I shot this with a Leica M4, within two seconds of seeing this four year-old boy run inside to catch up to his parents. There was no time to set exposure, cock the shutter, or focus; only enough time to raise the camera to my eye and shoot. I learned that if you can do this with a 35mm rangefinder, you can do it with almost any small, handheld camera.
I've used a lot of different types of cameras over the years--some by choice, some by necessity. Each different type has taught me something useful that I remember to this day. Here are the highlights:
35mm rangefinders taught me how to be spontaneous and in the moment. On any average sunlit day I could pre-set the shutter and aperture to the correct exposure, pre-set the focus so that anything within 5 feet to infinity would be within the depth-of-field, and pre-cock the shutter. The instant I saw something interesting I could simply raise the camera to my eye and click. When I'm in street photography or candid mode, I follow the same procedure with my DSLR. A DSLR's viewfinder isn't as bright and snappy as those on the best rangefinders, but the technique can yeild equally good, if not better, results.
This shot is all about how bright sunlight looks when its shining down on a white, textured wall. The only way to do it justice is with a medium- or large-format camera mounted on a tripod. (It also helps to look at a print rather than a JPEG on the web, but that's another story.)
Medium format taught me that size matters. A larger piece of film (or a larger sensor) yeilds higher resolution, richer colors, smoother tonal transitions, and more enlargability. What you lose in portability you gain in absolute quality. Medium format also taught me to give more weight to forethought and planning than spontaneity. When you've got only 12 to 24 exposures per roll you can't afford to be wasteful.
Large-format view cameras taught me how to translate an image in my mind onto film, with almost complete control over every parameter. I could control the perspective, the plane of focus, the framing, everything. A view camera is nowhere near as spontaneous as a 35mm rangefinder, but when you need big, beautifully rendered, highly-detailed images of stationary subjects, nothing beats it. The tradeoff is that total control provides more ways to screw up.
Digital SLRs have confirmed what I already learned from their predecessors, 35mm autoexposure, autofocus, motor-driven SLRs: Automation and convenience are no substitute for human intelligence and artistic vision. It's become easier than ever to produce a sharp, correctly exposed color photograph with decent white balance, and in more lighting situations than ever before. That said, you still have to know what you want and what you're doing if you expect to get above-average results.
Keep in mind that these lessons weren't always fun or easy. They came at the cost of many trials and many errors. That's how real learning works. If you aren't screwing up every now and then you aren't really learning anything new. (You also aren't learning if you keep making the same mistake over and over again, but I'm sure none of my loyal readers fall into this category. Right?)
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