or angle, but rather as “normal” looking as anything shot with a 35, 50 or 85. The wide-angle, in essence, had given me what the editor in me appreciated most: choices.
In reviewing this two-year-old shot this week, I was reminded that reaching an enhanced comfort level with a given tool in your kit is every bit as important as owning every lens in the catalog. We all learn to shoot with whatever we have on hand, but shooting with what you love, with what makes your work that much more reflexive or instinctual….well, it doesn’t get much better than that.
thenormaleye 